the perfect prints perfect companion

Saturday was our 11th wedding anniversary, and Stuart gave me the best card ever. Not only does it have robins, my favourite bird, the illustration style is gorgeous and the colours match our room and my other new print perfectly. It's wonderful! So by lunchtime I had been and bought it a frame to match, and now it is up on our wall, looking fantastic. What a great present. Our day on saturday was very hectic, Holly had dancing exams first thing, then we went out for lunch, then we had to get home in time to take Holly to a birthday party where I stood and watched 30 kids on a bouncy castle for two hours. Then in the evening Stuart cooked us a delicious meal, and I had my very first taste of lobster, at age 33. This is what we had: scallops with chorizo and parsnip puree, followed by lobster thermidor followed by a warm lemon cake with clotted cream and raspberries. mmmmmmmm I didn't get any pictures as I was too busy drinking champagne and eating! : )

Saturday 26th April

I'm feeling both scared and excited right now, as last week I was approached to take part in a craft fair in London, and I have now signed up and booked my pitch. So if any of you are in London on Saturday 26th April, come on over to Walthamstow and say hello! It is taking place in the garden of Penny Fieldings Beautiful Interiors at 34 ORFORD ROAD, WALTHAMSTOW VILLAGE, LONDON E17 9N7, just a few minutes walk from Walthamstow Central station. So I am going to have busy fingers for the next few weeks! And here is the second felt box that I made at the weekend, which will be listed in my shop later : )

the perfect print

Today I just had to show you this wonderful print I bought from etsy seller 12fifteen . It was one of those purchases when you see it and just have to have it, partly because the colours are perfect for our bedroom, and partly because I love leaves and trees. Isn't it just gorgeous? I've had it a couple of weeks now and just managed to find it the perfect frame, the next step is to decide where to hang it in our bedroom! : )

Here is one of the two boxes I made at the weekend, I think it is my favourite so far! And I had to take a picture of this gorgeous lunch made for me by my husband, to set the scene I was busy trying to work out measurements for inside pockets, concentrating very hard, to be tapped on the shoulder and presented with this. It was sooo yummy, Italian cheese from the market, on a slice of toasted homemade bread with onion marmalade and tomato. mmmmm : )

Tagged!

I had a very industrious Easter weekend, partly due to the really awful weather and partly because my other half had to work on a couple of days over the weekend. I took some better pictures of some existing items, like this little box which I have already updated in my shop. And then I realised that this was the last box left so I've made two more, pictures tomorrow. And then another keyring, in pinks this time, and then a new design of purse, which has an inside pocket, and then last night I started another new purse design which I am quite excited about. Phew! So I have lots of things to show you over the next few days! And, I have been tagged. By the lovely Jewel Street Designs, check out her blog , she makes really really gorgeous jewellery! So here are seven random things about me: 1. I am left handed 2. It is my 11th wedding anniversary on Saturday 3. I don't like (can't stand) the feel of velvet 4. We once stayed for two days with a former headhunting tribe in Borneo 5. I have a piano-accordian which I love and don't play enough 6. I am rubbish at clothes shopping 90% of the time (sometimes I get great bargains) 7. I love letterpress and have two hand presses in my loft waiting for the day I have a workshop/room. So there you go, seven things about me, I'm not going to tag anyone else as this seems to have done the rounds a lot lately! : )

tweety

Happy Easter Sunday everyone, we have had quite a quiet one which started with waking up to snow! It didn't settle but looked pretty while it was falling. We did an Easter egg hunt for Holly around the house and garden, a milestone this year as it was the first year that she could read the clues herself. I've managed to do quite a bit of sewing today, and also attempted to take some better pictures of a couple of things, including this box, which I filled with felt bits and bobs to photograph and then Hollys new little chick Tweety decided to make herself a nest. Tweety is very cute, and tweets when you hold her in your hand. Enjoy the rest of Easter! : )

red riding hood ready to go!

Ok, the pictures are a bit blurry, but here it is! We also managed to find a felt bag in John Lewis that works quite well as her basket, it has wooden handles that are really cute. At the moment she has put Tom, one of her cuddly cats in there! I think he might be feeling a bit sick after being swung around so much as Holly has skipped around the house being Little Red Riding Hood. And here is what was in one of my parcels of fabric, I love it and keep looking at it, it might take a while for me to be able to cut into it I think!

what a day!

Although Holly's little red riding hood cape is now finished, I didn't get one second last night to take any pictures! I came home from work and picked up Holly from school, went to the post office, then got a phone call to ask me to urgently go back into work for a bit to do an urgent job. So Holly came with me and luckily we were only there about half an hour, then we got home, practiced Holly's reading, then I made her tea while she did a drawing for a book week competition that she had to take in today. Then while she was eating her dinner my friend came round as we were going out for our dinner and it was nonstop!! The worst thing was that two parcels of wonderful fabric from two different etsy shops that I have been eagerly awaiting both arrived yesterday, and I only had time to have a quick look at the contents! But I am very pleased with what I have seen, will show you later! And what with such a busy few days I haven't managed to list many new things, here is the last new keyring I have at the moment which will hopefully go up tonight, one has sold already : )

little red riding hood

A really busy sewing weekend this week, I had two custom orders to complete, one of which included creating pockets inside a purse which is a new thing for me. Both orders are now finished, I've taken some pictures of them both but will show you when I know they have been received by their new owners. And then once they were completed I had a totally different sewing job to tackle, Holly has to dress up as a book character on Thursday at school, and she decided upon Little Red Riding Hood. (I managed to dissuade her from the ugly duckling, that would have been a nightmare costume to make!) So I looked on the internet and found a brilliant free hooded cape pattern for personal use here on the Craft: blog website, so we had a shopping trip to buy red fabric and ribbon on saturday. Then as the weather was so dismal here yesterday, (really windy with lots of heavy rain, yuck) Stuart and Holly went to Blockbusters and chose a film, and we spent the afternoon watching the Johnny Depp version of Charlie and the Cholcolate Factory. Or rather they did, and I spent the afternoon kneeling on the floor cutting and pinning! But I am very pleased with the finished result, I hand sewed it as I thought it would be quicker, and it is all finished now, even the ribbons for ties are on. Once Holly has tried it on I'll take a picture of the finished article! : )

when things don't go as planned

Ok, so I had a plan for my evening, which involved getting all house jobs done asap so that I could spend most of the evening sewing my custom orders. But did it happen? Not as smoothly as I had hoped! Somehow I still did all the chores, (washing, ironing, etc) then Stuart got stuck in traffic and was late home which delayed me cooking the dinner, so all in all it got a bit stressful and I didn't get to pick up a needle until 9.30pm. But on a good note I did get everything done on the list I had in my head, even if I did go to bed later than intended. And one of my new keyrings made it into a treasury west on etsy, and above is another new one which will be listed later. Roll on the weekend! : )

Illustration Friday - garden

This weeks topic on Illustration Friday is 'garden' and I couldn't resist participating. This piece is called 'spring has sprung', an abstract garden where everything has started to grow, a little bit of green is appearing, and a small bird watches his nest. It has been hand sewn onto soft navy coloured denim using a variety of felt and fabric pieces and then painted. : )

something different

I couldn't resist showing you these, Holly came home from school on friday determined to make some easter bracelets for her friends. She wanted to use ribbon and was going to draw pictures to stick on, until we made a trip to Paperchase and found these easter stickers that were just perfect. She had great fun with the stickers and I was called in to help glue the ends of the ribbon so it didn't fray,(ok that was my suggestion) and then to sew them into bracelets. I think they turned out well and from all accounts her friends liked them. She must definately be my daughter to come up with a crafty idea like this and have such fun doing it! And I can't let you go without showing you todays keyring which will be listed tonight at some point : )

thanks everyone!

Thanks for all your help yesterday, I really needed some voices of reason to stop me from changing my mind every five minutes. This is what I have gone for in the end, the majority thought the clearer shots were better, and I have added 'front' and 'back' as I don't think it was very clear that the photos were of each side of the same keyring. I have used the other 'artier' shots in the extra pictures. The purple one is in my shop now, others over the next few days (you can get a glimpse of them in the group shot in the purple ones listing)! : )

help! opinions please

I now have too many pictures and just can't decide which of these two (three now!) options is more eyecatching for the main image? What do you think? Any opinions most welcome, I am going round in circles, one minute thinking one is best then the other! : )

aahah!

I managed to only take really rubbish pictures in the fading light last night, so here are just a couple of sneaky peeks at the first of my new creations. You can probably guess that it is a keyring, one side a beautiful fabric and the other painted, with a little bit of padding. They are a nice size for holding in your hand without being bulky. Anyway, my main aim of the weekend is to keep a beady eye on the weather and be ready to pounce with my camera, so that I can list this and the other one I made last night. Wish me luck, I just looked at the bbc weather site, and it says we have heavy rain in store, great! I will also be being a taxi service to Holly tomorrow, first to dancing and then a birthday party, so I need the sun to come out in the small amount of time I will be at home... hmmm : )

springtime2

For a while there I thought spring was coming, but the past few days here in London have been icy with really cold winds. Brrrr! But I'm sure it can't be far off now, it is March after all, so I have made a second pouch/purse in anticipation, as the first one is already off in a new home. This is becoming one of my favourite colour combinations, a leafy green with turquoise and a splash of dark pink. This week so far has been a bit crazy and I am already looking forward to the weekend! Not much sewing has happened until last night when I started and almost finished a new product, I have been busy with my sketchbook and new ideas and now just need to find the time to make them! : )

brownish?

On Saturday my other half told me that he had seen a top he thought I would like in a certain shop window. He described it as 'brownish with birds on'. Of course, hearing that it had birds on it caused Holly and I to go to said shop and try and buy it. But could we find it? No. We were in the shop for over half an hour as I was determined to find it, and we even asked someone for help who was no help at all. And I even had Holly trying very hard to be helpful, saying things like 'here's a purple one with pretty flowers on it'. In the end we gave up and I told Stuart we couldn't find it and had got very grumpy trying. And then, I got it for Mothers Day! So was I just useless at looking you might ask, well no, because despite his description of 'brownish' it is actually white, with red stripes!!! : )

how many?!?

Ok, so when the weekend comes around I usually get a better chance to take photos as I have the whole day to grab a bit of sun if it happens. So yesterday I managed to take the following pictures of Holly's new cushions, notice the plural, I was always going to make two: but ended up with enough fabric left to recover a cushion that she already had, so she has ended up with three. All the better for getting cozy with! I am pleased with how they have turned out and enjoyed doing a bit of quilting, and all three cost less than £5 in total! : )