Just around the corner ...

... is Christmas!



The decorations are up and this year we decided to buy a real tree to sit on the window seat in the living room and put the not so real tree in the snug.  As always, the cats woke from the slumbers to investigate, pounce, play and destroy have fun with the artificial tree and all that endeavours to hang from it.  The photo is of Tilly, having climbed half way up to discover many, many new play things!

I took advantage of a free postage offer from Pocket and Pin (an online craft supply shop that has been in my favourites list for a long time) to purchase a roll of felt in "vintage colours".  It arrived beautifully wrapped and the colour of every sheet in delightful.  Itching to start to use it, I made this very cute Westie keyring using the "meadow" green felt.

Finally, with present wrapping under way, I put together these little packages to hold tiny gifts.  Simply cut from greaseproof paper, stitched with embroidery thread and finished with a button.  Perfect.

A wallet for myself

I was due to start this project in May, after my birthday, and it took me far too long to finish, but finally, having been completed and road tested for a month or so I thought I'd show you what that I have made for myself.



As horses are my thing, I couldn't resist buying some Michael Miller Wee Wander Summer Ride fabric just for this project.  It comes in three colour combinations, white, green (sea foam) and dark pink/red (melon).  White I knew would show the dirt quickly, so I was left to decide on green or pink.  Over the course of a few weeks (yes, a few weeks), I flicked between the two colours on my laptop screen ... decisions, decisions.  Eventually, I went for the green, as my new birthday bag is a dark olive green.

A fabric arrival is always a lovely thing (sorry, perhaps it's just me).  A neat package with carefully folded and beautifully ironed fat quarter of special fabric, just for me.  It stayed carefully stored for another few weeks as I was too scared to cut it!!!

Finally, the day arrived.  I'd sorted out the other complementary fabrics to work alongside my Wee Wander, and off I went cutting out, pressing, adding interfacing and then marvelling at my new, unsewn creation.  Actually, at this point in making a wallet it usually sits in a bag for another week or so ready to be sewn, but on this occasion I was raring to go and luckily, the sewing process went without a hitch.

The finished result was spot on - I adore the happy horse on the coin purse section.  I do like to test drive anything I make to weedle out any niggles and problem areas - so using my wallet every day has helped sort out any issues that need addressing.  So far, I'm very happy to say, I haven't got any - other than the zip, which in my opinion opens the wrong way (away from me, rather than towards me), so I'll be taking extra care to position the zips correctly on future wallet makes.

Packaging no. 2

Continuing with the updated packaging theme for Ellie's Treasures, I had a hunt around my craft drawer and discovered a whole pack of white paper bags that I bought when selling at a craft fair many moons ago.  As I sold a wallet last week, once wrapped in tissue, I decided to use one of the paper bags as an outer packaging, wrapped around with raffia and finished with my business card and product information.

Although I'd prefer a brown paper bag, I was pretty happy with the overall look so will continue with this style of wrapping for my wallets and any other bulkier items.

Last posting dates and spending my pennies

The Cyber Monday cut price sale was a big hit in my Etsy shop.  It was great to see people purchasing hand made gifts and lovely to think that my creations are winging their way to many different homes.  There is still free 1st class UK post on all my items until the end of December, don't miss out, prices will change in the New Year.

This week, I've been working on a special brooch for a customer who found me via my Facebook page.  She'd purchased the fairy toadstool brooch and requested something for her son along the lines of a rocket, castle or teddy bear.  Having found some fabulous castle charms online I suggested a castle brooch with yellow flowers and sun, as this was her son's favourite colour.


I'm currently listening to a whole mixed bunch of different tunes through the PC that hubs put together for a forthcoming party.  It's quite a collection, with some I swiftly turn down the volume and others I crank it up!!  There's tunes I haven't heard in a very long time, like the current one playing, Mark Knopfler's "Coming Home" (from the film, "Local Hero").  Apparently there's 10 hours of tunes on the "party list", perhaps he thinks the party will go into the early hours!

So, last posting dates, as taken from the Royal Mail site.  As most of my items mail to the UK and US I'll just print those dates:

Friday, 13th December for USA and the morning of Friday 20th December for UK 1st class.  Of course this doesn't actually guarantee delivery on time, but I'm sure RM will do their upmost to get packages delivered in time for Christmas!

Out shopping this week for those little extra bits and bobs, sweets, chocolates and the odd stocking filler, I popped in to The Range to find a dog toy for Poppy to unwrap on Christmas morning.  I promised hubs and the kids (who were waiting in the car) that I'd be just a moment.  Well, I got side-tracked by the vast crafting section and discovered a host of wonderful ribbons and lace at amazing prices.  Took me far more than a moment to decide what to spend my pennies on.  Came away with these in the end, to add to my growing collection.  Have already used some lace on my current dolphin brooch - will post about that next time.

Somerset holiday

We spent a lovely week in North Somerset, coming home last Saturday.  As Katie was taking her art IGCSE in Bristol is seemed a perfect opportunity to rent a cottage for the week somewhere close by and we found Mendip View in Congresbury as our ideal holiday home.  It was absolutely perfect with owners, Clare and Richard, just next door in case any problems cropped up and for a good natter over the fence should we see them!  A homely, well stocked welcome basket awaited us on the kitchen table and there were other lovely little additions around the house - bubble bath, dishwasher tablets, a towel for Poppy (should the weather be foul (luckily it wasn't)), games and plenty of books.


As the week went on we began to realise how perfectly located the cottage is.  Main roads to Bristol were a stone's throw away, the motorway about 15 mins and the local train station which took us into Bristol (and then on to London as Paul needed to go into the office one afternoon) just 5 mins away.  We even had Bristol airport a short drive away and took a couple of opportunities to drive up to a parking area alongside the runway to get a really good close view of take offs and landings.  We could quite easily up-sticks and move to this place - it ticked all the boxes.

Shopping took place in Bristol and at Cadbury Garden Centre (excellent craft finds there).  Pretty water feature at Bristol harbourside.  Some eating out took place - nice to be spoilt once in a while!  Watching planes take off and land alongside the runway at Bristol airport.

With the house being at the foot of Cadbury Hill, we took  a climb to the top to witness the fabulous views right over the Bristol Channel to Wales.  On the way back down, getting a little lost among the many man-made paths, we discovered a vast expanse of wild garlic - it smelt wonderful.


Other amazing views were from the top of Uphill, a lovely village close to Weston-Super-Mare.


There were also visits to Clevedon, SS Great Britain (Brunel's beautiful ship docked at Bristol harbourside), At Bristol interactive science centre (Ben's highlight of the week) and a few drives in the Land Rover, including some lovely leafy and hilly lanes.

Nice to be home, but really missing the fun and relaxation of being away.

Mother's Day

I hope all mums out there had a special day last Sunday. I was treated to a yummy breakfast cooked by Paul first thing before heading out to the yard. It was a lovely treat, although I don't think Katie and Ben liked the idea of getting up 1/2 hour earlier than normal to eat it! Ben and Paul cooked home made pizza for evening dinner, and Katie made a deliciously sweet banoffee pie. They know me so well - the way to my heart is certainly through my stomach!!


I made this voucher/money pouch for my mum as a Mother's Day gift as she thought the one I made before was a good idea and apparently she has a lot of vouchers and notes to carry around!  The one I made for her has gussets at the sides to make it wider and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It took quite a while to complete and at one point, close to finishing, I realised one side was completely upside down! Anyway, mum was really chuffed with it and has asked for another for her other handbag!


Would love to hear what you all got or gave or did for Mother's Day - comment below if you want to share.

 

Thought I'd share

these cute little buttons with you.  Found them by chance and they are absolutely adorable.  Can't wait to use them.

Light Box

Was so completely fed up with the dull and miserable weather earlier this week, and as I wanted to list something new in my shops and had wasted far too much time on rubbish photos, I decided enough was enough. I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to boxes (not really sure why) - so I was lucky enough to have an decent sized Amazon box that I could use. Lined the entire box with white paper and put a sheet of tin foil at one end. Popped in my item to photograph and, after experimenting with the use of a small desk top halogen light, hey presto, I had a pretty good picture to use in my listings.
Practically free too! Can't be bad.



Please feel free to use my idea (I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with it!) - product photography for online businesses can be a real pain to get right, perhaps this will help.

Beautiful buttons

I know there's a huge community of button lovers out there and I have to admit, I am one of them!  Most of the buttons in my collection have been given to me by my Mum - she was also collector.  Like me, she used to take buttons off old clothes that were past there best and re-use them - very wise indeed as new buttons can be quite expensive to buy. 

On a recent visit to see my parents, my Mum, bless her, decided she now longer needed the remaining collection of buttons and handed them over to me.  How I love pawing through them, the different colours, sizes and patterns.  There were some fabulous vintage ones in there too, still attached to their cardboard backs - far too precious to use.





Not only buttons, Mum also gave me some vintage needlework, wool and dressmaking instructions.

I couldn't resist doing a Google search for button collections and shops and came across these links that I particularly loved, thought I'd share them with you.  I've included three shops from Folksy too.

Milomade - using buttons in jewellery
Simply Sequins - which sells wonderful collections of mixed buttons
Handmade and Vintage - vintage buttons collections
Jo Lucksted Ceramics, Folksy - handmade ceramic buttons
Mimsical Ceramics, Folksy - handmade ceramic buttons
Pats Paraphernalia, Folksy - fun handmade buttons

Patchy for pre-school and a 50th anniversary card

I was very pleased to be asked, through a Twitter follower, if I'd like to make something for a raffle at Lawley Puddle Ducks Pre-School for the end of May - I made and gave one of my keepsake wallets. 

As unique as every Patchy I've made, I started with the hardest part (for me), choosing the combination of fabrics.  A good old rummage through my big bag of scraps or under my bed (where the larger materials are stored) - all recycled (I've only every paid for one piece of material so far!) and then away I went building it all up, hand sewing everything together.  My favourite part was deciding on the embellishments.  A long sift through my growing box of ribbons (the vast majority are recycled too) had me umming and ahhing over which ribbon or decoration to use for far too long!  Ben came up with the final choice plus the idea of a heart, which I cut from felt in a stunning blue and added a mini tibetan silver cat charm and hand embroidered flowers.  I have to say I was more than happy with the results (as I always am - I'd keep them all if I could) and have started to make another, for the shop, using the same fabric combinations.

Jo, who sent the original request, seemed mighty pleased with the donation - that put a big smile on my face too.




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I have been longing to buy from Zygote Gifts ever since I came across her fabulous things on Folksy some time ago and my chance came when my in-laws celebrated their golden wedding anniversary earlier this year.  They are a very special couple, actually having two anniversaries; one for their original wedding date in March, which was overseas, and another for their British wedding blessing which was in April.

Paul and I bought them this very pretty card from Zygote Gifts with two little tags showing Golden Anniversary and their wedding date.  Cards and pictures like this are from the "Good News from Bad" collection where newspaper is recycled and handspun to produce gorgeous and new items.  Do check out Zygote Gifts shop, it's full of very special things.

Let there be light

Yonks ago I came across something, probably online as I seem to live on the PC, for turning tin cans into pretty tea-light holders.

All very simple.  Fill an empty, label peeled and thoroughly washed can with water and place in the freezer until frozen.  Try not to forget about them.  Ours stayed in the freezer for months before we finally got around to finishing the task!

While still frozen, carefully use a bodger (or sharp ended tool) and a hammer to tap out a pattern of dots around the can.  Please take care with this - especially with little hands and fingers.  The can will obviously be extremely cold and slippery too.  Ben placed his can between his legs to get a better grip - not really recommended though!


Once you've made your pattern, let the ice melt, dry the can and place your lit tea-light inside.  Makes a cheap and very cheerful decoration around the home.

OK, a little blurred maybe, but you get the idea!  Holding a camera while it does its "long exposure" thing is not fun!

A little catch up ...

The summer hols seems to whizz by, as every day, week and month does these days!  We started off well, continuing with our daily maths and some other bits and bobs, but that petered off towards the middle of August!

Katie had a week with my Mum and Dad and had a great time shopping most days!  A teenager's dream I'd say.  While she was away, we set too dismantling her high-rise sleeper, pulled apart the bunk beds in Ben's room and rearranged both hers, and Ben's rooms completely.  Both look great now, and both are happy with their new beds.  During this mega tidy up and furniture shifting (which resulted in several bags of rubbish - yippee), Ben rediscovered his love of maps and puzzles and put the two together, with me reading information from the atlas as he beavered away.

Also, during Katie's week away, Ben and I tootled down to Hunstanton to have a go on some of the fun fairground rides and also visit the Sea Life Centre there.  We were so lucky with the weather, picking probably the driest and warmest day of the week for our visit.  Had a super time and really enjoyed seeing the fish and other underwater creatures as well as the otters at feeding time and Ben's all time favourites, the penguins.  We both endeavoured to take photographs (no flashes allowed), but naturally it was quite difficult capturing anything that moves rather swiftly!  I've salvaged a few for you to see.



We have now bought a second-hand horse trailer to ferry Katie and AJ off to a few shows.  It was going to become hard to get hire trailer insurance for the one we used to borrow, so it made sense to look for our own.  We travelled a fair few miles sourcing the "perfect" trailer, and, with the additional cost of several evening meals out (because it was always late by the time we hit near home), it probably would have been cheaper to just buy a brand new one!  Anyway, Paul and I could easily answer questions for Mastermind on the ins-and-outs of the Ifor Williams Horse Trailer from 1990 - present day and quite sadly we have been pointing out various ones (and other makes too) and naming their make and model number during our said trips - how sad is that!!

Katie competed at Sheepgate Equestrian yesterday doing dressage.  There were quite a few in her class and although she didn't place (1st - 6th), she got quite a good score and rode very well.  We're waiting to get her membership approved for Pony Club - she's very eager to take part in their fun activities and competitions.


I've been fitting in some sewing in the evenings, and am planning a few new items to sell for Christmas.  Katie's done some sewing too.  We found a lovely tutorial on Angel Eden's lovely blog to make this pretty flower.  Here's the finished item - I love the material she's chosen.  She's decided to sew it to a hairband, rather than make it into a brooch.

We're back to work now, with maths top of the list and history following close behind.  Art always seems to feature too, and I'm hoping to throw in a sizeable amount of English as well.  Katie and her friend are aiming to take their foundation GCSE maths next summer.  Although they'll only be 14, I'm going to see if, by Christmas, I feel if Katie's ready for it.  Having finished the KS3 maths syllabus with Katie and Ben within a year, the foundation maths doesn't seem that much harder, so I'm sure she'll be OK.

Aren't these lovely?

Katie made this little Polymer Clay teddy-bear face for her friend's teddy-bear's birthday!


She's been working alot with Polymer Clay recently, thanks to small collection of assorted coloured packages landing in her's and Ben's stockings at Christmas! A friend gave us "Making Doll's House Miniatures with Polymer Clay" from a bundle of books he was going to give away. It's full of inspiration.

Katie is always making things using so whatever she can lay her hands on! This last week she's been making miniature tack for a friend's model horse.

This wooden dolly peg lady which she made a couple of weeks ago and looks so carefree would be perfect for Mother's Day.

Crafting and Lego

With Christmas comes crafting in our household as the children (and me) make presents for family and friends. Katie got a lovely craft book from her friend in Wales and she made this notebook this morning with it's handy pocket at the front. Ben has also made one and Katie has used maps to make little notebooks for the car.


Ben's been busy with his Lego, getting inspiration from watching Star Wars movies. Here's some kind of training station I think:

Bright and cheerful trees

Katie and Ben requested to do some art this week so we checked out Art Projects for Kids and came across this lovely idea. We all had a go while listening to Christmas tunes on You Tube. Katie also made some lovely gift tags. We've put them on our culture board and read up about the history of the Christmas tree finding this site rather useful.

Advent Calendar idea

taken from a link on Crafty Crow's lovely website. Pretty weekly printouts of advent houses, here at Le lapin dans da lune - Non dairy diary. So cute - just need to fix my printer!

Robin art tutorial

We found a tutorial on Folksy, how to draw a robin, and had a go. Very easy to follow and what lovely results. Each little bird seems to have its own little character.

We decided also to check out why robins have always been associated with the Christmas season and came across a rather interesting website - will delve into it more as it looks very good.

Must also give a little plug, once again, for Woodlands Junior School's interactive advent calendar. Always goes down well here, and Ben was able to name today's and yesterday's flags, so obviously something's sticking from last year and the year before (and probably the year before that) - we love this calendar.

New blog for my shop - take a peek ...

I've decided to set up a new blog all about our crafts, inspiration and new Ellie's Treasures shop. It's called elliestreasurescrafts and is also linked at the top of my blog. Please take a peek. It's very new and I need to do lots of tweeking. I love the template but sadly the link bar doesn't work and it seems lots of people have tried to get it to work but haven't been successful. I'll probably end up with a different template, but so far nothing beats this one for looks, so I'm working with it at the mo.

Ellie's Treasures at Folksy

Whoo hoo I've gone and done it, finally! I've opened my Ellie's Treasures shop at Folksy, the UK based collection of shops selling the most fabulous lovelies.

Within four hours of putting up my first two items I was amazed to find I'd sold something - a Patchy Pockets!

I came up with the idea of Patchy Pockets a few years ago and have made them for family and friends.

A cloth wallet with six pocket holders for all those bits and bobs that can easily get lost in your handbag. Not just that, the Patchy is great for holding other small items, notebook and pencil, plasters, sewing items, telephone numbers and secret notes! I made a Patchy for a friend's new little baby boy last summer for all those most treasured baby items - lock of hair, first tooth, hospital band, etc.

Please take a moment to have a browse, not just at my shop, but the whole site - it's a dream to look around!