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.

Five Sales and a Theft.

I'll try and make this just a quick post today (as I know I have the tendency to waffle on) and tell you about what I've been up to. I recently had a two week break from my day job in which I spent lots of time creating new things (there was also quite a lot of eating and sleeping as well, it was bliss!!) like a new line of sweet Matryoshka and Little Bird brooches (pictures to follow) as well as a couple of bags.

This creative time off made me realise all over again that this is what I want to do as my full time job! At the moment it can only be a far off dream but I'm determined that one day I will achieve this, I just need to work harder at it (and I know it'll be hard work)!!!

Anyway my craft stuff has now been on sale in Waterstone's for five weeks and as the title of this post suggests I have had 5 sales (not too bad) and 1 theft (v. bad). So far I have sold 1 Matryoshka tote, 1 Heartfelt Decoration, 1 Matryoshka and 2 Skully brooches. Also one of my Cloudy bags was stolen! I'm trying to take the latter as a compliment but I've got a horrible feeling it was just used as a receptacle to steal books from the shop!! But then who knows what goes on it the minds of shoplifters, they may also love to 'shop' for local products!?!

Guess this wasn't such a quick post after all!

Happy Crafting.

So Much To Say, So Little Time.

Where to start? Well anyone who has been following me on Twitter or Facebook will already know my good news!!! In my real life (when I'm not wasting time on the internet) I work in a branch of the bookshop chain Waterstone's (I look after the craft books, naturally!) and about a week and a half a go I was asked by my manager if I would like to sell my craft stuff in our shop. I jumped at the chance obviously and had a few of my crafty items on display within days (as you can see)!!!

So far I only have on display 13 felt decorations and 4 totes as I'm still undecided as to what sort of items I should sell. For the moment I think it'll mostly be on a trial and error basis, but I will be adding more items over the next few days. Things like brooches, bunting and hopefully if they're finished a new range of book bags, I bought a few sweet little cotton bags which are just big enough to fit a paperback in. They come in such lovely bright colours I had to get one of each, I just need to decorate them now. So I guess we'll just have to see what sells and take it from there.

Also with this new opportunity (and renewed enthusiasm) I decided to try some new designs one that I think has worked particularly well are my Russian Doll totes! I have been thinking about making something like this for a while now as I just adore anything Matryoshka (and Kokeshi) but I guess I've just been too lazy. I made 2 a couple of days ago I think they came out really well and I've cut out the pieces for 10 more in various different fabrics - I may have gone a little Babushka mad but I think they have worked really well and will (potentially) sell.

I have been so nervous about having my craft on display in the shop but all my friends and colleagues have been really encouraging and supportive. Their confidence in me has been rewarded as I sold my first item today (the tote below) which is great as they have only been on sale for 3 days, so even if I don't sell anything else I'm still really pleased (although I hope I do sell more!!!).

Right I guess I should really be heading off to bed now as I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow (mostly sewing Russian dolls).

Happy crafting everyone. xx

Oh and I almost forgot...

one of my brooches is in this lovely (purpley) gothic treasury by VioletPaw.

New Year, New Me (I hope!)

HAPPY 2011 EVERYONE!!!!! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year, I unfortunately had a bad cold and seemed to be surrounded by ill people over the festive season!!! I had really been looking forward to Christmas but it turned out to be a bit of a non event for me, however I can't complain as there are many people out there much less fortunate than I am!! Where has this 'counting your blessings' attitude come from I hear you ask? Well, I haven't made any resolutions this year (I never keep them) but I have set myself a few personal challenges for 2011, one of those being that I would think more positively!! (Another was that I would try not to worry so much although that might be a hard thing stop doing as I maybe just a natural worrier!!!!) Anyway 6 days into the new year and things are pretty much on track, just need to get more motivated in the craft department and I'm sorted!!!

Anyway about my crafting, well there's not much sewing going on at the moment but in November and December I went a little cloud crazy, adorning totes and brooches with fluffy cloudy loveliness! Here are a few examples, I apologise for the quality of the photos, they were a few quick snaps I took with my camera phone (but you get the general idea).

As in previous years, in the run up to the festive period I took my finished craft creations into work for my friends and colleagues to take peruse and (hopefully) buy a little something. This time round was particularly good for sales!!! I sold 4 totes bags, a skully brooch, 2 xmas puddings and a gingerbread man!! That made me a grand total of £52.50 not bad eh? Especially when you take into consideration that I sold all those items to only 4 people!!!!

I'll hopefully be listing my new cloudy collection on etsy soon, I'm just waiting for a nice day so I can take some better photos!!! The weather down here in Portsmouth has been pretty drab for a while now so the lighting never seems right for photography. (It's hard to put a positive spin on that one!)

I've got so many things I'd like to make but I think I'm going to wait until I've got some sparetime to experiment, I've got two week holiday coming up in February, so that may be the perfect time!!!

Happy crafting everyone!!!