colour palette ~ awol / spring in my studio...

Hello my dears... :)
Sorry for going 'awol' yesterday but I'm thinking it may become a regular occurrence over the next few weeks as I gear up for the Selvedge Spring fair. I really want to get together a wide and varied collection for it, so to achieve the mammoth amount of crocheting I have planned I'm going to have to curb my computer time for a wee while.
Of course I won't be gone completely, I'll still be here for my regular Monday and Friday posts because they're such a great part of my creative motivation. It's just that I won't have the time to trawl Etsy and Flickr for as many gorgeous finds as usual. Instead you will have to put up with the odd post of what I'm working on... ;)

So this was my view yesterday while I happily worked on a bunch of new organic pot holders. I'm loving my new shelf arrangement with lots of white and pops of bright springy colours. Yesterday it really did feel like spring for the first time, it felt a wee bit warmer than usual and the sun was shining bright. You could almost smell the newness in the air... :)

What better inspiration for today's colour palette that my very lovely 'springy' shelves!? I hope you love it and my wee 'Kokeshi cuties' just as much as I do... :)

Oh, and before I go off to crochet yet more pot holdering goodness I want to say a huge, nay enormous 'thank you' to every one who took the time to vote for me in the Handmade Olympics. Thanks to you all my wee garlands brought home the Gold medal for Britain ~ woo-hoo! I am completely thrilled, grateful and quite heart warmed by your generosity... :)

I do hope you all have the most wonderful weekend, whether it is 'springy' or not...
Emma, x

between the rainclouds...

There have been some very heavy, dark grey rainclouds over Edinburgh these last couple of days, but occasionally they have parted to let through some fiercely bright sunshine. One minute I'm struggling to see what I'm doing and the next the whole place is glowing with bright light and glorious colour...

In those fleeting moments it felt as though my wee studio had come to life and I was in my own wee crocheted garden of Spring cheer... :)

Hopefully, sometime soon, the sun will shine longer that a few fleeting moments and I can snap some proper pretty pics of these new ladies in the making. Goodness knows my wee shop shelves are desperately crying out for a wee bit of sprucing up ready for the spring!

Emma, x

pottering...

So it's another late post today and that can only mean one thing ~ yet another whole, entire, full day spent pottering in the studio... bliss!

Mostly I've been pottering at my desk putting the finishing touches to one or two ladies. Luckily the sun has been shining so the light has been lovely. I love how fresh and colourful my studio can look on days like today, it's so inspiring and motivating...
I've also made good headway on some of those festive ideas I've been pondering, but I'll tell you more about them later once they are ready! Until then expect to see a few ladies making their way onto my wee shop shelves, keep a wee eye on my Facebook page if you would like to know more... :)

Oh, and thank you all so much for your sweet comments yesterday! I'm so pleased you found a moment of inspiration to cheer you up on such a dreary day. Although the rain finally did stop it seems we are forecast some snow this week... eek! So not looking forward to that... !

Emma, x

in a quiet place...

Hello my dears, sorry for the late post today. I have been happily tucked up in my wee studio all day long, I can tell you it has been blissful! Today was one of those days when I just didn't want to be looking at a computer screen for very long, you know what I mean... !? But I did want to pop in and say 'Hello'... :) I have more pictures to show but they will have to wait for another day as it's getting late tonight.

Before I go I just wanted to mention a couple of exciting things from today. The first is that one of my Mam's gorgeous Hot Water Bottle Sweaters was featured on Victoria's lovely blog today... yay and double yay!
The second, if you haven't already heard, is that Etsy have started to introduce a range of currencies beyond the USD... woo-hooo! I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for them to take this step and I can't tell you how excited I am about this, really! I think it will be hugely positive for inviting a more international audience and making them a truly unique international marketplace. Speaking from personal experience I know it will make trading on the site a far less frustrating experience for all us non-US folks. Battling with a fluctuating exchange rate is just so tiresome, I recently gave up with altering my prices and just resigned myself to losing a few ponds here and there. But, that all changed today as I am now officially trading in GBP... :) You can still view all prices in your preferred currency but my list prices will now show as £'s instead of $'s. The change just means that I won't be losing out anymore!
Oh, I also noticed another new feature that Etsy are introducing this week... Coupon Codes. I haven't looked into this one yet but I know it's one that a lot of folk have been asking for.

Okey dokey then... I have rambled on enough tonight so I shall wish you all a wonderful evening and hopefully see you tomorrow... :)
Emma, x

busy, busy...

So after my two bright and cheery posts this week I have been spurred on to get 'busy, busy' with a new project I've been pondering over for a while...

Mostly I've been pondering exactly how I was going to go about it and getting together all the wee bits 'n' pieces I need to make it...

It's turning out just as I had imagined and I'm really excited about showing it to you...

But it's not quite ready yet. In the midst of my creativity I was stuck with another idea that just had to be explored a wee bit. I'm excited about this one too...

There are lots of things in the making just now and if I can focus on them, instead of being distracted by shiny new ideas, it won't be too long before they're finished... !
Fingers crossed that the rain clouds will part when they are and I can snap some pretty pics... :)

emma
x

ps ~ My most favourite thing in all these pics is the wee blue bow hanging on the wall in the last one ~ my mum made that... :)

on my desk this week...

as mass of creative clutter...

some old ideas being revisited and reinvented, while a few new ones take their very first tentative steps into reality...

lots of vintage goodness of silk and cotton threads...

pretty beads and buttons in glass and my favourite mother or pearl...

...and lots of miniature crochet on tiny hooks!

i can't tell you exactly where all of these new ideas are going or what they will be, mostly because i'm not really sure myself yet...
all i know is that i have the ideas in my head and i need to breathe some life into them. i need to start making them, whatever they may be...
hopefully, along the way, whatever they are will begin to emerge and i can find a direction to focus these ideas and this urge for some miniature creativity... :)

emma
x

monday in my studio...

because today was all about boring post office queues, a pile of boring paperwork and trying to tame a mop of frizzy hair that has been tormented by all this soggy weather!

yesterday was much less boring and much more pretty...

~ a bunch of lovely ladies off to new homes ~

~ putting together a new mood board for my studio ~

~ and hoping that these 'wise words' are true, considering the amount of rain cloud out there today... ;)

happy tuesday to you all... :)
emma
x

creative clutter...

...this was my wee studio as it greeted me first thing yesterday morning ~ and while it may look like a pretty interesting pile of colourful, creative clutter there was barely an inch of space to get out my wee notebook and write this weeks 'to do list' (the number one 'to do' being to tidy my studio!), let alone start any work!
...so of course the only thing to do was to head straight for my pc and work on a blog post in the hope that by the time i had finished the wee 'tidy fairies' would have popped by and worked a wee miracle on my cluttered room...
...as you can probably guess that didn't happen because, as we all know, the 'tidy fairies' are very, very shy! so we, that is Spanner and me, thought that if we went for a very, very long walk in the spring sunshine it would give them plenty of time to pluck up their courage, come out of their wee hidey-holes and set about the place with dusters in hand...

...ha!

...in the end i decided it would be far quicker to just get on and do it myself. which wasn't such a bad thing after all as i had quite a therapeutic afternoon organising all my bits 'n' bobs and choosing which tins they should live in :)
...once i was done i sat down with a fresh brew, in my favourite new red and white spotty mug, and some yummy chocolate that didn't last very long (note the lack of chocolate in this pic as it's all in my belly!), and started work on some new potholders for an exciting custom order i got this weekend ~ the perfect way to end the day :)
...

...oh, before i go i just want to say a huge thank you to the lovely Liane, of enhabiten, for featuring a few of my ladies in one of her blog posts yesterday ~ thank you Liane!

emma
x

in my studio today...

...a wee bit more 'pink' than usual...

...the sun finally broke through rain and snow clouds today and i was able to snap a couple of pics of these pretty pink carnations before they all turn brown and wither completely...

...(for the last few days poor old scotland has been hit with some torrential downpours and gale force winds, which then turned into a snowstorm yesterday!)...

...also, a new lady that i can't seem to put down today. she seems to be turning out much 'pinker' than i had planned her to be, but when the colours feel right so you gotta go with it...

emma
x

busy bee...

...i have been as busy as a bee this week crocheting and tending my wee shop shelves, but today i seem to have run out of time...
...i had wanted to do the wee shop update today but it's already getting late and i'm pooped, and to be honest i quite fancy a quiet evening with a glass of wine, a good film and a pack of my favourite chocolate brownies that my man thoughtfully brought home today :)
...

...but before i go and settle in for the evening i thought i would leave you with a couple of my favourite images from flickr this week ~ springy perfection...

...dottie angel...

...LolaNova...

...lulaland...

...wishing you all the most wonderful evening and i shall see you bright and early tomorrow morning :)
emma
x

getting organised...

...i have done my de-cluttering, i have organised, tidied, sorted, filed, recycled, shredded, arranged and re-arranged...
...all that is left to do is to take one quite large bag to the charity shop, stop fiddling with my newly and neatly arranged yarn stash (now guarded by the happy girls!) and get down to some crafty business... :)

...although, as you can see i have already been up to a wee bit of crafty business ~ i did find a few minutes for crocheting some new flowers, and a few more minutes to string them together into one or two garlands. so as soon as the sun finds a few minutes to shine and i can spend a few more minutes photographing them ready for a wee shop update...
...

...amongst all the de-cluttering i did find a few minutes to put together a new wee blog over on tumblr. although it won't be quite the same as this one where i waffle on between the pretty pics! no, my tumblr blog is only going to be about the pretty pics, 'woo-hoo!' i hear you cry... ;)

...for a while i've been wanting a wee space where i can collect and organise my most favourite and inspiring images. usually i just save them into a folder on my computer, trying to get as much info into the file name as possible so i can remember where i found them. but of course that never really works, does it!?
...the thought of using tumblr didn't occur to me until a few days ago when i was reading Jennifer's unique blog, which almost feels like a galley with the beautiful images she has gathered together. so now i have created my own wee gallery space and am feeling quite organised indeed!
...

...and what is really surprising me is that amongst all of that, i even found a few minutes to take part in a wee interview for the lovely Gina of 'bright and blithe'. so if fancy a wee read then grab yourself a fresh brew and a sweet treat and hop on over there... :)

...yep, i am feeling super duper organised! okay, okay... so we'll agree to gloss over the huge pile of e-mails i need to write ~ i promise they're on my to do list for tomorrow! along with something really exciting that i can't wait to tell you about, but i'm going to have to... ;)

emma
x

happy desk thursday...

...wow! i can't believe it's thursday already, this week seems to be flying by...

...so many exciting things have been happened already and i've found so many lovely new people and places to visit in blogland...
...all of which means i have an over stimulated mind and a need to create way too many things at once! at the moment i can't decide whether i want to knit, crochet or embroider ~ so today my desk is piled high with all three in a real creative clutter :)

...i think a long soak in the tub is in order and i shall be back soon with a better peek at some of the crochet goodies i'm working on, until then my dears ~ happy desk thursday!

emma
(feeling very happy, if slightly frazzled!)
x

fabric as far as the eye can see...

...wow! this week seems to have flown by, i can't believe it's desk thursday already!

...getting back into working with fabric and thread has been a bit of a slow start for me. i did have a wee burst of inspiration and managed a few designs after this post, but then i seemed to run into a brick wall, one that felt almost a hundred feet high! i'm sure you all know what it's like, you have deadlines looming, bills that need paying, work that really should have been done yesterday and no matter what you do the ideas just don't flow...

...and the only thing you can do is walk away from it, pick up your hook and crochet away the stress ;)

...than a couple of days ago i read this post on paper 'n' stitch, and i think to myself ~ it's a long time since i've kept a sketchbook, and i mean a real sketchbook and not just a note book or journal. a real sketchbook where you doodle, play and experiment with ideas and techniques, not just a little book where you quickly note down ideas just so you don't forget them, or fasten in bits of stray paper so they don't get lost...

...but then that little nagging voice in your head chirps up to say 'you haven't got time, just get on with some work!' so i think to myself ~ right! i shall tidy my desk and rearrange my fabrics, that always clears my head and i always find a forgotten fabric that triggers my creative thoughts...

...hmmm, still nothing...

...so i call up a lovely friend for a good chat and she tells me just what i need to hear ~ do it! go and play, experiment with fabric and thread, forget the rules, clash colours and textures, improvise and let the moment guide you! :)

...so for the next few days i am going to be happily sitting at my desk with some good tunes, plenty of tea and chocolate, and a needle and thread in hand working on my 'fabric sketchbook', because as Brittni put it 'sketching can be just as important, if not more important than finished works'...

...if you made it to the end of this ramble ~ thank you! i hope you are all having a fabulous creative day and if you are feeling a wee bit stuck give yourself a break and indulge yourself!

...see you all in a few days with a crochet update and maybe a peek of some of my experiments!

emma
x

My moodboard...

...i'm pleased to say i have achieved a couple of things this week, i have re-hung my mood board picture frame with a new print in it. actually it's a sheet of wrapping paper designed by Hanna Werning, you can get it in the uk here...

...i've also got a couple of her prints on postcards too, the yellow and brown ones on the left, you can see more of them here...

...this butterfly one is my favourite, i love the mix of motifs and the colours are just gorgeous...

...part of this AnimalFlowers collection is also available as a wallpaper-poster, such a cool idea!
...

...another thing i achieved this week was to tidy my spring fabric collection and arrange it in pretty colour groupings...

...despite being surrounded by all this beautiful pattern and colour i just can't seem to lift myself out of this design funk i've been in for the last couple of weeks. i don't know what's going on, i feel like i've got lots of ideas in my head but they're not working their way down to my fingers and into my work, so frustrating!

...i have managed to finish my last knitting wip though, my gorgeous red cardigan, it just needs to be blocked and a button added before i can show you some pics...

...anyway, i hope there is more creating going on in your space than there is here, and remember to check out Kootoyoo's blog for more creative spaces...

emma
x