Friday 5 September 2014

Strandom - Block of the Month sneak preview!

Ah my poor blog... neglected like my diaries of old! Hopefully not any more though.  It's been a very busy few months here, as I'm sure it has been for most of you!  I've done two workshops at The Sew Room in Alford now, so I'm semi-officially a sewing tutor :) (More details and pics soon!) 

In summer holiday terms we've been to John O'Groats and back, Dunrobin Castle (after 5 years of nearly getting there!) and a lovely wedding of dear friends of ours.


This is a sneak preview (you saw it here first!) of a Block of the Month sampler quilt series we're hoping to start very soon at The Sew Room.  I decided to play with solids for a change, which is quite fun :)

Kathelle x

Friday 20 June 2014

A past life in the world of architecture...


Balsa structural model - 1st year
Well, this week my year in uni received their results for their Masters in Architecture... Why was I not with them, you may ask?  That'd be a long story, but suffice it to say it was one of the hardest decisions of my life so far, and yet one that I don't regret.

Haberdasher's Hall scale model, 2nd Year
I've always had an interest in it, and still do - I love seeing what people on my class have been working on, though there's only one friend I keep in touch with now, a very good and kind friend who was my tea and model making buddy! :)

Wee mannie in final conceptual model, 2nd year

My time was not wasted, and what I learnt - both academically and with regards to life - has been invaluable.  My husband, as you may know, is a stonemason (fancy that, architecture student and a stonemason!) and when he comes home from work I understand most of what he tells me because of what I learnt (the rest I quiz him until I do!) For example, tonight we were re-pointing the cement around our window and he let me have a go - I rather enjoyed it and it wasn't too bad for a first attempt haha!

Quaker Meeting House, Stonehaven - 2nd year

I sometimes wonder what life would've been like if I'd carried on, but then I would've been miserable and stressed, we would've got married later and I wouldn't in all likelihood have my two precious little children.  Some people see going to uni and getting a degree as the be all and end all for school pupils, but though it definitely has it's place - it's not for everyone, it was never meant to be. 


My last proper Studio project in 3rd year - a library in St. Andrews

Mr P. is a building geek sometimes (in the best sense!) as he has books and books on masonry, surveying, building history, technical details...  I was going to sell most of my textbooks after uni, he had a flick through and decided to keep them all! haha!  I never had his passion for my course, I should've known, but I was too scared of what people would say if I of all people left - what, Kathelle, the Dux?? Yes, me.  I would've loved to study embroidery with the Royal School of Needlework or done Textiles in Art School (I think the latter would've been more me), but we are where we are.  God's plans are beyond our reasoning and so much better in the long run that anything we'd do! 

Waldorf School, Stonehaven - 2nd year

Look up! Conceptual project, 2nd year

I am now a sewing and quilting geek - I love to find out new techniques, more about different materials, trying out new things, buying more books... I have a passion for what I do now that is greater than what I have for architecture.  Sure, it's a great thing to be able to design people's homes and public buildings but I want to fill those homes with pattern and colour and warmth that only textiles and quilts can bring.  I can only do small things at the moment, but it's the small details that make a difference...   


Friday 13 June 2014

Nursery for two! Decorating for a boy and a girl - Part 3


As part of the room "makeover", one of the first things we did was get rid of old mismatched furniture (well, hid one in the wardrobe and put the broken one to local recycling!).  We bought a new cabinet from Argos, to match the chest of drawers, to store their books and what had been in the old bedside cabinets.  

It's amazing how much surface space it cleared up! The books were just piled up because we had nowhere to put them, and DJ couldn't reach them... :(


http://argos.scene7.com/is/image/Argos/1834392_R_Z002A_UC1572195?$TMB$&wid=312&hei=312
Kids Scandinavia 4 Cube Storage Unit
When it arrived, I thought I'd save Mr P. a job, as he's always so busy on Saturdays, and decided to put it together myself.  I rather enjoy building the old flatpack furniture haha!  However, I did not quite bargain for a cheeky little 18 month old in the process...  Whilst EJ was asleep we put it together, and remarkably all was going rather well (considering a little boy's liking for wood and tools...) until I had to put the top on.  

  I just managed to align the dowels and screws on one side, I moved to the other side to align that - and DJ goes and pulls the first side to "help" thus undoing my good work!  Cue exasperated but rather amused mother, haha!  I tried again to no avail, nearly lined up... and then pop! DJ was at it again.  At this point I plonked him in his cot so he could watch but not touch haha!  Otherwise I honestly think I'd still be at it ;)



Anyway, Mr. P. was very happy and proceeded to beeswax it at the next opportunity (the furniture is unfinished on arrival).  We then covered the rather dull chipbboard shelf backing with a lovely bright starry fabric with some PVA spread over the surface as evenly and relatively thinly as possible before it was pinned in place.  And voila!  Much better! :)  Now he can reach his books, he loves reading them and even tries to read them to his wee sister sometimes!
  Next post on this will be on EJ's side which is as yet very blank...:(  I have ideas and the materials but it needs done! :)

Kathelle x

Thursday 12 June 2014

Fellow Folksy-ers! Sue Mellem of Beadstorm Jewellery

This is the second in the series of interviews with fellow Folksy sellers to find out a wee bit more about them and what they do :)  This week we have Sue Mellem from Beadstorm Jewellery!


Dragonfly charm necklace, with lavender jade & Swarovski crystal
Dragonfly Charm Necklace with lavender jade and Swarovski crystal

First of all, could you please tell us a bit about yourself ?
I qualified as a Mental Health Nurse many years ago and worked in mental healthcare for over 30 years - as a nurse and later as a manager. I count myself very lucky to have had such a fascinating and rewarding career, and to have helped some lovely people along the way.
I finished work a couple of years ago and now dedicate my ‘working’ hours to my business Beadstorm Jewellery.
I live in Northampton with my husband, teenage daughter and 2 lovely cats (husband and daughter are lovely too!)

Tell us about your shop, Beadstorm Jewellery
I started selling my jewellery through Beadstorm Jewellery nearly 3 years ago. My first customer was my secretary from work, who was great in giving me lots of encouragement in making my jewellery – as well as modelling quite a lot of it!
I use mainly gemstones, crystals and pearls in my jewellery as these are the materials that I am drawn to and love. I like to think of my style as being something of a modern take on classical styles.
I have developed several sales outlets – I opened my Folksy shop in September 2011 and after a slow start I’m pleased with how it’s developed. I also sell through a couple of ‘real’ shops & through craft fairs, school and village fetes and any other events that I can find.
I love the interactions that I have with other crafters. The supportive community at Folksy is great and there’s so much knowledge that people are always willing to share. I’ve also made some great friends through doing craft fairs.


Red jasper pendant necklace
Red Jasper Pendant Necklace

How did you get started?
I started making jewellery by accident. My daughter was doing a Product Design course at school and decided to make a bracelet using wooden beads. I went to a well known national craft store to look for them and saw a vast array of beads. I then looked on line and discovered even more beads.
I bought some jewellery making magazines, watched some tutorials, had a go myself and got completed hooked!

Since then it’s been a steep learning curve to get proficient in all the other aspects of selling jewellery – the greatest challenge has been turning myself from a complete novice with a camera to being able to take reasonable photos that I can use on line in my Folksy shop and on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Beadstormjewellery

Handmade bracelet, with blue gemstones, crystal and heart charm
Handmade Bracelet, with blue gemstones, crystal and heart charm

What’s your favourite item in your shop and why?
Difficult question – and if you asked me again tomorrow I’d probably come up with a different answer.
Today I’m picking these earrings http://folksy.com/items/5899151-Handmade-earrings-with-delicate-peach-agate-and-copper- because I love the agates in them and I’ve got a thing about working with copper at the moment!


Handmade earrings - with delicate peach agate and copper
Handmade earrings - with delicate peach agate and copper

Favourite place to visit?
We were lucky enough to visit San Diego last year & I love it there. The coast is fabulous, with beautiful sunsets and the climate is great. San Diego is an ideal size and people are friendly. Plus I found a wonderful bead fair to visit while we were there!

A random fact about you?
Last year I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of 100 featured sellers by Small Business Saturday UK, and as a result of this I was invited to a reception at number 11 Downing Street on the eve of Small Business Saturday.
I attended along with lots of other small business representatives for what was a fabulous memorable day.  Small Business Saturday really gained momentum last year and I hope more people will support it this year.



Handmade neon green peridot and metallic crystal earrings
Handmade neon green peridot and metallic crystal earrings

Pick three of your favourite items/shops on Folksy
There are so many lovely shops and talented makers of Folksy it’s hard to pick just three.
I love the humour in Snappy Crocodile’s cards.


Natures Way Greeting Card


I really like the items in Steph Short Supplies and I have bought some lovely patterned shapes from Steph that I like to include when I wrap my parcels. Steph also has a stationery shop stocking some beautiful cards.


Label Style Message Tags Pack of 30,'Handmade With Love' Message Tags
Handmade with Love Labels


Last, but not least, I love the work of Funky Mosaic and this is one of my favourite items from Liz’s shop.
Tulips Mosaic Garden Ornament Wall Plaque
Tulips Mosaic - Garden Ornament or Wall Plaque

Thank you very much Sue!  One of my personal favourites in her shop is her beaded bracelets - I have two already and I love them!  Here's one that's available now - I love how it's such a classic colour combination:



Handmade white jade & blue crystal bracelet
Handmade white jade and blue crystal bracelet


 If you'd like to have a proper look at the beautiful range in Sue's shop then here's the link: www.beadstormjewellery.folksy.com 


All the images above have the link to the appropriate shop in the caption, just click on the name :)


Kathelle x

Friday 6 June 2014

Nursery for two! Decorating for a boy and a girl - Part 2 - DJ's side (Magazine Collage Tutorial)

DJ's side of the room really suits him now.  We put up Mr P.'s tool clock and two collage canvases which we made ourselves.  (I know it looks a wee bit bare at the bottom but it is deliberate so that he can't touch them!)


The first canvas has quite a story to it.  Mr P. loves his Land Rovers.  He used to have heaps of magazines, but one day decided to have a clear out.  At this point we were just going out, so he showed me his favourites he'd saved that Saturday morning when I went over to visit.  We eventually came up with the idea of making a collage on a canvas with them - rather than keeping them hidden in a folder or drawer.  Anyway, off we went for a spin to Haddo House, came back with a sparkly ring ;) and Hobbycraft was first on our list of places to go, haha!  With the canvas bought, we finished the collage that evening - so it's quite special to us both :) 


It's quite a deep canvas, so we found as many landscape images as we could in the magazines, cut them out and arranged them on the canvas so that there was enough to completely cover the sides - we probably had about 10 magazines to work with so there was plenty choice!  Some of Mr P.'s favourites were very carefully cut out to go over the landscapes to blend it together as one image.  For example, the one in the bottom right corner looks as if it's coming out of that valley, and the top right corner looks like it's going along that road, whereas it was actually us that put them there as a wee story :)  And to finish it off, we put a little Land Rover badge  in the top left corner :)  So after 3 years in 3 sitting rooms it moved into DJ's room, passed on to him!

To keep the Land Rovers company, and as this wee boy is fond of any vehicle that has wheels and an engine, we made a similar one with tractors!  Rather appropriate for here as a farming community, and this time it was DJs Great Auntie and Uncle who donated the magazines :)


This one took us much longer than the Land Rover one as we had less to work with (just 2 magazines) and the canvas size and shape proved a bit more complicated to fill nicely.  After many weeks of being hidden under the blanket box, on the table and in the wardrobe it was completed!

This one was done in a similar way with finding landscape photos (very few and far between!) to cover the blank bits and edges and carefully arranged it all so it looked good.  Below you can see the tractor has been carefully cut out around the front wheel and nose and then the trees in the background were cut to mimic those in the landscape photo!  This was Mr P.'s creativity :)  After it as finished and stuck down we went over it with  a few coats of PVA, but it went a bit wrinkly :(  We used spray mount for the LR one, then PVA coats and it definitely worked better than using PVA the whole way through.  We put a logo from the obliging magazine in the bottom left corner to finish, and DJ loves it!


It's a great way to re-use magazines - I'd love to do one with flowers from gardening magazines or castles and stately comes from National Trust magazines... Many posibilities and it cheers up a room in a personal way without costing much. :) If you have the magazines in and gathering dust that is, they can be so expensive! 

I'd love to see if any of you give it a try or if you've done anything similar!  DJ loves it and makes grunty engines noises when he sees them haha! :D

Kathelle x

Thursday 5 June 2014

Fellow Folksy-ers! Roz Legge of Rozcraftz

In the first of a new "series" I'll be interviewing some fellow Folksy sellers to find out a wee bit more about them and what they do :)  First of all we have Roz Legge from Rozcraftz!

Red and gold felt and hessian decorative wreath

First of all, could you please tell us a bit about yourself ?
I am a self employed chiropodist and mother to 2 teenage daughters with 2 dogs, 3 lizards, a snake and several fish to look after! Having been defined as a scientist all my life I came to crafting late but am now completely addicted.

Tell us about your shop, Rozcraftz
My shop is full of various giftware and home decor items. I have tried out lots of different crafts tending to move on from one to the next once I have mastered a technique! I have recently discovered felting (both needle felting and wet felting) and have fallen in love with it so more and more felted items are now appearing in my shop. I intend to stick with felting now and gradually phase out the rest of my stock although I expect the odd non felted item will appear.

How did you get started?
My youngest daughter had been to a concert and wanted to make a scrapbook with all the photos etc so I made one for her. At about the same time my eldest daughter was trying to raise money towards a trip to Namibia to work as a volunteer at a wildlife conservation park. She started doing pencil drawings of animals and taking commissions for pet portraits and I suggested I made a few more blank albums and we could go to craft fairs together. Everything sort of snowballed from there!
What’s your favourite item in your shop and why?
That's a hard question to answer but my felt work is my favourite, in particular my needle felted pet portraits. I always do the eyes last and love watching the animal come alive when I add them. The eyes always convey so much character.
 

Favourite book?
Favourite book, probably "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. Not really sure why but it really gripped me and the descriptions of how buildings were built has made me much more aware of the features of the buildings around me.

A random fact about you?
I have a Masters Degree in Radiation Physics but can't remember any of it now!

Pick three of your favourite items/shops on Folksy
So difficult to choose. I try and avoid searching around Folksy too much unless I am looking for something specific because there are far too many talented people offering such amazing goods, all of which I would want to buy! However, the following are among my favourite shops.

K Price Art has some really lovely felted pictures. One day I'm hoping I can create similar.


I love the work by Paper, chains and beads -  particularly the paintings and artworks section. Lots of different and unusual methods and media have been used.

Painting - Encaustic Art (Wax) Meadow - A4 Size - Free UK P&P
Paper, Chains and Beads - Encaustic (Wax) Art Meadow

Finally I adore the fairies in the shop Garden Fairy Figures I first saw these fairies on Facebook and fell in love with them. They are so original and always make me smile.

Fairy for the home or garden
Garden Fairy Figures - Fairy on a Swing



Thank you very much Roz!  One of my personal favourites in her shop is this beautiful felted elephant silhouette against the sunset, the colours are just gorgeous.

Felted Picture "Elephant in sunset"
Elephant in Sunset
 If you'd like to have a proper look at the wonderful variety in Roz's shop then here's the link: https://beta.folksy.com/shops/Rozcraftz   

All the images above have the link to the appropriate shop in the caption, just click on the name :)

Kathelle x


Wednesday 4 June 2014

Background Story - The "Flora" Tote Bag


 Also known as the "I can nearly sew it in a nap-time bag"!  

Why the name "Flora" you may ask?  Well, I named this bag after my sister-in-law, as the style reminded me of her - practical, pretty and one of a kind!  We both very much enjoy our sewing and crafts, exchanging ideas and tips!  And she likes yo-yos (the fabric flower variety!) so I put one on too.  Just because ;)



This lovely bag is a great size for the necessary essentials when you don't want to carry a huge handbag with everything in it bar the kitchen sink!  (Though as a mum of two tiny toots these days are rare now!)


The tweed is a beautiful weave of teal and moss green and beige - a very limited edition by Handmade by Heather - Isle of Harris.  It was her first lot of Harris Tweed for sale and sold out within 24 hours!  I can't wait to see what else she'll come up with.



My inspiration was from a very old faithful friend of a bag - the very first one I made!  I was on 3rd year in school (Heather was there too!) and I used it all the time - patched it, repaired it, replaced the button... and now it is in retirement in my wardrobe.


Worn corners patched with different tweed

Hand stitched label - slightly wonky!


Well worn and loved!

So here's the finished article... posing against my cabinet of curiosities! Looks sane enough but it's crammed full of crafty stuff haha!  My sister's sign is in the very background, and my granny as a young 20-something in the corner! :)

Kathelle x

Friday 30 May 2014

Nursery for two! Decorating for a boy and a girl - Part 1

Since vast amounts of space and rooms are unavailable to us at present, DJ and EJ are sharing a room.  They are quite happy with this arrangement going by late night chats (ie down at 7.30 and still gabbling an hour later, haha! :o )  and they sleep well.  Other than sometimes waking up 2 hours earlier than they used to... but they enjoy each others company :)  So the big (ish) question was, how were we going to decorate the room to suit them both? 


Very quick back story - we'd been renting our house, got the offer to buy it and it has been ours since March.  The whole house was magnolia other than the kitchen and our bedroom wall as it is fairly new.  As we'd been renting we hadn't ever properly decorated DJ's room, just a few things on the wall.  All in all it's pretty much a blank canvas!


We decided to paint the walls a very light blue as it is obviously suitable for a boy and it would also go with EJ's pink things.  The room has been split up into three zones if you like (architecture brain :p) one side each that will be purely individual beside their cots and the back wall where the toybox is, was to be shared.


While we were away at Easter time, Mr P got cracking with the painting! We got some really cute woodland stickers from Mothercare and put them in on the wall beside the pirate chest toybox that Mr P made himself.  The room doesn't have a theme as such, just things we liked and thought they'd like.  DJ was wandering around the shop with the box of stickers so we gathered he liked them haha!


Next week it'll be about DJ's side of the room... :)

Kathelle x

Wednesday 28 May 2014

Strandom is Open! :D x

Well the last week and a bit was rather crazy busy haha!  Official opening was on Friday night and I'm pleased to say it was a great success. 

After a week of seeing this:

 
and this, I finally felt I was getting somewhere!


 The finished pictures look so sane in comparison haha!  The above "burach" (Gaelic word for guddly mess!) is the result of trying to cut everything out as fast as I could before DJ & EJ woke up!

Remember this?
 

 It became one of three styles of coin purse in my Folksy shop :)


  And this pile of cut out fabric...



became this, the "Kirsty" bag :)


 I very much appreciate the help and support of friends and family, those who took the time to share my items on Facebook and Mr P. (my husband - so named by my sister a few years ago!) who had to put up with said burach for a few days!  And to those who ordered I sincerely hope you love your Standom makes :)


Now off to work on some orders! :D

Kathelle x