Recent Makes...

I've fallen in love with felt a bit lately... There's something really satisfying about having a little glass pot of random cute buttons, picking up a needle and sewing them on to everything. And there is something so soothing about embroidering on to really soft felt. So it's what I've been creating lately, snuggled on the sofa in the cold (even-though-it's-supposed-to-be-summer-and-sunny) evenings after work. The weather has been sunny one minute, rainy the next, and this project seems to be perfect because I can happily carry my shoebox of embroidery thread and buttons around the house with me or out in the sunshine in the backyard.

I started making ribbon bracelets which I love. I've been collecting all sorts of pretty ribbon everywhere I go and it's been sat in a little basket in my craft room waiting. My favourite is this little thin grey cotton ribbon with tiny white embroidered hearts on. I used it for the "leaf" on the yellow ribbon bracelet and then made a felt cuff bracelet with it. I still haven't decided how to finish the cuffs, whether to use velcro or a tiny elastic cotton tie. I'm just enjoying sewing all the designs on now, I've not done much hand sewing in ages and I love using beads on them.

One of the downsides of working an office job where I have to type ALL day on a keyboard is that I can never wear really nice bracelets as accessories. They always scratch against the desk when I'm moving the mouse, or get in the way when I'm typing, and I always inevitably end up taking them off and they sit there sad on my desk all day. Ian bought me some really nice tie cord friendship bracelets from Etsy for my birthday (www.tiedupmemories.etsy.com) and I love them so much I wear them all the time, and because they are flat again my wrist and are soft they don't bother me at work. 

So that got me to thinking that the felt and the ribbon bracelets would have the same effect, and it would be a nice bright cheerful bracelet or cuff to wear to work to brighten up my outfit. 

I still have to figure out how to finish the back of the cuffs off as well as I don't think one layer of felt is quite enough for it as a bracelet, I might try sewing an extra layer on. We will see how it goes!

Camping in Devon

This weekend we went with two of our friends to Devon camping for the weekend, and it was amaaaazingly beautiful. I can't stop thinking about how much fun we had first because we hadn't seen our friends in a while (ok, we did see them the weekend before, but before THAT we hadn't seen them in ages it seemed). And second because I just. Needed. A. Break. From computers, and the office, and everything that is routine and concrete and everyday life.

We went back to a campsite we had visited before together in Doone Valley called Cloud Farm. It is run by such a nice family and they welcomed us again this time with the same cheeriness. One of the best things about Cloud Farm is that it's on the edge of Exmoor National Park and is separated by a really pretty stream. After lots of nesting and deciding we set up our tents all cosy next to the stream in the first picture, got our barbeque started, and started toasting marshmallows! Yum :-)

The next morning when we woke, we drove over to Porlock Beach. It was so beautiful and the weather was gorgeous. I couldn't believe all of the rocks on the beach. They made such a funny sound when you walked over them. Being my usual crafty self I couldn't help but pinch a few pebbles to take home a decorate. Ian (being less of a wimp than me) just went ahead and picked up a massive rock and carried it back to the car. New Devon door stop sorted. :-)

On Sunday we discovered this really beautiful secret garden in the back of a hotel called Luttrell Arms in Yarn Market, Dunster Village. We had woken up late on Sunday morning, packed all of our things back into our car, and went to this village in search of a Sunday roast. It was the BEST Sunday Roast I've ever had in my life!! It was so delicious it was unbelievable. And then my friend Megan asked if we'd seen the secret garden, and we crept back through the courtyard of this beautiful old building and came across this outside patio area covered in flowers. Soooooo beautiful!!!!**** 

I was so very sad to come home, even though we had planned to stay a third night but were huddled around the fire on Saturday night shivering! It was so strange for it to be so hot during the day (we actually got sunburned!) and then to be so so cold at night. I do love the countryside, and everything about it and the cosiness of making a home out in a little nook of nature.

My new shop www.lemonadeletterpress.etsy.com is finally open!!

For quite a while I've been wanting to open a new shop on Etsy just for my cards instead of having them mixed up with my jewellery. So, it was my first goal after getting back off holiday and I am happy to (do a little dance) and say: Lemonade Letterpress is officially open!! Yay! :-)

It still only has 10 items in it and isn't much of a shop at all yet, but I can't explain how proud I feel to finally be trying to sell some things that I make. I sold my first piece of jewellery and my first greeting cards on my first Etsy shop Appleylane a few weeks before going on holiday. And I feel like 2013 is a year of a lot of firsts for me. First year in my 30's (woo!), first year of planning our wedding, first year at blogging, and my first year really trying to make a go of selling my cards and jewellery on Etsy.

I am so excited. I hope, hope, hope, hope that this all goes well and I really am going to try my best. Being away from things for a couple of weeks really puts things in to perspective. I thought a lot about how to focus my craft time and how to just take time away from things to craft for myself as well, and I hope by the end of the year I reach that balance. My mind is all over the place most of the time with ideas and half-finished projects. So part of writing this blog and starting a shop is to share those ideas, but also to create a bit more focus. Hopefully I can find a group of like-minded crafters out there in cyberspace who share my yarn/fabric/paper-hoarding tendencies and who are also in the same boat as me!