Orange Blooms Halterneck Pinny

This beautiful new Orange Blooms halterneck pinny has just been added to my collection.

You can find it here.

Keep your eyes open over the next few weeks as I will be adding more to the collection.

To see gorgeous pinnies from my Unique Collection (one-offs) click here.

New Stockists

I have a couple of new stockists!  

The first one I want to tell you about is Ellie Magpie.  A new shop that opened last week in Prestwich, Manchester.

'Elliemagpie is a unique store selling a beautiful contrast of fabrics, haberdashery, homewares and gifts. The style is shabby chic, country vintage and celebrates all things pretty and feminine.

Elliemagpie was born of the desire to promote and bring together two complementary aspects of home making - items that you buy and items that you make yourself.

There is an emphasis on the 'hand made' and the supplies to 'hand make'. This is complimented by the quirky findings and carefully sourced homewares and gifts to add to the full lifestyle shopping experience.'

As you can see it is like Aladdin's Cave.  I can't wait to get over there later in the week to experience it first hand.  I have loved looking at the images to spot my work, it's lovely to see a collection of your own products in a  shop where people can actually come in and pick them up.

You can spot my Dilly Deer cushions and some
Mr & Mrs pillowcases in this shot.

I spied some cosmetic bags on the table here.

One of my halterneck pinnies is hung from a dresser in this one.

You can also buy lots of products from Ellie Magpie from their on-line shop here.  Please do have a look as there are some lovely products and lots of gorgeous fabrics and haberdashery (including lots of East of India products... lovely!).

The next one I would like to tell you about is this fabulous on-line shop Folly Home.  I love their logo.... imagine it as a real shop that you can walk into... fab!  When you go to their on-line shop and have a look at the beautiful products it has to offer, you really can start to imagine what the shopping experience in this shop would be like.  Their collection of products is stunning.  Take a peek, you'll see what I mean!

'Folly was conceived out of a desire to find beautiful and imaginative gifts and a love of mixing contemporary pieces with unique vintage treasures.  With an exciting mix of design-led gifts, contemporary homewares and vintage finds, we’re confident that we have just the thing you are looking for.  Whether it’s something beautiful to adorn your home, or an inspirational gift that is talked about long after the event!

We believe that finding unique and fabulous items should be easy and enjoyable, and with that in mind we have found an extensive range of products from around the globe. We are here to take the hard work out of it for you.'

Folly Home now stock my Bespoke Family Tree papercuts.

Okay, that me done for now.  I do have more to show (and tell) but that will have to come on another day.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend x

A Trip To Aunty Em's New Castle!

My sister recently moved to Newcastle (the Tinker thought she'd moved to a new castle, and has been asking, since before she moved, if we can go and stop in her new castle!!), and so we took the opportunity this week to spend a few days with her and her family.  We had a lovely time, and yesterday we managed to spend most of the day out without getting wet... well... most of us did!

We'd woken to beautiful blue skies, so jumped at the opportunity for a trip to the beach, and then to a castle, and so headed off to Blyth Beach all set for a day out.  

We couldn't believe our luck, just look at that sky.  It was windy and quite nippy, but it was good to be on a beach getting some fresh air after being cooped up for most of the Easter holidays.

There were even some gorgeous beach huts.

There was great excitement, and the children played like this for, er... 5mins before the Tinker decided it would be a good idea to leg it into the sea (he's like a little Whippet).  Then realizing he has gone a little too far, and that a wave was coming towards him, he turned, fled, fell over, and the wave covered him!!!  One very wet boy!  I had taken spare clothes, but not a spare coat or shoes (his wellies were filled with water), so our trip to the beach ended prematurely!  Instead we changed him into all the spare clothes we had, and had an early lunch at the fish and chip shop by the beach, before heading back to Aunty Em's new castle for a coat and shoes!

It didn't dampen our spirits though (ha ha!) and we headed straight off to Warkworth Castle.  A fabulous castle to explore with children (lots of climbing, little stairways, and running around to be done), well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Happy holidays!

(I am ready for school to start back though!!!)

Happy Easter!

Blown egg made by the Tinker (3)

Have you decorated eggs this year?

What do you think of this?

Copyright of eierbaum-saalfeld.de

Please do pop over to Oddity Central to see more and be inspired for future Easter projects!

Fab!

 

A quick update!

As the weeks pass I am becoming more and more conscious that time is flying (and that I keep saying this!!!)!  I can't believe it is April, and that nearly a week and a half has passed since my last post!  The weather hasn't helped!  Quite a bit of time has been spent out in the garden, a bit of tidying has occurred, but lots of basking has been going on.  How fabulous it has been being able to sit outside and enjoy the sun!  Anyway, we're off to stop with my brother next week, so I thought I'd better catch up before we go!

Over the past few weekends I have done a few workshops.

The first was a couple of weekends ago when I ran a printing workshop with the Chorley Contemporary Crafters group and showed them how to do some relief printing using polystyrene.  You can read more about that here in their blog post.

The second was with an eight year old (and her mum), where she learnt how to use a sewing machine, cut around templates, and made herself some pretty bunting for her room.

She laid her flags on the floor, and grouped them exactly how she wanted them (despite a few protests from mum who had her own ideas!  It's so hard to stand back sometimes isn't it?!)

She soon got into the groove, and as my machine has the option to go very slow (even if you have your foot right down), it is ideal when showing people how to use a machine.


I am now really looking forward to a Make and Do after school club that I will be running at a local school after Easter!

This week I have been frantically getting orders together.  The first one I was working on was for Piccolo Bambino, a gorgeous shop selling some beautiful things for little ones, and that now have some lovely bandana bibs in stock!

Then I did a bit more work on an order for Ellie Magpie, which is due to open in Prestwich, Manchester after the Easter break.  I made...

... Mr & Mrs pillowcases...



(these will be on sale as single pillowcases so that people can mix and match as they choose)

... and some of my lovely pear tea towels.




Today, I suddenly realized that we really should do something for Easter, so we set to work with some eggs.  I taught my daughter the art of egg blowing, and we covered them in tissue and pva/water solution to make them stronger and easier to paint.  This will be done tomorrow (or Good Friday depending on how we do for time tomorrow!!!)

I also managed to squeeze in a little bit of chick making!!! 

Oh, and did I tell you I did the biggest ironing pile I have ever seen... I swear I will never let my ironing get on top of me like that again!!!

Have a lovely week everyone.  Get some egg painting done, and if you fancy making an Easter hat, this is one we made last year!