Busy girl - Christmas Fairs

Well it's been a while. But I'm baaack!

So today I did my final Christmas Fair before, well, Christmas. It was at work and it went pretty well, I feel I've finally got the stall close to the way I want it... not to say it's perfect but I wasn't too embarrassed when seeing it next the the pros I was along side.

Here it is in all it's glory.

I sold a 'take time to laugh' (centre) and a toilet roll holder and a couple of other orders already in. Time to update the store page me thinks!

Thought I'd also share my latest frame quote with you. Make me chuckle as I think it could probably be in most family households!   Yours (with a frame) for just £10 + P&P.

I'll write again soon but that's it for now folks.

I know it's soppy but...

I know it's soppy but...

...I came up with this poem when I was rocking my little one to sleep tonight. It was one of those nights when she was tired but not crying too much so it was easy to get all overly romantic about motherhood! I'll take another shot of it in the daylight as it's hard to get a photo without tonnes of reflection... but you get the point.

By the way, thanks for the overwhelming response to my last post, 200 hits in 12 hours! :) I'm up over the 3000 mark now, so I'll have to do a giveaway at 5000 to celebrate I think! 

Table top sale

Table top 'sale'

OK, so I didn't actually sell anything, but there was lots of interest in my stuff and people took away my little cards with the address to this blog. Also it was a great trial run for a craft fair in the same venue in a few weeks time. Here's my stall. 

Remember if you see anything you like or would like to join my quarterly mailing list please contact me and I'll discuss your custom design with you. 

I can do bunting:

wall art

storage jars

and cushions

Just let me know!  

Roll Up! Roll Up!

I've (as you may have seen from my comments on Three green bottles, sitting on the wall...) been invited to have a stall at the local community centre, and I'm doing a table top sale too, so thought I'd better stock up on some things to sell. I've got a bunch of glassware products, I'm planning on making some fabric and paper bunting and then I saw these toilet roll holders on sale in a local shop and thought I could improve them with some decal designs. So... here they are.

As a reminder, decal uses special decal paper (inkjet or laser) and once printed you spray a couple of layers of acrylic clear spray varnish on them and when they dry wet the paper and slide the transfer onto the item. A full reminder here.

I was wondering - could you let me know your favourite projects in the comments section or email me, as I'd love to have an idea of what might sell at these fairs. Thanks!

Three green bottles, sitting on the wall... - August 2013

Three green bottles, sitting on the wall... - August 2013

So when I was on holiday recently I saw these sloe gin bottles and thought about a local table top sale coming up. I'd warned hubby that this table top sale was coming up and I might be looking to invest in things I could sell there. So I bought 5 as a starter as I thought they'd make rather charming salad dressing bottles. I had a fiddle with designs the other night and while I think I could evolve the application of the design, I think it's a good starter for ten! I used decal - the same method as I used for the decal jars and they've worked out ok, as long as the salad dressing isn't too dark!

(OK so there's only one green bottle, but I just took artistic licence with the title!)

A place for the blinkin' tupperware! - August 2013

A place for the blinkin' tupperware - July 2013

I don't know about you but I have a love-hate relationship with tupperware. It's very useful (of course) but storing it is a nightmare. It's alway falling out of the cupboard and seems to take creep until the whole cupboard is spewing tupperware! 

So I thought I'd store then in a box over the fridge, which is quite short for a fridge freezer. Again, the benefits of being tall! 

I wanted something durable that was going to last, which discounted cardboard.  However, as the fridge freezer is new I'm keen to make sure I don't scratch the top, which seemed to count out most of the wicker/seagrass baskets. But then I saw one with a lining and thought I could make my own outer lining to protect the fridge. So, I picked up a couple in Waitrose today (£8 each) I wanted two the same size so any of the sets wouldn't work. Here it is:
  

Then I got a quart of fabric from my fabric box and loosely went around each of the long sides, going through the fabric, through the basket weave, then along the inside and back out. Then I took the ends and gathered them in through the handle hole. Et voila! Took about 10 minutes and it's not the neatest job I've ever done on a project, but it was while madame is sleeping post swimming lesson and I wanted to share too. I'm telling myself it's 'rustic'. Right, going to see if I can fit the other one in while she's sleeping and before my folks come round! 

Bye for now...

UPDATE 2 - Yep - here it is:

UPDATED - I've completed all three now - I did a much better job on the second two so I think I'll have to redo the first one at some point!

All this ugliness hidden from site!

Lofti heights - not what you'd think! August 2013

LOFTI HEIGHTS - NOT WHAT YOU'D THINK! August 2013

Not loft boarding this time... Hubby and I seem to go through an inordinate amount of washing, as I'm sure most households do. It seems an endless cycle of washing, drying (ironing in the hubby's case) and folding/hanging to put away. And it's multiplied again since our darling sprog came into the world!!

We have a clothes horse, but we were, frankly, getting tired of walking around it. We could use the garden, but I've been a bit wary as although they've finished our section of the development, we still get a fair bit of dust blowing around from the next phase. So - I looked in the lakeland catalogue and found the lofti. We had a £10 voucher to use quickly and I thought this might be an ideal solution. If it didn't work we could send back. Nothing ventured... So we picked it up and found it had no instructions. :( Anyway, a quick google later and we found the youtube vid by the manufacturers on how to construct it. I'll be honest, our initial confusion was compounded by a miscount (not that I blame the hubby, but he was holding the box counting, just sayin') of the tube sections. Five poles divided by 14 doesn't go... what's that, I counted them again and there were 15? Oh, that makes more sense........

Anyway, I installed it the other night and after a few too many holes in the ceiling and a baton detector getting chucked in the bin (knocking on the plasterboard to find the beams was much more effective!) we have a drier. So the idea is you can lower to load it and then pull it up and tie the cord around like you would a roman blind cord. It's a really old idea but with aluminium bars rather than the heavy wooden ones.

We're fortunate to have a utility which it fits in perfectly, but when we didn't think it would fit we considered putting it over our bath (we normally use the shower in the en suite). The advantage of both locations is that they are right next to extractor fans, so it'll take the moisture away.

We can duck underneath without too much hassle to get to the microwave etc, and it probably only takes one load at a time, but it's certainly better than scooting round the drier in the kitchen.

It's up...

...and down