Feeling Christmassy

As you know JT and I did a craft fair yesterday in Berkhamsted, it was a much better experience and we didn't fare too badly!

Today's main photo is of our wonderful stall - thank you to JT for her layout skills. The best things about the fair were hanging out with JT, encountering some odd characters and drinking 3 white wine spritzers at the end of the day!

Now that the last fair is out of the way, it's time to focus on 'our' Christmas, so today was spent writing Christmas cards and making gifts. Finally I feel like it's nearly Christmas!

Today I was sent this lovely photo of my Nephew Otis and the advent calendar I made him last year, it was the first thing I blogged about this year. I am pleased at how lovely it looks and at how happy he looks!

He's so cute! I love seeing the things I've made for people in use. Very satisfying.

Cx

Gift or Sell?

This is a common dilemma with me. HamnMule is a teeny tiny little business now, but it started as my hobby and still remains a hobby. I have to remind myself that sometimes..

I have been making some random things recently and I think the move to NYC and the possibility that thrifty, crafty me might have to flex some muscle (as we won't have much money) is pushing me to try new things.

Today's main photo is one of the calendar cards I made. Last year I made all different versions of these as my Christmas'Thank You' cards and as small gifts. This year I wanted to make them a bit more uniform, but struggled with a good idea of how to do it it well.

There were lots of offcuts from my new clear stamp filing system (which I should blog about) and so I had a play and the result is this lovely blue flowered calendar card. The blue backing paper is one of the offcuts, the flowery paper was free and I've always been a bit worried about how best to use it. You can buy the calendar tabs anywhere. Dead easy to make and they look lovely on desks. I think they are much better than last years versions, so I now want to give some as gifts...

To distract myself from my 'gift or sell dilemma', I decided to have a little play with my new bunting die's by Xcut - they are amazing and really easy to use in the Epic Six.

Here is a photo of the bunting I made, using the dies and the Stampin' Up Pennant punch -

I also made 'Birthday' in matching colours. I've packaged them for sale with green outdoor twine in a cellophane bag with instructions. Sounds like a great idea right? Well, the trouble is they are so pretty, I want to give them to friends with kids and then go to parties and see the bunting up!

Basically I know I am going to end up selling half of the calendar cards and paper bunting and giving half as gifts.

I guess that is the point of having a 'crafty' style hobby :)

Only 2 days until the final Craft Fair of the year for JT and I - we are off to Berkhamsted Town Hall on Sat 1st December, if you want to come and visit us!

Cx

p.s apologies for my photo quality, I've had to take my photos at night recently!

Stocking Fillers

So JT and I have been talking and blogging about things we can make for the craft fair that would make nice inexpensive Christmas Gifts. JT has already written about hers and I showed you some of my ideas for card sets which I made during my inspiration session.

Basically following the rules of the inspiration session, I wanted to try new ideas and use new things. This post is about the other card sets I made. I was so spurred on by trying out new things, that I went a bit card set crazy...there are a few other things I made too, but I'll post about those later in the week.

Today's main photo is of one of my favourite sets. Once again I used papers from the DCWV All About Girls mini stack. I've been wondering how to use the cherries paper and this worked well. The paper flower and button, feel like a nice touch (and UHU and I didn't fall out).

Here are a few more examples -

1, 4, 7 & 8 are all made using the foam hearts from Amsterdam, the giant heart punch and the scallop punch. I like the mix of hearts.

2 is a bit fun I think and is a good way of using my DCWV Hippie Chick 8x8 papers. I like the contrast of colours.

3 & 5 also use the DCWV Hippie Chick papers, but I added a contrasting candi for fun. I don't usually stamp in orange, but it really worked here.

Then I put them in cellophane bags and tie them up with twine, which gives them that 'gift edge' -

Sorry the photo isn't the greatest, it was taken at night! It does show you a bit more detail of the hearts and cherries sets.

I'm really pleased with these and busy conjuring up sets for us to give as gifts. What fun!

Cx

Win some, you lose some..

So Saturday was the day of the Craft Fair. After getting up at 5.30am...yes 5.30am we were hoping that we would have a successful day and today's main photo is of JT and our lovely stall.

Unfortunately it wasn't quite what it should have been.

Our pitch was a bit poor, we were in the foyer, which in it's self would have been ok, but not with 5 stalls. It was very crowded, we couldn't stand behind our table and so we kept blocking off each other's stalls in the area.

Our takings were slim and quite frankly at the end of the day the lady that was organising it wasn't very interested in taking our feedback (which all things considered was rather measured).

We did make a few sales and I was really pleased that we sold one of JT's beautiful wreaths - photo below.

On the plus side, we learnt how to run a stall together and I'd say that was a big plus. We got lots of compliments about our items, which was really nice after all our hard work. We also had fun, made some new friends and had a couple of white wine spritzers!

We are now looking for alternative fairs, but we anticipate the website being live next week and that should help us shift our lovely Christmas items. The photo below is of our Christmas card display.

All in all many lessons learnt and after all it is a hobby right?

Cx

Finally Saying Thank You

As you know, I love making 'Thank You' sets.

This year I decided that for my Birthday Thank You's, I'd go with the Owl punch, as I guess I should be wise at my age....?

I used really nice silver sparkly cards from Michaels and black paper scrap strips. I am pleased with them, simple and fun.

I've already sent most of them out. I got a bit delayed with holidays and craft fair stuff.

I also want to say a massive 'Thank You' to Pam at VikingTapes- I purchase the tape for my 3M ATG from them they are reasonable and deliver quickly. Last week after I placed my order Pam told me that they were out of stock and I might have to wait a week...disaster, as I needed the tape to finish the Christmas cards. I appealed to Pam and following a hilarious email exchange my tape arrived the next day. Pam, I salute you for restoring my faith in mankind and customer service in general...

All Christmas cards for the fair are complete now, I've making some other things to vary the stall a bit, brooches, scarves, non-Christmas cards....most of this I am doing this week, but plan to be done by Thurs evening so I can pack my bag on Friday night and go to bed early, as we are getting up at 5.45am!!

So, JT has assured me that my last post doesn't guarantee me escape from bodily harm....as it's not a Christmas Card post...it's genuinely not my fault, I have to wait until the weekend to take the pics. I guess I'll have to try another method tonight so I can actually attend the fair on Saturday.....

Cx

Good Weather = Naughty Me!

Hey!

I had a fab birthday...far too much drink was consumed in a 4 day period, Joe's wedding was wonderful and my holiday in Tenerife was a hoot. None of which relates to the title of this post...so let's start at the beginning shall we?

I decided to use my birthday vouchers to my a new (long awaited) fisheye lens for my camera. I bought one by Lensbaby, which means I can interchange other lenses and accessories from their range - it makes buying new camera equipment fun and relatively inexpensive. It arrived on Thursday.
I have a million and one craft fair related things to do and JT said she'd do me bodily harm if I didn't get a post out about the Christmas cards...

Enter me being naughty the weather was too good this weekend to pass up and opportunity to play with the new lens. So I decided to do the bare minimum craft fair stuffs and rushed outside to play.

The main pic was taken today whilst I was being naughty! I am LOVING the new Lens, so easy to use and with a bit of work in PSE the photos are great. I had this random thought that I should take a photo of someone on the crossroad and then realised it might work if I used myself! Here are a few more.

Litter Bin at the local sports ground. Added Lomo effect using PSE

Gladiator Street is in my neighbourhood, such a cool name I want to live here. No work done to this pic

Cool effect - Pencil Sketch in PSE. Creates a pencil sketch (obv.) of your photo.  Cool.

This is a pic of our re-vamped bedroom, converted to b&w. I love this pic, feels very Living magazine!

Final photo is of my local park. Took some good advice and got a great result.

So in an attempt to avoid bodily harm, here is the one photo I managed to take of my Christmas card contribution to the fair...I have made approx 50 cards this weekend and started the non-Christmas items, so not totally naughty.

Christmas Trees

This card is a Pink Petticoat digi stamp, that you are supposed to paper piece, using the papers in the digi kit. But I thought that I would use my random paper scraps instead. I used a die to cut out the trees and sentiment and used Kars Xmas Collection 2011 papers for the blue shiny backing card. All in all I think they are cute, but a bit modern and work really well.

I really will try to get more Christmas photos up this week - honest.

Cx

A joy in name..

..and a joy to make.

A couple of months ago, JT and I had our usual craft playdate (but without Husband supervision..uh oh) and I decided to take along a new idea for us to try.

It's a joyfold card - really easy to make it turns out and we had such fun make them, JT has already posted hers.

We found that using the pretty pre-printed DCWV cards worked really well for half of the card. I made considerably more than I have posted here, but these 2 are my faves.

The main picture is of the card I made for my friend in Seattle. I love the colours, they really remind me of Michelle and I know she'll love it (when I finally send it).

Below is my Ma's birthday card. I always put a lot of thought into Ma's card, as she is such a big supporter of everything I make and I know she really appreciates the pretty intricate cards. I finally got to use the Dovecraft sparkly ribbon, that I have been 'saving' for a special occasion! The oval scallop was a new purchase from Michael's in NYC.

This is such a great technique, my top tip when making these is measure everything, this way you prevent waste - I did get a bit lazy and it cost me some beautiful card stock. I love making these and have been thinking about how I can make them as Christmas cards for 'chosen' people. Making all my own personal cards like this might be a bit much!

It's my birthday this week, so I am mostly out celebrating! But I will be attempting to take photos of some of the Christmas ideas that I am working up for the craft fairs that JT and I are doing. We had a little meeting (over Champagne) last week to agree which idea's worked. You can see JT's here.

Cx

Time to breathe a little..

..It's all been rather hectic over the last couple of months, but now I am gearing up for my birthday and a well deserved holiday.

I've been making cards, writing text and taking photos for the new website, making cards for Christmas (more about that later), making entries for National Cardmaker 2012 and generally working like a dog!

So where do I start...

Well today's main picture is of one of the Anniversary cards I made for various friend's anniversary's. I am so pleased with how they came out that I have used this idea as one of the new Ham'n'Mule website staples!

Here are a few more examples - I am loving the Woodware heart punch right now, the spotty backgrounds are my old favourites by Pink Petticoat.

I worked like a crazy person in August before I left for NYC to get all of the entries done for National Cardmaker, it was fun, as I got to try lots of new techniques. It was also the first time I worked with A5 cards and now I am hooked!

I entered lots of the categories, so fingers crossed..... The rules are you have to use at least one item from the  category on your card. Here are my entries.

Craftime

Craftime was fun, I cheated a bit with card 3 - as I only used ribbon... I loved working with the little dresses and I tried a new card format with card 1 and card 2 has a pull out at the top of the red die-cut.

Dovecraft

I did make 4 cards for Dovecraft, but my Ma felt one was lame and so I listened to her as a 'consumer' and the other one I didn't get to post before I went to NYC! My fave is the Union Jack Anniversary - notice the Woodware hearts again...

Paper Cellar

Unfortunately, I didn't find that many items locally for Paper Cellar, but the glittery shoes and bags worked well and I still have some left to play with at a later date.

Sizzix

At first I thought I was going to struggle to enter this category, but then I remembered - embossing folders! I have always loved the Thank You folder, but it's so big it's hard to work with. I used a coredinations card to emboss it, so I could sand it back to make the words pop. I really love the button and the ribbon. The blue/green card was fun as I got to use a new technique that I saw at the crazy craft fair JT and I went to. Basically you emboss an image, ink a brayer and then roll over the embossed image - voila! I like the tinge of  excess ink, it looks a bit shabby chic to me.

Stampin' Up

You can imagine my delight when I saw the Stampin' Up category! What a great opportunity to use the  Birdie, Owl and Bunting punches. I love these entries - apologies for the blurry joyfold Owl - I did take these photos every morning before work for a week! I love the birdie, it looks like a melon! I wish I'd made more for this category, but time was limited. Next year I will start earlier :)

Tonic Studios

Only one card in this category, but it was by no means the easiest! I used a geared punch and punched every strip on the front of the card individually and stuck them down individually! But I think the end result is a really wonderful card. I got the heart cards on sale at Craft Superstore and really wanted to use them some how and I had this idea to have an extra message on the front, which works I think. Obviously as this is Valentine's themed the Woodware punch came out again...

Well, that is the end of this epic post.

More later in the week, before I head to Tenerife for a week!

Cx

Brrr!

Seriously, what has been going on with the weather, I am glad that the snow is behind us for now...... I am not overly keen on the rain, but with my new cape (I am channeling my inner Joan Collins - it has a fur collar and cuffs) I am dry and warm!

I did my final craft fair of the year in Leicester on 28th December, it was a very successful day for me, but it was slightly hindered by the immense amount of snow that was dumped on Leicestershire on the 27th of December.

I think the organisers did an amazing job, but we didn't get a lot of loitering because the heating was broken, so all of us poor stall holders were frozen by the time 3.30 rolled round.

The craft fair season has been very successful for me this year and I have decided to have a craft fair break until Easter or early summer.

Hubby and I have bought all of our Christmas gifts and I have wrapped nearly everything. I got myself all wound up about how to wrap all of the gifts this year! I finally settled on gold and silver paper, with red wool and homemade tags - some of the brown tags I bought and some I've made, but all have been stamped with various greetings.

Today's pic shows 2 of our gifts all smartly wrapped - what do you think?

Now that the Christmas craft, cards and present thing is done, I have decided to do a few fun things, I am slowly clearing up the craft room, as it looked a bit like a Christmas bomb had gone off. I've also been through our card book and I have a list of cards I need to make for early 2011 happenings, I am also rooting through my stash and using things I'd forgotten about (more about that tomorrow).

My Ma bought me a nice ringbinder for my birthday, that I have been using for all the pages I tear out of magazines, I keep them for inspiration and tips for new techniques. So I have decided over the Christmas break, I'll be trying out some of the ideas I have been keeping - watch this space.

Cx

Successful day!

Brooch Display

Hello!

I have been a shade under the weather the last few days, but Sunday's fair was very successful for me and I got to hang out with friends.

This isn't a detailed posting, more one to show the pics I took!

The new cake stand for the brooches has worked well - they literally flew off! And I got lots of comments about the boxes looking like pieces of cake!

The card stand performed well again (but is falling apart - irritatingly - time for investment in a metal one).

Scarf Display

I have a new idea for the Christmas Decoration display - as it was a bit cluttered and messy on Sunday. I like the new scarf stand - shame my sign was lopsided when I took the pic!

Christmas Decorations

I also sold a few of my work colleagues goods, so she is a happy bunny, as am I.

Snoods by Lucy B

I am pleased with the pics - I think my photography course has paid off! Looking forward to the spring and taking nice pics in the daylight of my items.

Paperweights

I'm also in good shape for Sunday's fair - which is the biggest I have ever done, so I am quite nervous, but excited. Just a few more bits and bobs to do, but not too much, after rinsing myself last Friday and Saturday to get masses done.

My stall!

I am still in 2 minds about making more Christmas cards! It feels a bit late to be making more Christmas cards, so we'll see!

Cx

Learning can be fun!

Drain - it looks like a snowflake!

Hello there, hope everyone had a nice weekend!

I had a fun weekend, starting with my non-working Friday, I met up with a friend I haven't seen in over a year! Shopped a little and cooked dinner for the girls and Hubby.

Lemon

Lemon and I went on our photography course on Saturday, it was really good, I learnt so much, some of which has popped my mind a bit, but I am sure with practise it will become second nature. We learnt all about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, framing, etc! It was fun to actually leave the classroom and try out the things we had been taught during the morning session.

Bench at Greenwich University

Today's pictures were taken during the practical part of the day and I am really pleased with them. It was a great gift from Hubby and I can't believe I waited so long to learn how to use my camera properly!

Its been nice thinking about my other interests and not just crafting and Christmas - my mind has been occupied with these 2 things recently and I needed a bit of a break, so the course and my Sunday of rest (Hubby and I ate a lot and watched 4 films - sweet!) has got me back on track and I will be hitting the craft room with a vengeance tonight.

I did an inventory last night, so I know what I really need to make ahead of Sunday's fair and the one on the 28th - which is good, it is better to be organised! I am planning 3 late craft nights this week - so watch this space for my tired, incoherent posts!



Cx

Hard work pays off!

Hello - so I missed a couple of days this week - but I have been feeling quite tired, as I pulled an all nighter on Friday, so I could be ready for Saturday.

Saturday was a huge success and I am very grateful to my friend Sooze and her mum Mary for hosting the mini fair for me - it was a huge confidence boost and made all my hard work more than worth while!

Even though it was a mini fair at a house, I decided it would be good to road test some of the changes I have made to my stall / display following the Berkhamsted Market. I was pleased to see that the 3 major changes drew results / compliments.

The changes I made were -
Brooch Display - I have never really sold that many brooches and I was convinced that this was in part due to the way they were being displayed. So I bought some really beautiful boxes and put the brooches in and it worked - I sold 10 brooches on Saturday, so definite improvement - hopefully using the vintage cake stand to display them at the next 2 fairs will bring even better sales.
Price Display - I usually have my price list on one sheet, in a nice perspex holder centrally on the stall, but I realised that this is not great for everyone - so I made individual tent cards and wrote the product, price and any special deal on this and positioned them infront of the products. Once again this worked, as people didn't have to ask for prices and I think this makes them feel more comfortable.
Card Display - Normally, I display my cards in the boxes I use to transport them - they are pretty, but don't showcase the cards. I bought a decent card rack and this means you can see what the cards are like - therefore tempting you. One of the ladies on Saturday commented that this made it much easier to choose cards.

I am really pleased that I was honest enough with myself to implement changes, even though they are relatively small, they have enhanced my sales a great deal.

This is my first week of not working on a Friday - hurrah! However, there is a reason for these non-working Fridays - I need to concentrate on the next 2 craft fairs, I need to start sewing the bags for the Esher fair, finishing the painting of the Christmas Decorations and replenishing my depleted stock (cards, brooches, felt decorations, scarves) - please note I am NOT moaning, I am happy that my stock is depleted because I have sold it!

I am also busy compiling a list of what to make / buy / give people for Christmas, there have been lots of requests for cards, so once the craft fairs are out of the way, early December is going to be busy! Hubby and I have also been working on our Christmas card list - which is epic - how did it get so big?

Today's picture is from Hobbycraft - it is an advent calendar and I have modified it to make my own - which I have sold 10 of so far!! They are so cute and really easy to make and a good way of using up oddments in your stash.

Cx

Can you craft whilst hungover?

This is a question that is at the front of my mind today! I had planned to go home tonight and spend one more evening making Christmas stuffs, before Hubby and I depart for our Anniversary trip, however as I was a touch naughty last night and indulged too much, I am not convinced that handling anything sharp is wise!!

I am very excited about next week, I get to sell my Christmas cards at work - a good trial run before the Craft fair on Saturday - it will hopefully put my mind at ease about the cards I have been busy making in isolation for several months!

I am also excited about celebrating our first anniversary this weekend in Camber Sands and decided that today's picture would be of the beautiful dunes at Camber, which Hubby and I are going to spend our afternoon's walking across.

Happy weekend crafters, I'll be back on Tuesday.

Cx

Yummy, yummy, yummy for my tummy!

Hello!

Hope you all had a super weekend! I had lots of fun, dinner with some friends and hubby on Friday, lunch and theatre with Hubby on Saturday - which was excellent, and yesterday was spent food shopping, baking and relaxing.

Today's picture is of the cupcakes I made using the Hummingbird Bakery book I was given as a birthday gift (thanks Lemon). These bad boys are Chocolate and Banana and they are totally yummy and really really bad for you!

I also managed to squeeze in some crafting, although I might need to review some of the things I made over the weekend - too much vino tinto means some of the items might be a bit crazy and have to re-locate to the sale box!

Which leads in nicely to a top tip - the first craft fair I did was run by an amazing woman, she gave me these 2 tips:

1 - give a free gift - no matter how small, people getting excited (at Christmas I give Candy Canes)
2 - have a sale box - people LOVE a sale box - it is also a good place, for selling the items that are not quite right - be it broken, damaged or just weird, they ALWAYS sell if they are in the sale box. Which is great, as you don't waste things that aren't quite right.

Also both the free gift and sale box are good talking points, often people will stop and ask what is the free gift - I always say 'you'll only find out if you buy something......' I find that if people stop and talk to you, they will often buy something - so remember to smile and be friendly (and preferably not hungover and smelling of booze!!!)

Short post today, it's a bit busy today, but I promise more on Weds!

Cx

November Craft Fairs

So November is going to be a busy one for me - first my friend's Mum is hosting a mini craft fair at her house (with me as the only seller), then I go on the photography course that Hubby bought me for my birthday, then on the 21st and the 28th I am doing 2 more craft fairs!

I really enjoy craft fairs, I like talking to people and it makes me feel so chuffed when people compliment me on my items - it's a lot of work to create enough stuff to sell, so it's nice to get positive feedback.

The picture today is the poster for the fair on the 28th November in Leicester, I am looking forward to that one a lot, as I will be heading to Melton Mowbray on the Friday night, so we can spend the weekend with my in-laws and Hubby's godmother - we haven't seen them in forever, so it will be nice to catch-up before a big day of selling!

I realised the other day that whilst it is nice to specialise in certain craft items, it's always nice to mix it up a bit and I have used Christmas as the perfect opportunity to try out new things and test my skills.

I have made paperweights using the stones I brought back from the beach in Cornwall, they are gorgeous - I must take a picture for you. I enjoyed making these, quick, easy and the results far outweigh the effort required! I have loved making the felt decorations, but I haven't loved painting the wooden ones, so I don't think I'll be doing that again.

All the Christmas crafting has also given me an excuse to buy new tools and I did finally buy a Sizzix Texture Boutique, which I love - it's so easy to use and you can use Cuttlebug embossing folders too - just check the size, as the Texture Boutique has a smaller apperture!

I am going to attempt not to spend any money in November on my stash, but I'm not sure if I can actually manage this! In my lunch hour today, I went to the art supply shop and spent £6 - no will power! I can't resist craft stuff!

Cx

Christmas has exploded in my room!

Ha ha, not quite, but I've attached a picture of the drying area in my craft room and I think you can see there is quite alot going on! There is also a picture of one of the cards on the shelf, close-up!

I have hit the 300 card mark with the Christmas cards - so yay for me, but there is still a long way to go - gotta hit 500 before November the 6th.

I have a reason for this. If I have 500 cards (= 50 sets) and I sell a reasonable amount on Nov 6th, then I will only have to make a small amount to cover my work sales and the Nov 28th fair! Logical right?

I am finally loving the wooden Christmas decorations, they have been a bit of trial and error to be honest and I am still not 100% in love, but I can be a bit like this about the things I make, I get a bit insecure! Especially if they have taken awhile to get right!

The felt Christmas decorations are my fave, as I get to use felt, hand sew and use my button collection.

I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I've enjoyed the Christmas crafting this year and I think that I owe that to my fellow crafters and their handy tips - start early, pace yourself, take a break - wise words indeed.

On a slightly different note I noticed last night that one of our cats is covered in glitter! She did run off with a rather expensive Magenta Stickles a couple of weeks ago, so I am assuming this is why!

Whilst I am mentioning Stickles, I have to say, I thought they were going to be an expensive waste of money, but they have brought me only joy! I love using them, they add so much to my projects and are easy to use and best of all seem to go a long way. Papermania have brought out some similar products this year for Christmas and they are a cheap alternative to Stickles and ok, but not as good.

Lastly a bit shout out to Pam at Chicks of a Feather - who left me a really sweet message a few weeks ago, I totally love her blog, it's an inspiration.

Cx

Cards are king!

Well, Saturday's craft market went well, it started really slow and I was a bit worried, but it came good in the end.

The best thing about the market was learning so much! I have a few things to work on  -

• my display - needs to be a bit more professional, I need to buy racks for the cards and something to display the brooches and scarves better
• my table covering - I think it needs to be a really beautiful piece of fabric or a really bold colour and I should have a Christmassy one
• sewing - so I've mastered the brooches and scarves, now it's time to look at cushions and other soft furnishings

There are a few other things for me to consider, but those are the main ones.

Today's pic is of one of the cards I sold. On Saturday cards were the big sellers. I didn't expect that and I am really chuffed to bits. I think the 3 for £5 deal on the cards really works. Also, I got lots of compliments about my card designs and some great feedback on what people are looking for. This is really helpful, as I often work a bit 'blind' to what people might need, I mean I have a loose idea, but it's nice to have that cemented and to have new things to consider.

All in all, it was well worth it - I got to hang with my friends and their baby, met some cool people at the craft market, sold some of my stock, made some money and learnt some stuff.

Now, it's time to sit down and plan for the Leicester Christmas Market at the end of November.

Cool!

Cx

I'm so proud!

As you may have gathered it's all been a little bit busy in my world, but I am back (for now) I really need to find more hours in the day!

Anyway, I am totally made up right now, as I pinned the Union Jack quilt together and it looks amazing - today's pics are the ones I took before it was sewn together - I just need to add the bias tape and then voila! it is complete. I'll show you more pics when it is finished later in the week.

The apron's went down well at the Christening on Sunday and I was really pleased with how they came out - however my photos are pretty rubbish (boo!) and I'll have to wait for my friends to send me a pic to show you. I do however have pics of the babygrow that I made for Beatrice who was being Christened (tomorrow!).

It's now only 3 days to the craft market and I am packed and ready, can't stop making things though and so the craft table is full of extra bits and bobs that I considering taking - I wonder if I have too much stuff, but I think more is better than not enough!

So I'll see you tomorrow - enjoy the quilt - I've written out the steps and will scan it all in tomorrow, ready for posting with the final pic, so that you can make your own quilt.

Cx

Not enough hours in the day!

Hello!

Sorry for the absence, last week was properly mental - what with Hubby's birthday (= drunken affair), work and craft fair activities - I really didn't know if I was coming or going.

Anyway, I am a tad sad today, as I only had one entry to my competition - RHR you win the pincushion, please email me your colour choice! No matter - it's all a learning curve and I will just have to figure out how to promote myself better!

So I had a nice busy crafting weekend - I made one of the aprons ready for Sunday's Christening BBQ. I am so pleased with it, I got the pattern from Taly's Creations - she kindly let me mention her here. I hope you can make use of her really straightforward tutorial and make your own apron. I will take a pic and show you my ones - but need to take the pic during the day, they come out much better that way!

Union Jack quilt has hit a pause - due to the flannel I ordered being incorrect! I am feeling very calm about the craft market, scarves are nearly finished, cards are finished, brooches are finished, make-up bags will be complete, once the replacement zipper foot arrives (I left it out and the cats swiped it), starting baby-grows tonight, so it's all going well!

I usually get a bit excited about craft fairs and next weekend is no exception to this! I think it is going to be a good opportunity for me and my little business, I hope it works out well and that my friends are happy for me to keep crashing with them, so I can become a regular at the market.

It's my sister-in-law's birthday tomorrow and my Ma's on Sunday, so I have been making little treats for them over the last week or so and now have a little pile of pretty things to wrap, which is nice.

I need to update my craft picture stash - so I was a bit stumped about what I should have as today's pic, then I realised I could show you the pattern for the Union Jack - so that is what today's pic is!

Enjoy!

Cx

To be a pincushion or not! + Competition!!!

Hello!

I have been itching to get home and get crafting, but before I get too involved I am taking a break to write this post.

Today's pic is something I thought you'd like to see! Hubby drew it in the sand for me when we were in Cornwall! Isn't that sweet! I am trying to think of  a way to use it  - maybe the HNM 2010 Polzeath range - ha ha. Watch this space for more news.

I have made a start on finishing the scarves for the craft fair - this is the dull part, once they are done I can show pics - just like yesterday's cards - they are just a small selection of what I will be selling in Berkhamsted

I thought I'd give you a bonus and upload a second shot and run my first competition, seeing as though the blog was a bit sparse last week! This shot is of the pincushions I've been making - so cute! I've sold quite a few and they get used for lots of different things!

So, the competition is - post a comment, telling me what you'd use the pincushion for - besides pins!! The best answer wins their very own pincushion - colour of their choice (from pic and if in stock). Answers by Fri 23rd July and I'll announce the winner on Monday 26th July.

Good Luck!

Cx