Appreciate all the handmade love you're given.

This weeks Craft Britannia shop of the week has got me reminiscing, about how we don't always appreciate how much hard work and love goes into the handmade gifts and things we had made for us when we were younger (and when we're older too!)

My mom was an avid knitter, where she got the time to knit I have no idea, she always seemed to be 'on the go', working part time when I started school, keeping house, looking after me, my dad and brother. She must have squeezed in an hour or so each evening after we were in bed.

I still remember all the knitted jumpers, cardigans and toys she made me but it's only after I took up knitting myself that I realized how much hard work and love went into each stitch.

Which brings me onto this week's SOTW, which is Bebby Jumpers. 

I'm not usually one for oooh-iing and aaahhh-ing at babies or children, (well, OK I'm willing to admit I do coo over the occasional baby or child). So when I learned that this week I would be featuring a children's clothes shop, I thought, "well I'm not too sure where this post will end up". But on taking a closer look at Bebby's shop it made me think of my mom and all the lovely things she made me over the years. 

 

Bebby's babies and children's clothes look so beautifully made and her designs look like traditional vintage patterns that I remember from my childhood but they are still very much in fashion today, I think this is mainly because of her use of texture and colour. 

I especially like the designs I've featured here and wish I had nieces and nephews young enough to wear her beautiful handknits.

Beautiful yellow bunny cardigan.

 

Child's handknit aran sweater

 

Girl's handknit jacket with pixie hood.

A beautiful gift for a winter birthday or for Christmas.

Bebby Jumper's lovely shop can be found here on Etsy.

And to read more about Bebby and her beautiful handknit children's clothes and accessories, please visit the Craft Britannia blog  http://craftbritannia.com/2012/07/22/bebbyjumpers/

I hope you'll take the time to pay her a visit, especially if you have any little ones in the family and are looking for beautifully handknits for them.

I need a break and this is just the excuse!

I've been busy the past few days, trying to de-clutter and sort out my accounts (and I haven't finished yet!). So I thought I'd take a break from it and do this weeks Craft Britannia Etsy team's 'shop of the week'.

This week's SOTW is the lovely Erica Price of Erika Price Designs. Reading her interview on the team blog made me realise how much energy some people have and give to their lives. Erika's daily life seems like a blur of activity and creativity.

Erika not only makes jewellery but is also a silversmith and makes her own really beautiful glass beads and I've only shown a small sample of her work here.

Crystal Union Jack pendant.

Matching crystal Union Jack friendship bracelet.

Handmade silver and ruby pendant

Handmade glass bead earrings.

I've saved my favorite until last, these have to be the most beautiful handmade beads I've ever seen (and as I used to make a lot of earrings, I've seen quite a few!)

I love the delicate blossom patterns inside the glass beads and to get two beads made to match is quite amazing!

These have to be my favorite. Beautiful handmade glass bead earrings.

You can visit Erika's shop here and her Craft Britannia interview is here


That's all for today, I really hope you'll go and read Erika's interview and visit her shop, both are well worth a visit.

I suppose I'd better make another cuppa and get back to those accounts, sadly the accounts elves must be on holiday in our area, or I'd wake up and find them magically done for me!

Blue Monday

Yes it's grey skies and more grey skies here today and I'm feeling a tiny bit blue with lack of sun (although we did get a peep from it yesterday). The view out of the window from where I sit, is all grey sky but is also filled with the view of large green trees, the silver birch and pear tree at the bottom of our garden, along with the apple tree from next door and yet more trees at the bottom of the garden, that our garden joins with.
It's usually quiet and peaceful outside and I really love the view, but the builders from next door are using a pipe / brick cutting tool again, so I'm wishing I was somewhere else today - maybe by the sea, even on a grey miserable day like today a visit to the seaside can be really peaceful!

Since I'm having a bit of a blue (lack of sun and too much noise) day, and wishing I was somewhere else, I thought I'd do this weeks SOTW early. This weeks Craft Britannia Etsy team's shop of the week is Carrie from Phoenvix, her shop stocks her handmade jewellery and her handmade ACEO cards, which are both pretty and affordable.
I went to take a look at Carrie's jewellery, these pieces made me feel like I was by the sea, very peaceful and relaxed. So I've chosen to feature some of her lovely blue and green pieces today, rather than her other jewellery or ACEO cards.

Chunky green glass bead bracelet

  

This lovely chunky bracelet reminds me of the sea on a glorious sunny day.

Shell pendant with chain and bead necklace.

A more delicate piece, which also reminds me of the sea, beaches and little sailing boats.

Blue green stretch elastic bracelet

Another bracelet that reminds me of the seaside, looking at this , I can imagine myself poking about in rock pools like I did as a child, something I haven't done in a very long time.


I really hope you'll take the time to visit Carrie's shop and also pop over to the Craft Britannia blog to read her interview.


That's all for today and fingers crossed the builders next door go home early so I can get some peace and quiet! Meanwhile, I'll just sit and daydream about being on a quiet and secluded beach overlooking the sea.

Two for the price of one!

Hello again! This week is a bumper edition of the Etsy Craft Britannia team's 'shop of the week', as it features not one but two shops.

Both Etsy shops are run by our CB team member Nadine. Her first shop is called muntjac vintage, which as the name suggests, sells vintage goodies.

These two lovely sets caught my eye, so I had to feature them. The ducks look as if they could have just been bought from a modern ceramics shop and the Russian nesting dolls are a popular theme at the moment, wouldn't it be lovely to own a set of these vintage nesting dolls?

Set of beautiful vintage ducks

Vintage, painted Matryoshka Russian Nesting Dolls

Nadine's second shop is called imynda and features her handmade crochet items. She makes sweet crochet animal brooches, magnets, accessories and jewellery. I love her sweet panda and lion magnets and her brooches are really adorable.

Sweet crochet panda magnet

cheery crochet lion magnet

I hope you'll take the time to visit Nadine's shops, both are worth a look!
To read Nadine's interview on the Craft Britannia blog click here

Nadine's muntjac vintage shop can be found here and her imynda handmade shop can be found here

That's all for today and happy crafting to my readers!

Are you joining us for the next CRAFTfest events?

The lovely folk on the Creative Connections website have been tweeting and blogging like crazy for the past few days. This is because, the next CRAFTfest event dates have been posted and they are now taking booking for stalls. This time I booked both the September and November events, which are £5.00 for each event and I'm really excited to be doing CRAFTfest again.

As I've probably mentioned on an earlier post, I really enjoyed the last event and made lots of new crafty friends too. It's a really good way of getting your craft and art known outside your own circle of crafters and at £5 for a whole week and even if you don't make a huge number of sales from the event, I think it's excellent value. You do have to be ready to promote your stall though (and hopefully other peoples stalls too) but it's really worth all the effort.  The CRAFTfest team also work really really hard to promote the stallholders and they are a really friendly bunch of people too.

Oh and just to mention, in case you're not familiar with how CRAFTfest works, you link whichever items you have for sale on Etsy, Folksy or any other Internet site to your CRAFTfest stall. You upload a photo for each item, add a description and then when people look at your virtual stall, they can link directly to the item they want to buy.

If you don't want a stall yourself, please pencil the dates of both events in your diary and then pop over to see us all and to check out all the fantastic handmade goodies people are promoting and selling.  It's a perfect place to stock up on some gifts before Christmas (yes I know I mentioned the dreaded C word, but you can never get organized too early!)

The dates of the events are as follows:

Autumn event - 1st to 8th September &

The Christmas event is being held - 24th November to 1st December.

If you would like to know more, or are interested in having as stall for one or both events, please click here to go to the CRAFTfest events page. If you do want a stall you will need to be a member of Creative Connections first and if you have any questions, there's always someone ready and willing to help.

More later this week and happy crafting everyone!