Christmas Gift Making

I managed to squeeze in some gift making before Christmas, and now all the gifts have been given I can show you what I made!
Zipped pouches ::

some were filled with chocolate

others had Christmas Decorations attached to the key ring on the zip

I also made some drawing pins ::

mixtures of felt flowers & scrappy circles

pushed into polystyrene which I'd covered with pretty paper :-)

I hope Merry Christmases were had by all?

John and I had a lovely time, Christmas day at home then a visit to Suffolk to see John's family and then to Surrey where all my family met at my sister's.

It went very fast (apart from the M25 traffic jams!) and I definitely had a great time :-)

Today we woke up at home and we started slowly...a nice relaxing breakfast...then a mountain of emails to read through, packages and parcels to wrap and send at the post office and finished off with a little hand sewing & blog writing...it was nice to have a break but equally nice to be back in my paper-and-string world!

opening hours

I've had a couple of emails asking if my shops will remain open over the Holiday period ... I'm not sure if they are from customers who want to do some post-Christmas shopping or from other shopkeepers testing the water, but either way I'm happy to share and here's my plan ::

My shops are definitely remaining OPEN over Christmas and the New Year BUT the amount of days I post parcels will be reduced.

December

21st, 22nd, 23rd :: Posting

24th - 29th :: NOT posting

30th, 31st :: Posting

January

1st-3rd :: NOT posting

4th :: back to normal and posting every day :-)

**I've added some photos of my Christmas Tree and my wrapping supplies because blogs without pictures aren't so much fun!**

feeling proud

Take a look-ee at this paper-and-string Christmas Tree!

(it's not mine, mine hasn't been put up yet!)

These FAB photos were sent in by an equally FAB customer, isn't that the greatest tree ever?

(and yes! I am very biased!)

I've been a very busy-bee :: making, packing and post office-ing orders (it was rather slip-slidy on the walk from work to workshop to post office, I am a very determined parcel poster!)

I've managed to *nearly* finish Christmas shopping, *nearly* finish Christmas Gift making...I'm taking lots of photos and will share them in the new year, but I'll be back before then!

on the move

I have run out of room in the shop section of my workshop.

I have new & exciting items that I plan to stock early next year and nowhere to put them.
what to do.....
not order them? NO!
hhhmmm .....

move everything around and MAKE room of course :-)

I enlisted help (and muscles) from John and first of all we turned the giant table around ::

and created a nook for all my supplies ::

and a long line of sewing machines ::

which you can see better from the 'shop' corner ::

I have used a piece of furniture from the house to make more storage on my Giant table ::

and the shop?

well, there's a whole 'new' unit to fill :-)

deliveries

there are so many parcels round here at the moment...lots of parcels of goodies are leaving my workshop packed full of Christmas treats & last minute supplies....parcels are arriving with online Christmas present shopping for my friends & family...and even more parcels are arriving full of scrummy new stock!

Brads are back :: pink & black

Ribbons :: refilled

Felt :: 150 more packs of 12" squares, felt to create 30 mini rainbows & fill ups for 24" squares too, phew-ee!

Mr owl brooch made for a special order

If you're waiting on a delivery from me please bear in mind that it's a very busy time of year, I'm still wrapping and packing as fast as I can but then we're at the mercy of the Post Office, and if the daily queues are anything to go by, they are busy!!

WINNER announced!!

wow! 297 people entered my Christmas Freebie!
It was such a treat to read all of your lovely comments and I'd like to thank everybody who joined in...hosting a freebie is so much fun!
I asked the handy random number generator to pick a winner and he has ::

comment number 159 ::
Indigo Blue said...
OOOO ! Lovely! Just the thing to settle down to sewing on Christmas Eve! You have been very busy putting all of this together.

please email your address to me and I'll get your prize in the post (hopefully it'll get to you before Christmas!)

special owl order

Don't owls look funny with no beaks???

Definitely much better with them :-)

The freebie is still running...comments will close later tonight and I'll announce the winner in the morning!

Christmas Freebie 2009

FREEBIE HAS NOW CLOSED ~ NO MORE ENTRIES ALLOWED !!


Yay it's Christmas freebie time!

and it's a RED & WHITE freebie ::

the GRAND prize is a handmade box full of goodies....there will be more about that later!
BUT this freebie has something for everyone.....a free pattern for you to make Christmas Mushroom Decorations! ::

Click the picture below for your FREEBIE pattern ::

(right click the picture and select PRINT TARGET)
Freebie Instructions ::

cut out 2 stems, 2 mushroom tops and 5 or 6 little circles for the dots.

sew around the stem with short little stitches


Stuff it!
the hole to get the stuffing in is a little small...the easiest way is to poke it in with a pen!

keep adding little bits of stuffing until it's nice and full.
Next, stitch the little circles into place, they can go where ever you fancy...using little white buttons would look good too!

Start to stitch your red mushroom top together, adding the ribbon and the stem as you sew.

Leave a gap and firmly stuff the rest of your mushroom
Ta-Dah!
Christmas Mushroom Decoration for everyone!
************************************************
Now, onto the rest of the freebie.....one person will win ::
A handmade-by-me Felt and Fabric red & white polka dot storage box
1m of red&white cotton polka dot fabric, 2x 24" squares of red & white felt, 2x polka dot felt sheets

red buttons, glitter buttons and red & white polka dot buttons
3m of grosgrain , 1m of satin, 2m of velvet ribbons
two pieces of pom-pom trim

AND a made-by-me Mushroom decoration too!
Phew! I don't think anything else will fit in the storage box!
It's easy to enter....simply leave a comment on this post and your name will go into the hat!
HOW TO ENTER THE FREEBIE DRAW & THE RULES ::
1. leave a comment on this post
2. make sure I can contact you via your comment
3. I will post worldwide so everyone is welcome to enter (and I'll try to get it there before Christmas!)
4. ONE comment per person
5. FREEBIE draw is open from Thursday 3rd - Wednesday 9th December.
6. The GRAND prize winner will be announced on Thursday 10th December.

Good Luck, and happy mushroom making!
xxx
FREEBIE HAS NOW CLOSED ~ NO MORE ENTRIES ALLOWED !!

featured

I've been featured on Meylah!
If you click the link it'll take you to the post...it's worth a scroll down, there are some COOL moustache cups, in amongst some other lovely Handmade Gift Picks.
***************************************************
I've spent today preparing for tomorrows freebie extravaganza...there will be a grand prize, and a little something for everyone!!

box of colour

I didn't know what to sew this weekend.

I took a pile of felt and my box of patterns home from the workshop and just sat in my sewing armchair and made some of what I fancied!

A couple of cupcake pouches from my tutorial

A pair of tortoise magnets

and some plump felt heart ornaments, which I haven't made for ages!

all of which will appear in the shop sometime tomorrow.

Now?

Now I'm working on December's freebie which will appear here on Thursday

7 rules of a list maker

1. Write a list every day.

2. Use your favourite pen and your best handwriting.

3. Confine each list to two facing pages.

4. Start each new list with yesterdays list of not-finished items.

5. Insure at least 50% of the list consists of fun things to do.

6. Be sure to tick AND cross through each completed item.

6a. Be doubly sure to add something you have just done to the list purely for the purposes of crossing it off.

7. Revel in your list-making.

New Note Books available here