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?

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??

Corgi Love

I have to admit that don't really care very much about the royal family, or about the upcoming royal wedding (being self-employed, I won't even get a day off work!)... but I simply had to buy one of these teatowels designed by Gemma Correll:

Cutest corgi ever!

Gemma's royal wedding teatowels are available from fab teatowel shop To Dry For (photo from their website).

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! :)

Tea Time

I've been treating myself to a few things on my Etsy wish list lately as early Christmas-presents-to-myself :)

I've blogged before about my teatowel addiction, so it should come as no great surprise to learn I bought a couple of new teatowels from the teatowel queen, Heather of Skinny laMinx. Heather's teatowels dry up so well, and I just couldn't resist her new teacup design (image borrowed from the Skinny laMinx shop).


With tea-love on the brain, I also bought this cute little teapot clock from Decoylab.


I've wanted to buy one of their clocks for ages but ummed and ahhed over which one to buy... but when it came to it, it had to be the teapot. Now it will always be time for tea!

Teatowel Addiction

My name is Laura, and I'm a handmade teatowel addict.

It's sad but true, one of my very favourite things to treat myself to is a nice teatowel from Etsy... I'm building up quite a stash of them:


(Including designs from Skinny laMinx, Mr.PS, Showpony, Flowerpress and Abigail*Ryan)

Honestly I don't think I need to buy another teatowel as long as I live, but keep adding designs like this and this and this to my wishlist...

Are there any other tea towel addicts out there? What do you like to treat yourself to on Etsy?

Neglecting the Washing Up

I did make stuff yesterday, but as my camera is well and truly busted I'm going to leave off the crafty updates for today and instead present a few Etsy finds.

It has been so sunny today! Just gorgeous. I have been enjoying myself in the sunshine and neglecting chores like the washing up... (tsk tsk). My Skinnylaminx mugs teatowel and I really need to spend some "quality" time together, but instead of actually doing the washing up I've been procrastinating by searching Etsy for new teatowels. As I've said before, I do love a nice teatowel. They're that classic "beautiful and useful" thing and cheer up both your kitchen and that most dull of chores, doing the dishes.

Some designs that caught my eye this evening...

After my long hot day, this fab lolly design from MrPS really makes my mouth water:I can't get enough of kitchen-themed fabrics, so I am totally jealous of Beaky for finding such a great pattern. Just perfect for a teatowel:
This handwoven towel from KindredThreads has the most darling bit of trim: I love the styling of this picture, too:Finding this "filigree" teatowel in FlowerPress's shop makes me very happy indeed, especially as apparently there are lots more teatowels to come! So, so beautiful and going on my "to buy" list pronto:Then finally more cake in the form of these sweet cupcakes from DizzyDezign (whose botanical designs are also very pretty):Other lovely places to shop for teatowels on Etsy include GloamingDesigns (always so subtle and chic!), MasseyandRogers (lovely modern birdie prints) and AshfordTrading (an Etsy shop in need of their first customer!).

I'm actually going to go wash up now... honest...

Things To Do

My "catching up with the month I've missed and getting my online world up to date" to do list is rather a long one...

This morning I had 45 messages in the "Etsy Reply" folder in my email account, and when I logged into Etsy it said something ridiculous like "you need to leave feedback for 190 items" (I may have been a bit behind on this even before my internet went down!) ... and I have 152 new messages (mostly new contacts) on Flickr! Plenty to keep me busy, even without blogging, updating my shops, catching up with my favourite blogs etc etc etc

I'll be adding new items to my Etsy shop all through this week and I will be blogging daily from now on - it hopefully won't be too long before I get back to posting my 365 craftiness and uploading lots of photos. I did fall off the 365 wagon rather badly during my internet-holiday, but I have done *some* crafting and lots of other fun stuff besides!

Typically, this includes doing some birthday shopping on lovely Etsy.... so far I've treated myself to this lovely print from LittleRobot (I cannot understand why I've not bought this before, it is so charming):
... and the fab teatowel I mentioned the other day from showpony:

Counting Down the Days

We've made the switch to a new internet supplier after WEEKS of no internet and terrible customer service from our old supplier they've finally given us the code we need to make the switch and our new modem etc is in the post! Hurrah!

In the meantime please buy lots of things from my shop to cheer me up, haha :P

No, seriously, in the meantime check out these excellent visual treats from Etsy...

Awesome teacups and cake stands decorated with amazing and whimsical illustrations from EstherCoombs. Quirky pictures by laurennassef - I particularly love the collectors with their thought clouds brimming with their obsessive collections. Sweet tea-themed pictures by whatkatydoes and jenskelley. Oh, and great teatowels (I do like a nice teatowel) featuring buttons and dishes from new find annabelwaterman and old favourite showpony.

365 / 221 - Always Time for Tea

I'm a bit busy, a bit tired, a bit distracted by other things at the moment ... but there is always time for a bit of tea-themed craftiness:
A nice soothing bit of freehand embroidery (accompanied, of course, by a real cuppa), due to be turned into brooches sometime soon. Regular readers will recognise that I'm re-working an old design from last year... and by reworking I mean making it bigger: I did love the old tea addict pins but they were a little bit tiddly!

I've also found time for some tea-themed retail therapy, buying teatowels from Skinnylaminx over on Etsy:
The design is called "Mugs", available in 3 yummy colours (raspberry, blueberry and gooseberry) and features her collection of awesome vintage mugs. As a mug-hoarder and crockery-obssesso this is basically the perfect design for me, and being a teatowel it's so practical. I do like things to be beautiful and useful, and a practical purchase is a largely guilt-free one :)