Little Cotton Rabbits

A parcel of good cheer

We've been a bit down in the dumps here what with one thing and another and Toby has been off from school again with yet another of the high temperature viruses that he seems so prone to. Hopefully he's over the worse now and maybe all of these challenges to his immune system will result in him becoming more resistant in future.

Anyway, I often find that even when things feel dismal a smile is never far away and sure enough a big one arrived yesterday in the shape of a wonderful package from Jen at Frazzy Dazzles

 

Jen makes the most wonderful softies and sweet things (you can see some in her etsy shop). She included some beautifully made hairslides in the shapes of a hedgehog, goldfish and mouse and such a tiny and cute little mouse in a bed, all of which Amy has spirited away into her room to be kept as treasures. There were also some gorgeously illustrated books for the children.

I had been coveting Jen's garden warriors and now I have a Briar and her little hen Thistle all to myself. She's going to be helping me plan out my fledgling vegetable garden - I think with a touch of her magic and a little luck things will work out just fine.

Thanks so much Jen x

more etsy goodies!

Being a knitter myself I don't often buy things that have been knitted by someone else but then it's not every day that you come across such gorgeousness as these

Beautifully knitted by Knithappens in the most fabulous yarn from Skein Queen, they are wonderful and my hands are very happy (a nice reward for all of the hard work they've been doing recently!).

PS. apologies to everyone who has emailed me in the last few weeks and not had a reply - I've got a big email backlog and hope to reply to you next week. Thanks for your patience.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

lovely pressies

Around this time of year there Amy seems to get a lot of party invitations and as I'm not keen on a deluge of plastic dolls on her birthday I always try and give her friends presents that have a use or are fun to do. I'm always on the look out for good present ideas and this year I'm really pleased to have found these which definitely tick all the boxes for me...

The most beautiful hand-carved personalised stamps from the very talented and lovely Magda at Craft Pudding. I know that Amy is thrilled with hers (she's been stamping all of her books and making cards too) and she's really excited to be giving something special to her best friends too.

RedBubble

Thanks so much to everyone who has emailed me and left comments about the calendar fiasco over at Lulu. I'm really pleased that the people who ordered a copy are pleased with their calendar but also sorry to those of you who wanted a copy and missed out. A couple of people have been kind enough to email me links to other 'print on demand' companies and after looking into a couple of different ones I've started uploading some images to Redbubble who look brilliant!

The best thing about their service is that they also offer greetings cards so since yesterday tea-time I've been busy on photoshop brushing up my rusty design skills! Luckily the photographs that my husband takes are really good quality (it helps being married to a professional photographer!) and so I've kept the designs simple. Unlike Lulu (who had insane postage prices) RedBubble are very reasonable and you can pay in a range of currencies. I'm trying to put together another calendar but some of my images need re-processing at a larger size so it's not yet ready.

I'm really pleased that I can now offer greetings cards and if anyone would like a particular image or salutation on a card (not personalised though) please let me know and I'll see if I can help.

You can check out the range of cards I've done so far here and I'll be slowly adding more over the next few weeks.

tick, tock, tick, tock...

Time is ticking on. The shops are heaving with baubles and tinsel. Little children everywhere are already on page 3 of their christmas lists. Turkeys and crates of wine are being ordered. And I am running out of time to finish this lot!

It doesn't matter how far in advance I start, it always feels like a rush to get the christmas batch of animals ready. They're almost there, now I must fly and get those needles clicking again. Happy weekend all!

Thrifty finds

I love a good rummage in charity shops and luckily the little town near us has 3 very good ones. It's quite satisfying sifting through everything and maybe once in a while unearthing a few treasures which can be picked up for pennies, leaving enough change for a sticky bun!

I found these the other day and they're still making me smile. A lovely little earthenware jug decorated with roses and some wonderful books from the 1930's. I find old household manuals like this fascinating, stuffed as they are with a peculiar and amusing concoction of advice on cookery, etiquette, family health, gardening and household cleaning. Here are a few excerpts:

Breath tainted by onions - Leaves of parsley, eaten with vinegar, will prevent the disagreeable consequences of eating onions.

Deafness - Take 3 drops of sheep's gall, warm, and drop it into the ear on going to bed. The ear must be thoroughly syringed with warm soap and water in the morning. The gall must be applied for three successive nights. It is only efficacious when the deafness is produced by a cold. The most convenient way of warming the gall is by holding it in a silver spoon over the flame of a candle. The above remedy has been frequently tried with perfect success.

Sewing machine oil has an objectionable way on occasion of falling on white material, Rub the spot with a cloth dipped in ammonia and wash. Clogged oil is a fruitful source of trouble in a sewing machine. It may be dissolved with the application of paraffin oil.

The white of an egg, well beaten with quicklime and a small quantity of very old cheese, forms an excellent substitute for cement, when wanted in a hurry either for broken china or old ornamental glassware.

Uninvited guest. It goes without saying that it is a breech of good breeding for a lady to take an uninvited guest when accepting an invitation at another friend's expense. An offer to pay for the interloper would not right the error of taste.

The writing style makes me smile and conjures up visions of ladies in felt hats, taking afternoon tea and discussing the impropriety of Mrs Fitz-Smythe's youngest daughter. All very Evelyn Waugh-ish, and a lovely snapshot of social history.

neighbourly apples

Another reason why I love this time of year - apples from our neighbours tree (gifted, not scrumped) for an autumnal apple and cinnamon pie. Perfect for warming the cockles after a wet and windy Remembrance Day parade with Amy's Brownie pack.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

PS: scrump, Verb. Brit dialect to steal (apples) from an orchard or garden [variant of scrimp]

A little cotton rabbits calendar

I've been keen on doing a calendar since last year but the thought of being stuck with boxes full of printed calendars that hadn't sold put me off a bit. Then I came across Lulu. They make it easy for you to create your own calendar - you just upload your images and completely customise the design from the templates provided (even down to memorable personal dates). It's a very nifty bit of software and well worth a look, as making a calendar with your own pictures could make great christmas pressies for relatives and you can make any number that you like - even just one. You could even do as I have and make them available for anyone to buy with your own little store front (though Lulu take a 20% commission on top of their manufacturing cost). With their set-up I'm able to offer a calendar for sale without the hassle and expense of large print runs so if only 3 people buy a copy it doesn't matter! 

I've published 2 versions of the same calendar design, a standard version or a premium version (they both have the same images but are just different sizes and paper stock - the premium one is larger with thicker paper). I've also done a standard pink version with the same images. You can preview all three here in my Lulu shop (please be patient as the previews take a while to load) and if you like what you see you can click to buy and pay via credit card or paypal. Lulu then print off a copy and send it out to you. They're based in the USA so if you're in the UK allow around 10 days for postage. Mine arrived yesterday very well protected in stong packaging and I'm really pleased with the quality. Mum, I hope you're not reading this as you'll be getting one for christmas!!

Edited on November 7th to add quick note about Lulu.

Hmm, maybe Lulu wasn't such a good idea? My order has come through fine and so did a couple of others that I've heard from but some people have experienced problems with postage. Also a week after I listed the calendars I noticed that the original price I had set was increased by around £4 each as Lulu had almost doubled their production costs overnight (my cut on the calendars is around £2.80 each). I wasn't sure whether to keep them in print but I will keep them live for now as I don't have any other available options at the moment. I will however scout around before doing something like this again.

Further edited, November 8th: I've decided to take my calendars off the market, the postage costs are now around £50 per item to the UK!! Lulu has really messed this up and I won't be using them again! It's a shame as I was really pleased with my copies and I'm sorry to everyone for the inconvenience!

back to routine

We've had quite a fun half term break with much excitement at the snow that arrived on wednesday and the spooky goings-on that halloween brought on friday. I'm glad to get back to term-time routines though. I found myself flagging at the end of the week and my good humour drained by the mopping up of too many wee puddles (toilet training for Toby is still very much a work in progress and when I'm able to laugh about it I'll write more about our adventures!)

So it's back to the familiar and comforting routines made all the more fun by walking to school through the fallen leaves in the early morning autumn sunshine.

I do like this time of year!