Crafty post at last!!

Pheeew, I meant to post a little something last Saturday when I embarked (every so briefly!) on this crafty project. However a night out with the girls from work and a little bit of restraint on my part, as I didn't want to spend my weekend family-time on the laptop, meant it was a blog-free zone! I'm surprised that my Saturdays are still an ideal time to get some crafting done, you'd think that with working full-time I'd be scrubbing floors, doing laundry, and catching up with all the other household chores - well, ahem, some things never change and I seem to have neatly body swerved such activity today, hehe!

With all the family off doing exciting pursuits like loch fishing, wall-climbing, etc I found myself with an empty (if slightly unkempt!) house. So what did I do?? Well after a brief spell of domesticity, out came the sewing machine! You can take the girl out of the craft room but you can't take the craft room out of the girl (or something like that!!)

The pic above is of the beginnings of a zippered pouch - I chose this lovely pink tweed and a complementary Japanese cotton fabric lining, some interfacing and a 7 inch zip - I got as far as cutting out the basic pieces last Saturday. I planned to use this tutorial which turned out to be great and so easy and simple to follow, I was amazed!! I'm sorry but I didn't manage to photograph my progress as I only had today to make the pouch (I made two actually!) - but here are the results.

The first one I made was simply made with the interfacing on the tweed for a stiffer finish, I was really pleased with it! I then decided to try a second one with some padding (I had some wadding in from another crafty project idea). They were really quick and easy to make - it's enough to make me come out of crafty online hibernation!! Seriously it was lovely to make something purely for the enjoyment of it - they would make great gifts and you never know, maybe I'll do a craft fair sometime just for fun :) Here's the pics of the finished zippered pouches (approx pencil-case size):

I think using some stunning cotton printed fabrics for the linings of these pouches really makes them special - I'm imagining all sorts of combinations of tweed and prints - yum! I'm so glad I tried making these zippered pouches - you've got to have a go, they're very satisfying to make - endless possibilities! Oooops I'm supposed to be making the dinner for the homecoming fishermen - Oh Dear!!! Cheerio an Drasda :) (Many thanks again to 'skiptomylou' for a fantastic tutorial - all credit to her!)

Some Words and Pictures . . .

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my previous post - very much appreciated! This morning I woke to a beautiful sunny day here in the Hebrides and my first instinct was to record it in my blog so I guess some things haven't changed! Here's the story:

Being without my internet connection intermittently over the last few weeks has given me a little time to think about my craft business and where it is going. I suddenly found myself enjoying not having to deal with customer enquiries, confirm orders, etc - basically all the things which run alongside operating an online business. I realised that I've run out of time to do all the enjoyable aspects of crafting - like making things just for fun or for giving as gifts to family and friends. How did that happen???

Anyway, in the meantime I've been asked to work full time at my office job for the next 7 weeks to fill in for staff who have left, or are going on holiday. This will be a major change for me and might lead to further full time work but that will be something to give a lot of thought to and this 7 weeks will be a bit of a testing ground, so here goes!

My blog however is something I really enjoy and so I hope to continue with it in some form or other. I happened to glance at this little piece of needlework hanging on the bathroom wall this morning. I made it from a kit about 15 years ago and really enjoyed doing it. That reminded me that it's not all about Harris Tweed (although I LOVE it!!) but just about crafting in general which I've always really enjoyed.

I won't be selling any of my crafts online for the next few weeks and will review the whole online sales 'thing' afterwards, but I still have a list of things I really want to make and I'd love to carry on recording that here, along with any other random stuff! Talking of random stuff, here's a couple of pics of 'Little S's' birthday last weekend which I must say I thoroughly enjoyed:

He loved all his Sponge Bob themed bedroom furnishings:

We had great fun bashing the pinata fish which we hung from the rafters in the garage (it was stuffed with sweets which all spurted out from the fish's mouth as it began to fall apart - was very funny!!)

The boys all retired to the the top of the den in the garden to share the sweetie spoils of the pinata fish - I was very impressed with their democratic attitude and bartering skills, very civilised!! They looked like a little group of monkeys up in a tree!

So that's the story - a little bit of a crossroads here, but that's life - it would be boring if everything stayed exactly the same! If I survive my first full week of working full-time, I'll try and pop back in next weekend. In the meantime I'll try and catch up with all the lovely blogs I've missed reading while my internet connection's been down (this seems to have been sorted out now thank goodness!)

Happy Sunday! :)

Sorry!

Many apologies, I'm currently having to take some time out from my 'tweedie' business. I'll write a longer post explaining all very soon when I get a little more time to spare. Just one of these things - “The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination” - I'm leaving you with this quotation until I can figure out how to write a post in my own words!! Cheerio an Drasda :) x

P.S. Just to add, nothing disastrous or sinister has happened, just a little change in my lifestyle - 'speak' soon! :)