Goodies, garlands and journal..........

Well the snow we had here last week seems to have finally melted away and today has been blue skies and sunshine, wahoo!!! Nothing like a bit of sunshine to lift the spirits.

And talking of lifting the spirits................... look what dropped through my letterbox at the weekend.... fab goodies from the lovely Pomona of Little Cottage Comforts
I commented on a post of hers a few months back now. It was about 'Pay it Forward' which meant that she was to send something handmade to three people, who then go on to give something handmade to another three. These are my goodies from this. In turn I shall be writing my own post to pass the goodness of giving on. So watch out! I shall post end of March beginning of April so keep your eyes peeled.

Gorgeous goodies all wrapped up


beautiful handmade gloves, they are sooooo soft


scrummy goodness in the way of fabric, buttons and ribbons


a sweet needle book and pin cushion, just how pretty are they?!

As you can see who could fail to be cheered up by such gorgeous goodies. Thank you so much Pomona! X

And so to some making................
What have we here, a felt ball, needle and string, and a bay leaf, what could it mean....??


Add into the mix an enormous amount of fabric 'bits' to snip up and you have all the elements ready to get garland making

strings of colour in pink and green, blue and yellow and red and brown


its all in the details


These are bits I may have on my stand at the fair, we shall see. Also the felt balls and felt scraps I used within my garlands were from the lovely KirstyFish, check out her sidebar for links to her shops of gorgeous goodies and fab supplies.

And some more (well I did promise) pictures of my journal so far. This is being somewhat of a slower process as I have other things I have to get on making that need to take priority before this (what with the textiles fair to attend next month!)
Although I have to say there is nothing more that I would rather be doing than having an experiment and a play with fabric, needle, thread, sewing machine, paper and even paint with my journal at the moment, it will have to wait *sigh* for now. So for your viewing here's pics of my journal in the making................

front


back


spine


cover detail


you know its all about the detail!


journal tie


pages in the making



Well back to work I feel, I have a pile of printed birds and hearts that need cutting and stitching! and I don't see any magic elves around here to make them while I sleep, mores the pity!! Hope you're all having a good week ;) X

Shop Update..................

Well my toes may be freezing here but I'm trying to think ahead of Spring and Summer, (although they do seem to be but a distant rumour at the moment!), thinking of brighter, warmer colours and light! I miss the glorious clear daylight and sunshine, enough of the grey, grey bone chilling days please.

So over the past few weeks I've been filling my shops up with more light hearted carefree and colourful items that for me pertain to Spring and Summer. Now I'm not great at this promotion of ones work but I have to say I do like to read about it on other peoples blogs. To find out when people have put new items in their shops, to hear and see new creations, experiments and ideas. I like many I'm sure, have a lot of shops 'bookmarked' or 'favourited' but I'm a bit slack in going to check if they've put anything new in them. So it's great to have it put there in front of me on their blogs. So here's to self promotion because if we didn't put ourselves out there and shout about our work how would anyone know???!!!

So here's my shop updates!

New items in my Folksy shop.
Simple tote bags perfect for Summer, lightweight and carefree just like your spirit in the glorious sunshine.................

Juicy Red


Spring


Blue for You


Red Russett

All of the totes are lined with a pouch pocket inside. They are all one-offs so will be totally unique to you.

New items in my Etsy shop.

Sweetheart Set 2. smelling gorgeously sweet of lavender


Spring Zest


Rustic


Abstract Stems


Nut Brown


Orchid Echo


Sweetheart Set 1


Blue Blooms


Textile Droplets Tote & Purse Set


Busy? Moi? perhaps. I've been printing like a woman possessed and now have the job of cutting and stitching to complete, so I'll be showing you soon what has been happening there. It's a test of sorts so we'll see how the 'new' bits turn out.

Lastly but by no means least I'd like to say a BIG thank you to Helen of Simply H and also to Penny of Fibrefrolics for awarding me the Sunshine Bloggers award. Yay! Thank you so much ladies, I'm so pleased you feel that my blog brings a little beam of sunshine into your 'blogland' as it were. Now I know that I'm supposed to go on and award this to 12 more bloggers but I'm bowing out of this as I have far too many people I could award this to! Also I have a pile of things to make over the next few weeks for the upcoming fair, (whilst trying to stay calm...........in the midst of fabric) and find it far too easy to procrastinate on the laptop!


my award - (love gerberas)

See you soon with pics of the 'new' printed bits and more of my journal! ;0 X

Birds, birds everywhere.............

Well it's mid-week and time for a post. In fact I'm a bit overdue on the ol' posing front, as the past few weeks I've been working extra hours at the 'other' job and so haven't spent as much time doing my work as I'd wanted. Anyways all is back to normal now and so here I am a'posting!

I've been making rather a lot of skinny leg birds recently for a couple of orders, they were something I was debating about still making as well, isn't that always the way when you're looking at your work! re-evaluating, seeing what works and what doesn't, what gets looked at and what doesn't, old items to stop making and new ones to bring to the fore.

The order below has been sent off to Artshut in Hertsmonceux, so if you're around those parts take a peek!

skinny leg birds in a range of patterns and colours all ready for stuffing!


more skinny leg birds jostling in their box for room!


a close up because they wanted one!


bird images have become quite a popular thing over the last year or so and have appeared in many ways in peoples work too. I even used a teeny tiny bird and cage in one of my clutch purses.


And I know the Amazing Mimilove loves to don paint brush as well as needle and thread to bring us forth her budgies! Below is the one she sent me in a swap we did. I LOVE IT!


I then had a peer around my work room to see if I had any other bird items and low and behold I do! They sneak up on you everywhere! I have a lovely wee green bird.

I also have a beautiful white stone bird that my lovely sister bought me for my birthday last year, unfortunately the light hasn't been good enough to get a decent pic of this to show you :(.

I did take a look to see if there was a meaning to 'birds' as such and the information that I found was v interesting. Take a look at this link to Wikianswers as to the meanings of certain birds, what a fab idea for a project to base work upon!

So I think that perhaps the birds are here to stay for a while, at least in their skinny leg bird form within my work. I'll show you v soon some new look skinny's as I'm off to print some later, a change from being cut out of patterned and coloured fabric!

Finally I wanted to show you a peek at something completely different and new for me. I joined an online class - Remains of the Day - Mary Ann Moss - and am having far too much fun! being experimental and free, stitching with my fabric scraps making my journal cover and at the moment constructing my scrap paper pages for the inside. I'm not the best person at keeping a sketchbook, yet needed to get back to some sketchy type of basics to enjoy the creative process from the v beginning again and just to experiment, experiment and play. This for me is what has been missing for a while, I was so good at this at art college! but don't seem to have made time for it in quite some time, so this year this was top of my list of must/need to do!

here's a peek....................


Enjoy your week, see you soon..... ;0 x