Belt Up!

Along with my button addiction I am quickly developing a liking for belt buckles - particularly vintage ones. There are some good supply shops on Etsy - such as the englishbuttonco - that can feed my habit on a regular basis ( strange things happen to me if I don't get my button fix...)

My last buckle purchase was a selection of blue, red and cream buckles,just waiting for the right fabric or wool to marry to. On a recent trip to Hay-on-Wye I came across a lovely wool shop where I found a pure, unbleached, thick chocolate brown wool and the Belt Idea was born.






The Vintage Buckle Wool Belt is currently for sale in my Etsy shop.

How We Love Howies

So my little Contemplating Cowboy Purse is currently sitting in the Howies store in Carnaby Street, London, as one of the 9 short-listed items in the Folksy competition. As I haven't been able to get there myself I have been begging all and sundry to send me photos, and here are a few of the store and the competition display:


the shop - you can just see the Folksy display through the door



the Folksy display with the entries - my purse is there at the back. Love this display!

You can see how the Folksy sign was created on the Folksy blog.

The competition ends this week, voting has been going on in the store since Friday - good luck to all!

The Howies Competition

Folksy, (the fabulous new UK online site for all things handmade where you can also purchase my crafty goods!) recently teamed up with Howies - the gorgeous clothing brand - to launch a competition for designers and crafters. The brief was "Life is complicated. Sport is simple" so many of us busied away sketching/sewing/crafting to create our representation of the theme.

I was inspired by my fabric cupboard and came up with this little purse:



Contemplating Cowboy Pouch -
Hand crafted from a retro style cowboy print fabric, one side features a cowboy perched on a fence deep in thought, with hand embroidered words "Just Ride" floating down from the clouds. The reverse of the purse shows a cowboy riding his horse.

This pouch is a unique way of stashing your phone, keys, anything to tidy away the baggage of life and remind yourself to look at the clouds and Just Ride.




9 items were short-listed and you can guess the excitement and whoops of joy when my cowboy purse was chosen as one of the 9. For the next week, until the 26th September,the short-listed entries will be on display in the Howies Carnaby Street store in London, where the general public can vote for their favourites.

You can see all the entries on the Folksy blog, but if you're near London within the next few days why pop down to support the handmade entries!

When Rain Helps To Craft

Oh what to do when you're out and about, its raining again, and you need to occupy small children. Well, just head for the nearest "craft for children" activity place, find a seat and relax for an hour or so while your little ones immerse themselves in paint.

We went to a lovely place called "Pot-a-doodle-do" while in Northumberland - you select a plain, pre-moulded pottery figure, grab your paints and brushes and settle down to decorate it as you wish.



Daughter selected a fairy, son a rocket (no conforming to stereotypes there then) and I just couldn't resist giving a helping hand.......



(note the furrowed brow of concentration on my face! Tricky business painting fairy wings!)

On the same site there were also a group of tipis and yurts that you could book in to stay, they looked irresistible, definitely something to add to my ever growing "to do" list.

A Little Bit Of Sunshine Goes A Long Way

Typical conversation overheard between any two people in the UK:

"Terrible summer we're having"
"All this rain..."
"One week of sunshine and that was it.."
"Not as bad as last year though"
"True. But nearly as bad"

Oh yes we remain obsessed with the weather, the lack of a consistent spell of glorious sunshine that we all remember used to occur throughout all our school days (honest, 6 weeks of complete sunshine! It's true really!)

And when I discovered a little yellow wooden heart in my box of bits I was inspired to create my own ray of sunshine:




A little summer brooch - carry your own sunshine yellow with you!

I've put it in my Etsy shop today. Create your own weather!

Off The Cuff

"Cuff" according to Dictionary.com:
1.a separate or detachable band or piece of fabric worn about the wrist, inside or outside of the sleeve.
2.to put handcuffs on.
3.Anatomy. a bandlike muscle or group of muscles encircling a body part.
4.off the cuff - extemporaneously; on the spur of the moment.




And so to my own definition of the cuff:
1. wrist cuff - band of wool, hand crocheted by me, in a variety of shades of wool, buttons added too, a unique piece of jewellery.

And these are some of my latest designs:







I've put some wrist cuffs in both my Folksy and Etsy shop and will also be making some new designs for some craft fairs later in the year - perfect little Christmas gifts! (It's never too early to be thinking about Christmas!)

Garage Gems

While on an outing to a Honey Farm recently we discovered that tucked in the grounds was a garage/barn full of wonderful vintage treasures. Treasures that were gleamed from every aspect of past lives - scooters, light bulbs, records, posters.....



.....cars, gas masks, cigarette lighters.....



....big shoes, little shoes, petrol cans, music sheets...



...flags, coins, car tyres, coats, piano....

So much stuff to drool over, some things I'd never seen, some things I never thought I'd see again, some things to bring back memories (oh little vespa scooter how I loved you...), some things to stop the children causing untold damage to themselves (yes, people really did mince meat in one of those.)

We never did meet the "collector" of those wonderful items but whoever you are thank you for letting us take a look at your incredible collection.