Creative Block

Things have been pretty quiet round here this month.

This is mostly due to me suffering a major episode of creative block and not feeling in the mood to do much crafting at all. I've been knitting the squares for my sky blanket but that's about it, so there just hasn't been much to mention.

As I've had some family stuff going on, and we've had some lovely summery "laze about eating icecream" weather I've sort of rolled with it, and just let myself take a bit of time off in the hope that I'd wake up one morning refreshed and unblocked and excited to make stuff again. This strategy hasn't been the huge success I'd hoped it'd be, but it's definitely been good to take a bit of time off and the itch to start sewing is starting to come back again slowly (it just feels weird having not sewn anything for so long!).

With a bit of luck you'll hopefully start seeing some actual crafting popping up on my blog in June. Fingers crossed! If you've got any tips for beating creative block, please do share them in the comments, they'll be much appreciated :)

In other news... it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee next week so here in England we're being bombarded with stuff covered in Union Jacks and other Jubilee-themed imagery and we get to celebrate with a four day weekend. It's pretty hard to escape the Union Jack at the moment, it's everywhere! Check out the Union Jack -filled guide to our local carnival , featuring a ton of red white and blue & what may well be the world's worst, most illegible font:

I am genuinely amazed that anyone thought that font would be a good idea!

Anyway... being self employed, I don't get any extra time off work this weekend, but the Bank Holidays do mean that the Post Office will be closed on Monday & Tuesday so any orders in my shop will take a bit longer than usual to be sent out. Normal service will resume on Wednesday.

Say Hello to my New Shop!

After much tinkering, my brand new shop is finally finished!

As I mentioned last week, the new shop will be replacing the shop pages which are currently part of my website. The old shop is still live but it will be vanishing quite soon, once I get a change to update all my links and attend to all the other bits and bobs on my "website update" to do list.

When I've (eventually) got everything sorted, my website will be slimmed down to just a few pages about me and my work with pages that link to my shop, and to my blog, etc. If you prefer shopping via Etsy, Folksy or DaWanda don't worry! My shops there will all be remaining open :)

With perfect timing, all 65 of my felt colours are now back in stock after a few weeks of being sold out... so all my felt colour packs and "pick your own" colours are in stock in my new felt squares section. Most of my craft supplies are back in stock too, hurrah!

To help celebrate the launch of my shiny new shop, you can get 15% off orders of £15 or more, with the code NEWSHOP. Just enter the code when prompted during the checkout process and the discount should be applied automatically when you update your cart.This offer will run until the end of May, and excludes shipping.  

Click here to visit my new shop!

A Surprise Parcel

A lovely lady who won some felt in a giveaway on my blog sent me a surprise gift as a "thankyou" a few weeks ago... a pretty quilted bag, decorated with some of the felt she won:

The design was inspired by the pretty tape I use to seal all my parcels. There were many oohs over it when I  opened the parcel.

The bag is totally gorgeous and perfect for storing & carrying my "in progress" knitting.

 

 Such a lovely thing to get in the post!

Pretty Nostalgic

Have you heard about Pretty Nostalgic yet?

It's a lovely new independent magazine, published in the UK, with a love for all things vintage. According to their website....

"Petty Nostalgic is a bi-monthly home and lifestyle magazine that celebrates vintage, traditional and sustainable ways of living. We passionately support independent British producers and love seeking out unique, eclectic homes and meeting people who love life and live by their own rules. The magazine is packed with inspiration to help make your house a home, to fill your kitchen with homegrown and foraged food, to inspire you to reuse and upcycle and to make every day an adventure. It is a handbook for creative, curious and resourceful folk who yearn for a simple, stylish and sustainable lifestyle."

I love the motto on the cover of the first issue: Spend wisely, Waste less, Appreciate more.

I got sent a contributor copy as one of my photos is included in a lovely A-Z of haberdashery:

Those vintage threads belonged to my grandmother :)

It's lovely to see them in such a nice magazine alongside so many pretty photos and illustrations...

Pretty Nostalgic is available to buy online, or from these independent stockists.

Look what I've been working on...

... a snazzy new shop! Here's a screengrab of the "flower brooches" section:

This new shop will be replacing the shop pages which are currently part of my website. They've served me well over the past couple of years, and it will suck to lose all the links to the old pages, but it's definitely time to upgrade to something a bit fancier.

I love the layout of the new shop, & how each product will have its own product page for the first time... and hopefully it'll be a lot more user-friendly (for me, and for you!) and a lot less buggy than my website has been over the past few months!

It's still very much a work in progress, but I'm hoping to devote lots of hours to it this week to get it finished asap. I'll be sure to blog about it when it's done so you can all go take a look :)

Thirty Years

I'm turning 30 next month (eek!) so I thought it'd be fun to do a bit of looking back through old photo albums. I picked out one photo from each of the last 30 years to make a mosaic & I thought you guys might like to see the pics :)

1. Pulling chunks of hair from a very long-suffering kitty! 2. Wearing some very snazzy red dungarees. 3. All dressed up ready to go to a wedding. 4. Visiting an awesome local model village. 5. With "princess" make-up at a local fair. 6. Ready for my first day of school (very exciting).

7. On the swings in our garden. 8. First day of junior school. 9. Dressed in rainbow colours for a friend's parrot-themed party. 10. Opening presents on my birthday. 11. Trying horse riding on a family holiday. 12. Another birthday, wearing a very Blossom-style hat.

13. Pulling a serious Judo face. 14. Dressed in 90s double denim & Doc Martens. 15. Explaining an apparently quite complicated handmade birthday card to my sister. 16. Eating an apple (om nom nom). 17. At a picnic with friends in London. 18. On holiday in Devon.

19. Revising for my History A-Level. 20. Making trifle with a friend at University (I remember this being hilarious but I have no idea why). 21. Dinner in my Uni flat. 22. With short hair at Uni.  23. Last year of University (I think this photo was taken at about 5 or 6 in the morning). 24. At my graduation.

25. At a wedding. 26. I don't have many pics from this year, but I eventually found this one (I have no idea why I am pulling a face like a duck!). 27. Wearing a necklace made for my shop. 28. With a DIY haircut. 29. Having tea with a friend. 30. At another wedding, wearing what is apparently my "wedding necklace".

Ah, how time flies!

A Bit of Baking

I haven't done any baking for MONTHS... but yesterday a friend posted on Facebook that she was spending the whole Bank Holiday baking tasty treats and, well, the urge to do my own bit of baking was just too hard to resist.

Nothing fancy - just some simple chocolate biscuits...

... but oh my goodness they were tasty. And so quick and easy and enjoyable to bake that it makes me wonder, why do I not do this every week??