We are sick.

It's official. Big J and I have flu. I don't like being sick, well, who does! It started slowly on Saturday and I went to work and felt ok-ish and then Sunday I took it easy and felt ok-ish then back to work Monday and today and now I feel awful-ish !

So tomorrow I am going to work for 1 hour and then plan to be on the sofa with a blanket and some cheesy films on the tv! I kinda have to go to work because we normally all start at 10am but tomorrow the gas man is coming to check some gas man stuff (I wasn't really listening!) and as usual the time they will come is between 9am and 1pm !! How unhelpful !! So, I am going to work at 9am and will be leaving at 10am when the others get there. Oh the joys of being a boss, I bet the gas man gets there about 11am........I would scream with rage but I have almost completely lost my voice!! Big J loves it, every time I talk he says 'you should be resting your voice, ssssshhhhhh' aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

So even though I'm ill I think I can still do a bit of sewing in between my napping and coughing....I think I'm going to come up with some Febuary Freebies........

check back soon for details
xxx

ebay shop update

Some gorgeous colours available this week.....different shades of browns and pinks with some gorgeous vintage buttons. I had to force myself to actually use the buttons rather than keep them forever....believe me they are nice ones!!

Lurkers wanted....

Hi all.
Today is my day off from the day job. ( for regular readers, yes it is normally Thursday but this week, and this week only, day off day is Friday) and I challenge everyone to use the word day more times than me in one sentence!!
So what did I do with my morning off ??? well, I got delivered a cup of coffee by big J just before he left for work, stayed in bed and drank it and decided i needed a hair cut. So I cut it. My hair is big and very curly and about shoulder length.....now it is the same but shorter!! I keep wandering past the mirror to check it hasn't gone wrong but so far so good.....anyone else want a free haircut??? it must be easier to do on other people when you can actually see the back of their head!!

After the haircut I thought i'd check out the blogs on my favourite list. A quick half hour catch up and then on with the sewing....as you can tell I am still on the computer and it is past noon!!

BUT it's not my fault!! A lot of the great blogs I read were talking about lurkers. I didn't know what they were talking about so I had to read on and and OH NO I am a lurker!! That is: one who reads and visits blogs often but without comment so that blogworld do not know of their existence. So i have come clean and admitted my lurker-ness.

So now I challenge you all out there to come clean. If you are a lurker, make a comment and introduce yourself and your blog ( if you have one ) and then I can have a list in my sidebar of the people who read my blog's blogs!!

I can't wait to meet you.... xxx

ooohhhh I found a new button on picassa !

My eBay pics are now always going to be done on the scanner....how much better they are than by camera!! but i have run out of time and the shop update will be tomorrow....but you can see what is going to be there with the above pics. Happy Sunday evening to you all.....i'm off to bathe with a book and a wine........................

A Glimpse of New Things

Ha ha ha ha I tried to be clever and take two photos of my work tray but they don't quite line up !!! These are a few works in progress (they are finished but need tweaking).......more to come in my ebay shop today.

My friend's new etsy shop

Check out my friend's new etsy shop....she makes lovely things and they arrive so quickly and are always packed so nicely.....it's like a surprise extra birthday when something comes from the postman from this crafty lady!!
www.niajane.etsy.com

What lucky Girls Get For Christmas

My wonderful sisterini gave me these see through drawers for Christmas and looky how gorgeous my ribbon looks!! She also gave me some of the ribbon and some funky threads and buttons!! How lucky am I ??

Gorgeous Big J got me a sewing box, which I just love. This is a bad photo of it but you can get the idea, it has a lift up lid with loads of room inside for all sorts of gorgeous things and underneath is a drawer which i put scissors and useful things in. The ugly yellow baskets will be replaced with another couple of quilted fabric boxes when i have the time !

This was also from my Big J and I've never been so excited!! I have wanted this book for years but for some reason it is very hard to find and when it is found, very expensive. I wont ruin the story but I will say that the little girl gets to talk to her guinea pig, I wish I could have talked to my guinea pigs!! it is just wonderful!!

This shiny cupcake is from my niece, inside is a pad of paper and a pink pencil......does any one get the idea that I love cupcakes???

Also from my sister is this lovely make up bag ... how cool are the animals!!!

I am using it for craft instead of makeup because then I get to see it more often everyday!!

At the mo it has things I have made for ebay in it and some more things i will blog about another day!

So all in all I was very lucky at Christmas, don't you agree ??

ooohhhh fancy new look blog

well blogger invited me to change to new beta blog and I did and, even though I have no clue whatsoever, it worked a treat!
I love it that there are clever computer people out there who make these things straight forward for me!
As you can see they have made it super easy to change the colours and fonts etc etc so what did I do? that's right I changed everything that I could get my hands on !!
Hope you like the new look......there may be more to come!!

a belated merry christmas and a happy new year !!

I don't know where the time has gone, Christmas seems like it was ages ago and it's all just gone by in a blur !!
Big J and I had three Christmasses in 4 days and drove miles and miles and miles.....exhausting but good fun !!
The shop where I work is busy busy busy and the staff are keeping me on my toes.....I dont know how people can be so lazy.........ok rant over.


FUN STUFF
I received lots of goodies for Christmas which I will be showing here sometime Sunday and one of my presents from my sisterini was a ticket to go to a craft show . That was yesterday and I did some good shopping!! Pics on Sunday!!

I have also been busy doing new designs and prototypes for the shop......hopefully I will be updating the shop on Sunday too (I wish Sunday had 50 hours in the day!!)

Before I go here is a quick picture of the monkey I made for my neice for Christmas....Thanks Dad for the pictures :-)




As only a four year old could his name is...

Cocoa Cocoa Coconut !!

Such a cool neice, I may ask her to name everything I make!!

Huge shop update in progress

it's another of my favourite collage pictures !!

I've had a few emails recently wondering what has happened to my eBay shop....It has been getting emptier and emptier with no sign of an update.....But it was meant to happen !! Whilst I was sewing my large order together I was sitting and thinking about my eBay shop and, as you do when you have a billion things to do, decided it needed a revamp !!

I have been sewing some new items this week and the pic above is a taster of what's in store (well, they will be soon)

I have just removed the last few items from the shop and there is absolutely nothing in it !!

hahaha (that's a slightly manic laugh)

eBay needs me to wait awhile to do something computery (I'm sure it's incredibly important) and while I'm waiting I'm here blogging!

But as soon as I'm allowed I will be slowly and surely listing everything.

For those of you who know my shop well there are a few changes a foot, with new designs and bulk buys being added.

I just hope you all like it !

Cheerio for now

xxx

My big order is now complete.....

Wow, it feels like I have been gone from blogland for ages and ages!

I have had a big order to complete, which I posted today.

Take a look at the pictures and you'll see why I've been gone so long!

Pussy cats

Lions

Rabbits

and their tails!

Dogs

An overly large Christmas Pudding

Trillions of cupcakes

My favourite, the monkeys :-)

Button shopping and birthday gifts

My brilliant sister knows how much I love paper and buttons and for my birthday she got me 25 sheets of paper!! Aren't they gorgeous? She also got me a box of buttons. 800 buttons all for me :-)

I have put them all in my button store

This is my button store. A really boring A5 box file.
That holds all these buttons!!
I made all the compartments from black felt and joined them all together and placed card in the bottom of each section to keep it flat. There is also card in between each layer.
Billions of baby buttons all for me................ :-)
This is an extension to my button store! This is the box the buttons from my sister came in and I have put all the buttons that I have handpicked from my local charity shop in it.

I always buy my old buttons from this charity shop, it has an amazing selection and I'm never disappointed. It's funny too because I always go on a Thursday (my day off) so I always see the same selection of volunteers and the lady behind the till always groans when she sees me because she knows she will have to count a lot of buttons!! She thinks I am a slightly mad button lady!! She is one of those people who seems really interested in what I do with the buttons and when I start to explain she glazes over and wonders who on earth would buy the things I make!! Don't you just love it!

Whilst at the said charity shop I saw a big basket of odd buttons on the floor and just had to have it (lady behind the till got very excited because with all these buttons in my hands I wouldn't have to go back for weeks!!) As you can see I haven't sorted it out yet but there are some lovely things in here!!

Part three.......a birthday party

Sunday just gone was my niece's 4th birthday party. I made the cake and then took it to her house and we all iced it together!! Yum pink icing and chocolate cake is so great!!

We had pass the parcel, musical statues, pin the tail on the donkey, sleeping lions and musical bumps. My sister is a great birthday party organiser!! We actually had so many games to play that we ran out of time rather than things to do!!

I did make a cool birthday card but being the forgetful person that I am I didn't take a photo of it, but take my word for it it was cool!!

Part two ......Gorgeous gifts

I am so lucky! I have a lovely friend who every so often sends me surprise packages in the post. They always are beautifully wrapped and full of lovely things.....

The pic above shows some gorgeous dotty ribbon with a pretty cupcake card (look at the cherry stickers on the envelope.....soooooo cute!)Now I knew the above parcel was on it's way.....Described as ballerina monkey fabric and I have to say my imagination didn't do it justice......How cool is this!! I really love the monkey stamp too!! It's brushed cotton fabric and is destined to be a cushion (one for me and one for my niece) she was going to have one for her birthday but that has happened already so I'm thinking Christmas...

part one......it must be Christmas.....

Here are a few pictures of Christmas Puddings and Christmas trees that are part of the large order I am making.....there are 60 trees and 60 puddings!!


I forgot to take a picture of all my lovey new red buttons but you can see them here if you look closely!!

i'm so excited!

A few new cuties for the ebay shop!

Today I was contacted with the view of supplying some of my cuties in bulk....of course I said yes, then had the fear....now I am excited again! I had to go shopping for more felt (big J couldn't quite believe I needed more felt but I really did!!) and also for more buttons....I will post those pictures on Sunday...I only went to buy a few (yeah right) and I got my few and a few extra and then I spotted a big basket full of odd buttons sitting on the floor looking sad....now it is sitting on my fl0or looking very happy !!

Strange how I only have Thursday and Sunday off work and that the order came in today...a good omen that I think!!

OOOhhhh I'm so excited......my little cuties are going to be on sale in covent garden.....yippeee!

I forgot to ask if I could put a link here so I will do when I know.

(watch out Nia, world domination phase I is in progress!!)

:-)

Oh and a little message to my ebay buyers: the shop may get a little thin on the ground whilst i'm making my large order so if you need anything please just email me....i'm sure i'm due some holiday from my day job!!!!

And another message to my sisterini: hello! love you can't wait for the party :-)

What a busy week!!

Wow it's nice to be back!

I haven't been away from home but I have been away from blogworld (mine and all the ones I read everyday) for the past week or so.

At my day job I have been working 6 day weeks and still trying to do all my crafting too!!
I have had a couple of special orders to make for people this week so something had to go (housework and the blog!!)

So today was a day off and now the house is clean and tidy, the laundry is done and so is the food shopping (not all by me, big J helped loads too cos he is the bestest boyfriend ever!)

AND I have had time to snap some pictures of my special orders, which are now packed and waiting for me to take them to the post office

5 little bunny rabbits for a lady raising money for a rabbit rescue charity

These are all for one lady who sells handmade items at coffee mornings etc

I think the top photo is like a school photo, all nicely lined up and smiling (no one has their eyes shut though!)

Another photo of the same group....I almost couldn't bring myself to pack them!! It is silly really but I wanted to keep them all!! Bye bye cuties..... I hope they all go to good homes :-)

This final shot is to show you the new tags that I designed especially. I did them on the computer and printed them on textured cream stiff paper. I have included the address for this blog so maybe one day someone will leave a comment to say they bought one of my cuties!

Hopefully I will be back to crafting normality this week, I have a day off this week (if it all goes to plan) so I should be a busy bee filling the shops up

See you later xxx

The shops are getting fuller

oooh another collage picture..............I like that button on picassa ;-)

So I have added to the ebay shop and the etsy shop....I'm slowly getting them to the levels I would like them to be.
I have a list with everything in the shops on it and beside the amount of stock that I have I have a figure of the amount I would like to have.....never ever have I managed it yet......but that is a good thing because I keep selling things :-)
Todays to do list is being ignored, I have a busy day ahead of me at work and this evening I'm going to relax and phone all the people I haven' t phoned in way too long. But then tomorrow I am going to start afresh and try to fill the shop up again...take care and if you are feeling hectic just ignore your todo list, it's made me feel so much better !!

a birthday surprise...

So I mentioned here that it was my birthday and look what came through the door......

A gorgeous handmade card and a little surprise package just for me :-)

Three bundles of gorgeous ribbon for me ..... I'm so lucky !

Thank you again Nia, such a friendly and generous surprise :-)