September in Pictures: Bargain Threads & a Gift-Wrapping Challenge

Time for a look back at my Instagram photos from September...

This month I scored the bargain of the year, getting a whole heap of embroidery thread at John Lewis for just 10p a skein (that's 90% off the normal price! crazy!). Sadly the offer has finished now, but I am not going to run out of embroidery thread any time soon.

Hilariously, a few days after buying all those threads I had to buy some more as I didn't have the exact colours I needed for an in-progress project. Typical!

Of course, I couldn't resist arranging all the threads in colour order so I could a) see what colours I'd bought b) store them in colour groups for easy-access and c) ooh over their loveliness. All together now: ooooooooh...

I've been busy behind the scenes working on new projects, but I also started a fun new personal project - setting myself the challenge to come up with 100 gift wrapping ideas. I'm sharing the ideas on Instagram as I go along, then blogging about them in batches. So far I've shared ten ideas - click here to read all about them.

I'm hoping to have some free afternoons to do some more gift-wrapping soon!

I also blogged about some of my crafty projects and beloved toys from my childhood, including the felt fashions I stitched for my Sylvanian Families. It's been so lovely rediscovering all this stuff and sharing it with you guys - and hearing all your stories about your own childhood treasures.

I squeezed a few Nice Days Out into September, though I haven't yet had time to blog about them (though I did finally blog about my visit to Seville Cathedral many months ago!).

I spent a busy day in Oxford exploring the Colleges and other interesting buildings during the annual Oxford Open Doors weekend. Balliol was particularly swoonworthy:

I also used my Art Pass to visit Eltham Palace (wonderful!)...

... and spent an afternoon at Tate Britain, enjoying the architecture and revisiting some of my favourite paintings.

I simply had to take a snap of the platform at Pimlico on my way home. This kind of urban patchwork makes me so happy - all those blocks of colour! It reminds me of a painting but I can't for the life of me think which one.

I also popped into The Village Haberdashery to deliver some samples for the classes I'll be teaching there this autumn - you can learn to make an autumn wreath, a weather-themed baby mobile or these vintage-inspired Christmas ornaments.

Annie from The Village Haberdashery also interviewed me for their shop blog, The Daily Stitch. We chatted about my crafty childhood, how I started my business, the early days of craft blogging and the realities of making stuff for a living.

In other September news...

... I am trying to send more Proper Post and bought some awesome stamps for sending my letters (the Agatha Christie ones include tiny writing and other clues to the mysteries! So cool).

... the Partridge & Pear Wreath I made last year was republished in Mollie Makes Christmas (it even made the cover, which is always fun!).

... I finally bought wadding and backing fabric for the Christmas quilt I'm sewing for my sister. I'm hand quilting it, so there's lots of hours of stitching still to do. No prizes for guessing how I'm spending my evenings at the moment!

... and I got new glasses! I'd had the same glasses for over five years, and the same style for over a decade so this new look took a while to get used to. Change is hard, guys. I love them now though, hurrah!

I'll share another Instagram round-up next month :)

I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me. You'll also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

July Bits & Bobs

Hello there! Things continue to be a bit quiet around here as I'm still suffering from creative block (ugh), but I've got a few snaps to share of things I've been up to lately...

My shops are all still open, so I've been keeping up my usual routine of parcel-packing and posting a few times a week. I like listening to Agatha Christie audiobooks while I'm packing up my orders and I'm currently 3/4s of the way through Dumb Witness. I'm so familiar with the plots of these books, and they're so light and gentle-paced that I can half-listen to them easily while I'm focused on writing customer addresess, etc. 

I have been doing a little bit of sewing here and there despite my creative block - I finished a batch of small poppy brooches earlier this week. The poppies have always been one of my favourite designs to sew.

Unfortunately I hurt my hand a couple of weeks ago and had to stop knitting for a bit, so I've fallen a bit behind with my sky blanket. I'm still taking careful note of the sky colours each day though... there continues to be an awful lot of grey!

I've been trying to switch off the laptop as much as possible when I'm not working, as part of a wider effort to develop more regular & less workaholic-y working habits. Being self-employed it is all too easy to get into the habit of just working all the time and not properly "switching off" from work, but I'm trying to make a determined effort to stop work at a set time in the evening & take proper days off (just a small bit of emailing in the morning and evening on my days off, which honestly can't really be helped when you're running an online business which is "open" 24/7).

So instead of reading blogs I've been reading stacks of library books, and instead of writing emails to friends I'm doing my best to send them cards & write them proper letters. I'm currently reading Philip Pullman's Northern Lights (a.k.a. The Golden Compass) which is just ace. I am a huge fan of novels like this and read soooo many of them as a teenager, that I am completely amazed / slightly baffled that it's taken me so long to get around to reading the His Dark Materials trilogy! Mmm... lovely books...

On my days off I've been enjoying the slightly unseasonal pleasure of curling up with lots of blankets, reading books or watching DVDs. The "day bed" in my studio is covered in comfy cushions and cosy blankets, including the giant granny square blanket which I crocheted last year. The double-bed sized blanket was my very first crochet project, and a huge amount of fun to make. I finished sewing in the ends just before I suddenly moved house last autumn & it's been packed up in a box ever since... it's very nice to finally be using it, and I think it looks rather snazzy with those vintage florals! I must remember to try to get a photo of the full finished blanket in all its stripey glory sometime :)

I've also been going on some day trips - yay! I'm currently living a mere hour and a half from central London so I'm trying to get up to town as often as possible for trips to galleries and museums and to meet up with friends and some of the lovely folks I've got to know through Etsy over the years. I've been buying a postcard or two from each place I've been to, as a little memento of my travels...

... with so many great galleries & museums (almost) on my doorstep I'm determined to visit as many of them as I can while I'm living here! The Natural History Museum is next on my list, and then after that I'll be giving London a miss for a few weeks while the Olympics are on and going to places like Oxford & Windsor instead. You can see Windsor Castle from my parents house on a clear day, and as local residents we get free entry (yay!) but I haven't been for at least 15 years. I am quite looking forward to it.

UPDATE: My poppy design is now available as a sewing pattern! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

Bits and pieces this week...

Brr! It's really starting to get chilly here.

The blankets and woolly sweaters are starting to come out of storage, I've "treated" myself to a new super-cosy faux-fur-lined hoodie (so warm) and I've already got bored with having to blowdry my hair every day (yawn) and have cut my hair short again - quite similar to last year's DIY haircut, just a teeny bit longer and more choppy (i.e. scruffy).

A few small things from this week...

... I've busy sewing in and trimming the ends from my giant granny square blanket:


... I witnessed some sort of important pigeon conference outside my flat:


(I know some people really hate pigeons but when you live in a city as full of noisy & aggressive seagulls as ours is, pigeons seem remarkably sweet and loveable by comparison)

... and yesterday I looked down at the coffee table to see a matching green mug, green knitting, and a green audiobook:


I love colour coincidences like this - I was obviously in the mood for that particular shade of green!

Spoilt Rotten

I have been thoroughly spoilt this Christmas. Among other assorted lovely things I'm now the proud owner of...

... some gorgeous teatowls from New House Textiles, including two teatime-themed designs by Charlotte Farmer. I know, I know, I don't exactly need more teatowels, do I? but they are so very nice... (images taken from the New House Textiles website)


... some adorable owl print fabric by Cloud9 Fabrics, much admired and finally purchased from Saints and Pinners thanks to some Christmas money.


... brilliant brooches from Made By Anna - another Christmas-money-funded treat - an oak leaf and an ampersand, so nice and both total bargains. I'd been oohing over Anna's brooches for a while but when she added the ampersands to her shop I could resist no longer! (Images taken from Anna's shop)


Plus - thanks to the boyfriend, who I think regards it as an investment in "a bit of peace and quiet" - many happy hours of Agatha Christie fun:


I should be able to get quite a bit of sewing done while watching / listening to that lot! :)

Crafty Maths

A nice cup of tea and some homemade cake...


... plus a box set of Poirot mysteries...


... plus lots of sewing...


... equals a very relaxing afternoon!

Listen while you work

I listen to a lot of Agatha Christie audiobooks while I do my sewing... so I was delighted when the boyfriend brought back this haul from a recent charity shop visit.I know it makes me a bit of an old lady, but they make such a great soundtrack for an afternoon of peaceful sewing.

I like listening to the radio too (especially things like Raymond Chandler adaptations on BBC7) and also do some simpler sewing on the sofa in the evenings in front of the telly.

Do you listen to the radio or watch TV while you craft?