Thrown off the wagon by a messy house

It is sad but true. Yesterday I did not a single crafty thing because I was cleaning my house. I hate days like that, hate them hate them. They make me feel like a domestic drudge instead of a person and after all that work my house still isn't bloody clean! In fact in some places it looks worse as boxes of things have been emptied but not yet re-packed and cupboard-contents are strewn across the floor. I have been throwing lots of things away, washing lots of things, rearranging lots of things... but making NOTHING. Bah. I did have an excellent day for my other project though - clearing out cupboards gave me a lovely big pile of things to give away.

In other news... I was buying Etsy gifts for other people in the evening when I found just the most beautiful Etsy shop, called paperiaarre. It's based in Finland and sells gorgeous handbound books and also some of the most awesome brooches I've seen in ages. Made from old book pages they are beautiful in a soft, quiet and elegant-but-still-slightly-nerdish way - classy but still casual. A lot of the time I am a total scruff-pot, unbrushed hair and old jumpers and 100% jewellery-free... but when I scrub up neat I love to wear brooches and I just could not resist this one:
I bought another which is supposedly a gift for someone but I can picture it finding its way into my jewellery box and onto my cardigans, hehe.

365 / 93 - The Ignoring of Plans

So yesterday I said "I am planning on making little penguin pins , finishing that little pile of tree stumps and also working on lots of oak leaves" and then yesterday evening I did none of these things! I didn't even start any of them! I faffed about most of the evening, tidying up a little, listening to the radio and leaving my dinner in the oven while I was busy nattering on Etsy (oops). I did get a little bit of sewing done though, clearly influenced by all the cake I have eaten this week (I am having a very sweet toothed phase at the moment) - cake slice brooches:
One is Victoria sponge and the other is coffee cake I think (or perhaps chocolate? any thoughts?). I'm quite pleased with them, but now I want to bake a sponge cake!

365 / 92 - lots of new things

Right, so last night I was supposed to be working on restocking a few things, cutting out lots of pattern pieces etc. I settled down on the sofa with my supplies around me, put a David Attenborough video on (check out this awesome bird), and started work only to get totally distracted almost immediately...

I got two oak leaf pieces cut out and finished my little embroidered wood slice pins and was about to cut out lots more pattern pieces (honest guv'nor) when I thought "ooh, I'll give that embroidered badge idea a try" and spent the rest of the evening doing just that! First up I made a little "tea addict" pin:
Then I decided to save tea drinkers time by making little badges declaring one's tea-drinking prefences to the world (mine's black no sugar) - I'll be listing these as custom/personalised items and making them to order:
Finally I made a start on some of the little embroidered picture pins I started scheming back on day 57 while I was doodling little pictures at work. I'm planning a whole series of these, lots of kitchenalia as I'm loving all things kitchen, cooking and crockery -themed at the moment. To start off though, cutlery and teacups:
Here's the whole evening's work...
I did get a few more pattern pieces cut out, as you can see - making a few more tree stump pins. The tree stump showed up on the Etsy front page this morning as part of a quite delightful "faux bois" treasury. Thanks again to memake for the pdf! I did get a rubbish screenshot of my own this time:I am rather afraid I shall get distracted again this evening and not get any of my plans attended to, but I am planning on making little penguin pins , finishing that little pile of tree stumps and also working on lots of oak leaves. I sketched lots of oak leaves while I was away as I'm planning on making a couple more slightly smaller versions of the ones in my shop at the moment. Here are the sketches. I have my favourites but I want to try a few of them out...

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