Up and Running

All of my shops were closed for a little while, but you'll be glad to hear that both my Etsy and Folksy shops are now back up and running again.  I'm still working through my Wow Thank You shop but it's getting there (oh for a 30 hour day).

I had a large order to work through and decided to taken the time to reorganise all of my shops whilst they were closed and kill two birds with one stone.  For a while I have been making the kindle and tablet cases to order but I wanted to have ready to ship cases in stock for the Christmas period.  I'm not a patient person so I always think twice (three times) about whether or order something that needs to be made to order, partly because the item I get may or may not be exactly like the item I ordered and partly because when I order something I like it to arrive and be able to tick it off my list, especially at Christmas.  You know when you just like to know something is done and you don't have to think about it any more.

So anyway, all the custom orders I've been making happily fall into three sizes, all right more than that if you count ipads and phones etc, but the Kindle and tablet cases are now available to buy in three sizes and all are ready to ship.

The Size 1 Cases, suitable for Kindle Nook and Kobo Touch, Kindle 4 & 5 and the new Kobo Glo and Kindle Paperwhite.

Paddington Lime

Paddington Raspberry

The Size 2 cases, suitable for the Kindle 3 Keyboard (wifi & 3G), the Google Nexus 7, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 and the new Kobo Arc.

Notting Hill Raspberry

Kaito Red

And the Size 3 cases, suitable for the Kindle original and the Kindle 2 as well as some of the other larger tablets.

Book Store

Scratched Vinyl

These cases and more are now all available to buy from both my Folksy and Etsy shops, but please feel free to still get in touch if you would like a custom made case in a different fabric ... I haz many!

What a difference a few days make

Sorry, I know that last post was a bit grumpy.

It was panic, maybe, at least I think that's what it was.

I'm all better now though, I promise.

All my outstanding orders are cleared and I was even able to just faff around with a couple of new things yesterday.

I made a new cuff bracelet and I'm really trying not to keep it for myself ... might have to make another one though:)


We had mad hair day on the last day of school. I even found the time to customise Chloe's shop bought wig with a big blue bow which she told me made the wig cute but not mad, so I flung every drop of glue and sequin I could find in the house at the thing until it was deemed suitably mad. I know you can't see the bow but my lovely husband doesn't take photos with me blogging in mind. He'll get there though, won't you husband?



Chloe's really starting to rub off on me as far as the holiday goes. She is so excited and now we're down to our last 3 sleeps she'll be nearly impossible to contain. So I'm just going with it, letting her rub off on me and getting a bit excited myself.

It helps that I've found the time to iron everything and the cases are packed, well except for the couple of things that are still drying after being hammered by hailstones on the line yesterday. Do you think the weather knows it's May?

Anyway, the point is I feel much better now. I'm all cleared up and don't have that panicky feeling that I won't get finished in time and I'll let someone down.

Now the only thing left to do is get Chloe back for her last day of school on Thursday and try to find some way of tiring her out enough to get her into bed really early on Thursday night because we have to get up at 3am for our flights on Friday morning and I don't know if I've mentioned it before but Chloe getting out of bed early in the morning makes Kevin look like a precious little angel. Does anyone have a treadmill I can borrow?

Business Decisions and Shop Update

I've been mulling over a few things in the back of my mind for the past six months or so regarding my little business and I've finally made a few decisions which will lead to some changes in how I run things here.

Most of these changes are small, many will go completely unnoticed by everyone but me. However, the first and perhaps biggest change which I've put in place this morning is that Leanne Woods Designs will no longer ship worldwide.

I realise for a business this probably seems a little bit counter productive. I've effectively reduced my customer pool to those living on the tiny group of Islands known as the UK but after some thought I'm completely fine with that, if anything I'm happier.

It's always been a goal of mine to use as many locally sourced materials as possible. Many of the fabrics I use are manufactured right here in the UK a smaller quantity are made in neighbouring EU countries however those were still purchased locally, I never add to the volume imported where possible. With things like zips and some hardware which just isn't manufactured anywhere in the UK I will import but I try to offset these items by using carbon neutral companies for things like stationary, business cards and packaging or by making donations.

Because of this I never felt comfortable with the idea of shipping worldwide, it was something I did way back when I first set up shop and it hasn't sat well with me since then. The idea of sending a purse or a handbag halfway round the planet when I'm completely and utterly positive that something could have been sourced closer to home seemed ludicrous to me.

I'll announce any future changes in time, but as I say they're teeny tiny compared to this and most won't have any dramatic effect to the shop or products on offer.

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Mini Pocket Purses - Now in Stock

Remember me

It feels like it's been so long since I've written anything, but it's really only been a few days. I've no real concept of time passing at the minute to be honest, any routine we had is long gone what the school holidays and what have you.

I have no more news about my dad at the minute. We're still waiting for his assessment appointment, which should have been today but wasn't so it may now be next Tuesday. He needs to have the assessment before the operation and although he seems to be fine his doctor is concerned at the length of time he's having to wait because he's still losing quite a bit of blood.

We've been very patient so far but unfortunately it seems that rather than patients being seen in order of most urgent, it seems to be more a case of who pisses off the hospital staff the most and causes them the most headaches, so we'll try that for a bit and see how it goes.

I've been keeping myself pretty busy as usual between mucking about with Chloe and work, I've had a few commissions in the past week or so, though I'm fairly up to date in that I'm down to one remaining current commission and I've just taken a new one as well, so that will keep me occupied for a while.

My lovely husband who claims that he is not influenced by anything he watches on tv, saw a report on said goggle box yesterday stating the incredibly concerning fact that 1 in 10 children don't know that a conker comes from a horse-chestnut tree. When I was a kid conkers came from conker trees and were promptly hung on the end of the sturdiest shoe lace to be found in the house, usually from one of dad's work boots and I turned out all right.

For the record our primary school was also surrounded by "helicopter trees" and were referred to as such by the pupils and the teachers!

Anyway, long story short is that I now have a bowl full of conkers in the kitchen, kindly brought home by the husband for no reason whatsoever!



This is what I'm currently working on. It's a bag and fascinator (my first eep) for a gala at the end of the month. I'm glad that it's being delivered in person, because it's an absolute mare to photograph. It's actually a blueish green and what looks like handfuls of dust in the photo are actually tiny silver sequins, the quilting is silver embroidery thread too. It isn't finished yet, well I suppose it is in the sense that it functions as a bag but I'm still waiting for peacock feathers to arrive. I'll hopefully have this one complete and delivered by the weekend.



I'll be making a start on the new commission for a wall plaque this evening and I'm looking forward to that.

I also have a sale on my Folksy shop at the minute from page five onwards. A lot of things are up to half price as I desperately need to make some room in the stock room (read two stock boxes which fell in love, mated and spawned half a dozen ickle stock boxes which are fast growing into half a dozen strapping lads and I don't really have a room specially for them).

Of course the husband occasionally complains about the amount of space I take up around the house, at which point I offer that we do in fact have a spare room which I could move everything into (you remember the man room right?) and he shuts up.

So that's basically what I've been up to or at least plan on being up to over the next few days. That and making sure I have everything ready for Chloe's return to school next week. I can't believe the Summer holidays are gone already, I feel a bit like Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh when he lost all the calender pages!

Belmont Tower Craft Fair

I spent almost all day Saturday at Belmont Tower Craft Fair. My very lovely mummy and I arrived a little after 8.30am and started to set up my stall. Well, I set up my stall and my very lovely mummy (who knows better, bless her) sat drinking coffee and watching me from a safe distance.

We all like things done our own way, don't we?

I finished up sorting the stall out and with plenty of time left before the doors opened I started having a natter to some of the other crafters. It turned out that all bar two of us were completely new to the fair so we had no idea what to expect.

I sat having a quick coffee and watched a few people taking photos of their stalls once they were ready and I thought, I must remember to take a photo!

Anyway ....
Head like a sieve as usual, honestly where some things are concerned no sooner have I put it in there, than it falls straight back out again. Photos seem to be one of those things. But look ...

Chocolate!


Thought that might work.

I was really pleased with how the fair went in the end. It wasn't the busiest, but because the other stall holders and the customers were of the absolutely outstandingly brilliant variety it meant that I got to stand and have a chat with everyone instead of having to excuse myself every few minutes.

Sales wise I did pretty well, well enough that I've booked again for next month (bagged the last free table) and I've booked ahead for November too. I was very pleased that the first thing I sold was one of my handbags, this one to be exact. The first hour of the fair was very very quiet and all of a sudden a lady appears out of nowhere and declares "Lovely bags, I'll take that one please".

Do you know when it's been so quiet to begin with and then someone asks to buy one of the most expensive things on the stall and it throws you for a second. My mum and I just looked at each other as much as to say "did she just say she wants a bag?", "aye I thought that too, must be the acoustics in here". We just couldn't believe it for a second, but quickly got over it:)

So you'll find me there again on 7 August. Now if I could just ask one of you lovely people to yell, "don't forgot the photos", on my way out the door that would be great. Ta.

July Jesters - Day Four

And I'm already playing catch up! Though I did only miss one day and I have added two new purses today, so I'm back up to date again.

Still I'll have to try better for the rest of the month . . . I will, honest!

Thankfully there have been plenty of lovely new things listed by the July Jesters, though I can't help feeling put to shame slightly when Pipistrelle can manage to crochet an item a day:)

And NOfkants Curios can make a fossil. Doesn't happen overnight you know!

Silvessence can even make things from metal faster than I can plug in a sewing machine.

I really must try harder for the rest of the month because I'm totally letting the side down.

Can I blame the craft fair, I've been blaming it for everything lately and I guess I can probably drag another couple of good days worth of excuses out of it, even though it was on Saturday.

The craft fair? It was great, but that's a post for another day.

10 tips on approaching shops

Selling online is easy, right? Wrong!

Setting up shop online is easy, but the actual selling takes a lot of hard work. First you have to make something and make it well, then you have to photograph it beautifully, then you have to write a description which reads as though you hadn't bothered your backside to offer photos in the first place. Then you have to market your products and that in itself can be on uphill struggle.

On the other hand selling offline can actually be much easier, you just make and take to a shop. Beautifully made things will sell themselves because customers can pick them up off the shelves, try them on, hold them, feel them and smell them. You no longer need to bother with beautiful photos and wordy descriptions and because some shops also like to use their own branding and packaging, allowing you maybe a label or swing tag, that's another thing you don't have to worry about.

But the thought of approaching a shop can seem very daunting and can put people off the idea before they've even tried.

I've put together a little list of tips of what to do when considering approaching shops to hopefully make the whole thing seem less scary and hopefully more rewarding.

1. Firstly, spend some time in the shops you are considering. Pop in a couple of times over the course of a few weeks. You want to get a feel for how busy the shop is and how well it's doing. Many a designer has lost items when a shop they stocked closed without warning.
   
   
2. Try and get a feel for the products in the shop and more importantly what sells. This will give you an idea of the shop's reputation and what they are well known for. Do handbags languish on the shelves for months on end and yet every time you pop in they seem to have new jewellery. This means that the shop is known for jewellery and that is what customers will intentionally go to the shop to buy. If you don't sell jewellery then you only have the opportunity of selling to passers by who may not be looking for anything at all. Always try and find the right place for you.
   
   
3. Think about the location and what effect it will have on you. For instance, I don't drive so delivering to shops in my own town is a dawdle, delivering to the towns immediately surrounding my own takes a little more planning but isn't in itself a hassle. I can even manage Belfast with a huge bag and little fuss, but anything beyond that becomes much more of a headache and you'll need to take that into consideration. In stocking a shop you could be paying as much as 50% to the shop owner. Are you fine with only earning 50% and taking on any hassle involved in delivering too.
   
   
4. Once you've worked out which shops you would like to approach, make an appointment. I honestly can't stress this enough, I know a few people have had success by just dropping in the off chance, but keep in mind that the shop owner holds all the cards and at this early stage the only thing you have to offer is respect for them and what they do. I personally can't abide when someone assumes that just because I'm not making something or packing an order that I must be sat here with my two arms the one length and all the time in the world to do what I please and the same holds true for shop owners. Just because they don't have a queue at the counter doesn't mean that you can assume they're standing there with nothing to do and you'll be a welcome break in an otherwise boring day.
   
   If you do choose to just drop in unexpected, I would suggest starting the conversation by saying that you love the things they've chosen for the shop and you believe that your products would fit perfectly and could you possibly arrange a time to call and have a chat with them when it's convenient. You may get lucky and they'll have time there and then, but if they've actually just been waiting for a few spare minutes between sales to nip to the loo when you happened to walk in then you've at least offered them the opportunity to offer you a quick response, even if it is just to tell you to phone later in the day.
   
   
5. If a shop isn't interested in your products, don't take it to heart. Try and keep in mind that nobody knows the shop and customers better than the owner. They're running a business and have to make all their decisions with their head rather than their heart. It doesn't matter that you make the most beautiful brooches she's ever set eyes on in her life, if she's stocked brooches before and hasn't had any success with them or if her biggest sellers are soaps and candles, then chances are she just won't be able or willing to sacrifice the shelf space for your products. Don't take it personally, it's just business.
   
   
6. So you've taken the first step and now you have a date and time to go back again. I would suggest taking good photographs of your range of products, take photos of things in groups, a selection of jewellery, highlighting one or two pieces in photos of their own is a good way to go. You don't want the owner to feel as though they're plowing through your holiday snaps for the past ten years. 15 or 20 photos at the very most will be more than enough, then choose a few key pieces to take with you. I would also suggest wearing something of your own if you happen to make something that can be worn. If you have your own packaging take a sample of that too to show the quality.
   
   Don't worry if the shop owner asks if you can leave a couple of things for her to think it over. I was asked the same thing when I first approached a shop and later that day a customer saw the pieces I had left behind the counter and asked if they were for sale, had that not happened the owner may have decided against stocking me in a few days. I got lucky.
   
   
7. Going back to the respect thing again, I would say to make sure you are presentable when going to the shop. It isn't a formal interview so you don't need to break out the good suit, but just make sure that you are tidy and well presented. Leave enough time for a quick chat to turn into a coffee or even a lunch, you want to give the owner your full attention and not look as though you really need to be somewhere else. With that in mind, don't take the kiddies with you either.
   
   
8. If the shop offers to take a few pieces on sale or return don't let it worry you. Most shops will only consider consignment until a designer has a proven track record with them. It's a way of letting you get your things onto shelves where customers can see them, but the only risk to the shop owner at this stage is letting you have a shelf.
   
   
9. If you are offered consignment, try and stop yourself from calling in to the shop every day "just in case something has sold", but do keep an eye on your things or more importantly where they are. If a couple of things sell, you could bring up the subject of them maybe being better located within the shop, at eye level or closer to the front of the shop, if however nothing has sold in a few weeks, suggest replacing them with a few different items. This will help keep the shop looking fresh for the owner, it makes you look proactive and it has the added bonus that regular customers to the shop will view your items as popular, regularly replaced and updated and therefore desirable. Nobody has to know that you took the last batch home again and that they didn't leave the shop wrapped beautifully in customer's bag.
   
   
10. And lastly, negotiate. Just because you agreed to 50% on your first day selling through a shop doesn't mean you're stuck with that figure. If you find that you're selling well through a particular shop and getting the call to restock more frequently then it may be time to consider a renegotiation of your percentage.
    
    In the early days if the owner felt that 50% was reasonable for your products to take up her shelf space before selling a month or two later, whereas now she finds that your products are selling within a couple of weeks then you should be able to successfully renegotiate the owners percentage down a bit. Go easy though, maintaining the relationship is important and you can always come back to the subject and whittle down the percentage a little at a time.
    

Have I missed anything out? What are your tips for dealing with shops?

Featured on Folksy Friday

I'm very pleased to have my Sun Blush Scarf included in this week's featured items page on Folksy. I'm particularly pleased because the scarf makes six items featured to date, actually it may be seven I think I'm forgetting one. I was sure my luck in being chosen for features had run out, but at least it tells me I must be doing something right.



It's a shame though that not all items fitting a theme can be chosen and I wanted to add a few of my favourites to the list.

I'm already a big fan of NelliD's work and the proud owner of the first teapot brooch available in yellow. I warned her I would go on about that for years (incidentally it's out of stock in yellow at the mo, so neener neener).

At least you can console yourself with the fact that you can show your love for the rain for one of gorgeous Rainy Day Brooches


And I love Firebird Jewellery's Prairie Rain Necklace. It looks as though it is lit from the inside and actually does look like a raindrop, it's so smooth. I'm normally more a fan of silver, but I must say paired with the gold this really is beautiful. I think it does it more justice than silver could.


I don't know nearly enough about art to tell you why I like this. I just do. It reminds me of days spent in the rain, being caught in the rain at the beach (or waking up in the rain and going to the beach anyway) and water streaked windows and birds flying low and a whole load of other things that I can only recall the memory of rather than any detail. Passion Paintings have a few original canvases currently in stock, though Good Earth Rain Dream is my personal favourite.



All the very best rainy days end with a Rainbow. Again, Glassprimitif is another shop I'm a big fan of and have already given this gorgeous green leaf plate a home, so I know from experience that photographs just can't do these pieces the justice they deserve. They're so much more tactile and have more depth than any photo can convey. You can take my word for it, or you can grab a piece of your very own.



And if you think that rain is a rather dismal choice for a feature, just remember all the wonderful things about the rain, like not having to wash the car, or cut the grass, or water the garden, but you can still go to the beach:)

My Last Weekend

I go back to work on Monday. This Monday. As in not tomorrow but the next day. Two more sleeps.

Whose bright idea was this anyway!

I only realised this morning that all of my work clothes, suits, shirts and stuff are in vac bags in the loft. They were dry cleaned before I packed them away and they're airing upstairs now (thanks to Robert).

I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that I'll not be able to cope with the amount of things I've been doing once I'm back at work. The zine will probably be shelved for a while at least until I sort myself in to some semblance of a routine and work out exactly how much time I have to spare. I'll be finishing an issue this weekend for Christmas. In truth I should have had it finished a week ago but I've been inundated with unexpected orders in the last two weeks. A few smaller versions of my daisies have been sold through a local shop. The first one sold very quickly and then the shop owner received a call from a customer who ordered the next two sets which the shop owner had asked me to make so they won't make it onto the shelves either!

At the last count my mum has now sold 22 sets of my prim style Christmas trees. The woman just keeps taking more and more orders without any regard for when I'm going to make them:)

I can't complain though. Typically I'm now so busy I could actually do with not having to go back to work, but it will still be nice to have some extra cash to throw aside for those just in case moments. You know the ones, washing machine giving up the ghost or my good self managing to knacker yet another iron or kettle!

Chloe's been asking more and more about when I'm going back to work. Specifically she asks if she'll know when I go back to work. I think she's a bit worried that there'll be changes but I'm trying to put her mind at rest that everything for her will remain the same.

I've explained to her that she will be staying in school for lunch from Monday on and that she would be doing that anyway even if I weren't going back to work. She's fine with the lunch thing and I think after a few days of still being dropped off and collected from school by me she'll realise that it will all be fine.

If anything she'll actually arrive home to a clean and tidy home instead of the bomb site I only realise I've created each day at noon leaving myself absolutely no time to pack everything away before collecting her.

I've a freezer full of meals and other bits and pieces like cookies. I'll still try and cook fresh everyday but at least I know they're there in case time gets away from me. I feel a bit better knowing that I have a fall back.

Robert's going to have to figure out something else to do during the day because he won't have me at home to ping IPs for him. Poor soul, he'll just have to think of something else.

Now if you'll excuse me there are a half finished pair of gloves calling out to me and I need to get back to them before second glove syndrome kicks in.

Where has this week gone?

I'm honestly surprised that its Friday already, I can't imagine where all my time went this week. I have to try and organise myself a little better.

I don't know where I got the stupid idea that I was sorted as far as Christmas presents go, because of course I looked into my box of already wrapped presents and had the usual panic attack that there wasn't enough. Don't tell me I'm the only one that has this panic about Christmas because I know everyone gets it. Also I completely failed to factor one huge thing into my gift making this year......

Chloe started school!

So add a teacher, a class room assistant and a rapidly expanding group of friends to that list.

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Chloe is still enjoying school although I'm in a bit of a pickle at the minute. She has arrived home from school a few times now to tell me that someone hit her. She isn't upset about and it certainly hasn't put her off going to school because I still have to fight to keep hold of her in the morning as she runs down the street. Its just something she has mentioned in passing a few times now.

My problem can be separated into

a) she's telling me about the same event over and over again, because she does have a habit of doing that which would mean that it isn't a case of someone picking on her,

b) in Chloe's mind there is absolutely no difference between someone hitting her and someone hurting her and not apologising (she's big on apologies) so she may not have been hit at all, but someone could have bumped or jostled her in the playground or stepped on her toe as they ran past and not noticed and she would take offence to that, or

c) someone actually has hit her, but she really isn't that bothered by it.

I think its likely b) because she's also mentioned some other kids being "hit" while they're playing outside and because I know that the P1 classes share a break, we're talking about roughly 80 kids all in the playground at the same time. There will be bumps and jostles and spills and that can't be helped.

My problem is whether or not to mention it to the teacher. I don't really want to tell her teacher that she's being hit in school intentionally because I honestly don't think that's the case, but if I were to tell her teacher that Chloe might get upset if someone hurts her unintentionally and that Chloe will likely say that someone "hit" her even though it was an accident I don't want Chloe to get a reputation as the kid that tells lies (she doesn't tell lies, she just sometimes doesn't understand the difference yet between being hit and being hurt because she's never had to) or as the kid whose mum will down to the school every time someone bumps into her daughter, because I won't.

My concern would be that Chloe will tell her teacher that she's been hit and that some poor kid will get into trouble for what was for all intents a purposes an accident!

To be honest I'm not at all worried about getting the reputation as the mum who will be down at the school every time her daughter gets hurts, because I don't really give a damn about my reputation. All I care about at the minute is that Chloe knows without having to give it a second thought that if she comes to me with any problem at all, I'll deal with, without question. I'm her mum and I'm here for the sole purpose of being the shoulder to cry on and to make things better, I just didn't realise that role would be tested quite so soon.

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I've been thinking a lot about friends this week too, for new opportunities and new challenges and it's taken my mind away to other places quite often.

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On a brighter note, my Folksy shop has seen an unexpected boom this week. I didn't expect such a rush until Closer to Christmas to be honest, but I'm happy and grateful nonetheless.

My Pear Bean Bag is no longer mine. It will be winging its way to a new home,


Along with Pumpkin Jack. I'll be sorry to see this little guy go, but I may work on some new ones this weekend. If I find the time.



They're both off to the same new home along with a set of my new Earth Scenes Notebooks

The Earth Scenes Notebooks are a larger version of my Food Lovers Notebooks which (fortunately for me and unfortunately for everyone who missed out) have all now sold in a little over 24 hours. All five packs are now off to new homes and scribblers and they should hopefully (fingers crossed, damn those postal strikes) start arriving this morning. I'll have to try and find some more gorgeous foody photography to make some more.



I'm determined that today is the day I finish a pressie for Louise's mum who turns 70 on Christmas day this year. Louise has taken on the task of making herself (with a tiny bit of help from others) 70 handmade presents for her mum. I have to give her credit, because I honestly don't think I could manage that many. You can stop by her blog to see how she's doing with her personal challenge.

But of course, the longer I sit her, the less likely I am to finish anything at all!

Brave or Foolish?

In April of 2010 Rosie of Brave or Foolish will run the London Marathon. Rosie will run the grueling 26 miles in aid of The Miscarriage Association.

That's only seven short months to prepare. Seven short months to get ready for something she has never done before. Rosie isn't a marathon runner. Rosie has been bed bound and wheelchair bound due to a difficult pregnancy, although she's one of the lucky ones;


More importantly though, Rosie has seven short months left to raise the £1300 needed in order for her to run the London Marathon for The Miscarriage Association.

You can visit Rosie's sponsorship page at JustGiving.com to help her on her way.



Alternatively, or as well as, Veryan of Beady Pool has created this one of a kind bracelet;



This gorgeous bracelet is being auctioned on Ebay and you can go now and bid for a one of a kind bracelet for yourself or as a gift for someone else.


In addition to this, for the duration of the auction Beady Pool is also donating 10% of all purchases. All you need to do is just enter MARATHON at the PayPal checkout on the website or mention it in your email if buying direct. Veryan will honour the 10% of takings on both the website and also on her Folksy shop.

As will I.

My 302nd Post

Yup, I completely missed my 300th post. Bask in the awesomeness of my attention to detail!

It's been a bit busy round here for the last week or so. My mum arrived home from Tenerife on Friday which meant that I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday busily thinking about taking up the three pairs of trousers she left round to me before she went away.

I should probably do that today or tomorrow, maybe.

I'm trying to get the garden cleared and back into some kind of shape. I spent three days out there trimming and clipping and weeding and brushing and raking leaves and to look out there now, you wouldn't believe a word of it!

Bomb site springs to mind.

We spent yesterday afternoon at the Play Cafe for a birthday party and had a great yet very exhausting time. Robert actually came with me and stayed which was great because I thought he would just drop us off and collect us later so it was nice to just sit and watch Chloe off playing with her friends (and soul mate) while we sipped bad coffee and chatted with other full grown adults.

I also arrived home with 15 orders for butterfly hair bobbles to fill so it turned out to be a very good day. I'm pleased at the minute because I've finally found hair bobbles/elastics that I'm happy with.

Chloe's hair is the ultimate test of a hair bobble's anti-snagging claims and the first seven I tried failed miserably, two didn't even make it into her hair after I pulled the head of self trying to extract the damn things from my own hair, then another one which while fine in my dull as dishwater poker straight hair had to be cut from Chloe's hair so a few catastrophic failures along with way.

I've been wanting to add some little hair bobbles to the shop for a while but didn't want to until I managed to find something that would be very easy on a child's hair. We all know what they're like and even the slightest tug causes screams that will have the neighbours calling the police.

But I'm happy to say that even after a full day wearing one yesterday while dancing and running and crawling through ball pits and sliding down rather large slides head first, the bobble just slipped right out of her hair without incident. People, we are go for launch.

through that. Red meat can happily set up camp in my chest freezer for as long as it likes but chicken just doesn't do so well over a length of time so this week I'll just roll out the The menu plan is rather a dull one this week. I've checked the freezer and there's little or nothing in there apart from some fish and vast quantities of chicken so I need to work my wayusuals like fajitas, chicken casserole, barbecue chicken (there's a couple of packs of legs and wings out there), Cajun chicken or chili chicken on Saturday for the husband and a roast on Sunday, plus I have some fillets defrosting now in a marinade and I'll bake them later today for Robert's lunches this week which should eat up a fair chunk of the chicken and leave room for other lovely things.

I want to try and fit in a mini OAMC before going back to work, just a few things ready to go in the oven in case of poorly planned days. I mean there's bound to be more than a few while I get the hang of this going back to work lark. I'm going to be tired trying to work the new routine for the first week or so, I know that much.

I figure a few lasagnas, some chili with nukeable rice, french toast fingers for the mornings, bagged up porridge portions for yours truly and a batch or two of cookies in the freezer should help me keep the standard of good things to eat around here to begin with.

The Rat Race

Well, it's official. After a record breakingly short interview consisting off "Is the 2nd good for you?" and "Aye, go on then!", I'll be heading back to work on 2 November. Although the interview was only marginally shorter than my previous record of about 2 minutes which consisted of "Is a window desk ok for you?" and "How much money do you want?".

I'm not saying that I'm good at my job, but I've built a bit of reputation over the years and recommendations from people like past Chief Executives of the Law Society of Northern Ireland don't do me any harm either. Still, I'm not complaining, I hate those interviews where you feel like you're being tested and have to justify your very existence. Thankfully only had one of those in all my years.

Not that being really good at your job serves you well in the UK, in fact it can do a hell of a lot to hold you back. My mum always used to spout little wisdom's like "If your boss had been any good at your job, he'd still be doing it". Funny at the time, but rather depressing once you think about it.

Even the poor husband is finally starting to realise in his industry that the good guys really do finish last. His problem is that he really is brilliant at his job and he's proud of his work, something that's hard to find these days. Have you ever heard your boss makes a wise ass comment about nobody being irreplaceable. Nobody ever made that comment about Robert, they know full well he's irreplaceable so unfortunately the powers that be will never wilfully put themselves in the awkward situation of having to replace him. Which means that because nobody else can manage to clean up as many OPMs (other people's mistakes) in any given day, the guys that regularly make the mistakes my husband spends him time fixing will be promoted past him just to get them off the tools.

I feel for him, I really do and because his reputation also precedes him it really wouldn't make any difference if he were to move to another company, they'd all want him to be the fixer.

But anyway, enough of the grumbling. I'm kind of glad I'll not be heading back to work straight away and waiting until the 2nd November means I have another blissful six or so weeks to myself to just kick back and relax.

Yeah, right!

Of course, now is the time that things are picking up, I'm currently working on six custom orders and I have a couple more on hold for December but I'll be starting those sooner rather than later to get a wiggle on. There's a possibility that one of my pieces may be featured in a magazine at the end of October and I figure it's probably a good idea to have at least one in stock rather than it be listed as custom made, although I may change my mind about that later depending on how hectic it gets around here.

But I'll still have all of those lovely school holidays away from work and home with the family to look forward to which for me is the most important thing.

No kids sent to childcare in this house, no sir!

Also I was very pleased to log into Folksy yesterday morning only to find that I'm a featured seller, so I'm very excited about that and just want to say a quick thank you to Anne for featuring me. In case you don't know, Anne is our extremely hard working and very irreplaceable admin over at Folksy.

We're all made equal

Although some of us are a little more equal than others.

I've made no bones about it in the past, I'm a big girl. I'm never going to be the wispy, floaty girl in the flowery dress dances off through a meadow of daisies. Hell, if I tried that, I'd leave crop circles!

Although it has to be said that I do carry my weight well, the boobs still stick out further than the belly and my bum hasn't gone running off down the back of thighs just yet. I'm in proportion, is what I'm saying, big ass proportions, but still, in proportion.

After years of playing hockey, football and rugby I've also been blessed with a fairly decent set of Denis the Menace calves too, which a nightmare when it comes to buying boots. Even ankle boots I've bought in the past have needed to be broken in before I can finally haul the zip right to the top.

And don't even get me started on knee boots. I don't know about where you live, but I love knee boots in Northern Ireland. Our winter's are cold and wet and icy and they go on and on and on, so I seem to spend a good four months of the year in my knee boots at the very least.

If I try going to any regular high street shop to buy boots, I'm practically laughed out the door and if I try to go somewhere aimed at your larger woman the boots feel huge, almost like I could walk out of them at any second.

Good boots have always been a real bane for me.

My husband bought me my very first pair of boots from DUO almost six years ago now and they're still in great condition. I bought myself a second pair the following year and I've never looked back.

I'm very pleased this evening because I've been accepted into DUO Boots affiliate program. I have to say that I can't sing the praises of DUO Boots enough.

The boots themselves are the closest thing you'll find to made to measure boots and considering the comfort factor and the fact that I've now punished two pairs for the last six years they're very reasonably priced. Robert paid £120 for my first pair and they're still going strong six years later. Now I don't know about you, but working that out I've never been able to buy a pair of £20 boots that even survive one winter with me. I am the destroyer of boots in this house!

So far I have a pair of their Ravenna boots in black which are a brilliant pair of classic riding boots, in fact the design is so timeless and popular its still available at DUO.

I've always been a great believer in the fact that two good pairs of boots one in black and one in brown will see you through anything and so far I haven't been proved wrong.

Although I can't help but crave these beautiful Mallorca burgundy boots at the minute. I'll be saving the pennies for these little beauties.


DUO Boots offer a stunning range of shoes and boots in five width fittings and 21 (TWENTY ONE) calf width fittings. I dare you to find a pair that don't fit you like a second skin. Plus they ship to virtually anywhere worldwide, or you can always pop into one of their stores (if your jammy enough to have one handy).

My Latest Addiction

Meet my latest addiction.


Yup, earrings!



Because heaven forbid that I could ever just find one thing to do and spend the rest of my life learning how to be really, really good at it.




I have to say I quite enjoyed making these. The gratification is almost instant for a start. I get to reuse all those lovely beads and shiny bits from the broken and busted jewellery I've been collecting for years thereby giving them a new life and finally, its the colours. In one short hour I can have a complete table full of different colours and lengths and sizes and....

I needed something quick and distracting, you see at the minute I have three pairs of fingerless gloves all in varying stages of doneness all still on needles. One pair only lacks a thumb at the minute for crying out loud, but I do bore quite easily, which is why I end up with so many little projects on the go at the same time. I fancy a different colour or a different stitch pattern and I set one thing down and wander off aimlessly in another direction.

I do come back again, although its usually once I've successful got my "fix" for change from something else and when knitting that can be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks.

I'm hoping this new little obsession will help me along the way in completing some of my larger bits and pieces, because they are so quick and I'll get that buzz that only comes with finishing a project. I'm thinking (likely quite wrongly) that I'll get back to the things I should be doing a lot quicker than I have been lately.

Or so goes the plan anyway!

A couple of these earrings will make their way to my shop, but I think I'll wrap a few up and set them aside for presents.

How to Create Simple Banners for Folksy

I've been making a lot of banners for some really lovely shops over on Folksy lately so I thought it was maybe time for a little tutorial.

Banners are really simple to create and honestly there just isn't any reason at all not to have a go at them. Bear in mind that while this tutorial relates to Folksy Banners the same principles apply to Etsy, Coriandr, Firefox and anywhere else you might need a banner or header.

I used photoshop to create my banners just because I happen to have it but you can get exactly the same results using one of the many excellent free photo editing software on offer online such as paint.net, gimp and to a certain extent picnik on Flickr. Its just matter of sitting down and playing around with it until you feel confident. Don't worry you won't break it.

If you're a complete photo editing virgin, this tutorial should help to guide you through a simple banner using some very simple techniques and once you have those nailed you can easily progress on to much more complicated things.

Now ever since I developed a bit of an addiction for digital scrapbooking I've became a little bit photo hungry.

I take pictures of absolutely everything I think looks interesting, bits of paper, scraps of fabric, beads, buttons, bits of string, you name I have photos of it. This means that I have quite a large stash of to dip into, if you don't I'm willing to bet that you have things like these lying around your home that you can grab and take a few photos of before playing around with them using your software.

What you always, ALWAYS want to bear in mind is that you can't just go around pilfering from other sites, and you can't just take it upon yourself to use the multitude of free digital scrapbooking supplies to be found online. Someone put a lot of time and effort into creating those and then very kindly gave them away for free, all they ask is that they are kept for personal use only. At the end of the day stealing is stealing is stealing, you wouldn't like it if someone made use of one of your designs so for your own peace of mind and a clear conscience just don't do it.

Don't be that person!

NOBODY like that person!

Right now that, that is out of the way, down to the tutorial.

Start off by establishing what size your banner needs to be, in Folksy's case that would be 920 x 100 pixels. Open a blank document, plain white at that size.


This nice sage(ish) green sheet of paper started out as a photograph of bog standard brown wrapping paper, change the hue, brightness, fiddle with the contrast and voila.


Now this photo is huge and obviously we only need a little bit of it for the banner, so have a quick look at what you have created and pick a bit you particularly like the look of. Then using the crop tool, crop the photo to roughly the size you need for your banner, like I have done above. I've also highlighted the little crop tool and it will look similar to this regardless of the software you happen to be using.


Next copy the cropped photograph. In photoshop press Ctr A to select the entire photo and then Ctr C to copy it. Then paste it over the top of the plain white banner you opened earlier. You'll see from mine above, that my cropped image was a little big. It doesn't really matter and if anything it means that you have a little bit of wiggle room to move the image about over the top of the white banner until you like what you see.


Next you want to add a bit of interest. Not too much though, the point of your shop banner is that it should be eye catching enough to slow browsers down for a second or two but not have so much going on that it casts a shadow over your shop contents.

Above is a photograph of a little leaf shaped sequin which came in a bumper craft activity pack and belongs to Toots. Now as the photo stands at the minute its a bit useless because you don't want all that background in your banner.

All you need to do is use the quick selection tool. Its over there on the left hand side and looks like a stick with a dash line circle at the end. Select that tool and rather than trying to select the item that you want in the photo, its sometimes a lot easier to select the background. This is one of those times because the leaf contrasts pretty well with the background. Just use the tool to move around the background, making sure not to go over the part of the photo you actually want in the end

Once you've selected the background, you'll be able to see a little flashing dotted line around the entire outside of the photo and also around the item that you want. Now you just need to click on "Select" in the tool bar at the top of the screen and then click on "Inverse". Now you're left with nothing but the leaf selected. Now just press Ctr C to copy the leaf and go back to you banner image.



Press Ctr V to paste the leaf onto you banner. Now it looks a little bit flat at the minute, doesn't it.



On the right hand side of your screen you'll see a box titled "effects". Play around with them, see which ones take your fancy. The one I used for the leaf is "soft edge". It looks like a box with a shadow around the bottom and right hand sides. Making sure that the leaf is selected (just click it) click on the effect which takes your fancy and click "apply", try a few if you don't like the effect just click Ctr Z to undo it and try another one.


Now we'll just pop that little leaf over to the far side and paste in another one. Why have one leaf when you can have two after all. Apply the same effect to the second leaf. I turned this leaf around a little because I wanted it to overlap the first. Just float your arrow over the little circle blow the leaf and move your cursor to one side or the other to rotate it in that direction.



And then pop it over to the side as well, fiddle the leaves around a bit until you like the look of them. Then simply select the Horizontal Type Tool and type in the name of your shop (Do Not buy water features from this guy, s'all I'm saying). Play around with the size, colour and font until your happy.



Once you're completely happy with the layout of your new banner click on "layer" in the menu bar at the top of the screen and select "merge visible" which turns all those little overlapping images into one single image for you to use. The just save the image as jpeg somewhere on your computer and upload your brand spankingly new banner.

Go nuts, make dozens, change them to reflect the seasons or your mood, but above all else have fun with it.

And once you get the hang of that, you're more than ready to start fiddling around with all the other features your software package has to offer.

And don't forget to subscribe, you wouldn't want to miss anything! It's very easy to do, trust me.