At this time of year our garden normally looks at it’s best, however the rain seems to almost be holding some plants back, including one of my favourites, peonies. So to make up for that, I have some cut ones : )

I love the way they look and smell, much better than roses!

And, also, today this arrived in the post!

I was going to say I never win anything, however that is not strictly true, but I really wanted this fabric, because it is so perfect, and I was originally planned to use it for Operation Hush Hush, but then found out it wasn’t available until June : (
So different fabric chosen for that ( I would point out, I am VERY happy with my second choice!), but then, there was the fabric on Katys blog imagingermonkey! Argh, I had to enter, and I won, me, silly little me, won, whoooooo!
And it is as lovely as I hoped, not sure what I’m going to use it for, I will let you know!

sometimes making something that you know you have to be quiet about, makes you want to talk about it all the more, that is certainly the case with this!

I’ve now been working on this for two weeks, I can tell you two things, it is a quilt, and all I have to do is the binding. I potentially won’t be able to show anything more of it for at least another month, but it will be worth it : )

It is so nice to make something special even if it is a variation on a theme, always a pleasure to do so, but yesterday I was under a bit of a deadline! Though some would say I do my best work when under those situations!

The special present this time was an iPad zipped case,

it is based on the ones I sell on Not on the High Street, for this one I went for blue and natural, and circles rather than leaves,

it also has two vintage engraved mother of pearl buttons I had been saving for a special occasion : )

I hope she likes it : )

Yesterday was a day of nice supplies arriving, which to be honest has been reasonably rare recently, so it was a lovely treat!

In the post this,

and this arrived,

The stack are for a top secret project, which is exciting but nerve wracking, as I can’t screw it up! The bottom one, well I don’t know what it is for yet, I just like it : )

All the fabric came from The Eternal Maker, and arrived really quickly, would definitely recommend them.

And via Record Store Day, these arrived!

Now you are trying to work out the connection, well John went to Rough Trade East for Record Store Day, which is off Brick Lane, and Labour & Wait, where the string comes from, are on a street off the top of Brick Lane, hooray!

So lots of goodies, and making special things! This week, I’ve got to be making some new stuff for my first visit to an event in Guildford, the Guildford Craftacular! It is next Saturday between 10am and 5pm at St Marys Church in Guildford. Please come along, it is going to be great to take part at a thriving event, and new customers!!

I start blogging at the start of the year, and it is easy, and then something happens, what is it? I’m not sure, suddenly everything after the lull of Christmas catches up with you, and it isn’t until Easter that I at least get thinking about blogging again!

But I have been busy, work, Handmade, and my own stuff, including this new thing!

Like most of the stuff that I have been making recently it will be only available on Not on the High Street, and direct from me when I do the monthly Winchester Art Market, and any other events.

I hope over this weekend to work on a few more things, and maybe have some stuff to show, and maybe even have available to buy! Shocking stuff!

well based on my resolutions, it is going pretty well so far,

Garage is getting there, the last bit of shelving is up, and now we need to get all the stuff on there, all took a bit longer than I expected, as John ‘twinged’ his back, and couldn’t do anything on Saturday pm, but he is on the mend!

Handmade is definitely on the right track, you can now download the application form, over on the blog.

Bathrooms/toilets, er, nothing to see there : ) Creative stuff, well snap really, but I have got fabric out, starting to put some ideas down on paper. I have also realised that I really need to plan what events I’m going to take part in this year, I know that sounds obvious considering that I organise Handmade, but it really isn’t something I spend enough time sorting out.

I got these for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and the roses are now just starting to go a bit limp, but they are still lovely.

I went for my first ‘exercise’ walk yesterday, almost 4 miles, got a little lost, sore afterwards, but it felt good. Until the clocks change these will just have to be a weekend thing, but it was good to get back into the swing of things. Hopefully other things will now start to drop into place too.

This time of year almost give you too much much time to think, to ponder what you should do, and know what you will end up doing. I know there are things I should do;

lose weight

plan Handmade 2012

and that is all before I think about family, friends etc etc, maybe I have it the wrong way round?

I would say that the first two are things that I think about all year round, but only actually start to do anything about come Easter, because the clocks change, and there is Spring in the air, makes you feel like you want to make a change, the start of January does not have that effect on me.

The rest are all achievable, if I put in the time, or should I say organise my time more efficiently.
Also what should I expect to achieve?

(I love this piece, and I do want to bring pattern back into my work again)

One of the things I have really learned over the past few years, is how you have to manage people expectations, of situations/events and of people.
I think at this time of year, you build up things because they seem a long way off, and you have all the time in the world, but actually it isn’t true, and ultimately you will let yourself down more than other people, and so you should try to learn to manage your own expectations firstly, and then worry about the rest!

So what should I expect to manage to achieve, well, I guess it should be this,

decorate all the bathrooms/toilets

plan Handmade 2012 – already started

So that is more realistic and two have already been started, whoo! The others, well, I hope that we will manage to get some of it done too, I will start walking again in April, when the clocks change, and I do want to change my eating habits, which are not great : (
Regarding the garden, it is so massive, that I think we need to make a long term plan and split it up into smaller easier chunks.

(we don’t have the climbing frame any more, but even so the garden is a massive challenge)

So hopefully I will be able to update here as I go along, because that should be a help, and you can shout at me!

ran out of time to write this at the end of 2011, but not only was it another good year for music, John created a fantastic present for me, and more about that later.

This year we have seen Maps & Atlases, The Decemberists, Okkervil River, Tu Fawning, and lots more, including Pete and the Pirates,

This was from the first time we saw them this year, at the Joiners in Southampton, they were amazing, and then we saw them again at the Scala in October, when they were equally fab, but it all seemed too quick, I would love to be able to revisit the night we saw them at the Joiners, it was wonderful to be so close and feel like you really were part of it.

We also saw They Might Be Giants again this year,

This time without the boys, at Koko, and it was amazing, non-stop fun, and for a band that a year prior I hadn’t been that bothered about, I had a great time, and would love to see them live again very soon!

During the summer, John cleared out the loft space of the record mailers that are used to protect his precious vinyl, it was quite a pile!

He had been stashing these for a number of years, but we could barely get in the loft space, so they had to go!

At the end of the summer we took the boys to their first festival, End of the Road, it was an interesting experience!

We had lovely weather, and we ate amazing food, and we saw ‘some’ great bands, when I say ‘some’ I mean I and the boys saw very few bands, as you can see from this photo, the boys had other things on their mind,

but it was a great experience, and even though the boys may have not seemed have made the most of it, I think the experience will stay with them.

We also saw Besnard Lakes at the Scala,

which I was really unsure about, but they were great. We also had two ATPs, one in May and then the Nightmare Before Christmas, where I got to see Battles,

I saw them twice, and as you can see, the first time, I was right at the front, and it was great : )

This is all leading to the incredibly special present that John made for me, all I knew about this, was that John was working on his ‘Top Secret’ project, and here it is,

all made by him,

it took him 3 months,

including his fab Shellac photos. I could show you so much more, but it is a special present for me and two of our friends, for the past 5 years of our music experiences together, it is a wonderful present, and it is something I will always cherish.

The first proper post of 2012 coming soon!

This year, 2011, has been both liberating and frustrating, difficult but successful, so full of contradictions and change.

Dealing with work firstly, I have gone from part-time to full-time, then being no longer required and unemployed, then a new job, that ended with that company winding up, more weeks of uncertainty, then a job again, chopping and changing all the way!

John also finally went freelance again, after the unpleasantness of the past three years of employment. It hadn’t been planned for when it happened and then with me losing my job, it all got a little difficult, but we are finally on track, though January could be tricky, but I think many people also have that problem too.
For me leaving a job that was convenient and I had fallen into, it was great to actually get a ‘proper’ job, one in which I had experience, knowledge and skills, and be recognised for doing a good job!

So that was work, but unfortunately the effect that work had, was the impact of every part of our lives, and for me that meant I did not use my sewing machine for the first 6 months of the year, though moving out of the spare room had something to do with that too!
So when it came to the Summer Handmade Winchester event, I was both seriously stressed re. work, and had no stock, but the event was a success, and set-up the event in November perfectly, more about that later.

It is only now that I realise that I missed the 5 year anniversary of my blog in March, this makes me so sad now that I was so overwhelmed by my job that I so many of the things in my life, family, crafting and my blog, got suffocated by the nonsense of my job : ( Enough of the self-pity though!

So stuff other than my job, well there would be my other job, the more enjoyable, exciting one, making stuff!

As I said I didn’t really make anything until June, and that was mainly just so I had stock for Handmade, there was nothing new, just completing half finished ideas and pieces. It wasn’t until the end of the summer term, and therefore school end of year pressie time, that I really made my creative juices flow, and it was great, like turning on a tap, once I started, I didn’t want to stop, and it is still like that now, though I haven’t sewn for a week, been too busy with other stuff : )

Because of work, I had not committed to many events during the year, mainly just Handmade and the Winchester Art Market. I have taken part in all bar one this year, and it has been very up and down, for a couple of months I didn’t sell anything, I know that I was not alone in that, but due to the fact that I organise Handmade, I won’t get drawn into why the Art Market isn’t currently doing as well as it could. I also took part in Hampshire Open Studios, there was no event last year, but this year, it was great, I was based at Pennys studio again, and it was so lovely doing felt making demos, I love the way it intrigues people, how it goes from a pile of fluff to a hard wearing piece of fabric.

Back to Handmade Winchester, in July, we didn’t have quite as many people visit as the previous year, but we had tried a different Sunday, in 2012, we will be back to the normal Hat Fair Sunday, yay!

However, in November, it was like a whirlwind! In the space of 7 hours we had around 6000 people through the door, in 2010, we had had 2000! Honestly we didn’t know what had hit us, some of our sellers sold out! It was our biggest event yet, 70 stalls over three rooms, and it was wonderful, it was crazy, but amazing, and next year we hope to top it, don’t know how, but we try our very best!

Handmade has gone from an event I took part in, to an event I now run, and is now much bigger than the first one I just sold at, I really want it to carry on in the same way, but it has to stay fresh, and I’m now working on the 2012 events with John, and when I know what we are doing, I will let everyone know!

I also re-started my Etsy and Folksy shops in September, with limited success on both sites, I haven’t sold anything via Folksy, and the stuff sold on Etsy was sold to existing customers mainly, so I’m not really sure what to do about that, I will try to maintain stock in there, but I’m also thinking about using Big Cartel, I already have a front, just never used it. My Not on the High Street shop has really kicked off this year, and has been fantastic, especially in the lead up to Christmas. I think the combination of using that and the Big Cartel shop for one off pieces could be quite good, need to think about it a bit more, any ideas would be gratefully received : )

I need to just keep going with my designs, keep pushing it, because this year, more than ever before I have learnt that making, creating, sewing keeps me sane!

The boys this year have changed incredibly, or one thing we have Minecraft in our lives, if you have it as well, you know how I feel!

We now have a teenager in the house, a truly terrifying thought, and the smallest is now bidding to be the best cook in the house, The Great British Bake Off and the Hairy Bikers are responsible for a desire to try new things, and to cook such things as a Tarte au Citron, which was divine!

I know this is very very long, but not much longer now! This year has been hard, but John and I have got there, and now John has finally been released from his shackles, since July has been a changed man, which is wonderful, and long may it continue.

I promise that I will blog more, that if I’m going to do giveaways that they actually get sent out, and I will keep on sewing!
Roll on 2012, and thank god you are over 2011 (except the music, which I will do in another post!) !

of calm, well not really : )

I do have two weeks though before my last Christmas event, it has been a bit odd this year with how they have fallen, and one sadly never happening : ( However, by then I should have re-stocked, and also be looking forward to the new year and new designs.

But I do need to say something about Handmade Winchester, what an amazing day!

The photo was taken at about 4pm, when we were quieter! We had about 6000 people through the door, and it didn’t stop all day, so many of the designer/makers said that they had had their best fair at Handmade, and I really felt proud for what we have achieved in the three years we have organised the event. All of my helpers were fantastic on the day, and it really was a wonderful day and experience!

So onwards for Handmade Winchester 2012, not sure on dates yet, just waiting for confirmation on the Christmas ones particularly, but once I know I will let you know : )

Back to making bags, purses and corsages now!

sounds a bit self centered doesn’t it, but that is really how it feels, and should that be good or bad?

Where to start? ‘Tried’ another job, which was not great, but when you are mis-sold your job via an agency, it was pretty much doomed to failure!

However, all the positives are positive! Yesterday I had a great day at the Winchester Art Market, best one ever pretty much, and then this Saturday I have Handmade Winchester!

It will be amazing, we are in three rooms for the first time, we have over 70 stalls, and all the designer/makers are busy making wonderful pieces for the big day. Please become our friend on Facebook, we are building a lovely community on there, and it is definitely a case of the more the merrier!

One of my new pieces will be there too,

I’m really pleased with my new pieces and they have already received really positive feedback and sales too, so it is going really well.

I’ll try to do another post between now and then, but you know what it’s like!