And the verdict…

Well a big thank you to everyone, especially Alys and Orlando for the weekend, I did actually manage to make some sales which I think is fab!  Here you can see a pic of all the plush monsters in their photo shoot before they went off to sale. Don’t they all look gorgeous! My fave is definitely Booberella in the yellow down the front.

The purchased monsters definitely favoured around the cat like ones. Although this is lovely as I love them all, I do wish some of the more unique ones were more popular. Betty as every was well loved though, who can resist her fluffyness!

So now I need to move on and make more. Obviously I will make new versions of the sold ones and will prob make some of the popular ones in a variety of colours  to appeal to a wider audience. I also decided that I needed a smaller monster range in the ‘I love those, but I’m not sure I want to spend that much’ market. This, the fact I love the colours and shape of Booberella and that my new handbag needed some brightening up have all inspired me to make the first experiment into plush monster keyrings.

I do absolutely love her,  she is appox 3 inch square, and I can’t wait to perade her around on my handbag tomorrow .  She needs a little working on, as you can see her claw on one side has got sewn up which I need to try and avoid. Also, I think that next time I will embroider the face on. It is nice to be able to machine it on, but I am not a fan of the X eyes, they are not really cute enough and it is hard to machine sew anything else on such a small scale.

Well, I will be back soon with some more updates. Alys may be taking the monsters to a craft fair at the weekend so we will see how that goes as well. Also Harry Potter on Weds! I can’t wait

I dropped my shop off :)

I’m a little excited now as I have now dropped all my Monster Magic items off for the Open Studio on Sunday. I can’t wait to see how it goes and to go and view them all on sale.  I am also looking forward to viewing the other items that will also be on offer there.

I would love to stick a picture on here of what will be there but I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone that may be in attendance.

Lets hope it all goes well.

Hello 2009!

Hi all, sorry for being missing from cyberspace for some time. I regret that most of my time lately has been spent playing computer games instead of crafting and I haven’t had much in the way of inspiration. I have also been enjoying the summer and have turned my hand to gardening! I think I am getting a little obsessed by it now ,who would have thought.

Now, my wonderful friend Alys Power, who makes fabulous jewellery, is going to be having an open studioin her home with some guest crafters and so I decided what better way  to leap into the selling world than in the good hands of a good friend. I started off thinking ‘not enough time’ just make anything out of what you have in the house, but after doing that for a couple of days it fully gave me my inspiration back for making monsters!

So above is a full range of catnip monsters, they are small and cute but I have to admit I don’t love them as much as I do my proper monsters! There are currently a few new Monsters in the making and I will update with a pic of these soon, I plan to have a photo shoot with them, so we will who has the biggest ego! I have definitely progressed though now, and wherever possible, I am sewing the monsters on the machine instead of by hand. They may not be 100% perfect but they are filled with charm.

So for now I have best stop typing and start sewing and I promise to blog my new monsters soon. I will also update the shop after the open studio on Sunday 12th July so I know what I have left.

Where does the time go?

Sorry to all those that actually might read my blog, and thank you if you do, I haven’t done an update in a little while. So what have I been up too? Well trying to get in early to start making xmas gifts is one thing, which obviously means I can’t show these things off to you right now. Other than that, thanks too SarahOwl I have got back into knitting a bit lately, rather than sewing. I am currently in the middle of making a fab festive hat for myself, though I have to say it is a little tedious and is boring me somewhat but I will get in finished! I have also whipped up this crochet scarf today:

Sorry the pic is a little blurry, I obviously didnt take it myself . It is made from Rowan Pure Wool Aran in shade Sage. I already have one of these in Teal but I wore it so much last year that it has had so many washes and is a little mishapen. Also, I have decieded that I like how green looks with my hair and this would make a good addition to this years winter wardrobe. The pattern is from The Happy Hooker crochet book and is such a quick simple thing to make up.

Other news? Well, Daddy has retired good on him, I wish I could have a life of leisure! and I think that is about it. The cats are little monsters but I love them none the less they are very good for a cuddle.

Ohhh lastly, Once i have got a little more time I have found my next big knit project, thanks to Ravelry which is Kim Hargreaves Hannah, I got the book in the post yesterday, I love craft books, they are full of such pretty things! (i just wish the postman wouldn’t leave them out in the rain). I now just need to find some time to get the wool and get cracking. I also need to find a vintage metal long button from somewhere for a little xmas gift I am making up.

Craft room is pretty much complete!

                 

My craft room is pretty much completed now after Chris wonderfully put my final shelves and hooks up for me! I love it so much, it is exactly as I pictured it in my head and I now just love to go in there and sit down and look around.

The only things left are to change the desk to white, which will involve some laborious sanding and to get a chair in there, for which I am going to knit a throw for. I also have a tele coming from my grandad so soon I will have no reason to leave (well apart from to make cups of tea of course).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have also finished the knitted item i was making, so once i have completed one more thing and actually seen my friend to give them as a gift I can blog away about them.

Gifts for me and gifts for others

Last week I got another lovely parcel from Japan, some fabulous natural linen fabric with bright blue printed Elephants. I love this fabric and it is so lovely to just look at but as much as I love looking at these things, I actually bought the fabric for an idea I have in mind for one of my xmas gifts, which obviously means I can’t blog all about it!

I was also so pleased when I opened the package and the sender had included these so sweet hello kitty note papers as a little gift. The little touched make it all that extra special.

I also have one other thing to blog about, that obviously, after our little get together the other evening I have a knitting project on the go! It is going quite slowly as it is mostly being created in my lunch hours at work but its coming along and is not going to be a big project.

Here is a picture of where I am up too to give an idea, however again, this is to be a surprise gift so I cant really blog what it is yet! All I will say is that it is a gift for my good friends soon to be born child.

And that’s it for the minute, mummydaddy are on their way round with my grandad so I best take my leave.

Old Friends

Shhhh, I bought knitting goods!

I am getting a little excited now, I am off to visit old friends this evening for cups of tea, cakes and, oh yes, knitting!

Its amazing how such a little thing can get me completely obsessed again!

Shop Updated!

I finally updated the shop with a few small bits, click here

Bank Holiday

This is not a very long post but yesterday I made Chris drive me to Ikea which he was not very happy about! But we bought all the shelves that I wanted for my craft room. I should really have measured the width of the room as well as the length and the height though because we nearly couldn’t stand it up! But they are up, and I have unpacked so much stuff to them now it looks great, I just like to go and stand in there and look.

I’m not going to blog any pictures of it today because it still isn’t finished. Still need to pick the desk up from my mum and dads and there is a smaller set of shelves to put up. Hopefully we will sort that next weekend.

Yippee

My Folklore Cushions

Around 6 months ago I bought some gorgeous My Folklore fabric designed by Lecien. I absolutely love this fabric and have been meaning to cover some cushions in it since we started looking to buy. Well considering we still haven’t got the Sofa I have been in no rush but last night I finally got round to sewing them. I imported the fabric from Germany, why is it so difficult to get these lovely fabrics in the UK?

And here are the finished cushions. I am so very pleased with them and can’t understand why I didn’t get round to this sooner. They are 50cm/20in feather cushion inserts and the covers include a zip across the bottom edge for easy removal and washing in the future. These pictures also give a sneak peak into the colour of my craft room although this was about all that was in the room. I also have some off cuts left, and expect to see some bits and bobs appearing in this fabric soon just because I love it so much. those birds are so cute.