Happy Mother's Day, Decluttering

Happy Mother's Day, although officially over here in England our celebrations were back in March.  Unfortunately, even with loads of hints my family did not take me up on this special day again.  However my daughter wrote me a poem last year and thought I would share it.

So to all you mothers, step-mothers, grandmothers even foster-mothers, Happy Mother's Day you're all great!!!

Since my return from America, the new tax year is upon me and I needed to do a stock take on what materials I had, however being so busy toward the end of the last tax year and then flying out of England I was faced with this at the beginning of the week.

Complete mess

Tidy and hopefully for good.

Where do I start?

Sorted!!!

The whole process took me a few days and was so tedious but worth it.  I even managed to sort out my cupboard which is full of material.  Like my step-daughter I am always buying new material in the hope that I find something to use it on and then think its too nice to cut up.   Does anybody else think like that?

Finally our anniversary Rhododendron bush has now started to flower, I love the bright colours.  We got it given to us for our first wedding anniversary and this year, in July we will be celebrating our 14th Wedding Anniversary.  For us it finally spring has sprung and whilst I am not a gardener as such, our tubs have been filled with plants, will have to see if my 'gardening' skills are as good as my stitching skills.

Another successful pop up shop and California Dreamin' turned into another reality

Yet again its been ages since I last posted and I have a good excuse I have been busy and away visiting and staying with a good friend in California for the Spring Break, or Easter holidays as we in England call it.  I've also been busy with another pop up shop which was held in time for Mother's Day over here which was in March.

The event was a busy day and culminated in orders which I had to complete in time to go away.  I made a success of £80 on the day which was really good.  One brilliant idea my husband had was to take a portfolio of all the cushions I have done in the past for people to look at which also helped with orders being taken.

As it was coming up to Mother's day I made some cushions that seemed apt for the occasion.

Four orders were taken which gave me 2 weeks to stitch and complete before I went away to California.

Easter break then saw me and my daughter jet over to Sacramento in California for a long overdue visit to stay with a friend who lives there.  Last time we went was summer 2010 and whilst we travelled down to London Heathrow and flew via Calgary in Canada, this time we decided to travel from our local airport at Norwich here in East Anglia and from there it was a transfer at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam for an 11 hour flight to Los Angeles, before transferring to Sacramento for our 3rd and final flight.  It was a long day as we were up and ready to leave Lowestoft at 4 am and we landed in Sacramento at 3.30 pm which was 11.30 pm back here in England.  We certainly don't do anything by halves, but it saved my husband a 6 hour road trip to Heathrow Airport and back home again.

Unlike last time when we visited and were stopped by the Highway Patrol, this time we introduced ourselves over a Mexican and after a long 4 year wait, Victoria was finally able to get her first Frozen Yoghurt which she had been waiting for.

We even had the opportunity to catch up with some old friends.....

And New.....I am Lisa Wilson on the left, and on the right is also Lisa Wilson

Last time, when we went to California we did a road trip with my friend Jackie.  During that time we visited Yosemite National Park and South Lake Tahoe.  This time we decided to travel north up Highway 1 and head for Mendocino County, staying in Mendocino itself.  For those who can remember Angela Lansbury in 'Murder She Wrote'  Mendocino was the setting for the fictional 'Cabot Cove' in the long running series.

Mendocino Hotel but we stayed at the back in their garden suite as we had 2 dogs with us too.  A lovely place to stay.

Blair House....Jessica Fletcher's fictional home

Whilst we were in Mendocino County we also visited Fort Bragg and Glass Beach.  Used previously as a dumping site, it is now a visitor attraction with all the glass that was dumped smoothed out by the sea and mingling with the stones.

I also loved the various colours of the Pacific Ocean which I tried to capture on my camera.

Before leaving California, as California was populated during the Gold Rush Days, we decided to try our hand at Gold Panning.

Victoria trying her hand at panning for gold.

With little success

Our mode of transport. first owned by my friend's dad and we kept getting so many compliments off people when we stopped at traffic lights etc

All in all, we had a great time over in Sacramento and are planning to revisit next year for the Spring break.  A 4 year delay was too long to wait.  It was soon time fly home to England via Portland, Oregan en route to Amsterdam again.  Our return journey was 20 hours long but it was worth it.

And its time to start stitching again!!!!

Decorating, stitching and confronting my demons......inserting a zip

I have now missed two weekends of blogging, the first was due to a family bereavement and the second was being really busy with redecorating our front room.  In fact in the past couple of months we have been busy doing the hall, 2 flights of stairs and 2 landings with the use of scaffolding.  Unfortunately, with one flight of stairs with this being a Victorian house the stairs were too narrow compared to the top flight built on as a loft conversion, health and safety went out of the window and we ended up propping one leg with a pile of books.

The hallway, old mahogany stain, magnolia painted walls and horrible lampshade

Stained floor with blue runners, yellow wallpaper and white paint instead of the old stain..... and light shade

all floors were done together

We also treated the house to a new front door after almost 14 years of living here

Add caption

Our front room before......

During.......after we lifted the carpet and sanded the floor........

......and after

Just waiting for the tv to go on the chimney breast

Now the room is complete, and I even made up some cushions to match the curtains and a table runner for the coffee table and I can now return back to blogging again and even cross stitching :)

Even though decorating has taken up much of our time, I have also been working on Heavy Going Grizzly.  I love seeing the stitching taking over on the blank aida and am getting used to the different shades of browns used.  I am also spurring myself on to get it completed and do a bit more of the BIG project.  For years I couldn't start a cross stitch before completing the current one but I have to admit having a change around is making me WANT to get back to it.

He's beginning to look like a bear

I also bit the bullet this week and signed up for a Futures course at college and have started Introduction to Dress Making.  There is so much more I want to learn on  my sewing machine and feel apprehensive on doing.   The first week was talking about different material and bout some of the signs used on the patterns and we ended up doing a basic skirt.  When it came to inserting a zip on the garment, this was my worst nightmare.   I have to admit when it comes to zips I usually pass the buck and get somebody else to do it, but I did it, albeit with a little bulge at the bottom which I am going to see if I can rectify.  Next session will be starting our garments, and a fun time was spent shopping for the materials needed.  I was lucky as most of the important materials needed such as dressmaking scissors, pins, tape measure, dressmakers chalk and seam ripper is already owned.  All I needed was a pattern, fabric(s) thread etc.  I finally decided on 2 patterns, one to start at college and one to do at home at the end of the course.

Our practice skirt

and the dreaded zip.... it went well until the end when I gained a bulge at the bottom :(

2 patterns I couldn't resist but I am going to start on the one on the right and not one to take it totally easy I am going for the long sleeved top

All I can say is watch this space!!!!!

Flooding, Revival of the Cottage Industry, My Current WIP

Over the past week the news has been dominated by the bad weather both here in the UK and in America.  We have had flooding and quite a lot of America has been gripped by snow and sub zero temperatures, which hasn't provided a lot of people with the best start in 2014.  I hope people who read my blog have not been affected too much by the extreme weather.

Copywrite of Reuters.  Chicago trucks frozen in ice

Copywrite BBC News  Flooding in England with more rain predicted

This past week I have not had chance to do much at all, last Sunday I came down with flu big time and spent 3 days in bed with no energy whatsoever. I am fortunate though, being a foster carer with my husband also allows me time (flu permitting) to work from home making cushions in between the daily school run which we share and meetings. 

 Nevertheless, whilst ill, I did get the chance to surf the net for something to do and I found a really interesting site called Planet Handmade which can be found at http://www.planethandmade.net/.   Reading some of their blogs, one piece that caught my eye on their 'A Return To Cottage Industry' blog on 29th August 2013 was that National Statistics published 16th April 2013,  2.5 million people in the UK now run business from home, representing 52% of UK small businesses using.  However, Planet Handmade do point out that this may not include craft businesses operating under the VAT Threshold    I can remember learning about the Cottage Industries leading into the Industrial Revolution and enjoyed studying that period when I did an Access Course at college prior to going to University a few years ago.

What I love about that era  was the different skills used creating items prior to the Spinning Jenny and industrial Britain with mass producing factories.  Whilst industrialisation had its good points, helping to shape the way we live today, some skills were in danger of being lost forever.  Fast forward 3 centuries and the modern day handmade crafting is very much prevalent ensuring that these skills live on.

Whilst its easy to go into town or go on-line and shop at big named stores, to me it has turned into a bore and lacks gift satisfaction.  My daughter told me and my husband once that she loves looking carefully for presents for family and friends, preferring to purchase something that the recipient would love rather than just getting something off a store's shelf.

 Like me, she loves to wander round craft stalls and has dabbled a bit in card making.  Yes, there can be a huge argument that factory made is cheaper, especially with today's shaky economy with budgets constantly being cut, against hand crafted items when you put into context the amount of time, materials and the satisfaction of creating something personal for somebody and keeping skills alive such as jewellery making, knitting, ceramics, etc for me personally, that wins my vote.

My mantra is you give gifts with love and when you buy handmade your gift is made with love, also for personalised items they are unique to the person receiving them. With my cushions I do always worry that there is something that my customers will not like with regards to the finished article but then the immense satisfaction I get when they are pleased with the finished piece totally outweighs the time I spend creating it.  For me cross stitch is an enjoyable past-time and my chill out time and whilst I enjoy what I am doing I feel fortunate that I can branch out with my own little cottage industry.

My Current WIP

 A week later I am finally getting back to good health and have spent a couple of evenings cross stitching Heavy Going Grizzly.  So far you can see the shape of one of his ears and I started on both his eyes so he could start to see.  I think this evening will see some more of him  take shape especially as there are no dreaded confetti stitches in this chart.