Dream Country Chat

CUPCAKES FOREVER

Happy Monday!

I have spent a weekend very much attached to cupcakes. I have been making up the new designs, building some stock, working out trade info, doing press releases and finally updating the web site. Whew, all that and not a calorie in sight!!!

Actually I am thrilled with the way they have turned out and how this little line is all pulling together. My cupcakes have always been a big seller for me since I started doing them almost 3 years ago. They have changed in looks over those years, from calicoes and cottons to velvets and beads. Their uses have always been the same tho, a pin cushion, paperweight or simply as a room scenter. Now tho, I am adding in greetings card/prezzie to their list of accomplishments. The little card topper is printed on the outside with 'With Love' (also For You, New Baby, Thank You) and is blank on the inside for you to write your own message.

The cupcake even have a fancy new name, FRAGRANT FANCIES. 

There are even cakes with French toppers, ooh la la.

There are cakes for Halloween.....

 

and of course Christmas too

I won't drag you on to Valentines, Mothers Day and Easter, but by now you will be getting my drift. Yes, the cupcake has taken over. Other cupcake goodies include a small range of cards and a fab notebook (hope to get them on to the site later this week) and a little purse mirror that is already on site.

What goes well with a cupcake? Tea of course! The Tea Cosy giveaway is going so well, have received some lovely comments and emails. To be in with a chance to win the handmade tea cosy just drop me a comment as to what springs to mind when you think of TEA. Prize draw will be on Friday this week.

Bye for now
Karon x

BLOODY CHRISTMAS

Ah Christmas, don't you just love it. Yep, certainly do, but maybe not in July. I think I can safely say that I am all festived/festered out. I have been sewing Christmas goodies for weeks getting ready for the Harrogate Trade Fair next week. The last of the sewing was completed on Monday night (well 1am on Tuesday morning really) and yesterday I did my dry run on the set up for the fair.

It is done, I can't do any more. Everything is labeled, coded and priced. It has been tweaked and changed, agonised over and now its packed. Today I print out yet more brochures and have to go walkabout to find a long arm stapler to put them together. Funny how that's not the sort of thing any of your friends have hanging around the house just waiting for you to borrow.

I was really nervous about this fair, it being a trade fair and therefore different from the usual retail fairs I do. But you know, now I just feel I have done my best and bring on the day.

At least this year I have a head start on Christmas. All my designs are done and I have started to build stock on each item. Ah, so will I panic on the run up to Christmas, yes you bet I will, that's par for the course!

Karon x
 

SEW PAINFUL

Well the holiday is certainly over, I am trapped in the land of sewing. Sewing, sewing everywhere as I try to get ready for this trade fair at Harrogate next Saturday. Am I nervous, am I doing the right thing, have I bitten off more than I can chew? You betcha!

I seem to be welded to the sewing machines. I fact yesterday I was impaled on one. Yes, the old Singer got me again. A full on bite on the finger. There really is nothing worse than having the needle on the sewing machine break, and the damn thing is right through your finger. Coming from a long line of over-reactors I fairly swore, leaped about in agony and bled profusely over the damn sewing. Needle still wedged firmly in finger I rush to the house (not quite sure why) and Idgy recoils in horror with that one word that instills so much confidence in the afflicted 'yuck!'. Stand over sink, take deep breath and think about pulling the needle out. I should of course just have pulled it out right away, but I have lost the momentum and I am on a roll. I am one of those people that is fine with blood on other people, but mine, well that's just a bit personal and I really don't want to lose any. Anyway I pluck up what courage I can muster and pull the needle out (it hurt), the blood was everywhere, I nearly fainted. My eleven year old looked on with a 'seen it all' expression as she handed me a tea towel. 'You'll live' she said.

Would like to report that I have a huge bandage and sling, but alas my agonies only resulted in a dinosaur band-aid. Back to that bloody sewing machine yet again......

Karon x

POPPY POWER

 

I know I have mentioned my love of poppies before, from those pretty yellow Welsh poppies that 'pop' up all over my garden, to the giant Tibetan variety, and all those others in between.

I love their robust colouring and at the same time their fragility.

They adore the sunshine, but fall like the wounded in the rain.

So here is my Poppy Pin which is now available on the web site. I have pinned it to my straw gardening hat here, but it looks gorgeous on a jersey, shirt or jacket. Very rustic romantic.

And while carried away on the Poppy theme I have done a new Mini Mirror for the range which has a hand painted poppy (well it is a little abstract but I like it that way) on vintage creamy white velvet. The velvet painting is so lovely and tactile, I am really pleased with the results. The little mirror will be going up on the web site very soon. I have to rejig things there to make it more 'readable' with the extra bits and pieces I have made.

And I almost forgot, my logo is another Poppy design, again a bit on the abstract side, but it is my favourite flower and I wanted it in there somewhere. It may not be a herb, but hey, the definition of a herb is that it is a useful working plant, poppies are useful to me - they are inspiring.

Karon  x

COMING TOGETHER

  

Yesterday was a good day. The weather was stunning and I spent all day working outside HQ on the deck, it was pure joy.

Things went right. You know how some days you feel like you are beating your head against a brick wall and can't get a handle on anything. Well yesterday things fell into place, and designs l have been fretting over for ages actually worked.

I have to admit, I was getting a tad stressed about the thought of this Harrogate trade fair looming up in July, and me not having my Christmas ideas ready. Most things were ready, if you count being inside my head as being remotely ready for anything!

I had got my Tweedy Pie robins sorted out and have a good display of them ready, but I had Scenty Snowballs still to work out, they were just not playing the game, my ideas just didn't work in real life. Well yesterday after some false starts, they finally did and I am thrilled!! My old faithful cup cakes have a new twist for Christmas and are ready to go. There are gingham and velvet hearts, embroidered hearts and gorgeous tiny gift hearts. What next  ~ Christmas stockings. That's my job for next week. I have a pile of the most sumptious rich red vintage velvet that my friend Robert (local antiques shop) found for me, and of course the vintage blankets, something is coming together and it's festive!!

Have a lovely weekend.
Karon x

CHRISTMAS HAS STARTED, IT'S OFFICIAL!

Why is she showing us a photo of robins you may be asking. Well every year l promise myself that l will start Christmas in April. I bang on about this fact (usually in October when l am stressed out to the eyeballs trying to get things done for fairs) endlessly, and yet every year l find the summer slipping by and for some reason the Christmas stock is just never being done.

 

Well this year l have done it, it is still April (just) and already l have started to bag up little robin bodies (yes guys, Tweedy Pie will be back yet again, but with a whole new and exciting look!!) and snowy white hearts. This year l have kept my promise to myself, l am amazed.

Now l just have to keep this up and build some stock every week. Have promised myself that even ten items per week is better than nothing. This year l am determined not to be bleating on come October begging for help to get things done. This time l am being sensible and grown up and maybe just a teeny tad boring. Oh what the hell, you can't have everything...............

Karon  x

DOOR STOP ARMY

I have had a busy week building stock. From badges and mirrors to door stops and pillows, those sewing machines have been going non stop. I was determined to get going and have a decent number of each item in stock at all times. Unfortunately this little plan had fallen flat when l made changes to the range a few weeks ago. Oh joy, suddenly l had new ideas and products but no stock of them. Instant problem as they were ordered off the web site right away. So this week was dedicated to stock building. Each day l had a product listed to work on, and l am thrilled to say that l have kept to my regime and not deviated off course too much.

I have even improved the Home Comforts cushion by adding a little vintage fabric heart to it as well as the embroidered one. Really think this lifts it just a tad and brings my vintage look into the kitchen too.

Actually l am wondering if l should just have the kitchen goodies on the same page as all the other stuff. I'm adding the vintage heart to some of the checked things, so there is definately getting to be a cross-over area.  It would break things up and make for a more interesting look on the Goodies page. Your thoughts would be much appreciated on this one.

So what's on the cards for today - It is Wendy's birthday so l am running round to her place with a prezzie on my back this morning. After that, back to HQ.

Have a nice day
Karon  x

DECK DAYS

I am so enjoying working out on the deck of HQ these past few days. The weather has been so mild, in fact it was positively hot on Monday and l ended up with tan marks!!

I dug out the extension cable and the place now looks like spaghetti junction with wires everywhere feeding my glue gun with power. Of course l  trip over the wires every time l get up (that health and safety elf would have me shot!)  and curse myself for my own stupidity.  Really must clean the old garden furniture l use, it has gone way past the shabby chic look - more on the 'needs a bloody good scrub' look. Anyway a job for another day.

Meanwhile back on the deck, l have been making loads of pretty floral badges and mirrors. I have been wearing my own bouquet badge all the time and so many friends and just people l meet have wanted to buy them. Been a bit of an unintentional pr effort on my part. So nice to be able to use even the tiniest pieces of my old fabrics, it makes you think that someone way back in time would be just a little pleased to know that something they created has been used and reused so many times and ended up as a tiny pretty flower on an old fashioned velvet badge.

Other people have been enjoying the sunshine too.  Hank in Supercat pose with Baby in the background looking suitably embarrassed at his manly antics.

By the way, it's raining today..............

Karon  x

BACK TO THE FUTURE

What do you mean with 'Back to the future'? I'm not just playing with movie titles it is  just how things are working out. Last week l asked for help from you bloggers and also the Secret Garden group regarding the new web site and products. Well you guys have been seriously helpful and l have spent a week reading comments that have really made me think.

The old saying 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' has rather come to mind of late. The number of people who wanted to see my old faithfuls like Sleep Sack and Cat Mouse back on the web site was quite astonishing. Why had l moved away from all those things, well it was all in an effort to have more of a cohesive 'look' and more importantly to have a range that is easy enough for me to produce again and again. Some of my old goodies are just too fiddly to make at any sort of profit - the carrots for example. Popular tho they are, they are hell to make in large numbers. So l changed things, but maybe l was a tad too hasty in knocking out so many of the old favourites.

I have done a lot of thinking, rethinking and sewing, yes, lots and lots of sewing, this week. I have done lots of  photographs of new things and old.  I have taken into account what clients and friends have said re the new items and removal of old friends. I have tried to reach a compromise, something that will work in all ways, l know you can never please all of the people all of the time, but l think l have worked out something that will go a ways towards that mythical goal. So you see, l have gone back just a wee bit and hopefully forward into the future............

The above photo shows you my new take on my old faithful Sleep Sack and also a new pillow that matches it perfectly. These will be replacing things on the web site next week. There will be other changes too and my bright  new kitchen range with make its debut.

So Huge thanks to everyone who took the time and trouble to answer my questions and help me sort things out. The winner on the prize draw was Cheryl Davis who will receive a goody box in the post next week.

Thank you, thank you, thank you  guys, you have helped beyond belief.
Have a lovely Easter weekend

Karon  x

REWORK AND REDO

I really feel l am learning a lot from your input re the web site and products. It is a definite learning curve (how l hate that phrase) and I now know where l was going off course with some things (the dreaded large badge - don't worry it's going!) and where l should have hung in with other ideas and taken them a bit further.

I have been working like one of santa's elves this week trying to reorganize and rework ideas so l can get the line sorted and be happy with it. I love the site, it is just a case of tweaking what's in it now.

So bear with me folks, l am doing my best. Watch this space!!!

Karon  x