a very short one,

I have found the past couple of weeks very hard, and still have little to show for it, so a glimpse of what will be going into the shop this week.

Working on more ideas, trying to turn them into good designs, that I am happy with

Maybe a proper post in the next few days…..

I have not done a mosaic on Flickr for an age, and as I have nothing personally to show as yet, I thought I would share with you some of my recent favs and inspiration : )

The images are as follows;

The little books are by Nightjar Books and she sells her books here.

The beautiful nest photo is by Ella Pedersen, and you can find her shop here, and I would have one of these crowns if I were a little girl!

The lampwork beads are made by my sister-in-law, and here Etsy shop is here, and she also has her blog too.

And lastly, but definitely not least, amazing piece of art, on an envelope by Gustavo Aimar. I so wish I could draw!

I’m totally behind with everything, and this week is another hectic one, so I hope to have new stuff in the shop this coming weekend, sorry for the delay. I will be revisiting some old designs, and new things too : )

oh yes, where are all those bags I put in the shop, well they’ve almost all gone, and so have many others! I have had a totally bumper week on Etsy this week, so much so that today I’m planning my next ones, when I should actually be doing something else instead!

Since last Wednesday I’ve been on the front page of Etsy three times! And I’ve sold 12 bags, this has rather caught me out, this week I was meant to do all the things that had been waiting to be done, including tidying the house, done my sewing room : ) And I have done more, but you know how things go.

This is the image that we get through our front door on a lovely sunny evening, and we have had a few this week, but it also visually shows how my brain is at the moment!

This is the first week I have had ‘alone’ in the house for 8 years, as John is now working out of the house! That may not seem like a great deal, but is certainly a big change for all of us, especially John, and I think it is really very hard for him, a total change.

This is really a quick post to say ‘hello’ and thank you for all the lovely comments left both on here and Flickr, and I’m being busy, and I have stuff going on, which I hope to show soon, etc etc, maybe something later : )

Bye!

You read that correctly, pages, I have managed two in the past couple of days, on Sunday with this one,

and then this one, last night while I was tucked up in bed : ) So unfortunately I don’t have a grab of it on the front page, just the actual treasury page,

The funny thing is, I think this this is the third time or maybe even fourth time this bag has been on the front page, and it is still there unsold : ) But I did sell other bags last night so it does make a difference, and it does draw people to your shop. That bag now has had over 2000 views now! Maybe it will sell one day : )

William started at a club at school today, Strictly School Dancing, as I left he was telling them all about his moves! I really hope it went well, he thinks he is going to be on the telly in a skintight outfit from doing this, give it a few years : )

oh yes!

yes I made another felt poppies one, simply because of the positive feedback both on here and on Flickr.

And I made some green felt with little wool neeps, and used this on a design I have in my book for a while, a graphical fern type design.

Also I have finally made some of the other designs I have had lurking in my book : ) The cupcakes, and the poppy seed heads, and I have also made the seed head one in the chocolate linen.

Very pleased with these and the ones last Wednesday, I think on the whole I will only be listing items now on a Sunday night, due to changes happening at home.

Thanks for all the recommendation for books, I hope to check some out very soon. A friend has suggested that my post was very negative, I’m sorry if it appeared that way, I didn’t mean it to : )

I would also like to say thank you for all the lovely comments everyone has left recently, I do try to reply to as many as I can, but it has been quite hard having the time to do that.

Lots on the go, one should be on here this week, and another one I should be able to hopeful tell you about soon, and the third thing I will probably need your feedback on!

Thanks for the comments about William, we did go to the doctors, and maybe once they are back at school tomorrow I might be able to get my brain into gear about it!

Hope you like the bags!

Be warned I think is the longest post ever, well on my blog at least!

I am sure there are loads of you who read my blog who are members of a book group in some way shape or form. I have now been in a group which is entering its fourth year, which is really quite a shock to me!

We were formed as a group of ten women who had all been on our Playgroup Committee, over a similar period of time, though not all over lapped, so we all had at least two common interests, books and our children : )

I admit that at times I have not wanted to go, through either not enjoying the book, not having read it or sometimes just not wanting to be with those people for an evening. But on the whole it has been very enjoyable, has helped to form good friendships, and the most important thing is that I have read loads of books, and especially ones I would have not normally chosen to read.

So we have read roughly 30 books now, and most have been ok, but they are not worth talking about, the only ones you want to know about are the excellent ones and the stinkers! Well we’ll start with the stinkers!

Before I start this, these are my opinions, my choices, and I do not force them on anyone! I’m quite an opinionated person, so you have to accept that before you read further!

The third book we read was ‘The Kid‘, the best way to describe this is that was a glorified magazine article aimed at the Tesco buyer of books, can also be described as a Misery novel, arghhhhhh. Just hateful, I hated it, and as our third book I was really worried how this was going to go from here.

Well for me it got worse, the next book was ‘My Sisters Keeper‘ by Jodi Picoult. Now I know this woman books are really loved, but I couldn’t stand it! It was contrived and couldn’t make up its mind what it was, multiple narrators that really were not necessary, just rubbish. One of our book group has gone on to read all the rest of her books, I think I would rather listen to Des O’Connor sing rather than suffer the same fate!!!

So I guess you would think that maybe I was a little worried about the rest of the books we would read, well yes I was, but a few books later I was saved, by one of the best books I have ever read, but more of that later!

The most recent book that was truly dire was ‘Out of the Tunnel‘ which basically stemmed from a blog of one of the survivor’s of the 7/7 attacks in London, now you should feel great empathy and sympathy for this woman, well not one in our group either could or did. So another duff book!

Well onto the excellent books, well for me so far there have been two stand out books, ‘The Time Travelers Wife‘ and ‘We need to talk about Kevin‘.

‘The Time Travelers Wife’ has been a top selling book everywhere and has also had great critical acclaim too, not always the easiest line to tread. I loved the book from the moment I started reading it, it called out to me, it was so clear in my head, I could see all the characters, Henry and Clare were so real I could almost feel them with me as I read the book. I don’t think I had ever read a book before that had such an effect on me.

Also I cried a great deal, especially the last chapter, I won’t tell you what happens, but it is so beautiful, I didn’t want it to end : ) I think we all in our group felt the same way, though I think for some reason it touched me than the others. So if you haven’t read it, do, because once you start you won’t be able to put it down!

‘We need to talk about Kevin’ well this is such a different story, opposite really. On the whole this book was not enjoyed by the majority of our group, maybe the maternal aspect came into play in that.

I really couldn’t get into it, I was really struggling, and then I hit about page 100 and I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t put it down. It suddenly was speaking to me, and I was flying through it. I don’t think you can say you love a story about a High School killing, but I loved reading it. On some levels you knew the end result, but other aspects were very much left open, and I shall not spoil anything for anyone either! A great gripping story, stick with it, it is worth it : )

Now those are my opinions, I would also like to mention Richard and Judy! I think we have read over the past 3 years at least 10 of their choices, some have been great, see above. However some have been pretty average, and not what they have been hyped up to be, so don’t believe the hype, try to dig a bit deeper.

Also if you are in a group and a friend or relative recommends a book, don’t try to take it just on that, we have had at least three books like that which have been pretty poor! So beware!

Lastly, I will have to chose a book a bit later this year as my fourth book, so far I have chosen the ‘The Shadow of the Wind’, ‘The Virgin Suicides’ and ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’ a varied selection. So if anyone has any great ideas, please let me know! I hope my list has helped, and here is the list, and my ratings : )

Brick Lane - good

Five People you meet in Heaven - very good, and short : )

The Kid - awful, see above

My Sisters Keeper - awful, see above

About Grace - excellent, lovely writing too

The Shadow of the Wind - very good and completely gripping

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (adult edition) - a great book, but a bit close to home : )

The Time Travelers Wife - Fantastic, wonderful, etc see above

Pride and Prejudice - I didn’t finish it, look Colin Firth was it for me, I couldn’t hack the language!

The Poisonwood Bible - too heavy, just didn’t enjoy it

Lord of the Flies - good, very different reading it as an adult!

Beatrice - terrible, generic and badly written

Vernon God Little - ok, I can’t say I really enjoyed it

A Short History of Tractors in the Ukrainian - didn’t read this one

Counselling for Toads - very interesting, made you think about your relationships within your family

Bel Canto - ok, very predictable

In Praise of Slowness - dull

The Virgin Suicides - loved it, and the atmosphere it created

We need to talk about Kevin - great book, see above

The Drowned and the Saved - a hard book to read, teenagers should though

Love and War in the Apennines - didn’t read this one

The Girls - not a great book, the interesting characters were not the ones that the book was about!

The Secret River - an interesting book

The God of Small Things - didn’t read this one

The Mists of Avalon - didn’t read this one

Moab is my Washpot - a great book, the way he describes seeing your first love is spot on!

The Island of Dr Moreau - interesting, but not that enjoyable

Birdsong - found it really hard to like the main characters, struggled with that aspect

Out of the Tunnel - dire, see above

A Clockwork Orange - a classic it may be, but not for me

Naked Lunch - as above!

A Thousand Splendid Suns - not all it’s cracked up to be, predictable but polished.

Wow, that’s it! Remember those suggestions!!!

Sorry about the dull title, that was the third attempt, and probably the best!

that’s one of them, and here are the other four,

All on natural coloured linen, and three are on some lovely new stuff I’ve got which has a more pronounced weave and it is lovely.

Not much else to report, other than a screaming six year old who has almost driven me to tears today, I think we may have to go the the doctors, because I really want to believe there is more to this than just him being a foul little boy, or am I kidding myself?

Anyway all the bags are in the shop, I hope you like them : )

and poppies : )

As I had said I really wanted to make some felt, so I did : ) I have never really made individual flowers before as one pieces, I normally make a big piece and cut them to what I want, but this seemed to work quite well.

I know the red is awful to take photos of, but you can see the centre quite well on this one.

I hope to be listing some bags tonight at least four, or maybe six if I can finish the two that are half done!

…. oh yes ‘Easter’ holidays, but only one more week to go! I think the main thing is that the boys are simply not used to being together for such long periods of time, and so therefore bickering and just irritating each other constantly!

Because of this I have been very slow on the sewing front, and to complicate matters I have had problems with my supply of linen, which I think I have now resolved thankfully : )

I have loads of things to do, e-mails to reply to and other really important things to be done, but motivation has not been strong, and I’ve been easily distracted by so many other things.

I hope that in a week or so these ‘other things’ will be more settled and resolved, I hope so for my own selfish sake.

So this week on the sewing front has been all to do with preparation and more preparation to make some new linen totes,

Yes, loads of half done straps and pockets, well they are all done now, ready to use, so I’m now doing the more creative bit, the designs of the front of the bag, this is one of the new ones,

This is my latest blossom design, I really like it, and it works really well on this rougher linen that I have now sourced, it is lovely actually, I will try and do a post about my linen and where I get it from soon, I have had many e-mails from people about what I use and where from.

I fancied doing something a bit different, so I came up with this,

I have to admit I have been inspired by Kajsa, I hope she doesn’t mind : ) It is always great to try something a bit different, but some of my ‘normal’ designs will be winging their way into my shop in the next few days.

I have also really got the urge to make some felt, so I hope to have some new corsages and other felt related items soon, very soon : )

I will also try to do a few more regular updates on here, I had kept it up so well, but with everything else this has slipped a little, and to be honest it does help me clear my mind, and see what I need to do, so I will try harder!

This morning like most of the UK we awoke to a winter wonderland outside, and the boys couldn’t wait to get outside, or could they?

Edward got his coat, gloves and shoes on, hood up and outside, fantastic! William however, well, why make life easy when instead you could scream for England and wake the whole road! He decided that he ‘had’ to wear his hoodie (normal weather clothing!) not his puffa jacket. He was told that no, it was puffa or nothing, now you are thinking five minutes of this, and you would give up and wear the coat that mummy says, well you obviously have not meet my 6 year old….

…..

…..

…..

35 minutes of screaming later, he decides that he can go outside in the puffa, at which point Edward decides that he is wet and cold enough and wants to come in, so William screams more, at this point I beg my 9 year old to return outside, thankfully he does!

William eventually spends the grand total of 5 minutes in the snow before he is too cold and wet! I pray there is no more snow, I don’t think my eardrums will take it!!!

I have now listed the three little girls bags, my market research discovered one major thing with them, I have no idea how big children are, yes I know I have two of my own! I have now discovered that these bags are big enough for 2 to 4 year olds!!! So if you fancy one for your little one, they are hiding in the shop now!

John took these nice shots of them sitting my my hand,

and this one,

and lastly,

I like them because they include of me which does not show my sausage fingers, double chin or grey hair!

Even though I have already written loads (?) I have a few more things, the 2nd Annual Softie Awards is taking submissions, I’m not sure what to do, I was a finalist last year, I’ll have to ponder it : )

If you are a member of a book group and you opt to read A Thousand Splendid Suns, it doesn’t make the best discussion, maybe our group, or just me had an off night. The book was good, but not enough to talk about, maybe because we all liked it, but we have all liked books before and had great discussions, but this one was not that good to discuss.

And lastly, a warning to all people buying bananas, if you buy them from my mum, don’t upset her, or she will pinch them! Not steal, but pinch with her fingers!!!! Let that be a lesson to annoying customers who talk on their mobiles, waste carrier bags, talk rubbish and moan about the weather!

Ok, I think that is enough for tonight, and I feel a little better for it!!!