Blink and it's gone!

I'm sure that this year is passing at an even faster rate than normal. 

I can't seem to keep up with myself. Old age? Busy? I'm certainly not sitting idle on the sofa.

So Strictly was great. We were high up in the rafters, and rather annoyed to see lots of empty seats lower down that were "sold out", but it had a lot of the magic. Only missing Tess, Bruce, Darcy and a little of the Saturday night tension. Most of all though it was just a great family day out. A late breakfast followed by a meal afterwards meant we all got to spend some quality time together. I am sure that it is the same for a lot of families but getting quality time together is not easy. 

Mind, with the awful weather this last weekend we did take the chance to hibernate last Sunday and whilst Mr B and I did some work around the kitchen table the girls were there or close by too. It was what I call 'comfortable company'. Everyone was happy doing their 'thing' and then we came together for a late lunch/early dinner and spent the early evening playing board games. Some families like games.... some families don't. We do. One of the best bits about Christmas and Summer holidays is the new game that appears. We've got some great friends that enjoy them too and over recent years have been introduced to some real crackers. Perhaps an idea for a post all of it's own.

Rather scarily talks have recently started about the Hassocks Artists Open Houses for 2013 which will be taking place on the weekend on the 8/9th June 2013. Unfortunately I may only be able to open for the Sunday due to prior commitments but I'm going to see if I can get cover for the Saturday. I am also rather excited to be involved in one of the Brighton Open Houses which open every weekend in May. I'll post most details shortly but it's been a great spur for getting me tuned into some creative sewing and projects to keep me busy in the evenings so that I can try to forget about work.

Tomorrow is Valentines and I've been reminded of my 14 hearts in 14 days challenge that I set myself last year. You can read about it here. Gosh I think I would fall over if I tried to repeat that now. But it was fun and one of the projects, the crochet heart garland,  I am going to be teaching tomorrow at Hobbycraft in Crawley. One year ago I would never have seen that coming! 

And Finally...... as I sat teaching my after school group today I noticed this little couple on the side and I will leave you with their charming image. I'm not quite sure what they are saying to each other but feel free to have your own thoughts... he has got some rather droopy roses!

xx

Guess where we're going this weekend!

It's friday and I am really looking forward to the weekend. 

We are all going to be together and we're having a fab family day out on Sunday. Bet you can't guess what we are off to see!!!!!

Will try to take some photos!

xx

Top Tips.....

So, in my first edition of Top Tips I am going to talk about zips. Before, and during, workshops questions often come up and "what type of zip should I buy" has come up more than once.

What type of zips are there?

Coil Zips - These are the most common sort and in any good haberdashery you can expect to see a whole stand devoted to them. They come in a variety of lengths and colours and the zip pull runs over coils which attached to lengths of tape on each side. If you look closed you will see that these are not individual teeth. 

Can't find a zip short enough? Well as long as the coil is plastic there is no reason why you can't measure the length that you want and then stitch over the coil with your machine at your mark. You just need to ensure that the zip pull is below the mark which means you shouldn't be sewing over the coil where it is joined together.

Invisible Zips - Similar to coil zips but they have the coil on the underside of the tape. Put another way.  the tape sits over the top of the coil making it much more discrete and you tend to find that they have a more delicate zip pull. They are perfect for dress and skirt making.

Metallic Zips - Generally used in heavy duty garments and jeans these have shaped teeth rather than the coil formation mentioned above. Due to the metal teeth you can not sew over the ends of them with the machine in the same way that you can the coil ones.

Open-ended zips - These are the those zips that allow you to zip up from the top and bottom and are often found in jackets, coats and gillets. They are very useful as they can allow you to unzip from the bottom giving the ease needed to sit when wearing a bulky item. They can be metal or coil.

Closed-ended zips - As the name suggests these are closed at both ends and are most commonly used in bags and luggage.

Continous Zips/ Upholstery Zips - Upholstery zips tends to come in neutral shades and are that bit longer than zips that you might find in the normal haberdashery section. They need to be so as they may be needed to a variety of larger scale projects. Upholstery zipping comes in different sizes (referring to the size of the coil) and can also come on a continuous roll. Continuous rolls can now be sourced in a range of colours.

 This allows you to create exactly the right size for bespoke projects. You should normally find the zipping being sold alongside zip pulls which then need to be fed on to the continuos zipping.

Top Tips number one all done.

Helpful?

Hopefully.

xx

Simple things

When we were tucked up at home over the weekend I took it upon myself to get Niamhy in the mood for tidying her room. Long overdue since Christmas there was a need to fit a few more things in, strip a few things out and tidy what was already there. As always, it was a marathon event and I lost several hours of my life to the cause. However, I'm reaping the rewards now when I stroll in. 

Meet Emily Button, kindly gifted this year by Father Christmas. She's just adorable with her ric rac hair and she came with another set of clothes too. If you've not her about her you should visit her website... so charming.  The little patchwork quilt I made a few years back using the same fabrics that had I used for a blanket for Niamhy. I think she must have been about 1 at the time.

This little lady doesn't have  a name believe it or not. The doll, the bed and all the quilts together with a little felt pea were a gift to Niamhy for her birthday one year. I found the iron bed on ebay, the doll in a local shop and made all the rest. Since Christmas though she now has more furniture and a rather enormous tea set!

So I'm hoping that I can keep Niamhy focused on the cause of a tidy room and enjoy these two scenes for a little while longer as they are both making me smile lots.

xx

Getting back into the swing......

Since I last posted I got so busy with the run up to Christmas and trying to fulfil as many orders as possible (not just to hit promises but to try and give people a nice surprise too) lot's of things fell by the wayside. I admire the bloggers who seem to be able to keep up with their posts despite the ongoing time pressures of work and family. How do they do it? Are they just more organised? Do they have magical longer days with more hours? Perhaps I should ask one or two!

So a quick whistle stop tour of the last month.

Christmas was fab, as it always should be, though we were all a little under the weather at one point or another. Not enough to spoil it though. The only thing it did wreck was eating all the lovely chocolate and cheese as I couldn't taste anything but I seem to be making up for that now.

The handmade christmas cards were fab again this year and will be treasured for years to come. Niamh and I got clever with washi tape......

.... whilst Cait made a beautiful one with more of a rustic feel. It was really charming and she had even crafted a door on the big house that opened up. (You can just about make it out if you look very closely). 

There was plenty of crafting that went on including the design of some new kits for Made by Me @ Home. I made up a number of these flower hanging decorations which look lovely strung along some ribbon like bunting.

Cait and I also visited the Fluff-a-Torium belonging to Gillian Gladrag in Dorking. If you like wool and felt you really should go, it's a very inspiring environment. Just look at the front of the shop.

And then there is all this inside.......

I had been wanting to pick up a few extra bits for the needle felting workshop I have in February.  I also  indulged in some lovely felt from the roll and came back and made some snuggly bunting. Each flag has a different design on it. There was however a running theme of spots! I must try and find a better way to photograph my bunting. I never seem to really master it and laying it out like this does not necessarily do it justice.

Oh and then there were a few of these that I started making which are now for sale at Miss Mabels. 

The school holidays ended with an insett day which was fantastic as it was my birthday. How kind of the schools to plan this for me! I had made Mr B book the day off work so we all hopped on the train (after a very lazy lay in) and went to Brighton for the day. We did ice skating at the Pavillion rink before wandering around a little. We ran a few errands and peeked at some bargains in the sales. The day was finished off with a lovely tapas dinner at a new little restaurant that we had discovered in Sydney Street called Solera D Tapas. Would happily recommend it if you like a little tapas.

Since then it's been head down with curtains and kits. A couple of evenings have seen my kitchen table looking like this and if it's not been the heart kits it's been the felt flower ones. I have to say though that there is something wonderfully therapeutic about putting the kits together on this scale. 

And of course there has been the snow. So no post today could be complete without  a snowman now would it!

xx

Back to front weekends

We've had a back to front weekend this weekend. Saturday was our family day as I have spent this afternoon running a children's birthday party. (Sometimes they don't feel like work at all when you have a lovely host parent and a great group of girls).

After some jobs time in the morning we grabbed a chance to get out in the sunshine and headed down to Hove Lagoon for a walk along the seafront. It was the middle of the afternoon and the sun was at a lovely stage bringing all of the beach huts to life. I rarely take pictures of them, you see this style of photo so much locally that it almost seems over used. Yesterday though  I decided the light was making them more spectacular than normal.

It was a real joy to walk along the promenade. 

Then, as if the colour of the beach huts wasn't enough we came upon this bench, decorated with such love and care. The bench was a memorial to Felix White, clearly much loved and much missed. It got me thinking about how lucky I am, things like this always make me catch my breath. It also got me thinking about how someone else's love and care would make so many other people stop and reflect and smile, just like it had me. What a lovely thing this person has done.

It was a wonderful afternoon; a good stroll and a lovely chat as we went on our way. The only interruption was a stop at a great little cafe called Morocco's where they serve a delicious hot chocolate. 

Strolling on, hot chocolate in hand, I really couldn't think of a better place to be.

xx

A month in pictures

I'm realising that I have done what I really hate when I follow other blogs... I disappeared for a month!

I didn't mean to at all but things have just got really busy and my evenings quite hectic and before you know it one week has moved into the next and that item is still on the to do list and no closer to the top. So I am going to see if I can give you a whistle stop tour of November and hopefully I'll have enough photos to help get you up to speed.

First things first that ukelele cover... I finished it! In any normal blogging period there would have been a ta da post but alas. So here are the photos of the item all finished.

It has a carry handle on the side, just like the one I made last year for Cait.

But Niamhy requested that it also have a body strap so that she can carry it and still scooter to school!

So there we have it one very happy little girl. Actually one very happy and incredibly patient little girl as this was cut out and sitting in my 'to do' pile for a good few weeks!

It was a busy month on the teaching side with a variety of workshops and one to one tuition taking place.

Lots of festive makes - stockings and bunting. This stocking was just charming and had a little label on it saying 'mum' which just finished it off. 

On the work front I also had the very exciting news that I will be running demo's and workshops from Hobbycraft in Crawley starting in January 2013. I'll be using this lovely space and am currently working on the workshop plans at the moment. I will be letting everyone know by email and facebook when it's all live and you are able to book. It's a lovely airy open space that I will be using and I can't wait.

We also had a birthday in the household and for the first time ever I didn't hand make all the decorations. You'll see from previous posts that the birthday decorations are quite a tradition in our house and I love the challenge of trying to come up with something new each time. Some times the ideas have come to me months in advance and whilst they are always a last minute make I get plenty of time to pull all the necessary bits together. Other times inspiration strikes on the 11th hour. Thats part of the fun of it really. This time round I had to concede defeat and, rather than stress myself and stretch myself too thin, accept that some shop bought support may not be a bad thing in the big scheme of things. Luckily I found a fab supply of honeycomb paper baubles of all different sizes and colours and they looked rather charming. I then had time left to make a lovely brownie loaf and make sure that everything else was ready for a birthday sleepover. 

One of my resolutions for the new year is definitely to charge myself with  a little more forward planning. I have to get better at it as my business head needs it more than ever. There are few people to remind me now when an advertising deadline is looming or editorial is needed for a column I write.

One last thing on the work front.... my after school club at the local junior school. I have such a very lovely group. They are 7-11 year olds and are great company. We have our little routines and they are no doubt bored of me telling them they must thread their needle and tie their knot but I really enjoy the time. They all come up with great designs on the projects and their enthusiasm can be my greatest challenge at times. They are always so very very keen to get on and see what the next project is. Anyway these are some of the notebooks that we made during November before we started to think about Christmas.

Which leads me nicely on to Light Up Hassocks which was Friday last week. Such a truly lovely event and I felt so very proud to be part of the village and very thankful to Michelle and her team for putting together such a great event. There are lots and lots of people as always that make these events come to life and the procession of light that walked through the main street looked just fabulous. I had a stall at the infant school again this year with some of my handmade goodie and details about all the workshops etc. As the school is undergoing some building works everything was in the front playground and whilst it was a little nippy at times it was so nice to hear the various choirs that were singing and to see the hustle and bustle of it all. Anyway, who needs to worry about the cold when you are a only a few metres away from a mulled wine stall! I'd forgotten my camera unfortunately, although I'm not overly sure how well they might have come out in the dark but tit was a great night and if you are local and have never been do make a date for it next year. 

So, without wishing to wibble on, that's a snap shot of my November. All of this only touches the surface really as it has been so so busy, oh and I've not even mentioned the evening classes! So..... as I love, and need, to be able to update my stationary and branding from time to time, create new posters and leaflets  to promote the business, I took the opportunity to take an evening class for 6 weeks and improve my skills on the necessary computer package. I couldn't have even attempted to fit these classes in without the wonderful support of Mr B, my folks and my friends who have all been helping me ensure that I can be in Brighton for 6-9pm every Monday. It's a little difficult to really explain all of the good things that I have learnt but the graphic below was one evenings project and one which I am really proud of. It highlights just how useful all this will be moving forward.

I've been thinking of revamping my sewing party invites but then every time that I look at them I think they look fab so maybe, for the time being, I'll leave them be.

Well that really is me done. It's a long post and it's now rather late at night and I have other places I should be.

Promise not to be away for so long next time!

Xx