A Very British Biscuit Tin

Gosh, it's been a while since my last blog post!

Things have been quite quiet here over the past couple of weeks. I've mostly been doing things like slowly catching up with my filing & accounts, and watching a bit too much TV.

I have also been eating far too many biscuits thanks to the purchase of this gorgeous biscuit tin from Marks & Spencer:

It's got a map of London on the top and then each side is illustrated with stuff from each country in the UK.

I did quite like the trio of square Diamond Jubliee -themed biscuit tins M&S were selling, but it was this one which stole my heart. Once all the biscuits have been eaten (which won't be long now, at the rate I'm getting through them) the tin will be put to good use holding in-progress craft projects or sewing supplies, I'm not sure which yet.

Talking of Diamond Jubilee stuff, I also recently treated myself to this "Royal Tea" tea towel designed by Charlotte Farmer (image from the Tate Gallery shop). You know how I love a nice teatowel! 

Have you bought anything as a "souvenir" of the Jubilee?

Jubilee Weekend Bits & Bobs

I hope you guys enjoyed the Jubilee weekend!

Here a few snaps of what I've been up to over the past few days...

I used some pretty tape from Summersville to make lots of mini "thankyou" cards to send out with my orders - this was the perfect task to do while sitting watching coverage of the Jubilee festivities on the telly! I use the same tape when packing my orders, sealing bags and envelopes. 

Following the fine example set by our kitties, I've been spending lots of time curled up with blankets taking it easy (although I haven't gone as far as to have have actual naps yet, haha). The weather has been so cold & miserable here lately that both cats have adopted a very "pro lap" policy this week and I've had lovely purring bundles of fur keeping me company (& keeping me warm!) when watching films in the evening.

Thanks to the chilly weather I've also managed to get caught up with my sky blanket. It's definitely the right sort of weather to sit with a half-finished blanket on your lap, sewing in yarn ends. I've been knitting so many grey squares for it lately, I don't think this blanket is going to be a particularly great advertisement for the charms of the British summertime!

I've also been framing some large prints & posters, the frames for which have been on my "to buy" list since I sorted through my pictures back in January. January! At this rate, I may have actually hung some art on my walls by the end of the year. (The print in this slightly blurry pic is by Hazel Nicholls).

In other news....I'm trying a few new things:

1) I've switched off the word verification widget on my blog's comment form. I keep reading on blogs etc how much people hate them / how they prevent some people from commenting, and I'd hate for that to be happening here on my blog! However, I am a little concerned about getting a sudden influx of spam in my inbox so I'm going to give it a try for a while and see what happens. If there ends up being too much spam it will have to come back again (sorry!).

2) I'm giving up caffeine for a bit, to see what effect it has on my energy levels. I've been trying to cut down on my tea drinking for a while now but it's all too easy to let those tea breaks slip back into my routine (especially with my parents freqently offering to put the kettle on). Today is Day 2. I'll let you know how it goes! :)

and 3) I've resolved to stop neglecting my Facebook page as I have shamefully done pretty much since I first got it. I don't use Facebook very much in my personal life & it's taken me a while to get used to it / work out how I want to use it for my business. I've been linking to my latest blog posts, but really that's not very exciting, is it?

So from here on I'm going to be trying to share some more fun stuff over on Facebook - links to cool projects, tutorials or crafty products I find in my online travels, reviews of my book or nice things people have been making from my tutorials, and other bits and pieces that are great but aren't normally things I blog about... plus I'll keep you up to date about new posts here on the blog & anything new / any special offers in my shops. Sound good? Click here to visit my Facebook page.

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.