Singing the Blues

My day started exceptionally well when I woke up to an order from a new customer, courtesy of her spotting one of my Blueberry Park products in October's issue of Country Living Magazine.

It's been one of my ambitions to have a product featured in the Emporium section of Country Living. It's such a great showcase of, normally, handcrafted pieces. And to see my website address in this salubrious magazine is a real thrill.

Hopefully it will be the first of many...

For the ladies

A couple of my friends are having birthdays this week, so I've enjoyed a brief interlude from compiling kits and have rustled up a couple of purses.

I normally hate cutting into my stashes of favoured fabrics, but when it's for a gift I think it's worth it.

My little pieces of Of Paper & Thread designs , by the uber talented Danielle, are rapidly diminishing. But I love using them as they are so utterly divine that just a touch gives an item a huge lift (as you noticed in my sister's cushions).

The Kei dots are another fave - I know, you must be getting sick of them! Again, a little goes a long way.Another must have is Anna Maria Horner's Social Climber in Ice. At least I can get that easily from my lovely British supplier.

I've had fun making these purses. There has been little creativity going on around here of late, so it was great to have an excuse to play with my fabric. I just hope that the girls concerned will be pleased with their gifts.

Whoops

I'm sitting here, on a bright and beautiful morning, minding my own business, waiting for a customer to turn up, catching up on a few blogs. And before I know it these have slipped into my basket...

Thanks for the heads up, Rita about wonderful Wonderfluff ;-)

One Lady's Rubbish...

Does this look like rubbish to you? Take a closer look...

Look at these little ditsy flowers...

And will you check out this bird in a blossom tree. Is this not a perfect little picture? Albeit of the miniature 8x6cm variety.

And what about these reds? Yep, you've spotted Prints Charming in there.

And I know that this next one is a personal favourite for lots of you...

The point is that, while these tiny scraps of almost nothingness, despite their beauty, don't warrant saving for the majority of people, once the quilt is made, the bag is finished and all they are fit for is the garbage. For me this is pure treasure. After all I don't need much to make any of these.

So whilst those scraps were one lady's rubbish, they are pure gold to me. And whilst we are the subject...I know one lady who will think my garbage is rather sparkling too...

Thanks for your rubbish, Manda ;-)

Whiling away the hours

Today is the first day of Back to School. We were all up early (some more excited then others) but we managed to do everything in good time and what's more, without the usual mania and shouting that seems to accompany the school morning. And even the sun is shining! So a good start.

I've been eagerly anticipating the start of term, so that I can get down to some serious uninterrupted work. Let's face it, I have been on definite go slow during the school holidays, through no fault of my own, but it has left a huge backlog which really needs dealing with.

Today is the day to put all wrongs to right. I could be in my studio for 9 and not leave until 3. 6 whole hours.

Needless to say it is now 10am and I am not up there. Again, no fault of mine. I can't hear the door bell in the attic and I've been expecting 2 calls, both of whom said they'd be here for 9. One has been...I'm still waiting for the other.

I've caught up on all my emails etc (translated as Flickr, Twitter, Facebook...) and I'm still sitting here waiting, so I thought I'd show you a little Prints Charming embroidery I started yesterday evening. It's only in it's beginning stages. But it's such a lovely design to work with, I'm enjoying the calmly sitting down process of it all. And of course I was awake half the night with further developments of it...

Ok, customer number 2 has not turned up. Up I go. Hope you have a great day and hope I can report tomorrow that I am back on track and some Stockists are happy again with me.

(P.S. I should have said...you can obviously buy and create your own little embroidery piece right here!)

Sunlight on Closed Lids

Maybe it's the use of fabric-like patterns...

...maybe it's the quirky hand-drawn illustrations and greetings...

...maybe it's the evocative name...sunlight on closed lids...

Whatever it is, Kate Holliday, the talented designer behind this delightful range of greetings cards, has hit upon a winner that I know will tick every box when looking for fresh, eye-catching, greetings cards for every occasion.

Click right here to see all the range in stock.

Surfing Dudes

We are back from one great summer holiday. We didn't go to Mauritius. We didn't go to The Seychelles. And The Carribean it certainly wasn't. But we had one great memorable holiday.

I've been wanting to take the kids to Cornwall for ages and this year we finally managed it.

It's fair to say that the weather wasn't amazing. It rained rather alot. We were sunggled in hoodies a large amount of the time.

But just look at the view. How can this not be a memorable family holiday?

I think the children will remember this for a long time to come. I think they will look back on their childhood and remember the year they learnt to body board.

They'd never stepped in to a wet suit before. Their idea of water was a warm pool equipped with goggles.

They were soon converted into surfing dudes. Body boards under arm, wet suits adorned, they looked and played the part.

I loved the fact they they weren't precious about the weather. I loved that they weren't put off by the Weaver Fish ("ouch" said a poisoned Ruby)

This was definitely a bonding, back to nature, no frills, perfect childhood memory.