homemaker magazine + me!

my handmade Penguin, Reindeer and Christmas Pud decorations are in the current issue of Homemaker Magazine isn't it a lovely photo? 

it's all about the pom poms

it must be nearly Christmas 'cos there are pom poms everywhere I turn!
pom poms in kit making...pom poms in customer's parcels ...and pom poms as the snowmen's scarves on my newest handmade orders

I love pom poms :-)  

mammoth order # 2 :: update

snowman kits on the making table late last night, it doesn't matter how late it is or how tired you are pom poms can always cheer you up!!  ....we had a lie in this morning and got up at 7am instead of 6am, what a treat!  but the hard work has got the job finished in time, and left plenty of time this afternoon to get started on website orders and some sewing too :-)

excuse the finger in the photo - we were rather tired, plus there's no way we're unpacking them all just so we can retake the photo ;-)

mammoth kit order #2

phew-ee this week is flying by!  every spare moment has been filled with kit making - all of us have been doing homework and working extra hours to keep on top of it all, and one last push this weekend from John and I will see mammoth order # 2 finished (I hope!)

Becky has homework for mammoth order #3 ... yep, that's right! another massive order landed yesterday, it's the biggest yet, but we do have a little longer to finish it, thank goodness :-)

Order Dispatched

...and it was a BIG one!
Just look at it all - 21 boxes full of kits, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kits!
We are super chuffed with ourselves - managing a massive order alongside all our normal orders (of which there were many last week, thanks shoppers!)
All achieved through team work and A LOT of overtime ... now, on to the next big order!

a long weekend ....

...nope, not a luxurious, relaxing holiday but instead - a long weekend of kit making awaits!  John and I could do with a holiday - tomorrow will be day 6 of loooong working hours (6am-11pm! yikes!) and another John Lewis popped through the door today so there's no end to these long days yet!!!

The photo is not related to that at all - but when I was cutting these packs for an order today I thought the colours looked great together :-)

whose boxes?

lots and lots of lovely boxes - all sent out to one customer - I wonder if they are all for the same person or if this is lots of Christmas presents in one hit...or perhaps they aren't Christmas presents at all?? 

Whoever they are for, I enjoyed making them and hope they enjoy them too :-)

ta-dah!

I also did the handstitching on a pile of boxes - but they won't be machined together until tomorrow, so I can't show you them yet!  Not bad for a lazy day eh?
Oh and the tray I keep on showing you with sewing on it is from ikea
I have two and I highly recommend them :-)

the magic of Sundays

This time of year it's hard to stop working, well, actually, every time of the year I find it hard to stop working because I love it!! - but yesterday I started to feel a bit under the weather and decided I needed a Sunday Sofa day...and that I really need to avoid getting the lurgy that hit our little team a week ago.
So after a Saturday of Kit Packing ::

and box sewing ::

I have spent all of Sunday in my PJ's, with my fluffy socks on and the heating cranked up...with a tray of sewing to keep me occupied.  Perfect, and I'm feeling 100% again so I *think* it's worked!

STOP! it's freebie time! *

woah! the freebie this time round had 325 comments!
thanks to everyone who joined in ... Benny (my handsome table) got a lot of admiration - his friends can be found here if you need a Benny Table in your life too**....now, on to the business of picking a winner:

  the random number machine has been called into action and ta-dah! the winner is:

 comment # 87:
Sam Goodall said...
What an amazing give away, I love your shop, always fantastic service and beautifully packed.
Thankyou Sam G

 Well done Sam - please email your address to me ( sepoulton {at} btopenworld {dot} com ) and I'll try to get it to you for the weekend :-)
Thanks again everyone for joining in :-)
* sorry Claire, hope this song  (2mins 9 secs in) isn't in your head as long as the dinosaur one ;-)
** I had a 15% voucher which made him cheaper!! but he's definitely worth every hard earned penny :-)

weekend work

a slightly crazy weekend = tonnes of sewing + lots of other 'things' in the mix....soon, my blog friends, I wish to spill the beans...but not yet!!...in the meantime, please enter the freebie and enjoy :-)

freebie day :: November 2013

this month's freebie is simple.  One great big prize of Christmas Crafting Supplies will be won by one blog reader.  To enter please follow the rules at the bottom of this blog post.
The Prize ::

 over £100 worth of crafting goodies for you to get making...

 ...all wrapped and packed in style!

 there are 10 mini rolls in a Christmassy themed selection of colours

 a great big bag of buttons

 a bag of cute pom poms

 a bag full of ric racs

 3 cute dinky test tubes filled with tiny bells and teeny tiny buttons

 3 fat quarters of Christmassy Fabrics

 two Christmas sewing kits

 a DIY advent calender package (25 paper bags, a pack of mini pegs and a long length of ribbon)

 AND 6 mini spools each with a metre of lovely ribbons on them

 all proudly being displayed on my new table (he got delivered yesterday - but you don't win him, he's mine!!)

The rules:
leave one comment AND ONE COMMENT ONLY on this blog post. (if you make a mistake please delete the comment and start again!)
Each comment is assigned a number and the Random Number Generator will pick one number from all the entries and that number will be the winner.
The freebie will be closed to new comments from Noon on Thursday 7th November 2013 and the winner announced later the same day.  Please come back to see if you are the winner.
me and Benny (the table!) wish you luck ;-)

 

the freebie has now closed at comment # 325

freebie day sneaky peak

it is freebie day today - but it's too dark to take good photos, so come back tomorrow and all will be revealed!
~ in other news: Becky is back, her youngest is feeling a bit better, but Becky didn't feel tip toe today!  John is still feeling awful and I am still feeling fine :-)
....see you for freebie day tomorrow!

a lonely wednesday

sickness has hit our little team - Becky's youngest is sick so Becky is at home looking after her - and John has had the lurgy for a couple of days but today he finally succumbed to the call of a warm bed and some soup at lunchtime, and is under strict instructions to stay there and get better - so I am here all on my own...I have packed all the orders and unpacked a tonne of deliveries...mostly restocking popular items, but a few new things have snuck in too ;-)

 *new* GINORMOUS jingle bells

 *new* mini wooden spools

 *new* mini embroidery hoops

 *new* big pom pom trim & lots of the ever popular teeny tiny pom pom trim

 sewing threads have been topped up, as have 4" purse zips, needles and pins

 tonnes of ric rac :: teeny tiny, standard & large

 AND the clip on black boards are back!  2 sizes of rectangles,  *new* clip on heart AND *new* blackboards on easels...how cool are they?

oh, and I've been dreaming up an idea for the next freebie (it's freebie day tomorrow!) and think I have come up with a cracker, so come back tomorrow and I will try my very best to have it ready on time (unless, of course, the lurgy strikes me down next!)
Quick Links ::
giant bells - click here
wooden spools - click here
mini hoops - click here
pom pom trim - click here
ric rac - click here
thread - click here
needles and pins - click here
zips - click here
clip on blackboards - click here
easel black boards - click here

oh and don't go thinking I am super woman that has done loads, look at this ::

a great BIG mess for me to tidy up (my packing table is under there somewhere!!)
 :-)

more weekend makes

 another batch of felt flowers are winging their way through the post - destined to be turned into more pretty hair clips

windswept

I hope everyone is safe and sound after the storm this weekend?  Our rather large fuchsia bush in the back garden has been injured...but it's not terminal - which is a good job because we have an extended family of sparrows living there this year.

All these Christmas Decoration orders were sewn at home yesterday, cosy on the sofa, while the weather turned more and more stormy outside, and today when I went to take a quick snap of them all the sun was shining, as if the storm had never happened!!
John and I ventured out into the rain/wind last night to take a look at the sea - we're only a hundred yards or so from the seafront so we did a quick dash down the road and back and boy, did we get drenched!! Worth it though, the sea was extraordinarily rough!!

friday night is pom pom night

these colourful pompoms are for our snowman kits

 don't they look glorious?