If you go down to the woods today

You'll find some coordinated boys!

the weekend seems to have gone by in a bit of a blur. Good but over far too quickly.

Window shopping

I re-found Shelf last night; a shop I'd stumbled across a few months ago when trying to track down a Shinzi Katoh print for the Boy's room (which I still haven't bought, but I'm still coveting)

they have so many nice things, that next time we pop down to London, I think I must pay a visit

but I fear my purse may not cope with the pressure

do you see those wooden push along toys?! Oh my

I love this Shinzi Katoh tray too.. although if I buy another tray, I fear the Frenchman might just have to build me an extra kitchen cupboard to home them all. I wonder why it is that I like trays so much?!

These 'naked' Russian dolls remind me a bit of some little wooden birds I picked up in Prague a few years ago

There now, I've done a bit of virtual window shopping, and have (almost) got the urge to buy out of my system. Time to get on with some work now ... and I have some new designs I'm just itching to get started on!

Corners of my house

Generally speaking, I'm more of a junk shop, e-bay scourer, antique kinda gal than getting all brand new department store furniture, and I've been lucky enough to acquire some lovely old furniture along the way.

I've had this beautiful old nursing chair for a few years now, and I love the fact that I can remember playing on it in my great-grampy's flat, looking out over the Bristol channel, trying to slide down the curve of the chair. What fun! I can also remember a wicker lobster-pot he had which was used a foot stool that I used to climb into. I've no idea what happened to it, but I'd love to try and find another.. I suspect I wouldn't be able to fit my foot into one though, let alone my whole body! Anyway, I digress... I've been feeling a bit guilty lately that this chair is looking so sorry for itself (I do usually hide this mess under a blanket!)

Poor chair. So I was quite pleased when I had a sudden flash of inspiration yesterday, and wondered what this lovely liberty print might look like on it

it'll probably need to be lined with calico-type fabric first, but I think it would be just right - not too modern, but not too old-fashioned either. I was contemplating trying to cover this myself, but I'm erring on the side of taking it to an upholsterer to do the job properly - aside from anything else, time does not seem to be on my side very often these days! Teddy who is sitting on the chair in the first pic was my dads, as was this gorgeous push along dog

who is feeling a little fragile in his older years and on a temporary visit from the Boy's room, who I don't entirely trust not to pull the ears off!

Thank Folksy it's Friday

Today has been a good day. When I woke up this morning, I was reminded that it's a bank holiday this weekend... a fact that somehow escaped me. And if that wasn't enough of a reason to be cheerful, I checked my folksy account and found the thing I'd least expected... a message. Not just any message ... a sale message - hip hip hooray!

I decided not to go for a theme for my Folksy Friday selection this week, but just to choose things that I really liked. Somehow I came up with a theme by accident. Evidently I have a bit of a thing for birds!

I really love this print from Bird and Bridge.. I can't really decide which colour I like it in the most, although I think the yellow might perhaps go quite nicely with the cushions in my sitting room

I've coveted something from beautiful skin for a very long time. This cuff is also a money holder, so functional as well as beautiful!

I came across Sleepingcities amazing designs when I put a post on the forum a few weeks ago asking if anyone would like to be featured on my blog. I absolutely love the detail in these amazing prints (and after picking out my selection, I noticed the birds!)

If you like this, there is plenty more amazing walnut jewellery to be found at Lost at Sea

I'm loving the 50's Heals/Marianne Westman/Jessie Tait feel to this postcard from Orange Bird Studio.

When I noticed my bird theme emerging, I realised I simply couldn't pass this opportunity to include one of these adorable little lavendar bags from the Linen Cat. Not only do I love them, but Beth's incredibly thoughtful comments to one of my posts recently encouraged me to keep going when I felt like giving up.

Have a great long weekend everyone - happy Folksy Friday!

My little man

I got a big fat slobbery kiss on the chops from this little man when I got home from work today.

He's never done that before.

Gotta love him

there is always a story before bedtime for the Boy, and this evening we had this lovely book

Harris Finds his Feet

by Catherine Rayner

The story is gorgeous

The illustrations are beautiful

the plan

In my mind I can't quite reconcile dedicating our spare bedroom - where all of my crafting materials currently live - entirely to into a work room, so for now, my craft area is the dining room table. So every time I make something, I do quite a bit of travelling up and down the stairs to collect thread/scissor/material/bobbins/needles/ribbon/pins* (*delete as appropriate)

At work, I would label this behaviour inefficient or even waste. However, in my free time, I seem to find it a perfectly acceptable pursuit. Perhaps that isn't entirely true ... I might - occasionally - moan to the Frenchman about not having anywhere to work, as if the mere process of doing so may miraculously cause the house to grow an extra room or two (it doesn't work.. he might be clever, but I think miracles are slightly beyond even his capability).

So this week, there is a new plan, and it's called 'being organised'. tonight is cutting night, and the rest of the week, I will be not be walking up and down the stairs.. too often. I will be sewing.

Sorry for more bad pictures

These are a few of my favourite things

Liberty lawns

and Japanese Doodles

Moda and Boden and flowers in oodles

Playing outside with the water fight King

These are a few of my favourite things

Festival of Quilts

I'm back from the Festival of quilts and feeling pooped, so here are a few pics of some the beautiful wares on display today:

lovely, non?

This was one of many quilts dotted around the show... designed and made by my clever Mum.

Folksy Friday

I rather arbitrarily chose the theme for Folksy Friday to be London this week (ok, well perhaps I did have a slightly vested interest) As usual, I was bowled over with the choice of lovely things available on Folksy, so without further ado, here are just a few of them;

This cute bangle is from Jings Things and I'm loving the little London print.

I think this London soldiers cushion from Sally Nencini is absolutely adorable. Speaking of London Soldiers

This London Guard t-shirt is available in my shop

Strictly speaking, Post boxes aren't necessary limited to London, but I'm sure you know where I'm coming from. This adorable notebook is available from She Draws.

A slightly more tenuous link to the theme , this bus red (see what I did there?!) scandi fabric is available from Summersville. Oh my, how I love screen printing!

And just in case you were feeling cheated out of a bus picture, here's a lovely little bus t-shirt that is also available in my shop.

Thanks to all of the lovely people on Folksy who have liked my shop,facebook page, or blog. I promise to try and find a theme to feature as many of you as I can.

Happy Folksy Friday everyone.

My name's Emma, and I'm a stationery addict.

Is it odd that I like stationery? I mean really like stationery?!

Back in the day, going back to school in September (or for that matter, after Christmas, Easter, half term, or sometimes even the weekend) seemed to be a perfectly good excuse for a new pencil case.... and the odd pen or two... perhaps even a new bag if the parents were feeling particularly generous. I imagine for most people, if it ever existed in the first place, this obsession passes at about the same time puberty hits. But not I. I particularly mourned the closing of our nearby Borders store, as it would mean no more Paperchase visits. When I decided it'd be a good idea to get a jotter to take with me to my forthcoming visit here, strictly speaking, I probably didn't need one of these

I could have bought one from the supermarket. I could even have found myself a perfectly adequate specimen from the stationery cabinet at work (although strictly speaking, that would be stealing, meaning I could not possibly have done such a thing) But would I have had such a beautiful book for capturing ideas? definitely not. And to me that's important. Nor would I have had a nice new bookmark

Oh, and Orla was ever so nice, and also sent me a sample of her perfume.. because I'm sure it was she who packed my order after all. And just in case another of my obsessions hadn't passed unnoticed, for my next session, I will be confessing to an Orla Kiely habit.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Work seems to be going a bit slowly again after the weekend. I guess that’s understandable when there are still those last annoying bits from our camping trip to be put away (you know the kind... they get moved all over the house, while everyone tries to decide where they actually came from in the first place) when I haven’t been moving random camping accoutrements around the house, I’ve not felt like doing much more than slumping in a chair.

I feel as if I’m caught in a bit of a vicious circle at the moment, in so much as I know I need to concentrate on publicity and marketing and I also feel as if I need to build up my stock levels...and I don’t know which of these two things I need to set to work on first. Add this to a bit of a gloomy feeling about not having any sales interest yet, and an even gloomier feeling about trying to fit all of the above around a full time job, and I guess it’s easy to see why I feel as if I’m getting nowhere quickly.

To focus myself on doing something, I’ve started work on a few onesies... as well as starting to think about designs for Halloween and (dare I say the C word) Christmas. And sitting down with my little sewing machine, all of a sudden, it doesn’t really seem quite so bad.

Sorry about the photos today.. I think my photography skills are a bit of a work in progress too!

Off we went a camping!

A fantastic time was had by all, on our camping trip at the weekend. We saw some of these

and some of these

and even had a late night visit from one of these in our tent - eek!

It was always somewhat concerning to consider how the Boy would cope with the whole concept of sleeping outdoors, but even that was a resounding success. We did have a few rain showers, but fortunately the sun always shined when we needed it to.

I took the opportunity to discuss my twoforjoy ventures with friends. I always feel a bit embarrassed discussing and showing things I've made to people I know. Which is strange, because I don't really have an issue with discussing it here... I guess I still sometimes lack confidence in my designs, which I know is definitely something I need to get past, now that I've realised how much time and energy is needed for marketing! It does feel amazing to be talking to people about my business though, and I think the process of doing so has made it all feel a bit more real. And positive feedback is always a welcome bonus too.

Anyway, time to get on with some work now, or I'll have nothing to photograph for WIP Wednesday tomorrow.