Button Love

Hurray! My crafting area is now tidy and ready for action - my supplies are arriving in dribs and drabs, and not always to my complete satisfaction :/ The things I'm waiting for are only small inexpensive items but I don't know if you've ever tried to purchase a previous item, but can't quite get exactly what you had before - aaaaaargh! Never mind, these buttons arrived on Saturday. . .

. . . they're EXACTLY what I wanted, and I love the grain in the wood - I'm itching to use them with my Harris Tweed, but I'm holding fire until I get all the CORRECT supplies. I need the same supplies to make my Kindle sleeves, which I hope to start on soon.

I spent the weekend making a little pressie for a blogging friend - it involved crochet and softie-making, deep joy! - I can't show it as it would spoil the surprise. It inspired me to combine my crochet skills with my 'tweedie'-making though, so I'll show a pic of that once the gift has been received. I'm being very careful to put a 'Sender's address' on the back of the parcel - one of my X-mas gifts went astray and I didn't put my address on the back, I was gutted!

It's a little grey here today . . .

. . . the sea is a pretty pale aqua colour though.

Ssssshhhh, I hear the Postie Van outside - please bring my crafty supplies today! . . . . :)

Speak soon :D

Alison x

More crochet fun :)

While I'm doing 'serious' things like writing lists, ordering some new supplies, tidying my craft space - in preparation to start building up new 'tweedie' stock, I'm continuing having fun with some crochet practice. I find it really relaxing and creative and I'm determined to keep it going as an enjoyable crafty outlet alongside 'tweedie' work - 'heck' a girl needs to relax, right??! :)

The boys were on half-term hols this weekend, so alongside making batches of scones (I think these were mostly for me!!), surviving 'Little S' having some pals for a sleep over (I found that feeding them every couple of hours afforded me some 'crafty' time!!), I spent some time poring over my 'Cute and Easy Crochet' book - so many things in this I'd love to make! Here's one of my 'experiments' - the boys thought I was making a very, very, very small beanie hat - which I was, sort of :) . . .

Well, I'd better dash - that craft space won't tidy itself - unfortunately :(

I did quite a bit of work on a new 'tweedie' product over the weekend too though, which was really fun - I'll do a big 'reveal' when I've got some ready to sell! Bye for now peeps - have a fun day :D

my creative space . . . ready to go

I'm all ready to go with some sewing projects today. I got quite organised rather late in the day on Tuesday - it took me most of the day to work my way up to making ONE little coin purse. Why does it take so long sometimes just to make ONE item - I really don't know! I think there's so many distractions in daily family life that it's difficult to concentrate on doing one thing well - that's my excuse anyway, hehe :)

I wanted to make a coin purse with an embroidered feature that mirrored the lining fabric (little Matryoshka faces) and also a little key-fob tab as an additional feature. Of course I faffed about for an hour or so with the crochet flower I'd made the night before - you can see where my time goes, hehe!

Here'sa close up of the purse . . .

. . . and the crochet flower with some tweedie leaves added to it . . .

The plan is that today I make another little coin purse, all cut out and ready to sew, and a red 'tweedie' zipper clutch - also cut out and ready to sew. Whether this actually happens is questionable as the boys are now on half-term holidays this weekend, but here's hoping anyway!

Catch up later - here's some more crafty peeps (hope they're getting on faster than me today!!)

Alison x

Happy Valentines :)

Woollie roses - just in case I don't get any fresh ones, I had a back-up plan and made some myself, hehe! Really enjoyed making these last night - the pattern came from my new crochet book 'Cute and Easy Crochet' by Nicki Trench. I tried the first one using natural coloured aran wool - it turned out OK, so I thought I'd try another one in red, being Valentines day and all.

I might have a wee playaround with them later today - lots of possibilities for using them as embellishements, brooches etc. I think my 'love affair' with crochet has just been rekindled - ah, sweet!

Hope you're feeling all loved up today :)

Alison x

Getting started . . .

Today I'm getting back into the mindset of running my little 'tweedie' enterprise once more - scribbling a few notes to help me along the way.

I got sidetracked (as you do!) because I clocked one of my Harris Tweed beach balls nestled in a corner, which I hadn't got round to photographing. In my mind at the time of making it, I was thinking of a sunny day on a Hebridean beach like this one which we enjoyed a couple of years back, I loved the colours of the yellow buoy and the blue skies beyond . . .

. . . so a Sunny Day in the Hebrides was the inspiration behind this Beach Ball:

Unfortunately today is NOT quite so sunny but you can see where I was going with it, hehe!! My neighbour's sheep were looking suitably unimpressed as I tried to us them as props for my 'tweedie' shots, I should have given them some veggie scraps to bribe them into coming a little closer . . .

. . . they weren't having any of it and just looked snootily away, hmmmph!

I've gift-wrapped the beach-ball, and it now looks like a giant Harris Tweed boiled sweet - yum, yum!!

As usual, my tweedie beach-ball is the size of a smallish football, very firmly stuffed and is really a fun novelty gift for a 'tweedie' enthusiast and is NOT a toy. Very tactile and fun, if you'd like to purchase this one, it's ready to be shipped from my Hebridean home - tah dah!!!!(£24 plus £2.50 P&P - UK only, sorry!) Just click here to purchase:

Looks like I'm back on the commercial wagon, hehe - this is my first attempt at selling directly from my blog which I'd love to pursue as I can so easily give some background info/inspiration on the item being sold (and the passion involved in making it!). The Paypal button will take you directly to the Paypal site where you can purchase either via Paypal or using your credit card if you do not have a Paypal account. Easy-peasy,says she, hehe!!

(OK, in reality it's taken me most of the morning to figure this one out - there, the truth's out, my highly professional facade has just dropped with a thud once again!! :D)

Have a lovely Monday! I'm off to wash my breakfast dishes which have been patiently waiting for me all morning - oooops :) Cheerio an Drasda!

While you're waiting . . .

While you're waiting for me to come up with some actual evidence of crafty activity, here's some pretty pictures of the Hebrides to pass the time, hehe :)

This morning's sunrise - I was trying to capture the lighthouse across the bay at the right moment, blinking in the early morning light . . .

The sheep in the meadow (otherwise known here as the 'local community grazing') across the road - as you can see there's no cold snap here today, just beautiful blazing sunshine and clear blue skies . . .

. . . and a new crochet book, well you can never have too many crochet books can you??? This one is a recent publication, 2011, so has some cute up to the minute crochet patterns - I'm liking it a lot . . .

Hope these pics will pass the time for you until I actually MAKE something! Bear with me, I'm working on it :D

Have a lovely Monday, and if you're experiencing the cold snap elsewhere in the UK - stay warm and cosy :)

Alison x

my creative space - January!

Pheeeeeew, I'm back to Blog-land after a whole month's absence - my extended office working hours have come to an end and I'm back to my normal two days - so more crafting time on the horizon, but I'll have to get down to some hard graft too and get my little creative business up and running again in a commercial sense. More on that later :)

January came and went with little time for crafting but I was forced out of crafty hibernation by a work colleague who was looking for a tweedie sleeve for her daughter's new Kindle (the one without the keyboard) - I made this one to be a snug fit for the new, smaller Kindle and I was quite pleased with it - it was a perfect fit, hooray! Now that I've got the dimensions right, I hope I'll get a little batch of these done in different colours - that's the plan anyway!

That's about the sum of my January crafting, but it's a good start to get some commerical crafting under my belt so I'm quite happy with that :) I decided to treat myself to some little jewellery boxes for my 'wee croft house' brooches, so they might get listed online soon - thought they deserved a snug little home - they're a perfect fit with a little cosy cotton wadding on the base . . .

. . . I think we could all do with a little cosy cotton wadding here today - it's freezing, the cold snap has definitely hit the Hebrides, brrrrrrrr!!

I'm trying to remember what else I got up to crafty-wise this month - I did go the library and picked up some crochet books to get me back into the mood, and I picked up my one and only copy of Mollie-Makes (I've resisted it so far), it had some crochet wrist-warmers on the front which must have lured me in, hehe :) (Sorry for the poor pic - ooops!) . . .

On the baking front (did I mention I got a new oven, it's very pretty!) I had a glut of over-ripe bananas this week so for once I decided to get round to making a banana loaf with them as 'Little S' has pestered me in the past to make one - it was a bit of a 'hit and miss' affair . . .

Hit - because it looked pretty good when it came out of the oven . . .

Miss - because it was a little bit soggy in the middle . . .

. . . but we ate it anyway, waste not want not, and all that, hehe!

Well, that's what I've been up to this month. Hopefully I'll be back to regular crafting/posting now, but I guess I'll have to get that craft area sorted out first . . . . . euuuuugh!, wish me luck with that one!

Teenage Son is supposed to be studying for his exams today so I'd better go and ply him with cups of tea and biscuits . . . a mother's job and all that!

Back soon with more crafty updates - Cheerio an Drasda :)

Alison x