Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas. I have had a lovely Christmas and have been really enjoying myself. Its been really relaxing and so lovely to have some time to try some recipes (almond meringues with my new whisk yesterday), do some knitting, potter and generally relax. I am already dreading going back to work and think I would be very happy to just stay at home forever.

I have been making a few things, like some cards, new sausage dogs and some cushions for our living room, but have been trying to take a more relaxing fun approach, rather than be in the factory mode I found myself before Christmas and its been fun.

Happy new year everyone!

Merry Christmas

Got a very busy day today cooking and cleaning and generally preparing for the arrival of mine and Jon's parents! Ahhhh!



So its just a quick post to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Hope everyone has a lovely time and manages some relaxing too. I also wanted to thank you all for reading, as well as all your lovely comment and support I have recieved in the few months I have been blogging. I will try and do a post before new year, but in case I don't hope you have a wonderful and happy new year.



Thanks everyone and Merry Christmas.



Helen xxxx

Fortnum and Mason Hamper

Last week I think I mentioned that where I work had given us all a wonderful Fortnum and Mason Hamper. So thought I would show some pictures of it. Its a really beautiful wicker basket which no doubt will be used to store some craft suppliers, but I do like the idea of using it for summer picnics.
There were lots of lovely things in it, and here is a small selection. It was all really nicely packaged, I'm such a sucker for nice packaging!!

Random bits and bobs

Bit disappointed by the lack of snow in Nottingham today, I think some snow would have made me feel extra christmassy.

My fella is out on his work do tonight so I am planning an evening of wrapping pressies and drinking sherry. I may even buy a party food selection for tea. Actually those last sentences makes me sounds very sad indeed!!

Tomorrow I am working all day in the Nottingham Craft Mafia shop (Get Made), which is on St James St in Nottingham. I normally have quiet a relaxing and productive sewing day when I work in the shop, but I think tomorrow may be quiet busy. Its a great shop for gifts, and I think I may be buying a few last minute things too.

I am feeling more organised than the start of the week as I only have one present to finish making and have made, written and posted most of my cards. But have a busy week planned next week so glad I feel more on top of things.

I have also listed some new textile pictures in my Folksy shop this morning.

Sorry is a very random post! I really need to do some new work so I have more interesting things to talk about!! Have a good weekend everyone.

Productive use of time

I had the dentist this morning, so had a bit of a late start. I had planned to use the opportunity of being home in daylight to take some picture of some things from this week. But instead I had a lay in and it was lovely.

I was going to show you the xmas decoration I made for my front door, a hat I have knitted for a friends baby and the fortnum and Mason hamper which was waiting for me on my desk yesterday!!

But instead here is a random selection of photo's I took a couple of weeks ago. But I am feeling a lot less tired so that's good!

Market Research...

I think as early as September time I said I was going to wait until Christmas time to see how things have gone and then maybe have a good think about the direction I am going in and what I should be making.

Now this has been my first Christmas as a proper seller, its gone ok. I was really please with how a couple of the craft fairs have gone, bit disappointed with online sales (although I did sell something last night) and sales of my items in Get Made are improving. So for a first Christmas I think it has gone quite well but there is certainly room for improvement.

Now I do have quite a few ideas for new products and things I would like to try, but don't want to say too much until I have started to make them. But ideas include, doing more printing, a new card range, a new felt range and making some smaller lower cost things.

But I thought it might also be interesting to do a bit of market research, to see if you have any suggestions of what I should be making. I know this might sound like I am cheating a little, but sometimes it can be hard to take a step back. So please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Thanks

Christmas Shopping Evening

Just wanted to let you know about the Christmas Shopping Evening at Get Made tomorrow (16th December). Get Made is the Nottingham Craft Mafia's shop, which is situated on St James Street (next to the Malt Cross). It sells a wonderful selection of handmade things from some very talented local makers. Its a great place to find that perfect gift or to treat yourself.

We are normally open Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11am - 6pm. But will be open a bit more the week before Christmas - see the Nottingham Craft Mafia blog for details.

Tea Cosy

Just listed a new tea cosy in my Folksy shop. I think its my favourite one!

http://www.folksy.com/items/170722-Handmade-Felt-Tea-Cosy

O'Christmas Tree

Well I am actually starting to feel quite Christmassy, so due to the lack of new things to show you, I thought I would add some pictures of my Christmas tree. Its abit of a funny shape, but looks quite pretty.

Most of the decorations are homemade and are in fact probably about 10 years old now, but I still quite like them. I try and add a few new ones each year.

This year I swapped a couple of my mini Christmas Stocking for a couple of beautiful Robin Decorations. These are made my Rachel Ainley, who organisers some of the local craft fairs that I have done. I really love them, but wish I had brought more from her. I may contact her to see if she has any more left.


Yesterday I decided to make a decoration for my front door (How do you attach wreaths to UPVC doors), I certainly won't be entering florist of the year anytime soon, but I was quite pleased with it. Its not a wreath, but more of a hanging foliage thing. I will try and add a picture tomorrow but it was too dark this morning and last night.

Now I just need to finish (or start) the last few remaining Christmas presents I am making.

Custom Orders

Yeh, I have finished and posted all of my custom orders. Its quite a nice feeling to have them all done. Although I find it all a bit scary as I really want my customers to like what I have done and you don't really get to hear any feedback. But having said that I did drop a couple of pictures off at someones house and they opened them in front of me, which was really scary, but she seemed please.


The photo's (sorry they are not very good, its always seem to be too dark!) are of a large personalised picture I sold through a site called Bouf. I send it early this week, so I hope they have it by now and I have my fingers crossed that they like it. I was pleased with it and really enjoyed making it, as its been a while since I did a larger one.

Colouring in....

As I child I loved colouring in, (when I wasn't designing bat winged jumpers). Even when I was a student I had one of those patterned geometric colouring in books, me and my house mate George would sometimes sit and have a colouring in session.

The other day at work I found myself doing some sneaky doodling in black pen. I then decided to photo copy the doodles so I created my own colouring sheets. The Angels may end up being Christmas cards (as I need to make some for myself), although I scanned them in today and they don't look so good. But I did enjoy my colouring session.

And the winner is.......

So the winner, who was picked at ramdom by Simon who I sit next to at work is.... (Drum roll)......




.....Fairly Girly! Yeh congratulations!

Thanks very much to everyone who entered my blog giveaway, I really enjoyed reading your Christmas gift wishes, and loved that most of them are so reasonable, eg: craft knifes, wool and handmade things. We an easy bunch to please by the sound of it.

Sketch Book

The Nottingham Craft Mafia does a regular feature on artists sketch books which I have been finding really interesting to read. This, along with looking at some beautiful sketch books at the knit and stitch show has got me thinking about my own sketch book.

At college I always had one on the go and really found them useful for developing ideas, I loved that they got really chunky as they would often have collages and samples stuck into them. So this year I started using a sketch book on a regular basis for the first time in years.

Its great to have all your ideas in one place and to be able to look back and revisit ideas. I have found with this one its mostly sketching down ideas in the form of quick black pen drawings (I never draw in pencil), I suppose its good as many of these ideas have been developed into textile pieces.

Although I have enjoyed doing this sketch book, and I hope its the start of many more, its not quite the same as the ones from my college days. I hope in the next one to explore and develop ideas more, to try out more ideas, including samples and create some thing bright and interesting, rather than just black pen sketches. But the good thing is I am looking forward to starting it.

UK Hand made - winter issue

Check out the winter issue of UK handmade, full of lovely stuff, including something on Nottingham Craft Mafia, yeh!!

http://ukhandmade.co.uk/main

Winding down

I have been feeling a bit rough this week and generally under the weather, starting to feel a bit better now, but still sound a bit bunged up.

So I have been talking things easy this week, which has been quite nice after the hectic month or so. I have almost finished by last custom order (just needs mounting and framing) and then I have no crafting pressue for a while and I am really looking forward to it.

I am sure I will still be making things and have lots of things planned but it will be nice to not be rushed and even have time to develop some new ideas and try some new techniques.

I treated myself to The Sarah Raven Christmas Book this week, so have also planning some cooking days, I really enjoy cooking, but haven't have much time for it recently, so hoping to make lots of christmas treats.

If you haven't already done so, don't forget to enter my blog giveaway (see last post for details) you have until the 7th to enter. I am really enjoying reading everyones christmas gift wishes. I am hoping for some carders so I can do some nice colour blends when felting.

Its Giveaway Time

I had said to myself I would do another giveaway when I reached 50 followers, but I missed it!! So to celebrate 52 followers and December I am doing a blog giveaway.




So to win the selection of goodies above all you have to do is write a comment saying what you would like Santa to bring you for Christmas, you have until 7th December at midnight to enter.

The selection of goodies includes a small felt unframed picture, a mini Christmas stocking, a grey and white wool brooch and three hand felted and embroidery Christmas decorations.


To thank of all my wonderful followers for reading and all your lovely comments followers names will be entered into the hat twice.

I have been listing some new things in my folksy shop and have some more to add, so take a look

http://www.folksy.com/shops/Petaltextiles

Re-grouping

I did my final craft fair of the Christmas season on Saturday, yeh! It actually wasn't that good to be honest, but you live and learn and I still had quite a nice day.

It was in Sheffield, near to the city centre, but in comparison to the local one I did it seemed really quite quiet, although apparently they had around 600 visitors.

In the end I did ok, but at 2:30pm, I had only taken £35!! I found lots of people just walked passed and didn't even look, and yet again the things I sold seemed odd. I didn't sell any Christmas decorations and only a couple of cards, but sold all of my knitted phone and ipod covers. Next year I must remember to make more stocking filler type things.

So I am now left with lots of stock, so I will be busy listing things on Folksy later. Ideally I could do with doing another fair, but have things planned so even if I could find one, I am not sure I could fit it in.

Yesterday I spent the day tidying my work space and getting myself organised again, which was very satisfying.

I am at home sick today, got a really sore throat and feel rough, so I am on operation get well soon, I hate being ill and I am fairly rubbish at it, so I am hoping I will be better soon.

Craft fairs are strange

Did a craft fair yesterday at Carrington School in Nottingham. Had not done a school craft fair before and had read very mixed things about them. So I decided to go with low expectations and just to enjoy an afternoon off work.

But it was ok, had a nice glass of mulled wine, a nice to chat to some people I know and some new people. And sold 4 things! Which wasn't too bad as the cheapest thing I sold was £8! So not a bad couple of hours. I also gave out loads of cards.

Really don't get craft fairs, the other week I did one, I was really happy with how I did, but I mostly sold cards and decorations. Yesterday I didn't sell any cards or decorations very odd!


I have a stall at Candy Cane tomorrow in Sheffield, going to try and go with limited expectations again. Have enlisted the help of my friend Mill, so we should have a good laugh if nothing else, promise to take some photo's this time.

On the work front, feeling a little better about things, had a chat to my lovely line manager yesterday, no magic answer and I think its going to be like this until till Christmas, but I think I just need to remain positive and not take it personally. Thanks Sooziebee for the knitting suggestion, but I think they may notice. Jon suggested, blind folding me for an hour ever night, so I learn to do crafts without looking, I can then make things under my desk!!

Sorry about the lack of photo's struggling to take any new ones as its so dark all the time. Will try and take some at the weekend.

The end is in sight

I am doing two craft fairs this week, so for the last couple of weeks I have been busy topping up my stock and finishing the things I didn't manage to complete last time. As well as trying to get on top of the orders I took at the last craft fair, in case I do get any more.

I am almost there now which is a nice feeling and can't wait to have a good tidy and sort out on Sunday before starting on some more custom orders.

Here are the details of the fairs: Carrington School Craft Fair on Thursday 26th November - 3:30pm - 6pm.

Candy Cane Sheffield - its a two day event, but I just have a stall on the Saturday, should be good and I have enlisted the help of my friend Mill, so hoping to have a good laugh too.

Finding things very frustrating at the moment, the craft side of things is going well and I am really enjoying it. But my real job is really getting me down, we are normally fairly quiet at this time of year, but more so this year and its been very quiet for a while now. Most of the things I normally do at this time of year have been given to someone else, so I just find my self sitting here thinking about all the thing I need to do when I get home from work. Hence the daily blogging. I HATE having nothing to do, it really does me no good and I suppose I am a bit worried about the situation. I am hoping it will be ok, I have been here before, but it really is annoying and does make me feel very good about things. Sorry that all sounds a bit miserable!

Knit and Stitch show - favourite things

I saw lots of lovely things at the Knit and Stitch show on Saturday, but as I know its easy to get carried away at these things I had set myself a budget, which I actually managed to stick to. But there were several things I had to very quickly walk away from.

I thought these bags were gorgeous, not only are they lovely felted bags they have most lovely huge wooden button on them. They are made by Toft Alpacas, check out their website, its full of so many gorgeous things. http://toftalpacashop.co.uk The kits to make the bags were £80, so its not really an option at the moment, but I may be treating myself to a giant wooden button at £10, they are so beautiful.

I also fell in love with a beautiful fabric range, but can't remember what it was called, I know it begun with E. It was made from a really thick fabric, maybe even linen and it had really nice patterns. Hopefully the name will come to me. Unfortunately I had spent my budget by this point, but may treat myself in the new year.

Glorious

Glorious - this isn't a word a ever thought I used, but apprently I used it twice to describe buildings in about 10 mintes! Makes me worry what else I say without realising it!


Anyway,I have just spent a 'glorious' weekend with my friend Emma in Harrogate. We spent Saturday at the Knit and Sticth show. Its was great to have a mooch and stock up on fabric, buttons and fibres, I think we both stuck just about within our budgets but did still brought quite a lot of things. It was also good to see the textiles pieces on show and I think we have both come away with lots of ideas and things we want to try.

Its the first time I have been to the Knit and Stitch show and I couldn't belive how big and busy it was. At times you almost had to queue to get onto the stands. It got a lot better after 3pm as I think the coach trip start to leave.

Then on Sunday we did a bit of laid back Christmas Shopping before going to Harrogate Spa. Had a very hot but relaxing time, although it would have been nice to have taken my sketch book in as the building and tiles were gorgeous, but it would have got a bit soggy.

So great weekend, but I am now slightly panicking as I have still have some orders to catch up on and a few things to finish before the craft fairs I am doing on Thursday and Saturday. No idea when I am going to get everything done, but sure it will be fine.

(Photo's are from some of the gallery type stands at the Knit and Stitch show, sorry not sure who has made them. The last two are of my purchases)