Harris Tweed Bling

This is just a quick post as we have been hit by winter bug syndrome (again!) and my son is off sick today, but here are are my pics of my Christmas tree baubles as promised. I will try and get them into my Etsy shop this weekend (and hopefully my original website, too). I settled on two different colours/patterns for the panels and some glitzy sequins for a bit of Christmas bling!

I'm quite pleased with the effect, overall - a bit of an ethnic, Outer Hebrides meets India thing going on. I've done these in traditional festive colours but will probably make them in less traditional colour combinations too with mutlicoloured panels.

And here's some green ...

And a whole bunch of them .....

Ooooh, I've come over all Christmassy! Well, not quite as I'm one of these people that doesn't acknowledge Christmas until at least the end of November!! ... And then panic!

If you have time, why not pop over to Kim's blog, where she is doing a lovely giveaway of a wonderful, woolly, Christmas tree (beautifully handsewn, of course!) I am a big fan of her work and I think we have a mutual (cross Atlantic) obsession .... of tweed!

Cheerio an Drasda!
I'm off to mop a fevered brow (well not quite!)

Bonfire Night

We had a fun bonfire last night, which was not quite on November 5th which is traditionally Guy Fawkes night, but we managed to slot it in at the weekend. The weather held out too, which was pretty amazing. It was just a family affair and we had some fireworks left over from last year, so it was all quite spontaneous, which is usually the best way in my experience! We had some marshmallows left over from Halloween too - so all in all a cheap and cheerful affair.

Some old palettes did the job!

The boys enjoyed their sparklers.

I've been diligently working on my Christmas tree baubles (the pressure's on now!) over the weekend, in between making up some online orders. I will post some pics at the beginning of the week and hopefully put some on Etsy and my own website too.

Bye for Now! (busy, busy!!)

Christmas Bauble Prototype!

This is a very quick post as I managed to do a very speedy prototype of my Harris Tweed Christmas Bauble earlier on today. It was one of these things - I made a quick sketch of the bauble panel, hoping it would be the right size and lo and behold it was! It's the size of a golf ball approximately and I think it has a lot of potential for some lovely embellishments.

It would be fun to do a tutorial on this cos I think it's a really simple idea and could be achieved by most crafty folk, but has the scope to become a really elaborate piece if you used embroidery skills, etc. Not being such an accomplished embroiderer (is that a word??), I think I'll leave that to the professionals! I threaded some raffia through the completed ball to give it a natural looking finish. I'm thinking: sewn on silver/gold sequins, pretty ribbon tied round the middle, applique decoration - the list is endless!! Lots of possibilities. Decorate with french knots?

This is just the basic model, but I think there's scope for some fun with this! Ah well, back to fulfilling my orders - it would be fun to spend all my time inventing new ideas. This one might have to wait a couple of weeks before I manage to take it further. (I think it would be lovely in different fabric too).

I hung it on a fir tree outside to get the basic idea, but it's difficult to get a good view of it - there's four panels in four different colours (not very traditional colours, I know!).

Craft Blog Inspiration!

I love the way that reading other people's craft blogs can inspire you do go and create - be it along the same lines, or something completely different. I've sort of resisted doing seasonal crafts directly, but having just seen some fab "soft sculpture Christmas trees" on a lovely lady's blog, it started me thinking of Christmas decorations.

I make soft balls in various sizes out of Harris Tweed and it suddenly struck me, why don't I try making Christmas baubles in the same way. I like the idea of working on a very small scale, so these may be fun to do and maybe embellish them with little images in felt. All handsewn, of course, which would be my favourite way of tackling them. I have no idea yet how this would turn out, I just thought I'd share my flash of inspiration with you!!

So many ideas .....

Here's my Harris Tweed 'juggling balls' which has given me the idea of going a lot smaller and trying to make a bauble, in the same way. This may never come to fruition but I'll find it hard to resist, now that the idea is in my head!!

Ooops - I lost my pics!

I just accidentally lost my entire post on Halloween - so here are the pics again! They are mostly of my little boys Halloween drawings and design for a pumpkin - I've edited one of the pics as I had reservations about posting photos of him on my blog. I think this is a purely personal choice - but the element of doubt was still there, for me. I was really proud of his drawings and designs though and was a bit gutted when I managed to delete the entire post! He may appear in profile or in another subtle form yet (as above) - it's difficult to keep my little ray of inspiration out of my blog altogether :-) Hope you understand the predicament!

Please, please, let me craft!

Do you ever feel that outside forces are permanently conspiring against you to prevent you from sitting down and getting on with some much loved crafting and creating!!? Tee Hee! I can't really complain as I've just had a couple of orders come in from a British website I joined earlier this year. It's a bit like watching the kettle boil - I always seem to get an order or interesting e-mail the days I'm out at work at my office job which I do two days a week. Nothing happens for days and days until I go to work, then the little elves come out to play in my e-mail inbox! (which remains deathly silent while I'm at home!).

I've just had an order for some of my Harris Tweed ladybirds (ladybugs), which I love to make. I'm thinking of putting a couple or so in my Etsy shop but maybe I'll experiment with stuffing them with pure sheep's wool which is something I've played around with before. I love the idea of making an entirely natural product. This pure red Harris Tweed is so gorgeous and rich that I've decided to reserve it for making smaller items as I probably won't be able to get it again (due to changes in the Harris Tweed industry, there is not the same variety of colours and patterns being produced - but that's another story for another post!)

I also got an order for one of my Harris Tweed Beach Balls which I love to make too. This is all great news but this week is my in-laws 50th Wedding Anniversary and we have the much loved uncles (my brothers-in-law) home from their adopted home of Austria (it's a long story - Outer Hebrides to Austria) to celebrate, and a favourite Auntie from Inverness (my sister-in-law). All in all, things seem to be conspiring against me from sitting down peacefully and making/creating in a leisurely and enjoyable fashion - Aaaargh!

Anyone else have the 'outside forces conspiring against my creativity' syndrome??!* :-)

.... and the winner is!

And now the nerve wracking moment of announcing the winner of the Giveaway - I used the number generator thingy and it came up with the number (2). I hope my screenshot looks OK:

(Sorry if it's a bit small! - you'll just have to take my word for it!!)

That makes the lucky winner: Micaela, from the State of Maine in the US. I will be in touch by e-mail to get your address details, Micaela, and hopefully your little green dino will be with you very soon!

Thanks to everyone who took part in my Giveaway - it was fun to do and fantastic to think of my little dino going all the way across the Atlantic.

Next week I will be back to some serious crafting as I have been nursing a sore finger all week (suffice to say: never try to break the seal on a bottle of wine with a sharp knife - lesson learned! Ouch!!*)