Easter hols, here we come :)

Ahhhhhhh . . . . . and breathe :)  I definitely feel it's time to take a little break, and with eldest son home from university (to study for exams - poor thing!!) and youngest son on his school hols, we're all set to take a little break - yay!

I've worked hard on my Etsy shop the last month or two - transferring all my products was a bit of hard grind, but I was rewarded by a few sales which was great!  I decided to reward myself by buying some gorgeous Japanese designer fabric (I have a fetish for it!).  I really enjoy using them as very lavish linings for my tweed collage purses - just a cute surprise when you open a zipper purse and see these delicious designer fabrics inside - yum :)

I was really delighted with my purchases (all fat quarters I think) . . .

I seem to have gone all "mellow yellow" for my fabric choices!  Two of them are a cotton/linen blend and the other is a nice weight cotton.

I'm not sure yet what we will be doing on our hols but it's a lovely time of year.  We will have the pleasure of seeing our next door neighbour's lambs bouncing around hopefully and I have a list of things we really need to do outside as we have a rather large garden which needs sorting.

The construction of a hen house is still on the agenda but if that will happen these holidays or not, I don't know - will definitely be making space for it that's for sure :)  Lots of other things to do too though!

I'm not going to list all the new items in my shop, but I did add a little softie as I haven't made one for a while.  He was really fun to make, so I added him as a custom order . . . . 

Here he is outside in his natural habitat . . .

Anyway, he's obviously feeling a little sleepy - me too, as it's a little late and I'm ready for my last day at the office for a week or so.

See you in a week or two - Happy Easter!

Alison x

Impromptu Tea Party :)

We had an impromptu tea party last weekend (or was it the weekend before - time flies!) to celebrate the completion of the tea cosy :)  Actually 'teenage son' was more taken with the teapot I'd picked up in the charity shop - I didn't have one the right size to fit the cosy!  So he decided we should take out the best china and go the whole hog :)  I think he just wanted the lovely scones I'd bought the day before . . .

Here's a couple more views . . .

from above . . .

This was such a lovely pattern (Sheep Carousel by Kate Davies) to work on - I learnt a couple of new techniques - namely how to cut a steek in my knitting - yikes!!   Also how to to do an i-chord bind off, which leaves a lovely tubular knitted finish to your piece - so I was happy with my tea cosy and we enjoyed the scones too :) :)

This was actually two weeks ago and I don't seem to have stopped crafting for my Etsy shop since then - pheeeeew,  I'm ready for Easter!  Too many crafty makes for this post so I'll save them for another one - I'm off to have another cup of tea before I head off to the office job, I'm not using the best china today though!

Have a lovely Easter weekend :)

Bye for now
Alison x

What I've been doing . . .

Well, I HAVE taken a step back from 'stock making' over the last week - I needed to get back to basics :)

A bit of home baking (which was purely for my own gratification as I find baking very relaxing and therapeutic!).  I don't think anyone else indulged . . .

And with my cup of tea . . .

I'm trying to get the rest of the family on board as to adding some new pets!  This is a work in progress . . . . teenagers do not like hens I've discovered - come to think of it as a teenager I wouldn't have liked them either LOL :)   Well, you never know - it's good to have some aspirations!  I kind of like them though . . .

My current personal project started at the weekend . . .

Kate Davies' lovely pattern is too addictive!  Some lovely knitting techniques to learn . . . I'll keep you posted on my progress :)  I'm being a complete knitting heathen and using acrylic yarn from my stash . . . . I was a bit embarrassed adding it to my Ravelry page - I'll make it in pure wool the next time :)

Only one item added to the shop last week . . .

Well, I did say I was taking a break!  Lovely Harris Tweed herringbone pattern though :)

Bye for now :)
Alison x

So much crafting . . . . so little time!

The last two weeks seem to have been pretty busy . . . . trying to squeeze in a lot of crafting but not always finding the time to blog about any of it!

We had some beautiful snowy scenes here in the Hebrides last week . . .

This is me one week later getting round to posting my snow pics!

Never mind . . . . it was lovely at the time ;-)

Spent some time with my new Mary Jane Mucklestone book (in German - don't ask!!) . . .

I'm loving playing around with some fair isle patterns from it - hence the wrist cuff - not the best colour choices but all I had in my small stash of Shetland yarn.

Made some more buttons for the shop . . .

Some baking (we had no biscuits in - don't panic!!) . . .

These are viennese biscuits - easy peasy recipe here :)  I'm rekindling my love of baking - Yay!

A new collage purse in the shop . . .

And some new labels for future makes . . .

Also thinking and planning of a new, fun venture for later in the year - but more of that when I have some concrete information - hmmmm, yes very cryptic!

I think I meant to post all this in about 4 different posts - ah well, it's a condensed post I suppose!

Ji-ji the cat has slept through it all - isn't she lucky - it's a cat's life . .

Hope to get back to regular blogging now that my intensive stock making is slowing down a little :)

Bye for now :)
Alison x