365 / 146 - Framing, Sewing and being Blogged

It's sunny! Wonderful, wonderful. Thanks to the wonders of sunshine, here is a photo of what I've been up to these past two crafty days:
Lots of moustaches finished on day 145, some of the pictures (mostly acquired on etsy) framed yesterday afternoon, and apple pins (finished) & oak leaves (embroidered) last night whilst watching yet more episodes of Doctor Who.

Ah, how satisfying it is to have finished all of that lot... I am also dead chuffed to report that I have been blogged a delightful four times this week.
1) My deer pin showed up on Cuteable
2) My mobiles are featured on the Craft zine blog today (thanks to paperbluebird for the heads up!)
3) One of my customers posted a lovely photo of one of my bird ornaments on their Christmas tree! I cannot tell you how much I smiled seeing that photo, it is so great to think of my work as part of someone's Christmas.
and 4) The lucky buyer of my 500th item - the super-talented Heidi Burton - has blogged her gift parcel in just the sweetest way.

On the little scribbley note I wrote to myself as a reminder to mention these things I have also written "heidi cards!!" in a somewhat frantically underlined fashion because I keep forgetting to mention that Heidi Burton has Valentine's Day cards in her shop and they are awesome. You should buy some, and if you do she offers to write your greeting for free and post it in time for Valentine's. My favourite card? The tea-themed one, obviously...

365 / 145 - more moustaches & another featured crafter: Paperbluebird

Last night I finally finished the batch of moustache disguises and pins I've been working on. Rather slow progress as I was doing my sewing whilst watching many episodes of Doctor Who (the most recent series, staring David Tennant), and what began as "a bit of filler in the background" soon became totally absorbing. I'm not quite an addict yet but I'm sure I will be soon...

Today I couldn't take a photo of said moustaches as the weather has been completely filthy the entire day (and now it is both dark and still filthy). I decided to hole myself up indoors where it is warm and dry and get some work done, but all of this rain and lashing wind has made me rather restless. So instead of sewing or filing or whatever, I have cleaned, tidied, ironed, and laundered. I've also started putting my "art collection" (in no way as impressive as that phrase suggests!) in frames ready to work out where to hang everything. Only cheap clip frames but it's great seeing beloved pictures finally behind glass and ready to go on the wall - though the boyfriend would disagree! (he thinks my taste in art is "mental", ah well).

One of the newly-framed pieces is a lovely Zinnia card by paperbluebird, who happens to be today's featured Crafting 365-er... Paperbluebird makes deliciously-sweet embellished bird ornaments (mentioned on this here blog many months ago), and striking modern paper goods many of which are gocco-printed from papercuts like this one:
It has been great seeing her crafting 365 photos, etsy-related and other projects like this crochet blanket, and I especially love seeing work-in-progress shots of the birds which I have admired for so long...
Her thoughts on the Crafting 365 project? "I check in on the new pics posted to the site 3 or 4 times a week - I've loved the project because it has made me realize that crafting doesn't have to take all day, and I don't have to wait until a project is finished to post pictures. I love seeing the pics of people working and creating in their homes, and I've really enjoyed the supportive nature of the group. Flickr groups in general are great, but I really like the sense of accountability in this one (even if I sometimes skip a week and pick up where I left off... I do come back!) and the way that I've gotten to know certain people's work and style. It's really inspiring - I'm so glad you asked me to be a part of it!"

365 / 144 - moustaches, plus! Featured Crafter: CharlotteNarunsky

Last night I did a little bit of moustache-embroidering, and then I did a little happy dance as my grey squirrel pin was on the Etsy front page! Hurrah! Thanks to Bombus for the heads up and the screenshot.
Here for your visual pleasure, some embroidered moustaches ready for being turned into disguises and pins and today's lovely Etsy post - parcel 1 of 2 from ouou, note the lovely packaging and the printed cuteness on the envelope:
In other news: I have decided to do a series featuring members of my Crafting 365 group, finding out how their 365 project is going and showing off a few of their photos. I find their work fascinating and hugely inspirational and I hope you will too!

The first featured 365 crafter is the lovely CharlotteNarunsky, who blogs here. Charlotte has a great eye for colour, mixing patterned fabrics together quite beautifully in her quilts and bags.
She also makes needle felted flower corsages, created somehow (by magic perhaps) from materials such as these:
Charlotte writes: "I have found the crafting 365 challenge to be incredibly helpful to me, largely because my obsessive nature means that I can't bring myself to miss a single day! I have been so much more prolific since I started, and have also become more creative because of it - making the same thing for 365 days would not be much fun at all! It has been inspiring to see the work that others are doing, and I feel like a little less of a freak in the crafting wasteland that is my home town!" - I am so with her on that last point! Not very much going on round here for the crafting-obsessed...

365 / 143 - tidying up and getting nice post

Yesterday I was determined to tidy up the spreading mess I've created over the holidays. When I started yesterday morning my sewing, filing and packaging debris covered the coffee table (and part of the lounge floor), the kitchen table (and part of the kitchen floor), my dressing table and our breakfast bar. It's nowhere near being actually tidy yet, but it's getting there! I've tidied out a new little workbox for myself now, complete with useful box-within-a-box for the circles I'm making out of my felt offcuts and last night's sewing: moustaches and oak leaves...
As I have no dedicated workspace where I can spread my works-in-progress out and come back to them, I am forever taking things out and packing things away. I'm gradually developing a working system but it's taking a while to work out how best to do things, and where to put everything when I've finished. I shall take photos when it's all organised, I promise.

Now here's a much more interesting picture (though still taken in a terrible rush so not too exciting I'm afraid), the lovely Etsy post I got this morning!1) Fabric from ALittleGoodness - gorgeously wrapped in that blue paper and including a lovely bit of free ribbon which in my photographic haste I forgot to include. The fabric is just darling and the service that goes with it is always impeccable.
2) "Package 2 of 2" from OuOu - including lovely mini cards, a sweet little note and a set of cards as a free gift cos I was lucky enough to buy her 100th item. I doubt it will be long before she sells 100 more, her illustrations are cute as a button.
3) Not from Etsy but still good - crazy felt coaster (one of a set) bought from John Lewis as a late Christmas present by the boyfriend (what a sweetheart). I don't know that it has fully dawned on him that he now has to give these house-room, but I'm sure he'll get over it...