Hats Outrageous!

Folksy Friday!!

Last week I was slack, I didn't have a Folksy Friday.  I had a good reason though - the following day I had the my boys' primary school Summer Fair, and I had some last minute stressing to do...so anyway, I had thought I'd do a double one today to make up for it, but unfortunately, my No. 2 Son had an accident at school yesterday - he's cut open his chin - so he's home needing attention, and we're going to the Doc's later on this afternoon.  No. 3 Son needs his "going to big school" immunisation, so we're kiling two birds with one stone, as it were.  No. 1 Son managed to get over his fears of catching the bus to school by himself; I took him up to the bus stop, saw him on the bus, but it was already full of kids from his school anyway, so it really wasn't a problem beyond one of his own making.  He'll be perfectly fine from now on!  I've been haivng him go down to the corner shops for milk and bread and whatever, so he's now used to making little trips by himself - this is just one more step in the right direction!  A Mummy friend from school is bringing him home, so that's all sorted as well.  Phew!

Anyway, in honour of the sticking plasters which now grace the face of my No. 2 Son, I've decided my Folksy Friday shall be about just that - plaster!  Drum roll please!

1.  Lettercarved plaster Feather, by Jo Sweeting

 

2.  Flying Ducks, by crazylovethis

   

3.  Fairy Door, by funkycinderella

 

I'm afraid that's your lot for today.  And that I'm also going to be closing down this blog after today, because I"m finding it's not quite so user-friendly as I'd hoped - I'm going over to the dark side, that is, blogger...anyway, my new blog, should you choose to follow me there, will be at this address.  There's nothing there at the moment, but I'm going to have my next Folksy Friday feature from there, with maybe some little surprises, who knows!  Until then,  byeee!!!

Busy busy busy!

It's the wind-down to the summer holidays - I should say it's me that's winding down, while everything else seems to be winding up!  At school it appears they're now trying to fit in all the things they've had all year to do, concerts, plays, school trips, whatever...and it's all happening right now.  The weather is topsy turvy, but whatever the weather, I have to keep on working, school work, craft work, house work...it's non stop!  This week I've attended my daughter's summer concert at her school.  I went to the Christmas concert, and was a little non-plussed.  Not sure why - I think it might have been because we travelled there by train and it finished very late, which meant we were on the station platform freezing whilst waiting for the train...the concert itself wasn't so bad, but my memory has been coloured by that cold, cold night! This time around, I still travelled by train, but my daughter stayed at school and organised her own dinner and so on - what a difference six months makes!  Back in November she wouldn't have dared do that, the result being we had to rush around in a mad panic because she arrived home half an hour before we had to catch the train - now she's Little Miss Independent, and I was able to take my time!  The concert finished almost as late as the November one, but the main difference was most certainly the weather, we walked to the station in the dusk - at 10pm - and although there was a chill in the air on the platform, it wasn't nearly so bad.   Anyway, this concert was great - my daughter played piano as part of the Lower School Symphony Orchestra, and sang as part of the Vocal Ensemble.  It's really lovely that she's so involved in school life; I really wish the opportunities were there for me to be as involved, but this is secondary school, the focus is on the children (young adults!) rather than the parents, and in a lot of ways that's much better...I guess!

My daughter also had her Confirmation on Sunday!  I'm so proud of her - she made the decision herself to have it, and although she was very nervous, it was lovely to see her stand up and profess her faith in Christ in front of everyone.  Poor thing was in tears because she was completely overwhelmed by it all, but she had her first Communion and that made it all worthwhile.  She's told all her friends at school that she's now considered an adult...a few of them are looking at her in a different way...and it's certainly had an affect on her attitude!  I wonder if this is part of the reason why she was happy to stay back at school on Wednesday?  She's having an outing to the cinema with her friends on Monday, which is a big step for me as much as for her, because it involves her taking two buses to get to the shopping centre where they're seeing the film.  She's under strict instructions to keep her phone turned on when she's not in the cinema...eep!  On the other hand, she's 13 and a half, I should be happy she's growing up and wanting to do things with her friends...and I'm sure I was doing the same sort of things when I was in Year 8...

I've been busily crafting and listing every day on Folksy - I can't believe it's been nearly a month and I've managed it every day - and once again, I'm *so* sorry I've not managed to do the same for you all here, and blog every day...how about I see what I can do for June?  Anyway, my daily listing is starting to see dividends:  I've been featured in quite a few blogs, and I've had *two* custom orders for my map coasters.  I haven't shown you my map coasters yet, have I!  Okay, well, here goes, let's have my Folksy Listings from where I left off...starting with the 17th of May:

1.  Map Coasters

   

2.  Felt Flower Brooch

   

3.  Felt Flower Brooch

   

4.  Map Coasters

   

5.  Denim and Patchwork Shabby Chic Coasters

   

6.  Large Barrette with Felt Flowers

   

7.  Crayon Roll

   

8.  Crayon Roll

   

9.  Felt Flower Brooch

   

10.  Felt Flower Brooch

   

11.  Felt Flower Barrette

 

Now, all of these are for sale, and are listed in my Folksy Shop!  I ship everywhere, and take payment by PayPal.  Don't forget, all proceeds from every sale go towards sending my daughter to the Jamboree next year!

PS!

Not long after I blogged this morning, I found out that my matching brooch and barrettes set had featured on Cuteable!  This is serious kudos!  I've been reading Cuteable for ages, and it has a massive readership.  So, thanks Lynsey, for considering me!

 

Fame (but no fortune yet...)

Hello!  Exciting things happening in our house!  For my Mad Mayhemmers listing yesterday on Folksy I posted these coasters:

  

 

When I list an item, I go through a process of also listing them on my personal Facebook Page, my Lemonade and Lamingtons Facebook Page, my Hats Outrageous Facebook Page, my Twitter account, and then finally, on Craft Juice, which is a platform for presenting your art and craft items (oh, and occasionally I blog about it here...).  Anyway, it's from this last one, Craft Juice, that I've had my lastest promotion.  Rosemary at Glitz and Glamour Jewellery featured my coasters, in fact, was inspired by my coasters, in her blog for Craft Juice Tuesday.  So there you go!  I think I'm up to 5 blog features now (not including this one...).

Anyway, as a consequence of this, I'm thinking I might do a Craft Juice Tuesday post once a week, as well as my Folksy Friday one?  What do you think?  And what do you think of my coasters??

Goodness me!

6 May already!  And I've not blogged for 3 days...how slack of me!  I've been a little busy (I know - any excuse!)...No. 4 turned 4 on the 4th - which must be a super champagne birthday, given he's the fourth child, born on the 4th and he turned 4!  The kids had the day off school on Monday because of the May Day Bank Holiday, and so that meant the 4th (Tuesday) was a bit hectic, because I'd re-assumed total holiday mode...then yesterday I was hoping to do some grocery shopping, but I got a phone call from No. 4's preschool asking if I'd like to do some cover work for them - for pay - now, how could I refuse that?  It was lots of fun, but I was completely exhausted by the end of it - kudos to the lovely ladies who do that every day!

Today I have 1/2 the children home from school because it's Polling Day (remember - Vote Early, Vote Often!) - No. 1 has to go to school because Secondary Schools aren't polling places, and No. 4 has to go to preschool, because preschools aren't polling places either!  But regardless (and even though I could sleep in because I don't have to be anywhere before 9.30...) I'm still up and about and doing my thang...I thought I'd catch up with my blog - don't you feel honoured?

I thought today, rather than filling up my blog entry with thousands of pics, and making it very unfriendly, download-wise, I'd post links to my Folksy May Listing Challenge entries, and you can go have a look for yourselves at what I've submitted.  Don't forget too, tomorrow is Folksy Friday, so I'll have loads of nice things for you to look at then...

So...here goes!

Tuesday 4th May

Wednesday 5th May

Thursday 6th May

So there you go!

If you're reading this in the UK, don't forget to vote - and as they say in Australia, "Vote early, vote often!"

May Listing Challenge - Day 2

So far, so good!  Day two (...in the Big Brother House...ummm...) in the Folksy May Listing Challenge and I have another item to list!  I have a felt flower brooch:

   

 If you would like to see what else people are offering as their contributions to the May Listing Challenge, have a look here!

Meanwhile, have a lovely day, it's raining here on the Sunday part of a long weekend, which is fairly typical!  Still, it won't stop us having some fun!

Folksy!

After an age of threatening, I have opened a Folksy shop.  It's only fairly small potatoes at the moment (only 5 items) but hopefully something will come of it.  I've listed some brooches I've made in the past few months and one of my scarves, and I've decided for the time being all proceeds will go towards sending my daughter to Sweden...of course!

I also have an Etsy account, but I've not listed anything there yet.  I'll see how I go with the Table Sale on Saturday and whatever I have left from that I'll list in both places.

EDIT - I have listed some items in my Etsy Shop!

Very slack, I know!

Sorry folks!  I've not been on here for a while because it's been head down, bottom up for the past few weeks, getting ready for Misty Moon!  It's an Arts and Crafts Fair, on 20th March, so hopefully I'm going to have enough stuff.

Husband has also started work, yesterday in fact. They rang on Monday and asked if he could start on Wednesday, but Wednesday was his birthday...so no go so far as we were concerned!  Anyway, he started yesterday morning, and as I type, is (hopefully) just about home.  It's a nice, short introduction to his new working life.  Sometimes there's going to be weekend work.  Not this or next weekend though, as this weekend he doesn't have access to the building yet, and next weekend I've already planned for him to look after the kids while I do Misty Moon...It's only 3 months though, so I guess I can cope...I'll have to!).   Next week will tell though.  He's waiting very impatiently for his credit card to arrive, because we're sort of cutting it a bit fine in terms of our money situation.  Never mind though, worry is a sin and God has a plan, He keeps showing this to be true!  Yesterday morning we were up at 5.30 to get him off and running, and it completely wiped me out, so, although I had high hopes of spending 2 hours in the Studio doing some sewing (ie. after the kids had gone to bed) I was fast asleep on the lounge at 8.  Fortunately I woke up on the dot of 9 to be able to tell No. 1 Son it was time to go to bed ("Rats!" said he).

In addition to getting up at the crack of dawn yesterday, I also popped into Knitshop, a lovely shop owned by my friend Julieta.  We got to know each other when our children were in nursery together, and back then she was running things out of a small studio and online.  Knitshop is still online, but her shop in Lee Green is fantastic - I just wanted to feel everything.  I bought some gorgeous cotton ribbon yarn (think cut up t-shirts, but neater) and have nearly finished it all.  I've offered my services as a knitter, a "proof-knitter" if you like, and I go back in next week to pick up my pattern and yarn.  She's also asked if I can "proof-crochet" some patterns when she gets some together...oh, and would I like to make some patterns myself, and sell them to Knitshop?  Oooh yeah!!  It's stuff like this that really excites me and I feel like I can quite possibly make a living in the visual and creative arts.  I can't wait!

I've also been typing for Jim, my little old man up the road who's been carrying a book around in his head since 1945.  I generally go up to his place on a Friday morning when No. 3 Son is ensconced in Nursery, but this week Jim has a friend staying with him, so rather than get in their way we decided I could work from home this week (and next week, as I thought I had something on next Friday, but it turns out that's actually the following Friday - note to self:  ring Jim!).  Because I'm now taking No. 3 Son everywhere with me rather than the luxury I had before, which was leaving him with The Good Husband, I had to plot what I was going to do before I did it, and so after dropping off Nos. 1 and 2 Sons at school, I asked No. 3 to watch a DVD or play on the computer (his choice) while I did my typing for Jim.  All done by 9.30, just in time to take No. 3 to Nursery...couldn't be easier!  I came home and went straight out to the Studio, where I sewed wheat bags for 1 and 3/4 hours...before I had to pick up No. 3 again at 12, have lunch, then pick up Nos. 1 and 2 from school...

Is it any wonder I'm exhausted???

Creations...

 

Okay - now the idea is that these are going to be bunting - can you see it?  I will have 8 of these Matryoshkas/Babooshkas on a string, separated by flags - what do you think?  I've had criticism that they're not bright/patterned enough, but firstly the photos don't do the colours justice, they're very bright - and secondly they're in felt, which doesn't lend itself much to pattern.  Oh, and thirdly, I was going for minimalist, so that's why there's no faces either.  So, having said all that, what do you think?

I'm busily making stuff for the Misty Moon Easter Craft and Arts Fair and thinking long and hard (and surfing long and hard too for that matter) to find stuff that's going to be *different* to what's normally on offer.  I have a load of Amigurumi pin cushions as well, plus my brooches.  If I make about 5 sets of felt Matryoshka bunting, plus 5 sets of patterned/bright, non-felt ones, plus regular triangle bunting, plus all the other stuff...(I might even throw in the t-shirts I made for the School Summer Fair last year, and my leftovers from the School Christmas Fair - why not?)...I might just have enough stock.  I'm thinking long and hard too about how to make some lovely tote bags - I have a handbag I made myself from upholstery fabric, and I sold a few in the same fabric as totes last year - yeah, why not!  I guess I'd best be off to the sewing machine...

Later on today I'll take some photos of my studio, the "Leisure Centre" and you'll see just what a lovely set up I have!  I've mentioned to Hubby that down the track I'd like a laptop for out there, so I'm completely the business woman.  Of course, I'd have to have a printer/scanner as well...

Lovely

My twitter account was hacked overnight by p*rn spammers...who sent DMs to people on my followers list.  Yuck.  Be vigilant, don't have the same password for everything!