the green gal

Summer sale at the green gables

Another year older, where does the time go? Today is my birthday and in celebration I am having a mega clear-out of old stock to make way for lovely new stock at the green gables! Plus I thought I'd treat you to a special offer on a few popular items.

find more here

You can find brilliant bargains at my website and my etsy store, just click on the words to see what's up for grabs, or on the images in this post.

find more here

I will no longer be making and selling fabric bunting, mini bags, mini pinnies or fabric bunting art so get them while you can – they're all at HALF their original prices!

find more here

New lovely creations are in progress right now and I will soon need clean virtual shop shelves to display them on.

find it here

My website is also having a bit of a revamp so hopefully in a couple of weeks I can share it with you – it's all go at the green gables!

Five lovely things 9

I'm tempted to give all five of my lovely things to the weather! Isn't it just glorious? The world seems a much happier place when the sun is shining and fluffy white clouds occasionally float across blue skies. I know we really need some rain, especially the farmers who are having a nightmare with this dry weather, so I'll just stick to making the sunhiney weather my No1 lovely thing this week.

No 2 is linked to No1 – I'm so glad to have a lovely studio in the garden to work in. I've spent all day today inside working but because my desk is next to the double doors which open right out I feel like I'm nearly outside.

This photo is quite old, the studio is in too much of a state at the mo for me to show it to the public!

At No3 I have a couple of photos of the green gables' products stocked in the gorgeous The Corner House:

If you can peer through the reflection in the window you can make out my bunting cushion and wildflower paper bunting

My No4 lovely thing is my hubbie. I do actually think he's lovely the vast majority of the time, but he's spent his day off today cleaning the house top to bottom and tidying up the garden so we've no more weeds and a dead-headed rose bush, so I think he deserves a mention in today's list :)

And finally I had a lovely leaving do on Wednesday – in case you aren't aware, I left my job as deputy editor of children's newspaper First News, and my career in publishing, this week to work full-time for my own business the green gables. My workmates spolit me rotten with thoughtful gifts including a little silver newspaper charm for my  bracelet (it's inspired me to get an silver acorn charm to represent my growing business) and this bespoke front page! It's traditional in publishing that when you leave a magazine or newspaper a bespoke front page is made all about you for a leaving gift. So the team doing me proud is my No5 lovely thing!

PS Don't forget to check out this post where you can enter my giveaway, sign up for the green gables' newsletter and get 20% off framed prints – could solve your Father's Day gift problems!

Ready for my close-up

Yesterday was not an average day at the green gables. I spent the morning tidying and beautifying my garden studio and the afternoon being photographed in it. 

A few months ago I was contacted by Sian Berry, writer and green campaigner, as she was interested in featuring me as a case study in her new book, Junk for Joy. After I got over the shock I agreed, of course. We had a lovely chat all about the creations I make, in particular those made from recycled materials, such as my Remade service where I take treasured pieces of clothing and remake them into new pieces to use or display or give as gifts.

find it here

Junk for Joy is a follow-up to Mend It!, all about helping you to fix an item rather than automatically binning it. Junk for Joy focuses on recycling old into new and I think there are three other people featured as case studies as well as me.

So then I come to yesterday. Sarah Cuttle, the photographer who worked on Mend It!, and her assistant, Issy, arrived to take photos of me (only a few of those, thank goodness) and lots of my handmade products. They were quite taken with my shirt cushions and wildflower paper bunting. 

It is universally agreed that a quite nasty shirt can make a quite lovely cushion cover

They were so lovely and friendly and made me feel at ease in front of the camera, no mean feat I can tell you! It was fascinating to watch them at work on the still life shots, I hope I've picked up a trick or two to improve my own photography skills.

I think until yesterday I didn't really believe it's happening – that I am really going to be featured in a book! For my career to date I've been the writer behind the scenes so to be the subject, all be it a small one among many, feels quite different and v exciting!

Junk for Joy is published by Kyle & Cathie in September and I'm really looking forward to getting loads of ideas and tips from Sian as well as reading about the other featured folk. I'll be sure to tell you all about it as soon as I get my hands on a copy.

It's a new year at the green gables

I know, we're well into 2011 but as my sale at the green gables has only just finished, only now can I reveal my new pretties!

First of all, thank you to everyone who voted on the colours in this post, here are quite literally the products of that colour debate…

new framed quote prints, find them here

I have created three new quote prints in four new vintage-inspired shades, plus I have made my most popular (and favourite) quote print in the new colours too.

The new quotes are:

"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower" Hans Christian Andersen

"I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours" Bob Dylan

"Life is too short so, kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly" Author unknown

Plus an old favourite: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return" eden ahbez

I just love each and every one of these quotes, they say so much in so few words. You can find them here at the green gables.

And that's not all! I have also been busy with fabric, and yes, bunting is back! This time decorating three handmade natural linen and cotton cushions…

Bunting cushions, find them here

I'd really quite like to keep these for myself but if I applied that thinking to everything I make I would have been squeezed out of my little cottage a long time ago! So, I hope that they will go to a new and happy home instead.

I hope you like the new additions to my handmade family, to find more simply pootle on over to the green gables!

Crochet at its best

As you may know I recently celebrated turning a year older. One of my lovely friends, Kirsty, gave me this handmade gift – one of the most beautiful creations I've ever seen, let alone been given.

I mean, really, have you seen anything prettier? The combination of vintage fabric, natural linen and intricate crochetwork is sublime. I am a lucky, lucky lady.

Kirsty's in the middle of updating her blog, ginger and george, at the mo but her makerie section is up and running and ready for your viewing pleasure already. Here you can find just a few of her fabulous tutorials, I urge you to sprint on over there now to take a look! (Don't forget to pop back and let me know how you got on…)

A little garden party

At the weekend we had a few friends over for a little garden party. Our tiny garden scrubs up quite nicely with a few veggies and flowers growing, plus some bunting decoration, do you think?

What a week already

It may only be halfway through the week but I've having a pretty good one already. I became a year older on Tuesday, that's not the interesting part, the interesting part is that hubbie and I spent the day in Lewes, Sussex.

I've fancied visiting Lewes for a while as I had heard that it has a quirky bohemian vibe with lots of interesting shops to browse around. The rumours were right! Following recommendations from some lovely people on twitter we visited The Needlemakers – the home of several independent artisans and sellers. One particular shop, Revive All, is an absolute treasure trove of all things vintage and ancient. Every inch of floor, wall and breathing space is taken up with vintage clothes, books, maps, jewellery, ration books, just everything old you can think of. Marvellous.

 
The Needlemakers

And then we just kept coming across antique shop after antique shop. And they were proper junky, bits and bobs types of antique shops rather than the ones where you need to take out a mortage to buy a serious-looking cut glass bowl.Restraint was exercised and I walked away with only a pure wool blanket, made in Northern Ireland and bearing a sewn-in name tape declaring it was once the property of a P. Cummings…

A lovely day was had by me and my patient hubbie and I can heartily recommend Lewes for a wonderful day out. (By the way, have you spotted my flourishing salad leaves in the background? Ignore the unhappy rain-starved lawn.)

So then on Wednesday life got even more interesting.

I attended my first auction. And I bid on the one lot I wanted. And I won it! Or whatever is the appropriate term for successfully bidding on a lot. I did go a smidgen over my planned limit but I still nabbed a bargain. Here are a few of the bundles of matching silver cutlery, there are more than 60 pieces in the set.
These won't be put in a cupboard to save for best, this is now our everyday cutlery (I don't believe in keeping things for best, shouldn't every day be the best?). Although there is one bundle of small oddly-shaped spoons whose use baffles me.

Following this success I decided to make my first envelope cushion cover! (Of course, how else does one follow a trip to the auction house?) I've made other styles of cushion cover but not envelope. I had an urge to make a linen cushion so I did, with a couple of strips of ribbon sewn on too. What do you think?

And then to top it all off, I got the news that the green gables product pages are live on notonthehighstreet.com! So, as well as my shop on etsy, for those who'd rather spend in sterling than dollars, you can also find my handmade pieces for sale here too.

So, all in all, a pretty good week. And the rest of it is promising to be just as good with our wedding anniversary on Friday (yep, birthday and wedding anniversary within three days of each other, not the best planning) and a few friends are coming over on Saturday for a little garden party, keep your fingers and toes crossed for good weather.

How's your week shaping up?

PS (I know I'm not writing you a letter but this is still a post script) There's a dinky little interview with me here on Popular Crafts' website, if you fancy reading it…

The joy of craft

I spent this afternoon making things. Not a very exciting way to spend your time for some people but for me it was bliss.

There's something about facing several bits and pieces, odds and ends, sometimes items that already have a purpose, and a period of time later you're gazing at a finished item that was created by your own fair hands.

In the space of Sunday afternoon I made a cushion from old PJ bottoms and a charity shop shirt (look out for the make-it instructions on daisygreenmagazine.co.uk in a few days' time), two pairs of earrings, a bracelet, two lavender bags and a toiletry bag. They're not all perfect but that's not the point. At the moment it seems every time I sit down at my desk or sewing machine, I make something I've never made before. And, quite often, I make mistakes but I learn from them and hopefully next time, I make it better.

To see other stuff I've made take a look at the Things I've Made photo album (on the left under the piccie of me). Let me know what you think of them and I've love to hear what you've enjoyed creating recently. 

Happy crafting!

First knitting, then gardening, now cushion-making!

So I’ve made my first cushion. Okay, not the fluffy stuffing part that makes it comfy but the outside cover of it, to be exact. And while I’m being exact, I haven’t made one, I’ve made three!

My very first cushion was actually a present. Why I thought that was a good idea I don’t know, but it turned out rather well. I wanted to make something for my nephew as a christening present as I was also becoming one of his godmothers. (My husband and I have begun a tradition of making presents for the family and now we’ve started there’s no going back.) It took a big of thought to come up with a present that he could keep for many years, is personal and that I could actually make. So a cushion it was. The fabric for one side was a sort of Hawaiian big leaf print in toning shades of yellow, green and blue. The other side was a plain grass green colour. I opted out of doing anything too technical for a closing and went for simple, if unimaginative, Velcro. Where’s the personal element? I stitched 13 buttons, none the same, on to the plain green side in the shape of an A. And the reaction? Well, I don’t think seven-month-old Albert has shown a great deal of interest so far but his parents seem to quite like it.

So, buoyed by my first success I set about making two cushions for my settle. For those of you who were clueless to what one of those is (as I was before I bought one) it looks a bit like a church pew but the seat is wider, the back higher and you’re more likely to have seen on in a pub. Made from reclaimed pine floorboards the seat is gorgeous but could do with a bit of cushioning. Although I would have liked to reuse fabric I’ve never found any I like (any top tips on this would be well received) I chose new fabric from good old reliable John Lewis. And voila! Ah, my top tip of the day, don’t buy cheap thread. I did and it kept snapping and drove me to the brink of insanity, which is ridiculous when you think I was only making a cushion.

John Lewis were selling smaller cushions in the same fabric for what I worked out to be twice the price of my bigger homemade cushions. Yes, theirs is neater and the pattern matches up perfectly (oops) but my cushions make me smile because I know that I made them.