Pincushions

I am doing a craft fair in the summer and hope to book a few more for the Autumn, so I have started to stockpile a few of these. I have spotted them in quite a few Folksy shops so I don't think I'll put them online, but hopefully they will go quite easily as a low cost option at a fete.

I have a couple of ideas for slightly different ideas and I hope these will get on to Folksy in due course.

In the meantime, these have proved fab for doing something productive on the days when I feel uninspired. A bit of sewing, stuffing and buttoning later and bingo, something is finished.

Packaged and ready

This week has been a busy one getting everything organised for a new venture, working with a lovely local craft shop and gallery here in Norwich:  Grapevine

I popped into the shop earlier this week (which is well worth a visit by the way, lots of lovely goodies) and asked if they thought bunting would be of any interest to their customers. After being very patient with me having no idea about how all this works, they were generous enough to give it a go! So you can now find a range of Says Alice mini-bunting in Grapevine, which, for me at least, is very exciting indeed :-)

Luckily I had quite a few strings ready to go, but I did have to think about the packaging a bit. I had some cellophane card wrappers which worked perfectly for the mini bunting, but I played with other ideas too. It would be nice to rely less on plastic, but as I had these and they fitted well, I ended up with the cellophane and will review it when I have more time (and inspiration).

The big bunting wouldn't squash stylishly into anything that I have at all, so I have ordered some new wrappers which will hopefully fit them better. Fingers crossed for Monday.

Hope you all have a fab weekend! I'm off to bake a birthday cake for a party at the weekend...

You don't have to look far...

... to find something lovely at the moment.

These were tightly, tightly closed when I got them last Friday and now look, they are blowsy, big and beautiful. Didn't take them long to get going.

I have them on the windowsill for this photo but they have been sitting next to me on the sideboard, close to where I do most of my sewing. Thinking about it, I ought really to have some extras beside the computer which is where I seem to be spending a fair percentage of my time, but that would require forward planning...

I have just noticed that if you look very carefully you can see a black tub of daffs outside the window too, which are still just spikes of small leaves. They were planted in tubs last year and then buried, as they were put in a bed which needed a 'big dig'. We finally got the energy to do the digging last week, so the daffs in tubs are awaiting replanting. I'm thinking the view from the desk might just need cheering up.

Lots of sewing to do today plus some exiting things for Says Alice. I'll report back!

Spring is open for business

Well, it is here anyway!

Just as we start to get the garden ready to face the year, it seems that we have been overtaken by things springing into life around us. The grasses are growing back, the asters are showing signs of life and the daffodils won't be far behind the snowdrops at this rate.

After another weekend of shifting oak leaves, one mountain at a time, and we finally felt safe enough to take the cover off the pond and the newts rewarded us by coming up to have a stare (probably to get air, but as the fish were entirely unmoved I like to think something was paying attention to our efforts!).

In honour of spring, the pic is my 'spring greens' bunting which is over on the folksy shop. It is also the first one to have a sale which is VERY EXCITING! Have I said that loudly enough? Brace yourself, I'll say it again - VERY VERY EXCITING!!

It was also featured in a lovely folksy friday entry on a blog called Blingery, which I must figure out how to do...

For now, I hope you are all starting to feel some of the joys of spring too :-)

Snowdrops

Aren't these lovely?

Some signs went up last week for a 'snowdrop walk' at Keswick Old Hall, which is just about walkable from our house. We had guests to stay over the weekend so we didn't really plan to be able to get there. But we found ourselves with the opportunity so we pulled on our boots (still with clods of murmurating mud stuck to them) and wandered out, arriving 5 minutes before they packed up their slices of cake and went home.

The Hall itself is beautiful and with a great history all intertwined with the big Norfolk families, particularly the Gurneys. There was all kinds of sueing for causing things like 'emotional estrangement from wife'. Brilliant.

The chap who owns it now opens it for the snowdrop walk every year for charity, this year was St Johns Ambulance. The gardens go down into the woods by the river and were absolutely chock full of snowdrops - really, really beautiful. Despite our late arrival, we were made really welcome and followed a very well worn trail so there had obviously been plenty of people there during the day.

There were also tea and cakes and, being late, we helped them use up what was left... HUGE slices of coffee cake and chocolate cake, shortly followed by the need to walk the long way home to burn of a few of the calories.

Overal, it was a great reminder that you don't have to go far or make complicated plans to find something lovely . Hope you all had a lovely weekend too :-)

This has been an exciting week in the world of says alice...

I have finally made good on my threats and set up a little shop on Folksy. I know it is only a success after I have made a few sales and a bit of a reputation for great quality work and service, but just getting it up and running feels like a great leap forward.

I have made four different strings of mini-bunting to stock it with to start with. The royal wedding bunting has gone on (pictured here), and some greens and blues and reds. It's mini bunting so it is designed to fit mantle pieces and shelves, but, if I do say so myself, very cute indeed :-)

Check me out at www.folksy.com/shops/saysalice

Watch out, I'll be on Dragon's Den next!

Getting in line

You can always tell when I have been on a sewing roll, because my pins get all lined up in an orderly file.

This means I have been using them all at once, run everything through the machine in a batch and got into a real rhythm of putting them away in the tub next to the machine.

I have developed a real preference for these pins as well, probably because a lot of the fabric I have been using lately is patterned and the little metal pins blend in far too easily. These coloured pins were the cheapest of the cheap from IKEA and (now all the blunt ones have been weeded out) they are the ones I always grab out of the sewing box.

The sewing blitz is because of the plans for the new folksy shop that I hope to get up and running in the next few weeks. The bunting is now all stocked up and I have a few other things coming together as well. Only a half day to work on it today so I'll do some cutting out I think.

Hope all is well out in the blogosphere. Hope your pins aren't as OCD as mine!

New year? Where did it go?

Well, that wasn't exactly the way to start a blogging good 2011. Middle of January and no updates at all. Shocker.

Luckily the sewing hasn't been quite so sporadic. I have made a pair of cotbed duvet covers and pillowcases which took have hopefully eased the work of the dummy fairy, as well as a draught excluder and a couple of leftover strings of bunting.

The draught excuder is (badly) pictured to the left. It is double sided (check on the outside and floral inside) and has a tube lining that is held in by ribbon bows at each end. The idea is that it is easy to post and also to stuff. It works on our landing so I'll get a couple more done for the launch of the new Folksy shop in the next few weeks.

Next up is a doorstop design that I dreamt up over Christmas. I'm all about adaptability at the moment and hopefully this idea will make it possible to use a variety of stuffings and weights. Let's hope it comes together without too many tweaks.

What I am not telling you is that I have just made my worst set up muffins ever. They were supposed to be diabetic friendly, but the only thing they did really successfully was prove how essential butter, eggs and sugar are to cakes. Bicarb of soda might make a cake look OK, but the flavour just isn't there. At all.

Lesson learned...

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is now very nearly here and the season of plenty has well and truly arrived. We still have a pretty decent dusting of snow so as long as it stays cold we look set to have a crisp white day, which would be lovely.

The snow has been less beautiful when it has been in the way though and it very nearly caused us to have to spend Christmas in Oxford. The road there was some of the worst driving I have ever had to do, with the option of turning around blocked by skidding lorries and fishtailing cars. While a Christmas away would have been lots of fun in many ways, it would have left a lot of our Norwich family with no Christmas dinner. And I would have had to find a way to use up a large bag of cranberries and a half hundred weight of sprouts in January!

Now we are home safely, it is just left to say Merry Christmas to everyone and to wish you all a fantastic New Year.

Oh, and I nearly forgot the pic. I'm sure it doesn't do it justice, but I love the shadows on the wall made by the twinkling lights on the tree. It's like the winter version of water ripples reflecting the summer sun. Except a bit chillier.

Have a wonderful weekend!

What's under the Christmas tree?

We were scrolling through our pictures from last Christmas and this popped up. Jester loves the outside coming inside and always make a beeline for a great vantage point under the tree.

Last year he even stayed still long enough for me to take a picture of him, even though I have managed to make Santa sit on his ear.

Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas preparations. It has well and truly arrived here, with the cake decorating done, the fairy lights twinkling away and the tree making the house smell amazing.

Today the season of plenty will be reinforced by the first batch of homemade mince pies, a ginger cake, wreath making, present wrapping and a curry for tea. Well, you can peak too soon!

I should also say thanks to everyone who ordered some of the Christmas bunting. I have been busily sending strings out all over the country which has been lovely and a great stepping stone towards getting a bigger range of things organised for the Spring. It feels like a challenge, but one which I am now really looking forward to.

This time last year I was halfway through serving my notice at work, considering what I was going to do with my new-found independence. Ooooh, I can feel a review of the year coming on....