Advent

November has gone and you, my lovely friends, voted for me in the Dorset Cereals great little blog award.
Thank you.
I was top of the leader board for November so I think that means I will receive a package of goodies and the supposedly coveted egg cup..but so far no e-mail has arrived to ask my address......


My shingles have gone and I am feeling reasonably bright eyed and bushy tailed.
I am working, selling, and re-filling my ETSY shop as well as making work for a gallery or two.
I am sick sick sick of the poor light for photographs so I have resorted to using the scanner....


It works well to give a clear image but there is a bit of a squishy-squashy-against-the-glass-velvety thing going on.


I am hopping mad about missing out on a local Craft fair which I did last year and did very well at, I even provided my own table.

I filled in the questionnaire at the end, I evaluated the experience, I said yes, I would definitely be interested next year, I continually checked out the website, I joined their mailing list, I asked several times if it was going to be repeated but was told nothing.
I was asked by several people who bought from me last year if I would be going again and could only say I don't think its happening...when wham...yesterday, via Google alerts... I discover its on, its a done deal all the stalls have gone so its tough.
Did I say I was hopping mad?
I feel like Arlene Phillips must have felt when she was kicked into touch for a younger model.

But I can manage without them.

I have my lovely Etsy buyers who are doing a great job at the moment.

Yesterday the Central heating at my husbands workshop wasn't working. He stayed at home phoning plumbers who were all 'snowed under'.
Later that afternoon (after a very tiring day at the hospital with my neighbours) I saw that I had a few etsy sales so I quickly packaged the stuff and walked down the road to the Post Office.
On my way back, who should I see parked in a van chatting to a man outside 'The Cricketers' but a heating engineer. I accosted him and he agreed to go down to look at the situation.
So I ran home and told my husband (who was sitting having a cup of coffee and a read of the paper) quick get your coat on and meet a plumber at the Cricketers.

It was a stuck ballcock.
I'm sure you needed to know that.
But my point is...I have ETSY to thank for the solving of that problem.


I got my first Christmas card today.
Oh Dear....



I am editing this post after Sue's comment ..I DO sound like an old misery.
Not one of these things is really important....there are far bigger problems in life but its the trivia that its all right to grumble about!

Dim

As November comes to an end I find the low light levels increasingly frustrating.Its annoying not to be able to take any decent photographs.
When uploading photographs of goods for sale to ETSY its particularly important to have good images. The original of this Harris Tweed heart was horribly sizzly and not at all like the real thing.
This is a second attempt today and I think its a bit better although the blue stitching isn't as obvious in reality.(You can click on the pictures for a closer look..twice each.)

The main reason for getting out the camera was to photograph these books which will be going into the shop soon.
They are white cartridge paper, acid free, made by The Pink Pig, and decorated by me with embroidery on silk paper.
This one is 6 by 6 inches square.




The next one is 4 inches by 6 inches

and this is a small 4 inches by 4 inches. Lovely to carry about for little notes or drawings.

There is an unpleasant blue tinge to this photograph but its actually a soft turquoise green cover with aqua and purple embroidery.
The theme of the book covers is earth colours

and I stuck to aqua and turquoise mainly.

But there are some black ones as they proved quite popular previously.

I love these 1950s colour schemes.

I'm not averse to a bit of pink..

and all of them have a little teeny something inside.

Because I'm like that.

I spent an awful long time uploading pictures and listing items in my shop, because I am not doing any more craft fairs before Christmas and made far more than I needed for the last one.
Its such fun to list goods and then go to bed, and when you wake up in the morning perhaps four things have been sold.
The sun never sets on the etsy empire.

Thank you....

.......to all my blog readers..

• For reading the outpourings of my tiny mind
• For leaving lovely comments time and time again without replies
• For becoming my friends
• For helping me to mourn Willow
• For supporting me in troubled times even if you were in the dark about the actual 'trouble'
• For spending your money in my etsy shop
• For making me feel good about my work
  
• For returning the favour with your lovely blogs
  
• For sometimes meeting me
• For putting up with my tantrums
• For voting for me in the Dorset Cereals award (nearly there..the egg cup is within my grasp...)
• For forgiving me when I get behind with blog reading.
• For helping me when I need to know something
  

But mostly for just being there.

Happy Thanksgiving, especially to all my American friends.


The picture was taken in November last year ...oh for a time machine...

Right Place-Wrong Trousers

The one thing you don't have much time to bother about when you do a craft fair is your clothes, so I carefully planned each outfit before I went, washed and ironed anything that wasn't already done, wrote down my plans and packed accordingly.
On Friday night I thought I'd be smart in my new black trousers..so I packed my new high heels to go with them..and then because high heels and I have an uneasy relationship I packed my flat black shoes just in case.
Then I packed my black top and a red shirt to wear with my black trousers, and just in case it was too hot I packed an alternative, a black shirt and a cream top to wear with my best black trousers.
I also packed my new patterned top to wear with my new black trousers, should I need a smart outfit..

Then I forgot to take my black trousers.
So on with the brown trousers and anything else I happened to have squashed into my bag.

It didn't matter in the end because it was a very relaxed atmosphere and I had a great time at the Landmark Arts Centre Teddington.
Here's my stand..really awful photograph..



I had the luxury of screens....so I had to use them. Another dreadful pic but it was dark inside.



I took a ton of stuff, I sold half a ton of stuff and am now about to list the rest on ETSY.

I met some lovely people including Pat from Altering Thoughts and her lovely friend Marien who had both travelled a long way to get to Teddington.

One of the best things about the weekend was getting to see the work of Karen of Contemporary Embroidery in the 'flesh'. I can't begin to describe how exquisite it looks in real life, it has a magical vintage-luxury quality. Beau...(.oops.)Daren't say it..and Karen knows why.
I also met Kirsty of meplusmolly and saw her lovely work.

But I didn't take many photographs..too busy chat chat chatting...and avoiding the cakes on the stand opposite which winked at me all weekend.
Back home to a house in need of some major care and attention.
Now, where's that mop...


You have noticed I am on line and not mopping the floor. I have zillions of blogs to read and I even added more by clicking 'next blog' on the top bar of blogger....just try it...random fun.

Because I need to

Its almost as long a time since I posted as my blog break way back in September.
There were personal reasons for that which still haven't been resolved but perhaps I'll use pictures from that weekend that I would have posted if I had felt it appropriate.

We had a long organised re union of my husband's University friends and 60th Birthday of one of them so we went to the Midland Hotel Morecambe.
After we met in Staveley we went off to Blackwell overlooking Windermere.


A beautiful Arts and Crafts House.


I got into trouble taking these photographs but as I said in my subsequent e mail to them if they don't want people to take photographs they should have signs up where you can see them and not just 'one on the desk in reception'.
I looked very carefully and couldn't see any.


Anyway the Midland Hotel had no such qualms about photography



It was truly amazing, Art Deco, with quirky rooms and design solutions and all in all it could have been a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
The sun set on cue over Morecambe bay. (OH! DO click this picture, please..twice if you like!)


I'd love to do it again in a less troubled time, but tis is not the point of this post..




the point is to tell you...

...I am ready now for the weekend in Teddington.
My goods are packed and my labels are printed.
I hope I sell a goodly number of my pieces but you just never know.

And when I return I WILL get on top of that ironing.
I WILL scrub the kitchen floor.
I WILL tidy the cupboard under the sink.
I WILL go for a walk EVERY DAY.

Yeah...right....

Textiles to Teddington by the Ton

First an apology to my cat Jools...


I blamed him for the spots on my side but it turns out they were shingles.
No wonder I was so down.
I'm better now .
I am taking tablets that look as though they were invented for horses but I am much more positive optimistic and creative.
So even though I have been very poor at reading other blogs recently here's mine.


Much much stuff had been made for next weekends event in Teddington.
Is it local to me?
No
Am I going to be there?
Yes.
Will you be there?
I hope so.
I do have some 'admit two' tickets for the Friday Preview , if you're interested as has Karen. Contact me before Thursday and they shall be yours .

Efficiency means adding all the labels as you go along.

Blurry pics sorry. There's very little light at this time of the year.

New Harris Tweediness..

I get pure enjoyment from combining colours and patterns.

Felt brooches..well these were made into pendants before the pin got them,

It was hard to choose which to have as pendants

but there's a bit of everything here.
I thought afterwards I wonder if its beyond reason to think of hanging a brooch from a ribbon so its optional, but maybe the back would dig in?



Harris Tweed hearts have exercised my mind and hands, they take ages to finish but I do love them.


I know I know you're probably sick of me extolling the virtue of the gorgeous woolly stuff...

and do you think I've gone a bead too far?

Just let me loose on the sofa of an evening with my big box of beads and all judgement flies out the window.

I do love piles of finished stuff.

And flocks of it..

Harris Tweet time!!!

I think they are like the Mona Lisa..their beady eyes are enigmatic.
(I know she hasn't got beady eyes..its her smile but you catch my drift)

In the last post I showed you the ad for SPARKLE which appeared in a magazine so I was really pulling out the stops with the felt brooches to live up to the publicity.
They didn't seem to look as good as the picture until they were organised into colours.
I put them in groups of 9 and took the pictures in poor light but what other kind is there at the moment?
Oh yum.
I love colour.













These are my favourite..I've always loved blue.


Quite a lot !


Thank you thank you for voting for me in the Dorset Cereals award. I am at the top at the moment. Only another 15 12 days to go...the egg cup is within my grasp...please get your friends and families on the case.

And finally...I am in in Selvedge Magazine.!!!!
Well more particularly a picture of my work is in Selvedge.
A Gallery in Knutsford have used my pictures in their ad


Woooooooohooo!!! Way Hay!!! Its one way to get into Selvedge. Its even got my name on it.
The print version of the mag isn't out yet but I've been a-snooping and a-sneaking into their web pages.

I'm looking forward to next week when I can do some housework and catch up with all your blogs.

See you in Teddington?

Bags of work.

This afternoon I was a bit fed up and wondering why I bother making stuff, and then I had a session with a new colour combination of felt and velvet and realised why.

Its quite hard when you need to make volumes of stuff.
'The Great Christmas Fair push ' is on.
Slightly soul-destroying at times especially when you are trying to fit it in with hospital visiting neighbours, now thankfully back home.
It seems an age since I made these bags.
Harris Tweed.
I have to confess that the design isn't my own, it was from a bag Helen asked me to copy, but the interpretation is.
So hanging on my scruffy pin board we have a rather blurry bag.


I just decorate the band on the front so its a bit like making a cuff..

As you know I am a fervent admirer of Harris Tweed.

All I do is add a little strip of silk perhaps and some velvet.

The Tweed speaks for itself.


I enjoy accessorizing the colours to match,



and change the direction where appropriate.
This is a more modern tweed,



and this one is a traditional dog tooth.


I had fun deciding which colour to focus on in this 'plaid'

so I picked out the turquoise.

Finally here is a 'brown tweed'


It looks plain...


but take a closer look.


Since the bags I've made 15 round Harris Tweed brooches, 12 silk cuffs, 20 silk heart brooches and started some felt brooches.
I really must focus on the felt brooches.
Look what Lynsey sent me from a magazine called Craft and Design


An add for SPARKLE featuring yours truly.

I have been looking at some of the competition other exhibitors and am a bit worried.
Lots of beautiful pale blue and chintz dream purses and handbags. (With extra vintage buttons)and Karens beautiful pristine creations.
Mine all looks a bit homespun.

Thank you for all your votes. I am a bit ahead at the moment but there's a close follower behind me...