Mondays Featured Seller

Todays featured seller is Sally from Stitchy Woo Woo. Sally designs and makes the most amazing variety of unique and original hand made textiles and art.

I think my favourite item in the shop is this Antelope Pure Silk Pillow


And how cute is this Ginger Tom Cat, Art Doll?


And finally, this stunning Rich Chocolate Baroque Bag is definitely on my Christmas Wish List!

Weekly Roundup

This week has been less manic than the last couple thankfully. I did my last craft fair of the season - or so I thought! I've just heard about another one which is free of charge and only open to handmade items on the 10th December so I am planning on taking a table if I'm offered one.

On Etsy I've had a great week. My Red and Gold Christmas Bauble is in the Christmas Ornament Voter and I'm way behind, so if you haven't voted already, I'd really appreciate your vote :)


I've added a new Silver Bubbles Bracelet to my Etsy shop, which I think will be lovely for Christmas.


And finally, I'm offering free worldwide shipping this weekend in my Etsy shop, so if you've had your eye on something, this is the weekend to buy it!

Christmas Wish List

I'm a real sucker for Christmas and love nothing more than decorating the house on the first weekend in December. So for my Chrismas Wish List this week I've been browsing all the lovely handmade Christmas decorations on Etsy and Folksy.

I absolutely love these Shaker Style Hearts from SnowFish


Next on my wish list is these Silver Christmas Baubles from MooCowHandKnits


And finally I love the simplicity of these White Stars from Folksy seller Jude Allman

I've been buying!

Recently I bought some postcards from one of my favourite sellers on Etsy Lorrie from Illusio. I had my eye on them for ages for Alex's room and she loves them! I put the 3 together in a white frame and it is hung above her bed.






Check out her shop for other gorgeous art work and photos!

I need your help!

I'm totally excited this week as my Red and Gold Christmas Bauble has made it into the voter on Etsy!



Now I'm going to beg - please please vote for me so I can make it into the Gift Guide.

Here's the link -
Voter

Many thanks in advance :D

Mondays Featured Seller

Today I'm featuring the work of fellow UK Etsian Ali from Alibalijewellery.

Ali makes gorgeous contemporary handcrafted silver and copper jewelry, including pendants, bracelets, rings, earrings and cufflinks.

One of my favourite items is this Tiny Tweet Silver Bird


Ali also does a fantastic range of Personalized Jewellery including these Imprint Me Silver Fingerprint Cufflinks


Another favourite of mine is this Ivory White Pearl Silver Crochet Flower Pendant which is the perfect bridal piece.


So check out Alibali's shop for great Christmas presents!

Round Up

Apologies for my lack for blogging again this past week. I have been mega busy with the day job and preparing for craft fairs. My last fair is tomorrow night and I'll be glad to get it over with. Part of the reason is that my other 2 fairs have been pretty successful and I've more or less sold out of all my girls jewellery. That means instead of making new things for my shops, I've been making for the fairs instead.

I was delighted this week to find out that I'm a featured seller on Folksy I've noticed a big increase in views and have had a couple of sales on there - so thank you! I've added a couple of new things to my shop including this Lavender and Pink Memory Wire bracelet


On Etsy I was amazed to find myself in another Gift Guide. This one is the Gifts under $50 and features my Silver Pearls Memory Wire bracelet


And finally, a new Bubbles bracelet. This one is like Holly Berries in a lovely vibrant red.

Mondays Featured Seller

Today I'm featuring fellow Etsy UK seller Jo from IslayBower. To quote her shop announcement "Welcome to Islay Bower's Vintage Thingummies, home of fabulous vintage and secondhand buttons, fabrics, lace, ephemera and everything else gorgeous and crafty."

And she is so right!

How gorgeous is this Victorian Gold trimmed Navy Blue Ribbon on original spool?


I also love this Vintage 1930s floral ivory lace


And if you are a button lover, you will be glad you found this shop! Jo has a great selection including these Vintage mother of pearl buttons


So check out this treasure trove of vintage crafting goodies!

Friday Roundup

Sorry I haven't blogged so much this week, I've had my usual pre craft fair panic and have been making things for it every free minute I have. It went well last night, but I think I took less than at this one last year. There was a good turn out but I wasn't the only stall holder that noticed a downturn.

I reached 300 sales in my Etsy shop this week, so I'm really delighted. I'm also working on 3 custom orders. After an especially quiet October, I'm so glad that things have picked up again.

I've added a couple of new Christmas decorations to my Etsy shop. This one is champagne with a cream ribbon.


Following the suggestion by someone on the UK chat thread, I've also added a Christmas Bauble Gift Box. You can pick the decorations and they will come in a gift box complete with tissue paper and ribbon.


And finally, I'm delighted that this Cinnamon Bubbles Bracelet has made it into the
Holiday fashion Gift Guide!

I've only ever made it into one other Gift Guide, so I'm really chuffed!

Etsy Front Page!

You know the saying, a watched pot never boils? Well, a watched shop rarely sells. So when I went away overnight on saturday night and was without internet access, I made the Front Page and 4 sales!

Many thanks to Lilybud Designs for including me in this lovely treasury.


and to Lorrie from Illusio for featuring my memory wire bracelet in this treasury-

Paisley Chainsaw

I really wanted to thank Esme from PaisleyChainsaw for including me in her lovely treasuries, so I thought I'd feature some of my favourite things from her shop in my blog.

PaislyChainsaw is 'The Home of all things Quirky and Fun....' and it is seriously one of the most unique shops on Etsy!

One of my favourite items is these 3 Handmade Chocolate Bite Pendants, which are quirky, fun and definitely good enough to eat.



Then there is this Play Me Necklace which is just so cute.



And who could fail to love these Have Some Tea Earrings?



And finally, how completely cool is this Measured Up Bracelet?


Hope you'll check out her shop for fun presents now that Christmas is just around the corner!

Friday Roundup

We on the UK Chat Thread on the Etsy forums have decided on a mega promotion of 2 sellers a week, in hope of extra exposure and thus more sales. I've been lucky in that it's my turn. This promotion includes blog features, promo threads, twittering, Facebook promo and adding my work to treasuries. I've noticed a definate increase in views and hearts and am being featured in an incredible 9 treasuries! Thanks to the team, I'm enjoying my 15 minutes of fame :)

This week I've been working on something slightly different - pearl Christmas decorations. Several people have mentioned that my Bubbles bracelets would make nice Christmas decorations, so I decided to make some!

This is a traditional Red Berries Christmas Bauble which can be hung from your tree or used as a table decoration.


This one is aimed at the slightly less conventional colours scheme of Purple and Silver


I have a few more in my shop and am always open to suggestions for different colours and combinations.

And finally I added a new Raspberry Bubble Bracelet to my range in my Etsy shop.

Christmas Wish List

Todays Christmas Wish List is made with my 11 year old daughter in mind. She is a total soft toy/teddy nut and shows no sign of wanting to put her massive collection away. In fact, she spends alot of her pocket money on soft toys!

So I've been doing a bit of searching on Etsy and Folksy to find some.

First up is actually one that Alex spotted herself.
This sweet little Amigurumi Monkey Mollie is made by
Cute Designs and so certain is she that Santa is bringing her, that she has prepared a bedroom already!


On looking around for other soft toys, I found this gorgeous Spotty Sock Bear from Clarebears. I know she would just love it's funky spots!


And finally, I was looking on Folksy and spotted this lovely Pink Bear with Heart from Nikki's Knits Alex shows no sign of growing out of pink either, so this wee bear would be perfect.

Have you ever been to County Fermanagh?

In another in my occassional series about Northern Ireland, I thought I would show you what Co. Fermanagh has to offer.

Co. Fermanagh is the most westerly county in NI and is the only county not to border Lough Neagh. Tourism is one of the most important industries in this area and a lot of it centres around Lough Erne. Watersports abound here and you can experience everything from fishing to waterskiing, canoeing to cruising. There is also caving, walking and golf.



For golf enthusiasts, there is the Lough Erne Golf Resort in Enniskillen. As well as a stunning hotel there is a Nick Faldo designed golf course - the first in Ireland. If golf isn't your thing, there is always the hotel spa to relax in.



If you get tired of all that the Lough has to offer and need some retail therapy, Enniskillen is the place to go. Enniskillen means Island of Kathleen, a mythical queen of ancient lore who was drowned there. As well as shopping the castle and museums are worth a visit. Enniskillen Castle was built almost 600 years ago by Gaelic Maguire chieftains. Guarding one of the few passes into Ulster, it was strategically important throughout its history. In the 17th century it became an English garrison fort and later served as part of a military barracks.



Co. Fermanagh is also famous for Belleek Pottery and if you wanted to find out more, you can visit the Belleek Pottery Visitors Centre

Finally, one of the things I used to love as a child was visiting stately homes and I remember visiting 2 beautiful ones in Fermanagh - Florence Court and Castle Coole Both are National Trust properties and well worth a visit.


Florence Court


Castle Coole

I hope this has given you a bit of interest in visiting Fermanagh and will try and do another of my whistle-stop NI tours soon!

Mondays Featured Seller

Today I'm featuring the work of Etsy seller Alix from BigBlueBed aka A Complete Adventure for Girls.

Alix is the maker of the world famous Dorset buttons which are perfect for rings


Hair Snaps


and bracelets


Also check out her gorgeous Moo Card holders


and my personal favourite, her Little Gift to Wear Red Love Brooch