Snapdragon's garden

Winter wonderland

2009-11-10T08:24:21+00:00

Yesterday we woke to heavy frost.

The garden transformed into a winter wonderland.

It was amazing with frosty trees, a bit of snow on the far off hills, and mist in the glen.

And the details weren't bad either.

Today is a day of frantic sewing to get orders out the door.

Jane x

Red magazine

2009-11-06T08:30:33+00:00

This week has been very exciting as the December issue of Red magazine was published.

And there we are

The photos are absolutely beautiful; they show up the airstream, my wreaths and the embroidered pieces really well in a gorgeous golden light.

The feature is about how we shall be opening up the airstream caravan as a temporary Christmas shop on Fridays 10-30 - 3.30; 27th November; 4th, 11th, 18th december.

Bring wellies!

Dark

2009-11-03T19:48:10+00:00

With the clocks going back at the weekend we are suddenly into winter. It doesn't help that the rain does't seem to have stopped for the last week and the path from the house to the workshop is under water in several places - everyone knows that they need to bring wellies to work now.

With the glowering clouds it seems that it is dark from mid afternoon.

And yet . . . .

walking in the dark from the house to the cabin after tea or back to the house once I've packed up for the night . . . well it is one of the most beautiful times of day.

There is a road across from the house - you can see the tops of lorries driving along it - but at about 7pm the hum of the road gives way to the swoosh of the river running through the glen.

Standing in the light of the full moon, listening to the water, watching the barn owl swoop about looking for mice. swell its pretty much as good as it gets.

And sometimes I even have company.

Dark

2009-11-03T19:46:23+00:00

With the glowering clouds it seems that it is dark from mid afternoon.

And yet . . . .

walking in the dark from the house to the cabin after tea or back to the house once I've packed up for the night . . . well it is one of the most beautiful times of day.

There is a road across from the house - you can see the tops of lorries driving along it - but at about 7pm the hum of the road gives way to the swoosh of the river running through the glen.

Standing in the light of the full moon, listening to the water, watching the barn owl swoop about looking for mice. swell its pretty much as good as it gets.

And sometimes I even have company.

The post

2009-10-30T08:31:08+00:00

The main topic of conversation between small on-line businesses at the moment is what to do about the postal strike.

Recommendations about couriers - good and bad - are whizzing round the internet along with a great deal of despondency and panic.

I can completely understand the worry - my retail web sales had begun to build with organised people buying their Christmas presents - since the strikes on-line retail sales are down by 3/4.

It worries me though how quick we are to go from "lets save our local post offices" to " lets find an alternative to posties".

It isn't actually the performance of the postal service that I am worried about - it is customer confidence. Believe me - if you order your Christmas presents from a small craft business now you will get them by Christmas even if the maker has to deliver by hand. Thats just the kind of people who run small businesses - they care about the customer.

For the meantime - if it makes customers any more confident - the Snapdragon policy is that all retail orders over £40 will be sent via our lovely couriers and any small orders will be held off until a day after active strike. (Tuesday in this case). If this isn't good enough get in touch add we can add a bit of postage costs onto the order and send by courier.

But please do keep ordering from mail order businesses - I shall be highlighting some of my favourites here when I get time.

Now - back to the sewing machine - camper-van bottle openers this morning I think!

Halloween

2009-10-29T13:50:49+00:00

Its lovely when halloween falls on a Saturday.

We shall actually be able to have a lovely meal together - lighting up out temporary dining area with lanterns and candles - without having to fit around Brownies, horse riding or guitar.

I am so looking forward to it.

These pumpkin badges are now all sold out - but I did save a couple for the girls.

There is a give away on my facebook fan page - and one more day to sign up as a "fan" and get entered into the draw for a button badge of your choice.

The problem with population explosion

2009-10-27T13:56:14+00:00

As regular readers will recall . . . when we went on holiday this summer, all our chooks went broody and by mid July we were over-run with very cute babies.

Now those babies are growing up and the next month we shall have to separate off most of the cockerels to prevent extreme violence.

Some we will eat, there is no getting away from it and it is better (much better) than buying chicken from the supermarket. You really appreciate a bird you have plucked yourself.

However, in amongst the mix of cockerels we have 4 pure breed Light Sussex. they will grow up to look like this.

Stunning birds. I would much rather re-home them - so if anyone has a dowdy little flock of hens and want some glamour . . .

Free to a good home, buyer must collect. Email me on snapdragonjane@googlemail.com or leave a comment.

Keeping it short but spreading it about a bit.

2009-10-26T14:48:24+00:00

Life in the workroom is as busy as busy can be at the moment - re-orders are coming in faster than I had anticipated and we are all working flat out - sewing, pressing, cutting, snipping, packing, posting - we look a bit like one of those fast motion films. All we need is some Benny Hill music.

It means that there simply isn't much spare time for blogging - I think that for the next couple of months it is going to be a photo and a couple of sentences.

Bizarrely - despite having less time to spend on the computer - I am posing in more different places. Twitter especially suits my time constraints - giving me the chance to fire off 140 character messages while gulping coffee or printing out invoices. I have been pleasantly surprised by how many bloggers there are on twitter - many whose blogs have been discontinued due to time constraints - find me HERE. I hadn't expected to find such a warm friendly community.

I have also expanded my Facebook page so that it is now a Snapdragon page where I can put bits of information - new products, free tickets, events, etc. etc. I'm not exactly settled on how I will use it but at the moment there is a giveaway going on - become a "fan" (hate that word) and you get entered into the draw for a button badge of your choice. Come and see me HERE.

The pics today are of the Fennel design in 2 different guises - the top one a mirror - the bottom one a lavender cushion.

Something special

2009-10-24T13:33:07+01:00

As well as having my own website I sell on the Not on the High Street site - Rather than just repeat what you find on the main Snapdragon site I decided to concentrate on my personalised things there- whether it is mirrors with names on the pouches or notebooks embroidered with pictures of special people, pets and cars.

Last month I received a commission from a woman. She wanted an A4 notebook with a picture of a viking caravan and Saab on it an an anniversary present for her husband.

It was a really fun project to do - involving surreptitious photographs of said vehicles and a bit of to-ing and froing about colours/text/setting.

This was the final version.
Last week I sent it off and got a lovely thank you note by return "Thank you, thank you, thank you :0) Our notebook arrived safely this morning and it is even more fantastic than it looked in the pictures. I couldn't contain my excitement last night and I got Tim to search on NOTH for caravan items; his face was a picture when he saw 'Mr Bus' and the caravan on the screen!"

I have always made personalised things for my girls and for friends - it reminded me how special they are.

2009-10-21T08:54:33+01:00

It may be dark and drizzly this morning but there are still some parts of the garden that are breathtaking.

Despite their annual brutal shearing at Christmas wreath making time the dogwoods continue to grow and look like billowing tapestries at the edge of the garden.