Diary of a Lazy Crafter

I've Managed It Again...

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

... somehow almost six months have past me by and my last blog post seems to have been July! First off let me wish you all Happy New Year and I hope you enjoyed yourselves over the festive season as much as I did!

If you are interested here is a quick summary of the more exciting things I got up to in the last half of 2011 (other than reading, I did an awful lot of that!).

In August I managed to nab myself a table at the Boutique Market in Portsmouth's Guildhall. It was a good experience and I got to meet other crafters from the local community, which was really nice. I was there for about 4 hours and my stuff seemed to get quite a lot of interest which was really encouraging and by the end I'd made £40 (which was even more encouraging!). The day itself was a bit of a logistical nightmare as I was supposed to be working! Luckily 'the management' were kind enough to let me skip work (as I was ode some lieu time anyway) for a few hours. So I ended up starting work at 9am leaving the shop at 10 o'clock to attend the market, only to return again at 3pm and carry on working til 5.30!

My very first table at my very first craft fair!

My table presentation will need some work though!!

In September my boyfriend's parents very kindly took us on a little holiday to Bruges. It's a really lovely city and I had such a relaxing time! I pretty much spent most of my time following everyone else and enjoying the beautiful architecture, it was so nice not to be in charge of the holiday and just go with the flow. The people were so friendly, the food (especially the hot chocolate) was delicious and the best thing of all, people thought I was under 26 years old - we were told you can get discounted tickets for galleries and museums when you are under this age, unfortunately I'm about five years too late to receive that, but it's still nice to be asked!!

Unsrprisingly I've hardly done any crafting (apart from a couple of custom orders) in the last few months! October, November and December were pretty uneventful and merged into one long month as the bookshop got into Christmas mode. Although I can tell you that I managed to sell about 90% of the stock I had on display in Waterstones and I completely sold out of my russian doll totes about a week before the big day! I even had people asking when they would be in stock again (that did made me feel quite proud!)

Oh, one thing I can show you is something I made for my friend to give to her fiance (the guy I made the felty batman for). As they loved the other one so much she commissioned me to another superhero. He's not a character I'd ever heard of so I had to do some research, and I found he was a bit tricky to make but I got there in the end!

His name is Etrigan The Demon, who looks a bit like this....

...and here is my interpretation in the medium of felt!

Apparently when my friend saw his gift he was speechless (which is quite a thing to achieve) and I received a lovely text message something along the lines of BEST. SOFT. TOY. EVER! So all the time and effort was all worth it.

Anyway I think that's enough for now, I'll try and blog again soon I'm aiming for one a week but whether or not that will happen is another thing.

Happy crafting everyone!! :)

Another Quick One...

2011-07-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

...to show you guys the new batch of bunting added to my Etsy shop. There's...

Carole's Cosmic Bunting

Kat's Autumn Bunting

Tilly's Pretty Bunting

As you can probably tell I've gone a bit bunting crazy so there will be more to come in the following weeks.

Happy Crafting. :)

Trying Something New...

2011-07-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick sneaky peak at one of the new creations I've been working on whilst on my little break from work.

I've got a lot more sewing planned for the next couple of days so hopefully I'll be adding more pictures here and new items to my shop very soon.

Following by Example...

2011-06-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

After my complete craft space blitz today and following feltmeupdesigns' example I decided to post a few pictures of my new and improved work area. I went through every single box/ drawer of my crafty things and rearranged them so I (hopefully) can find them again!!! I dusted every single surface and I even hoovered!!!!

I am terribly messy and unorganised so I'm (again) hoping that this will motivate me and that having a properly defined and designated work area will help me to be more professional and treat my crafting as a business rather than a hobby.

I decided to put up the Cloudberry Skies bunting I made to take to craft fairs but it's far too long but I think it looks perfect hung over my bookcase (BTW this only contains a small selection of my many many books). Also I would like to point out my TinTin poster, I love it as it reminds me of my Ottakars bookshop days.

As you can see I have organised all my fabrics by colour, I've even integrated all the guilt ridden items I mentioned in my last post so hopefully that will be the end of that and I can move on.

One last thing, feltmeupdesigns also had an inspirational image in her studio tour, this is mine!! Not all that inspiring but every time I read it it makes me feel a little better, this card basically sums up my attitude to life!!!

All in all I've had a productive day and just maybe this will mean a step in the right direction for cloudberryskies.

Happy crafting. xx

I'm Not Sure How I Should Feel...

2011-06-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

About two years ago a friend gave me a huge bag of fabric as she was moving away to Liverpool and couldn't take it with her. I had a lot of things going on at the time so didn't go through the stash properly till I was about to move house last year and at the bottom of the bag was something I really wasn't expecting... it was the partially made nursery wall hanging that my friend had been making while she was pregnant! It was mostly due to this project that the two of us really got talking at work (and we soon became good friends) she would ask me for the odd sewing tip and I gave her leftover fabric to use but unfortunately a couple of months later she had a miscarriage. I'm assuming (understandably) that the project was tidied away and forgotten...until the day I found it! Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am not the most emotional of women but when I found this item I have to admit I cried (a lot) and to this day I still haven't used any of the fabric that was in that bag.

A few months back I inherited another lot of fabric from another friend from work when sadly her aunt passed away. She knew that I liked sewing so I was an ideal candidate to take some off her hands, when I went through the bag I couldn't help but notice that some of the fabric had labels pinned to them and I had that horrible feeling once again. It's just so sad, this woman had so many plans for this fabric and now she never would get a chance to use them. I've had this fabric for a while and again I have not used a single thing.

I've been thinking about this for a while and I guess my main problem is that I'm not sure how I should feel about this fabric (sounds strange, I know) and the sad circumstances in which it came to be in my possession. Perhaps I even feel a little unworthy (does that make sense?) because I'm not the greatest crafter and I'm really still learning the ropes. My biggest worry is that I'll ruin the fabric by making something rubbish that'll end up being thrown away! So I've been telling myself that I'm just saving it for the right project and when that idea presents itself I will make something wonderful in tribute but I don't know if that will ever happen. I guess it just goes to show that you never can tell what's going to happen in the future and we should all try make the most of each day. (That goes double for me!!!)

Sorry that this post was a little miserable but it's just been weighing on my mind and just had to get it off my chest.

Happy Crafting. xx

To Boldly Sew...

2011-05-10T02:28:00.000-07:00

Do you remember I made that felty batman a few years back? Well the friend I made it for is getting married in July next year to his lovely (and equally geeky) girlfriend and I want to make them a particularly awesome and unique wedding present. I've bandied around a few ideas but kept coming back to the same one! I'm not going to tell exactly what I'm making yet (I don't think they read my blog but I need to check as I don't want to ruin the surprise) but below is a small clue. So with most other potential projects on hold I've got just over a year to achieve my goal, so fingers crossed I've got enough time (you know what I'm like) and I'll let you know how I get on as I'm going along.

In other news you can now get free shipping on all items in my Etsy shop until the end of May. All you have to do in type in the code BLOGGER into the special box at the checkout. So please feel free to have a good look around see if anything takes your fancy.

Happy Crafting. :)

More Lovely Matryoshkas....

2011-05-09T10:41:00.001-07:00

and you can find them in my Etsy shop.

Little Bit Pugly.

2011-05-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

This is a brooch I made for my friend's birthday. It's meant to be a pug! But I'm not sure if it really looks like one or not? Still the friend I gave it too was very pleased and I guess that's the main thing!*

*Addition if you would like to said brooch on the birthday girl in question there is a picture on my facebook page.

And I Almost Forgot...

2011-04-09T05:41:00.000-07:00

... here are a few photos (that I promised to post months ago) of the brooches I have been making, and I will be listing them in my shops very soon. Fingers crossed they will be really popular as I am quite proud of them!!

Thank Goodness For Weekends Off!!!!

2011-04-09T05:01:00.000-07:00

It's been a strange old week for me (but mostly in a bad way). It all started when the shop I work in had a big theft (about £700 of very specialised military history books) on Monday afternoon in which two of my bags were also stolen (these were used to help the thief on his way out of the shop with his swag!). This annoyed me a lot (but I comforted myself with the fact that he stole the 2 cheapest ones and not ones that I had spent a lot of my time on) however the worst thing was, that later (after CCTV footage was watched) I was told that my colleague and I had been near the thief when he struck and we didn't notice a thing! (Clearly I'll need to be more observant in the future! My manager reiterated this when I was called into the office for a 'chat' the following day!) Anyway the thief made another (and rather drunken) appearance on Wednesday but this time the shop was ready for him and my (fellow in the dog house) colleague spotted him and had him thrown out before he could do any real damage (we think he may have stolen a birthday card, how sad is that!)

Anyway Thursday passed without incident and Friday started well, with a young girl coming into the store specifically to buy one of my bags for a present (I was so chuffed). But my happiness was short lived as later that day an email came through about another branch being scammed by a nice man in a suit. After reading this strangely familiar sounding story I realised that I too had served (and was completely conned) by said scammer earlier in the day!!! I never make mistakes like that normally *repeatedly hits palm on forehead* and I always follow the rules but he really caught me off guard as he seemed so genuine and I just really wanted to help him get the book he was after. I feel like such a complete fool and I'm just glad that I have the weekend off to forget all about it (I never want another week like this one!) and from now on I'm going to have to be more vigilant and on my guard because you never can tell what people are really up to, however nice they seem.

Five Sales and a Theft.

2011-02-26T02:30:00.000-08:00

I'll try and make this just a quick post today (as I know I have the tendency to waffle on) and tell you about what I've been up to. I recently had a two week break from my day job in which I spent lots of time creating new things (there was also quite a lot of eating and sleeping as well, it was bliss!!) like a new line of sweet Matryoshka and Little Bird brooches (pictures to follow) as well as a couple of bags.

This creative time off made me realise all over again that this is what I want to do as my full time job! At the moment it can only be a far off dream but I'm determined that one day I will achieve this, I just need to work harder at it (and I know it'll be hard work)!!!

Anyway my craft stuff has now been on sale in Waterstone's for five weeks and as the title of this post suggests I have had 5 sales (not too bad) and 1 theft (v. bad). So far I have sold 1 Matryoshka tote, 1 Heartfelt Decoration, 1 Matryoshka and 2 Skully brooches. Also one of my Cloudy bags was stolen! I'm trying to take the latter as a compliment but I've got a horrible feeling it was just used as a receptacle to steal books from the shop!! But then who knows what goes on it the minds of shoplifters, they may also love to 'shop' for local products!?!

Guess this wasn't such a quick post after all!

Happy Crafting.

So Much To Say, So Little Time.

2011-01-17T14:44:00.001-08:00

Where to start? Well anyone who has been following me on Twitter or Facebook will already know my good news!!! In my real life (when I'm not wasting time on the internet) I work in a branch of the bookshop chain Waterstone's (I look after the craft books, naturally!) and about a week and a half a go I was asked by my manager if I would like to sell my craft stuff in our shop. I jumped at the chance obviously and had a few of my crafty items on display within days (as you can see)!!!

So far I only have on display 13 felt decorations and 4 totes as I'm still undecided as to what sort of items I should sell. For the moment I think it'll mostly be on a trial and error basis, but I will be adding more items over the next few days. Things like brooches, bunting and hopefully if they're finished a new range of book bags, I bought a few sweet little cotton bags which are just big enough to fit a paperback in. They come in such lovely bright colours I had to get one of each, I just need to decorate them now. So I guess we'll just have to see what sells and take it from there.

Also with this new opportunity (and renewed enthusiasm) I decided to try some new designs one that I think has worked particularly well are my Russian Doll totes! I have been thinking about making something like this for a while now as I just adore anything Matryoshka (and Kokeshi) but I guess I've just been too lazy. I made 2 a couple of days ago I think they came out really well and I've cut out the pieces for 10 more in various different fabrics - I may have gone a little Babushka mad but I think they have worked really well and will (potentially) sell.

I have been so nervous about having my craft on display in the shop but all my friends and colleagues have been really encouraging and supportive. Their confidence in me has been rewarded as I sold my first item today (the tote below) which is great as they have only been on sale for 3 days, so even if I don't sell anything else I'm still really pleased (although I hope I do sell more!!!).

Right I guess I should really be heading off to bed now as I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow (mostly sewing Russian dolls).

Happy crafting everyone. xx

Oh and I almost forgot...

2011-01-06T17:00:00.001-08:00

one of my brooches is in this lovely (purpley) gothic treasury by VioletPaw.

New Year, New Me (I hope!)

2011-01-06T15:25:00.000-08:00

HAPPY 2011 EVERYONE!!!!! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year, I unfortunately had a bad cold and seemed to be surrounded by ill people over the festive season!!! I had really been looking forward to Christmas but it turned out to be a bit of a non event for me, however I can't complain as there are many people out there much less fortunate than I am!! Where has this 'counting your blessings' attitude come from I hear you ask? Well, I haven't made any resolutions this year (I never keep them) but I have set myself a few personal challenges for 2011, one of those being that I would think more positively!! (Another was that I would try not to worry so much although that might be a hard thing stop doing as I maybe just a natural worrier!!!!) Anyway 6 days into the new year and things are pretty much on track, just need to get more motivated in the craft department and I'm sorted!!!

Anyway about my crafting, well there's not much sewing going on at the moment but in November and December I went a little cloud crazy, adorning totes and brooches with fluffy cloudy loveliness! Here are a few examples, I apologise for the quality of the photos, they were a few quick snaps I took with my camera phone (but you get the general idea).

As in previous years, in the run up to the festive period I took my finished craft creations into work for my friends and colleagues to take peruse and (hopefully) buy a little something. This time round was particularly good for sales!!! I sold 4 totes bags, a skully brooch, 2 xmas puddings and a gingerbread man!! That made me a grand total of £52.50 not bad eh? Especially when you take into consideration that I sold all those items to only 4 people!!!!

I'll hopefully be listing my new cloudy collection on etsy soon, I'm just waiting for a nice day so I can take some better photos!!! The weather down here in Portsmouth has been pretty drab for a while now so the lighting never seems right for photography. (It's hard to put a positive spin on that one!)

I've got so many things I'd like to make but I think I'm going to wait until I've got some sparetime to experiment, I've got two week holiday coming up in February, so that may be the perfect time!!!

Happy crafting everyone!!!

Excuses, Excuses.

2010-11-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

Has a woman ever lived up to her blog title more than I do? I think not! When I named it ‘Diary of a Lazy Crafter’ I wasn’t actually too bad, in hindsight I would probably mark myself a C (maybe a C-) I was trying to create one or two things every week (not always successfully mind you) but at least I was making an effort! Now I would mark myself a big fat F (with a must try harder comment written in red pen next to it!)

What have I achieved in the past 4 months (other than reading so many books that I’ve lost count. I think it might be around the 90 mark!)? Three lots of bunting – that’s it!! That is all I’ve made since I moved house in July! As I write this I realise that this is only my 7^th post of the year (and one of those was about my holiday to Paris!) compare that to the 39 I posted last year and it illustrates my point perfectly!

Where has it all gone wrong for me? I’m not sure. The craft section in the bookshop where I work is probably the tidiest and most cared for section in the whole store. I get extremely excited when new stock arrives and can often be found flicking through the books getting ideas (and pretending to work!). I think there lies my problem (and I’ve definitely said this before!) I’m always full of ideas and grand plans for my shop but I never really do anything about them!! I have a million and one of them going round my head at work and I say to myself I’ll make a start on them as soon as I get home but what happens when I get in? I plant myself on the sofa and that’s me going nowhere for the rest of the evening!

But I’ve decided that things are definitely going to change starting this week!! My new determination has come from speaking to Alix of BigBlueBed who was in the shop the other day. We talked about my lack of motivation and the fact that neither of us really know many other people in the ‘real world’ who like crafting, so it’s often hard to find other crafty minded people to get excited about things like buttons and fabric. That may be the biggest part of my problem, I’m not very good at motivating myself and I need other people around me to spur me on. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t find crafting a chore (although I do make it sound like one sometimes!). I love making things, it’s just that whenever I make something I always have doubts about it, I look at it and go ‘That’s not as good as I hoped it would be!” or “Why can my stuff look as professional as everyone else’s!”. But I guess I’ve always been like that I just need a little more self belief and a lot of motivation because if I’m left to my own devices I’d never do anything but read and watch TV!!

Anyway enough of my moping! Today I had a day off work and I promised myself it would be a day completely devoted to craft and I stuck with it!! I decided to start with my to be finished box and it was really satisfying to complete a few of the items that had been sitting in there for months, crying out to be made! I also started some new projects too, I’ll post some pictures on here as soon as I’ve finished them.

Here is a photo of one of my (long overdue) finished projects - recycled pin cushions made from an old pair of cord trousers and a camo shirt. I was planning to sell them separately but they looked so cute piled up on top each other that I decided they had to be a sold together.

Well that's all for now, fingers crossed that I'll be back soon with (hopefully) lots of news and plenty of photos of all the lovely projects I have planned.

Night y'all and happy crafting.

Back to Basics. Back to Bunting.

2010-08-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post today. I've added two lots of new bunting to my Etsy shop!! I've also tried to be a bit more creative with my photos, I commandeered my boyfriend's house as it has a lovely light living room.

I think the photos look a lot better than my previous attempts but they are still not quite there yet.

Oh dear where has the year gone!?!

2010-08-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well it's nearly the end of August already (where has the year gone?) and what have I achieved since my last post? Well, I moved house at the beginning of July and that kept me busy (I never knew I had so much stuff!) and rather stressed for a while (thanks to a certain phone company!). But once I'd unpacked my books and craft things into my little craft room/library/dining room, I began to feel a bit more at home. The only thing that was missing was internet access and we finally managed to sort that out on Saturday! Yay!!!

Anyway my boyfriend and I had a little trip to Paris at the end of July in celebration of his 30th birthday and I had my first journey on the Eurostar, which I rather enjoyed!

Neither of us had been to France's captial before so we did all the main touristy things and had a really great (but tiring) time. Mostly I was pleased to find out, as we only see each other once a week that we can spend 5 days together in an another country and not want to kill each other! Also we were lucky with the weather as it was mostly dry and into the high 20's - typically I managed to get quite sunburned even thought I was wearing factor 30!! If it had been raining that would have resulted in a rather cold, wet and tired Denise which would have made me an absolute nightmare to be on holiday with!

I was really surprised how much I liked Paris as I've heard lots of mixed reviews from other people who have been there - things like the people are rude, it's really dirty etc - but I didn't experience any of those things! Everyone we met were very polite and helpful and I thought it was no dirtier than any other city I've been to! I'd really like to go back one day as there were so many things I didn't get get round to doing.

And has Cloudberryskies done anything crafty, I hear you ask? The answer to that is... NO. But I have read 57 books so far this year, does count for anything!?! Oh dear, I am such a lazy crafter!!

Doesn't Time Fly When You're Trying To Find Somewhere Else To Live...

2010-06-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't posted anything on here in about 6 months! How shameful! I guess I really do live up to my 'lazy crafter' name. I have no real excuse as to why I've not been on here! I suppose I haven't really made anything blogworthy and when I really think about it apart from a few custom orders and a couple of presents for friends, I haven't really made much at all this year!! I'm going to blame my craft apathy on a couple of things that happened back at the beginning of year. I told my self that 2010 was going to be a year of change and it was, but just not in the way I had planned!! In summary, I managed to get my full time hours back at work (good) but unfortunately in the same month my landlord told me (completely out of the blue) that he needed me to move out of my lovely (and very inexpensive) flat after nearly 5 years (v. bad).

I think it was the combination of these two events that threw my me into my craftless slump, essentially I have been going to work during the day and house hunting in my evenings and on my days off. I decided a couple of months back to close my Etsy and Folksy shops and pack up my craft things so I could focus my mind on house hunting so rather that spending my free hours on Etsy, blogging, tweeting etc, I was trawling the properties on Rightmove, silently praying that I could find somewhere nice that wasn't asking for too much rent!

Finally after months of searching (and viewing some absolutely hideous places) I have found somewhere and it is lovely! Slightly more expensive than I had hoped but as I say it is rather lovely so I'm sure it will be worth it. It is a fully furnished 2 bed terraced house (I currently live in 2 bed flat) and I knew it was the one for me as soon as I walked through the door! People look at me strangely when I say that, "I'll know it when I see it" but I've always felt like that when looking for somewhere new to live, I get a feeling for somewhere as soon as I set foot in it and I just know if I would like to live there or not!

Now that I've found somewhere new and lovely to live, I'm hoping to turn things around! I move in at the beginning of July so it's not long now until I get back to crafting and get hopefully get Cloudberryskies back up and running again. I know I'm always saying this but I am definitely going to have to take this craft business more seriously, so in the mean time while my shop is closed I've got a lot of thinking to do. The first thing I need to do is to re-evaluate the kind of things I make, so rather than making whatever I feel like and listing it, maybe I should think about what Cloudberryskies is all about (does that sound quite as lame as I think it does?). The main thing I need is a stronger identity and I'm thinking starting with a new banner and avatar and then going from there. I have another Etsy shop called BizarreDodo which I started ages ago but never got round to listing anything on it so I have been toying with the idea of linking the two shops with the themes of darkness and light - with Cloudberryskies selling the lighter, cutesy stuff and BizarreDodo selling the darker, skully side of my craft personality. What do you guys think? Sound weird?

I think that's enough for now, I'll try not to leave it so long next time.

What Have I Been Up To?

2009-12-01T02:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I blogged. What have I been up to? What have I achieved? The answer? Not as much as I should have!!!

I haven't been completely lazy this past month, I have made a few bits and pieces (which i will be listing soon) and had a couple of custom orders but overall I haven't been feeling particularly inspired lately (it didn't help that I have been completely distracted reading an awesome series of books).

Here is a few photos of one of my custom orders. I was contacted by a lady in Louisiana who's cousin was having a baby and wanted to decorate the new nursery with a cutesy skull theme. Seems a little unusual I know but I thought it sounded like a fab and unique idea for a baby boy's nursery.

I was asked for two large squishy skull decorations in light blue and black. It was slightly intimidating as I've never made a skull this big before so wasn't sure how they would look but I think they turned out alright in the end.

The other thing my customer wanted was one of my long skully ornaments but in light blue, black and white felt. I had to play around with the colour combinations (usually my skullies are brightly coloured with black eyes and nose) because one of the skulls was going to be black. This was the end result and I'm pretty pleased.

Also this month I also sold four skully and two heartfelt brooches, two totes and two cushion covers. So it was a pretty good month here at CloudberrySkies.

Alternative Christmas.

2009-10-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

I have been toying with some ideas for alternative Christmas decorations and came up with this skully wreath. I'm not sure how successful it is so I would appreciate any feedback you guys can give. So let me know what you think!

Fat or flat?

2009-09-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

Made a start on my Christmas decorations. These are my first attempt at gingerbread men but I'm not sure which looks better? The one on the left with stuffing or the one on the right without? Feel free to let me know what you think!

New Red Button Heart Tote

2009-09-07T02:41:00.000-07:00

Wow!!!

2009-09-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

A Cloudberryskies record!!! I thought the last tote I sold (after three days) was a quick sale but I sold this Green Button Star Tote in less than three hours!! It has made me a happy girl indeed!!

Oh and.....

2009-08-31T01:52:00.001-07:00

... I made another one of these. This time with lovely blue buttons.

Harry the Heron.

2009-08-31T01:36:00.000-07:00

This is Harry, he is a felty heron and a present I made for a friend at work's leaving present. He is hand sewn and it took me 6 and a half hours to make. Why did I decide to make my friend a heron? Well that is a long and rather unfortunate story!