January so far...

The start of January has been a bit of a mixed bag, with the sudden death of my gangster kitty Rocky, my birthday & a wonderful trip to Istanbul.

Rocky had to be put down after having his ears got severely infected (months after they were removed due to cancer) and being diagnosed with a brain tumour. He was the gangster cat of my neighbourhood, beating up cats, foxes and dogs alike! However at home, it was a different story. He was a big softey inside- loving nothing more than curling up on your lap, purring (and dribbling due to having few teeth left from fights) as you stroked him. I'm sure he is happy, purring and dribbling in kitty heaven. R.I.P Rocky xxx

Next came my (dreaded) 25th birthday. I had planned quite a few things in order to distract me from the number-gathering my friends at my house, clubbing, a visit to Top Drawer, pub food and finally Istanbul! And I'm happy to report it worked! Istanbul provided the long over due cultural injection I needed. The mosques were amazing, the food was amazing, the snow was amazing-it was all amazing!

Not much in the way of work has happened due to all of these events coming one after another, but I am now back, a year older (and supposedly wiser) with my batteries fully charged! I am ready to jump back onto the work wagon. Bring it on! :)

...And a haaappyyy new yeeear!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year and got everything they asked for from Mr Clause. Anyway, seeing as it is that time of resolutions 'n' all, you will be happy to hear that one of my (many) resolutions this year is to be a better blogger! *Horray* This means that I will be more dedicated to my blogging and put more time and thought into my posts.

Another thing I REEEAAAALLY want to start doing here are tutorials. As a dedicated crafter, and someone who likes to hop from one project to the next, this is the perfect way of doing this. But here is the small twist-I am going to try to incorporate my beloved machine embroidery into every project. Hopefully by the end of the year, I will have had lots of hybrid craft objects!

My first one will be coming at you this very month, so watch out for it! This may be the start of something beautiful :)

xxx

Merry Xmas To All!

With all of my Christmas fairs done and dusted, I thought I would post a stitched festive image to get the Christmas merriment going.

Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas! xxx

I'm officially on Not On The High Street!

I was lucky enough to be accepted onto Not On The High Street. I have been busy snapping away my wares. My house has the worst lighting, zero white/empty surfaces and just generally far too much junk that is necessary. Photography hell in other words! I was lucky enough to be able to use my work place-the lovely Sew Over It as my photographing environment. The shop has plenty of light, white walls & tables and best of all, it's is full of sewing props to help with the lifestyle photography element! Photography heaven!

I can officially announce that they photos are finally uploaded and live on the site. Whoopie! Take a look here and let me know what you think x

Mollie Makes Blog Post!

I was lucky enough to have my work featured on the Mollie Makes blog recently. Take a peek at the blog post here.

It's (almost) that time of year again...

Yes, Christmas is slowly creeping up on us again. As with every year, it has come around so quickly! Despite being a self confessed Scrooge, I am taking part in a few Christmas markets. Come down to these markets to grab some unique handmade gifts and be merry! With free entry to both events, who could possibly resist? Take a peek:

Continuing with Christmas festivities, I am also doing Tea and Egg Cosy workshops as part of the Christmas Gift Classes series of workshops at Sew Over It. If you are stuck on gift ideas, this is the perfect solution. Not only will you have a gorgeous gift to give by the end of the class, but you would have also learnt some new skills, such as free motion embroidery! Two birds, one stone. If you are interested in booking a workshop, simply visit the Sew Over It website for more information.

Anyone who missed the London Knitting and Stitching Show can always go visit the Harrogate event. If anyone does happen to find themselves down those ends, do look out for my Granny Playing Bingo image. While I was at the Ally Pally show, Mr X Stitch was nice enough to ask me for one of my pieces to exhibit at his allocated space in the Harrogate show. You can see him in the latest episode of Kirsties Handmade Britain, so check that out too.

That's all for now. I shall be back with even more merriment soon!

Ally Pally Knitting & Stitching Show

Hi all! I'm sorry to say I have neglected my blog slightly due to my non stop preparations for The Knitting & Stitching Show. The good news is it's all over now, so I shall be back to my former blogging self!

The Knitting and Stitching Show was a good experience. I'm not sure that grannies are quite my target market as my work is quite contemporary, but I met lots of great people, recieved lots of positive feedback, sold some goods and even got some tweets and blogposts along the way!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to have a proper look around the show myself. The most I could do was have a very brisk walk through the stalls-quite hard when there are lot of slow paced oldies walking through at the same time! Despite manning the stall by myself for 3 out of the 4 days, I had some lovely (not to mention very talented) neighbours in the form of The Linen Tree, Lost Emporium and Heart Zeena to help along the way.

I also attended a 'Craft social' at Drink, Shop, Do, organised by the crafty duo of Mr X Stitch and Perri Lewis, on the Friday night. Despite recognising very few people, I knew alot of them through their online presence! Many of them had tweeted or blogged about me, so it was great to put a face to the name. I still can't get over how nice everyone was. I'm so used to the pretentious and intimidating world of Illustration, so it was such a breath of fresh air!

Now that it's all over, I feel like I have made some new contacts and lovely friends. I shall keep my eyes peeled for any email of opportunities and events that will come my way. In the meantime I am going to take a few days off to unwind, be social and get organised, but then it's back to work for me!