Felt-making Workshop

Had a fun day today at my first felt-making workshop of 2012. There were no beginners at this one, so we launched straight into nuno felt-making, which is hard work but very rewarding. With the heavy rain and buffeting winds outside, it was a great way to keep warm and work off some of those surplus Christmas calories! If you're interested in learning how to make felt, check out the details on the Workshops and Courses page of this blog and get in touch.

A Beautiful Morning..

It's a beautiful, sunny, bright morning so I just had to go for a walk! I ended up as usual along the beach, which was pretty deserted apart from a few dog-walkers, but the sky was clear blue and the tide just going out, so a perfect morning for beach-combing. I managed to find some sea-glass and a few shells, nothing really exciting but the fun is in the searching. Talking of beach-combing, I've just re-listed my 'Beach-comber' bag on Folksy...take a look, it's certainly unique!

'Beachcomber' felted knit handbag on Folksy

Today is also the day my niece Lucy heads back to Australia for another year of adventure. It's four years since I came home from my travels out there (where did those four years go?!) and I'd love to go back. So many more beaches to comb....
Bon voyage to Lucy and anyone else travelling soon - and if you find any interesting sea-glass or shells, you know where to send them!

Happy New Year

It's 2012 and I'm feeling really excited about all the possibilities out there for the next 12 months. I intend to make a great start to the new year by getting going with all my projects from day 1 and pushing myself to achieve all the things I want to achieve. I truly believe that anything is possible if you want it enough, so I'm giving it everything this year. I hope your new year starts on a positive note too and that you also achieve all you set out to achieve.
My philosophy for 2012...I don't have to live my life the way others expect me to. So here goes......

The Last Days of December

Well, that was Christmas...very enjoyable, very relaxing and lovely to spend time with family and friends.
Now it's back to preparing for the New Year and planning for 2012. I have some felt-making workshops to promote and run, some work to do on my online shops and blog, a new Facebook page to set up, lots of making to do and events to prepare for. I don't think I'll be bored in January!
I received some great craft books for Christmas - so no shortage of inspiration - and am now thinking about Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and the wedding season - I think it's time to put that beautiful vintage lace to good use. I'm also planning some colourful cushions to brighten up homes in the winter months and bring a touch of Spring and Summer to my Folksy shop. Don't forget to keep visiting to catch all the new goodies that I'll be adding to it over the next few weeks.

This time next week...

...it will be Christmas Day. I'm not expecting any more sales from my Folksy and Etsy shops for Christmas, but will keep them open just in case anyone wants to browse over the holiday period and maybe treat themselves (or someone else) in the New Year. I'm going to focus on stocking them up a bit more over the next few weeks with some bright, cheerful things to help banish the winter blues. January and February are my least-favourite months, so working with bright colours will cheer me up as well.

The exhibition at Littlehampton Museum is still running - for one more week. I'm not sure it's such a great time to exhibit - just before Christmas everyone is really busy and there are not many visitors around - but it's been a useful experience and I can add it to my CV!

There's a lot coming up in 2012 - exhibitions, art trails, festivals - as well as my workshops and courses to promote, and I'm hoping to do a couple of larger craft fairs too. But now I'm winding down and putting the sewing machine away for a few days, so I hope you all have a very merry Christmas & look forward to catching up again in the New Year.

Christmas is a-coming!

I finally got into the Christmas spirit and started writing my cards today. Tomorrow the tree will go up too, so it will really feel like Christmas...at my house anyway! I also spent hours listing things on Folksy (still struggling with the new site, but it gets there eventually) and even longer doing the ironing, but we'll gloss over that!
The weekend was good - I spent both days at the craft fair and sold some of my stock, mainly smaller items such as phone cases and a couple of larger items too - but it was quieter than we hoped, especially on Sunday. However, I sold a lovely silk scarf on Folksy and something from my Etsy shop too, so not a bad weekend.
The textile exhibition is still on at the museum (until 23rd December) - no sales as yet but there's still time.
My next project is a dress for me for Christmas...it's years since I did dress-making so this could be interesting. I also plan to make a belt to go with it...if it looks good, I'll put a photo on my next post. In the meantime, here's one of my latest hand-painted silk bags (available on Folksy).

'Sunflower' hand-painted silk bag on Folksy

Contemporary Art & Crafts Fair

Well, it's December now and only 4 more weeks (and a bit) until Christmas, so I'm hoping lots of people will turn up at the Contemporary Arts & Crafts Fair in Rustington over the weekend (see Events listing for details). I've just about done all the making I can for it and have a nice selection of textile goodies for sale, including... handbags, cushions and scarves in hand-painted silk; lots of small gift items such as phone cases, key fobs and padded hearts; some lovely hand-made felt cuffs (yes, I finally did some felting!); and some trendy knitted pieces. Today is all about preparation...labelling and pricing everything, getting all the props together and packing it all up ready for the fair tomorrow. Wish me luck and I'll report back after the weekend...

Hand-felted cuff



One of the new phone cases - SOLD