A Trip to Bristol (ish) - Winford & Weston-Super-Mare

Remember the weekend trip to Bristol I took earlier this month? Well, after spending Saturday wandering round central Bristol I headed out of the city and spent Sunday in Somerset. 
 
I spent the night on my crafty chum Lisa's (very comfy!) sofa and in the morning, we went for a walk around her village...

  

... and went to the village shop.

 

Then we drove to Weston-Super-Mare to meet up with our friend Nicola for our first get-together in about three years. I'd never been to Weston before so it was great to go for a walk around town and along the beachfront, although the weather was a bit miserable!

 

 

The summer attractions were all looking a little sad and empty...

... but there were quite a few people out for a walk with their (happy and excited but very windswept) dogs.

 

Lisa, Nicola and I have been friends for years (after meeting via Etsy sometime in 2007, 2008?) so it was great to chat about life and Etsy and crafting and generally catch up over a cuppa or three!

Can you tell how chilly it was from the photo? :)

Seaurchin Giveaway Winner

The winner of the porcelain pendant from Seaurchin is...

famfa who said... "Wow her work is gorgeous. I would love to own a piece. Please enter me."

Lisa was so thrilled by all your comments about her work that she's generously asked me to draw a second winner, who will receive a brooch. The winner of the brooch is...

gill who said... "What beautiful work! I'm off to look at Lisa's shop/blog. Thanks"

Giveaway: Porcelain Pendant from Seaurchin

Today's giveaway is from Lisa Stevens of Seaurchin.


Lisa is a mum and ex-sculptor for Aardman (Wallace and Gromit). She says... "I make small porcelain dishes and jewellery at my home studio, meticulously texturing each one by hand (no stamps or texture sheets), sanding and glazing them. My influence is from natural elements such as coral, flowers and woodland and I often complete a piece with rich, jewel-like melted glass and precious metallic lustres."

Recent endeavours include her 365 dish-a-day project, some for sale here, and her dot pendant and pin range, here and here.


You can buy Lisa's work from her Etsy shop or Folksy shop and see her works in progress and new pieces over on Flickr.

Lisa is giving away a porcelian dot pendant:


The pendant is made from unglazed white porcelain, with a coral polyps design. It measures approximately 3/4inch (2cm) across and 1/4inch (8mm) deep, with Lisa's maker's mark, initials and the batch number on the back. The pendant has an 18inch sterling silver chain.

For your chance to win, just leave a comment on this blog post. Lisa is happy to ship internationally, so anyone can enter but please remember that you will be responsible for any customs charges if you live outside the UK. Leave your comment before 10pm on Sunday 13th November (UK time) and I'll pick the winner at random on Monday 14th November.

Please leave a name or pseudonym and include a blog link, Twitter or Etsy username, or email address so I can contact you (if I'm unable to contact the winner within two weeks, I will have to pick someone else so please make sure you leave a way for me to get in touch). I'll then pass your details on to Lisa so she can send your prize.

UPDATE: this giveaway is now closed.

365 / 90 & 91 - Sweet Treats and a trip to the Dentist

I have returned! Hurrah! Time to catch up on lots of things like uploading photos to this here blog and attending to my daily "find-something-to-give-away" project (fairly hard to do when you're away from your possessions!).

The day before yesterday it rained a lot so I curled up indoors and did lots of sewing...
I finished some poppies, a tea badge and made a few new things as well. I made some little birds for a custom order, a custom fish ornament and then a brooch from the same pattern as I'm so pleased with how it turned out. I had a custom "NOT 50" badge to make and made a spare one without a fixed age ready for personalisation... I also embroidered a few little wood pins, cute little felt log-slices inspired by the embroidery I did for my tree stump.

Here's the NOT 50 badge:
The fish ornament (and its original sketch for comparison!)

Oh and here's a lovely pin tin given to me by my mother - how gorgeous is this??

Then yesterday I felt RUBBISH, just super-tired and generally poorly. I managed to do a bit of sewing in the morning and to get out of the house to go to the dentist (all clear, woohoo!). I felt worse by the afternoon and spent the whole evening in bed eating chocolate (my poor teeth...) feeling sorry for myself. I was feeling particularly grumpy cos I missed out on going to knit night and meeting the wonderful knithappens, which I had been looking forward to so very much. I did at least manage to get some simple sewing done, sewing on brooch backs and finishing off (tasks saved for knit night, sniff!).
I finished off some tea badges and some little acorns ... and in the morning I made jammie dodgers (a suggestion from a lovely customer!) and FINALLY made some more Battenburg pins which have been out of stock for just ages because I am LAZY. They are such fun things to make though, so cute and plump and yummy-looking when they are finished...

... and now I am home again. I have returned home to delicious treats - the boyfriend has clearly been up to no good in my absence as he has bought me presents including this awesome book:
I also had great post from lovely Lisa aka Seaurchin - I bought one of her necklaces (seen on Flickr and just too delicious to resist) and it happened to be her 200th item sold so I got lovely extras in my parcel!
I bought this necklace, made from the patterns in some old anaglypta wallpaper Lisa removed from her house while redecorating... and she sent me another little wallpaper necklace and also a handmade card. The pink stripey stuff in the background is a section of a secondhand scarf that was used for the packaging instead of bubblewrap. Such a great eco-friendly idea, especially if you've got say an old jumper with a hole in it that a charity shop wouldn't take. It lends her parcels such character while the jewellery itself is smartly and professionally packaged in little black boxes tied with ribbon and topped with delicious moo cards.

Lisa's shop is the one on Etsy that I show EVERYONE when I am explaining Etsy to them, no matter what their taste is. She is my example of "awesome and talented specialists making stuff like this..." and her work has received more "ooooh"s in my presence than I can possibly count. I highly recommend buying her work now before she becomes internationally renowned! :)

UPDATE: My poppy design is now available as a sewing pattern! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

Crafting 365 / 36 - Round like a circle in a spiral...

... like a wheel within a wheel... That song has been going round my head like crazy as I've been finishing off my current project. Circle after circle, round and round, stitching, stitching, stitching. After a big final push and several ribbon-based tangles, I have finally finished it! the biggest mobile I have ever made (and possibly one of the largest things I have ever made, too).... proper photos another time but here it is in a big heap:
Hurrah!

In other news, my moustache obsession continues apace as I have been listening to Hercule Poirot mysteries on the radio (tis Agatha Christie month on BBC7, you know) and I have treated myself to this little beauty of a t-shirt from the lovely John Allison:
It seamlessly combines my moustache-madness and my crazy love of all things tea related making it therefore perhaps the perfect t-shirt for me. The tea love has also driven me to purchase this little treasure from Seaurchin:
(she is making it into a brooch for me). How darling is that? I love the thought of wearing it with one of my "I love tea" badges (I always say about those that they are "declaring my political allegiance") and I think it will look mighty spiffy on my winter sweaters :)