bee handmade

tentative steps

My new Etsy shop is now up and running, albeit in a very small way. Eek!

Two divided laundry pouches. My idea developed from the quandry of where to put 'not so fresh' lingerie and hosiery when packing and on holiday. The laundry bags have two separate pockets that button shut. Each can be folded and tied shut when being stored or packed but can also be opened out and hung up when in use. Nifty huh?  Or, at least I hope people think they are nifty. I made a lot of prototypes before reaching a design I was happy with. The concept could be scaled up to house larger/more items, although this size happily holds enough for a weekend or a week away.

The text and bird/peg designs are stamped using fabric ink and hand carved rubber stamps.

I hope you like them. No more stray pairs of knickers!

snow

Snowed in!  This was my station on Thursday morning.

It took 2 and a half hours to get to another station on rail replacement. I gve up the attempt to get into London in the end and came back home. A 4 and a half hour round trip!

I did however use my weekend quite productively. I made some almond and pistachio shortbread biscuits. You can see the recipe here. They are really easy to make and are scrumptious (especially when still warm out of the oven).

I made these with my new clover gadget which makes very light work of pom pom making.

I need to think of a use for them now (other than being cat toys).

I also made a linen tote to carry around in my bag. An anti carrier bag bag.

The birds are made out of an Ikea fabric, which I love, and their legs and eyes are stamped with little hand carved rubber stamps. Not the most flattering of pictures but I'm quite pleased with the bag itself. I had an old co-op one but it recently died. They don't last that long when you use them all the time.

Yesterday me and P went for a walk to take advantage of the snow AND sun.

We even made a miniature snowman (which I somehow managed to feel sorry for because he was on his own). Idiot.

The snow was so pretty. It's such a long time since I saw things this blanketed in white. There's hardly ever a decent snowfall in the south of England. It make me miss the north (and also spurred me on in my plan rip up our horrid bedroom carpet and paint it white).

more randomness

1. My brilliant mum made me this scarflette.

 

I've worn it constantly since it came in the post on Friday (well apart from being in bed). I love it. There are free patterns available to download on Ravelry.

2. I only had a one day weekend this week and spent some of my Saturday making some (slightly tardy) christmas present thank you cards. Quite simple, just some linen, rubber stamping and a bit of stitching.

 

The linen and text wrap around the back of the card too and are repeated on the inside.

3. I had a go at making a rag wreath. There are lots of them on flickr. I was inspired by one my lovely 7 year old niece Molly made at Christmas. This is a more spring-like version. I don't actually have many scraps of Christmassy colours and, anyway, feel like the holidays are now well and truly over.

It's mainly scraps of leftover from my mammoth bunting project, mixed in with some bits of felted cardigan. I now need to attach a nice piece of ribbon to hang it and also think of somewhere appropriate for it to live. SO simple to make.

I apologise for the extremely lacklustre quality of my pictures at the moment but the light is so bad and, as I think I've said before, I live in a cottage with small windows!

4. And finally ... an extremely relaxed cat who is loving our log fires at the moment.

finished

All done and dusted. I got there eventually. I carved some mistletoe leaves.

and a noel stamp.

And then used a mixture of white, gold and green embossing powder to stamp the mistletoe. I finished them off with some mother of pearl buttons as the berries.

 

No I just have to write and sign all of them!

pesky ideas

Sometimes ideas are so clear in your mind that they are hard to let go of when the reality isn't as successful as you imagined. I usually consider my endless list of things to do/sort out/tidy ... while I'm waiting to go to sleep and on my commute to and from work. Frequently reading gets in the way of this method as books I'm enjoying tend to take over.  I have a VERY bad habit of reading as I'm walking down the street.

The folded card was ready and waiting.

As were the buttons.

My plan was to sew the buttons onto the card with red silk, spelling NOEL. I envisaged a restrained, Scandinavian inspired design. Guess what, it didn't work. As demonstrated here.

One to let go of - a rethink is in order.

christmas cards

I've been trying to think of an idea for my Christmas cards this year. While I'm deliberating I'll show you one of the cards I made last year.

I cut out this rubber stamp

Then used an embossing ink pad and powder to transfer the design onto folded card.

I also decorated plain brown paper to use as Christmas wrapping. I like having a theme for my wrapping - one of the things I get obsessive about. I love the tradition and ceremony of Christmas; choosing and decorating the tree (real of course), using tree ornaments I've had since I was a a child, hanging my stocking up ... Peter Pan mentality!

This is my collection of stamps.