Sorry!

It's another sunny day here in the Outer Hebrides, with a bit of a sea breeze just for comfort! As the sign says, I won't be doing much crafting today and over the weekend. Not just because of the sunny weather, but the backlog of 'stuff' I let build up in the run-up to the last craft fair - well, something had to go!

We're now in school summer holiday mode, so if my posts are a bit sporadic that's why! Not that I think we'll be going very far afield. Joke: "How do you get a Lewis man to go on holiday? Sabotage his fishing rods??" Hmmmm - perhaps not!

Maybe I should take shots of this sign in various sunny locations around the Western Isles - I can see how that could get really irritating though! Anyway it's the school holidays, so the heat wave is bound to come to an end soon!!

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are!

my creative space . . .

My creative space this week comprises of me drooling over these two sets of fabric you see in my photograph - and they both make me very happy! I mentioned in my previous post about finding a local weaver who is selling his own tweed (as opposed to through a tweed-mill), and I was delighted to get some of this tweed from him in the post, a couple of days ago.

The Matryoshka fabric came in the post from Japan to replenish my stock of it - I got a warm fuzzy glow from getting both fabrics within days of each other. They both came with a nice friendly handwritten note - one difference being that one came from Japan, and the other came from a village about 20 miles from where I live - I thought that was kinda cute! I love the juxtaposition of the two fabrics.

My boys are on their school summer break now, so I won't get further than drooling over these (off to dental appointments, hair appointments, etc). Never mind, the sense of anticipation is almost as enjoyable : )

Kootoyoo is on her hols but I thought I'd carry on with the weekly ritual!

And now for something completely different . . .

Today was a bit of a hot, sunny day for making a draught excluder!! But strike while the iron's hot and I had a notion to make one, so here it is. I found a way to use some of my fabric buttons which I've been making recently as a bit of a decorative feature. The raw materials (toy stuffing and tweed) are so expensive that I wanted to keep it to a simple design.

Trying to photograph it proved as much of a challenge as making it - I have them in mind for being used in some swanky Scottish ancestral home with large expanses of wooden flooring, beautiful panelled doors etc. My, ahem, slightly less, swanky little Hebridean home, with barely enough room to swing a cat, never mind two children, proved a challenge for photographing it! So, I resorted to the great outdoors - which we have in bucketfuls!

This tweed is super-duper gorgeous and I've been resisting cutting into it (my stockpiles are slowly diminishing, now that the local mill in Stornoway has ceased to operate), but I thought it would be just the job and I'm really pleased with how it looks. I had a lovely conversation today with a local Harris Tweed weaver who is selling his own tweed independently which is very exciting, so there's hope for the old industry yet! I was told about him at the craft fair, so there you go!

I'm off to find a more swanky house to photograph my 'draught excluder' - know any nice castles I can rumble??

I will be making these available on my own website www.tweeddelights.co.uk, as and when I make them (perhaps when the weather gets a bit cooler!)

Cheerio an Drasda!

Craft Fair Update

Sorry - very blurry pic!!

Well, I made it to the craft fair (and back obviously!) The craft-fair venue is an indoors one (Town Hall) and it turned out to be gloriously sunny outside - not that I could see (no windows inside!) Quite a number of visitors turned out in short bursts and seemed to enjoy browsing round the stalls. There was a lot of browsing, however, and not so much purchasing!!

I really pushed the boat out to be well organised for this craft fair as it's the first one I've done since April 2008, just over a year ago and I was a little rusty to say the least about setting up, etc. It felt pretty much like going back to the beginning, hence the military-like precision of the whole operation! I did a wee practice at home with arranging my stall, and I was glad I did, as it paid off when I got there and I had a fair idea of how I was going to lay everything out.

Ooops - one of my price cards has fallen over!

As I've said the visitors were there and if children had bank accounts I'd probably have done quite well! There were a number of kids who came by, and on expressing delight, were quickly whipped off by anxious parents who were wary of being coaxed into a sale! I'm a parent and I know what it's like myself.

View of the Town Hall from my stall (that's my little nephew in the foreground who kindly came to visit, with his Mom, Dad and sis - thank you folks!)

Was it worth all the effort I put into it? From a sales point of view - not really. For gleaning some knowledge of what's been happening locally craft-wise - Yes, and also for getting some useful contact numbers for other craft fair organisers. And for a little networking with other craftsfolk - yes. Well, that's a result if nothing else! Next time, I would probably have a lot more of smaller items to sell, I think that's the key to sales at craft fairs, but just for now I'm going to go and put my feet up!

Cheerio an Drasda!

P.S. Teenage son lasted all of one hour with me - hence the empty chair beside me in the top pic. So much for my helper!

P.P.S. Green tweedie moon-monster accompanied me in his fragile state, and is now free of his dangly threads! (I took my sewing needle with me). Still looks a little blank though!

Six Unimportant Things I Love

I was tagged with this fun me-me by Jenifir whose blog I've enjoyed reading over the past few months (via My Creative Space). She is a very thrifty lady, with a busy family life - how she finds time to create and blog fills me with awe!! I'm keeping this short and sweet as I've just recently done another 'me-me' and this might be a bit of over-kill but wanted to participate as I was delighted to be chosen by this industrious crafty lady!

I must choose six unimportant things I love (my interpretation of this is 6 things which I love but are of no great consequence in the greater scheme of things!) and link back to my fellow blogger. Here are my 6 things I love, of no great importance to anyone but me!

1. The sound of the cuckoo at the end of our road - it was as clear as a bell this year, I feel quite priveleged to hear it as I understand they are now becoming more rare.

2. The smell of Harris Tweed - the woolly, warm, earthy smell - I also like it when you find twiggy bits in it, makes it feel even more 'organic', as if it's not 'organic' enough!!

3. Watching my youngest cycling off to school on a sunny day - he looks so carefree. The road is very quiet with very little traffic and the school is so close, I can practically see him arriving there!

4. The smell of fresh strawberries off my fingers after chopping them up (the strawberries, that is, not my fingers!!) - don't know why, it's just a yummy, natural smell!

5. Eating freshly made crepes with my boys, pouring on loads of maple syrup and lemon and sugar and . . . (I think there's a growing slant towards food here!)

6. Having fresh flowers on my kitchen table - I'm such a messy tike, it also has the added incentive for me to tidy up my kitchen to enjoy them!!

I'm following my other fellow-blogger's lead, the very talented Muddlepud, who left her 'me-me' open to all which I think is a great idea, and a good way of linking up blogs too! If you want to join in this 'me-me' you could leave a comment so we can find you - there, everyone's happy! (she said, smugly!!) Job done!

A mosaic of some of the things I love - didn't have pics of all the things and there's 9 here, but it's more of a general overview of some things I love from my Flickr photostream! (I know, there's 3 pictures of food - that's a third of my choices, Yikes!)

my creative space . . .

I'm sorry Doctor, I can't feel a pulse - I think we're losing him! He's fading away fast . . .

This poorly Tweedie Moon Monster was destined for this Saturday's Craft Fair, but his chances of survival are looking slim. Some dangly threads, a blank expression - all lead me to the diagnosis that he just ain't ready.

Tune in next week to see if he pulled through : )

For more creative lunacy, check out Kootoyoo's place.

Buttons Galore!

This is probably the last post in my series of 'the frantic stock-building' mission! I didn't actually expect to get these done at the weekend, so they're an extra little bonus for me. I had some fabric-covered (Harris Tweed, of course) buttons already made up but not packaged, so I managed to make up a few more in checks/plaids, which - I think look really effective.

I'm trying to make sure that I'm using all my craft supplies too eg. button shanks, which I bought a while back, with the notion of conquering the world with Harris Tweed fabric-covered buttons - alas! I've packaged them all up now using recycled cardboard and some little doodles for that extra touch - very rustic, but I think they would make quite nice gifts presented like this.

All that's left now is to speak to 'hubby' nicely (who has been working 12 hour shifts for the last two weeks!) to get up early on Saturday morning, his first day off work, and drive me to the craft fair - Ouch!! (he has been pre-warned though!)

I'll be spending the rest of the week, mostly finishing off stuff, adding labels, pricing, etc - better phone the craft fair lady and confirm my booking, before I go any further!

Cheerio an Drasda!