Home alone with a sketchbook and a whole packet of jaffa cakes..

There should be photographs of finished notebook covers and my beautiful craft stall here... but for that I would have had to take a camera with me!  So when I go back to check my stock later this week I will photograph my stall (if it is still in one piece as some items could be seen to be a little precariously balanced!).  So I am sharing a bit of my time wasting with you today.

It's a very rare occasion (fortunately as the jaffa cakes didn't actually last long enough to be photographed) but two whole hours with nary a child's voice

just doodling time.  I love doodling time and there were many more doodles but these are as many as I could (was willing to) put on here

I'm not sure where I'm headed with these doodles, some are too complicated (for me) to be sewn so they might become pictures instead

So if I can put Caitlin Moran down for long enough (and I really don't want to because I love her tooooooo much!!) then perhaps I will have some finished work to show you next time!

x

stitching

I have been doing more stitching than expected recently due to (rashly) signing up to do a two week craft fair starting next weekend!  So I have a production line of fairies.

these are for little fairy cushions and my production line method seems no faster than the way I normally work?!  Perhaps I'm going wrong somewhere...

anyway these fairy cushions are just waiting for a bit more embellishment

but I (as usual) am distracted by other projects

a doll for Annis.  It will probably be the last year she wants one as she is about to turn ELEVEN!!  So I am making the most of this doll.

And speaking of birthdays the lovely Tamara Jayne sent me the sweetest little fairy door to provide a passageway for the fairies into our house.  There is a bit of arguing about where the fairy door should go (Teague wants fairies in the piano for some reason?!) but we will come to an agreement.

Hope you're enjoying your crafting too

x

It was my birthday

First hello and welcome to my new followers and thankyou for the lovely comments.  I'm having trouble commenting on some blogs so at the moment I just have to read rather than comment!  But hopefully blogger will sort it out...

It was my birthday yesterday and I felt treated all day long!  Books to read, in particular the Angela Carter book of fairy tales that I have wanted for sooooooo long

and my lovely partner who works for art galleries these days to pay the bills got his old jewellery making equipment out to treat me

to a beautiful twisted silver ring

and a lovely brass bracelet.  He also managed to find a showing of Francois Ozon's latest film in St Ives

and took us all to this funky art cafe for hot chocolate and cake

so today I have been repeating but no two are ever exactly the same

caravans and girls destined to be keyrings

x

crochet and keyrings

Thankyou for all the lovely comments on dogs (you have made me feel more optimistic and less terrified!) and the lovely folksy shops in my last post. 

After a marathon clean up of my work area (I refuse to show before or after pictures until my space is as perfect as these enviable spaces (so it could be a while!)) I can now find things, like yarn I've bought that has been hidden under many piles of things.

These delicious colours have been chosen by Annis for a blanket for her room and I have to say I am looking forward to crocheting them up

I am using a pattern from this rowan crochet book which I gave to a friend for her birthday and then promptly borrowed back and have kept for rather longer than is probably socially acceptable

the squares are very little so don't expect an end product before christmas! (I have also told Annis this!!)

I managed to finish a couple of embroideries into lovely lavendery keyrings or charms

I think the caravan came from looking out the window at the rain and wishing we had a caravan so we could roll away to the sunshine for a holiday.  These two are in my folksy shop and tomorrow I am thinking about book covers...

folksy friday dogs!!

Oh dear!  My ten year old (soon to be eleven) has finally worn us down.  She has been begging for a dog for years and years and years (is it really only ten?).  We have somehow agreed to it, I'm not quite sure how it happened!  I have never owned a dog and am slightly terrified by the idea but fortunately J grew up with dogs and (apparently) knows what he is doing. But who would have thought that choosing could be so difficult!  We have been through soooooooooo many breeds of dog!  Trying to get five people to agree on one dog is something of a nightmare.  So with dogs on my mind I browsed folksy and came up with these lovely canine treats (all of which may well be easier to cope with than the real thing!).  As usual just click on the image to be taken to the shop.


 I'm thinking the lovely Northfield primitives terrier might be the answer, he has wheels so surely he can be taken for a walk, no grooming, no feeding... hmm I wonder...

skiving mostly...

Well, what did you expect?  It's like summer here, sun and everything!!

How could I possibly stay in, let alone keep my poor children in!

The sea has been perfect for swimming (not always the case!)

not even this scrumptiousness arriving through my letterbox from fabric rehab could keep me indoors.  Although there was a bit of necessary curtain making (sorry Nic photos were no good!).

I have managed the embroidery on a button purse that still isn't sewn together!

Oh!  and sunflowers!!  The lovely sunflower man gave us his last three bunches before he went home so our home is as sunny as outside.

x

Some new shops I love

I am being a little bit boring at the moment.  I'm fairly sure you don't want to know about my housework (springcleaning???) as you probably have your own so on this lazy Sunday I decided to live vicariously and do a bit of browsing and give you some other people's interestingness. 






 I've focussed on etsy shops today which means I can continue being boring in my own life and focus on folksy shops later in the week.  Perfect!!x

Thinking about postcards

While I was away I started to think about postcards.  I've done my research and found recycled card and biodegradable poly something bags.  So now I'm thinking of taking the printing plunge!  This is a big plunge for someone as technophobic as me so any advice would be more than welcome!!

another idea was black and white postcards to be coloured.  I love colouring in, I find it meditative and thought maybe other people would too. 

and notice a pretentious little bit of french creeping in at the bottom here.  But I love 'somnambuliste'  it's nicer than sleepwalker so you'll have to forgive me!

I have a son who adores photoshopping and printing and all those technical things but how to pin him down long enough to explain it all to me???  Hopefully now summer is here he will give me a little of his time and I will have some postcards in my shop.  I'm sure that once I've conquered the printer I will be ready to conquer the world!

x

Just pictures...