progress is being made

My little piles of felt are slowly coming to life. Tonight I get to do my favourite bit...the smiley faces...it's the time when they turn from felt things to little happy felt things, and the smiles really change the faces too, they give them a kind of personality! Or maybe that's just me? LOL

back to the normal routines

After my week off work last week it feels kinda nice to be back in a routine again.

:: get showered and dressed

:: check out emails and questions on the blog/website

:: wrap and pack orders before work

:: go to work

:: visit the post office

:: go home and blog

:: have some dinner

:: cut out felt

so today (my day off )my work was nicely prepared in little piles, and I have sewn all day long

I did start my day on the sewing machine with some purses that needed zips but it wasn't the day for zips, so I gave up!!

So Vanessa, Catherine and Nicola your orders are nearly finished!!

day 20 :: cupcakes for me :-)

Remember I met Nia the other day?
Well, lookee what she sent me today!!! What a lovely thank you card! Isn't she a clever bunny!
and look! A happy smiley cupcake for me :-) I really am the luckiest person in the whole wide world.
*The crochet genius is Berrysprite .

Thanks Nia, I love my cupcake, and I'm glad you liked your gifts too xxxxx

I shall return to craft posting tomorrow!!

day 19 :: gloves and cars

I can't quite believe this is my 19th blog post in a row!! I have a new found respect for people who blog everyday, not because they manage to find the time but because they always have something to say!!These are the gloves I bought for £1 yesterday at the disaster fair, I love them :-)
*kindly modelled by John

and this is a picture of all the cars that turned up for a Saab-owners meeting that John organised for yesterday. Isn't he a clever chap??

day 18 :: craft fair update

Today the craft fair was RUBBISH


My sister came to join me (pics soon to be on her blog) but the weather was AWFUL. There were barely any customers all day and the ones that did come were soaking wet and windswept and miserable!!


My total takings for today were £14.45


It's safe to say that my goodies didn't really fit with the rest of the stalls offerings and I think that the prices didn't fit either !! I bought a pair of gorgeous hand knitted gloves for £1!!


It was a bit of a bargain bazaar rather than a craft fair!!


I'm going to investigate the possibility of attending a craft fair in Brighton next year (if anyone knows of one please let me know) because I think Brighton may have more potential customers than Worthing.


But the good news is I have loads of lovely things to fill my shop with...woo-hoo!!





Yesterday when Nia came to visit she left me with a Christmas present and she said I could open it when I got home and I did ::

such pretty wrapping :-)aaahhh look a lovely little bear :-) His name is Armstrong. Isn't he cute?

Thanks Nia, I absolutely love him :-)

I'm off to unpack, tidy up and have a hearty meal.

day 17 :: 1st day of the craft fair

what a day !!

craft fairs are exhausting, but in a good way, I think!

John took some photos for me ::
none of mine came out...way too dark inside for photo taking today!!

It was quite a quiet fair. Most of the other stall holders said it was a lot quieter than normal and I think we are all hoping that tomorrow is a bit busier. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow!!

Today I FINALLY met my friend Nia, who I first 'met' via eBay.

Here we are looking very happy :-) (Nia is on the left)

Thanks for coming to visit me Nia, I had a great time, we should do it again soon :-)

I also had a visit from Lynn and Stella. Lynn was wearing the most gorgeous brooch that she had made and I had to take a picture ::

Lynn had purchased some felt from me a few weeks ago and when I realised she lives just up the road I shamelessly plugged the craft fair and she popped along!! I've just spent the last half hour or so looking at
Lynn's blog :: Lynn & Stella's shop blog :: and Lynn and Stella's etsy shop :: gorgeous things to look at :-) It was lovely to meet people face to face and talk about the blogging and crafts world and not get looked at like I'm crazy! Thanks for popping by, it was lovely to meet you :-)

I wonder who I'll meet tomorrow???

day 16 :: I am ready !!

YAAAAAY !!

I'm done :: everything is ready to go.

That's everything, all the things I have made and a whole load of felt and some cram cream goodies...doesn't look like a lot does it!!

I've also got my pinboard ready ::

my Dad made me this pinboard when I was about 12 years old and it is huge!! (thanks Dad, you're the best !!) John made a stand for me and I covered it with felt and have pinned ribbon on it so i can hang packets of embellishments with little clips :-)

As you can see it was mid-afternoon when I took this picture (and the first one) so the light is bad...hopefully I will be able to take some good photos tomorrow when it is all set up !!

I'm SO excited .... I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow evening.

day 15 :: cupcakes and christmas

Yesterday I finished off a few more cupcake bags,

with a brighter version too!

Some firm favourites were finishedas were some more of my Christmas best-sellers

Thank you to everyone who said they liked the cupcake bag yesterday :-)

day 14 :: light at the end of the tunnel

woooohoooooo!!

I've actually started to put things together and my pile of made items is steadily growing *phew*

a little pile of mini fabric bags to hang on Christmas trees ::a few kid's size tote bags in my favourite fabrics ::and a new design which has been in my head for a long time now ::

I also want to make cushion with cupcakes on BUT I have given myself a stern talking to and decided that I'll do that for my next fair ;-)

day 13 :: fabric galore

yesterday I spent the day cutting out and ironing so this morning I started to make a dent in this little lot ::
and this lot is for tomorrow :: Tomorrow I will have some photos of finished things, woo-hoo !!

day 12 :: what lounge?

You know when you're reading blogs and people post gorgeous shots of their workroom, with gorgeous lighting, storage galore and a place for everything?

I don't know about you but it makes me feel quite jealous/envious.

Hopefully this shot will make you feel better about your own work area ::

LOL !!!

I think I have managed to cover every surface of the lounge today ! I abandoned my trusty tray in favour of the pasting table, much more room on there for fabric cutting :-) Hopefully I'll be done cutting today so I can put it all away again !!!

Yesterday I mentioned that we decorated some cakes and now I have a picture to show you...

smiley face cakes

day 11 :: birthdays

photo found on flickr :: here

I spent today with my niece. Whilst her Mum and Dad cooked up a feast, decorated the house, prepared games and prizes and party bags we had fun!! We played with lots of toys, decorated some fairy cakes (dolly mixture smiley faces, not quite as good as the pic above!!) and had a lot of fun. I left before the party kicked off (3pm) but I'm sure they will have a fantastic time :-)

day 10 :: packing and wrapping

The wine went down very nicely, thank you :-)

In between sips I spent some time on the computer making packaging for my little things

I'm using good old cello bags, for ease and price, and adding a cardboard header with some information on. The back has my website address on it.These are made with paper, just a quick print so I could check if I had made them the right size or not. I'm quite chuffed with them !!!

I also did some wrapping of presents for my niece :: tomorrow is her 5th birthday party, and I can't wait!!

day 9 :: kits completed

Last night I packaged up some brooch making kits. All the pieces were ready to be packed and it was quite therapeutic spending the evening doing something a little different.

This evening I shall be having a therapeutic glass of wine or two :-)

day 8 :: progress so far

One of THE best things* about having a craft blog is being able to look back in time to see how far you've come. To revisit all those awful ideas that just didn't work, to wonder how on earth you thought that idea would work and to see how your designs change over time. I also like to look back in time to see, actually physically be able to see what I have done!! So consider this a bookmark. As of today the photos in this post are the sum total of stock for my 2 day craft-fair. I have 8 days left to make more items, 2 of those I will be at work, 1 of them will be spent at my niece's birthday party.

I wonder how much I will get done?

*obviously The Very BEST thing about having a blog is all of the fab people you meet :-) but you all knew that, right???

day seven :: WIP wednesday

Today is very definitely a Works In Progress day.

I have been cutting out felt for the past few evenings and now have piles to sew and piles to turn in to brooch making kits.

I like cutting out but this much in one go makes my arm ache!!

But today, at last, I feel as though I am making good progress for the craft fair. I have ordered in the supplies I need and hopefully I will see my stock pile growing every day!!

I found a couple of flickr groups that show off other crafty peep's craft fair displays... very good ...eye candy :-)

Day SIX :: smile day

hehe I've been tagged !! Thanks Sam :-)

I've picked 5 (just 5, so hard!) blogs which make me smile too

1 :: cupcakes for clara

2 :: i'm a ginger monkey

3 :: monda loves

4 :: monkee maker

5 :: steven's happy accidents

but it seems i picked 5 twice LOL ::

1 :: fluffy flowers

2 :: m.patrizio

3 :: pretty little things

4 :: wawaya

5 :: soto softies

So go and see them and see if they can make you smile too :-)

day five

Today I want to show you a brooch my friend made for me.

Such a sweet friend who kindly sent it to me so I could wear it at the funeral...how thoughtful is that???

Thank you Sarah, it's beautiful.

day four

I love Sundays.

I had a little lie-in after a late night in the pub, browsed around the Internet for a while, did a little bit of shopping (toothpaste, shampoo, lipsalve and groceries, nothing craft related was purchased today), bumped into someone I used to work with and caught up with all the gossip, had a BIG bacon sandwich and THEN I did some sewing ::



The trees are all sewn and finished, and I have another pile of pieces ready to be sewn ::

I hope your Sunday was good too :-)

day three

Last night I was a busy bee and cut out a pile of Christmas Trees.

This morning I was up bright and early and managed to add a couple of pages to my website. One is showing my lavender bags and the other is to list all the craft fairs I plan to do. I'm enjoying preparing for this one so if all goes well I plan to do more.

I've only just got home from work and boy am I ready for my weekend :-)

xxx

day two

The thing about blogging every day means I need to take photos every day and that means I need to be super organised and take photos before I go to work and blog when I get home.

I managed it today!

Today's photos are of the happy trees that have been in progress for a while now ::

There are 42 in total, all I need to do now is add a hanging loop and a little bell and a label. which is actually quite a lot, but they look finished!!

November has 30 days

If any of you are popping by today to hear news of this months freebie then I am sorry but I have decided to give it a miss this month. I'm sure next months will make up for it though :-)

I have decided to join Amanda in her quest to blog each and every day of November. I'm hopeful that I will be successful but we'll see !!

So here goes, Day One of my quest ::

Today I finally completed an order that's been in the pipeline for a while. It first started in the summer when I was contacted and requested to make some samples of ideas for

Mr and Mrs House and the order was finalised last month. I've been working on it for a while and today I did the finishing touches.

The designs are exclusive to Mr and Mrs House and they are slightly different to normal because they are quite large and they are filled with Lavender. Cute AND smelly. Perfect!! LOL

They'll be on his website soon and I am going to put a link from my website too.

It's fun to work with someone else on a project, I'm looking forward to the next one ;-)