I haven’t done many posts recently, due to the boys, doing stuff, you know what I mean, so yet again I have some catching up to do!

I wanted to explain a bit more about the fabric that we printed on the cushions which are now in the shop, but John has written such an excellent post on his blog, I think you should go read all about it there!

Last night I went to Ikea, I can hear you all muttering ‘is she mad!?!’, well no!
I sold the wardrobe that was in their room because it really wasn’t suitable, so now they have this,

Which is excellent storage, more about Trofast here, and they already have it for their toys, so these boxes need to be filled, and labeled, before school starts, so that is why I had to go last night!

This past week John has had the week off, so we have been quite busy, Marwell, cinema, Intech and Hilliers Gardens, where I took these,

Even though it was overcast, it was really lovely, and lovely to see so many of the flowers in bloom.

I’m going to be updating the shop a bit later today with the pieces of felt art I have worked on recently, here are the three,

They will be in my Etsy shop at about 8pm BST!

Oh yes, you were excited, well I was, by new felt, well this might top it!

Oh yes, new cushions, and even more than that, you see that fabric, the grasses blowing in the wind, John and I did that, well mainly John!

Yes, we have designed and printed our own fabric, all top secret and that, but now the cushions are out there and looking great, they are in the shop on Etsy!
And those two pieces of fabric are really limited, as we have only produced three prints of it in that colourway!

And, if that was not enough, I have had postcards made up to sell, in a random set of four, oh yes!!

These are available on Etsy and my new Folksy shop, so go take a peep!!

I’ll do another more in-depth post about the screen printing soon, and the felt pieces are going to go into the Etsy shop over the weekend!

when I started writing my blog, my main interest and focus was creating felt art, and over the past year I have not done so much of that. I have still made felt to make my corsages from, but no more than that really.

Recently a friend of mine, who has been quite unwell, was saying how much she likes my work, and how she liked seeing it in another persons house. Also shockingly I discovered that she doesn’t own any art, so I made her a piece, and I really enjoyed it. When I gave the piece to her yesterday it was so nice, to feel that someone else appreciates the skills I have.
Now I know that there are plenty of people who do appreciate my skills, but it is nice to be reminded sometimes!

So this has encouraged me, and after looking at all my work, to create some new pieces to sell on Etsy.

I have produced three, all based on the theme of stormy seas, and this is one,

I will be selling them framed, and the frames can be wall hung or sat on a table.

I will be putting these on Etsy within the next few days, I also have some other stuff to list as well, but I will save them for another day : )

my headache has now just about gone, but I have a rant, and it has been lurking for a few days and is getting worse, so I must put it on here!

As many of you know a couple of years ago I took part in what was called then, Hampshire Artists. Now it has been re-named Hampshire Open Studios to match the rest of the other schemes around the country. You may be aware that I think the organisation of the project is pretty awful, and unfortunately I do not think it has the credentials of other Open Studios schemes.

But this year I have been disappointed as a buyer, not an exhibitor, which is so much worse.
Firstly the brochure is terrible to read and understand, just awful, no design goes into it, and it is extremely illogical, but I guess you could just say that is my taste.
But looking through the brochure, and looking for an artist I have visited before, I come to a page and find this,

I just feel that this is so rude and uncalled for, why do this, is it to humiliate that person, as of course they know who they are. Having worked with printers for many years, I know that this was unnecessary as that could have been entered very late in the day, or something else could have been placed there instead. So there is the first part, the second part happened on Saturday.

We went to look at an artist who I have never managed to go to in previous years, a ceramist, I love ceramics, I wish I could try it, some of my most favorites and treasured pieces of art are ceramics, so to see this lady, who has a great reputation was to be a treat.

So we drive the 15 miles, get to the location and find that it is shut, not to be put off, and slightly annoyed that I have wasted my time, I ring the number given in the brochure. I speak to the woman, she tells me she is shut, and she will not be opening at all! No apologies for my wasted journey, no reason, nothing.
Now I know there could be a perfectly good and valid reason, but none was offered, nothing, and that upset me, this woman is not a first time exhibitor, she knows that people do travel long distance to see artists, especially well known ones. I know that is considers herself to be one of these as she told my mother in law a couple of years ago!

It really put a downer on it for me, because not only does she spoil it for herself, but probably for other artists too, because if someone goes to her, as the first person to visit, are they going to carry on driving all over the county, will they think that everyone will be like that?

I had thought about maybe trying to do it again, when both of the boys are settled, but after this time I really have to call into question why anyone would want to be involved with such a process.

BUT! We did go and see some ceramists and a textile artist, and they were fab, really friendly, a lovely studio, and it was great! So if you live in Hampshire, do try to see at least one person this coming week, because you might see one that really makes it worth your while! I got these, and they are lovely : )

And also they were very reasonably priced, if you are interested I will send you the details, but all I have is an e-mail address which I don’t really want to put on here!

I have moved my three latest bags from Etsy to Folksy.

I think I mentioned a while ago that I had opened a shop up there, but hadn’t put anything in there, so now I have!

Things are very slow on Etsy at the moment, but think that is everyone, and probably everywhere, so I thought I would give Folksy a whirl : )

So far so good, but one thing it does mean that these bags are now only available to customers in the UK, so if you are interested in one them, please send me a mail, either via here, or Etsy and let me know.

I would write more, but I have a splitting headache, and lots of house stuff to do, so maybe tomorrow! Hope you are having a great weekend!

sorry about the lack of posts over the past week, even my mum commented on it to me!

A number of things really, children, weather, children, wordpress eating my images, children, and the Olympics, well the last one is probably equal to the children, I mean how can you not be sucked into the love of Gold medals!

It has been fantastic, and I admit I have cried almost every time the flag has risen and God Save The Queen has rung out!

I have lots of stuff to write about and some weird photos too, but for now I will leave you with three bags I started while watching the womens marathon, yes I was up at 2am, then had to give up!

Are they tree or are they spoons, you decide!

Maybe I do a proper post tomorrow, oh and the bags are in the shop!

is that the Village People or Rod Stewart? Well it doesn’t matter, because these are,

In the shop now!

I started this post yesterday, and then Wordpress decided that after doing the latest update it was going to start to screw around, so after many problems we had to take it offline, and then re-boot it late last night, so if the site wasn’t working for you last night, I’m sorry!

So here follows the post I started yesterday, I think it still makes sense!

it is grey here, the weather is not being very helpful, piles of dirty washing to be done, the castle to be finished, and not good enough light to photograph bags : (

I did manage to get this one earlier,

This one is a bit of a change again, more of a scene, but I wanted to use the darkness of the blue, so this is it : )

Thanks for all the great comments of the ‘fancy’ bag, so pleased everyone likes it, so I’m going to be working on at least another four bags like that one, but using different colours and fabrics, these I hope will go into the shop later this week.

The four bags I have finished and ready, the mugs, and the one above, well we have photographed them once, and neither of us are really that happy with them, so we will either try again later, or tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled for those! The mug ones will be priced at $33 each and the moonlight scene will be $39.

Regarding children, well they are still alive, but William is being the hardest work, really hard work, but lets see how we go : )

well I couldn’t help myself, once I had that idea, I had to do it!

I really like it, I think it has worked very well, it is made from silk and velvet, lined with natural linen, The handles are silk on the outside and linen on the inside, and it has a magnetic closure as well. It measures 7.5″ high and 8.5″ across at the top, it has a gusset so it sits nicely, and the handles are approximately 12″ long.

It will go in the shop, and I will make a few more, at least to see how they go, I’m certainly not going to stop making my standard bags, as I enjoy them too much!

anyone who knows me, knows that one thing I am not is a fancy spangly sort of person! I shall now explain this comment!

Last week I went to a lovely wedding party, really lovely, and lovely people too. Now the thing is I do not often go to the sort of occasion where you use little handbags, fancy ones, teeny tiny ones, they are just not me, maybe they could be, but I didn’t have one last week, 98% of the women there did! So I was thinking, maybe this is a market I’m missing because I have no concept of it.

The thing is that so many of the bags I saw, looked expensive, but how often would most people actually use them? So I was thinking that maybe I should look at making more fancy versions of these,

This was one of five I made last summer, and they worked really nicely, so I was thinking if I could use this basic design, and add a magnetic clasp, and use some silk, linen, and nice stuff, it might work, what do you think?

Also I have finished the three ‘mug’ bags, I hope they will be in the shop over the weekend : )