my creative space . . .

A little pile of 'tweedie' teddies, on my living room chair, waiting to be handstitched . . . . but not today, as I've lots of errands to run! More busy, creative peeps over here!

P.S. Many congrats to all those involved in The Quilt Project - I thought it was brilliant and hugely inspiring! Quite a feat - go have a peek :)

Inspiring Stuff!

I didn't mean to do a post today, but while taking a photo of a custom order for a lovely fellow blogger/crafter, I used this pear as a prop - I don't know why! It was sitting in the fruit bowl and when I took it out it had a lovely leaf attached, so here it is. I love organic shapes in fruit, nature, flowers, etc - always inspiring.

It's also a good excuse to mention that Mariana (Florcita) has moved here to a fabulous new blog/shop/website - Hurray! Go have a look - fabulous stuff :)

I knew I'd find an excuse to post this pic, hehe!

Happy Tuesday!

Pumpkins and Dinosaurs

Hope everyone had a nice relaxing weekend - I did! I had a few bits and pieces of crafting to do, packaging up some stock for the Gallery shop (it's amazing how long things like attaching labels takes!) and a little order for two dinosaurs for a lovely customer. Not too much to be stressful, but enough to keep me busy - which is exactly how I like it! Here are the little dinosaurs (sorry for poor pic - taken late last night). Made to order from my own website.

I bought this lovely big pumpkin for 'Little S' on Friday - I'm beginning to get attached to it sitting on my kitchen table! It's quite a beauty, isn't it - they're such a fabulous vegetable, really decorative - it's almost a shame to slice into it, but then that's the fun part!

Happy Monday :)

(P.S. If you see anything on my own website you like, but would prefer to purchase via my Etsy shop - just give me a shout and I will set up a Custom Order - easy!)

my creative space . . .

Some of my 'tweedie' birds ready to go the Gallery shop (when I finish the other 5 of them - pheeew!). In the background, to the right, is a 'grandmother' clock which we acquired earlier this year (originally from my Other Half's grandparent's house). It's probably a bit incongruous with the rest of the furnishings in our living room, and it's stuck at 12 o' clock forever - but I like it like that! Forever midnight, hehe!

More creative peeps over here :)

Birthday Weekend

Sorry, have been a bit quiet over the weekend - it was teenage son's birthday so we celebrated with a takeaway in the evening which was very yummy (we don't have takeaways very often, so this was our treat). I'd bought a cake but we were so stuffed after the meal that we kept it for Sunday, the day after the birthday.

I took a very nice photo of him with his cake but being a teenager he wouldn't have it on my blog - which is a shame 'cos I can't show him off, Awwwww! I'm in a bit of a cake-free zone at the moment, (much to my family's amusement!!) so I only allowed myself a tiny little slice - honest!

In between celebrating, I made a small start on some 'tweedie' birds for the Gallery shop - work has progressed a little slower than I would've liked but it is school holidays after all! Here they all are ready to be sewn up (by hand), which is the nice part - I can pick them up whenever I have the time, do one or two, here and there, in between hollering at my boys, in the nicest possible way of course, as they're little angels really, hehe! (I don't really holler, well, just a little bit - don't all Moms?!)

Happy Monday :)

P.S. You can count the candles to see how old 'teenage son' is - Aaaargh, I can't believe he's reached that age already - scary!!

my creative space . . .

Just finished the last of my 'tweedie' matryoshka dolls last night, and so here they are! This little pile are bound for my local Gallery shop, who kindly take a range of my products. I've had a few nice comments recently from people who have spotted my pieces here, so it's obviously a good retail outlet to stick with! It's a busy little shop and I think the right target market for my kind of craft - a little bit quirky with a local (tweedie) twist!

I added some backing fabric to add weight and smoothness, otherwise the matryoshka fabric was too thin against the weight of the Harris Tweed. When I started them on Monday, I was all set to make them on my sewing machine but after one test-drive I decided I got a smoother, softer finish by hand-sewing them, which is how I usually make individual ones anyway. I am a hand-sewing nut anyhow, so I might as well continue in that vein! (will probably not make me very rich though!!)

I love the colours of this one, which I backed with a rich co-ordinating teal/cream check Harris Tweed. Not so much of a 'creative space' today, as a 'creative heap'! The boys are on October hols and I will be taking 'Little S' to the dentist later on, which will be a good excuse for a browse around the shops and some retail therapy I think!!

Bye for Now! More creative spaces over here :)

Getting Started

In Gaelic we have a proverb: "Se obair latha toiseachadh", roughly translated it means "starting a job, is a day's work in itself". Yesterday I decided to get started on my Gallery shop order, got all the colours of tweed together, materials, tools, etc, by which point it was almost time to pack up and make the dinner! However, I'd made all my colour choices, and by the end of the day I'd cut out all the pieces, pinned them together, ready to start. So there's a lot of truth in that saying - starting a job IS the biggest hurdle!

Anyway, today I'm ready to get stuck in - which feels quite good. The boys are on their October hols, but I'm not! (I had my October break a bit early this year!) Just means we can be a bit more relaxed though and if we fancy a jaunt into town, then we'll just down tools and scoot off! Although I don't want to spend too much time on my laptop while the boys are about this week, I will try and pop in and report on 'tweedieness' back on the croft, in the usual way. Horsing on with some 'Tweedie' Matryoshkas now!

Cheerio an Drasda :)

Gutted!

I happened to pick up a copy of our local rag, the Stornoway Gazette, over the weekend - it was last week's edition so I'd missed it due to my jaunt to the mainland. Who happened to be on the front cover but Mr Luciano Benetton, the Italian fashion guru, meeting with one of the Directors of one of our local Harris Tweed mills.

The two gentlemen looking very handsome in their tweed jackets were posing in an 'impromptu Harris Tweed recreation of one of Benetton's iconic adverts'. So the one weekend I manage to escape for a city break, Mr Benetton happens to be visiting Stornoway - sheeesh! What a missed opportunity, I could have showered him with some of my 'tiny-tweedies', or thrown him one of my beach-balls as a gift! Benetton and Harris Tweed - what a fantastic combination though, I think I'm star-struck!

Back to the real world, I've got a Gallery shop order, and a craft fair coming up - it's time for some good old hard graft!!

Happy Sunday :)

Back to Blogland!

Well I wasn't choked by the smokey, city air after all and have managed to find my way safely back to the croft! Pheeeew!

I had a lovely time with my two Big Sisters and my lovely nieces - lots of girly chats and plenty of laughs. My sister's flat is in a lovely part of the city beside a beautiful park, so it was lovely to look out on beautiful leafy trees for a change! Not polluted at all, quite the opposite - we managed to take in a movie, did some shopping and and ate lots of lovely home-made meals from a new cookery book I took along with me.

I got back to a few e-mails, one confirming a craft-fair date at the end of November, and the other, an order for Christmas stock from the Gallery shop, so looks like I will be busy over the next few weeks! I was a bit unsure as to which way to go for the Christmas season but it looks like I've got my path clearly marked out for me now, which is great!

Here's a mosaic I took before I left of the moorland beside my home - I've been enjoying some lovely walks here as part of my new healthier lifestyle I'm trying to adopt! Hmmmm, I wonder how long it will last!

Bye for Now! Back to crafty/tweedie posts at the weekend :)