6 sleeps til...

Keeping a clear head (lemonade and lime no less!) whilst filling the spare room with little decorative details for my parents coming to stay over Christmas :) x

7 sleeps til Christmas...

I absolutely love Jacquie Lawsons animated ecards and am sending one to all of you out there! Enjoy and turn your sound on too x

Drinks

Time for a tipple in between shopping?...

...of course! Loving Boho in Canterbury, a fave place to stop a while x

Inspiration: Christmas decorations

Well the count down is now truly on until the big festive day! So what are you making in advance or creating to celebrate this day and season?

I'm definitely inspired by a lot of handmade goodness that I've seen happening online, here's a few decorative bits

Image courtesy of All Things Paper

Image courtesy of All Things Paper

Image courtesy of Welke

Simple or extravagant, enjoy it in your own way. The run up and preparation is all part of the fun after all!

Giveaway at That Crafty Fish

Be quick and drop over to Kirsty's blog for her fab giveaway of a very scummy creative book indeed!

image courtesy of That Crafty Fish

Enjoy and best of luck if you enter x

Boutique event

As you may or may not know (which all depends on how long you've been reading my blog - I've had a long vacant spell this year from here) as I have been working as one half of a business with another textile bod at Weft A Bit. For many reasons we are not continuing with this venture come the New Year. So I will be back to blogging here (which I am excited about, can't wait to totally finish freshening up the look of my blog) and I'll be posting more regularly here about stitching, doodling, making and more.

But before all that I thought I'd share with you some photos of the Boutique one day event we put on as Weft A Bit in the gallery at Creek Creative in Faversham the other weekend.

scarf walls, with crates

loving the 'crate' shelving

the 'frame' wall displaying a selection of handmade goods

willow hoops wrapped with recycled/vintage fabric, a little fun

panels of pins to wear, flowers, birds

The one day event went really well considering the weather that weekend wasn't particularly great. A greyness that didn't seem to lift all day. However there was a steady trickle of visitors in all day and we met many lovely people and packaged up lots of lovely items for those who were starting their gift shopping for Christmas. So Thank You to all those that came x

And with cake involved, how could it not be a good day?!!

We have a couple more fairs to attend and then that will be it. Moving forward onto ventures new! x

Robins...

Just a peek at some of the scented bits I've been stitching up for the last few fairs I'll be attending this year as Weft A Bit. (I have new plans and ideas for 2012, so lots of creative time to look forward to).

The robins are filled with bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, star anise and cloves for a fix of festive scent. Pleasing round little birds! (although in reality I know they are fiercely territorial in the wild). What have you been creating for the festive season?

What Katie did next

I wanted to introduce you (if you haven't already stumbled across her website) to the lovely Katie of What Katie did next. She is also a very good friend of the amazing Sue (Sewsister). I have met Katie before but hadn't seen her work so it was nice last month when visiting Farnham Maltings to see her work in all it's splendor!

Gorgeous lavender sachets. Image courtesy of What Katie did next.

Bespoke family trees. Image courtesy of What Katie did next.

Cute Christmas badges. Image courtesy of What Katie did next.

Her stand was bursting full of scrumptious textile goodies which as always is good to see for real. Her website is sooo pretty as well and full of lovely textile goodies for gifts and secret treats to yourself. Be sue to drop by and take a peek!

Inspiration: autumn

Autumn... not necessarily everyone's favourite season, as it can bring with it grey skies, rainy days, leaves falling to the ground and hastens the way for frosts, chills and ultimately winter. I love Autumn though and especially the warmth and richness of colour that comes with it. In fact I love that we have 'seasons', each one has its positive and negative aspects and each season has its own inspiration.

For me Autumn starts off the influx of decadent rich deep jewel-like colours. Burnt hues, russets, berries, the lighting of candles and gathering round warming fires, getting cosy. Eating steaming bowls of feel-good food.

As you can see from the above images, I was experimenting with some autumnal bits and pieces, looking and capturing them, burnished Autumn. Having looked around on-line I was lucky enough to stumble upon the blog The Swenglish Home, absolutely stunning and I insist you visit it! Totally inspiring.

Image courtesy of Helena

How can you not be inspired by dining like this I ask you? Hop on over to Helena's blog to see some more stunning images of her autumnal dining, inspirational indeed.

Through the lens...

Sparkle and shine...

reflection of a kitchen light no less!

Image from kateydate

Image from weheartit

It's nearing time for magic dust...

Sewsister

From looking at 'popular posts' and even my stats I can see that a lot of people have been dropping by my blog and reading about my lovely friend Sue or 'Sewsister' as she is known. I cannot blame you at all for eagerly reading and looking at the pictures of her work. She is fab! Such a talented lady, always a kind and encouraging word or more when it comes to creating. Recently I visited Farnham Maltings to see the Festival of Crafts which she was taking part in. Not only were there many wonderful stands there but more importantly to me I was excited to see what new things Sue had on display. What can I say?! I was not disappointed in the least.

Fab signage and how can you not like Sue's cute owl logo?!!

A glorious stand packed full of goodies

One of the beautiful fabric collages, they all have a story

Bundles of bright fun fabrics

Another fabulous fabric collage, cakes yum!

The amazing Giraffe which everyone was invited to help decorate over the weekend. Decopatch is addictive and fun!

One very cute and very large bunny, you need to cuddle these and will instantly feel better!

Apologies for my somewhat dark photos. It has to be said that the lighting there wasn't the best. That coupled with me still getting to grips with my camera doesn't make for perfect photos just yet! Anyway I hope you enjoy these photos of Sewsister, Sue is one talented and fantastic lady. Be sure to drop by her website for a peek, it is something she is constantly updating and building on. You can even book a 'Workshop Visit' to be all creative with her. I am hoping to make a date with her to visit her studio as I am sure it well be an absolute box of inspiring creative delights! x

Inspiration: flowers

Being a country girl I have always been surrounded by trees, woods and fields. When I was small you could always find me with my head amongst the hedgerows, crawling amongst grass tunnels or see my feet dangling from a tree I had scaled (much to my mum's delight! sorry mum x). I love nature, the habitat around us, peering, looking, learning, being inspired by its colours, shapes, textures, smells. I love the beauty that each season brings.

This spring I captured some gorgeous frothy blossom with my camera

I find these blooms so inspiring in many ways. Their pale delicate colours and layers of petals as well as their full frothiness. I am not the only person inspired by blossoms and blooms and wanted to share a link with you from Kinfolk of a 'Blossom Party', how perfect is that?! Make sure you visit and watch the video, it's captivating.
I think if I was having a 'Blossom Party' it would definitely have to involve some of these paper pompoms below

Image from Snowy Bliss just how fab are these?!! Paper blossom if I ever I saw any

Oh for a party with blossoming pompoms hey?!! I bet they would look fabulous for the coming festive season in rich deep reds, golds, silvers, forest greens and a bit of sparkle.....

Through the lens...

I love a good image. I am a visual person. I love photos in all their guises, be it black and white, colour, with filters and effects, different angles, various lighting, themes, objects, places, views... the list goes on. I am also an absolute lover of macro, you cannot beat a good clear and crisp detailed close up. 

seed and sun, hazy summer capture, love playing

So every so often I'm going to post something that is 'Through the lens...' as it were. It may be something I've taken, it may be something I've seen that someone else has taken (if so it will be linked back to so you can know it's source). Keep that camera handy, you never know when you'll spy something worth capturing through that lens!

Sketchbook

Well I am all ready for some creative me time. I know that I am making and creating as part of Weft A Bit alongside the 'day' job however it's also nice to make time to do some selfish creating too! I am now all prepared as it were as my lovely new sketchbook arrived this weekend.

Oooo so exciting! I know those of you out there will know what I mean at the joy of starting a new blank canvas to create and experiment upon. What is even more perfect about this particular book is that it is handmade and coptic bound, so that the pages lay flat for an even bigger space to play upon......

This book was purchased from a lovely British based etsy seller - thepapergardenuk - Stephanie's work is fab and I can't wait to use it. I have my paints, paper, fabric and even my sewing machine at the ready as well as my colourful Sharpie pens!

Time to get creating then...!!! x

Page for my sister...

Thank you for looking and supporting me in my decision to blog here once again. I shall be doing some more tidying and freshening up of things around here, hope you like the cleaner look and my new blog header. 

scanned image of my collage

My first post is short and sweet and is a collaged page for my sister to remind her of home while she is away. The base paper is a colour copy of the original piece I made for her a long time ago now with paint, paper and fabric on a wood block. I found the colour copy of it in my stash and added some other snippets of fabric, paper and stitch to it. I may keep it as it is or even use it as a journal/sketch page at some point, we shall see. I am gathering all my supplies around me to start doodling and experimenting once again...a creative refuel.

Thinking...

Hello, v long time no see (well at least here!). I, as you are all aware have been posting over here (see below)

this year as part of the new business venture I am a partner in. I'm wondering though about starting my blog here up again and wondered what you all thought? I'd be posting about stitching, doodling, journaling... sound interesting? Would love to share what I'm creating and get input from all of you out there x

New Blog

Toooooooo excited for words!

Come and see!
With my new business partner in tow 'I' is now 'We' and We have a new Blog!
So come on over and show us some blog love! pretty please?!!
Click on the image above to drop by...
So I have now moved from here to there and shall be posting there from now on,
be good to see you there, a few familiar faces to make us feel at home.
Hope to see you all soon x