Home Sweet Home

As some of you will know, we bought our first house on Friday! As a result, the last few days have been spent ferrying stuff from the rented house to the new one. I’m getting a new workroom by converting the garage, but in the meantime this is what I have to put up with:

Rather rubbish, eh? Anyway priorities were unusual to say the least, as one of the first unpacked items was “roller chicken” that I got from Northfield Primitives as part of the bird swap I took part in last month!

More house pics are over on Flickr from before we started moving stuff in if you wanted a peek…

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Stuff I’m working on

I made these medals this week. After asking for feedback on Crafteroo I’ve decided they are a bit too big, so will be looking at smaller “medal” and thinner ribbon combinations because I think the proportion is just right. Also looking at a better way of attaching the ribbon, and after suggestions I think kilt pins are the way to go! I have a couple more designs up my sleeve too.

I also made this belt with a swirly resin buckle. I’ve decided to stitch the next one differently (I’ve ordered some plain fabrics) and also I invested in some denim strength needles for my sewing machine as things got a little hardgoing at times! I’ll be making buckles to sell alongside the buttons in my shop.

Also I blogged previously about the colour core bracelets. Whilst I have been busy with orders (an amazing thing considering it is January) I have managed to finish one of them which is now for sale!

Custom orders have been really popular and today I finished this bangle for textile designer Aisling Law using pieces of her canvas inside. I think it came out really nicely!

And here’s a peek at other stuff in the works, I have a couple of wholesale orders and a few fairs coming up so it’s a case of catching up with the inventory too, and I also want to use my new power tools to make rings out of pool balls and also get a set of boot bracelets completed and up for sale soon so I’d better take some deep breaths and break out the sandpaper!

Panic Stations!

I’m making a big order up, so I’m quite flustered at the minute, hope to get it all done by Monday…. I have a few items in the box already…

The order is for 36 pairs of knitting needles, 1 ring,  4 bangles, 1 cuff, 3 heart on sleeve fabric cuff bracelets, 1 pair of earrings and 4 pendants, which actually broken down and looking at it in a list like this doesn’t seem too bad, but sanding the bangles takes a while, especially since my grinder has started shorting the power supply again despite getting a new spare part for it on the warranty only a week ago.

So my desk looks like a disaster zone, so please don’t judge me, it’s very productive!

16 more pairs of knitting needles and a pendant to cast, then it’s a weekend of sanding 😦

Studio update, and make 50: week 17

It’s been a little while- moving has been very hectic, but I’ve taken a few pictures of the progress of the workshop so far. Not finished yet mind, very untidy!

I went to Ikea on Thursday for some more furniture, and ended up with towels, plates, glasses, the usual really- tsk at Ikea! I was on my own so had to do the trip around the shop in 2 gos, and have some burly men help me get my glass cabinets into my car. That’s part of another story though, the shop area won’t be started on until the carpet is replaced, but one room at a time is enough for me!

I had to drive sat right up against the steering wheel to get everything in!

Still on Thursday, I emptied out the boot and put down some plastic matting under the messy work areas- I learned from my mistake of ruining a rug at the other house!

Built me a desk and moved an existing bookcase I had into the room, along with all of my paraphenalia. I also claimed our old kitchen table- I had drilled holes in it a few months back anyway!

Put plastic backing up for “the spray zone”, built a wheely chair and brought in another desk, bookcase and chest of drawers from my craftroom at the other house. Still not enough storage!

After this I had a couple of days break as I had orders to fulfill and of course the rest of the house to organise- though not done yet! In other exciting news, we got 4 ex-battery chickens and pending a home check this week, we could well be getting another doggy on the weekend, whom will be renamed either Eric, Leonard or Baxter, not decided yet!

Anyway, this is the room as I left it this morning, tidier, but still in need of more storage and organisation!

And a rather unusual make for me last week, a bangle from Dichro Findings with added reindeer and tree 🙂

The start of something wonderful…

I got the keys to this place on Friday! Yes, all of it (except the Lexus 4×4)!

All of the rooms are huge, including the kitchen…

The breakfast room (which will be the pie room as OH is going into business with a local chef)…

The man room (where OH will go to think upon manly things- see deer head for scale!)…

The living room (which was once the full house, back when it was a boarding house for monks back in the 12th Century)…

This is the courtyard area for parking, behind the pig sties (where we are going to keep chickens) is the garden. We even have a well!

And of course the bit you all are waiting to see… here is my workshop/studio room! By the way those chairs are definitely not staying.

Not sure about the carpet- it’s in good nick and sort of the colours I want, do I pull up and replace with lino, or do I cover it with clear plastic (either way it needs to be resinproof)?

This is the sewing machine desk in the corner, though the plug isn’t compatible, so don’t think I’ll be using it. It has been untouched for years, and so I felt bad rifling through the stuff of an old lady who passed away. This includes what I like to call “the embroidery of guilt” which after finding it half finished, I feel I owe it to the lady to finish it. Or maybe I should frame it half done? What do you think? I have lots of questions!

And this is the shop area! The picture is taken from the front door, which will be the “trade entrance”, the room to the left of the grandfather clock is the workroom. The other doors aren’t in use, the closest one is mysteriously locked, and the other one is full of old trinkets and mouse poo (including a hip flask I found that still has alcohol in it)!

I plan on moving this mirror from the bedroom down into the shop too…

Also today I went to Breedon Priory again and came back with all of this stuff!

My new workroom

I start moving on Friday, which is very exciting, and then I can start work on setting up Rothley Contemporary Crafts. I was toying with the name “Rothley Atelier” but the OH said it wasn’t obvious what the company was all about, so I kept is simple.

I can’t wait to have a bigger space, at the moment my supplies have spilled out of my craft room, onto the landing and take up a third of the living room in boxes and bags now, and I feel like such a tramp- I can’t wait til I have a place for everything (and have everything in it’s plac e as the saying goes).

So as I can’t start laying protective flooring or anything yet, I thought I would share a couple of items I have bought or plan to buy to fit my raspberry and pistachio theme- handmade of course! I was going to start buying furniture today, but since my card was cloned in the cash machine (boo!) I can’t physically buy anything yet 😦