New Stuff in My Shop!

Amazingly, after blogging yesterday about how I needed to take some new product photos and get lots of things added to my shop... I have actually taken some new product photos and added lots of new things to my shop! Such efficiency.

There are some new cherry blossom headbands - sweet felt flowers & leaves with ribbon ties. Perfect for summer parties, these come in white & peach...

... and pink:

I've also listed a white & peach version of my cherry blossom trio brooch:

Then there's a whole bunch of bits and pieces I've sewn as samples for tutorials... which now all need a good home!

There are Christmas trees...

... and snowmen...

... and angels...

... and owls. 

It's a bit weird adding Christmas ornaments to my shop in July (especially when it's such hot and sunny weather!) but never mind :)

I've got a couple of larger items which I need to check postage prices for, but in the meantime you can find all the new additions HERE.

Cherry Blossoms: Finished

Ah, there's nothing quite like finishing a big pile of sewing! Such a lovely feeling of accomplishment. 

Lots and lots of little stitches went into these cherry blossoms:

There are some pink cherry blossom trio brooches (already available in my shop, here), some white and peach brooches... and some cherry blossom headbands in both and pink and white/peach colourways. I made a few of the pink headbands last year, but with pale pink ribbons which I wasn't 100% happy with. I decided to switch to brown ribbons instead (to match the felt the blossoms are sewn onto) and I'm very pleased with how they've turned out. 

Hopefully I'll get some time this week to take some product photos and get all these goodies added to my shop. I'll be sure to let you guys know when they've been listed!

Something New & Something in the Post

Here's a snap of something new in my workbox at the moment:

I'm slowly turning all those cherry blossoms I cut out last month into brooches... they'll be a white & peach version of the pink cherry blossom trio brooches that are currently available in my shop:

And here's a snap of something lovely I got in the post this week:

They're the ornament kits I treated myself to from Alicia Paulson's shop. I originally just bought two but couldn't resist ordering a third (the Walk in the Woods set). They arrived in the country a couple of weeks ago but I only just collected them from the sorting office this week because there were customs charges (and customs office handling fees, ugh) to pay and I kept putting it off.

Ah, those colours! So lush, and so deliciously different from the bright colour palette I normally work with (although they do match the cherry blossoms quite nicely, don't they?). I am so looking forward to starting these this winter.

Making Cherry Blossoms & Forget-Me-Nots

I've been quite busy the past couple of days with lots of computer-based tinkering. I've been getting lots of important stuff ticked off my to do list (yay!) but I've not been doing much that's especially blog-worthy (boo!).

My main crafty project this week has been slowly cutting out lots of felt flowers and leaves. As always, all these pieces are cut by hand so they take a while...

I'm making forget-me-not brooches, cherry blossom brooches and cherry blossom headbands.

The cherry blossom trios are currently only available in pink, but I'm hoping to get some white & peach ones (like this single blossom brooch) sewn and listed soon. I almost got a couple sewn last night actually, but I wasn't 100% certain that the thread I'd picked up was actually peach so I thought it best to wait until daylight to double check!

Spring Flowers in Progress

I've got quite a few "works in progress" on the go at the moment, including some pretty spring flowers.

This tray of little pieces will become cherry blossom brooches and headbands...

... I cut everything by hand, so it takes a while (especially when cutting out lots of little fiddly shapes) but it's very relaxing and the perfect task for quiet evenings or low-energy days, or for those times when I'm just not really feeling in the mood for working and can't really focus but I still need to actually, you know, get some stuff done. 

I've got quite a few piles of almost-finished things waiting for their final finishing touches, or for me to buy more of a particular shade of thread. I was most of the way through finishing these auriculas and primroses when I ran out of dark green thread:

Talking of running out of thread, I bought an "emergency" reel of black thread a few weeks ago to tide me over when I'd run out and boy did it get used up quickly! The new reel is pretty massive but it should last me a little bit longer than the last one :)

New Things + a Nice Mention

I'll be adding lots of new things to my Etsy shop this weekend - hurrah!

There are lots of new spring flower brooches...

Pale yellow primroses:

And burgundy auriculas:

When I work on new designs I often end up with a few prototypes where I've tried out slightly different stitching/colours/etc before finalising the design. These will be listed at bargain prices, so keep your eyes peeled :)

There's also a new cherry blossom headband, with three pink flowers sewn on a long ribbon. This is an extra-fancy version of the elastic headbands with single cherry blossoms which are already available in my shops - for parties and summer weddings, or just for people who like their hair accessories to make a bit more of a statement!

As with the spring flowers, there are a couple of cherry blossom prototypes which will be listed at special prices... including a very fancy headband with five pretty cherry blossoms. 

I've also been playing around with a few forget-me-not designs. There's a mini brooch with a trio of forget-me-nots...

... and a sweet headband too:

Finally, there are a couple of owl masks. These have been in my "work in progress" box for months and months so it's very satisfying to have them finally finished to share with you!

This was my prototype design...

... and this is the almost-finalised design that I'll be adding to all my shops just as soon as I can get hold of some more of that light brown embroidery thread!

All these new pieces will be popping up in my Etsy shop over the next few days, just as soon as I can get them all listed. Remember, if you mention my blog during checkout when ordering anything from my shops this month your order will ship with a free gift.

In other news... my book got a mention in the 250th issue of Cross Stitcher magazine which came out this week. Yay!

Cross Stitcher are having lots of cool giveaways to celebrate their 250th issue (and 20 years of cross stitch goodness), visit their blog for all the details.

Cherry Blossoms and Forget-Me-Nots

I added a couple of new felt flower brooches to my Etsy shop this week. Each brooch features a mini "bouquet" of flowers - all hand cut and hand stitched (as always!) with seed bead centres.

Pink cherry blossoms:

And blue forget-me-nots:

You can find them in the felt flower brooches section of my Etsy shop.

Wednesday WIP

From my "work in progress" pile yesterday...


... a box full of scraps from the last few days sewing, and a lid full of almost finished cherry blossoms.

I use this little box when I need to take a bit of sewing, some scissors, threads, pins, etc with me when I travel.

When I'm working at home it gets used to store in-progress projects - the lid is also great for tipping seed beads into so you can have a good rummage without them rolling everywhere.

Cherry Blossoms

Many cups of tea + a Green Wing marathon + thousands of tiny stitches = lots of felt cherry blossoms!


These will be cherry blossom hairbands, in pink and white & peach.

Sewing Cherry Blossoms

I'm delighted to have sold so many cherry blossom brooches and headbands this week - I've started to run out, so I'm making more :)


50% of the proceeds from sales of my cherry blossom designs will be going to the Japan Tsunami Appeal (British Red Cross) this week (13th-19th March).

(Apologies to anyone who's had repeats of this post in their RSS feed - I accidentally hit the publish button before changing the date I wanted to post it, oops! I think I need more caffeine...)

Cherry Blossoms for Japan

My thoughts have been with the people of Japan this weekend.

I've decided to donate 50% of sales of my cherry blossom brooches and hairbands this week (13th-19th March) to the Japan Tsunami Appeal.


The cherry blossoms are available from my website, my Etsy shop, my Folksy shop and my DaWanda shop.


For each £10 item I will donate £5, for each £5 sale item I will donate £2.50. For the sake of simplicity I'll also be donating these amounts in £s for cherry blossom items sold via my DaWanda shop where prices are in Euros. (Update: the £5 sale items have now sold out but there are still lots of brooches & hairbands left in stock, and I will make more if they sell out).

I'll post my donation receipt on the blog next week.

Spring Flowers

Oh how I love spring! It's so wonderful seeing all the early spring flowers appearing everywhere...

Over in my shops, one of my favourite flower designs is now back in stock: white cherry blossoms, available as brooches and as elastic headbands:


I've also added a couple of my older flower designs to my £5 sale: bluebell brooches and lily of the valley brooches:


I've only got 2 or 3 of each of these left in stock, and once they've sold out they'll be discontinued to make room for new things.

All the flowers are currently available from my Etsy shop, my Folksy shop, my DaWanda shop and my website. I've been having a few problems updating my website this week, so if the bluebells and lily of the valley haven't yet been marked on sale don't worry I'll refund the difference to you after you've paid :)

Bits and Pieces

A few things I'm making at the moment...


... cutting out pieces for white & peach cherry blossoms, and some bullfinches... sewing together some coal tits ... and embroidering some oak leaves.

All lined up

I spent yesterday afternoon listening to a Hercule Poirot audiobook and doing lots of sewing - really lovely after a week filled with emails and packing and admin and other non-creative stuff.

I was working on goldfinch brooches and white & peach cherry blossoms which will become brooches and hairbands.


Whenever I make things in batches, I always line them up neatly. It gives me a real sense of progress as I work down the row adding the next felt shape, etc, and I love seeing them all lined up finished before I pack them away in my storage boxes.

I'll be sewing these onto brooch backs and hairbands this afternoon then it's on to the next thing in my wip box...

Finishing Touches

There are lots of almost finished batches of things sitting in my workbox at the moment. Tonight I'll be finishing these lovelies...

Pink cherry blossoms ready to be sewn onto headbands:
Plus a pile of felt cameras waiting for their final details:

White and Peach

I've been making some more cherry blossoms... in white and peach this time!All those will become brooches and - newly listed - hairbands like this one:I have dropped so many of those little beads down the sofa this week - it's a sofa bed and I expect when we open it up for guests a shower of little beads will rain down :)