my nephew the director

A little movie directed by nephew (aged 8). It's his first.


A Steven Spielberg of the furture?

A well earned break

Life was very hectic for a little while so I have spent some down time lately, catching up on important things like sleep. I have been making some fun purchases.

I purchased two of these fab little ornaments from Petite House. I bought the cupcake and the one on the far left.

I got one sent to my mum as a surprise

I have been after a wristlet now for many weeks from Made by Hank. When I say things like this people often exclaim "why would you buy a bag made by another". My answer is simple I appreciate others work and I also want something different.

Is it any different than a chef eating at someone else's restaurant? Things are always nicer when made by someone else. Anyway I have been after a specific wristlet but I kept missing it, I even had my poor OH checking many times a day but we always just missed it. We even put an RSS feed up to get updates. I had all but given up :( When magically and by complete accident I was online on Christmas day producing Christmas Quizzes for the dinner table, when I spotted the updated RSS feed. It said it was in stock but I could hardly believe it, I went to Made by Hank and there it was. So now all I have to do is patiently wait ..... for it to arrive.

Fab Christmas Idea

I just love this tree by Open Door Studio which was featured on the Etsy Storque

An idea for Christmas next year maybe.

Merry Christmas

Hope you all have a great day.

St George's Christmas Craft Fair

I will be attending St George's Christmas Craft Fair in Belfast this year again. Last year it was our first ever craft fair, so we are looking forward to going back.

It is on

Saturday 5 December: 9am - 5pm

Sunday 6 December: 10am - 5pm

If you are in the local area stop by and have a chat.

***Update - Having just looked at photo's from last year it has suddenly occurred to me I didn't have much stock and this year I have tonnes.****

Disappearance

While my disappearance should have been down to sewing my fingers to the bone for my next craft fair, but it has been down to the fact that life is even busier than normal. I finally got a weekend of last week to catch up on much needed sleep.

I have been sewing like mad this week, for Saturday and Sunday. I do I have a decent amount of stock, I'm just at this stage making bags I know are good sellers.

Bags, Bags, Bags

I have listed some delightful new bags in my shop with many more to follow.

Just a little taster.

Yum

I saw this on the front page of Etsy yesterday. Two of my favorite things - felt and chocolate yule log. A fab creation by Becky M.

More craft shopping

From time to time I am a craft shopper. On Saturday my OH and I headed of to a craft fair on Londonderry in the Guild Hall. It was about an hour a little bit before we arrived so not to bad. The venue was fab and had a lovely feel about it, everyone we met was very friendly.

We had heard it was a good fair and were checking it out, as one to possibly apply for next year. It was lovely and a nice change being back on the other side of the stall. We drank coffee and ambled around. I spoke to a few stall holders I knew and they seemed to be quite positive, so a definite maybe.

I also made a few purchases and even bought something for myself from Hennies Beads.

craft book

I splashed out on Stray Sock Sewing, because it is super cute and I welcome a fun new thing to do over the Christmas Hols. As soon as I picked this book up I was hooked, it is full of fun animals just waiting to be made. The book is split into sections, there is a section showing a variety of animals having adventures and a section showing how to make some of them. It is fun feel-good book which I am looking forward to trying out.

This little guy is the very last picture in the book and I just love him.

New Fabric

On Thursday, my OH and I went to the Kings Hall in Belfast to the Stitch and Creative Crafts Exhibition. I buy fabric all the time, but I rarely get the chance to touch it before I buy. There were lots of stands all showcasing a variety of crafts and supplies. I was there for fabric and craft books. I did myself proud in terms of fabric and even got a delightful craft book (more tomorrow).

Dolls and Elephants

Monsters.....ohh scary

Singers and coffee cups

A little nip of christmas

Butterflies and flowers

Cats and Ponies

Fruit

Spots of course

These flowers and birds really sparked a few thoughts in my head.

Mmmmm

Good enough to eat, oh someone has beaten me to it.

Angry Gingerbread Man by Bittersweets

My love of GingerBread men grows, nearly time to get Georgie out again.

Featured Shop - Sewn Natural

While looking at around Etsy for Christmas stuff I found Sewn Natural. The idea behind this store is that nice things can be pretty "while making the world a little bit better at the same time". What I really liked was the fresh approach they take. These lovely christmas trees are made from red vintage Japanese kimono silk. It has a beautiful balsam fir tree sachet in it which would leave that christmas tree smell in the room.

I really like these little trees as well.

When I looked on through the shop I saw some lovely other items. Here are a few other lovelies.

upcycled duck baby rattle toy

 

retro elephant baby

Etsy Finds - Christmas

Oh I can smell the cinnamon in the air, I even heard a Christmas song on the radio during the week. So I trolled around Etsy to look at the some of goodies on offer.

This little star is made by wordzoflife. I like the patchwork aspect in this decoration.

Stitchin sew prim has this pretty cushion in their store. It has a delightful country feel about it.

I have been looking at patchwork lately and I love this quilted wall hanging by Bound For Glory

New Bag

A new little bag with a chain. It is styled like a baguette, but meets the requirements of having a chain. I think this would be nice with a leather short handle. Something else to work on. Now just a new name needed....Petite Baguette?

Is it bad to want this bag for myself? Love it. Look out for it in the shop soon.

Treasury - Tropical Vampire

Thanks to samantha's art studio for the include in her treasury.

Craft Fairs

So far I have been to 2 Christmas craft fairs in the last 2 weeks. Neither have been fabulous but certainly worth going to. The big upside is that I have created loads of stock, which I will be uploading to my shop over the next few days. It also means I have good stock for my big Christmas Fair in Decemeber.

One of the things I love about craft fairs is the opportunity to talk to my customers. Etsy is great but you don't get the chit chat, regarding what they would like. It allows me to see what bags and fabrics people pick up and touch. Often after fairs I feel the creativity flow and new things appear, one of which I will post about tomorrow.

Here is a picture of one of my latest tables.

At a lot of these craft fairs the tables can be.... lets say petite. I really struggle to not overload the table with bags and organise them in a way that makes people want to pick them up.

Still working at it.

Purchase

There are many things I love to buy and wear, but as the weather starts turn it gives me new opportunities for purchases. I have a scarf collection that most shops would be jealous of. I also love, I mean LOVE, gloves. I think a bit part of the glove thing is winter weather. Last year I discovered long fingerless gloves, they are like leg-warmers for your hands. I had purchased a random gold sparkly pair quite a while ago in the sale for 50p ($1), but only wore them for the first last year and fell in love with them. I thought I would not be able to get anymore, so imagine my delight when I found these.

Pale Grey Cashmere Fingerless Gloves, I admit they were a little (!) more expensive, the upside was that the lovely M&S had sent me a voucher for a pair of gloves up to the value of £15, so I only had a little to add. They are toasty warm, you can text in them and you don't need to take them of to get change out of your wallet. Result.

Happy Halloween

Every year my OH and I talk about carving pumpkins. No big deal you say but as children we carved turnips (!) not pumpkins. I don't think pumpkins really arrived in Northern Ireland until a few years ago. Anyway we always talk about pumpkins  but something generally stops us - none left in the shop, no time, or they turned mushy in the fridge. This year since he is an invalid and I have sooo much time on my hands we managed to get it done. This is our best (!) attempt.

Certainly not up to our American cousins, but we had good fun.

I'm still here

My....oh.....my things have been hectic here. Work (day job) has been all go go go for weeks now which is very draining. I have been battling the nastiest cold imaginable and of course I have been busy sewing for fairs. I now have a week off... bliss, some time to sleep, shop and eat out. I still have a rather persistent cough but I don't feel like I have been dragged through a hedge. So normal transmissions should resume shortly.

my own fabric

I have been doodling around making digital images. My OH started a little supply shop called Fat Frog Supplies and I made him a little frog.

I messed around with the image a little and made a Mrs Fat Frog as well. I really like her spots but I'm not 100% about the mouth.

I decided to get them printed as swatches by spoonflower and am really impressed with how it turned out. I will be ordering more soon.

This one needs a little bit more tweaking but I really like the spots, so I may also do another one with the frogs having rainbow spots.

My Creative Space

A little (!) pile of bags just waiting to be sewn round.

Getting my ducks in a row :0)

 This is some of my new stock for christmas and I am loving the pale blue dotty lining.

To catch up on other creative spaces nip over here and check them out.

What's new

I will be adding new zipper pouches. You can get them in my shop at the new price of $10.

Where Have I been?

I have been busy over the last wee while. Work has been busy, as has my sewing machine and I  have been recovering from a really nasty cold. I also started back to horse riding. I had ponies when I was younger but had to sell them when I went to Uni. I continued to ride regularly for a while, but for some reason stopped. I just decided to get back into it. I'm riding at a place called Tullynewbank and it is great. I was so sore the first time but I've been a few more times and I'm really getting back into it.

And the winner is.....

The winner for my 100th post giveaway is

Comment 1: Tammy James

I love the fabric combinations you use! My favourite is the owls medium frame clutch on the first page, too cute!

Thanks to those who entered and a mini clutch will be on it's way to Tammy soon.