Bank holiday weekends

We've just had our last proper bank holiday weekend in the U.K. until Christmas. I used to love bank holiday weekends when I was young free and single. My friends and I would go to Saddler Gate in Derby where they used to do games during the days, you'd meet old friends you hadn't seen in years and catch up.

Now I'm married I don't get to do fun things like drink far too much larger and stay out clubbing till 5am.

Instead I get to go to B&Q and buy building sand and gorgeous tubs of snap dragons for £1.50 off the reduced stand. Not that I mind really, I got to spend the day with my hubby and also got my new raised flower beds finished so next weekend I can fill them with soil and I'll have a proper garden at last.

It just shows how your outlook changes as you get older. All I want now is a finished house and garden where I can entertain in a tea dress, while passing round cucumber sandwiches (no crusts). Well maybe I'm not that quite grown up yet.

For some reason I've not really done that much crafting since my last post. I think I've just been waiting for some time off from work and a few late mornings in bed.

I have however been EBay shopping and bought far to many ribbons in a fit of madness. I'm not quite sure what it is I'm going to do with them but they looked so pretty I couldn't stop myself.

I have used some of the fine ones to make some button bracelets, I may use some as detailing on my knitted bags. I've got a very wide yellow spotty one which is begging to be used as a huge bow on a knitted creation.

I discovered some baby blue mohair at the back of my stash on Friday night which was begging to be turned into a felted scarf. I've included a picture pre-felting below next week I'll show you the finished project.

I'm planning on starting to list my scarfs next week on Etsy, one every other day. Autumn approaches so fast and even through we've had lovely weather all weekend, I have found myself thinking of Christmas and what I'll be buying as gifts.

I've found a really good blog via Flickr that gives really good hints and tips on how to promote and list things in your Etsy shop which now I'll be following to the letter.Here is the link all the hints are on the right hand side. http://littleput.blogspot.com/

Well back to my baby blue mohair I had just enough left to make a small bag before the cone of yarn ran out. This could be the bag for the pale yellow ribbon.

I hate finishing cones of yarn I know I'll never get this yarn back as I'm not sure where it was from in the first place.

When I was at university I was gifted many cones of yarn. Once when I went away with my parents to Robin Hoods Bay we met a lovely lady called Julia whose daughter was a knitwear designer who didn't design any more. She sold us about 300 cones of yarn for a very reasonable price of £150.00, it is this yarn I'm still using. I am quite lucky in the fact that I've so many fabulous yarns to chose from without having much out lay.

Now I've said that I'm off to the knitting and stitching show at the NEC in September and I've really promised my self I won't go mad. I do need some fasteners for my corsages and I'd also like lots of crimps for my jewellery and some nice fasteners for necklaces. Then if I've been very good I might look at the wool.

I almost forgot I'll be buying beads for wedding jewellery I've been commissioned to make for a friends wedding next spring that's if she decides on a dress design and fabric before I go. Its very exciting I've never been commissioned to make jewellery before.

new things

I've finished three new bags this week which have all been added to my Etsy shop.
I was wondering if anyone else out there who gets itchy fingers Like I do when I'm not working on something creative. There's no-one at work who feels like I do. I carn't even sit through a film with out something being done. I've always got a list in my head about what I'd like to make next.
I used to spend my free time at work Looking through blogs reading what other people were doing, even through for many of the people in blog world that was socks. Which I don't really get not being a sock wearer, even in winter. I'd rather go bare foot than wear socks. I don't get socks but reading about other people getting excited about what they were doing, gets me excited about what I'm doing.


Even knitting flowers like the ones above settles me and stops me getting itchy fingers. I drive my husband insane as he like to hold hands but I like to keep busy .One day I'll run out of stash and then he won't know whats hit him.

Birthday bbq for dino

On Sunday it didn't rain so we were able to have a family BBQ for Dino, who was with his mum on his real birthday. I made a rhubarb meringue pie and my mum bought the birthday cake. Everyone was late of course, my brother had been playing football in the morning so was running late which meant everyone was late.

We had a lovely afternoon as it managed to stay sunny through out. Then we watched a film together as a family which is something we only really do at Christmas.

Last night I joined a new group called; We love etsy which is like a chat room to show your etsy bits and meet other sellers there were 59 people signed up last night when i went to bed now there already 143 members its going to be huge.

I've not done a huge amount of work this weekend but that is due to change shortly as when I've finished typing this I'm going to line 3 bags and sew up a fourth. Then I'm making corsages until its time for work this afternoon.

New things

I've just added new items to my etsy shop. I've added some of my bags but I've still got three that need lining. I was going to line them all this afternoon but instead I started some new projects and opened a bottle of wine. I can justify the fact I opened a bottle at 3, since I've been up since 5 this morning as I had to take Dino to work. Then I also worked a shift this morning myself, it was my first Saturday for 2 weeks so I was exhausted. If I'd been sensible I wouldn't of watched the Big Brother eviction last night but what can I say I'm a saddo.




As I've shown you in a previous blog I've many small balls of yarn which I've got to do something with. So this afternoon instead of finishing previous projects I've been experimenting with new bag designs while watching futurama.

What I should of really been doing through is tidying the house and garden as it's Dino's Birthday barbie tomorrow. It was his birthday while he was at his mums so now he gets to celebrate with my family. I'm planing on making a rhubarb meringue tomorrow which is like a lemon meringue but with rhubarb as the name suggests. I'll also be making him a huge birthday cake. In my next post I'll share all and you'll be able to see my messy garden which isn't quite finished yet but next week ideally I'll be getting soil in my raised flower beds. Which means I'll be able to start planting up the hundred pots I've currently got in the garden.

Which'll be nice.

I then may be able to have friends round for afternoon tea.

Dino's Home, cakes, knitting and presents

Dino arrived home last night at 12.30 after spending a week at his mums'. He's come home loaded with presents for me from his mum and sister and lots of lovely flavoured vodka which is my drink of choice especially during the summer as well as a bottle of gin which maybe started this weekend if the weather stays nice. Unfortunately he's back at work this morning and he didn't have a lift to work so I was back up at five to drive miles down the A38 and then back again.



This is a beaded table center piece his sister made I'm not sure where its going yet but I love it.

I had to stay awake to pick him up from the train station last night so after my power nap I decided to start a new bag.

This is being knitted in a bright pillar box red mohair I managed to get quite a lot of it knitted last night. So it should be all finished by the weekend and ready to go in my shop with the rest of my bags this weekend.
Once I've got this finished I will get organized with my jewelery and start measuring and writing descriptions so it can all be added to my shop.

I'm on afternoons today at work so this morning I've baked muffins for Dino as he was very disappointed there weren't any cookies in my cookie tin last night. I to make my cupcakes I followed Nigellas recipe as she's the goddess of cup cakes.

I always think in my head that they are going to end up as perfectly presented as Nigellas when i start to decorate but I always seam to fall a little short. Today I had a disaster when the top fell off my cake decorating sprinkles and all the different toppings ended up all mixed up so most of my cakes ended up like this;

They still taste yummy.

Yeah Etsy

I set up my Etsy shop this week . You can now visit me at www.lupincottage.etsy.com this where I'll be selling my hand made jewellery and hand crafted knitting projects from now on. I'm so excited.

Its taken a while but now I'm able to start selling some of my things. It'll be a relief to Dino when he gets back, as I've started taking over the second bedroom with overfill from my studio.

I've only listed three items so far in my Etsy shop. This afternoon, after I've finished repainting my lounge I'll be listing more pretty things for sale.

The toughest thing about setting up my new shop was the pricing as I wanted everything affordable but because of all the time that's spent knitting and finishing each item I'd like to make some thing out of it too. Dino doesn't think I'll even make minimum wage with the things I make so going part time at work seems a long way off at the moment.

I've been finding it really hard to find outlets in Derby to sell my things which is why etsy is such a bonus. I'm so jealous when I read other peoples blogs and they show pictures of the fabulous craft fairs they've been to. Where I live you have carboot sales or craft fairs that don't have any actual crafting its so frustrating.

Other things I've finished this week include 3 cafetiere covers and one set of cushions. They've turned out quite well this picture doesn't really do them justice but I'm so pleased with them I had to show you anyway. I'm even thinking of redecorating the spare room so I can keep them.