zingy

This new little home for pins is currently sitting on my desk all parcelled up ready to go to the post office in the morning. It is on its way to my wonderful blog friend bagladee , who already has one of my homes for pins but wanted another in zingy summery colours. She chose lime green and orange, then I had fun rummaging in my fabrics for the perfect match, with a single hand-painted shoot on the other side. I hope it comes in very useful! : )

organisation on a small scale

For a long time I have wanted to make something to hang from one of our coat pegs against the wall and hold all our scarves, hats and gloves, and after the success of my first tote bag I have made this one. It is longer and narrower to hold everything and I lined it with a lovely piece of ikea fabric I had which was just the right size. It will spend most of its time hidden behind coats (which is why I couldn't take a picture of it in its rightful place) but I will know that it is there, being useful. : )

plymouth hoe

We spent this weekend in Plymouth, Devon, visiting my family, and as always the time goes too quickly. We spent our saturday afternoon on Plymouth Hoe, which is a huge promenade right next to the sea. There was a bitterly cold wind but as you can see from the picture below it was perfect for Holly and her scooter! I also got a great picture of my dad on Hollys scooter, but I don't think he would ever forgive me if I showed it here! So not a lot of sewing happened, but I did have hours in the car to come up with some new ideas, my pinking shears will be out later! : )

like a new pin

This new home for pins has been patiently waiting for me to photograph and list it for a little while now, and I have finally managed it. This one is in one of my favourite colourways of orange and plum, and is now available in my etsy shop. The wonderful bagladee has one of these, which she was kind enough to include in a photo on her blog last week, thanks Emma! : )

boots and pins

First for this sunny tuesday, I need to say thanks to Gillian of iheartcrafts for including my dotty home for pins in her very first treasury! She has also just recently opened her etsy shop , why not pop over and take a look. And secondly, remember my boots and zips fiasco? Well after reading back what I had written about my boots I decided to ring Dr Martens and see what they said, and it turned out that they knew they had some faulty zip batches. Lucky me to get two pairs! But the very kind lady let me choose a new pair of boots which they sent me for free! These are the ones I chose, which are a sort of cross between the two pairs I already have, and I have already worn them lots. So definately a happy ending on the boots front! : )
ok, so somehow I managed to miss the weekend! I had a post all written and almost ready to go on friday, but it got scuppered by us rushing out the door to drive the two and a half hour trip to our friends for the weekend. We had a great time, I actually managed to relax and stop thinking that there was something I should be doing the whole time. We have just got back and I plan to continue my relaxed state of mind into the evening, in fact for as long as I can manage it! And a big thanks to Sue, I came back to the lovely surprise that she had included one of my purses in her etsy treasury. : )
Yesterday was not a good day. I woke up with a dreadful headache which didn't let me know it was a migraine for another hour or so. And so although I took a tablet, it did nothing. But then again, what chance did I have against a migraine that started when I was asleep? So I ended up spending most of the day in bed, getting nothing done. These flowers did cheer me up though, the daffodils I bought to make the kitchen a bit more spring-like, and Stuart bought me these gorgeous roses (we have been together for 13 years now!) And, my new mini-prints made it into this lovely treasury by montyandmarwood at the weekend too! : )

a new bag

Look! a picciolo tote bag! This idea for a simple take-anywhere-will-fold-up sort of bag has been in my head for a while now, and finally I have made one. I have lined it with a gorgeous bluey/misty colour cotton, and it has a circle of my favourite fabric on one side with a handpainted motif on the other. It has just one roomy compartment, and has been very useful on the couple of occasions where I have used it so far. This is now slowly evolving into other things as my mind won't stop whirring, but I think I might make more for the shop soon - this one is for me! Did you all have good weekends? We spent most of ours fitting a new loft hatch into an anything-but-square 100 year old ceiling, not much fun but a big job almost done. : )

New mini-prints

At last, I can finally reveal one of the new items I have been working on! I started on these right after Christmas but have struggled to take good photos in this lovely English winter where I can only photograph in daylight at the weekends. But here they are, mini-prints in both my leaf series and circles designs, available individually (just $6) or in sets of two (only $9) or three (just $12 – yes really!) Each one is a print of an original hand sewn artwork (some of the originals have been sold, some are still available) created using denim, felt and fabric (the circle series were also handpainted). Printed onto 4x6in (10x15cm) Epson premium semi-gloss photo paper 250gsm, with a white border ready for framing - supplied unframed. Available now in my etsy shop, coming soon to Folksy. And, here is our snowman, who is still standing although the snow around him is slowly melting away. : )

snow - lots of it!

This is what greeted me when I got up this morning, Just look at my bike! There was so much snow you couldn't see where the road ended and the pavement began, it was actually quite fun cycling to work, although I had no brakes and when I went round corners I nearly lost control of the back wheel! But I got there, and as I had on my warm wool coat, all the snow stuck to it and I must have looked like a snowman. When I got home we did make a snowman, but it was dark when we finished so I'll take a picture tomorrow. And this is my latest purse/pouch, which I have listed on etsy. Just the right size to pop in your bag and keep things organised. : )