Crafting 365 / 53 - a veritable binge of sewing and a narrow escape

I'm just starting a large custom mobile that was ordered this week and as that will likely be eating up all my crafty hours over the next week or so I wanted to "clear the decks" a bit before I started. So yesterday I made a determined effort to sit and finish a big pile of things that needed finishing (mostly bird ornaments) and also to get a few pieces cut out for some brooches so I could make them quickly in spare moments & get them back in stock on the old Etsy. I had quite a successful evening's worth of sewing, lots of goodies ready to photograph and then gradually list and I even tried out a new idea - little bird brooches. You can just see them in the top left hand corner of the photo...
I was going to make another bird ornament to add to the pile but decided to turn it into brooches instead and having two decorated sides I thought I would try out two sorts: one flat and one plush. Decidedly the plush version has won my heart, so you will be seeing more of them, but the flat one does have an odd flat-but-strangely-obsese charm to him.

Right when I was in the middle of this felt binge our birthday-celebrating friend and his parents came round for a drink (the "NOT 30" badge went down well, hurrah! I may make some similar ones for Etsy...) and his mother even left with one of my plush owls pinned to her lapel (so great seeing people wearing them). Unfortunately at that point my boyfriend spilled a whole glass of red wine whilst sitting next to me and my felt-works-in-progress... but he spilled it *away* from the felt and "only" all over our friend's shirt. You can see where my priorities lie that I immediately said "thank goodness you spilled it in that direction!" haha, but in all seriousness I might have killed him otherwise (and the shirt has come out fine in the wash). From now on: no wine near the precious felt! :)

Crafting 365 / 52 - lots of finished brooches, also more shopping

Last night I had a cosy evening in, listening to the radio and getting lots of brooches finished. I added black pupils and brooch backs to a whole parliament of owls and stuffed them, and also finished a few biscuit badges. Fun project of the evening though was making a birthday badge for a friend who is turning 29...
... because the important thing about turning 29 is of course that you are not yet turning 30! :)

Yesterday I got excellent post (just before the strike started at lunchtime), my Major Teacup t-shirt from ScaryGoRound. Yesterday being of course Thursday I couldn't resist modelling my new tshirt for Self Portrait Thursday over on Flickr. The UK Etsy gang's theme of the week was chocolate, so I had to dig out the Green & Blacks (you know, cos they forced me, haha), that and the moustache made for rather a mental photo...

Also yesterday I did some more Etsy shopping, buying a whole bundle of Kate Bingaman's Daily Purchase zines which I've wanted for just ages. This in my mind demonstrates the dangerous dangers of leaving some money in your paypal account instead of taking it out very speedily to help pay for bills etc. I have also been doing worrying amounts of window-shopping, with my eye on several sets of cards (like I ever need to buy any more cards for the whole of my life!) and a couple of prints, including one I am particularly in love with from Heidi Burton whose work is just genius (and not just because she a fellow tea-obsesso). I shall have to sell a few more Etsy things before I have paypal dollars to spend though :)

(Oh and a final happy-dance inducing bit of Etsy news, one of my very favourite Etsy artists bought something from my shop yesterday. Yay!)

Crafting 365 / 49, 50, 51 - lots to catch up on!

Well, I've been getting a little better (hurrah!) but of course now there is so much to catch up on that several things have been getting neglected including this whole blogging lark. Must Try Harder.

So, time to catch up on a few things from the past three days or so...

Day 49, I got quite a lot of sewing done as I was still mostly sofa-bound. I finished off lots of things from my wip pile, including loads of little birdies destined for my Etsy shop (though the leopard-print one is a gift for my MIL who is coming to dinner on Sunday)
Day 50 (I can't believe it's day 50 already!!), starting to get busy again after so many days doing nothing "useful" at all, but I still curled up in front of a West Wing episode in the evening and finished these few things from the wip pile
Day 51 (yesterday) was both busy and full of distractions.
I went shopping for two sheets of felt and came back with dozens (yum).
There was a crazy person outside my house shouting at people and talking to cats for several hours until the community police officers were called & returned her to the care home which had left her there in the first place (she'd wandered off during a day-trip it would seem).
And my poor next door neighbours had their first trip to Casualty with their wee kiddie so their evening out and our quiet night of babysitting got nixed in favour of a takeaway and lots of chitchat....
So I only managed to get a teeny bit of knitting in right at the end of the evening.
My photo for day 51 shows how little I actual managed to get done in contrast to how much I have "in progress" that needs doing! My knitting for the day is up in the top right corner...

In other news, I have been nerdishly tidying up my felt stash. This is it in its entirety:
So much delicious felt. I love my local market so much!

And then because I felt like doing some shopping yesterday and there is nothing in my hometown that I want to spend money on (aside from delicious wonderful felt, obviously) I had a mini Etsy spending spree with some of the cash in my paypal account. I finally bought Kate Sutton's tea badges (which I've been eyeing up for literally months), and gave in to the irresistable lure of some awesome tea-themed fabric from Namolio (I am feeling a dangerous urge to aquire tea-themed crafty supplies coming on...).

Then - prompted by her being the well-deserved Etsy Featured Seller - I invested in two amazingly awesome prints from one of my very favourite Etsy artists, Little Robot. I had my eye on the original of this for ages but had no money at the time (I also rather wanted the storage beard (an artist who designs a storage beard gets my votes any day of the week, I tell you)) so I'm dead chuffed to have added the print to my budding Etsy art collection. Given my current moustache obsession I couldn't resist buying this print too :)

All that shopping and I'd still not managed to spend more than £20 (including shipping). Ah, Etsy, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Oh yes and that reminds me, one of my mobiles was on the Etsy front page the other day:
Also there's currently an Etsy treasury inspired by my moustache cards (how lovely is that?) and I've been blogged a fair bit recently... the lovely Rosehip blogged about her moustache disguise, Feltbug was "subliminally influences" by all the circles in my mobiles, and Swirlyarts has adopted my habit of working from trays. Hurrah!

I'm shutting up now cos this post is long enough already! :)

Crafting 365 / 47 & 48 - an assortment of simple crafty tasks

I am still ill, and it is still rubbish. I'm at the "pottering about the house in pajamas and an old sweater not really doing very much and watching lots of rubbish on dvd" phase (very technical medical term, that!). So I'm still ill but at least able to communicate with the human world instead of being stuck in bed the whole time dreaming weird dreams about theme parks, tomatoes and adding a nice ribbon trim to a bolero jacket from Topshop (analyse that as you will!!).

The day before yesterday I was really not up to very much and sat listening to the radio, watching dvds and generally staring into space a little whilst knitting some little hats. Then yesterday the old noggin was working slightly better & I managed to get a little bit of my work-in-progress sewing pile attended to.... here are the products of both days:
As you can see, I sewed a few more eyes onto a few more birds (though only the whites of some, making them look slightly spooky), made a few moustaches and started a few more, and I stitched together a couple of pink & purple ornaments which have been waiting for their ribbons for just ages (they look rather wonky in this picture but I assure you that they are perfectly fine!). Of course now today it is raining like crazy and there is no light to speak of so actually listing the little blighters will probably have to wait another age... ah well. Taking photographs would involve standing up for rather more time than I can manage at the moment anyway, haha.

Right, I am off to drink tea and to do a bit more knitting. This would almost be my ideal way of spending my time except for that whole feeling ill thing (that and the knowledge of all the money I'm not earning by being unable to attend my legitimate paid employment. Bah).