♥ Hearts ♥

Well I'm sitting here writing this with a perfect blue sky and sun streaming in the window - so beautifully clear and fresh it's been these last few days, if a bit bracing... it may be sunny but it's very, very cold!

Makes a lovely change to the drizzle anyway and the better light has meant that I've been able to do some long awaited photography of some of my Valentines products. I've been quietly sewing and making up samples of various things for the last week or so, though it's been quite slow going - I've had a horrible cold/cough/bug/virus for over a week now and boy has it made me feel awful!! Feels like I've just been existing in a thick fog for the last week but the fog is slowly starting to lift now, even though the cough is still lingering on. Hopefully will see the back of it this week! 

So anyway hearts have been the order of the day...

I've cut into my super duper thick felt from Blooming Felt to make these simple heart mirrors, which can be found here... At first I thought they were too simple, too plain, but the more I look at them, the more I like them. Sometimes it is definitely true, less is more!! I'm just not very good at the whole 'less' thing!

I've also been designing a few more personalised products to add to my range. My 'I love...' mirrors and badges were so popular last year so I'm building on that with these new designs - a personalised date mirror to celebrate special anniversaries, weddings, birthdays etc and a personalised couples initials mirror, perfect for Valentines :)

The lovely thick felt came out again for these personalised heart initial badges, found here...

...and then with my 25mm die I set about making these teeny weeny ones!

I couldn't decide how to package them at first but think they look quite cute like this!

And lastly, to add to my badge cards, a simple heart design, which you can see here!

Anyway so that's pretty much been my last few days... the photography and uploading always takes so much longer than I think it will, but nearly there now! As I mentioned in my last post, I'm changing things around with my shops this year a bit, with more of an emphasis on my little gifty type products. I sold off quite a few of my older designs from my NOTHS shop last week which has freed more space in my little studio (though the freed up space has already been taken over by about a million padded jiffy bags and other random packaging... but at least it's all in one place now! )

I'm also a bit behind as usual, but here are a couple of projects I designed for Crafts Beautiful magazine's January issue (last months). A quilted hottie...

and some padded hangers and a little lavender heart...

 For more crafting ideas go to www.crafts-beautiful.com

I did both of these commission months and months ago, so it's really lovely to see them in print, at last, and to have them back again - the heart has a new home on my dresser! Anyway hope you all are having a good week and enjoying the sun. I think our Tesco shopping is here as I can hear the van reversing so  I better go! 

Actually just very quickly before I do go, I thought I would share this amazing photo I came across a few days ago... I posted it on my facebook page too so apologies if you've already seen it, but I think it's worth a second look anyway ;) 

Photo Source

It's of the world's biggest patchwork crochet 'quilt', where thousands of small crochet blankets were joined together on the steps of Helsinki's cathedral in Finland for a Guinness world record attempt! How amazing is it?!! Imagine being there and seeing all that colour all together, I think it's fab! Apparently they had around 8000 crochet blankets made, but they could only fit 3800 of them on... just wow! And on that happy note, have a great week! xxx