A New Beginning....

...in more ways than one!

Firstly,  after much nagging from Mr B I am restarting my blog. I thought about a completely new blog but I didn't want to lose all my memories and friends and comments and interaction.

This year has been quite a year so far! I gave up my job of 35 years in the library service to start a new (ad)venture. An opportunity presented itself and everything just fell into place, I describe it as "happening to me", I didn't plan or go out looking for it.

 

On the 7th March a new shop opened in Worthing called 'Woodpecker & Needletail' and I am the Needletail! I'm in there making my stuff, running the shop and soon to be running classes (very nervous about that!)

It certainly has, and continues to be, a steep learning curve. I spend about forty hours in the shop a week and have to tackle things like...ACCOUNTS!!!!

 

Here is a look at the sort of things I'm making at the moment

 

How are you all?

Are you still making the same sort of things as last summer, or have you moved on to other crafts?

 

Thanks for visiting (and if you're reading this, for sticking with me! Not surprisingly I lost a few...)

xXx

 



And She's Back...

Dear Friends,

How are you all?

I really cannot believe that I have been away from Blogland for so long! Losing my little dog threw me and sitting blogging without him curled up next to me just wasn't something I was able to do.

 

But, even though I still miss him I'm ready to move on and I have so missed catching up with all the blogs I love to follow.

 

Just to ease me in gently, here are a few pics of things I've made over the last couple of months.

 



 

Off to do some visiting now...

Back soon!

xXx

 

Pottering...

I was so looking forward to having a weekend of pottering around doing very little, and that's exactly what I did! The furthest I went was to the herb nursery and Hobbycraft.

Then it was a weekend of a bit of planting, a bit of making and a bit of sorting through magazines for recycling (always takes a long time as I have to look at them again just to make sure it's OK to ditch them!)

This free motion embroidery is a trial run, just to see how it turned out. I'm pleased with the design but think I'll put a border on. This one is not good enough to sell so I'll display it in my craft room for a while.

Do you remember I showed you my decanter that I bought in the charity shop recently? 

This is what I did with it

I take no credit for this idea as I saw it somewhere on the internet (unfortunately I can't remember where). I'm waiting for Mr B to drill a hole in the glass for the wire to go through so that I can put the stopper back in. I spent more time watching this than the TV the other night as it looks so fab!!

Hope you all had a lovely and relaxing weekend.

Thanks for visiting

xXx

Feeling Crafty

Mr B and Youngest Boy have gone away for the weekend, I knew as soon as I'd waved them off what I was going to do today....CRAFT!

It seems so long since I've had a decent session due to the seemingly never ending decorating!

Recently, I bought some new stamps and was itching to try them, so the first thing I decided to make was cards - all the same design but finished in different colours.

The stamps I used are from

Crafty Individuals (tea pot), Dovecraft (bunting) and Clearly Besotted for the sentiment.

I was lucky enough to find this next stamp set by chance, I have been looking for a nice doily stamp for some time and now I have a whole set!

I used it to make a card to attach a magnet to, the idea is you get a card and a little gift in one.

The next project isn't quite finished but I thought I'd show you anyway and do a big reveal when I have finished (if I remember).

These are wooden tags to attach to little containers of buttons to sell at the next fair, I plan to add a little button and of course some twine or ribbon.

How are you spending your day?

 

 

The 'C' word - yes, really!

After catching up with all your bloggy news this morning I felt inspired to do a blog post, but what to write about? I don't like to post without pictures so it was a bit of a dilemma, then I remembered that I'd had a little crafty afternoon over the weekend making (decoupaging, varnishing and eventually stamping) little keepsake gift tags for the next craft fair which will be in November. So, I'm afraid Christmas is on the blog already!

I really enjoyed this project and plan to make many more.
Just to counteract Christmas here are some summer t-shirts bought from good old M & S yesterday when I went into town to meet up with friends. I get most of my t shirts from M & S, they're great value and good quality. I'm feeling summery, sadly the weather isn't!

Back soon!

A Crafty Update

Just a quick post to show you what I've been making recently

Patchwork brooches!

I am becoming rather addicted to making these,

to give you an idea of size the bottom brooch in the top picture is approximately one and a half inches square.

If you'd like to see the brooches in more detail just click on the picture.



My Crafty Weekend

I had a more successful weekend of crafting than last weekend, I managed to master the loose cover for a notebook, still not perfect but OK

I also made a (rustic) brooch which I rather like

but I'm not sure if the raw edges and wonky sewing would put people off if I were to sell it at the craft fair.

What do you think?

I also worked on a project for a friends birthday using these fabrics

I'm off to town now to catch up with a friend I've not seen for a while, the sun is shining and I'm looking forward to the walk there.

I hope you had a lovely weekend and have sunshine where you are!

 

Frenzied

I have so many ideas buzzing through my head for new things to make at the moment I can't keep up. I know myself well enough to accept that this will not last so I'm trying to make the most of it.

My friend Jane and myself have another craft fair planned for April, one of the things I had planned to make was loose covers for notebooks, I made one but it turned out to be very time consuming and I didn't really like the finish - the visible stitching on the outside bothered me and I won't sell it.

 After a tip off from a friend I bought this magazine at the weekend, I wasn't overly impressed on first reading it as it contained many projects that I'd already seen in books (this seems to be getting more common, doesn't it?)

BUT...it did contain a project to make a loose cover for a notebook, and it appeared to be a much more simple method than the way I had made mine.

As I didn't want to waste yet more fabric I decided to make a covered notebook for the Meet and Make group as it wouldn't matter too much if it wasn't perfect, and here it is...

not perfect, but a much simpler and neater way of doing it and 

practice makes perfect, so 'they' say.

Colour!

Todays sunshine has made me see colour everywhere and I've had great fun playing and photographing my colourful crafty bits!

Some of my latest craft fair makes lined up and waiting to be finished.

A friend and myself were lucky enough to find some wooden thread reels yesterday for 20p each in the CS. This inspired me to get out all of the ones I already own (mostly bought in CSs for about 30p!), I usually display them as in the first picture, and had great fun this morning arranging and photographing all of them together.

Pretty ribbons

and

colourful embroidery thread

and wool - all tidied.

Even the scraps look pretty!

 

I hope you are enjoying sunshine wherever you are.