The end of an era

I unfortunately missed wishing you all a Merry Christmas so I will be early with my good will message for the New Year instead. Happy New Year to you all and I hope 2014 is a prosperous one for everyone.

As you already know I have been working my 2 month notice and finally finished on Christmas
Eve.  It was a very emotional time for me and much sadder than I could have imagined. We did however manage to have quite a lot of fun too.

Me with Lucy

Me with Lucy and Pam

Me with Lucy, Pam and Dolph

Me with Lucy, Pam and Tanya

Me with Lee and Jon

Me with Andy aka James Blunt

Me with Alan who was complaining that he didn't like having his photo taken

Me with Gill - Step away from the Pringles

 Well now it is time to get on with the rest of my life.  The shop is still a long way from being open and we have agreed that we start the hard work again tomorrow.  We have had quite a long break so we need to get cracking again.  There is loads to do including a trip to every Argos in the district to buy a certain type of shelving I need.  Such fun!

The Shop Floor

It seems such a long time since I chatted with you all.  As you know my time is currently being taken up with the new shop which I can tell you is coming along nicely thank you.
We uncovered a full quarry tile floor recently and tried desperately to clean it.  It was unfortunately damaged beyond recovery due to careless previous owners.

It was absolutely tragic but in the time we have to get up and running we just couldn't do it.

So here is the beautiful alternative.  I love it and it makes the place look wonderful.  I am so proud and excited I could burst. The finishing touches are being done today together with the middle room and toilet.
The walls will get a makeover tomorrow.
I have now dropped another day at work on the lead up to finishing completely so hopefully this might free up more time to blog.

My New Shop

I am now able to reveal the reason that I have been so elusive lately.  As I explained I have been trying to get my website off the ground and this has proved to be much more time consuming than I thought it would be.  I still have lots of photos to do but the bare bones are in place bar a few minor tweaks.
However at about the same time I received a phone call from a lovely gentleman who I know from working in insurance who owns several properties in Worksop.  He explained that he had a tenant who wanted to move out and he thought that the shop would be ideal for me.  I had mentioned that I was looking for a place back in March but he didn't have anything for me at that time.
Anyway I went and had a look and hey presto I now have the keys to my own place.

This is how it looks at the moment so it needs a bit of a make over but I am so excited.  I can't wait to get started. 
I handed my notice in at work on Monday last and am waiting for a leaving date.  So far I only have the official one which is the 10th January 2014.  I have a 2 month notice period which is proving to be a problem as I need to open the shop as soon as possible.  Anyway that is just a small obstacle and it will be overcome.
Everyone keeps saying how brave I am but it feels so right and I think that if I don't take the plunge now I will regret it for the rest of my life.
We are going today to take more photos together with measurements and we can then brainstorm a few ideas.  I don't think it has properly sunk in yet.  I'm being very calm and I am just trying to soak it all in.  I don't want to get all flustered and stressed, I just want to enjoy every minute of it.

Driven to distraction

Oh boy, who would have thought that getting a brand new website up and running would have been so much hard work?

I've taken pictures of ribbons.

Patterns, all 195 of them.

Wool

and buttons and I'm ready to drop.

Poor Neil who is making the website is equally over whelmed.  He's just about finished with the actual design so it's just the photos now but I think it is proving quite a task.
I have to do the labelling of the photographs later so that he knows what on earth they all mean.
When I was doing the buttons I got a bit distracted and started getting a bit arty.

I had to keep putting the camera down and this is what I saw through the view finder.  Quite nice I thought.

Then I started getting carried away.

Oh well, enough messing around.  Back to the grind stone.

Quilted Phone Cover

I made this when I replaced my old phone.  I was nervous about the new one getting damaged and thought that this little cover was just the ticket.

• Cut two pieces of material about 3 cm wider and longer than the size of your phone.  Mine is the Samsung S3 so I cut my pieces 10.5 cm x 16.6 cm.  The actual phone measures 7.5 cm by 14 cm.

• For the lining cut one piece of fabric the same width but about 1 cm shorter than the patterned fabric to take into account the fact that there is no middle seam. NB If you use a fabric which is the same in both directions you can just cut one piece for the case and an identical size piece for the lining.

• 1 strip 4 cm by 13.5 cm for the tab.

• 1 piece of wadding the same size as the lining fabric.

Sew together the two pieces of outside fabric ensuring that when they are joined and folded both pieces face the same way i.e. the houses are the right way up and not upside down.

Attach the wadding to the back of the joined fabric.  Using tailors chalk or an erasable marker pen, draw on a grid of diagonal lines at 2.5 cm intervals.

Hand quilt along the lines using quilting thread and needle and working in running stitch.  Alternatively machine stitch along the lines.
Fold the tab strip in half width ways, right sides facing and sew the side seams together.

Turn out. Place the tab on the quilted case rectangle so that the open end is centred on one short edge of the case with raw edges matching.  Tack the tab in place.

Fold the quilted case rectangle in half width ways, right sides together and close the side seams.  Repeat with the unquilted case piece (lining) leaving a gap of about 5 cm in one seam for turning out.

Put the case inside the lining, right sides together, so that the top (open) edges match and sew around the top edge.

Turn out through the opening in the lining and sew up the opening with small hand stitches.  Press the case carefully.
To complete
Attach the top of the press-stud to the tab and determine the position of the other piece of the press-stud on the outer case.

Placing your phone in the case to check the fit first.

I added a pretty crocheted flower to mine but a simple button would do fine.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial.  I would love to see your pictures should you decide to have a go yourselves.

Birthday Celebrations

It was my Mums birthday this week and as it was her 90th my youngest brother and his wife organised a long weekend away at Thorsby Hall, near Retford.

We arrived last Friday and stayed until Monday.  We had a lovely time and Mum thoroughly enjoyed herself.

The food was excellent and the staff were great.

On the last night they all came out with a birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday.

Me & Mum with my two brothers

Elvis

The entertainment was brilliant, even Elvis Presley made an appearance.

There were lots of things to do during the day.  We decided to go on the Bird Walk. We were surprised to find that everyone on the walk was given a bird to hold.  I chose the smallest, a little owl whilst hubby got the biggest and heaviest.  We loved every minute of it.

The Great Hall

 

My New Website

It's all go around here at the moment.
I decided about a month ago that the next step in my business plan would be to have my own website selling wool and haberdashery.  I have been trading on the stall for just over two and a half years but it's time to move things along a little.
After thinking about it I then took the plunge and hired a website designer to do all the IT work for me.  Blogging I can do, website designing I leave to the experts.
I did however buy my domain names and sort out the web host and little bits and bobs like that and I have had a lot of input in to how I want the site to look.  My son has drawn the banner and a little wool basket too, so it's been a joint effort so far.

I am now in the process of making lists, taking photographs, making more lists, taking more photographs etc etc.  It is absolutely mind blowing how much work is involved and then once I have done my stuff the designer takes over and hopefully in about a month I will have my own on line store.
It is very exciting and I will obviously keep you all posted as to developments but for the time being if I seem a bit elusive don't worry I will be back.