Boo

Today I have some news to share of the totally amazing kind. Meet Boo:

As of today, Boo (as we've affectionately been calling our little baby) is 20 weeks old - we had a scan this morning and everything appears to be normal. Such a massive relief, and as I'm sure any first time mum will attest, you have no idea what is going on inside you and it's quite scary going for an 'anomaly scan'.
Aside from having a growing tummy (which sometimes just looks like I've eaten a big dinner) I have really felt the first little kicks and movement in the last few days - again, quite a relief.

Baby's and birth in general are are amazing little feats of nature, but we're especially happy as we've been waiting for Boo for about 7 years and have had countless trips to the hospital to try and find out why Boo hadn't materialised before now. I'm sure I've mentioned it on here before but the reason why this was such a problem was that I have PCOS. Having had treatment to manage the PCOS and several exploratory operations, examinations, scans, x-rays and courses of pills, the only conclusion the doctors could come up with was that I had 'unexplained sub-fertility'. I was also told by a male doctor with no bedside manner whatsoever that 'you know you're not eligible for IVF, don't you'. Basically there are a number of factors that govern this in the county I live in, but age and weight are the two biggest ones. At 35 I am considered 'too old' which automatically rules me out on the NHS.

It was all becoming at bit disheartening to be honest. We'd gone from saying 'when we have a baby' to 'if we have a baby' and we were really starting to think it would never happen.
I was taking pregnancy tests regularly which were always negative and had become somewhat routine, so imagine how shocked I was when it appeared that (back in December) one of my tests looked positive. I say 'looked' as I really wasn't sure, so of course had to do another one, which also wasn't conclusive. I was physically shaking when my boy came home from work that day, and my first words to him were 'I don't want to alarm you, but I think I might be pregnant'.
After drinking what seemed like pints of water, I went to the shops and bought another pack of tests. The third test showed a negative result (agh!) so I had to do the fourth test which looked like a feint cross but again I wasn't sure. The following day, I was back at the chemist buying a digital test, one of the ones that actually said the words 'pregnant' and 'not pregnant' - conclusive proof. The test said 'pregnant +3' which meant that I was more than 3 weeks pregnant.
I've been lucky enough not to suffer from morning sickness at all (much to my huge relief) but have had problems sleeping for more than 2 hours at a time and waking for hours at a time during the night, not to mention frequent trips to the loo for a wee. More recently I have had mild PSD - which is basically pelvic pain - all of which I'm sure are normal pregnancy side effects, but on the whole, I feel well and extremely happy to be carrying a little Boo around inside my tummy.

Boo should make an appearance to the world in early August. We can't wait to meet our little baby for the first time in the real world. Exciting times ahead.

Cheater

I thought I'd put a couple of cheater/sampler designs together using the palettes of my 'I see creatures' fabrics, for the lazy quilter out there (I include myself in this):

This is designed in a yard size repeat and will be available for sale once I've seen and proofed the swatches. I'm actually looking forward to doing a bit of lazy quilting with these. I haven't quilted for the longest time. I have good intentions to do it, and plenty of fabric in the old stash but to be honest I'm a bit scared of cutting things up and then cocking them up (which is a bit daft I know!), so for now this lazy method is perfect for me.

baby bears

I made a start on drawing these baby bears a few weeks ago but for some reason they weren't working for me. Having revisited them a few weeks later with different eyes it seems they were working for me, so I've designed a pattern featuring them - along with a couple of co-ordinating designs:

I plan to make them available as fabrics in my shop soon too, I'm just deciding which co-ordinating designs to go best with them and I have a few more in mind too which I need to work up first.

I see creatures + co-ordinates

A few weeks back I made a note on my to do list to design some co-ordinates to go with my 'I see creatures' design. I've been working on a few of those today in a boyish colour way and a girlish colour way:

I always tend to like the co-ordinates more than the key design. I think the simpler designs are just more me, maybe because I can see a wider application for them. I need to order a few swatches of these before I can make them available for sale but for now you can see all the designs/colours here

bouquet of felty flowers

With mothers day approaching I thought I'd make a few mothers day bouquets - similar to my wedding and bridesmaids bouquets.
This is the first, which contains 7 flowers, each of which has been stitched and topped off with a button, then threaded onto wire, bound and cased in a green felty wrap:

I'm sitting here surrounded by piles of felted wool jumper scraps so will be making more today and tomorrow. These are destined for a local selling event I'm doing next weekend but If I have time I'll endeavour to get a few into the shop too.

It's all new

At Top Drawer in January I launched my first couple of kits. Kits seemed to be really popular amongst the people I spoke to and I have plans to introduce a few more over the coming months. My first kit, 'little Brown Bear' is now available to buy in my Mondaland Shop:

I've also been working on some ideas for personalised baby keepsake gifts and wedding gifts, which will be available soon:

I have lots more new things in progress too that are keeping me quite busy at the moment. It's all good though. I'm feeling a bit of renewed enthusiasm and energy after a bit of a blah spell in January and February. It's the same every year - the January blah's always seem to hit me - this year they just spilled into February a bit too because I had Top Drawer to keep me busy during January.

I see creatures!

A design I entered into last weeks spoonflower contest (with a sea creatures theme) was placed 4th this week:

original design

design printed onto fabric

I might design some co-ordinates to go with this (when I get a moment). I think they would make nice nursery fabrics. In the meantime, this print, called 'I see creatures' is available to buy here
Spoonflower are now also printing onto Kona cotton. It's still quilting weight but a bit heavier than their regular cotton, which I think it great as it's a lot more robust - and is the same price as the regular cotton too.

A MONSTER SALE

In a fit of much needed sorting out and tidying, I have decided there is just way too much stuff taking up way too much space in my little office/studio.
As a result of this, I'm having a Monster SALE in my wooly stuff shop.

Until the end of February, or until they have sold out, whichever comes first, my monsters are reduced by 25% - just use the code MONSTER at the checkout.

More sorting and tidying continues here, as well as lots of admin for something new and exciting in Mondaland - all will be revealed very soon.

felted wool scrap bags

I really had to tackle my felted wool jumper scrap mountain so this morning I sorted it into colours, bagged it up, weighed it, photographed it, and popped it in the shop:

There are 9 7 3 2 bags left, lots of yummy colours, perfect for small projects like bunting, monster making, needle felting or patching. If only I had the time to do some (or any) of these things!

snow

It doesn't ever really feel like winter to me until we've had some snow. Living in the south of the UK, we don't really ever see that much snow. We often hear on the news about snow further up north and see lots of pictures of it but we don't often get it. BUT on Saturday evening we got some snow! It wasn't very much, and sadly it seems to have pretty much gone now but I liked it whilst it lasted. It must be the inner child in me that likes it so much, that and the fact that I remember it snowing on and around my birthday when I was little, so snow time means it must nearly be birthday time.

For every Ying there is a Yang. Yesterday we had a 13 hour power cut (was it the snow? surely not). From 2.30pm we had no heating, no hot water, no lights, and later in the day no cooking of the pork fillets we had bought for our tea! It came back on at 3.30 this morning, along with the washing machine which had been mid wash when the power went off, so we were treated to the sound of the washer spinning away at top speed at 4am this morning. We're feeling quite tired around these parts today!

off to a new home

Here are my printed softies, now packed up and ready to go to their new home in Guernsey:

 If you happen to be in Guernsey soon you might spot them in a shop called Indica

New products also come with new labels. I actually designed these as business cards with the intention of using them as product labels as it was more cost effective for me to do it this way, despite the trimming, punching and stringing of them:

This week I've also worked on a couple of new designs for the latest spoonflower contest. It feels like an age since I've done this but it was nice to test myself with the art deco theme. It's not something I would naturally gravitate towards although I do like art deco design in general:

one year on

This time last year we had just got married, me and my lovely boy:

Ahhh such nice memories of our day.
Our anniversary celebrations were sadly rained off. We had planned to go out for a meal, but I wasn't  feeling too well so went to bed, and the Mr. cleaned the oven and went to B&Q! We did manage to salvage some of the day to celebrate with an afternoon tea in the style of the wedding day. I kept a few pieces of the china I had collected for the wedding which we used and had a lounge based celebration instead:

sentiments

You might remember, sometime last year, I was just playing around with my typewriter and some washi tape, and made this card for my boy:

This image received a lot of love via my flickr photstream (and continues to do so) so I promptly bought lots more washi tape in pretty colours with the idea of making more simple sentiment cards for my shop, and then did precisely nothing with it and worked on other things instead.

I felt the need for a bit of making with paper this week (as a bit of a distraction from what I am actually supposed to be working on) so I got out the typewriter and the list of sentiments I wrote months ago, plus some pretty paper and the lovely washi tape, and made a small batch of cards, which can now be found in my shop:

If these go down well, I may offer personalisation of sentiments too, so you can give a card that truly speaks to the person you're giving it to.

Top Drawer

The Story behind my first trade fair:
Late last year I was contacted by Charlotte Abrahams (a freelance writer and journalist) and asked if I would like to be part of an event she curates at the Top Drawer Trade Fair, called 'Spotted'. Spotted is intended as an entry point for designer/makers to get a foot in the trade fair door without it costing the earth.
I was initially unsure whether I could take part - aside from the quite scary prospect of putting yourself out there publicly for the first time at such a huge event in a renowned venue such as Earls Court in London, there was also the consideration of whether handmade products would be well received at a trade fair alongside mass produced products. Could I price my items competitively enough to interest people and to still be able to make money for myself? And did I actually have enough money to invest in this initially?
After considering all of the above, I decided to go for it. You've got to be in it to win it, and if I hadn't I would probably always be wondering 'what if...'
Fast forward a few months to January, and with lots of planning, deciding and prototyping, I was exhibiting my soft toys, kits and tea towels at Earls Court:

My soft toys and kits

one of my new tea towels

spotted plus (for last years spotted exhibitors)

This was a really good experience and definitely a big learning for me. It was great to speak to potential retailers and get first hand feedback. One of the big and constant pieces of feedback was that retailers wanted kits - I had just two for the show. I'll definitely be following up on this and introducing a range of kits in the coming months.
I've had a couple of orders which I'll be working on in the coming few weeks, and gave my details to lots of buyers so hopefully I'll see some more orders trickling in over the next few weeks.
It was also great to meet some of the other exhibitors at the show - people in the same boat as me and my new business and people with a little more experience - who had really invaluable advice to pass on to a newbie such as myself.
One thing I have learnt is that trade fairs are exhausting. I think I need a few days to recover.

hello 2012

Happy New Year!
It's a bit late in the day I know. I've been meaning to blog about all the nice things that Christmas brought along with it, but I was just swept along by it and didn't stop to blog it all.

2011 was a good year for me - not least because I married my lovely boy and best friend but lots of other positive things happened along the way too. I won't recap everything - it would take way too long. Looking forward, I'm hoping 2012 will be a good one for me. There are certainly a few things in the pipeline to indicate this.

I suspect I'll be rather quiet here for the next few weeks, as I'll be preparing for Top Drawer - my first ever trade show, at Earls Court no less. To say I am panicking about it all would be a massive understatement. I am well and truly flying by the seat of my pants here and everything seems so last minute. Still, you've got to be in it to win it. At the moment I'm mostly working away on some new products, wholesale lists and prices, T's & C's and, well, everything else!

front of my new business card