My Daughter's Daily Ritual

I pass these beautiful bright flowers six times a day Monday to Friday. And most of the time I'm too busy rushing the kids to school, hurrying back home to start work, rushing again mid way through the day not wanting to be late for nursery pick up and so on so forth, to take much notice of these blooms. But it is the return journey from nursery in the afternoon when it is just my daughter and I that I suddenly become aware of them and there bright and cheerful colour. And its all because it's become part of my daughters daily ritual to stop and pick just one, maybe two on her way home from nursery. She stops selects the individual flower she wants (any more than two would be too greedy, because as she so rightly says 'we must leave them for other people to enjoy') and then she's off riding down the road on her balance bike. The 'selected' flower is then placed in a small glass vase to take pride of place on our kitchen table! It's such a lovely ritual and one that I'm grateful for as it makes me stop and look and admire their beauty however brief the moment lasts!  

Dreaming of Raincoats

I blame it on the mixed weather we have been having of late and the fact that I still seem to leave the house everyday wearing my rain coat that I find myself so in love with this sweet and colourful rain mac from Boden's Autumn range. Sorry yes I did just say Autumn!! Terrible isn't it, we haven't yet experienced summer, but here we are being shown Autumn! I haven't even thought about the fact that my children will need shorts and rash vests for long days spent on the beach but here I am already window shopping for when the days grow cooler and the leaves change colour and start to fall! I'm sure if the weather predictions are right and that we do enter into a 'mini' heatwave at the end of the week all thoughts of rain and coats will be forgotten, but for now I will allow myself to get excited by the prospect of my daughter wearing this coat! 

And while we are on the subject of Boden's Autumn collection I spotted this 'bird' tunic another must for my little one, and staying on a bird theme I also spotted this women's trench coat. I must say this doesn't excite me as much as the girls mac and I'm not sure if I am on my own here but I really wish they did the green bird coat in adult sizes as I would quite happily wear it this Autumn in the rain!

You can see more of Boden's Autumn range here in their preview.

Lovely Flurry of Traffic!

A Crafty Hen has had an extra flurry of interest over the last couple of days and it was so lovely to find the traffic had come from here a lovely Spanish blog called Eternamente Flaneur. This lovely blogger has included three of my Storage baskets, my yellow 'Free as a Bird' baskets and also my Black and White basket in two lovely storage and nursery combination ideas. It's so nice to see people visualizing my work in this way. I just wish I could cut my images out as well as she has done!!

A Huge Fabric Leap!

Possibly the most exciting parcel ever arrived this week. 

A box full of fabric. A box containing full bolts of fabric. A box full of fabric just for me!

Not only is this the largest amount of fabric I have ever bought but this is also the biggest commitment I have made so far to 'A Crafty Hen'. Usually I purchase one or two meters of fabric, make for example a baby gift set, if the item does well then I will order more of the fabric, and this method works ok most of the time. But sometimes an item can be a 'slow burner'!! It may not fly of the shelves for example, but slowly and surely after say advertising the product it may start to sell well, but this is when I often encounter problems! I go to reorder the fabric and find that it is sold out or the fabric shop has reordered it and then there is a delay, or worse still that it is no longer being printed! However much I like working with lots of different prints in small quantities, it is a lot more time consuming and really is not the most efficient way to work or to sustain a business. It takes time and effort to get traffic to your shop, to an item you have made so it makes sense once the the traffic is there to keep it coming! So I made the decision in the New Year to take more control of my fabric stock and the most sensible way to go about this was to choose a few 'key' fabrics that I can create a collection from and order these fabrics in bulk, making stock taking a whole lot easier!

And so there it was in the box! Five full bolts of organic fabric. 

Grey elephants has long been a favorite of mine which is luckily shared by many of you. The deer never stays around for very long, so I've not had the chance to play around with the fabric, and the multi coloured elephants is also a favorite. The grey spots, well that's a staple fabric! But maybe it is bolt number 5, that excites me the most, as this is organic cotton fleece. I've been searching and searching in the UK for cotton fleece and have not had any success. I use to make baby dribble bibs and the occasional baby blanket and started by backing them with fleece, which is the most common fabric to find a dribble bib backed with. But I was never that keen on the fact that the fleece was polyester. Yes sure it absorbs and wicks away moisture and dries very very quickly, but to me, and this is only my opinion, a baby's delicate skin should have the kindest and most gentlest fabrics placed next to it and for me polyester doesn't cut it. But organic cotton oh yes! And it doesn't disappoint!  It is very very soft and cosy making it not only perfect for dribble bandana style bibs but also for backing blankets. So watch this space, as they say! I am going to continue working with lots of different prints. I can't help myself! But these three key prints, the two elephants and the deer fabric will soon be available in bibs, dribble bibs, burp cloths, storage baskets and blankets and no doubt a few more items will slip in along the way, which I know will please many of you who get in contact with me asking for more of a range for your baby and nursery in these delightful fabrics.

New Storage Baskets

Introducing my new range of storage baskets. I feel very much like I have gone full circle with these baskets as portable toy storage containers were one of the first things I started selling when I opened my first shop online. I'm not really sure why I stopped making them as they were always very popular, but somehow and somewhere down the line baby bibs took over! But now they are back! The collection ranges from baskets to match the most popular of my baby gift sets for use as storage in a baby's nursery or child's bedroom to baskets like the Glitter Gold' one and the 'Black and White Monochrome' that would not only fit into a stylish modern nursery but would also not look out of place on a dressing table, in a hall filled with post and keys to your living one. Made using a selection of cotton and linen fabrics all the baskets have a white lining and a natural linen base. They are available now to buy from my shop.

On my Sewing Table.... Spring Makes

There are definite signs of Spring popping up everywhere, and its amazing how these glimpses of life give you renewed energy. Its like coming out of hibernation and where as in the house its making me want to spring clean and have a clear out, in my studio area I've been busy working, hoarding away new items, like a squirrel hoards its nuts, waiting for some light to come into the house so I can photograph these items. And yesterday finally the sunshine arrived, though it wasn't easy. I chased the sunshine from room to room, desperately trying to photograph my new stuff. My shop is looking rather bare at the moment and I can't wait to renew it. To organise it, to freshen it up. Unfortunately the sunshine disappeared rather too quickly so I didn't manage to get everything done. And quite a few of the photos I've taken I have had to rather heavily edit so I am hoping that the weather man has the forecast right and that we are in for a sunny dry spell.

I wrote the above on the 6th of March, and in fact the weather man did predict the weather correctly and we did have a lovely couple of weeks with real Spring like weather. We had sunshine and even felt some warmth! But unfortunately minutes after writing the above my laptop shut itself down and died on me!! And so that was that. 

What it did mean was without the distractions that the online community has to offer (!) I did get quite a bit of sewing done, and the sunshine did mean that I got to take quite a few photos. Though without being able to upload the photos I couldn't check the quality and I am disappointed with quite a few of them as I've unfortunately taken them on too high an exposure setting. Anyway working with the ones I've got and now that I have a new laptop, I am hoping to get my new items listed by the start of next week and hopefully then my shop will be filled with some lovely rays of Spring sunshine!

Favourite Finds

Image credits: clockwise from top left lmkremer, TheBlueberryElephant, RGideas, MarinskiHandmades, BagDoRi,

Some of my favourite finds on Etsy.

• Wonderland T-shirt from Imkremer retro inspired clothing for kids. This shop is colourful. I really wish I'd found it when my children were still babies!
• Wool baby booties by The Blueberry Elephant another shop I wish I had discovered when my children were young. The colours of the woollen goodies in this shop are beautiful, Anja obviously has a real eye for colour. The layout is stunning such a gorgeous feast for the eyes.
• Knee high knitted socks by RGideas these look amazing. I've liked so many of the items in this shop. And if it doesn't warm up soon I think I will have to treat myself to these socks or maybe the leg warmers!
• Ceramic Bowl from Marinski Handmades this is a gorgeous shop filled with sweet hand painted bowls and ceramic jewellery.
• Yellow Backpack by BagDoRi now I really don't need another backpack, or do I! This shop is full of practical, modern bags to tempt!

I keep telling myself that I should be thinking of spring but I'm finding it difficult, what with the horrendous weather we have been having of late. I've started working with some lovely yellow fabrics but keep getting drawn back to my pile of greys! Well the colour does match the sky outside! I've even found myself back window shopping for warm cosy woollens, thinking that a pair of knitted knee high socks like the ones above wouldn't be a bad idea for this weather! Oh come on Spring hurry up and come!