a handmade christmas

yay! hello blog...I missed you :-p

Christmas was fantastic, we threw a small party on Christmas Eve, had drinks at the pub Christmas day, drove to Suffolk (john's family) on Boxing day, stayed the night then took FOUR hours to drive a two hour journey (gggrrrrr M25 traffic jams!) to my sister's (where all my family were)...lots of eating, drinking, chatting and playing was done and I loved it!
I went back to work today and it was VERY busy indeed, only another two days and then I'm on holidays~!! Hooray~!!
pictures are of the handmade Christmas gifts I bought from fellow UK etsy sellers and they are (from left to right):
1,2 & 3 mirrors from inkjet
4 ceramic leaf from hedgewitch
5 knitted bag from memake
6 knitted slug from lullabylily
7 trees notebook from dancinggirlart
8 & 9 bird purses from Notes

decorations

Unusually for me yesterday was free from paper-and-string things. I decided to pop a notice in all my shops to say I will only be posting on certain days, to allow myself to have a proper break. So yesterday John and I had the day together, putting up the decorations and smothering the Christmas Tree in baubles and ornaments :-)

Afterward we met up with friends and had a roast dinner in the pub, along with a few glasses of wine (me) and beer (everyone else).

Yum!

orders

I thought shop-type-things would have calmed down a bit by now, but I'm still selling & making & packing and Post-office-ing my way through the days! It's great!

My day job is super-busy too but I'm glad to be home with my feet up for a while!

finished (almost!)

phew, yesterday was exhausting!
I live very near Worthing town centre and popped home after 4 hours of hard shopping because my bags were too heavy! I had a strong cup of coffee and a sandwich, laid all my purchases on the floor, wrote a new list and went back to the shops!
I now only have three things left to buy, all from Waitrose, so I'll get them tonight after the evening trip to the Post Office.
My etsy purchases have started to arrive...I'll take photos before I wrap them but can't show them on here in case I ruin some surprises!
the pipe cleaners are from my local sewing shop, and they are for me to make candy canes with (I saw them on a blog a few weeks ago and thought it was a cute idea!)
So my shopping should be finished by this evening...I just need the postman to do his part and then I can start wrapping....I can't wrap until the tree is up because I like to leave the presents under the tree, and I can't put the tree up because John's brother is still here and our living room is his bedroom for the time being!
I'm off to work now, enjoy your Thursdays!

a day at the shops

today is the day I have planned to shop.

I have done a fair bit of shopping online, but today I'm high street shopping.

Wish me luck, I'm not coming home until I've finished!!

just. having. fun.

just 9 days 'till Christmas.

how did that happen?

even though I've been making Christmas-y items since August(!!) I didn't see it coming.

So, did I shop this weekend? NOPE!

I sewed.

I didn't sew gifts. I just sewed.

And I like them.

Whatever they are :-)

booked and paid for

I'm off work today and have just taken a break from sewing to book our holiday.

Me, John and two of our friends are off to Lyme Regis in the New Year and will be staying here ::

It's right in the centre of town near all the pubs and restaurants, and the beach too.

Lots of relaxing and eating is being planned!

Hooray for holidays!

holiday planning

this year holidays are more important to me. for no reason, except I seem to be a little bit more tired!

my super-great assistant-manager at my day job is leaving to have a baby so John and I have planned a holiday in Lyme Regis for just after new year...(she leaves 19th Jan, all being well!)

but a.n.y.w.a.y. holidays aside, this is what I made yesterday::

its a storage pot / fairy house !!

I'm thinking of making a kit for it....any thoughts ????

feeling organised

I've been feeling a little *chaotic* recently, staying on top of work and paper-and-string things had me running around all over the place, but today I have got on top of everything!

I've re-filled the larder, emptied the laundry bin, made and posted everything that has been ordered AND have just finished updating the stock levels on etsy, ebay and the website.

I've also restocked all my kits and have pre-made swatch cards too.

I've booked this weekend off work, to make up for my no-day-off weekend that's just gone, and once I've tackled doing my accounts I'm free to sew ... yippee!!

gremlins and bugs grrrrrrr

sorry for the delay announcing a winner!

my day-job's stock take lasted most of the weekend and today I got home from work to find that we have had a virus on our computer....it seems to have gone....but if I disappear for a day or so you know why!

So :: on to the BIG announcement ::

the winner is..................

comment number 18 who is :: craftythings

well done....please email with your address...the last day for posting down under is Wednesday so you *should* have them in time for Christmas!

Thanks for all the penguin love, it was the highlight of my day to come home and read your lovely comments :-)

a little ray of sunshine

At the moment my day job is keeping me super busy.
the VAT has caused a headache, the Christmas shoppers are all grumpy (seriously, it's not the shop keeper's fault!) AND we have to do our stock take! I rota'd all the staff on today so we could get a head start, but the bulk of it gets done tomorrow when we are shut...but tonight (after staying late) I got home to find an email saying I had an etsy convo because I had been included in a treasury....it was such a welcome sight because it's so bright and cheerful...take a look ::

it was created by therainbowroom who has some beautiful items in her etsy shop...I have to say the bright colours really perked me up at the end of a VERY long Saturday!

Christmas Freebie

December's freebie is for one BIG prize, rather than a few smaller ones...

My penguins proved popular this year so I decided to give away a complete set of penguin decorations.

I made a felt box to put them in, and that has a penguin on it too!

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment on this blog and I will pick a winner's name out of the hat on Sunday evening

Good Luck!

ps my fabric from fabric rehab has arrived already! I LOVE that shop!

Happy Tree explosion

haha! I'm glad you liked the fabric shop link yesterday...I can't wait to see what you all buy :-)

I've finished my last batch of Happy Trees for this year.

The Polka Dot version are by-far the best sellers so I went a bit mad and made loads!

Most of the polka dot felt is from acrylic felt from Hobby Craft...I'm yet to find a supplier of wool polka dot felt...

The yellow (above) and the turquoise (below) are made from felt I bought on Etsy and it came from Japan, again it's acrylic but the dots are smaller so I just had to have some!!

I've been busy today updating the website and my Etsy shop too - there really are Happy Trees everywhere!!

Tomorrow is the last monthly giveaway of 2008 (how fast did that go??) and it'll be a Christmas Treat so hopefully I'll see you here tomorrow sometime!

NEW FABRIC SHOP !!

I just found a new online fabric shop, whilst browsing on Print & Pattern blog and WOW it's great! It's based in the UK and the postage is very reasonable indeed!

I was very restrained and only bought 4 fat quarters!

Click-ity click on this link and shop your fabric-addict heart's out ;-p

In the store now

My kits are finished and are in the store now!

the beans are spilled

Today I am officially allowed to spill the beans.

I have been involved in a super secret project to create an online emporium for digital scrapbooking...but not any old digital scrapbooking, no siree, this is digital scrapbooking with a handmade twist!

All of the designers involved (I am one of them) have a background in textile art, of one form or another, and the work that's been produced is definitely inspiring!

I'll let the website speak for itself...it's just gone live so I'm off to have a look too!

PS:: my first kit isn't ready yet because of technical hitches (otherwise known as sarah-has-computer-brain -freeze, ouch!) but it will be ready soon :-)

**The pictures are WIPS taken earlier in the year.

The making of Happy Trees

Step One :: Spend every free minute cutting out polka dot felt and sewing cute little faces. Curse your day job getting in the way of smiley face making (except the week which contains a pay day like this week!) At the end of the week you will have something like this ::

Step Two :: Dust down your sewing machine, haul it from it's stored-away place onto the temporary table and sew your happy trees up, remember to give your trusty sewing machine a pat for not chewing up the bobbin, even though he's been neglected for a while ::

Step Three :: Turn your Happy Trees round the right way, using a high-tech poking tool (pencil) and pile them all up because they look cute like that ::

Step Four :: Add another photo because it's accidentally got the sewing machine in the background and it looks quite good, almost like I meant to do it!

Step five :: Remember to take pictures of finished trees before the sun goes in, other wise you'll have to do it in the morning before work!

hmmmmm......

beans are escaping

today I nearly get to spill the beans on a project I have been working on for a few months ::

In the Summer I was contacted by the folks at The Red Porch and invited to join their design team for the re-launch of their website...it goes live on Monday 1st December (which is when I can truly spill the beans) but if you sign up before then you'll receive a FREE sample kit, with something from all their designers.

Sorry to be a bit cryptic, but it's all a great BIG secret till Monday!

a slightly slower pace of craft

John's brother has come to stay for a while...our flat only has one bedroom which means our living room gets turned into a spare room...and our living room already doubles up as paper-and-string headquarters, so as you can imagine crafty things have slowed down a little around here!

I spent quite a good portion of the day with my pile of happy trees but nothing to show just yet, instead the pictures are of a new bear I made last week, and a new felt box that I put the finishing touches to the other day

:-)