The smell of fresh baked bread

is filling my house! Before Etsy, I used to bake bread when we needed it but these days I don't get the time. So Sunday is baking day - today I made 6 loaves of bread (3 wholemeal, 1 rye, 1 buckwheat and 1 white) and added a cake since the oven was on anyway. The kitchen smells delicious and this evening I can stuff the freezer with bread for the week.

I read somewhere that baking bread is an exact science, that everything needs to be weighed and measured and temperature controlled and blahblahblah. I am an inexact cook. I hardly ever follow recipes and cook by instinct and I rebel against such strict instructions! I measure with American cups, much quicker and more relaxed, and even then it's very roughly gauged. And I get great results. I use my old Kenwood Chef with a dough hook (it's older than me, being a wedding present to my parents), whatever tin I have to hand and all kinds of flours and I thoroughly enjoy myself. And the children love watching the yeast bubble up. And it tastes soooooo good!

Weekend garden feature!

How proud we are of our little bit of veggie garden! We're still getting the garden itself round but we started a few things in pots and grow bags. The Girl Wonder is very proud of her beans and the courgettes are growing fast.

Saturday sales

I woke up to two sales this morning, a very good way to start Saturday! What I'm really pleased about is selling party bags, or favor bags I should say, as they're off to Virginia, on Etsy. I would love to sell on Etsy and feel like I'm getting there now. Happy Saturday! Time for me to tickle the children :D

Friday, hooray!

Friday is here at last and I have two aims today. Firstly, and most importantly, Friday is fun day, so Herbert Buggles and I are going to play in the park and then we might make some cakes. Secondly, I try to come up with new ways to promote my online shops on a Friday - think I might need a bit more caffeine for that!

I sell in two places, Etsy and eBay. So far, I've had more sales on eBay, but only my party bags do well there. Selling handmade on the flea market that is eBay is tough going. The fees are huge, too. Part of me wonders whether to put all my focus into Etsy and see where it takes me.... Ah well, lots of thinking to do today. Have a good Friday :)

I finished it!

And aren't I proud of myself? My mum does most of the knitting for LovelyGranny, but I have to get my sticky little fingers into everything crafty and couldn't just sit by and let her have all the knitting fun, so I decided to make a little bolero myself. I should state for the record that I can knit and follow patterns etc, but I am inexperienced. So I picked some cotton and linen mix yarn that looked absolutely gorgeous (should have realised when mum kept quiet in the face of my enthusiasm that something was up). It's been an absolute s*d to knit! It's textured and, for me at least, very difficult to work with. But I've done it! I covered the buttons myself, too and only broke one needle (yes really!) sewing it together. Very pleased with myself, but must confess that my current knitting project is a straightforward double knit shrug in smooth acrylic for The Girl Wonder.

Look what I bought!

I got these brilliant weaving sticks from Shunklies (http://shunklies.etsy.com/) as a birthday present for my daughter's friend, but I've decided to keep them for myself instead! I picked up some rainbow coloured double knit I've got (I'm knitting a shrug for The Girl Wonder) and started weaving - it's easy and fun and it looks great. The woven bit is soft, almost padded, ideal for bag handles, although I think this might turn into a headband to match the shrug. We'll see.

Secret swap ooooooh!

I was lucky enough to be part of the Etsy UK Team secret swap and was pleased to hear today that my gift had been received and was liked. I was also chuffed to bits with my present from littleblackduck (you can find her fabulous shop on Etsy at http://littleblackduck.etsy.com/). Not only did she send me the loveliest cosmetic bag (featuring orange, one of my favourite colours!) - she included a gorgeous little girl cosmetic bag for The Girl Wonder and a fabulous suede pouch stuffed with chunky pencils for Herbert Buggles. It's like Christmas in here! TGW and HB have used all the tissue wrapping and the new pencils to make hero capes and have asked when the next swap will be.

I'm still selling!!!!!

One of the internet sites that I sell on has just 'ceased to trade'. Up until a week ago, as far as I know, they were still signing up new members (and taking their membership fees!) and now tell us we can't get any money back. Pants. The company is Tuggle. Was Tuggle. I am seeking legal advice about membership fees. What strikes me 24 hours after receiving notification from them is that their message, sent by email to all on their mailing list including sellers and buyers, does not state that individual sellers are trading, albeit elsewhere! I am waiting for a response from them about that. Thankfully, I have my own website (http://oldbagcrafts.com) that points out where I sell - oldbagcrafts can now be found on Etsy (http://oldbagcrafts.etsy.com) and eBay (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/oldbagcrafts).

I will get this blogging thing right!

Here I am, back where I started! I blogged here for a while and then I got my own website - oldbagcrafts.com - from MrSite. It seemed logical to blog there. Logical, but not aesthetically pleasing! All text, no pics, very boring. So here I am, back on Blogger.

Bear with me whilst I get my layout sorted and keep your fingers crossed that I can make all the technology do what I want it to do!

oldbag x