French Knots

A rash offer

In the butchers this morning we were discussing carriers bags, as you do, the environmental impact and also the cost. 'Perhaps I could make you some fabric tote bags'..... who said that........oh bugger it was me! Yes, loads of time on my hands, of course I can do that too! After mulling it over I wondered about getting some cotton bags screen printed for him as he wants his shop details on and even with speed of light embroidery I couldn't make enough.Has any one had bags printed or know a good supplier I could use? I'm going to Google it later too. Thanks.

My French Knots party went well last night and we had a good chin wag too about babies, work life balance and what fun it is being a parent to children who roll their eyes at you and say 'whatever'. Sales and orders were quite good and I'll certainly try and do more parties. I made a money apron to keep change handy

A recycled embroidered tea tray and a bit of old tablecloth in my favourite Majorelle Blue, modelled by The Big Sister whose waist is a fraction of the size of mine!

I rustled up a mantelpiece decoration as a hostess gift

And a little smile for the weekend - what lovely eyeshadow!

Time for a sit down?

Thanks to all the ex lurkers who have commented again it's great to know who my visitors are! In fact thank you to everyone who comments, I really appreciate it.

I was in Borders the other day and saw a copy of Martha Stewart's Blueprint which I've not seen before, I've had a quick flick through it and it seems to have some great fresh ideas. Also treated myself to Craft Inc from Amazon when I was doing some Christmas shopping. It's about turning a creative hobby into a business so I'm looking forward to reading about how I can take French Knots forward into 2008.

Just need to carve out an hour from my day to sit and enjoy them!

I also want to find time to make one of Wee Wonderful's robots or spaceboys, ideally before Christmas realistically it will no doubt get finished at 11pm on Christmas Eve. I ordered the pattern off her website and it came really quickly and the instructions seem straight forward and well written.

I have a stall at a local school on Saturday plus a party at a friends house tomorrow night so have been making more door stops in preparation as they have been popular. I found time to play with a few buttons

and managed to prise a few from my stash to sell......argh...the pain!

Lots of Christmas lists being made, what I still need to make, who's getting what and a yummy list of edible presents. I've got the apple whisky that I mentioned a while back and plan to make some of Nigella's honeycomb crunch too. In fact I probably need to make a batch for myself first to check it tastes ok!

 

what! Friday already??

How did that happen? Another blink and you've missed it kind of week! Thanks for the pinny love, I know you all have excellent taste.

Talk has turned to Christmas in our house, especially what Father Christmas might bring, but also some discussion of what we might give to other people.My Little Helper was talking about what he might give his Grandma as he got his jimjams on the other night. I'm sure she will be delighted with a Bolton Wanderers Junior Whites newsletter!

If you are my littlest sis you might not want to look at the next picture....don't want to spoil any Christmas surprises

have you looked away??

My newest hotties, taken in the lovely sunshine we had this afternoon. I got this fantastic bias binding from MacCulloch and Wallis

couldn't wait to use them on something and they went well with the soft fleece I'd bought this week so more hotties were born.

I shall be taking them to my next stall in my newest fab fifty pence jumble find

The children complaining they are starving whilst bad Mummy is playing on the computer well actually yes, playing on the computer is right isn't it?!

and the winner is...........

Well I meant to write this yesterday and then this morning but the last few days seem to have slipped away somewhere. In fact I could say that of the whole year!

My Little Helper and The Big Sister assisted in the draw

rummaged around and pulled out Ashley who wins the hottie and also this cute little advent card that caught my eye over the weekend .

Thanks to everyone who delurked, I've got lots of new blogs to visit now. I was really touched by some of the wonderful comments left, thank you all.

The first two stall went really well, I think targeting the Parent and Toddler Groups was a great idea so I've been ringing round this morning to see if I can get a couple of extra bookings before Christmas.

 

It was great fun arranging my bits and bobs and I got some really great feedback ( including one lovely lady who said I should change more for my tshirts!) and a number of orders for personalised Shadow Boxes. It was interesting to hear what people thought about my wares, even from the lady who was telling her friend in a rather loud whisper how she disliked my pinnies!

100!!

Goodness I can't quite believe I've reached one hundred posts. When I started blogging I wondered what I'd find to write about but actually it's not been hard, creativity, sewing, gardening, embroidery, baking, thrifting and my children.

Tyepad says I have about 72 visitors everyday but I can't believe that's right, unless practically everyone is a lurker, and that I've had 673 comments. Wow! That's a lot of people joining in and I thank everyone for taking the time to comment. I try to reply but some days life gets in the way of my good intentions.I think one of the best parts of blogging is connecting with you all who get why a £1 secondhand/vintage suitcase is exciting or a pile of scrumptious fabric is too lovely to use!

So to celebrate the fun I've had so far I would like to hold a little giveaway.

There's a little hottie in a felted jumper case (sorry the photo is fuzzy, camera battery low!) together with some fabric and buttons

I'm happy to send a package any where in the world so come on all you lurkers, leave me a quick 'Hello'! I'll get My Little Helper to draw the winner on Sunday.

Sewing sewing

More sewing over the last few days, a couple of other friends have offered to host parties for me so the run up to Christmas will be busy. It seems to be a good way to sell ( but then I haven't done one yet!!) as people should come with the expectation of buying something, I can just set out my stall and hide in a corner somewhere and see what happens. What should I give the hostess? When people have makeup /jewellery/candle parties is it usually about 10%?

When I was in the fabric shop I noticed this sparkly net which was just asking to be made into a fairy skirt, please note Nonnies pretty hanger! I'm really enjoying spending so much time sewing without feeling guilty - after all it's work now!

And a few more snuggly fleece hotties, I got quite a production line going and rustled up half a dozen pretty quickly. My Little Helper was keen to assist and make sure I get plenty done today - he woke me up at 6am- just the sort of help I need!

I joined Country Baskets wholesalers so had to prove my trading status to shop there, which was tricky as I haven't really got any invoices to French Knots yet. I took along my business card, flyer and a print out of my Etsy page which seemed to be enough. It was heaving with people stocking up on Christmas decorations, flowers and candles. I got some paper carriers and tissue paper for wrapping purchases, some tiny metal buckets for turning into decorations and some reels of ribbon. I need to find a wholesaler for things like bias binding as I'm going through metres of it everyday, another thing for the to do list. 

Had a rare night out last night, to the Brownie Swimming Gala to watch The Big Sister taking part. It was packed so I can only assume that other local parents have the same whirlwind social life as I do at the weekend! The Big Sister had a great time and her Pack came second winning a trophy to display at their meetings.

Well, fancy a bacon buttie now......enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Remember, remember

We had some fireworks in the garden as My Little Helper is scared by them, he likes to watch through the french windows so he can't hear the noises. I love the smell of the fireworks, the sparkler, the treacle toffee and the scent of bonfires in the air. I still write my name with a sparkler, well don't you all too??

Spent. Their sparkle and fire shared and oooed over.

I've got a logo for French Knots, so now I need to work out how to print it onto circular labels and resize it for my leaflet. I've manged to get it onto a party invitation that I've designed as a couple of friends have offered to host French Knots evenings for me this month.

Woops! Slightly larger than I intended! Oh the technical stuff kills me! If you would like Ellie to design a logo for you drop me an email. She manged to convert my rambling description of what I wanted into this, which pleases me greatly.

Finally a quick shot of potatoes

we planted them in a half barrel in the garden and once they died down I forgot about them. My Little Helper really enjoyed digging them up and the expression on his face as he unearthed more treasures was priceless.

A bit of crafting...

Some little hotties that I've made for the stall in soft fleece and repurposed jeans.

These doorstops are my favourites, old hand embroidered tablecloths that I've been hoarding for ages with a recycled spotty pillow case. Goodness they take a lot of rice and of course even though I made a funnel to fill them I still managed to cover the floor with a risotto's worth of rice!

My sister in law gave the children a kit to make chocolate apples

what a gruesome bunch! They were very tasty and we all enjoyed licking the bowl. Hope you are having a creative, relaxing weekend.

Trick or Treat??

We had a lovely Halloween, a few decorations, a couple of carved pumpkins, a witch and a pumpkin costume and some of Ali's ghosties

The children enjoyed making them and they went down well with the trick or treaters at the door.

I got a super treat from a friend,

it has some inspiring pictures

and some lovely projects to try

this one with vintage children's hankies is too cute! I've not had a proper look through it yet but it could be one for your Christmas list.

At the beginning of the week I decided I hadn't got enough stalls booked for the run up to Christmas so made a few calls to local Mother and Toddler Groups........now I'm worried I haven't got enough stock for the events I've booked! No happy medium. I've been working on some doorstops and hotties as well as more aprons so my fabric stocks are a bit low as I like to use vintage and thrifted fabrics. Had a quick trip out this morning and managed to pick up a lovely heavy ,old cotton sheet, several pillow cases and some old blue patchwork for just 4 quid which will be snipped up later after washing............so back to the sewing machine!