New Year... Lots of thanks...

Wow! What a year we had! First six months were spent still on cloud NR 9 as we have been married only 18 months. Than we decided that so called recession can't get any worse and this is when we are gonna open the shop! So 7th Heaven has opened on 20th October and it's been going on great.

I have regular classes for my card making plus I got pushed to actually put all my ideas on paper. So there was A LOT of sewing, card making, tried crochet, lace has been postponed:(, and most of all catching up with friends and family.

I am so grateful for my family and friends, though most of them are miles away we are still very close.

And thanks to technology  (Facebook, blogger etc.) I can really be a part of their lives.

So a BIG thank you to: Denise Jackson, Magda Kowalska, Emma Russell, Louise Hall, Debbie Pepper, Monika Bartczak, Anthony Morgan, Danielle Powell and all the rest of you my lovely friends for just being there for me!

Mustn't forget Wendy and Dave, Teresa and Alan, Sue and Allan, Kasia and her lot, Aga and Ania, auntie Ela, Sara and David, MUM of course and best in- laws ever! You guys are amazing.

And to Robert for being my rock and a shoulder to cry on:) Love you madly.

And to all my newly discovered friends thanks to Blogger: wish you a truly amazing 2012, hope it's filled with joy and sunshine. God bless. x x

Ola

Back to quilting

Second post today, wow! Well, Christmas is over. I was in Cardiff at my best friend's and it was amazing. There was a lot of chatting, cooking, laughter, walking, singing and perhaps too much wine:) But life is short and we should enjoy it and take every day as if it was the last day of our life.

While it's been so busy at the shop I had no chance to post some photos of my Christmas sewing!

 First of all a Somerset Christmas star I made last year at my patchwork club at Franklin's. Emma is such amazing teacher and she doesn't get upset when we add our own twist on her projects. In here I have added little green corners to make it square and normal biding. Acts as a tea pot mat!

Table runner made entirely out of 5" squares. So easy and so effective. In fact few of them have been sent out as Christmas presents last year!

This year's creation: mug-rugs. In the centre there are squares cut out of a panel with Xmas patterns. Add 2" frame and quilt normally. Easy and looks very cool.

These are matching plate mats.Take four coordinating panels and five squares (you can make it as big or as small as you need), join them together, add wadding and quilt diagonally with normal running stitch. Add biding and done!

My own design: table runner. I can never design anything on paper first. It goes out of my head, stitched together and then I add all necessary amendments.

Star applique pan mat. Use some heat'n'bond and applique it onto white fabric with zig zag stitch, add  two 2" strips on each side and done!

This is last year's creation. Beautiful Virginia star mat. It's big enough to act as a Christmas cake mat. It was the most difficult project for me at that time. And when I finished and realised all lines match I was pretty proud!

Emotional

25.12.1972

Happy Wedding Anniversary Mum and Dad!

Well, it would have been if Dad was alive. That would make it 39 years of marriage. Wow... But I never know what to say to Mum on this day. So normally just try not say a thing in case she will get upset. I do miss my family, all of them. x x x x

Best job in the whole world!

I can't believe it's been a month now. Lots of things happened. We are on air now! Salisbury's Spire Fm! Advert is superb and brought us to the public's attention! We have plenty of new products in store and workshops kicked off!!! I am so lucky, this is the best job ever. Most days I just make cards or do some patchwork. We have made some good friends who just pop in to buy stuff! 

The workshops are a good fun! Here are just few cards that we made!

This is made by Rosemary on our retro card workshop.

Pretty cards made by Katie. 

Sue loves buttons:)

And Debbie puts her own twiest on my designs, well done!

Vintage Christmas Card workshop was such a joy. It makes me really happy when someone says they have been looking forward to this and they really enjoy it! Thank you my girls for coming!

And of course, last few days were spent getting the flat ready for Christmas. We won't be going back home this year... Bit sad about it but I am sure I can make it a great Christmas yet. Teddies got some Xmas too!:)

And this is my beautiful Xmas tree:) Spent two hours getting it ready. Decorating a tree for me is like a mas:) It takes ages but at the end of it I feel good:) All has to be put in correct order and trinkets must be THE RIGHT ONES. I know, sound pretty much obsessed:) But I love every minute of it! Reminds me of home and brings back all those lovely memories.

Family matters!

Well, can't believe that it has been a month since Mum arrived. We had busy time! She did a great job at helping me to get the store ready, not mentioning the food she cooked for u everyday:) And now she is gone and gonna miss her loads. We are trying to get ourselves down to see my family for Christmas.

Back to work! My first workshop went well. The girls have done a great job! These are the cards that Debbie, Katie and Lorna made:

The meeting was so successful that the girls have decided to meet up once a month to make cards! What a lovely idea!

And than it was time to say goodbye to Mum, I will never get used to it, tears keep falling down when we see her off. The choices I made make my life easier in a way but on the other hand my heart is torn apart. I miss my family and friends, all the time!

New home decor

I got totally bored with my lampshades. Thought, well haven't got much money so I will have to find a way to do it myself. Well, here they are: a bit of lace, fabric flowers, feathers and some yo-yo templates.

Here is one before I put my mark on it. Pretty boring, isn't it?

And here it is when I finished!!! I am so thrilled about it! It's one of my best projects!

And this one was made up using pom - pons and fabric and yo-yo templates. Very easy and fun to make. Just added some buttons in the centres and here it is. I am particularly proud of it!

The shop is open!

Well, first week into running our shop and it has been great so far. Customers are pretty excited about us being in town, we are both really happy! And I am privileged to do what I love - craft - while at work!!! What a blessing!
Anyway, recently I discovered felt! Totally addicted now! Must make things... :)
Here are few items I created just using felt and beads.

This is a simple Christmas tree decoration made out o felt, stitched ribbon and coronation thread.

Christmas wall hanging! Will look pretty in the window as well. So simple and enjoyable to make!

And few brooches made by hand. Love yo-yo's!

New designs, new skills

I have recently got a book on felt and I just needed to start making things out of felt. Such a lovely material to work with it! You can almost make anything. Decided to design some bags! Here is the result of my madness!

This one is my favourite. Don't you just love the owl?

Something pretty for girlie girls!

The kits to make these bags will be available from the 29th of October at 7th Heaven on Fisherton Street!

New home!

Well, here I am.. Two months later in my new flat. Still completely unorganised! Several boxes still spread around my flat, no curtains and very little furniture! But on the positive side I am opening a shop!!!!  My dream came true! I will be self - employed and what's more it's a craft shop! I couldn't be happier! I don't think I can remember a more stressful time than this. Not even when I got married. That was easy-poesy! I just said "I do":)  Well, flat is lovely, 1840s building which means nothing is square or flat or level and walls are definitely not straight so when I put my cd rack against the wall there was 15cm gap between the top of it and the wall!!! Had to rearrange the living room as the sofas didn't quite fit in and now I have to cut my old window nets to a silly 110cm drop as no one makes them that lenght:) Nevermind. I am sure it all will be worth it in the end.You know best part? Both me and Rob have separate rooms for our hobbies which means none of his Warharmer stuff will be lying around everywhere anymore!!!! Huurreyyy!!!!!

Little artists:)

Moving house is one of the most stressful things in life. Just moved several boxes to the new flat and finished painting the upstairs om my old place. I am totally exhausted! And got so much more to do. I miss the girls and it's all rather sad at the moment. I was browsing through my photos on the computer and found those:

These were made by Elli and Lilli after we got back form Norman's Bay in June. We stayed in the tent, it was blowing, raining, sunny and blowing...:) But the girls thought the trailer tent was awesome and wanted to live in it forever:) Bless them!

 Lilli on her scooter outside the tent, daddy in the tent, me and Elli watching!

Shhhh.... Everyone is asleep! According to Elli I have long hair:)

   Lovely. I love you girls.

Craft obssesion!

Bored with this rain I ended up making a new quilt which is cute and everything pretty. I love it! As you can guess I learned how to do blanket stitch:) So easy and yet so effective! Wish I could learn how to insert my photos properly:) Hahaha! Well, how do I turn it I ask you!?

 And found new crafty hobby: turning old picture frames into new ones! This collection is simply called Trash to Treasure and all 4 frames are for sale! Simply phone me!

All about the boy

Here is a card I made for Rob's friend. So hard to find bloke type things on the market! Yet again, the Graphics Fairy has saved my life!

Plus I discovered you can actually glue buttons to a card as well and it looks cool!

Lavender heaven

Everyone of us, girls, love pretty things. Well, if you ever visit Isle of Wight you you must see The Lavender Farm. Wonderful place. Apart from the shop there are: a cafe and a filed where you can see all the varieties of lavender. Did you know there are about 200 varieties of lavender??? I didn't. It came quite as a shock. And you could smell it in the air. And of course I just HAD to buy few things. So I am very happy to announce that I am in possesion of Lavender hand cream, lavender, rose, geranium and sandalwood handmade soaps, lavender room spray, lavender seed bag and..... strawberry and lavender jam!!!! Oh yes!!!! It ACTUALLY smells with lavender. As you can see, half gone already! Yummy, yummy in my tummy!

What I found on Isle of Wight, part II

Here are few things I picked in charity shops. Can't believe there are people who want to get rid of those treasures! Here is my favourite:

 An authentic 1915 postcard with some one's writing at the back and a stamp! Isn't that gorgeous? I wonder who she was (cos no doubt the postcard was re-done from a photo) and what happened to her. What was her name? It's sooooo interesting! She is so pretty...
And those are the grape images from early 40's.

This was found between old vinyl and papers. An image of an old inn, wish I could have been there at the time when the photo was taken... Sometimes I really think I should have been born in 19th century!!!

And that is my little stash of real gems! 1897 edition of Little Lord Fauntleroy, roll of really old wall paper (I hear you ask: what's she's gonna do with it?), really cute make up bag and two heart - shaped hungers found in a small shop of no consequence to anyone apart form those lucky enough to find it! Hidden from the main street at 5 Watchbell Lane there is a shop called "My house" which is a real heaven! I couldn't take my eyes of their products and Rob had to drag me out form there! If you happen to be in Newport you MUST visit this shop!

What I found on Isle of Wight, part I

Just got back form a week's holiday on Isle of Wight. Yet again the British summer turned out disappointing and the best day we had on Friday which was our last day on the I.O.W. But even in the worst weather me and my husband can find weird things to do. We spent few days practising our best past time activity: going round charity shops and antiques shops. You wouldn't believe what we found! Rob of course was in the vinyl section, me by the books and old photos. I found some treasures there: 1904 Little Lord Fauntleroy, 1914 Mini Bible and Psalm book, old postcards and stamps, really nice fabrics and embroidered tablecloth! This sparked of course two day crafting session. Here are the results of it:

This is a birthday card for my mum-in-law. Yet again I used an image found on the Graphics Fairy website. Added few paper flowers and lace (Jan is a famous lacemaker).

vintage, vintage

With so many beautiful papers available I just couldn't help myself... It's all about vintage nowadays and great thing is, you can use almost anything. I particularly like the mulberry paper flowers available from wild orchid crafts. Just add some leaves, raffia ribbon and done! For the cards I made here I searched the net and found lovely old photos, frames and labels. Each card is individual and has got that personal touch. I recommend you visit http://www.thegraphicsfairy.com/. Amazing place!!! Enjoy!

Playing with crayons:)

This little wall hanging was made using..... crayons! Yes, all you do is draw your chosen picture on a piece of linen, put it between two pieces of greaseproof paper and iron! And done! Decorate it with beads and metallic thread. For a great choise of therads go to http://www.lacewingdesigns.co.uk/