Last few items to go to France

Unfortunately my weekend did not improve as far as my sewing went.  My embroidery machine went on the blink so I guess I will need to take it in for repair.  Anyway - I managed to finish off these diaries and also attempted to make some Christmas Bunting.  My bunting wasn't altogether successful as each flag crumples a bit but I thought it would still look festive hung up for the fair.  I finally packaged up all the goodies - not much when you see it all in a box considering the amount of work that went into it and will bid it farewell later today.

Lavender Bags

This weekend is the last opportunity I have to make some more items to send off to France so I made sure I had an early start this morning and set out to finish off my lavender bags.  These are really easy to make but unfortunately it was just not my day today.  Some days you know you should just pack everything away and try another day so that is what I have done.  I did manage to get these done though ...

Felt Flower Brooches

My son's school Christmas fair is looming so a friend and I spent the day last week making  flower brooches to donate as parent gifts.  I thought they would make great stocking fillers so decided to make some to send over for my Mum to add to her stash for the French craft fair.  They are so quick and easy to make and would definitely cheer up a winter jacket with a splash of colour.

My favorite using an owl from the Michael Miller 'Who's hoot' fabric

French Hearts

I have always loved how the French have lovely little hearts and bags hanging on their beautiful old wooden doors and wish our house in the UK was more suited to that style but sadly not.  The great thing about my Mum having her little craft fair over in France is that I could make a few of my favourite hearts to send over to her.  I tried some freehand embroidery to give them a more casual, country look.



A pretty gift to give a friend

My french label

Countdown to Christmas

It's that time of year when we all start thinking of Christmas - yes only 49 more sleeps to go.  My Mum has decided to host a mini craft fair over in France in December so I decided to take the opportunity to try some new crafts just for the fun of it and then send them out to France for her to add to her collection.  I had a lot of fun yesterday making these little gift tags and packaging them up under the label of La Maison en France.  The photos are not great because it is a grey and dreary day but they are really cute.


Christmas cake doodles



Christmas tree doodles



Ready for the craft fair

First ETSY sale

It has been quite a momentous week for me.  I have at last had my first Etsy sale!! It has taken some amount of work to get to this stage but hopefully things will start moving from now.  I somehow thought that selling online would be really easy but the truth is that there is so much out there that you really have to work hard at getting your products noticed.  I have been creating Treasuries, joining teams, trying to improve my photos all in the hope of getting noticed.  I spent the whole day last Sunday taking photos and redoing my shop image and luckily for me I made 2 sales on Monday.  My two Hush Baby cushions are now on their way to Spain to await the arrival of twins.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/saksandco

The second big thing to happen this week was the completion of our house in France.  It has been a long 5 years and probably more so for my parents who did all the work of rebuilding and turning a dilapidated old barn into a beautiful holiday house.  We have had our first paying guests this week so hopefully all goes well.

A big thank you to Mum & Dad - hopefully you can sit back and enjoy the house now.

http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p819056

From this - 2006



To this - 2011

Sewing a cube

What a difference a day makes!!  With a good start to my day, a tidy house and a clear head I set myself the task of mastering a cube.  I chose some pretty fabric (unlike yesterday) and thought about what I was doing instead of rushing in 'guns blazing' and guess what - it worked.  Thinking back to a year ago I have to laugh at how my life has changed.  I get so much more satisfaction mastering a sewing project than I ever did mastering VLookups on Excel spreadsheets.  Little Kirsty might just get her fairy doorstop yet.



My trial cube - turned into a pin cushion



As pin cushions go I still prefer this one I made a while ago