** NEWS FLASH **

You may (or may not) have noticed that I've been absent from my blog over the last month to 6 weeks.  I've been working with a friend on a new & exciting project, an opportunity arose that was too good to miss but it meant we had to speed up the work on our project.

Here is the result of our work:

LOVE fabric

Our online shop is still a work in progress but all items displayed are in stock & ready to ship so why not click on the logo above & come check us out.

Happy stitching :)

News from me.

OMG. how long has it been since I ventured into the world of Blog?? I completely missed the month of March & almost the month of April too.

Well lots has been going on. At home the bathroom has been done so thats another huge job out the way. The shop sale is finally complete so I no longer own a Needlecraft shop. The biggest news of all, we've booked our wedding (there goes the money from the sale of the shop!!!). It's very exciting & the closer it gets, the more exciting it gets :-)

My mum has started cross stitching birth samplers for the babies. Gave up on a twin one, they just don't seem to exsist. Instead I've chosen two Historical Sampler Company Birth Samplers, Animal Patchwork for Robert & Sugar & Spice Patchwork for Hannah. I shall keep you updated on their progress.

That will have to do me for now, my friend is due any minute for dinner which the bloke has just gone out to fetch :-)

No rest for the wicked!!!

It seems that being a "Lady Wot Lunches" isn't quite all it's cracked up to be. Apart from anything I've found that daytime tv is absolute crap. This morning I actually found myself with Jerry Springer on the tv while I was getting ready to go out... now this can't be good!!!!!

I've been busy ebaying, very busy indeed, lots of bargains to be had on there at the moment so most of my days, you know...all 2 of them so far, have been taken up with photos, followed by listing, followed by more photos, followed by more listing. Basically I need to get rid of it all asap or we simply won't have enough space.

As for viewings on the flat, well to be honest I'm glad we haven't had any at the moment. Just when we get it into some kind of order for a viewing we manage to fill up the clear spaces with yet more crap or in this case stock!

I was hoping to get the Welcome House finished too as I wanted to drop it off to be framed on Monday but I can see that taking an even bigger back seat right now, the ebaying comes first.

If you fancy a browse please help yourself, I think at the moment it's mainly cross stitch & fabric... I haven't yet managed to unearth the knitting stock from the boxes yet but I'll get there in the end.
Ebay list

How cute are these?

Just had to share these with you. They were dropped off by one of my customers on Saturday morning, they are the softest hand knitted shoes & measure just a couple of inches (if that) each, aren't they just the cutest?

Madness!

Just been doing some ebay research as it's been a while since I've done some serious selling on there, unfortunately I made the mistake of looking at the job lot / wholesale section for crafts... found lots that I fancy & thats really not the idea is it??

Not enough hours in the day!

Wow..... been so busy lately, all the good blog intentions have gone completely out the window. Until this morning that is :-)

On the baby front (literally). I just don't seem to be able to sleep past about 7am at the moment & sometimes 6am. The worst part is that I'm so tired. I still have just the one sleeping position available & it's the same position that I've had since October so thats becoming a real pain in the arse. Some good news, we do now have our lovely cots & mattresses to go with them at a slightly bargain price so they are all ready to be installed just as soon as the painting is finished in the spare room, won't take him long (bless him) & we have been extremely busy this bank holiday weekend. Poor bloke hasn't actually had much of a bank holiday weekend.

On the shop front. It still needs painting, the shop front that is. Bad weather, ie rain, hail & snow has kind of stopped play there so hopefully we'll be able to schlap on a bit of Sandtex later today. Most of our stock is packaged up & read to bring home, it's now just a case of tidying up the shelves etc that are there & throwing out the rubbish. Tip run this morning will be done while me & mum tidy & then it's a case of waiting for Irene to turn up so we can hand over the keys. I have no doubts that her & Suzy will make a success of their business, I only hope they get some signs up quick enough to explain to customers that they'll be open again in less than a week. People are so quick to judge, especially on that high street................ in the meantime, I'll be doing a heck of a lot of ebaying to get rid of the stock which is left over that they don't want. Most of it will be sold at a loss but at least it's sold & not just handed over free of charge.

On the stitching front...what is stitching?

I'm starving, babies need something to stop them munching away at my insides!!!

Yay.. new toys!

More good news.
After leaving the baby show on Friday we headed over to Bluewater for some lunch & a little bit shopping. Only one shop in mind, John Lewis. I've been after a new sewing machine for a while & after having no luck at the trade show & then no comment regarding the stitching show I decided it was time to quit messing around & do the sensible thing. After searching online & finding that no one appears to sell cheap new machines I bought a nice posh one in JL. I am now the proud owner of a Janome DC3050 **yayyyyyy** big cheer!

Had loads of fun at the shop this afternoon, got together a pile of goodies for my first project & play with my nice new machine. Worked out what colour fabrics to use, got some threads, interfacing, felt, ribbons, velcro coins & spare machine needles. Had to do an order with a supplier so went through & ordered stuff for the shop & then of course some stuff for my new projects. You have no idea how much fun it was..... well ok so you might! After getting all that together I needed to finish tidying my desk as soon as I got home as my machine needs a living area where it's easily accessible & then the dinner got in the way & then things took a turn for the worst, I realised I'd left all my fabric at the damn shop. Suddenly I was distraught, having no fabric at home available for my play session (seriously, none spare, it's all tied up with other projects at home). We found ourselves on a quick drive back to the shop to pick up my fabrics.... ho hum... what kind of a numpty was I? (prey don't answer that!).

Well thats where I am at the moment... machine is good to go, well you know once I plug it in & dig out some instructions but hey.. it's a sewing machine... who needs instructions??????

Fingers Crossed

We had a viewing this evening on the flat, hopefully it went well, you never can tell but they were here for ages & looked at everywhere loads & then stood outside chatting with the agent for probably another 10 minutes after that. The young lady kept looking back at the building so I guess we'll just have to wait until tomorrow when the agents gives us a call & lets us know exactly what they thought. Annoyingly as I was staring out the window trying desperately to hear what they were saying Mohair went wandering past the window & off towards to the garden gate where 4 persons were standing. After they went he came wandering in the lounge window & do you think the little sod would share what they were saying... NOPE... not on your life. He sits there just staring at them while chat & just doesn't give me an inkling when he gets back..... cats...nightmare!

Monday was a bit of a bad/good day. I had to get up early to be in the shop at 9am for my framer.... exhausted me a bit, I just didn't realise how much. Luckily after I'd managed to calm myself & started re-stocking the yarns Franny turned up :-) this was a bonus, she was kind enough to get lots of yarns down off the shelf for me & generally helped me stock up so a huge thank you to Fran. Oh yeah & I forgot to show you these, check them out, Fran made them for me & brought them in last week.... I just know that you'll all be jealous as hell but it's tough, they're mine. With any luck I'll make a fabby pair of socks using them & make her very proud.

Where every day is a Monday!!!

I appear to be stuck in some kind of groundhog day style loop where every morning appears to be like a Monday morning. I've already had to amend my opening hours to allow for my new timescales & I've given myself a whole day off mid week but still i'm struggling. No matter how long it takes me to get myself up & to work I still end up here absolutely exhausted & just need to rest, thats the point where I wish I was still at home. Usually I can calm myself after about 30min/1hour but if the customers are flowing I just end up in a bit of a state. Maybe I should be just putting up with these things & not quite whinging so much but it's difficult, having never felt like this before it's almost impossible not to voice my opinions to anyone that cares to listen.

On the stitching front I believe I picked up "Street" the other day (Tuesday I think) & you know I may have even put in more than 6 stitches.. woohoo!! I shall be having another go at that today as I simply can't be arsed to do anything else except sit & peruse my dvd's :-)

Happy New Year

Well it's here... 2008... seems like only yesterday we were in New York for our summer holiday, how time flies.

This year will be one of the most... erm.... adventurous.... challenging & hectic that I believe we'll have.
The flat it up for sale & we are desperate to move, the sign is still well & truely planted in the front garden so long may it continue. Fingers crossed we'll be inundated with phone calls from our agent with potential purchasers lining up to get a view at our spacious rooms & tranquil garden enterance.
The shop is still an enormour thorn in my side at the moment. The property has been available for a bit & while we currently have one potentially interested party (for the business too) we are still hopeful of more interest.. you can never have too many people interested! Back to the business sale, we are waiting on the accountant (still) & this is most frustrating. Without that information our buyer is unable to progress with either the business purchase or building signing.

Random comment: I love my new mouse mat & wrist rest :-)

Work in the new year is going to become increasingly difficult for me. I am already larger than the average pregnant person at my stage & it seems that this isn't going to slow down.. good for babies... tiring for me!! I have already reduced my working hours from when I start back on Thursday. I will open from 10am to 4.30pm with the shop closed all day on Weds & Sundays. It takes me longer to do anything at the moment & I am finding that I am breathless quite often, thi is something I've never had to deal with in my life so it's a bit of a change. There will also come a time when I am unable to serve my customers adequately by going up & down a ladder (something which many think I should have stopped already!) but then the bags would just be all over the place & thats not my idea of a tidy shop. When running down my endless list of hospital appointments I also noted that with so many & on a weekly basis sometimes the shop will start to spend more time closed than it does open..... I only hope we get progress on the sale before too much longer.

We've been discussing now for quite some time if we should find out what "flavours" we'll be having when it comes to our babies. The answer to that changes on a daily basis. With one baby we certainly didn't wish to know until it was born so that we had a delightful surprise, well hey ho... surprise... it's two babies. We've had the biggest surprise of all so would it now be more prudent for us to find out what exactly we're having so that we are better equipped to plan what we'll need to purchase (apart from house & car!) to accomodate our little brood? Sometimes yes, we'd love to know... other days we just aren't sure we'd like to know. The likelyhood is that we will eventually find out because I have another 4 scans booked so it'll become almost impossible to miss. I wouldn't want to tell anyone though.... i'd still like it to be a surprise for everyone else but when you know something that everyone else wants to know it can be difficult to keep it to yourself......... a dilemma which will no doubt continue until the morning of the scan... 7th Feb!

I've started my 2008 Stitching Challenge for the group. I designated two designs, both nice & new. One is Under The Arch by John Clayton, reminds me heavily of Pride & Prejudice so I can't wait to get that one stitched up... thats on 28 count evenweave. My second choice is to be a new kit that the parents bought me.. Street by Michael Powell, it has to be my favourite design of his & I think all of his designs are either love it or hate it, you either like the style or you don't, I like some of them but this is my fav.. it's on 14 count aida (annoyingly it comes with Anchor threads & I hate them but I really can't be bothered to switch them to DMC's as I have to make some progress on it today for it to qualify for the challenge)
My UFO challenge pieces are Welcome House by Cinnamon Cat.. I know this was last years design but I just didn't get it finished so here it is again. The second here will be Who's Watching Whom by Dimensions which it works out was started & shelved in 1999 so it'll be good to make some further progress on this long awaited design.

Enough for now I think.... need a cuppa!!!!

Been a while... sorry!

Ok... it has indeed been a while.. but bare with me... I've been a tad on the busy side.

To start with we found out that our little bundle of joy to be expected on June 4th actually turned out to be a kitten... no.. just kidding.. we have twins.. Yayy... 2 little bundles of joy & most likely to be expected around the middle of May because lets face it although I'm a large girl even I can run out of space to house the little blighters!!!

Since finding out & going through almost 2 weeks of walking around like a zombie coming to terms with the idea of having two babies at the same time we have put our home up for sale, started looking for a new one & on top of that managed all of our xmas shopping too.

We had of course decided to close the shop but that brought us a few interested parties in the business itself. One of those turned out to be a complete waste of time & didn't even bother informing us of their intentions or lack thereof. Another has proved quite productive & looks like it could be going somewhere. A new interest has recently arrived but so far no definate info so we'll keep an open mind on that one for the time being. The best news about the most productive interest is that they have a vision to continue the store as it is but add to the stitching & wool ranges but also increase the haby side & add fabrics too.

Of course the sale of the business will also mean that we could buy a new car which will be essential as my little KA is not going to cut the mustard when it comes to twins & the paraphenalia that will no doubt come with them.

Ok... that will do for now I think.

Something I said?

My Rowan rep for the shop retired back at the end of October, no real loss there as he was one of the most pushy salesman I've ever come across & seemed to be of the impression that everyone on the planet could afford Rowan yarns & if they couldn't they just weren't worth the time of day, needless to say I didn't like the guy.

I recently found out that my Coats Crafts (Patons/Anchor) rep has also left, now she was a lovely lady, nothing like a pushy sales person at all, very pleasant to deal with & I believe work politics to be cause of her departure.

Today I find out that my Sirdar rep has handed in his notice & will be granted early retirement, a lovely guy who is honest, down to earth & a pleasure to deal with. Always happy to pop in to show off the latest or to show nothing at all & just make sure we're happy with everything. Never disappointed if he goes away without an order. A rep who'll be missed.

My Groves rep says to me the other day... "it looks like everyone that visits you is leaving". Hhmmm, makes me wonder.. do I smell? Is is something I said? oh wait, hang on.. do I care? No... not really. More important things in life!!!

Christmas Cracker is near on completion, just the final side & a bit of the border & then it's a done deal, fingers crossed tomorrow I may just get a picture of it on here. No news on the stash yet but it was only shipped on Monday so maybe tomorrow but I doubt it, I reckon we're looking at early next week for that.

nn all xx

So tired!

Tired that is of the damn shop, you know I've worked my arse off in the damn shop, I get next to nothing in return except grief off the customers. Not the right yarns, not the right quantity of yarns, no patchwork, wrong manufacturer of kits, not the right kits, wrong make of thread, no pearle thread... the list is endless & you know sometimes the customers can't even be bothered with the politeness of hello or goodbye. I was brought up in a way that we were taught to respect your elders, now granted the majority of my customers are elderly & to be honest if they can't respect me I'm starting to wonder why in the hell I should take the time to respect them. My nan would have a few words to say to these ladies if she were still alive.

Unfortunatly for the other customers it makes my decision regarding the closure of the shop that much easier to handle. Why should I care that they'll have no where to buy their wool or threads, they obviously don't care about the shop being there enough to be civil to me.

Serves them right.... I can't wait!!!