Following by Example...

After my complete craft space blitz today and following feltmeupdesigns' example I decided to post a few pictures of my new and improved work area. I went through every single box/ drawer of my crafty things and rearranged them so I (hopefully) can find them again!!! I dusted every single surface and I even hoovered!!!!

I am terribly messy and unorganised so I'm (again) hoping that this will motivate me and that having a properly defined and designated work area will help me to be more professional and treat my crafting as a business rather than a hobby.

I decided to put up the Cloudberry Skies bunting I made to take to craft fairs but it's far too long but I think it looks perfect hung over my bookcase (BTW this only contains a small selection of my many many books). Also I would like to point out my TinTin poster, I love it as it reminds me of my Ottakars bookshop days.

As you can see I have organised all my fabrics by colour, I've even integrated all the guilt ridden items I mentioned in my last post so hopefully that will be the end of that and I can move on.

One last thing, feltmeupdesigns also had an inspirational image in her studio tour, this is mine!! Not all that inspiring but every time I read it it makes me feel a little better, this card basically sums up my attitude to life!!!

All in all I've had a productive day and just maybe this will mean a step in the right direction for  cloudberryskies.

Happy crafting. xx

I'm Not Sure How I Should Feel...

About two years ago a friend gave me a huge bag of fabric as she was moving away to Liverpool and couldn't take it with her. I had a lot of things going on at the time so didn't go through the stash properly till I was about to move house last year and at the bottom of the bag was something I really wasn't expecting... it was the partially made nursery wall hanging that my friend had been making while she was pregnant! It was mostly due to this project that the two of us really got talking at work (and we soon became good friends) she would ask me for the odd sewing tip and I gave her leftover fabric to use but unfortunately a couple of months later she had a miscarriage. I'm assuming (understandably) that the project was tidied away and forgotten...until the day I found it! Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am not the most emotional of women but when I found this item I have to admit I cried (a lot) and to this day I still haven't used any of the fabric that was in that bag.

A few months back I inherited another lot of fabric from another friend from work when sadly her aunt passed away. She knew that I liked sewing so I was an ideal candidate to take some off her hands, when I went through the bag I couldn't help but notice that some of the fabric had labels pinned to them and I had that horrible feeling once again. It's just so sad, this woman had so many plans for this fabric and now she never would get a chance to use them. I've had this fabric for a while and again I have not used a single thing.

I've been thinking about this for a while and I guess my main problem is that I'm not sure how I should feel about this fabric (sounds strange, I know) and the sad circumstances in which it came to be in my possession. Perhaps I even feel a little unworthy (does that make sense?) because I'm not the greatest crafter and I'm really still learning the ropes. My biggest worry is that I'll ruin the fabric by making something rubbish that'll end up being thrown away! So I've been telling myself that I'm just saving it for the right project and when that idea presents itself I will make something wonderful in tribute but I don't know if that will ever happen. I guess it just goes to show that you never can tell what's going to happen in the future and we should all try make the most of each day. (That goes double for me!!!)

Sorry that this post was a little miserable but it's just been weighing on my mind and just had to get it off my chest.

Happy Crafting. xx

To Boldly Sew...

Do you remember I made that felty batman a few years back? Well the friend I made it for is getting married in July next year to his lovely (and equally geeky) girlfriend and I want to make them a particularly awesome and unique wedding present. I've bandied around a few ideas but kept coming back to the same one! I'm not going to tell exactly what I'm making yet (I don't think they read my blog but I need to check as I don't want to ruin the surprise) but below is a small clue. So with most other potential projects on hold I've got just over a year to achieve my goal, so fingers crossed I've got enough time (you know what I'm like) and I'll let you know how I get on as I'm going along.

In other news you can now get free shipping on all items in my Etsy shop until the end of May. All you have to do in type in the code BLOGGER into the special box at the checkout. So please feel free to have a good look around see if anything takes your fancy.

Happy Crafting. :)

More Lovely Matryoshkas....

and you can find them in my Etsy shop.

Little Bit Pugly.

This is a brooch I made for my friend's birthday. It's meant to be a pug! But I'm not sure if it really looks like one or not? Still the friend I gave it too was very pleased and I guess that's the main thing!*

*Addition if you would like to said brooch on the birthday girl in question there is a picture on my facebook page.

And I Almost Forgot...

... here are a few photos (that I promised to post months ago) of the brooches I have been making, and I will be listing them in my shops very soon. Fingers crossed they will be really popular as I am quite proud of them!!

Thank Goodness For Weekends Off!!!!

It's been a strange old week for me (but mostly in a bad way). It all started when the shop I work in had a big theft (about £700 of very specialised military history books) on Monday afternoon in which two of my bags were also stolen (these were used to help the thief on his way out of the shop with his swag!). This annoyed me a lot (but I comforted myself with the fact that he stole the 2 cheapest ones and not ones that I had spent a lot of my time on) however the worst thing was, that later (after CCTV footage was watched) I was told that my colleague and I had been near the thief when he struck and we didn't notice a thing! (Clearly I'll need to be more observant in the future! My manager reiterated this when I was called into the office for a 'chat' the following day!) Anyway the thief made another (and rather drunken) appearance on Wednesday but this time the shop was ready for him and my (fellow in the dog house) colleague spotted him and had him thrown out before he could do any real damage (we think he may have stolen a birthday card, how sad is that!)

Anyway Thursday passed without incident and Friday started well, with a young girl coming into the store specifically to buy one of my bags for a present (I was so chuffed). But my happiness was short lived as later that day an email came through about another branch being scammed by a nice man in a suit. After reading this strangely familiar sounding story I realised that I too had served (and was completely conned) by said scammer earlier in the day!!! I never make mistakes like that normally *repeatedly hits palm on forehead* and I always follow the rules but he really caught me off guard as he seemed so genuine and I just really wanted to help him get the book he was after. I feel like such a complete fool and I'm just glad that I have the weekend off to forget all about it (I never want another week like this one!) and from now on I'm going to have to be more vigilant and on my guard because you never can tell what people are really up to, however nice they seem.