Claire February 7th, 2008

Eleven, actually. I have started making the roses for my wedding dress. I also bought the pattern for my wedding dress – after lots of thinking, and long chats with my friend Rach, who knows be better than I know myself I sometimes think, I am making my entire wedding dress. I had originally wanted a corset, and my friend Lisa was going to do that for me, then I would make a skirt to go with it, but I couldn’t afford it, buying the fabric and all the other bits and bobs like netting etc, and paying her a decent wage for the corset – it would have cost almost £500. So, back to the drawing board.
Rach took me to try some dresses last week just for ideas of styles and colours – apparantly I suit ivory not cream – I would never have even thought about that. I knew there were different colours but assumed that I suited most of them. I look jaundiced in a cream – not a good look! We then had a look at patterns in John Lewis and I chose a reissued vintage Vogue pattern from 1957 – very New Look Dior, ballerina length skirt with a huge amount of fabric, and I am adapting it for it to be sleeveless. I really wanted to post a picture of it, but David sometimes reads my blog, and I don’t want him seeing it (sorry dear!) so you will have to wait to see it too. I am though, going to make a toile, so I will pick a similar weight cotton to the duschesse satin I have my eye on and make it up as a summer dress – trial run to see where it’s likely to go wrong!

I also managed to find some of the embroidered tulle I fell in love with for half the price on eBay that will go over the satin. Then it will be covered in these crochet roses. I have done some cream, some white and some a colour in between, and all of them are vintage threads. I have toyed with the idea of making vintage lace leaves too, but I don’t know – I do know that I am useless when it comes to making the crochet leaves. So 11 down, only another 150 or so to go…

Whilst I am here (2 posts in 2 days – what the heck is going on?) I thought I would show you some of the embroideries I have been doing to applique onto face cloths for the craft fairs I am booked onto. I may list some on Etsy too. These are all from Jenny Hart’s patterns and were so easy to do - I am also doing some that would appeal more to boys, or tomboys for that matter – rockets, aliens and racing cars. I’ll post some more pics when I am done and they are in situ. I just didn’t want all my posts to be moans, promises to tidy myself up (it is better, but since things got moved into my sewing room over the weekend whilst trying to sort the rest of the house out, it looks worse, although nowhere near as bad as it was – at least things now stack up…) or being smug about what I managed to find in a charity shop.
Who knows, I may be back again tomorrow x

• embroidery , pinky and boo , wedding
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Claire January 28th, 2008

I know that this isn’t a proper update on the room tidying – well there has been a lot, but it’s not quite finished yet, and I don’t want to post pictures of it until it’s done. I am replacing some of the stack a crates that don’t stack. David is quite happy about that as he can then use them in the cellar for some of the scenery he has for his tiny fighting men. I am replacing them with more of the clear plastic storage boxes that I am in love with. And I need more of them considering what I managed to find on Saturday.

I know that a couple of posts ago I was bleating on about the lack of decent craft materials in Nottingham (and judging from some of the comments, pretty much everywhere else for that matter..)but I really had to take it back on Saturday. I have been meeting up with my best mate Rach on Saturdays and doing a bit of charity shopping/thrifting. Where David and I have moved to is great for that as there’s about 7 decent charity shops on the main road. One of my favourites is the Nottinghamshire Hospice shop, a very worthy cause and the source of many bargains. I headed to the back where the bedding and doilies are kept and nearly screamed when I saw the pile of stuff I wanted. I got 4 packets of the Anchor soft embroidery cotton – they’re really old and none of them have been used. Included were some Anchor stranded cotton so they will go in with my stash. And underneath them in a basket were all these colours of crochet cotton and perle cotton (which I have also used for crochet) - 25p each…. My mate saw me with my arms full, asked the lady behind the counter for a bag for me and held my bags whilst I gathered… The bowl they are in is a large ceramic mixing bowl I got from the Scout shop for £2 (just to give you an idea of the scale). The poor lady behind the till is normally thinking I am crazy buying napkins and silk scarves and doilies reguarly. This kind of tipped her over the edge.

I then got some zips for 5p, and a lovely 70′s hen and chicks pre printed toy thing (there is a word for it but I’ll be blown if I can think of it after a day at work). And this box of cottons, complete with a thimble. Whilst I was paying for all my booty, I spotted another bag of stuff that had just been donated, and rummaged through to find yet more cotton, balls of 4ply cotton for facecloths and a kitsch knitting bag for 35p… I could have got more but felt I would then be greedy (like this isn’t…… Rach justified it by asking how much I would have paid for it in Hobbycraft, and what I will use them for, how many flowers and other bits I can get out of each ball of thread. She’s great like that bless her. Still thinking of going back later this week….. Apparantly when I came out of the shop I was looking quite flushed. I tell you, it was a beautiful thing….

I haven’t spent all my time/ money shoping -I have also spent quite a bit of time crafting, although I have yet to take pictures of them – I have managed to complete 5 embroideries for apron pockets and peg bags since Wednesday, so I am very pleased – will post pics of them later, when I have a bit more time to take nice pictures. And finish the room off for “unveiling” to the world…. Until then, xoxo

• pinky and boo , thrifting
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Claire January 13th, 2008

Just…. rocking gently away in a corner, humming cheesy pop to myself and crocheting quietly. Seriously, that’s been me. The night of the “invasion” I didn’t get much sleep (even though I had to work running a playgroup for disabled children the next day) – at least the lads had the civility to not pump the air bed up at 3am as it sounds ridiculously loud. However I did lay in bed and very feel sorry for myself until they had all gone out for the day (and no, I didn’t want to get up at 7:30 to help David wash pots and cook eggs for his mates that had ignored me… am I mean? or sane?).

So, on a lighter note, having spent a lovely day with my best friend, cooking Sunday dinner (delicious) and “chewing the fat” with her, still crocheting and watching some lovely wildlife films and Antiques Roadshow (rock and roll life for me I tell you) I thought when I got back in that I would show you some of the things I have been working on and purchasing recently.

I am very lucky to have a lovely textiles shop around the corner from me that specialises in wool and felting fibres – I need to get back into felting as I love the texture of it, and I have planned a handbag from a sweater I acquired for a wedding I am going to next month. Anyway, I picked up these threads to crochet purses with - they are hand dyed linen and only £1.50 a spool – I thought that this was a bargain.
I do lament the lack of range in the craft supplies we can get in Nottingham. When I think of the history of Nottingham, the lace industry and the myth that surrounds the craft supplies I am generally frustrated by what you cannot buy. I was in Derby this week for a conference which led me to a trip to the market there and a great little haberdashery shop that I always spend a fortune in whenever I do go. And I picked up this little lot for £15 - the crochet threads you can get hold of in Nottingham are very basic and so I bought what I could that I didn’t have. I also bought the DK cotton for face cloths I am making.

I am planning on making quite a lot of basic stuff to sell at craft fairs this year, like face cloths and hair slides as well as the other bits and bobs that are a bit cheaper. Hence making loads of face cloths – easy and very satisfying and just the ticket when you have been invaded by hoards of tiny fighting men…

Back again soon – I’m off to try and get a head start on some sleep – they are still here! xoxo

• David , pinky and boo , works in progress
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Claire January 2nd, 2008

OK, that’s not the most original title for a post, but it’s about all I can manage today – think I feel worse today than I did yesterday. To ring in the New Year I went with my best mate to the Saluation Inn, where I go to on the rare occasions I go out (they do a great rock karaoke on a Friday, and is one of the oldest pubs in Nottingham – lots to do with the Civil War, low ceilings, wattle and daub walls etc) for their New Years’ eve party. We had to be there for 11, and met up with some others in another pub we go to. The Sal was open til 8 am on the posters. Not wanting to spoil a good night before I even went out, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it that late. David didn’t come out as he was tired from working, and his wisdom tooth was playing up (he can’t have it extracted til 15th….).

I ended up getting in just after 4, dropping my mobile phone down the toilet (in case it doesn’t say on the instruction manuals, but they don’t work after being in water. Ever. Don’t even bother trying to try them out drunkenly on a towel from the laundry basket, and muttering expletives at the same time – doesn’t work. Thought I had better let you know..) and then waking up again at 6 with terrible stomach cramps (I have IBS anyway, and this wasn’t good) and throwing up.
I did go back to sleep after that though feeling much better, so much better that I managed to break into one of my old, lesser excercised habits – speed gibbering first thing in the morning. As I haven’t been out much, I don’t get the chance to do it much, but I gibbered at David for about 20 minutes as soon as I woke up and found I didn’t need to have more runs to the loo. We watched Elf yesterday – a film that is definately on my level there, and David kindly pointed out to me that I speak like that in the mornings. I am lucky if David can actually anunciate words at me first thing, so I don’t get interrupted either!
However, today I feel ROUGH! I think I am going to go and see my friend and have a quiet day of it (not back at work til 7th – hoorah!) and be gentle to myself. In case you were wondering, I left my friend in the pub at 4, and she texted us (well, David’s phone that I didn’t wreck) and she managed to make it til after 8 at a party – I have never been able to do that and have infinate admiration for anyone that can make it like that. I am so grumpy if I don’t have enough sleep. Really grumpy. No speed gibbering then!

Anyway, I have decided that I am not making New Years’ resolutions, but I am simply re-starting the things I should be doing that I set out to do last year. Namely
Lose weight (lost 2 stone this year although goodness knows how much went back on over Christmas) as I want to lose ideally another 4 stone before the wedding. That isn’t for any reason other than in the 10 years I have lived in Nottingham I have put on over 7 stone. Enough! I have photographs to look at from the wedding for the rest of my life and I refuse to feel self conscious on my wedding day.
Worry less – I spend so much time worrying, and bottling things up, and it does me no good.
Make Pinky and Boo go where I want it to. Not that I have plans for world domination, but it’s something I feel passionate about and want to make it work. I have craft fairs I would like to go to, and etsy, and my website when David finishes it (that’s one of his resolutions) – I enquired about Not on the High Street, they contacted me by phone twice asking me to complete the forms, but my other problem stood in the way – cash. I simply couldn’t rustle up £450, even when they tried working out a payment plan for me, bless them. One day!
Have a better work/life balance. No matter how many hours I put into my job I still feel like i am only scratching the surface. I don’t think it’s what I am doing wrong, but there is simply too much to do in the hours, and as I am the only full time member of staff, if I don’t do it, it doesn’t get done. However, being ill before Christmas and coming close to burning out showed me that I need to cut back a little, do the hours I am supposed to do and say No more often.
Start getting stuff for the wedding done early. I am going to start making the flowers for my wedding dress (lots of the little crochet flowers I use on the Pinky and Boo stuff) this week. I will need hundreds, and I am terrible for leaving things to the last minute and getting so stressed I make myself ill. Not doing it this time!
And last but not least – work on my blogging. That also means taking better photographs. As my father was a photographer in his spare time,you would have thought that I would have been better at it than I am. Again, it’s about taking time to do it.

Pretty tall order really. Anyway, enough speed gibber typing, I will leave you with a (pretty poor) picture of the the lovely sewing box my best mate’s mum made me for Christmas – the picture really doesn’t do it justice at all.

Happy New Year to you and yours and I will be back again soon! xoxo

• pinky and boo
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Claire December 28th, 2007

There’s no place like home… why, dear readers the heck do you think I would be quoting dear old Dorothy a few days after Christmas? Well, as you can probably see from the picture below – I am wearing a fabulous pair of red shoes. Not just any old red shoes though – the ones I will be wearing at my wedding. Not that I think I will be standing at the alter and clicking my heels together 3 times, of course, but I tell you, trying to find red round toe shoes with a kitten heel (I’m already a couple of inches taller than David and so I don’t want to tower above him…), preferably with a little bit of glitter on them, in a size 8, is near on impossible. Yes, I have huge feet. Yes, I find it very hard to get shoes in the sales.
My Nanna used to say to me that “at least I wouldn’t blow over in a wind” I think in an effort to make me feel better, although I did sometimes doubt her motivation for saying quite a few things. But I succeeded and found the ones I wanted for £15 – what a bargain! Good job really as I don’t have much money to put my outfit together on. Also another reason for making it.

I love these shoes! Anyone who knows me will know I develop obsessions with different things, and you may have noticed that I have a bit of a “thing” for bluebirds… I also have a bit of a “thing” for the Wizard of Oz, and red shoes.

I am also having a bit of a “thing” for being at home at the minute – I have been rushed off my feet this year so much with work, and launching inky and Boo, moving and the rest that life has thrown my way this year, and now I don’t have to be back at work til 7th Jan, so at the minute, there is no place like home...I recorded the Red Shoes with Moira Shearer – one of my favourite films from childhood, so I may settle down later with some crochet and watch it, whilst wearing my new red shoes… Bliss!

Some other sale bargains I got were ( in charity shops) this Carlton Ware bowl filled with buttons for £2, and 3 silk type scarves for £1 each
- these I will be making into bags and cushions for Pinky and Boo – my original idea for Pinky and Boo was bags, as you can read about in my first few posts. However, I have so far not made or sold any bags for Pinky and Boo. I have a ton of them cut out, and some almost completed, so I will be making an effort to get these done as soon as possible to get them out there. I also got this fab book for £2

- it shoes you how to make kites, wigwams, embroidery hoops (why?) and all sorts of really random bits and bobs.

So that is what I shall do – get myself some Pinky and Boo stuff to do, settle myself on the sofa, and enjoy having the house to my self. Hope that whatever you are up to is fun and makes you happy xoxo

• pinky and boo , thrifting , wedding
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Claire December 24th, 2007

Just a quick post to wish you all a very merry Christmas, and I hope that 2008 brings all that you wish for yourself and those you love. My year has been made all the better by reading people’s blogs, making new friends, and sharing the love of crafting and thrifting with others. I’m going now before I sound too twee for words.

Oh, and the biggest thank you is for all the support you have shown my fledgling business – your kind words of encouragement were more appreciated than you probably realise.

Best wishes xoxo

• pinky and boo
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Claire December 13th, 2007

That’s all I seemt to do – promise things and then give updates. I swear that I have set myself the task of blogging properly next year – naughty blogger that I am! I envy people who seem to mamage to fit in taking pictures and posting regularly. Instead of spending time envying them I just need to sort my life out and get on with it really.

Have put some more stock on Etsy (at long last – it’s almost Christmas and I have only just managed to get things photographed and on there… how slack am I?) with the hope that some of it will go before Christmas, such as the bunting and the stockings, but as selling on Etsy seems to be slow I am not sure – let me know what you think to stuff anyway – all feedback as usual is gratefully received!
I think like so many people at the minute I am so tired and really ready for a break. Last week we ran a trip for 50 people to go to the pantomime (which was such good fun, and so much better than supervising 50 young offenders and almost being barred from a theatre which was my expeience for the last 2 years- Oh the humble pie I ate then….) as well as organise and run a Christmas party for 17 kids with special needs on the Saturday. I am also trying to fit in meeting my friend Rachel regularly, spend time with David, unpack, and finish things off for stuff I want to sell. Something has got to give, and I am counting the days down to next Weds whenI finish til 7th Jan – see the blog posts then!

Anyway, is I have learned anything in this job, it’s to be grateful for what I have got, so I will shut up moaning and show some pretty pictures instead. xx

All stockings are hand embroidered, and as usual use vintage patterns and are lined with some vintage gingham that Edie gave me in the summer. I’m pleased with them – they’re in my shop or email me if you would be interested in any of them

• etsy , pinky and boo
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Claire December 12th, 2007

Hi All

Thanks for stopping by – I have been a very neglectful bogger recently, but I have been very productive and making lots of things. Over the next day I will be adding some more stock for Chritmas (late I know but if you’re in the UK it’s fine for buying still. Will post more tomorrow – it’s now past midnight and I have to be on a train to London tomorrow at 8….but in the meantime here’s some of the things on offer:

Vintage style christmas baubles with wool, cotton and vintage lace

Christmas stockings made from vintage cotton, hand embroidered and lined with vintage gingham – each one is unique

Vintage chrismas bunting – with bells on!

And wreaths to match the baubles and bunting – topped with a cheeky feather robinThanks for stopping by – will pop back again tomorrow as soon as all the items are listed on Etsy. ‘Night x

• crafts , pinky and boo
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Claire December 2nd, 2007

Woohoo! Pinky and Boo loveliness is stocked on Etsy! I am so easily pleased aren’t I? It was the product of a very late night, and I can’t believe the mental blocks I had to push away to get it done – for some unknown reason I stuggled with listing things, but after a bit of a stern word with myself and coaxing from David on how easy it really is, the majority of the things I have ready are on it, waiting for a new loving home like eager kittens needing to be picked up and loved (I am soppy aren’t I – no, it’s OK, I do know it!). I still have a few bits and bobs to finish off that will be on there this week, such as Christmas stockings and bunting, but the more time I spend blogging the less sewing I do….
Anyway, as a tease – here are some of the things I have on sale – if you want to see the rest – go and have a look. Best wishes xoxo

• etsy , pinky and boo
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Claire November 30th, 2007

I knew the regular blogging wouldn’t last long… Too much to do and too little time to do it in. And as you may have noticed, I do like to have pretty pictures with my posts. Finding the time to take pictures however is another thing. It means clearing away the half unpacked crud that is littering the house, removing cats etc, and just seems like a bit too much effort at the minute.

However, I have opened an Etsy shop (at long last) in the long wait for my little website to be up and running (at this rate it will be the new year…..). I will be adding some stock to it this weekend, so please pop along and see what sort of things I have put on it. Not ready to be photographed yet are some Christmas stockings, and some vintage christmas bunting and some cute bird bauble things I have almost finished – they should be up there by next week. Then when that is all done I have some presents to make for some lovely people, but that will be a secret until I have given them to the recipients (in case they read this!).

I popped into a shop in Nottingham called “Joy” this week with some samples of what I have done- when the shop opened up it was when I was starting to make things, and it scared me that the shop looked like the thing I had in my head – lots of glittery birds, enamel jewellery, bags that looked vintage etc…. I tell you, it’s more nerve-wracking than a craft fair displaying your wares for some other person’s opinion and critical eye. Anyway, the upshot of a conversation with the owner and bringing along some of the bits and bobs I had made was that they have 5 of the needle cases I had with me – the basket of flowers ones, and 4 pincushions, on sale or return. The thing that miffed me somewhat is that my lables weren’t attached to anything, so no one would know who made them. And my own naivity really at the price I would be paid for my stock. (I didn’t get quite what I wanted for the needlecases, but it is a valuable lesson for me to learn I suppose). Feels like I have put in a lot of hard work to the things I make for someone else to profit from it, but such is owning a shop, and such is the role of the supplier.
I will pop back again when I have loaded some of the stuff for sale – feel free to let me know what you think – I am just starting out at this, and all feedback is appreciated! xoxo

• etsy , pinky and boo
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