seeing stars

We or rather I, have been having a slow weekend so far, as everything takes longer to do when you only have one useful arm! We did manage some christmas shopping yesterday which was quite successful, and Stuart has done lots of wallpapering with only a tiny amount of useless 'help' from me. But I have been managing to list some more soft stars so I am getting some things done, just not as quickly as usual! : )

ouch

I’m feeling a little bit sorry for myself and very sore today, after managing to fall over last night while I was out running. The three of us ended up spending most of the evening in Accident and Emergency, and I came home with three stitches. I don’t quite know how I managed it or what I tripped over, but I certainly went flying and probably made a few passing motorists laugh anyway! I have managed to badly graze my hand, bash my shoulder and thigh, and lost a big chunk out of my elbow, which is where I now have the stitches. Don’t read the rest of this sentence if you are squeamish – (I’m pretty sure I could see my bone). I had already run over three miles but then had to run another mile to get back to the car and Holly at her dancing lesson, I ended up having to ask in a shop for some tissue as there was quite a lot of blood. Nice! So today I have been frustrated by having to use my computer mouse with the wrong hand, and only really having one arm. Isn’t exercise supposed to be good for you?? : )

dotty - with kisses!

Do you remember the quilt I made for Holly over the summer? Well I finally managed to finish making her new covers for the pillows she has on her bed using some of the left over fabric. I kept them quite plain and simple so that they didn't look too busy all together, and the two smaller ones are simple envelope covers hand sewn out of one piece of fabric. The largest cushion cover did get a bit of special treatment, I quilted the front with 'kisses' in some of the white spots, which ties in with how the quilt itself was quilted. They are quite small, can you see them? Anyway, these three have had the seal of approval and now reside happily on her bed, all ready for lounging! : )

Tutorial: how to create your own designs on fabric at home

For the new picciolo 2009 soft Christmas decorations I created my own snowflake design rather than use an existing fabric. This meant that I got exactly the effect I wanted and can be sure that my picciolo decorations are unique and can’t be found anywhere else. This is how I did it: 1. First, I drew my rough design onto A4 paper, then scanned it into photoshop (you could use any drawing programme). I then redrew my design with the elements on different layers. 2. Using layers makes it easy to change the colours. For my design, I have a couple of layers of white snowflakes over the background layer, then I changed the colour of the background to give me a wider variety of options. You could of course just use your original drawing. At this point I also added another layer to show the outline of the shape I use for my decorations. 3. Now print your design using an inkjet printer onto tshirt transfer paper. As there is white in my design I used the paper meant for dark fabric. 4. Then, once you have your printed transfer, the fun starts! (Follow the instructions that come with your transfer paper as they all vary slightly.) I cut out my shapes first and then ironed them onto felt to create the sides for my decorations, but you could use your whole piece or any sections of it and use different types of fabric as your base. 5. Experiment! : )

3 sides, 5 sides

So here they are, this years picciolo christmas decorations! There are six coordinating colours to choose from, and two styles, 3-sided or 5-sided, all of which can be mixed and matched.

They are made from soft felt and have been embellished on each side with an original snowflake design which I created and added to the felt. They have a hanging loop in a complimentary colour and are lightly stuffed.

And the best thing? **For one week only** if you buy any two of these you can choose a third one free!

Check them out here: 3-sided 5-sided

: )

*update* I've had an enquiry about how I created the snowflake design which embellishes the felt on each side, watch out for a tutorial tomorrow!

hours

It seems to have taken me hours this weekend to finally get these into my shop, I'll be back tomorrow to tell you a bit more about them. : )

disney

A week ago already...

: )

Turning Seven

My little girl turned seven on Friday, (Seven already? Where did that go?) and we took her for the weekend to Disneyland in Paris! We booked it a couple of months ago and have been getting very excited ever since, and I must say it was a really wonderful weekend, even more so than I would have thought possible. We went by Eurostar and the whole trip was really easy, which meant that out of the three days we were away we had two and a half in Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios. I took loads and loads of photos, too many in fact as the battery ran out on my camera, I'll post a picture or two once it is charged up again. Tonight we are all exhausted, but I have managed to start the christmas ball rolling in my etsy shop, with some soft snowflakes and some soft stars, come and see I haven't shown them all here. There are some more soft stars to come tomorrow, and towards the end of the week I am planning to list this years new design which I gave you a sneak peek of last week. I just need to write descriptions and sort out the photos...

: )

Christmas is coming!

I’ve tried really hard this year not to get going on Christmas things too early, but I have now spent the last few weeks designing and refining this years picciolo decorations. I will show you them in more detail soon, this is just a little taster of what is to come – and they will start appearing in my shops from next week. There will also be a very limited number of my ‘soft snowflakes’ and ‘soft stars’ appearing soon, I’ll let you know when!

Thank you for your kind words and migraine advice, I now have some great pills from the doctor that mean within about half an hour I can sort of function again, as opposed to usually the whole rest of the day being knocked out. So that is a great improvement and takes away a little bit of the stress of worrying if I am going to get one! Any miracle cures out there? please let me know! : )

bleugh!

How is this for great timing - spend all day at work, get home and go straight out for a run, come home and run a lovely bath, get in, pick up my book (I love reading in the bath) and wham. A migraine. How wonderful, just in time to wipe out my friday night and most of the weekend. I still did everything we had planned but didn't feel quite on the same planet as everyone else! Oh well, here's hoping I won't see another one for a good long while (fingers crossed very tightly). Hopefully a proper post will appear tomorrow, I have lots of thing to show you. : )