I love it when a plan comes together..

I am happy to report that my home is now decorated after an unusually long spell. I found that my last minute sewing really put me back with regards to both decorating and buying presents, as in any presents. But after getting a babysitter yesterday myself and my hubby did a big blitz and managed to buy everything we needed in a few hours. 

After a quick visit to M&S this morning I got in the last of the food and we are now ready for lock down and a couple of comfy days indoors with the kids. I am so excited about Christmas this year as Sophie is very much into the whole package. Although I'm now trying to explain to her that she won't actually be seeing Santa on Christmas just that he will visit during the night. Anyway not the easiest of concepts for her to grasp but I'm hoping the joy of seeing her toys will distract her enough! She made a beautiful little decoration for the tree and she hung it on it yesterday, she is so proud and has shown everyone where it is when they come to visit. 

I want to make my Mum a fabric basket and then fill it with FQ's for her present. I'm thinking of doing to hexies as I have never tried them before. But other than that there will be no more sewing from me until after Christmas. The shop I supply in Dublin were looking for more stock but I had to draw the line as I've been so busy and I just couldn't justify spending more time in my sewing room when the kids were on their holidays. I just felt guilty and really just wanted to get the house in order and spend some time chilling out and watching Christmas movies, maybe some baking and you get the idea. Basically anything but sewing. 

My knitted crib came out again this year and I forget how cute it is every year. Sophie enjoyed handing them all to me, she also helped put up my original crib which I bought in a pound shop the year Jack was born for £10, it still has pride of place. Jack used to help me set it up every year and he still arranges it even though he's a teenager now!

I have found myself a wonderful babysitter and I'm determined to make good use of her in 2013. I'm terrible for going out and every new year I say we must do it more often and then never do. So I have already booked her in for the first Saturday in every month so that will give me the much needed kick up the ass to get going!

I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

xxx

Christmas time, no tree up, no decorations and no presents bought!!!

Okay so I'm really behind, but I'm only behind when I talk to other people or rather when they ask me am I 'all done' for Christmas. Well the answer is no, no I'm not done nor even near done but that is okay. I'm pretty relaxed about the whole thing as usual. It always comes together in the end. My daughter just wants a football and goalpost so I don't foresee a huge run on these items.

We started putting the pieces of our sitting room back this evening and now that we have our sofas back in their rightful position the place is beginning to look better. We will decorate for sure tomorrow. I just didn't want to do it this evening without my little girl Sophie around. She is so excited about Santa and Christmas that I'm dying to see if she'll help or even take an interest in the tree and trimmings. My boy Jack reckons she won't but I want to wait and see.

She has her Christmas concert on Wednesday and I'm going to miss it as I have to go to hospital for an injection that I've been waiting 9 months for. I can't not get it, but I'll admit to being devastated finding out that I was going to miss it. She did a very quick run through of her signs for me this evening. I've recruited hubby and sis in law to tape every second of it for me. I swear last years concert was amazing, it was the best Christmas present ever.

I've finished with all my craft fairs now and I'm finishing up on my last orders for Christmas, I'll be done by Wednesday for sure.

I did a little bit of retail therapy at the end of last week, I deserved to splash out on some fabric after all my hard work coming up to Christmas. My head is already bursting with ideas for the new year and I'll look forward to digging in to some new projects then. My hand and arm are still not fully recovered from all of my hand sewn Xmas decorations. it was badly swollen for about a week and I couldn't actually write anything! the sacrifices we make :)

So tired....zzzzzzzz

So here I am at my second to last Christmas Fair and I'm busy sewing even when I should be selling! I am so so tired at the minute and I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow evening when I'm finished with all fairs for 2012.

The late nights and early mornings are definitely catching up with me,  years ago that statement would NOT have meant late nights sewing! I've enjoyed all of them and tomorrow will be the longest day of all. Jack has been sick and off school all week so I'll be going solo to this one. My friend however is going to call to me so that I can have a lunch break.

I've have added a Xmas robin and pudding to my decoration collection and I really like them both. I just love working with felt and it's something I intend to keep up in 2013.

I'll leave you with a few photos of my new additions and I'll catch up early in the week.

x

Tis the season to be busy....

Another weekend and another craft fair over. I'm getting better at these things! although I was wiped out today as I was so tired. Next weekend I have my final two so God knows how I'll be on that Monday morning. Saturday turned out to be a great day. Lots of stalls, people and atmosphere. Maybe the fact that it was actually in December helped with the Xmas cheer. At the end of the day there were various raffles. Then they actually did a draw of all the stallholders to win a hamper. I never win anything so I was delighted to have been picked out. I was thrilled to receive my hamper which was full to the brim with.........cleaning products. HA HA HA, I asked Niamh the organiser if she had by any chance peeked inside my house, because with all the sewing recently there ain't been much cleaning going on.

I keep meaning to take a proper photo of my stall but forget my camera every time. Next week for sure I'll remember. I spent today cutting out lots and lots of felt templates as I've been left with only 10 decorations. I tried to keep track of what I was selling but it got a bit hectic and when I was packing up I couldn't believe how many had sold. Not complaining one bit, but I do have an awful lot of work for this week. I also have some large xmas orders in too so things are going to be pretty busy this week.

My son Jack who helped me out last week was in bed when I was going on Saturday, I had already roped in my Mum-in-law to help out so I didn't need him as such. At around 10 o'clock I get a call from him saying that he was ready to go and was it okay if he hopped a bus over to me. I told him absolutely and there he was 20 minutes later willing and able. I think he secretly enjoys them at this stage. A woman who was selling at another stall asked him if he would mind the stall for her while she went to the shops! She came back later and he had sold more stuff than she had, so he got a nice payment from her for his trouble. He doesn't get paid commission from me, so maybe he has found himself a niche as a lunch time cover seller.

I hope you all have a good week, I might if I get the chance give a mid week update if not have a good one.

x

Craft Fair season

Well my first weekend of craft fairs is over. Saturday was a great day, the fair was full of people and everyone had a good look through my wares and some great comments and even more laughs. It was such fun and a pleasure to be there. The Sunday fair was in a different location and I was joining it for the 2nd day as its first was on the Saturday as well. I gathered that it was busy on the Saturday but dead on the Sunday. I'm not sure if it had a catchment area big enough to sustain a two day event. But add to that a completely horrific day weather wise and people stayed at home, and to be honest who could blame them!

The main thing is that I'm getting more exposure and am getting better at talking to people. I'm such a chatterbox normally but can find it hard with prospective customers. I think the problem stems from the fact that I don't want to be in peoples faces and make them uncomfortable or think that they have to buy something. Yet on the other hand I know that a bit of banter doesn't do any harm. I'm learning to strike the balance and the more fairs the better whether they are successful financially or not. Now that being said if I hadn't done so well on Saturday then I'm sure I would have been more downhearted on Sunday.

I took my 13 year old son with me on Sunday and I have to say we had such a laugh. He's hilarious and kept me laughing for the day. At 4 o'clock he decided enough was enough and that we should pack up and cut our losses. He was of course so right so that's what we did. He is a real people person and a great salesman, just like his Dad. He can talk as easily to a 90 year old woman as he can to a 9 year old. He was never a child to notice such things as age, race, gender, ability or disability. I always hoped he would never lose that outlook and at 13 I'm guessing that that's just the way he is. I'm sure having Sophie (who has special needs) as a sister has helped him see such a wide range of people with special needs that he just doesn't have that fear that a lot of people have when dealing with someone different to themselves. He volunteers every Saturday to play football with older kids with special needs and has so much fun with the lads. His friends too play and I think their exposure to Sophie has also helped them. This is why I think it's so important to have more integration in our society between kids.

Anyway I'm straying off topic. I made a heap of Christmas Aprons most of which have sold but I'll show you the pictures for them here. I've another fair on Saturday and definitely one but maybe two the weekend after. I might call a halt to it after that.

I hope everyone is good x

More Christmas goodies

This week I've pretty much done nothing except hand sewing Christmas Tree decorations. I still haven't tackled the actual sewing machine projects that I need to get started. I even transferred my sewing room downstairs so that I could do a bit when the kids got home so really I need to start running up some extra bits and pieces over the next week and a half.

I'm signed  up for at least 3 and at most 4 craft fairs, they are local enough so it shouldn't be too crazy!
Hope everyone else is having a productive week :)

Winter's here

I was fundraising for my daughters school today and it was so cold sitting there in the lobby of the shopping centre. We were selling Christmas Cards too and I was saying to my Mum in law how it's hard to believe Christmas is near. Here I am up to my knees in Christmas since September and it's only today that I realise that it's actually around the corner!

These Gingerbread Houses were so cute to make that I couldn't stop, as you can see! My fingers are pretty battered though.

I made some Xmas baubles and felt hearts too.

I am signed up to 3 fairs so the stock levels needs to increase, I'm just looking at the fabric I need now for starting on my Xmas aprons and table runners. The momentum needs to continue though as it's only 2 weeks until the first one. Hope you all have a good and productive weekend.

Tilda photos as promised

Firstly a little peek inside that fabric shop I was telling you about. There were a great selection of fabrics to choose from. 

 Here you can see which ones I decided on...

Back from hols..

Just back today from a week in Portugal, it was so relaxing and chilled out. Kids manged fine without me, in fact they managed super fine without me! Hubby had the house spotless and all the laundry done so full marks for him too. Maybe I should go away more often. Walking to the nearby town I wondered aloud about whether or not there would be anyway selling fabric, my sisters groaned and then as luck would have it we turned a corner and found the most fabulous craft and fabric store.

It was the first time I have seen Tilda fabric and I fell in love. The cotton is super soft and the quality is second to none. I ended up spending a large amount of my budget on fabric and then I found out that they were holding a Purse workshop the next day. I went the next afternoon and found myself in the middle of 10 Portuguese women where only one spoke a little English. It didn't matter much though as I really enjoyed it and could follow what they were doing without any mishap. But when I saw the work-space I realised there were no sewing machines and we were to hand sew the purse, ha ha ha.

Well fast forward to nearly 4 hours later and I left holding my new purse. I'm pretty happy with the result and gave it to my sister. I will post photos of the fabric I bought tomorrow as I want to show them in daylight to convey them at their best. I'll catch up on all your blogs this evening and I wish everyone a happy and productive mid term, if that's possible!

Geraldine x

So much to do

I got into a bit of an iPhone cover making groove this week which is good, but I really should have more to show than just these. I can't even explain why I haven't done more, sometimes I just find it hard to get into sewing mode and that's what I am suffering from. I'm off to Portugal today so there will be nothing done this week, maybe I just need to recharge the batteries to get going again. Have a good week everyone :)