Wedding season

As summer is well and truly underway in this part of the world (not that you'd know from the photo above, taken in my very sunny craft room), I've been inspired to update my confetti packaging. And in turn, this confetti update has inspired how I package and send all of my goodies!

Of course, the beauty of this is that I can update the labels with whatever text you like - the names and wedding date of the lucky couple in the case of confetti, or a message for the recipient if you're buying a set of notecards for a gift. I can even switch up the twine colours to match what's hiding inside.

Now my confetti looks much more appealing, I'll be showing you a lot more of it in my shop. I have to admit getting a bit carried away with the punches when I wasn't very mobile last year, but didn't have the concentration to knit or sew. I love the idea of having the confetti I made from a damaged French romance novel at a wedding, so much fun to pick the pieces off each other and have a nosy at the words! I love that soupir is hiding in there - ahhhhh!

A long weekend at Craiglush

Every year around Thanksgiving time, I get away into the Scottish countryside for a long weekend together with my closest group of friends. This year we stayed in a lovely house with floor to ceiling windows over both floors, right on the banks of Craiglush Loch, near Dunkeld. For those of you who know your Shakespeare, we were right near Birnam Wood.

It was lovely to involve Amelia in our little annual tradition, and we managed to go the whole weekend without keeping everyone awake at night!

This is the view from our bedroom terrace every evening at sundown...

If anyone is interested in spending a weekend or a week at this lovely private location, drop me an email and I'll put you in touch with the friendly owner.

With all the extra hands available, I'm also delighted to report that I managed a little bit of knitting - it's a secret Christmas present project that I'll share with you all soon.

Volcano!

Here's another shot of me, this time me and the bump are modelling my new constant companion, an Asking for Trouble shopper, which I bought on Zazzle.com. I bought the organic shopper version, but there are bookbag versions and allsorts, or you can even buy the design on a t-shirt.

I also picked up some cards with the same design, which are now available directly from the Asking for Trouble website shop. They make a great alternative to a postcard if you're having a staycation this year!

What I did at the weekend...

Our little car went in for a service on Friday and needs a part to fix its gearbox. So we were reliant on Shanks' Pony yesterday and we decided to have a walk just along the road to Glasgow Green, and the People's Palace. I've been to the museum a few times before, but not in a little while, and it was a lovely day so I tore up my to-do list, got the fiance all motivated with a promise of a pub lunch and off we went.

By the time we'd walked, ooh, all two miles, we were ravenous, so first stop was West, which is technically our local, if you don't count football-related pubs (we live next door to a football stadium). It being a Saturday, I indulged in a chocolate fudge cake and I was not disappointed.

After stopping to admire the disused railway station, our next stop was the museum. The People's Palace is dedicated to the life of the everyday Glaswegians, way back into history, and right up to the present day. I'm fascinated with social history, and particularly enjoyed the air raid exhibit and the example of the one-room living from tenements at the beginning of the last century, about the time when my own tenement flat was built. It also put me in mind of the tenement museum in Manhattan, which is a must-see. We have our own equivalent in Glasgow, the tenement house, which I'm still to visit even though I'm into my 8th year of living in this city.

Of course, crafts are never far behind when you're thinking about social history, and there were a great couple of examples of upcycling from back in the day - a footstool made from powdered milk tins bound together and upholstered, and the traditional crocheted rug made from old sheets and clothes that you see all over the world.

I even picked up this postcard...

Today we're not so lucky with the weather so I'm having a day of crafting - I worked on a new project last night which I'll be sharing with you shortly. A good friend is singing at the Cathedral later during an afternoon of celebrating the poet Robert Burns, so I will be popping out to that later.


Hope you have had a fun and productive weekend, wherever you are!

Alchemy

You know, it's a funny coincidence but I've heard the word 'alchemy' on 3 different occasions in the last couple of days. Once on the radio in some political debate programme yesterday morning, once from my fiance in some lame conversation I don't even want to remember about an online game thing he plays, and once when I was explaining to him about alchemy in the etsy.com sense.

It's a brilliant tool, and I've always had excellent results from using it. The latest is today! I had a seller in mind on etsy to make up a rubber stamp so I could personalise the back of some note cards I'm about to work on. It was looking a little bit on the pricy side, so I clicked onto Alchemy to see if anyone could put something together for the amount I wanted to pay.

Within literally seconds of my placing the ad, I had a response from etsy seller AssPocketProductions. In the ten minutes it took for me to stop laughing at the name, I had a mocked up design in my inbox and a price quote exactly half of my original find.

While I was putting together new photos and listings for my Laura Ashley envelopes, Stacey came up with the idea of 'thank you' stamps with my logo and some promotional extras to send me, which I'm planning to share out with my new Glasgow Craft Mafia colleagues. All in all, a successful day.

I can't wait for the stamps to arrive so I can show them off here. In the meantime, thank you Stacey, and everyone else, go and check her out!

A sunny day - at last!

And where am I? No, not at home taking photos to make my blog and flower brooches look a million times better, but stuck in the office, hoping the weather holds out until home time...