Black and white

I finally gave in to my urge to make some black and white gift bags. I splurged at the fabric shop (thank you very much to the lovely people at Top Stitch Fabrics in Wisbech*) and spent a lovely afternoon playing with all the lovely black and white prints. I also got a really cute little stamp to make the smart gift tags.

* What a small world it is - the owner of the shop is married to a man who is in the same class as my mum in primary school (60 miles away from where he lives now).

New fabric

It may be sad, but the arrival of new fabric always has me in raptures! Today I received a package (bought only yesterday!) from The Happy Crafter (http://thehappycrafter.etsy.com/) containing some absolutely gorgeous pieces of fabric and I was so excited that I have already made this neat little business card holder. I am watching her shop in anticipation of her next listing.

I also made this little wedding bag today and, because of the focus on quality of photos that being part of the Day2Day challenge has given me, I worked really hard on the listing pictures and I am just a teeny bit proud of this one. Thank you Abi (http://abibansaldesign.etsy.com/) for giving us Day2Day.

A busy day

I spent most of Saturday making party bags (gorgeous girly ones in pretty florals). I made some of my mini gift bags too and then I packed some orders ready for Monday's post. I think that's one of my favourite bits - I like wrapping in tissue paper, adding thank you notes and little doodads. Even if what you buy isn't for you, it's still nice to get prettily presented parcels in the post.


Bee won my gift bag giveaway (see comments under the giveaway post) and I packed her prize up ready to post too. Hope she likes it!

It's Monday morning

So good morning, here we are in another week. What are you up to this week? I'm home today with the smalls. The Girl Wonder would usually be at school, but she has a tummy ache and a bit of a rash (probably heat). She had a temperature yesterday so we decided she should stay home today. I have to be Mrs Mummy and play home school because she absolutely loves going to school and is not impressed with a day off! Herbert Buggles is a bit quiet too and, unusually for him, has only eaten half a breakfast instead of his usual three. We had a busy weekend with the carnival, so I think a quiet day at home will do us all good.

Changing the subject entirely, I can't decide if Christmas in July on Etsy is worth the work or not. I managed to get these teenytiny bags made and listed. I'll have to see what else I can do - at least I'll be more prepared for Christmas itself!

Have a good week! oldbag x

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

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.