Friday 9 December 2011

Oh - oh -oh..or, HO HO HO?

Well, Im rubbish aren't I?
(yes)
I haven't been here to make a post in forever, tumbleweeds pass me by as I type..really.

I pretty much gave in and buried my head in the sand about weddings, it's now four months to go and I haven't even sent out invitations..bah. Not to worry..these things can wait...a bit.

What I HAVE been doing in the last six months in conducting a little experiment...a rubbish little experiment I wish I had never begun..

Now, for the last few years I have faithfully sold my handmade wares on Etsy..and it has been ok. I've made some nice friends and I have made enough money to buy Christmas gifts all round..not tons of money, but enough to get by. The thing is, with making things to order I often find myself working each day from the moment I get up to around one in the morning and I always seem to miss the winter period (which I love) and then not really enjoy making things for myself. Also last winter I was busy being really pregnant then having a baby on the 23rd of December so that kinda took up most of the Christmas period. I guess I just missed having December to greedily call my own, to slowly work through and enjoy.

So, this year, in order to get December all to myself I decided, like a stupid nonce, to work in the 'real' world, selling my crap to 'real' people with real money - not like the PayPal money which is so much easier to spend (as I was soon to find out)
So I have spent the last six months working my stumpy little fingers to the bone making enough stock to drag round various fairs and sell to the fabulous craft-loving people of this world..
That sounds nice doesn't it???...yehh, it does.

EXCEPT.......
None of them bloody well turned up. I worked for months and months, traipsed round fair after fair, talking to seller after seller about how crappy the recession has made the  crafting world and how no one wants to spend money. GREAT!
I made under £150 all in..in six months. Was it worth it. NO.

So, here I am, a few weeks before Christmas, broke, with tons of stock I need to sell and no oomph for it..just a Grinchy little grizzle in the very pittttt of my belllllly.

Humph. Humbug..humphhhh.

So, in order to cheer myself up, and because I love to read the beautiful cheery, colourful works of Lucy at Attic24 (seriously I love it, it makes my whole world a brighter place) I dragged my sorry whinging behind over there and mused over the blankets and cushions and made a very serious choice..I will make something for...ME

Yes, Happy Christmas to me, no, you know what, Happy Birthday to me. I turned 32 and only ONE friend remembered and everyone ignored me all day and my boyfriend fell asleep, Baby F's big brother was upstairs in his room all day and night, and dear sweet Baby F tried his hardest to make me have a nice day but he is not even one year old so he found it all a bit tiring and so he cried then went to sleep!.. and I was ill, I had the flu complete with vomting, ear infection, throat infection and general self-pityitis..what a seriously unhappy day that was.

As a reward for being the saddest friendless sadcase (this is what happens when you dare to move 18 miles away  from 'home' and have a baby - be warned) I bought MYSELF a beautiful cushion  -it has come to be known as the 'beautiful cushion'

Beautiful Cushion is made by a rather lovely lady called Heather Miles (click on her name to see her Facebook -  Vintage Lilly) whom I happened to meet at a car boot or craft fair?? something lovely.. anyway, she is very clever and  makes wonderful items and has plenty of good and tasty vintage things for you too. Heather just happened  to have made the vintage cushion of my dreams,  and of course I have a new/old crappy house that NEEDED a beautiful vintage cushion to just brighten it up a touch! And so I begged and hinted and managed to get some birthday money from my lovely mother-in law to be and thus the beautiful cushion was MINE! muahahahahah...Amuahahah.

I have photographed it (badly, bad light, winter light hates my camera) to show you and I decided to make my beautiful birthday cushion a Happy Christmas crochet friend..

..Long-ish ago (scroll back) Lucy from Attic24 and a lovely camp man on YouTube (forgot which one) taught me (without knowing it) how to crochet. Ever since then I have been like a crochet FIEND and can't stop. I have begun to crochet a minxy little mate for the beautious cushion of joy..so here it is..


It's the start of my very own cute little squared cushion front..the light makes it look damn awful, the colours are lovely - I promise..if the sun ever comes out enough again I'll show you.

I loved the cushion front that Lucy had made and I wanted to make something similar, a little quick project that I could make up whilst Baby F was asleep and big brother was at school. Yesterday I had day 2 of the worst migraine I have had in about a year, so I made a big cup of black tea, put on a quiet film (which I ended up ignoring) placed my beautiful 50s wicker work basket down next to me and lined up Country Living as a well -deserved treat for the post woolly workload.




I then began slowly working my way through 80% of the cushion front. The quiet rythms of each tiny square really helped me relax and the satisfaction of putting it all together afterwards was a wonderful feeling..today I am left with only 12 squares left to make, then the back to put together, then I will give it (as Lucy* calls it) its TADAHHH moment.
See, it is growing..getting there. now I just have to decide which of my old jumpers is going to be killed in order to make a saucy new cushion back (can you hear them all shuffling to the back of the drawer as I type?!)


I have also found an awful lot of joy reading other blogs lately, see it's not just magazines that are worth a squizz.

I love these ones (and many more) right here:

Here: Just Me  (This lady makes me laugh so much!)
Here: Little Tin bird (gorgeous photographs and colours and words)
Here: The Brick House (Sigh..I hate the hot weather but Morgan MAKES me want to live in her house in the blazing desert heat..she just does)
AND
Here: Crochet with Raymond (God,  how I love Alice and Raymond!)

Aren't they all lovely?..and so, with that thought in mind, I have decided to stop ignoring my blog and start writing it more frequently for my own sanity and so I can keep lovely records of things that mattered at the time. Lucky you (sorry) but then again, no one reads it!..so it is a-ok!x

Well now baby F has decided to wake up and scream at me for lunch..so I'll leave you with my cat SmallFry having a lovely kitteny sleep on MY beautiful cushion - sigh.


* My freakish obsession with Lucy/Attic24 isn't my fault..everyone does it. you go there and see how you cope!

2 comments:

  1. I love this last comment, no one can ever go to attic24 and not be completely obbessed and want to make EVERYTHING! By the way, I have just spent the last hour reading through your entire blog and not doing revision, best distraction ever. :)

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  2. Haha..sorry about the spellings, grammar, puctuation, etc. I get so excited when I type it kinda all goes out of the window. I shall make more of an effort from now on! I have to say, I think there should be an Attic24 support group. For people who can't cope with or without it. I am fairly sure it'd be full within minutes :D

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