Look What the Postman Brought.

Good lord, it has been busy here. So busy that I have set up our son's bedroom as a another workroom so that I can continue working while Isabella plays. These days the postman brings not only the usual bills - yuk - but huge boxes like these



It made me laugh to see 'Heavy' written on it as I almost fell over under the weight! Inside there lay a pile of Liquorice Allsorts.



Though on closer inspection it appears they are notebooks, hundreds (literally) of them



all waiting to be turned into hand embroidered notebooks festooned with Lavender & Bees



or a Little House in russet



Piles of Winter Notebooks



and my new Garden Journal (still not uploaded yet...sigh) are filling boxes and shelves everywhere I look.



And don't get me started on the Christmas Hearts! No, you are safe; I won't put a picture up of those just yet, but the house already seems fairly festive. Oh, and extremely messy with boxes and threads trailing me wherever I step.

So, that is what the postman brings here and now I am off to take the children to school before cutting out the next pile.



Have a fun day x

Sewing and Knitting and Mud.

I think I have been revelling so much in the festive feel racing through blogland that I had sort of missed the fact that the Big Day is actually also racing, ever closer, ever faster. Lucy has just informed me she has eight school days left. EIGHT SCHOOL DAYS!!!! How did I miss that? Of course, there are weekends in amongst it all, but even so. Ah well, I have thoroughly enjoyed my perusing of everyone's wonderful Christmas makes, decorations and feeling of good cheer, so thank you one and all. Now, on to my own little blog and here's today's Christmas Mug Shot




Now, I did promise some crafting. You may remember I had put myself firmly back in the world of sock knitting only to find I didn't like the wool I was using? Well, its garish tones are growing on me as the sock itself moves along. It certainly isn't something I would choose, but I guess it will be good to wear something different by the fireside as I snuggle down for the evenings. This change of mood was much helped along by Mr Davy who announced that he would be happy to wear them if I made a larger - much larger - pair. Lor', the very thought of knitting such long socks again made them seem beautiful to mine eyes. Not sure I could stomach the sight of them on his mannish feet either!



This wonderful piece of pink knitting is my dear Lucy's own. She has been knitting now for a couple of years and has moved on so much just lately in terms of progress. Her tension is becoming better than mine - afraid I am affected by mood and knit furiously when holding an imaginary conversation with someone or there is some action film playing in the background, particularly if we are watching a psychological thriller. The needles fly and although mistakes are fortunately rarely made it does mean the tension varies with the plot! Lucy is the image of calm and can now even work out how to correct some of the mistakes she makes. not bad for an eleven year old is it? (Dave take note, and stop asking me to pick up your dropped stitches please!).



Today's orders waiting for finishing and packaging include some of these Little House Notebooks



and a couple of these Butterfly Bags, one in each colourway which makes for a lovely bit of variety on this dullest of days.



So much rain is falling outside that a cheery boat picture is just not possible today, so I will settle for one of the nuddiness that is Mylor Creek; so beautiful when the tide is out, but Saturday wasn't playing fair with me and the rain, grey skies and gloopiness of the mud made me ever-thankful for the cosy house waiting for me.



Now I am off for a blog catch up with my mug of coffee before starting the real work of the day.



Have a happy Monday x

Autumn and Winter weekend

Well, that wasn't quite the weekend I thought it would be. A crashing migraine combined with the need to sort paperwork (ugh) and work on the business meant that I was hardly the light and soul of the house. Needless to say, everything I touched also seemed infected with some virus: the computer I am convinced hates me and showed it by going sooo slooowly all weekend that I despaired of ever being able to upload products and the camera batteries died on me...twice. Enough of this woeful tale and on to nicer things.



First up is my Little House Notebook in winter, a covered notebook in A6 size as I find this to be the most convenient to pop into a bag. I use notebooks constantly for sketching things which catch my eye or making a list - ahh, I do love to make a list! The 'winter' by the way, refers to the subject of the design and the tonal range in case anyone is wondering why there is a strawberry in the fabric border (global warming you know).



The notebooks have re-useable covers which I embroidered with a mix of freehand machine and hand embroidery, a style I am becoming slightly obsessed with as it allows me more freedom with my designs while still being able to use hand embroidery for embellishment. I suppose it provides the accent notes against the looser, more ephemeral machine embroidery. Oh I know what I mean, but am so tired today I can't express myself coherently..sorry!



The second design, Little House Notebook - autumn features a warmer tonal range more in keeping with early autumn, hence the name.


I really loved working on these, exploring the seeds and grasses imagery a little further and developing some of the designs in my own notebook.



Other than work this weekend mostly consisted of fires such as these:



trying to photograph a sock in the wrong light and on the wrong foot (i.e. mine, not Dave's much larger one) in bad light - Pomona it is a much nicer colour than this...honest!



and much moaning as my head tried to explode, thus freeing itself from the constraining bands that clutched vice-like around its poor girth. Oh and of course, the weekend also consisted of these:

Little House Notebook in winter



and a Little House Notebook in autumn.



Hope yours was good x