Etsy shop now open

At last I have managed to open my Etsy shop. It seems to have taken ages and ages. I have posted a few purses and scented hearts to begin with. I thought that I would add a few items at a time. So there are some things you have already seen that are now on -

Of course, typically I am now having doubts over the name but it is too late now - I wanted to keep it simple and memorable - and it certainly meets those criteria. Now I can concentrate on making and doing  again!
There is a link on my sidebar, hopefully I can make it a bit more interesting later.
Thank you for your support and encouragement and here are a couple of reminders of what is up for sale.

The state I am in...

Do you ever feel you a living in chaos?

I thought I would share my work space with you, which may explain why I haven't managed to get on top of anything this weekend! I did tidy my desk up last week would you believe? My work room is converted from our small garage and I work on an old oak office desk. Usually when I sew I clear a larger space, but as I was just sewing zips in, I didn't need much room. Opposite this desk is the computer which I can swivel round to.  Here are a few close-ups.

Putting zips in these purses is a rather fiddly job and I haven't cracked it yet - not sure they will make it onto Etsy.

The windowsill is full - although it looks like chaos each thing is in its special place!

I made this pot from self-hardening Nu-clay back in the 70's, it has lasted remarkably well.

 Some sewing projects fighting for space...

I have a few brushes!!

I have a busy week ahead, lots going on, all routine stuff unfortunately, but hopefully I will find some time to locate the top of my desk!

It is absolute pouring with rain this evening - I hope you haven't been washed away and are having a good week.

Jill

September

Here is August, all 31 days of it, and how disappointingly wet it has been. I always find looking at my completed month interesting - for example it seems ages ago I had lunch with my friends, and yet it was only last week, but on the other hand only a blink ago I was planning the colour scheme for the page and here is the month complete.

What will be in store for September I wonder. It can be one of the most beautiful months. Don't you just love chilly bright mornings, when the air is crystal clear and every shrub and twig is decorated with a sparkling spider web? 

For my September calendar I have gone a bit 'mad'. I have been sitting at the computer for hours -  more work on setting up my shop. It will be such a relief when it is done. I have been taking photographs of the things I shall be selling.  I even went and cut the grass as an excuse to flex my muscles after sitting about for so long.  I needed to flex my creative muscles as well especially as I have been hand sewing and drawing those little illustrations for my memoirs. When I realized it was the end of the month it gave me an excuse to clear my desk and get out the paints.  I went a bit fauve and built up my autumn scene in orange and mauve - the colours haven't scanned very well. No stamping, no pens, but I did a pit of junk printing and stencil work. What fun, and I definitely felt a bit loosened up (although I could probably do with a few more days of sloshing the paint about). However I didn't want to lose my paint effects when I stuck down the squares for the calendar, so  ...

I scanned one of the pages, desaturated the colour and blurred it a bit with Picasa and printed out a couple of sheets which I cut into 4cm squares. I stuck these down in a slap-dash way and added the numbers and weekdays with a dip-pen. Everything is a bit blotty and smudged, I even started misnumbering the days and had to do a quick cut and paste job. But overall I have ended up with a rather effective page.

It is great to look back at last September's page when I was just staring out on my Art Journal quest. Everything was rather tight and restrained. I was very cautious about expressing myself artistically. I cannot emphasise enough how far I have come, mentally as much as artistically in the last twelve months - and now I am about to set up my own shop. I would say to any of you who feel unsure of your talents, just let go and enjoy yourself - it doesn't matter, it has taken me 60 years to gain the confidence to share something like this sploshy page, and know some of you will like it, but if you don't, it doesn't matter

Still here

I've been really busy over the last few days but wanted to drop in as I have been trying  to keep up on everyone's  posts. I have been working on setting up my etsy shop. I have registered a name and set up a paypal account, and now I am working on my 'blurb'. Then I have to take photographs Those of you who already sell on line have probably have got all of this down to a fine art, but I am great procrastinator and sometimes need to have  a bit of a boot to get me to make decisions. However today I thought I would go to the craft fair at Wrest Park for a bit of research and inspiration.

Wrest Park is one of my favourite local  venues. We used to visit years ago when it was owned by Silsoe College and paid 50p for a magical day in the rather run-down grounds. However it has now been taken over by English Heritage and although the grounds are now better kept, but it costs rather more to get in!

Queueing at the garden gate.

The house is still in use by the college.

The pavilion at the end of the lake, viewed across the croquet lawns.

Entertainment from a string quartet.

The orangery glimpsed through some of the magnificent trees in the park. 

I have lots more photographs of the park here on my flickr site. If you like lovely gardens - Capability Brown designed these - do take a look.

I had a wonderful chat to one lady in particular - Maxine Owen who is a textile designer whose work really inspired me. You can see her work here. I felt very reassured by her style with lots of wild stitching and wonderful fabrics I wanted to rush home and start stitching. She also had some incredible journals and altered books, I could have spent ages there. I did buy a couple of her pieces - I will have to photograph them another time.

I have been doing some myself stitching - I have been working on a couple of zipped purses and a paperback-book cover in patchwork, and I have decided to start stitching on the leaf book cover I started way back.

I am hoping to get the shop going in the next couple of weeks and hopefully some of these will be there.

 I also want to get my September calendar page made - quite honestly I am not sorry to see the end of August - what a washout! 

Thank goodness for the kitchen sink...

All is back to normal, the washing machine is fixed, there's ironing to be done, it is raining ... again and I am feeling quite bouncy after lunch with friends and I feel very encouraged to get on with my etsy shop. I have just got to choose a name - can't decide on one, and set up Paypal etc. (I think I have said this before). Eventually I will get it together. Meanwhile I have been working on my holiday memories which I share with you again.  Sometimes I get quite emotional when doing these and I do edit the text, but my style is a rather stream of consciousness, written from the heart. If you get fed-up with my prose I hope you enjoy the drawings.

P.S. Are these images too large-they are coming up as acual size on my screen?

Monday

I have given myself a good talking to ... and just enjoyed the rain today, and my futile attempts to make some heatproof oven gloves ... and the overflowing laundry basket ... and the letter about the car insurance ... yes I am fine, can't keep in a grumpy mood for long.  And yesterday, (I think Lesley guessed) I wanted to use one of my favourite words - ennui - sometimes that feeling of bored restlessness is good for the creative spirit.

One of the best things to get my creative juices flowing is to collage a page in my journal. I really wanted to do layers, layers, layers, and I did, but I'm sorry to say it looks a bit sad here. 

A photograph would probably do it better justice but the light had gone by the time I had finished and as it is shiny with layers of acrylic wax, flash was not a good idea. Still here is my piece which is all about making sure that we are still creating memories for the future. I know that in my real 'old age' I shall be able to look back at this time in my life as one of my most creative. I don't think this sort of art is my strength, but it is good fun and very therapeutic. I wanted to post this today as everyone is being very kind  about cheering me up and I am fine, thank you all so much.

To finish on a sunny note I will share these photographs I took last year at Collage Lake Nature Reserve near Tring in Hertfordshire, one of those little gems of a spot you could easily miss.

I've only got to look at this Rosebay willowherb and golden rod (or is it ragwort?) to cheer me up.

Nature's herbaceous border

This one has had a tweak on the colour saturation.

This one I took at the same spot the year before

A Four-spotted chaser dragon fly

Ennui

I have been feeling really bored and fed up over the last few days - nothing serious, you know the feeling, it seems to strike most people and the  grim weather hasn't helped. Although at the beginning of the summer I knew a holiday was unlikely and was resigned to it, I could really do with a change of scenery at the moment, but that seems unlikely. I have  friends to visit and when I feel happy to leave Mr T overnight and I can look at four different walls.  I was hoping we would both get away in September, but it is filling up with hospital appointments etc. May be in October. Anyway enough of me wallowing in self-pity, it has been a lovely day today, for a change and I have no ironing to do as I am still waiting for the washing machine to be fixed. So I thought I would make a few altered postcards to send to our friends. I have a drawer full of postcards bought from art galleries and exhibitions, some I want to keep, but some have lost their initial appeal, so I have 'up-cycled' them and they hit the post box tomorrow.

Have  great week (I am working on some more memoirs).