Fairy doors, teeth and Sewing

Its been a week! Most exciting is my little girl who lost her first tooth, she is 7 and a little behind the other children so there was much excitement, and a little tear from me.  The tooth she lost was the first one that came through, I remember it like yesterday, we all do it, constantly pulling the lip down and showing everyone babies first tooth, and now its come out.  The tooth fairy made a visit with fairy dust leading from the fairy door in our house all the way into her room, and a shiny £2 coin was left.  She had written a note asking the tooth fairy if she could keep her tooth, which I was rather pleased about. What on earth we will do with it I dont know.  

At last the weather is lovely! The winter seems so long sometimes.  I should be sowing seeds rather than fabric, but cant seem to get motivated, no doubt I will just chuck aload into the ground and see what happens.  A carrott is a carrott no matter what the shape :-)

I have also started having some of my items on a wonderful new website www.homemadeinbritain.co.uk its fairly new and as a new venture myself, I want to support them fully.  Even tweeting Kirsty Allsopp about it.  Talking of tweeting, im addicted! I love it! my tag thingy is @thesewingcroft.  I have sold a few items, and am working on some union jack things, I know everyone will, but I am proud to be British and that is why I also want to make things. Not to be commercial, not even to make money, just to be part of the British made movement. 

Mothers Day

Its Mothers Day. Its lunchtime and im undressed and still in bed - with the laptop of course!  Husband wanted to go for a nice walk and picnic today, but do you know, all I want to do - is nothing! Have a slight champagne hangover - such a high roller (nah, just the only alcohol in the house last night!).

I have been tidying my blog, checking out other blogs, facebooking, tweeting and have applied to join pinterest, oh and have aded a few items to Folksy. Very productive really. 

Husband taken children out to get something for lunch, which he is going to 'cook', my eyebrows raise at this thought....Cook and my husband are not ever mentioned in the same sentence - EVER! and frankly, im happy with that.  His coffee making skills however, im not happy with :-)

I should be out planting seeds too, I am also a keen gardener, before my sewing obsession I was a cook and gardener.  I love to create with  my own homegrown, the Croft does give me a little allotment all to myself and presently it is looking awful! So, I need to stop sewing and start gardening. hhmmmm Tricky one!

My embroidered cushion - 'And then there were.....' has received lots of praise, which im very pleased about.  Right, I can hear screaming and shouting from my very excitable children so I must blog off!

Obsessed with Embroidary

OK so first im obsesssed with sewing and mending, then making, then fabrics, HUGE obsession with fabrics!  Then embroidery.  I love it.  I love that I can 'write' anything, it always looks so beautiful. I love that I could have my cushions in peoples homes.  I love my new design, ive named it 'and then there were.....' cushion.  Totally my idea, have searched the net and dont think there is anything with this exact concept.  Really pleased and absolutely love it in my old house :-)

Yay!! I CAN embroider

Very very very very pleased with myself, after researching, reading, thinking, rethinking and finally finding some time, I have learnt to embroider and applique.  So today, I made MYSELF a present, I love it, the kids are totally unimpressed, preferring to rub their snotty noses over me instead.

And here it is...............

Illness, marketing and sewing

Been ages since I blogged. Been actually feeling guilty, no idea why, not as if I have hundreds of followers :-)

Both kids been off one day or another with a nasty cold virus, mainly a high temp but its been hard going. Funny how you would happily give them a kidney but when it comes to being a personal slave, it all gets a bit much.  Today for instance, daughter home with a temp. son not at nursery, he had only been in once this week as it is.  Daughter is calling me into the living room just to look at her lip which is chapped, go back to kitchen, son calls me in to look at his thumb which is sore, back to kitchen, daughter calls me in, she is thirsty, son calls me in, he is hungry, and so it went on all day, inbetween me changing the sheets and making 2 headbands and a ballet bag.  Oh and 'networking' on facebook. 

I was very down in the dumps at the begining of the week, with little sales I was thinking that perhaps, altho I can def sew, and sew well, perhaps my style was just too 'old' or out of date.  I live so rurally and am very much a home body that knowing what goes on in the wider world becomes tricky. Weeks could go by before I even catch the news, let alone knowing what is going on in the world of fashion or furnishings.  I think leaving the city does that too.  Not much point in fashion when your knee high in mud and theres a tractor at every corner (damn them!).  I got myself out of the dumps by applying to go onto a new website - homemade in britain and they liked my things, made me feel much better.  I then sorted out the website, got my rear on Twitter and printed my leaflets, determined to thrust them at everyone who so much as glanced at me.  Then came the cold bug!!! So all I managed was a quick trip to the village shop, leaflet in hand, feeling like a total idiot. The post office lady (who is a little scary) pointed at a very small corkboard in a corner and I then had to put it up myself, trying not to cover anyone elses, whilst the p/o lady was glaring at me, I now understand what the expression 'eyes burning into your back' or whatever it is, means.  She pointed me in the direction of the village outside noticeboard, by the park she says, which happened to be a glass display cabinet type thing, I was convinced it would be locked.  Then I notice some woman watching me, I  prayed with all my might it would open, and thankfully - it did - phew!  I managed to escape my marketing campaign, without making a total idiot of myself and have barely left the house all week. Thankfully a couple of friends have dropped by. 

Decided I would offer a 10% discount on my website for all local peeps, after all, im hoping to get out to craft fairs and it raises my profile. Did anyone buy anything? Not saying!!!

Then theres Twitter, but thats another long story :-)

Zoe x

Yay its Friday!

Like everyone, im soooo glad its Friday.  Been such a long week this week. Altho I have had some rather major triumphs, the first was - I cleaned my kitchen....not the floor, that would be more than a triumph, that would be a miracle.    The second was my makes.  I have made 2 ipad cases and 3 cosmetic bags, really getting quick now at everything.  No sales as such.  Determined not to let this daunt me, I have been watching other crafters items on Ebay for a while now and they often have to relist several times before things sell.  I have only listed one item on Etsy and nothing on Folksy, just testing the various waters at the moment to see what works and what dosent.   Husband text to say he would be late, not an unusual occurence, so sneakily put the kids to bed for some alone time. Yesterday was World Book Day. Daughter went to school as an Indian Princess, she made up a book about an Indian Princess cause she just wanted to do the dress up, bless her.  Darling son stuck a pencil in my printer this mornng so I have to get that out somehow, was hoping to make some flyers for local places once I have a stock of things.  Anyway, here are a couple of things I made...

Have a great weekend all, lots a love Zoe p.s doing a giveaway on my FB page - go visit! x