Oranges in the Rain

Well, it's been a really dreary, wet, blustery - think I've run out of adjectives!! - day today here in the Hebrides. I bought these lovely, fresh oranges (they're tangerines or mandarines or whatever actually ...) at the supermarket and wished I'd taken a pic straight away as they had lovely green leaves on them and looked fab.

Even by this morning the leaves had begun to wilt in the warmth of our kitchen but they still looked great. The colour cheered me up on such a dreich (Scottish for wet??) day!

The neighbour's barn just looked like a blur in the rain, through our kitchen window .....

. . . and I ended up making some 'blank' bookmarks in readiness for adding them to any orders that I may be lucky to get! Sorry, it's a bit of a poor pic - it was getting a bit dark by the time I took it today:

If I'm feeling organised I make up a bookmark with swatches of Harris Tweed glued on and maybe even colour co-ordinate the colours with the customer's order - that's when I'm organised!! (this is the reverse of the bookmark with the definition of Harris Tweed added).

Hope you had a nice day!

my creative space

I came across a lovely idea today for a regular blog feature from Swirly Arts' blog today. Being a chronic commitment phobic it took me a while to decide whether to join Kirsty's blogging game: my creative space but as it's January ... it seemed like a good idea!! Each Thursday, post an image of your creative space, be it at your desk, on the floor, in the kitchen, on the settee - well that seems to fit my creative space to a tee!

If you fit that kind of bill, I'm sure you could join in too! So here's a bit of a muggy shot of my desk (tonight actually!). Left over bits and pieces from Christmas projects (that'll be the tube of sequins), my Lewis chessmen (I decided to leave them there!) and some fabric buttons - an idea in progress! Oh, the camera never lies!! I suddenly feel very exposed - Ha Ha! Hmmm - my phone looks a bit dusty too!

I also thought this 'meme' game might give me an incentive to be a bit more methodical in my crafting habits - it's good to have aspirations - isn't it!!

My Master Plan (and a mosaic!)

Just a quick post today as I am launching myself at my work area in order to get ready for some serious crafting!

Over the festive holidays I was having a little review of my online shops and trying to get my head round where I should go with each of them. My own website and my webpage on Not on the High Street are both set up to accept custom orders ie. I offer a range of products (often in different colour choices and sometimes personalisation detail) and I then fulfil the order within a set period of time - usually 7-10 days to the customer's requirements.

This month, I hope to stock both my Etsy and Folksy shops with ready-to-ship items. I'd like to use both these shops like a virtual craft fair which will leave me free to create and add whichever products I feel like. Well, that's the plan anyway!! New rulings governing the selling of handmade toys in the USA are very unsettling at the moment which is why I decided to add Folksy to my list of shops (as if I didn't have enough!!).

So this month I'm going to get my head down and get some serious crafting done - I'll keep you up to date on developments! In the meantime here's a little mosaic I did last night of some wonderful creations by artists/crafters on Flickr, going back a couple of months or so (you can click on the links below the pic to get further info on individual artists):

1. Another view of 'Little Deer', 2. New! I love making Kitties!, 3. Tiny Happy hedgehog with purple berries and little pink bird :), 4. Travel Kitty and dino, 5. Stripiest Sweater Bear Ever, 6. Giving it large for Valentine!, 7. bebé, 8. Puse Bottom, 9. detail of Sue's applique

Cheerio an Drasda!

Have a Burger!

Well, as soon as I'd posted that photograph of little S's favourite burger concoction (see previous post), the wheels had started in motion for creating a Harris Tweed version! Once I had it in mind, I just had to give it a go - and this is what I came up with. It is "actual size", constructed from separate components, just like a real burger roll - one Harris Tweed roll (in 2 halves!), one Harris Tweed burger (lightly stuffed!) and garnished with two felt embroidered cucumber slices and a little ketchup on the side. Little S wasn't very impressed with the addition of the ketchup, but I gave myself some artistic licence here! (he doesn't like ketchup!).

I added the 'sesame' seeds on top as I had to disguise the stitching holding the whole construction together. I had to sew through all the layers which was a bit of a feat, but it worked. My kids didn't like the addition of the sesame seeds but I think they were a necessary 'evil', if I can put it like that! It has a practical use as it would make a great pincushion (I stuffed it firmly) - my other half keeps complaining of finding pins everywhere!

I liked the fact that it's a real 3D piece and looks quite interesting from all angles - just like the real thing! My first genuine 'soft sculpure'! It's also very sturdy and chunky which I like. I must get 'S' to model it for me - he might need some bribery (it's the ketchup issue!).

Bye for now - hope you're having a nice day!

Crabbie Deluxe!

You can tell I haven't got back into 'crafting mode' when I blog about food! I'm still in 'family mode' as my boys are going back to school tomorrow. Little S assembled this huge veggie burger concoction for lunch and suggested I put it on my blog - not completely unprompted as he made one the other day and I suggested it would make a good pic! Well, it is 'art' of sorts! Just give it a fancy title and see how it would go down at the Tate gallery?!

It looked so good, I had one myself afterwards! He's called it his "Crabbie Deluxe" (Spongebob reference!), hence the title. Maybe I could make a Harris Tweed version of the "crabbie deluxe" - now that would be fun! Oh! Oh! - I feel an idea coming on. It's funny the things that spark the imagination!

Hope you're having a nice day! (I'm busy visualising my Harris Tweed/felt 'softie' burger!!)

Inspiration ...

I picked this book up today, as I hadn't had a look at it in a long time. I bought it about a year and a half ago with a birthday book token and pored over it for days afterwards! At the time I hadn't a clue about blogging, what it was or why anyone did it, but the actual crafts and makers in the book really inspired me. The common thread through the book is crafters who blog - each chapter focusing on an individual crafter who give answers to three questions: "why do I create", "what inspires you" and "where do you work". There's a 'make' by each individual crafter at the end of each chapter too.

I was really fascinated by it when I bought it because I realised there were all these other people in the world doing very similar things to myself. I did sometimes wonder why I was sitting at home making soft toy butterflies out of Harris Tweed but this book made me realise that it was perfectly 'normal'!! Anyway, it was quite nice looking through it today with slightly different eyes since I've joined the art/craft blogging community. It has a good section at the back on how to get your own blog started. It's amazing the difference a year and a half can make!

I have to say that I won't be posting a pic of "where do you work" today as it'll take me at least a week to sort it out after the pre-Christmas rush and it looks a bit scary to say the least! That's next week's task.

Any particular book that got your creative juices going?

New Year Thoughts

It' such a beautiful, sunny day here today in the Hebrides, I thought it was too good a photo opportunity to miss and hence an excuse for a quick blog post! Hope everyone had a happy and peaceful Hogmanay. We had first-footers this New Year, which was unexpected and fun and we made the usual phone calls around the country to our family who are scattered from here to as far afield as Brighton and London! We partook of the usual traditional, celebratory drinks - enough said!!

I took this photo outside our house this morning (trying to be a bit arty - through the trees!). We live on the edge of the moor so we get some beautiful views and see all the lovely colours of the landscape.

I guess this is as good a time as any for a quick reflection on last year's achievements and some resolutions for the year coming - but I'll keep it brief!

I was lucky enough to receive some funding to start up my crafts business at the end of 2007, so a lot of the time in 2008 I was trying to figure out which way to go with my business while trying to enjoy the general activity of crafting! It's quite a tricky thing to juggle, but I think I tried my utmost to get my business started and up and running. It does, however, mean that I sometimes feel pressurised to 'perform' and be successful.

This year I think I can relax a little bit having figured out the basics of running a small business. I struggled with the whole notion of promoting my business but then blogging came along and I found this to be a really fun and practical way of engaging people with my products. Blogging didn't come easily to me - the only problem now is how to wean myself of it!! It's also a good outlet for my own thought processes too. OK - I just do it because I enjoy it!!

So my resolutions for next year are:

(1) "keep on keeping-on!"
(2) chill out a bit on the business side and enjoy my crafts
(3) try and strike a balance between crafting/working and family life - that's a tricky one!!
(4) take a walk and give myself a break in between crafting, blogging, etc.
(5) most importantly: enjoy my crafts - as I've often heard people say: "do what you enjoy and the money will follow". I think that's a good adage and seems to make sense to me!

This post could go on forever and has probably gone on too long already! I wish everyone a happy and peaceful 2009 and hope you achieve your own personal aspirations and dreams for the year ahead.

Cheerio an Drasda!