The Selvedge Spring Fair...

Hello my dears... :)
Thank you for being so patient in waiting to hear all the gossip from the Selvedge Spring Fair. Yesterday was filled with of all sorts of nonsense including trying to arrange a plumber to fix a leaky bath, I'm still waiting and hoping they will be here soon...

Anyhoo, the fair... It was such a fabulous day, hugely busy and hectic and filled with lots of friends and chatting and sending a few of my ladies off to their forever homes with some very lovely folk. It kinda whizzed by in a wee bit of a blur, which left my head spinning and with very few photos of the day...

I arrived at 8am to start setting up my wee table in St. Augustine's beautiful church hall, which the Selvedge ladies had decorated with purple and white pom-poms and some of Amy Butler's lovely fabrics. The wee tea area, just behind my table and those old crates, looked very pretty and springy especially so once all the yummy cakes had arrived. No pics I'm afraid, I had my table set up just in the nick of time for the doors to open so it was a mad dash just to snap these pictures. But you can pop by the High Tea of Highgate website and check out their mouth watering gallery for a sampling of the gorgeous cakes that were on offer... :)

So once folk started arriving at 10am it was a non-stop busy and fun day. There was a huge turnout and I wouldn't be surprised if nearly a thousand people came through that wee church hall on Saturday! There were one or two famous faces too, with Linda Barker sending a wee ruffle of excitement through the hall and particularly the Selvedge ladies... ;)
But I think the highlight for me was finally getting to meet some of my oldest and dearest blogging buddies for the first time. The ever so lovely Miss Monda who persuaded me to set up this very blog a few years ago and the very sweet Miss Tif who was the one who helped me kick start my own wee Etsy shop soon after! It was so great and easy to chat to these two dear ladies, as though we had been friends for a long time and weren't just meeting for the first time! I must not forget Miss Fran either who I have known for a wee while and who is always so generous with her kind comments over on my Flickr pages... :)
Oh, and thank you so much to everyone else who stopped by for a wee chat including the lovely Sam of Bella Blossom and the ladies from 'the women's room' who wrote a lovely wee post about the fair yesterday, thank you ladies!
Also, I must not forget all you super sweet 'blog lurkers'... yeah, you know I'm talking to you... ;)

I also had a pretty good day of sales too with the lovely Selma and Velma getting snapped up right away, as did three new Blossom garlands. Which is really great because I love making all of those and can't wait to get hooking on some new ones... :)
I do still have lots of ladies hanging around here waiting for their own forever homes so they will be finding their way into my wee shop over the next few days. Keep an eye on my Facebook pages for the updates... :)

All in all it was a fabulous and exciting day and I'm so glad I did it, it really was worth all the hard work I put in before hand and it was so great to meet so many lovely people. So I want to say a huge thank you to the wonderful Selvedge ladies, particularly Michelle Zimmer, for inviting me along. It was an absolute pleasure and I would certainly jump at the chance to do it all again... :)

Emma, x

ps ~ I think the Selvedge ladies hired a photographer to document the day so I shall keep a wee eye out for these photos and let you know when you can see them... :)

wall flowers...

Happy Wednesday my dears!
I do hope you are in the mood for some flowery spring goodness!? While the sun has been shining the flowers have been a growing. The daffodils in our local park are looking wonderful and if I didn't know how many times they had been 'visited' by pups with full bladders I would get up close and snap some pretty pics of them for you!
My wee studio is almost overflowing with the flowers that are growing there. That is those of the colourful crocheted variety, which are creeping their way up the walls spreading a wee touch of spring cheer as they go... :)

As soon as I took these pics yesterday I started packing them away for the Selvedge fair and already I am missing them. I so want to make more, I want to have them dripping down every wall in my wee house! I can't even begin to imagine how long it would take to crochet all those flowers so I will just have to be content with my imagining them... at least for the time being!

Oh, and thank you all so very much for your lovely birthday wishes! I am obsessed with my gorgeous new teapot and am thinking that there might not be enough fresh mint in the world to satisfy my urge to make tea that just looks so darn pretty!
Emma, x

wishing for sunshine...

Miss Hilda, Miss Esther, Miss Lillian and myself have spent all week desperately hoping and wishing for just a wee bit of sunshine to help cheer us up and maybe give us a reason to smile...

But goodness knows how hard it is to find a reason to smile when you see pictures and reports of the shocking devastation and aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It leaves you numb. It is almost beyond comprehension and understanding. The speed and severity of it. The fragility of life in the face of our unpredictable and violent planet. So much loss...

I know that everyone does what the are capable of to help and will continue to do so for as long as they are able to, whether privately or publicly. It is impossible to ask for more than that...

Emma, x

meet the newest ladies...

Hello, hello, hello... !
I'm so sorry for leaving you guys so high and dry on blog posts this week! Seriously, I can't believe it is Friday already... where on earth did the week go!? Since dropping in with my usual post on Monday the week has just vanished in a blur of crochet activity. Which has been great, but today I can't help but feel a wee bit fretful as the Selvedge fair is drawing ever nearer... only three weeks to go!
So to tantalise your taste buds here is the first batch of new cushions...

You know, sometimes a group photo like this can make it seem like I haven't been working my ass off at all... So let me put that right with what is almost as obscene amount of photos that we can all swoon over! (I am seriously swooning over these lovely ladies myself and half wondering if and how I can keep some of them for myself... Ha, if I keep thinking like this I'll have nothing to take to the fair... !)

These two lovely ladies with their tiny kaleidoscopic squares are Miss Selma and Miss Velma, almost identical twins! It is these two ladies in particular that I am having a few separation issues over... :)

This retro fabulous lady is the gorgeous Miss Mildred. I also have quite the soft spot for her as I have spent some time developing her pattern to get it just right and I absolutely love it! She already has a more springy looking sister in the making, but more about her another day... :)

Ah, the gorgeous Miss Gladys... Perfectly round and so perfectly granny chic, what more could you ask for from a granny cushion... !?

Oh, and last but by no means least is Miss Esme... My signature cushion design looking so fresh and fun with her bright spring colours and cute mismatched vintage buttons... :)

Phew! I feel better now... ;)

Eeek, my fingers just realised they haven't been crocheting for over an hour now and are starting to get a wee bit twitchy! Must go and appease their twitching (and my fretfulness) but I will do my very best to pop back later with a pretty colour palette to ease us into the weekend... :)

Until then have fun,
Emma, x

fresh spring flowers...

Happy, happy Thursday... !
Other than today's very chilly weather, what is not to be happy about when there are piles of pretty spring flowers everywhere I look... !?
As soon as I had decided to take part in this craft fair I also decided to undertake another mammoth task. I'm not sure how this wee idea got into my head but once it did I just couldn't shift it. This idea was that I should have a stock of garland flowers waiting in the wings, waiting for their moment to shine when a custom order would pop into my inbox... great idea I thought! Of course that was before I did the maths, if I had done the maths I'm sure I would have thought... 'nah, bugger it!'

But I didn't, so here I am now living in my wee studio with over four hundred colourful wee blooms, and then some! Fingers crossed for some custom orders, eh... !?
This mountain of flowers includes some brand new colours just in time for the spring. Four gorgeous shades including ~ mustard, silver, soft pink and soft teal...

I'm so completely in love with these new colours and their softness. They just look so beautiful together and especially so with a wee hint of apple green, as Miss Mimi here is demonstrating so well... :) She and a pile of other new garlands (that I will show you more of next week) will all be coming to London with me. So while I won't be adding any new garlands to the shop for a wee while, I will be updating the colour options for the 'Design your own' listings... :)

Emma, x

the organic collection...

Hello my dears... :)
I am in full production mode this week and despite the fact that I've been crocheting like a maniac for a few weeks I finally feel like I'm starting to get a collection organised for the Selvedge craft fair. Things are starting to come together and instead of randomly working on half a dozen different ideas at once I'm focusing on getting some pieces properly finished. The first of which is those organic pot holders I worked on last week, I've expanded the collection to include a yummy pink yarn and some pretty lacy designs. Yesterday I happily spent an hour or so embroidering their wee signature tags and putting together the swing tags. Then today we got a great opportunity for a wee photography session, Edinburgh has been so sunny and the light in my wee studio was just perfect... :)

I'm really loving this new lacy design, they are really fun to crochet and I'm already planning on adding a few to my original (non-organic) collection. I'm thinking some pretty spring pastels would look great, maybe inspired by this sorbet colour palette, oh but definitely this lovely floral one... :)

Emma, x

Selvedge...

So my lovely blogging buddies, I can finally tell you all about my super duper exciting news that I have been wanting to tell you for over a month...

I've been invited to exhibit at the Selvedge Spring Fair... eeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!

Imaging the scene just after I read that e-mail...

Happy dance! eeeek! Calling everyone! Omg, omg, omg! Another happy dance! Almost hyperventilating... breathe. eeeek! Then a wash of mild panic flowing over me as I realise how many weeks away it is and how much crocheting I'll need to do... double eeeek!!!

Even just thinking about it all right now and putting it into black and white I can feel the giddiness rising in the pit of my stomach! Oh, I can't tell you all how excited I am about being invited to take part in this fair... :)
Especially since I'm going to be alongside some other fantastically talented exhibitors including Papa Stour, Catherine Hammerton, Blodwen, Charlotte Macy, The Laundry, Claire Fletcher, Jennifer Collier, Catherine Ball, Becky Adams, Rosie's Armoire and Cornelia O'Donovan ~ wow! There will be thirty exhibitors in total and you can see the full list here.

So here are all the important details ~ The fair takes place at St.Augustine's church hall, which is right next to the Selvedge shop on Archway Road, North London. It is on Saturday 2nd April, the day before Mother's Day here in the UK, and will be open from 10am to 5pm. Entry is £2.50, but this is redeemable in the Selvedge Dry Goods shop across the road... :) Oh, and as the whole event is being sposored by Amy Butler it will be decorated with her gorgeous floral fabrics, I can't wait to see that for myself... !

Oh, there it goes again that slight feeling of panicked, nervous excitement! I'm so looking forward to it and am excited about the folks I could meet on the day. If anyone is going to be in London that weekend and wants to pop by to say 'hello' I would be thrilled if you did... :)

Now I must go and finish up tidying my wee studio so I can get on with crocheting some new goodies, I'll get some pictures very soon... :)

Until tomorrow my lovelies, I shall wish you all a wonderful day!
Emma, x