Claire November 20th, 2007

This seems quite strange – more posts so far than I have managed to achieve in weeks… Lets see how long this holds up eh?
As I have decided to have the morning off and go in to work about lunchtime (I am working til 9pm tonight, tomorrow and Thursday training new volunteers, so I am not that slack) I thought since David has been working hard on my website, I had better take some decent pictures of the things I have made that I want to put on it. Now the cats are still not happy with me for making them stay in (ideally for at least another week) they usually spend their time complaining loudly at me (Betty), beating each other up, or sleeping in one of their many spots they have adopted. Stella in particular likes either wedging her backside on the very narrow windowsill, and sleeping there, or curled up on my mothers Lloyd Loom ottoman, which is currently on the landing (ideal for rolling over and randomly jabbing whatever is coming up or down the stairs at the time). Betty find really random places, and tends to prefer somewhere dark, so she can’t be seen. She had wedged herself on the spare bed (I say wedged, as it was covered in stuff taken out of boxes but at the minute doesn’t have a home) and I dumped some wet washing on her before putting it on the clothes airer, cos I simply didn’t see her in there.
Now this morning I wanted to clear a space in the rather grandly titled “sewing room” (in reality a room where all my craft stuff has been put – no sewing going on in there just yet…) to take some pics. In amongst a box of odds and ends I had unpacked I found a bag of Catnip I had bought for them. Not all cats react to Catnip but this pair love it. I seem to recall Stella scaling the heights of a 6 foot empty bookcase to get to the bag on top of it the last time I moved. If you have ever spent any time watching people who are stoned and you have access to cats, I strongly suggest you purchase a bag of catnip and give it a try. You really see the different “stoner” personalities coming out. Betty tends to just go a bit odd, and last night kept stalking nothing, just whatever her own mind conjured up. Stella gets really into it, rolling round, luxuriating in it. Then spent last night sat underneath the cupboard in the kitchen that houses the boiler, watching it fire up, run, and then switch off again… For about 2 hours… It wasn’t until I went in the “sewing room” this morning to find why they had been so odd (or moreso than usual) – the catnip stash had been ripped open, was covering the floor and anything nearby, they had knocked over a box of pins (not happy about that, and neither would they if they had had to go to the vets to retreive a pin from somewhere) and Betty was snuffling around in it trying to get her morning fix. As that room is the only one in the house to have laminate (the rest are stained floorboards) it was quite easy to sweep it up and put it in another bag, and be hidden in my desk. I tell you it’s like sharing a house with a pair of teenages the sulks you get when they aren’t allowed out, and then finding them stoned upstairs…. Goodness knows what kind of parent I would make!
I only managed to take pictures of the pin cushions and needle cases this morning – the light is rubbish, and I think I will try something else later before work, but here’s some of the pictures I have taken so far – what do you think?Betty assumed her post again as artistic director and supervised the pictures, occasionally rearranging things with her tail where she saw fit..
More picture to follow when I take some more x

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Claire November 17th, 2007

It has been ages since I last wrote a post, so apologies for generally being slack. I have had a fair amount on my plate so to speak recently, not the least of which was moving house. Well, on that front, I am in, and slowly but surely unpacking and getting myself settled. Can’t believe how long it takes to unpack everything.
The cats are really annoyed with me, and Betty did not stop whining and mewing for the first 24 hours. They are both used to having the freedom to go outside pretty much as and when, but I have to keep them in for a couple of weeks in the new place, and they are not happy! Boo is disgusted that she has to use the litter tray again (she’s more of an outdoor kinda cat- alfresco poo shall we say, or shall I stop before I go too far on this one….) and her face said everything when she had to use it on the first night. If I could have captured that look it would have been great. She’s pretty hard to get a really decent photo of as she’s entirely black (apart from a couple of white ear – hairs) and I am sure that me crouching down with a camera in her face would have really sent her over the edge…
David, bless him, has been trying to get the “Pinky and Boo” (http://www.pinkyandboo.co.uk) website up and running. I came in the other day to find he had started on it, although his aesthetic abilities did not reflect the kind of thing I am aiming for, so I sat him down and showed him some of the sites I like the style of, and how I have my blog looking, so hopefully if I do they pretty and fluffy bits, he can do the coding behind it. Watch this space as it should be up and running very soon.
I have some more photos of the stock that will be going into the webstore soon, but since I cannot find the USB cable to upload the photos to the PC they willhave to wait for another time! I also need to finish off some of the seasonal stuff I have been making such as Chrsitmas bunting and embroidered stockings, so I had better get my act together!

Right, after a brief visit, I am going to stick some cheesy pop on loud and try and unpack yet another box. Back soon, I promise x

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Claire October 5th, 2007

I do seem to be neglecting my blog of late. Actually it is one of many, many things I seem to be neglecting of late. I don’t honestly know where the time is going recently – think it’s all being spent at work. Thank you all so much for your positive comments – they are appreciated, and when I wrote I was having a bit of a rough week of things. I had made the decision when I started this that it would be purely about craty type things, but inevitably other bits, like life itself, get in the way (how inconvenient!).
Things have settled down to a slower yet at the same time frantic pace. David and I viewed a house last week which was woodchip hell – the owners/previous tenants had put woodchip EVERYWHERE – and I mean, they had even put a tasteful (?!) panel of it on the doors and painted them to match the room. What tipped me over the edge (literally – don’t think the estate agent was best pleased with me that day) was the ceiling fans in every room (we live in the UK for pity’s sake – it’s never THAT warm to warrant celing fans…) and the delightful 70′s dark green shag pile in the bathroom that had been use to create a “sunken bath” effect, complete with clashing wall tiles and polystyrene ceiling tiles which I am sure are illegal now as they are such a fire risk……………… Needlesss to say we despaired after that. I then called on the off chance a small ad and arranged to view last Friday, when we were viewing another property via an agency. The agency property was another disaster, and it was only nosiness that made me look upstairs! Can I just say, that all boy rooms smell if they are living on their own. Don’t know how they do it, but it smelt like a school changing room in that house!!
The 2nd property, however was lovely and we have put our deposit down for it. It’s a 1930′s semi in a nice leafy suburb – far better than anything I have ever lived in since leaving home! Neutral decor, wooden floors, and hug rooms – just the ticket. The nice thing is the smallest room, which isn’t by any standards small, has laminate flooring which is ideal since it will be my sewing room/ craft room/ place I can store all my junk. Then at least if I drop pins on the floor they will stay where they fall, rather than get stuck between the floor boards and stab me or the cats in the foot. The garden is lovely and the landlady is happy for me to grow veg in it (have always wanted a vegetable patch) and she was encouraging me when I said I wanted to have a composter. It even has a pond, which although isn’t any more than a foot or so deep, I am paranoid that the cats will fall into and drown. I am thinking of putting things up the sides, or raising the floor of it, as it has no fish in it to my knowledge, but is a haven for frogs.
The one downside to the house is the lack of original features. The kitchen is lovely and brand new, and you can see where the Aga would have been. The floors look nice as they are stained dark brown and have the original stairs and bannisters in, and that’s about it really. The fire is a really modern one, and the door has had the stained glass removed and replaces, and whoever has had the house for a while built in a porch thing that covers up the original doorway, which is a real shame, but since we are only renting it, I am OK with it all.
Not done much craft wise recently as I haven’t had the time or energy, but I did pick up some vintage postcards in London the other week from a stall in Islington, near the Angel tube station.I have another meeting down there before Christmas so I am hoping to go back there again. I bought these to use as bases for some stuff for Pinky and Boo – bags and aprons.
I have my first public sale in a few weeks – I am taking along a variety of things, and I have realised how much time I need to spend on the making up – aargh! May be a small stall at this rate, but I will let you know nearer the time – if anyone is in the area then drop by – Saturday 27th October, Brinsley, Nottinghamshire – it’s near Eastwood, which if anyone is into English literature, was the birthplace of D.H. Lawrence. If you want to drop by, I can email you directions. Then what isn’t sold, I will stick on Etsy for Christmas.

Better go and do some work now – Thanks to Faye for passing on the Nice matters award – I hadn’t forgotten, and will get myself sorted out soon to nominate some more people!

Have a good weekend xoxo

• home , pinky and boo , thrifting
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Claire September 15th, 2007

It’s taken me ages to get the time to get round to writing something – this last 2 weeks have been crazy at work and I have only had time to check other people’s comments and blogs in what lunch time I have grabbed (I don’t call lunch at 3:30pm, lunch, but that’s probably me being a bit picky…) so as I have finished work again for this week (more 6 day working weeks, groan!!) I thought I would stop by for a quick one.
As I haven’t been doing anything much apart from work, I have little to report on. I was even so tired this week that I didn’t get as much out of our weekly craft group as I normally do – just sat quietly and made daisies for a blanket and sewed some felt roses together to make, dare I say it, more pincushions for Pinky and Boo. One of my friends suggested I specialise in pincushions, but I know that after the initial glut of making them I will get bored with them and move onto something else (mind like a magpie I have!). I know when I get really tired I start feeling really ratty and will argue with anyone, thenI get past that stage and justget tearful. Well after a week of arguments with people not doing their jobs properly, I could quite happily sit and have a good cry. Or I would if I wasn’t so tired! I’ll be OK with a bit of rest and some chilling out…
One thing I did manage to squeeze in for myself this week was a trip to pick up some lovely pottery from Gerry on Realcycle. I know I have battered on about Realcycle before, and at the risk of going overboard I will go on about it again. These were offered a while ago – my eyes lit up when I saw the offer, and shockingly I was the only person to reply to it! I love these, and had wanted to start picking them up when I saw them, planning for mine and David’s new house (where and when it appears) and squirreling things away. Trouble is, I don’t see them very often.

I am totally in love with the vingegar/oil pourer. Symonds Yat – fantastic name. I hadn’t got a clue where it was, so good old Google came to my assistance (in case you are interested, it’s near Monmouth. If you need to know where Monmouth is, Google it yourself!). I got particularly excited about it with the thought of using them regularly, as in “fancy some Symonds Yat for your chips, dear” kind of way. I do need to get out more!!
I actually emailed for them as I was excited at the thought of a Filey egg cup. Growing up in Hull it was very easy to jump on a train and go to the seaside for the day as it was never that far away, and I have some lovely memories of days there. When I was in my final years at school I volunteered with Arthiritis Care, and we used to help on the day trips to Filey. All the ladies we were helping wanted to either be pushed to the sea front, or more likely, Bingo and left to it, as we were happy as anything being left to their own devices without well meaning teenagers hanging around.
Anyway, from what I think will be the shortest post I have managed yet, I will leave you and get back to the chaos! x

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Claire September 7th, 2007

It seems ages since I have had the time to write here, and even longer since I actually finished something I am making. I have tons of stuff that is half made, part completed, “work in progress” – whatever you want to call it, it’s simply not finished!

I made a concerted effort this week to do the stuff I find the most boring – cutting things out and checking what I have planned for Pinky and Boo when I get round to launching it. As well as the pin cushions I have shown you previously, I have a few bags that are made of vintage doilies and tray cloths that have been applique’d and embellished,

a couple of things made from vintage fabrics that have been hand beaded, and a range of household bits and bobs like aprons, peg bags etc that all have kitsch embroidery patches on them.
I adore the creative bit – embroidering the patches, crocheting the flowers etc, and find this the most rewarding. The bit I don’t like, for some strange reason is the making up of everything. Probably because I have to follow rules to make them look OK – find it a bit boring and something of a no-brainer when all I really want to do is play around with patterns and stitches and make things look pretty.
I have always made my own clothes – started when I was about 13, and I used to love it, and spend all my time cutting, pinning and sewing new things for me and my friends. Now, I simply can’t be bothered – it’s a means to an end.
Probably what hasn’t helped is the fact I no longer have “my” space for sewing. I used to have a reasonably large room to store junk/ stick glue and stitch in, and now I have a glorified cupboard that is full of junk and you have to haul everything out before you can get to anything else. It’s been ages since I saw more than a foot’s width of space, and even then I had to kick my shoes off to wedge myself in. David and I are going to be looking for houses soon for when we live together and one of my stipluations is having a room for us to do our hobbies in – I admittedly have far more stuff than he does, but he plays with tiny fighting men, which naturally take up less space than yards of fabric…. heaven only knows what will happen when we start planning children. I will probably camp out in a shed somewhere to have my creative space then. Either that or it’s where the kids will sleep… So in the meantime I am a bit cramped, which is probably why I am working on small detailed things.

I have also finished a couple of the project bags (something, at last, that’s completed!) and I am happy with them. I have something similar planned for Pinky and Boo shop but not using handerchiefs, but all will be revealed in time.

One of the reasons I started blogging was to get used to t’Internet and to become less afraid of computers. I would not say by any means I am a technophobe, I know what I need to use a computer for, and am pretty proficient at it, if I do say so myself. Apart from t’internet. That’s scary and I don’t want to mess things up. Which is why I have been a bit of an ostrich for so long.

Now I am enjoying blogging, I have now added a Flickr album, and feel OK with that, apart from it taking so, so long to load the images that I don’t have the time to add descriptions or captions to most of them. David is making sure I don’t back out of the website stuff and is showing me bits and bobs that admittedly aren’t rocket science to most people, but please me when I can do them. He realises I am not that confident in myself, so show me something to whet my appetite, that I can do over and over and feel comfortable with, and I want more. Like trying to coax a cat that doesn’t want to come in for the night with a tasty nibble. Thinking about it that’s quite a good analogy as I am quite food orientated….

Anyway, I have been taking more pictures of my stuff, so feel free to have a browse at them, and pass comments if you feel like it. All the time I took pictures I was being watched by a very grumpy Stella, who wasn’t fooled into coming in by the tasty nibble and spent the night on the tiles, and just wanted her bed. She’s like a stroppy teenager sometimes!
I plan on adding some free patterns soon – embroidery patterns and some instructions from some vintage 50′s sewing magazines I have to make model villages etc. I now know how to do them, only to find my scanner isn’t wanting to play with me and has decided to go on strike. So I will use the work one, when I have finished the mountain of paperwork I have at the minute.

I will also be planning a give away of buttons and zips, so watch out for that. Coming soon at a blog near you, and all that jazz..

Thanks for stopping by

Claire xoxo

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Claire August 22nd, 2007

It feels like ages since I have posted – after my initial glut of (very long) posts, sampling the delights of blogging, I kinda dried up a bit. That’s more due to having a lot on, and not having my camera around with me to be able to take pictures of the stuff I have acquired. And that has been particularly fruitful recently. How is it that when you are skint, you see some real bargains? I cannot resist a charity shop, and luckily I know a few really good ones. I also seem to have “urges”(not those kind!) to go into shops, and when I have I have managed to find some real bargains. Take this for example -

This vintage peach cut glass dressing table tray was bought for the princely sum of 10p. I am not kidding. Now, although I have a dressing table my set is green, with lots of mismatching trinket boxes and dishes. The peach will not be making an appreance on my dressing table, but I will use it to display some of the things I have made, andwill be nice for sorting beads on, as it has a small lip all the way round to stop them rolling off. I will find some use for it – even standing a plant on it – for 10p I could not resist.

Then this:


for 30p. Yes, charity shops do still have those kind of prices – you just need to know where to look and go when you are being called! It’s a daisy maker, and I have been looking for one for ages, after buying a Golden Hands book for 10p on holiday, that showed a lovely quilt made up of nothing but daisies crocheted together – so pretty.

I do love the instructions – how to be creative. It should be serialised and put into one of the part work magazines that no one manages to collect because newsagents stop stocking it. Like you can learn how to be creative. I feel everyone is creative, just lacking in confidence in their abilities. I also love this woman’s expresison – she’s shocked that her top has daisies on it. Either that or she has really bad wind….
Daisy makers were big in the 70′s when there was a lot of interest in crafts, and then all of a sudden you couldn’t find them anywhere. This was in the middle of a load of knitting patterns, and had the sheet from the magazine, and the daisy maker hadn’t even been made up. Made a few to practice, and I will make these into a baby blanket to sell in my Pinky and Boo shop (when it is eventually set up).

Speaking of Pinky and Boo,I thought I would show you some of the things I have been making for the shop – pincushions galore. Not all of them are finished, but I have made quite a few. Well, about 50 or so….

I think they look better like this though

- much nicer. Some of them are nice and squishy, some have lavender in them so when you push your pins in it releases the smell. They are made either from vintage fabrics, or new fabrics that are vintage inspired, and all have wool felt leaves and crocheted flowers, often made from vintage threads, such as some lovely smocking threads Susan gave me – they are quite hard to use as the fine hook (1mm) splits the threads, but when they are done they look really lovely with a soft sheen, and curl up on themselves like they are just opening up. They are all finished on the bottom with a mother of pearl button.

One of the other things I have been doing is working on other things to sell, and have been making some “rosebud slippers” from a pattern in Essential Crochet” by Erika Knight – a gorgeous book that Pamela gave me – these will have ribbon ties on them, almost like ballet shoes and are really pretty.

So far I have made a pink pair and half of a pair in a lovely eau de nile colour. The purse I have my crochet hooks in was 50p from the same charity shop I got the daisy maker in. I keep my really fine ones that I make the Irish crochet flowers with in an old wooden pencil box I have had since I was a child – keeps them from sliding around too much and getting damaged. I have also been crocheting some dishcloths for a gift pack I am going to make up for the shop, although I may use the experiments pictured here at home myself.

Another long post, so I will go now and get on with some work! xoxo

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Claire August 3rd, 2007

It’s taken me a while to pluck up the courage to actually write my first post. I have been reading other people’s blogs for ages now, and several people have told me that I really aught to get one. So I finally did. It has however, made me really think about what the hell I would write.
Having a blog, or starting one seems a bit of a scary process. What would I write about, and more to the point, who the hell would want to read it. But, taking a bit of a leap of faith, I am writing my first post, so welcome to my little corner of the world.

Seems sensible place to start to give you a bit of background to what I am doing and why I am doing it. I suppose that the reason I started reading other people’s blogs, and the reason I set mine up is my lifelong interest in crafts – sticking, gluing, stitching – you name it, I have had a go, or planned to have a go at it at some point in my life. I have always dreamed about the time when I was in a financial position to make a living from what I love doing craft wise, but so far that day is a long way off.
I am in the process of trying to set my website up (will be at www.pinkyandboo.co.uk) so I can sell the bits I have slaved over, but having a blog, and possibly posting things to sell on it seems like I am dipping my toe in the world on the web, and whilst I am not a technophobe, I seem to be blundering around and not making any progress towards my goal of setting up the website and making it work, much to the frustration of my other half who loves IT, and bought my domain name probably a year ago now. Installing programmes for me and encouraging me to read Dreamweaver books has not made much a of a difference, as I am no further ahead. But I’ll get there.

No, sound a bit more confident girl, I WILL GET THERE!

So the rest of my first post should really be devoted to writing about what I am interested in, and what the heck I would like to start selling at some point. My tastes have changed over the years, and as I have matured, I suppose what I thought of as a “guilty pleasure” when I was a goth (more about that at another time), for doilies, embroidery and all things cute and kitsch, I now embrace as OK to admit to liking, and quite proud of the collection I have amassed. It’s kinda like coming out really. And it’s lovely out here!

My mother taught me to embroider when I was very young, and I still have some of the bits of Binca I learned to sew on when I was at Infants school (pictures later, when I have got my head round things!), and I still use 2 linen doilies on my dressing table which were my first pieces that were good enough to keep for all these years. I grew up in a family that was creative, and both my parents showed me skills they had, and encouraged me to try new things out, so I was incredibly lucky in that respect. I really have a struggle to get my head around people who don’t have a hobby of some sort. I have too many, and it’s a constant battle to decide which one. When I doing one thing I am planning what I can do with something else. Too many ideas, too little time I fear. Bet that sounds familiar to many people.

So, about a year ago, I decided after having a look at some things in magazines and seeing things on the internet, that I could do that, and set about it. My plans originally started out from making a handbag that was from my paternal grandmother’s curtains. I had and still have a lot of compliments on it, and it boosted my confidence to try making things to sell. It also gives me a chance to use up some of the bits and bobs and the HUGE amount of fabric I have built up.

On a more spiritual level, I suppose I feel more connected to my roots and my heritage by keeping alive the things I was taught as a child, something which is very important to me, and has been especially since my mother died. It makes things make sense, and if you are into crafting, you will probably know what I mean. If you don’t then I can’t think of another way of explaining it really. No doubt I will expand on it at another time.

And then there’s the name: Pinky and Boo. Simple explanation for that one – it’s named after my 2 cats, or at least their nicknames. Sounds strange to say that pets have nicknames, but if you are a pet owner, then again, you will understand…. Stella is white, with ginger and black spodges, but has shell pink ears and nose, and as she often comes home a bit dirty after grubbing around in goodness knows what, she’s called amongst other things “Stinky Pinky” (not the nicest of nicknames I know, but honestly, it suits her…) and Betty, well it’s an obvious connection to Boo. Hence Pinky and Boo. My friend and housemate Rach came up with the names for them both as I’m a bit useless at naming things, and when I was trying to think of a name for the line of things I am making, she came up with Pinky and Boo. It reminds me of something old fashioned, probably in ice cream colours and with frills. A bit twee and kitsch. Like a lot of the stuff I make.

Seems quite appropriate then, to start off this post with a picture of the rascals, in a rare moment of peace and harmony.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by x

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