Last weekend of preparations.

The last full push to get items ready has seen a flurry of activity this weekend.

Friday night on the sofa was spent sewing some brooches.

Saturday afternoon saw rings and hairclips all finished and mounted ready to be sold.

Sundays morning was Christmas Decorations. Do you rememeber those beads that I showed a couple of weeks back? They are now adorning some lovely Christmas decorations. Hopefully these might not all sell because I'd love to have a few about the house.

And amongst all this Mr B has been just fab this weekend, letting me crack on, and I even got some lovely flowers. I split the big bunch up and made a small arrangement for one of my favourite corners of the house.

The frightening thing is that once the sale is over next weekend there are more crafty jobs to do. I've birthday decorations to make to Cait, who turns 14 next week, and then two advent calendars to make. Two traditions started moons ago when I had more time. Two traditions that I will never forgo because no matter how busy I am I love doing them for the girls.

This is an advent calendar from a few years back.....

This is another Christmas job. One for the week before when the family is all together with a whole week off work and we can enjoy every moment. There is lots involved in making this and I don't just mean the eating of the Sweets!

Preparations continue

Preparations are in full swing and there's something to do every evening. Busy? Yes, but its really quite relaxing pulling it all together and I've possibly got too many ideas in my head to carry off!

So one night in front of the television was putting together all my tablecloth weights.

Saturday morning was spent with the glue gun. I assembled lots of rings and I've another lot still to do. I assembled these first and then sought some feedback from the girls on those they liked the best. It helps to steer me in the right direction rather then just the combinations I like. For Niamh it just needs to be pink and purple but Cait is more discerning and has a great eye for colour.

This was part of last nights project and really exciting. It was one of those moments when you are in a creative mood even though it's late at night and things just kept coming together. So I've started with a  collection of vintage buttons from my junk shop finds....

Added a cotton doily that I found in the local antiques market and some old purple linen left over from 'way ago' and I am hoping to have a fabulous cushion cover. 

It will be one of those creations where I will always be a winner. If I sell it, well that's great and really rewarding that someone else liked it to. If I don't I'll be delighted because I would love it one the sofa in the kitchen! Sometimes the one off pieces are really hard to part with.

I'll be sorry to see these two go too. I really love this look and these would look great on the window seat in the Lounge.

Off to do a little more and then I might treat myself to a glass of wine!

Our new addition

Meet Caoimhe, pronounced "kee-va". She's about 12 weeks old and seems to have made herself at home very quickly.

We went visiting at the breeder on Saturday and bought her home the same day. Didn't want to frighten her with the camera straight away though.

She's dead soppy when she's with you, though still slightly nervous around the house and with strange noises. She loves nothing more than being on your lap or at your side and has a fabulous purr. I grew up with dogs but can see that I'm a cat person already!

Managed to also find some time at the weekend to crack on with stock for the sale and now have a small collection of linen lavender bags ready and a few more waiting to be finished.

I also got chance to put a couple of hair clips together and play around with mounting them on the business cards ready for purchase. Hopefully you'd agree that it's quite a nice way to display them.

As more and more things keep coming together I'm getting more excited.

Yesterdays delivery

I always love the postman ringing the bell with a parcel and today was no exception. In the box yesterday were all the goodies that I ordered to help with the sale. It was really exciting to see the logo on stationary and looking quite professional.

I managed to get a really good deal so I not only had postcards made for the logo but also some of photos of a couple of the favourite items that I have made. They look great and will be good for popping in bags to remind people what I do. I also came up with a little strapline.... happiness is handmade. 

My workspace seems to be getting fuller and fuller with all the bits that I am starting to pull together. I thought of the need for bags the other day so I pulled together all the nice plain ones I had in our "bag" drawer and also found some brown paper ones left over from Niamh's 5th birthday party. It looks relatively tidy here though.

Fortunately some things need more space than others but with these little gems the key has been to keeping them out of the way so that nobody knocks them before I glue them. One day soon they will become rings and hair slides.

Creating

So it's time to make my room messy! Not that hard really.... it quite often is. This time though it will be with a real purpose. I have written a list of the sorts of things that I think might sell well at the event at the end of November. I'm now trying to pull together a selection of items but I'm thinking it might be tricky judging quantities.... however there's no reason why I can't take orders if something sells really well and I run out of stock. The trick will be to hit a variety of price points so that there is something for everyones purse.

I thought I would start by taking some inspiration from a cushion I made last year, still one of my favourites and lots of people comment on it which is a good place to start.

The cutting mat has been out and production has begun. I love the colours that I chose before but to cater for a variety of tastes I've made a purple/pink one too. If it doesn't sell little Niamh has already declared it hers!

I've also got a lot of wooden beads in a pot ready for another project and I just love the colours here too. when you jumble things up like this it's amazing what colour combination gems you start to spot.

Little steps.

Logo

So I've decided that it was time that I had some sort of logo. Something that represents what I do. I have been pondering about it for a while and recently was able to get access to Adobe Illustrator which has spurred me into action. As I have now also decided to have my first proper sale at the end of November at a village event I thought I'd better get on with it.

I love images of birds and I am brightonbirdy so using a bird seemed the obvious choice. I wanted it to try and represent what I do though as the name doesn't give any insight alone. So I cunningly reused a decoration that I had made for when Niamh turned 5. It all spotty and was the theme for her party. To represent the handmade element of what I do I added some stitch lines around the outside. I really like it. Clean, crisp with colours that I love.

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I then needed to add the name and wanted to stick with red text which is what I use for my sew in labels. so then the logo became this.

I'm really pleased with it, I have an identity! The next step will be to get some cards printed with it for use at the sale and of course to pop at the top of my blog!

Gorgeous Blanket

Doing a little late night surfing and have stumbled across this gorgeous blanket. The website of  Coco Rose Diaires is definitely worth a visit. 

 Stunning. Totally. Would love to think that I could pull this off but can't help thinking that my crochet technique isn't up to it yet.

Found another great inpsiring blog too. This time a lovely lady called Lucy who writes under Attic 24. I think she's a bit of inspiration for me because she has the most wonderful blankets but hasn't been crocheting for years and years. She has such a fantastic eye for colour.

My two favourites are.....

And