SALE!!!

Yes... it's SALE time!! I've missed the last few NOTHS sales for various reasons so it's been ages and ages since my last one! 

There are lots and lots of bargains to be had... mainly lovely embroidered button sets, prints, cards and cushions! Here are just a few of them, but hop on over to my Not on the High Street shop to see the full range of discounts :)

Cupcake badges - now £3.50 each (with a further saving if you buy the set of three!)

Flower badges - now £3.50 each (again with a further saving if you buy the set of three!)

Seaside button sets - from £3.50 (down from £7.00!)

 Flowers Cushion - now £28.00 (reduced from £55.00!)

Beach hut Cushion - now £28.00 (reduced from £55.00!)

Robin print - now £14.00 (reduced from £18.00)

Toadstool print - now £12.00 (reduced from £16.00)

Cupcake Button Set - £4.50 (down from £7.00!)

 Garden Button sets - now £4.50 (reduced from £7.00)

   Cards - now only £1.75 (reduced from £2.50)

...plus lots more besides!!

Anyway that's all I popped in for today... hope you will be able to find some early Christmas present bargains ;) I will be back soon with some new designs I've been working on... and maybe a yarn update too if your lucky!

Jenny x

p.s. If any of my lovely blogger friends reading this would like a little extra discount on anything, please please don't be shy... just drop me a line or leave me a comment and we'll sort something out (would rather give you guys a discount than pay NOTHS commission!) xxx

Blanket love...

Do you remember way back in June when I decided that I really wanted to learn to crochet? It had kind of been one of those things that I'd been meaning to get round to having a go at for so long but never actually managed to. I did try to learn once years ago at Uni but it got the better of me before I could even produce a chain! Anyway I've had a longing for a granny blanket for a good few years now - I've looked in many many charity shops and scoured ebay but never found one I really liked. So there seemed to be nothing for it... I would just have to make my own!

I had great fun choosing my yarn colours...

Here they all are... all 15 of them... though I actually swapped the pale cloud blue for white in the end. On the recommendation of several lovely bloggers, I used Stylecraft Special DK yarn, and I have to say I wasn't disappointed. I had bought a couple of cheapie balls too to practise with but discarded my first few squares with them in - the yarn quality wasn't nearly as nice and my OCD-ness wouldn't allow me to leave them in under any circumstances!

Anyway before I ramble on any further... would you like to see my finished masterpiece???

Ta-dah!!!! Here it is :)

Do you like it? I can't tell you how incredibly pleased I am to actually have made something out of crochet... and if I do say so myself, it is a pretty good first project! There was honestly a time I thought I would never be able to learn to crochet, especially without someone to show me how, but with perseverence and a LOT of You Tube video watching, I was away! 

I think it is such a great thing to acquire a new skill, and a new hobby all at once. Plus it's given me something to do in the evenings of these last couple of months instead of lurking on twitter and randomly looking on the laptop - I spend enough time as it is doing that! 

I've loved seeing the squares grow each day and I really am quite proud that I've managed to make something halfway decent. I love my snuggly colourful blanket!!!

In the end I made it 8 x 11 squares with 6 rounds per square, plus the stripy border. It's just the right size for me to snuggle under on the couch watching telly... and folded in half, it is a great lap blanket. Now we've actually got a kitchen table, I like to do all my laptop stuff on it, and sitting there in the morning doing emails etc with my cosy lamp on and my snuggly blanket is just lovely!

 

I couldn't tell you how long it's actually taken me to finish - I did start it back in June but then we were moving house and then I went away for a month so there was about a 2 month break in the middle. I've worked on it most evenings since I've been back though for an hour or two each night... Then last weekend, I got a stinky cold and it was all I could do to sit on the sofa all day working on my blanket (I was a little obsessed by this point being so near the end, I just wanted to finish - Think I did about 10 hours straight in the end - pretty good really considering how lousy I was feeling!) 

I really enjoyed doing the border after the boredom of the sewing together... striping up and down with no interuptions! Loved it so much in fact that I am now planning a granny stripe  blanket too (in fact I bought my yarn this morning so expect another yarn post in not too long!)

Anyway, so I hope you share my excitement and thanks for all your supportive comments on my progress over the last few months. Also thank you to these lovely ladies in particualar for their crochet blankety inspiration... Vanessa, Julia, Lucy and Jacquie - you have all inspired me no end with your lovely creations (plus your tutorials have been super helpful too!)

xxx

christmas and crochet

Hello! Thought would pop by quickly just before I have lunch -  though I've been up since the absolute crack of dawn this morning (way before dawn actually) for an appointment so I'm really feeling this should be early evening by now and not just lunchtime! Anyhow, here are my projects for this month's Crafts Beautiful. They're in the October issue, but I'm a bit late in posting about them - I actually picked up the Xmas special issue today (yes it is only mid september I know!)

I've been designing Christmas projects since way back in May... and this week I've been finishing a couple more Christmassy ones... that's the last of them though then I can start concentrating on my own Christmas products (haven't given them a thought really yet... eeek, quite a lot to do!)

Apart from working on the couple of commissions, I've also been sewing mirrors this week... lots of them - My sewing mojo's back, hurray!! I've been making lots of different versions of my butterfly, flower and cupcake mirrors but haven't got round to taking any pictures yet so they will have to wait for another day. 

I have also been working away in the evenings on my granny blanket though.... and excitement... it's nearly finished!!

I had a lovely weekend actually... Karl had a day planned with friends on Saturday, so I spent most of it working on my blanket, starting with a square or two after breakfast in bed... oh the luxury!  

I still do have a way to go before any ta-dahs... am at the sewing the squares together stage and I have to be honest, I'm really not feeling this bit - I loved doing each individual square but the joining together is feeling tediuos and never-ending! I then need to crochet the border (looking forward to that bit though) so it will be a while yet but hopefully I will have it done quite soon :)

Anyway, have a great week, hope to be back soon with a blanket update xxx

Halloween Invites

I haven't been doing much sewing since I've been back. In fact, last week I spent much of it doing some new Pingg designs. My collection for them has been a bit neglected over the summer but as we get towards the busiest time of year (invite sending wise) I wanted to get some more designs ready, starting with some Halloween ones...

Not sure what it is since I've come back from my holidays but I'm not feeling the joy for the sewing parts of my work as much as I sometimes do. Instead I've loved doing these designs which are entirely done on the computer. I think partly it's just because I've had loads of ideas for them. You know sometimes inspiration is nowhere to be found and then other times you have ideas brimming over and you can't wait to get them all down on paper so to speak... well this was one of those times.

They are obviously a little different to my usual style, although they seem to have come just as naturally. Maybe it is the use of silhouette and the subject matter (I'm not often to be found stitching skeletons and witches) that makes it feel so different. If you had seen these designs out of the blue, I wonder whether you would have realised they were mine?? I doubt it somehow! But then that is maybe a good thing. Things can sometimes get a little samey and to be honest it's been nice to work with ideas other than cupcakes and flowers!

There are still some more ideas that I would like to do, but other work is calling me and I can't put it off any longer. Plus we do still have quite a bit of time before Halloween but it is good to have the designs ready for when people start planning their parties and events. You can see the rest of my collection here if you are interested...

Anyway it has also made me start thinking (albeit reluctantly) about Autumn, and Halloween itself. I kind of wish we British made more of a thing about Halloween like the Americans do. I started a Halloween pinterest board at the weekend and some of the images and ideas are great! For instance I would love to make some of these cute little jam jar lanterns but fear they would just sit looking forlorn and a bit lost in our house with no other Halloween decorations. 

 Source

I need a house like this for them to look at home!

Source

How fun would it be to decorate your porch like this?? Amazing.

Anyway, let's not wish the months away, we still have nearly two whole ones before Halloween so I shall try and enjoy September first! Hope you're having a good week, thanks for popping into see me as always, I'm off to sew some butterfly badges! xxx

Birthday girl...

Hello again, so how've you been? Hope you're having a lovely weekend and avoiding the wet weather that seems to be around. We now have blue skies here after a miserable start so will be making the most of it by spray painting my chair outside later on!

Anyway, just wanted to pop by and say thank you for all my birthday wishes last week... we had a lovely day out in Bath. It's our nearest big city, and even though it's about an hour away, I tend to go up about once a month for a bit of shopping and a change of scenery. It was really nice to just potter about and be able to have a mooch in all my favourite shops (of which I have quite a few in Bath). I did plan to take some pictures of our day but it was super crowded being a Saturday and I actually never took my camera out of my bag once!

So here are some pictures of some of my birthday gifts instead...

I am well known for my love of polka dots, red and white ones in particular, so these dishes were just calling out to me! They are by Spode and a really nice quality, but were marked up as seconds... (for some reason unbeknown to me - I have been nicknamed by friends and colleagues in the past as 'quality controller' because I am such a fusspot when it comes to imperfections, but I couldn't find anything wrong with my spotty plates at all! Bargain seeing as they were marked up at 50% off... I definitely wasn't complaining.)

As well as the spotty dishes, Karl also got me this sweet little wooden stool.  It is shabbily pretty with a little rustic heart cut out the top... It is perfect for the little bare space at the top of the stairs and I love it!

As part of my present, my sister Harriet gave me this cute decorative pear... now looking pretty hanging on the dresser... she also gave me this lovely spotty mug to add to my collection (she knows me so well!)

(Note the Mollie Makes in the picture... my new favourite read!)

Speaking of which, I had some birthday money too so I've been able to treat myself to a subscription! Am very much looking forward to receiving the next issue on the doormat - it has been ever so tricky to find a copy here in Somerset - there must be lots of very crafty folk around here as I have not managed to lay eyes on one anywhere locally. In fact the only two issues I've been able to buy, one I got from Birmingham New Street station when I was travelling up to see my parents and the other at Manchester airport! So I thought a subscription was really the only option ;)

I also got some other lovely bits too which I've not been able to photograph - a long beige cardigan and a red jumper dress from mum and dad - both of which I've worn practically non stop over the last week... (oh I do love wearing new clothes!) and a gorgeous writing set from one of my good friends. So all in all, a wonderful haul... I am very lucky indeed.

 

Anyway just before I go start my chair makeover, I thought I would share one last picture today. You see, I was thinking about my blog this week... that it is kind of odd that here I am sharing bits of my work and life with all you lovely readers who take time out of your busy days to pop by and see what I have to say... but yet I am still quite anonymous as you don't even know what I look like. 

Although this blog is still (supposedly) primarily a place for me to talk about and share my work, the way it has naturally evolved over the last year means it has become more than that and it is now a more personal space than I originally intended. I always like it when I know who I am reading about - it's nice to put a face to a blog, especially if you have loyal readers who come back time and time again. So on that note, here is me...

Right, enough waffle for one day, I best get a move on with the spray painting whilst the sun is still shining! Will be back soon though as I have lots of new Pingg designs and some magazine projects to share. Happy Sunday xxx