Return of the Dolls!

I've made a few of these ragdolls in the past but decided to remove them from my website shop as they were so time consuming to make and therefore difficult to price - I now make them on request. I hate having to charge extortionate prices for children's toys so it's a bit of a dilemma! I think my way around the problem is to have a few pre-made (at my leisure) so they're ready to dress and personalise, etc.

This is exactly what happened with this doll as I had the body ready and just had to add the clothing and the personalisation details - for that reason it's been a pleasure to do. In the photo it's not actually finished but this is what it looked like a couple of hours ago.

I hand embroidered the child's name on to the hand-knitted aran bonnet. There is a lot of work involved in these but I love the end result. It's a very leggy rag doll made to my own design - I really do make a rod for my own back sometimes!! Just as well I enjoy it!

P.S. I started 'twittering' last night - "Ha Ha!", I hear you cry - "thought you were doing that anyway!!". Well, probably, but 'twittering' is another social networking system which I thought I wouldn't take up but there you go. It's quite fun if you're working away on your own at home and ... SOB, SOB .... don't have many conversations!! (and are living in the Outer Hebrides!)

But apart from that it's a quick way of updating folk about what you're up to through the day - my comments may be full of mundane things like 'having a cup of tea now' or 'off to make the dinner' - so if you see anything like this in the sidebar of my blog, you'll know I'm just "twittering" - you can join in if you like!! I might occasionally have some interesting news too! Like an Etsy sale last night - Ha Ha!!

Have a Heart

I'm going to be making some of these today, which are featured in my own website, so I'd better get cracking! I've put my cut off date for Christmas orders as today, 10th December and I've got a little pile on my desk to get through so "Cheerio an Drasda!"

P.S. I got a lovely e-mail yesterday from Rose asking if she could feature my Christmas baubles in a blog which she writes for called Autonomous Artists. I accepted .... of course!! Rose has some pretty lovely, tweedy items herself!

P.P.S. The 'gaol' lettering refers to the Gaelic word for 'love', not any reference to public prison!! - no, it's not some bizarre, welcoming present for prison inmates - how sweet if it was though - Oh Dear - I'm laughing so much now, I've got to go .....

Wonky Tree

Every year our Christmas tree looks more wonky than the last - my excuse for this is I usually let my kids put up the decs with a minimal amount of guidance. If anyone comes in and observes on its wonkiness - I'll just say "Oh, the kids did it!". (This has a double whammy effect of making me look like a "wonderfully creative hands-on mummy" - whereas it was just a really good excuse for keeping the kids amused and getting the tree up in a hurry - Ha Ha! - while I had a cuppa!!!)

But I do like a little chaotic decoration and symmetry and perfection aren't my cup of tea where Christmas trees are concerned. I've had these cute little wooden toy decorations for a couple of years now. I love having the same ones year after year, taking them out of the box and going - Aaaaah, remember these, picking up a slightly dog-eared old santa or crumpled red crepe paper ribbon. Well, that's my excuse for not getting new X-mas decs and I'm sticking to it! If I have any of my own Harris Tweed baubles left at the end of the week I'll sneak them on! (my wee boy was against me putting them on - they're too 'Harris Tweed' he seemed to be suggesting - kids!!)

I'm busy with orders this week which is great. This is my first Christmas with my online shops so it's been a fab (if sometimes slightly hectic) experience - big learning curve!! I think I've had a good balance of a reasonable amount of orders to keep me ticking over and to get a handle on the whole online experience. Maybe I'm just easily pleased but ..... I'm happy!!

(Oh! and "Big Grrrrrr!" has left the building - I hope he has a safe journey down South!!)

Spot the ladybird!!

Famous at last - well not really!! My little Harris Tweed ladybird appeared in Grazia magazine's gift guide this week - Hee Hee! It's a little small and dark- looking, but it's there (No. 37). Not on the High Street contacted me a while back to send a sample to this magazine, but I never thought it would really make it! Anyhow, I was doing my weekly shopping during my office job lunch hour yesterday, feeling a bit weary, and decided to pick up a copy 'just in case' - and there he was, nestled in the corner of the pic. I think some kind soul sneaked him in at the last minute :-)!

Busy with orders this weekend so I'd better get my head down - I'm trying not to let my new found fame go to my head - Ha Ha!!

Cheerio an Drasda!

Toys, toys, toys ....

Yesterday was a busy day for me and the few days leading up to yesterday in prepraration (if that makes sense!). I was asked a while back if I would be interested in giving a talk to some schoolchildren about my soft toy making business - yikes!! So armed with my box of toys as props, off I went ...

In the afternoon we did a short workshop on puppet making with the children and I think they did pretty well in the short turnaround of an hour or so. Lots of glue and glitter ensued and they came up with some pretty colourful work! (Being the dork that I am, I forgot to take my camera to document their wonderful creations!!). They all managed to make a finished puppet which I think was pretty good going in the short time they had. Pheeeew!

Anyhow, now back to crafting, orders, (Oh, I think I'm supposed to squeeze my own Christmas shopping in somewhere!!) and all the other stuff that everyone has to do at this time of year! How many days till Christmas??!!*

Hot Choccie anyone?

My little boy made a request for hot chocolate the other day - fair enough I thought and proceeded to get the tin out of the cupboard. "And can I have marshmallows on the top please?", he proceeded. Well I'd never thought of doing such a thing but he'd had such a confection in a local cafe recently and obviously wanted to relive the moment!

We had some marshmallows left in the cupboard left over from Halloween (an unopened packet I might add!). So if you're looking for something extremely calorific and extravagant, pop a couple of marshamllows on the top of your hot chocolate - yummmmmmm! He made the request again yesterday when he had a pal in to play so I took this photo of the finished confection offering!!

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I completed a set of these little fellows yesterday which will hopefully be brightening up someone's wall pretty soon. One of a number of orders from "Not on the High Street" - more to do!!

Have a good weekend and enjoy your hot choccie if you have one!

Jack Frost

It's frosty, frosty here in the Western Isles today and my kids are on half term hols. Lots to do - how to fit it all in??!! Hope you like this frosty pic anyway!

I'm planning to make some of these little fellows today - well that's the plan, as I have four of them to do - better get buzzzzzy! (sorry that was such a lame joke!).

Hope you are having a lovely day wherever you are (and if not, I hope my little bumblebee cheers you up!!)

Cheerio an Drasda!