Turns out, size does matter,

Why is it that sometimes the smallest of patterns are the trickiest to get right?

A Ladybird should, in theory, have been a quick, easy softie to design and make, but everything about it turned into a right pain in the butt.  Seams split during stuffing, needles got stuck going through buttons, french knots got knotted, thread snapped, and fingers got prodded with needle points numerous times.

I'm putting it down to just having a bad day!

Some tips on building a website...

For a long while now, I've had plans to create a website to run alongside this blog, something with a .co.uk or .com address that looks a little more professional and a little less blog-like, but not really known how on earth to go about it.  Anyway, yesterday I came across a free, online way of doing it and on further investigation, found this site in particular just seemed to make sense to me, so gave it a go.

Here are a few things I discovered along the way...,

Decide how you are going to build your site

If you do it yourself from scratch, you may need to purchase your chosen domain name, ie the url you want the website address to be and also web hosting if it is required.  There are lots of sites online from which to do this, google 'domain name/web hosting' and there are plenty to choose from.  Before making a purchase, it's worth googling for reviews of the site you are going through and read them to do a background check on reliability.  Also bear in mind your country of origin, ie if you are in the UK, buy from a UK based site, if you are in the USA, go through an American based site, that way if you need to, you can telephone to sort any issues promptly.

I paid just over £5 ($7.70) for 2 years ownership of the www.lucykatecrafts.co.uk domain name.
 
If you design it via a software package, the domain name and web hosting side will most likely be included in the purchase price.  Mr Site and Do your own site are both popular packages here in the UK.  There are also many free ones to pick from too, Weebly, Webs and Moonfruit to name but a few.  What you get for free is basic but useful and user friendly.  Upgrades can be bought for additional facilities. 

Begin building

The easy ways to do this will have a selection of templates to choose from, and it all works in very much the same as a blog template does, via html coding.  I'm no html coding expert but I can mange to change colours, sizes, borders etc, all of which I've picked up the know how for online since starting blogging, mainly from this site Blogger Buster.  Adding links and images was all very straight forward.

I chose a template which I felt looked the least like a blog, but did personalise it quite a bit.

Going live

The moment of truth is when you click 'publish'.  When I did mine, it automatically gave it a url which included the name of the web building site I used, but there were simple, easy to follow instructions on how to change this so it was linked to the .co.uk address (which was done by adding the ip address of the newly published website into the correct place within the domain name account online), and only took about half an hour after publishing before it was up and running.

The advantages to doing all this yourself is mainly that it's quick and easy to update your site.  Mine can also have E-commerce pages added as it's already linked to Paypal.

www.lucykatecrafts.co.uk

So there you have it, hopefully you will find this a little helpful.  I spent one evening doing this, it's basic but it's a start, although I am also giving I-Web a try at home, and gives me something to build upon that I didn't have before!

edit - feedback is much appreciated, have made a few small changes already, thank you.

Nice surprise!

Last week, the latest copy of Somerset Life plopped through the door,

 How nice, I thought, assuming as I'd been featured in a sister publication I must be on their mailing list, so flicked through, and spotted this...,

a lovely little article all about my Valentine letter!

 Now, those are the kind of surprises I like!

The apple never falls...,

...very far from the tree, does it?!

I haven't shown you this yet.  This is what Lucy made me for Mother's Day a few weeks back, all by herself, even the box.

What a sweetie!

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Thank you for all the suggestions on my last post, loads of ideas and fantastic links in amongst the comments!


ps, I'm giving Disqus a try for comments, please do let me know if you have an problems using it.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...,

Our local art materials shop has sadly closed down.  On their last day, I spotted a bag of little wooden cotton reels for a third of the original price.  So, I bought them.

There are 3 different sizes and shapes in the bag,

and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots!

What on earth am I going to do with them all?  Answers on a postcard please!

Mother Swan,

My Mum's birthday always falls pretty close to Mother's Day (here in the UK), and this year due to unforeseen circumstances (involving lack of money!), I made something...,

she has a Mother Swan and three Cygnets.

The Cygnets represent myself and my two brothers.

Can I just say a huge thank you for all the feedback on my previous post.  This is a vast subject to cover, and despite my initial reservations about bringing it up here, the post will stay.  If you haven't already, please do read through the comments, there are lots of different views expressed about the subject of copying, they make interesting reading.  I have heard back from the craft forum involved, and whilst I'm not convinced they fully understand where I'm coming from on this, they have offered a couple of suggestions.

Copying, where do you draw the line?

I have thought about whether or not to post this over the last couple of weeks, and have decided in the end to go ahead.  This may be a controversial post, I may end up deleting it, but for now, I would like to ask for your views on this subject, and that subject is essentially ...copying.

There have been quite a few small instances of my patterns and tutorials being used commercially (something I do ask not to be done), most of these I query with the maker and do, eventually, get removed (although you'd be amazed how many people try and deny what is glaringly obvious!).  Recently, this has been compounded by an incident on a craft forum when someone posted a copy of my Peacock.  I'm not going to link, and instead use this opportunity to talk about events from my point of view.

The Peacock was seen and admired in my photostream on Flickr.  The person involved decided she would like to make one as a gift as part of an organised swap.  Instead of being inspired by my Peacock, and coming up with her own, she proceeded (without asking if I minded) to work out a pattern, copying mine exactly, for herself.  The finished Peacock was then posted online to great exclamations of praise.  However, instantly, another crafter recognised the Peacock as a copy and emailed me a link.  I messaged the lady in question regarding her motives and also the initial lack of credit as to where the design originated (she has, as a result, now added my name).  

There are a number of reasons why this bothers me, the lapping up of the compliments over design and choice of materials (and I know there is a danger of sounding like a toddler having a tantrum, but hey, it's my design, and I was the one who spent the time working out the shape, how to put it all together, which parts should be fabric, which parts should be felted wool!), the encouragement of others to also 'work out the pattern', and the continued praise by other forum members (and indeed the forum itself as it was selected as a featured project), for what is essentially a rip off!

The Peacock pattern is indeed about to be published and can I make it clear there would be no problem in the slightest if this had been made using the pattern once it's available.  It is the fact that my design, something I had worked very hard on, and something I am attempting to make a living doing, has been deconstructed like it's free for all to use that I take exception to.  If everyone did this, the whole craft pattern market would pretty soon become defunct.

I have been concerned I'm being petty, making a mountain out of a molehill, and if you do think I'm overreacting, please say so, my reasons for posting this is to gain other views and help me get some perspective.  In the meantime, I have contacted the forum direct and expressed my feelings on the matter, although at this point they are yet to reply.

For me, it is about where to draw the line on what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to copies.  When does it move from being flattering, to just downright cheeky?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

edited to add - there is a fantastically written post by Erika Firm over on Decor8 covering this subject too, well worth reading.

Weaving...,

There is a television series currently on here in the UK called Mastercrafts.  Each episode centers on a traditional craft with 3 volunteers undertaking training in this craft.  So far, they have covered Green Wood Craft, Thatching, Blacksmithing, Stained Glass and last week was all about Weaving.

Weaving is the subject I studied at University, so I simply had to watch, it's been such a long time since I did any.  Now, I wasn't the best of students, preferring to spend my time at Uni drinking (alcohol, actually it was cider back then!) and watching bands play, any studying came a poor second.  But nonetheless, I do still have a fair amount of woven samples to show for it...,

looking back, it's really hard to believe that I actually wove these,

everything was done from scratch, including dyeing all the thread,

although some was used in it's natural state.

The looms we had were huge floor standing Dobby Looms.  Each design was pegged out using tiny wooden dowels or 'pegs', hammered into holes to create a 'peg plan' which told the loom which shafts to lift each time the foot peddle was pressed down.

 There were 12 on the course and we were a mean bunch.  The running joke would be to scatter a handful of pegs on the floor under the loom, making you think some had fallen out of your peg plan overnight.  One part I don't miss is threading loom, anyone who has done this before will know it is a very fiddly, time consuming job, and so easy to make a mistake.  But without doing all that, there wouldn't be the satisfaction of cutting a freshly woven piece of cloth from a loom for the first time once it's finished.  A piece of cloth that you know inside out, every single length of thread is there because you placed it there, and together it really does weave something beautiful!

Winner & sneak peaks,

Can't believe it's heading towards Easter already,

...and while I'm eating the chocolate, the Easter Bunny gnaws on a carrot!

The random number generator has been doing it's thing again, and the giveaway winner is...,

number 9 - Kazzells 

Looks like the Peacock was almost the unanimous choice!

Just a quick mention about something else, I had an email a couple of weeks ago about a new online platform available for viewing Etsy.  It's by PicClick, works for searches of items, for example Owl Softies, the same way Etsy does, and is handy because it brings all the images together on the same page, makes it so much easier for quick viewing rather than trawling through page after page.  Handy for keeping tabs on any design copies out there!

Pooh sticks,

Lucy had a confused look on her face yesterday, 

'Mum, what are those on your desk?'

 

Me, 'They are going to be Bullrushes'

Lucy, 'Oh'

Me, 'Why?'

Lucy, 'They look like poo's'

 

Me, 'Well, they're not poo's, they are Bullrushes and are waiting for their stalks'

Lucy, 'Cool, then they'll be poo on a stick!'

Me, 'They are NOT poo's'

Lucy, 'But they look like poo's'

Me, 'THEY ARE NOT POO'S'

Lucy, 'But...'

Me, 'Oh, I give up!'

Back to making pooh sticks then...,

ps, don't forget about the GIVEAWAY.

Big news, big giveaway!

I have been holding off posting for a number of reasons..., firstly as the 9th March it will be my 3rd Blogiversary, I wanted to wait till closer to the date, secondly because this is my 200th post, so it makes sense to tie the two events together, and thirdly I have been waiting on the go ahead to announce this!

Say Hello to 'Little Birds'...,

I am very pleased to say that I am part of the C&T Publishing Design Collective which is evolving and will be known by the name of 'Stash', 'Little Birds' is one of the first publications under this Imprint.  As you may have guessed, it is full of projects involving birds as the common theme, and includes a talented bunch of designers including Melly & me, Abigail Brown, MummySam, Bari J  and Resurrection Fern.  The book is a real selection box full of delights to quilt, embroider and sew, all complied by C&T's Susanne Woods, and now available for pre-order.

My contributions, for there are indeed two, are...,

 

 the pattern for a Peacock softie, 

 

and a Stork mobile.

The Stork's heart even has a space to embroider a name and birthday!

Ok, now all the formalities are done, lets go back to the fact that it is almost 3 years since I began blogging, and 200 warblings posts.  There have been good times (designs published, kits made, softie's sold), and bad times (broken teeth and falling asleep while sewing and headbutting my sewing machine to name just two).  I pride myself on being human, there's no perfect house or perfect life here.  I am the Calamity Jane of sewing.

So, to say thank you for stopping by, thank you for leaving a comment, and thank you to anyone who has ever linked to me and/or written about me, I'm going to offer a giveaway.  

A commission, from me to you.  In celebration of 'Little Birds' inaugural outing from the C&T nest, I will make one of the patterns for you.  You choose, Peacock or Stork mobile.

Leave a comment, making sure I have some way of reaching you, between now and midnight (GMT) on Tuesday 9th March, and after then, the trusty random number generator will do it's magic and pick a winner.

Flying visit...,

Can't believe a week has gone by already since my last post, time..., slow down please!

It has been a busy week, a bit of sewing, a trip to the Lake District, and a trip to Birmingham.

Now, I'm home again, it's back to the sewing,

 

and to finish adding spines to this little guy!

Button necklace,

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the mood one evening to do something crafty.  Whatever it was going to be, it had to be easy (as I was tired), and quick (as it was late).  I'd always fancied a long button necklace, White Stuff have a nice one, but I don't live near a branch or have that much spare spends right now.  But seriously, how hard can it be to make one?  Not very so it turns out, here's mine...,

  

It's quite long, and with a big red square button I bought a while ago, but wasn't sure what to do with it, as a central feature.  To make one, all you need is a length of cord and a selection of buttons.

  

The cord is a fair bit longer than I wanted the finished necklace to be.  Fold it in half to mark the center point and anchor the first button there.  Then, working up each side, thread on buttons at roughly 1 1/2" (4cm) intervals.

 

 

Each button is  secured in place at the back with a knot before moving on to the next.

  

Once the whole necklace is threaded with buttons, simply tie the ends in a knot and trim off any excess cord.  The first one came together so easily, I made a shorter one for Lucy using pastel coloured buttons alternating with a white flower.

 

Don't tell her I'm wearing it, I'll be in big trouble! 

ps, just noticed I am 2 posts away from 200, and about 3 weeks away from a 3rd blogiversary!

Red,

Given how much I like the colour red, I guess today's theme is quite appropriate.  We don't usually go in for elaborate gestures on occasions like Valentines, but after glancing around the internet a couple of weeks ago I did see something which caught my eye.  There are cuflinks made from wooden scrabble tiles, much nicer then the modern plastic equivalent.  You can choose the letters, I chose A & L, the message to my husband being,

...the A is for Amy (me), the L is for Lucy & Luke and together we make you, AL.

(scrabble cufflinks via PennyDog)

We've also eaten red today, Thai Red Curry to be exact, even made my own curry paste, recipe from here.  I then used about 3 tablespoons of paste with 2 can's of coconut milk, sliced baby sweetcorn, chopped spring onions, sliced red pepper, 4 tablespoons of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of cane sugar, king prawns and some crushed kaffir lime leaves.  The 2 cans of coconut milk instead of my usual 1 was so we could have it as a soup with some noodles in it too.  I didn't have any dried chilli's for the paste so used fresh this time, they worked fine but it wasn't quite as hot as we usually like it!

We're lucky as both Lucy & Luke are quite happy to eat hot and weird food, so recipes like this are pretty commonplace in this house.  Given the chance, they would much rather go to somewhere like Wagamama's or Yo Sushi than Macdonalds.

Happy Valentine's Day

My mirror needs cleaning!

Since dipping my toe into the world of wardrobe refashion, I've discovered on Flickr the Bloganista's group.  Here, Bloggers from around the globe are posting their outfits for all to see, I thought it looked fun and decided to join in.  It's been quite an interesting experiment (also inspired by Ali), the theory being that if you are going to photograph your outfit, it will encourage more effort into putting it together.  I work at home, alone most days as Lucy & Luke are both out at school, and Al is usually out and is also often away abroad, so other than the school run or popping out for bread or milk, don't really need to make a huge effort with my appearance.  I always suspected that, despite having plenty of clothes to chose from, I only ever really skim off the top 10% and end up wearing the same outfits over and over again.  

So far, here is what I've discovered,

1. The mirror needs cleaning

2. The wall in our hall needs decorating

3. I stand the same way each time I take a picture

4. I do lots of layering, a sub-conscious side effect of it being so cold

5. I actually only wear the top 5% of my wardrobe, not 10 as I previously thought

and

6. At least I am getting dressed.  I have been known to do the school run with my pyjamas still on under a big coat.

My plan now is to try harder and dig deeper into the recesses of my wardrobe and see what I can find that I've not worn for ages, make better use of what I have, or alter what I have if it's not working as it is and see how long I can go without buying anything.

(my husband will be pleased!)

Never say never,

Until recently, I always said I would never wear skinny jeans again.  I remember them first time round, in the 80's, except then, (here in the UK), they were called  'drain pipes'!  Anyone else remember sitting in your Levi's in a bath full of water in the hope they would shrink and be tighter?!  Just before christmas, I went shopping with my mum and tried some on.  I liked them.  I bought a pair.  I bought a pair of Fly London Mols (in brown, they were in the sale as they are last years style).  I wore them with my skinny jeans and liked them even more.

Now let's move to after christmas, and like Florence, I am also a huge fan of brown cords.  I began on the train of thought that there might be a possibility to bring these two loves together, in the form of a pair of brown corduroy skinny jeans, ...could it be possible?

After a great deal of searching, I had found many things but alas no holy grail.  Skinny cords in the right colour, but not the right size (I have a bit of a Jennifer Lopez situation going on in the butt region), and cords in the right size, but not brown.  I need brown!  Cue, next stop, Ebay, and we're getting there.  A pair of Gap skinny cords, UK size 12 (that's an 8 I think in the USA), in camel.  That's almost brown, right?

And here they are...,

 

Now, although I do like the colour, I know in my heart I still want brown.  I would wear them more if they were brown.  So, after a quick exchange of emails with Florence to quiz her on the recent dyeing of corduroy trousers, a trip to the shops later, I am armed with a box of Dylon Machine Dye.

Florence used Dylon Wash & Dye in chocolate brown.  I went for the basic Machine Dye in dark brown as it was a slightly less red shade and a little bit darker.  The only difference between the two is the Machine Dye needs 500g of salt adding, the Wash & Dye doesn't.  My poor washing machine was going to be in for a bit of a battering, it takes one full cycle to do the dyeing, one full cycle to rinse, then a third full cycle to clean the empty machine, although I suspect I will be just doing darks for the next few washes until I"m certain all the dye has gone.

And here they are again...,

I have also taken them in slightly, again something I haven't done since the 80's, and shortened the length (which I always have to do with trousers anyway, being, well short myself!).  I think they've turned out pretty good, and cheap too.

Trousers : £2.50 ($4.03) + Dye : £4.49 ($7.23) = Total : £6.99 ($11.26)

Bargain! 

Favorites...,

You must know what I mean when I talk about favorites, it's that favorite piece of fabric languishing in your stash that you love so much, you almost don't want to use it.  I mean, what if you can't get anymore?  In this case, it's a button, my favorite button.  Let me describe it for you.  It's cream, slightly shiny, only about 1cm in size, scratched because it's old, came in a mixed bag from a charity shop and has tiny little flecks of grey in it.

As buttons go, it's pretty plain.  But I thought it was beautiful.

The dilemma is, shall I keep it, or shall I use it?

At the moment it's here, and I'd say I'm 50% happy about using it.  A little nervous that it's not safely tucked away in my button box.

There's still time to unpick!

How brave are you with that favorite item in your stash, are you a keeper or a user?

A cautionary tale,

...about backing up. How well backed up is all your computer work, digital photographs, ipod music downloads etc? Take a few moments and think about if your computer, ipod or iphone went kaput or was stolen, how much would you loose?

I thought we were pretty well covered at home, until this week, something important slipped through the net. We backed up onto an Apple Time Capsule, looks the business, large memory capacity etc, however the other day, just as I was dragging files from it to the new imac, the time capsule went blank. Our back up failed.  Turns out it is a common problem. Most files are salvageable in some way as there is another copy on CD, but sadly there are, amongst other things, photo's of the children gone and a word document I had spent most of this week working on, something big and important, something I thought I had a second copy of, but I'm embarrassed to admit, I didn't.

The bright side is I do have a new computer, and it is indeed a beauty!

So, while I rewrite what's been lost from memory as best I can, lets think about ways of backing up :: external hard drive (make sure it's a reliable one though!), burn to a disk, memory stick, email your files to everyone you know and ask them to keep a copy for you. If you can think of any more, let me know.


(me, playing around with photo booth)

ps, thank you for all the lovely comments about turning (whispers)..., 40!

I have been dragged,

...kicking and screaming into 2010. I didn't want this year to start. This is the year I turn,

(can I even type it?!)

40

There, I've done it. I know I'm in good company, there are some other crafty bloggers (who will remain linkless) also due to turn, well, you know what.

In the mean time, there is sewing happening, honest -

a bit of desk debris,

followed by a new (secret) softie,

christmas reading material (by the way, I love Meg's book),

my 15 minutes of fame!, front page of 'Stuffed', volume 3

and inside, on page 113, some softie shoes!

There, I'm off to sulk some more that it's 2010, and I can't stop time.

Get Stuffed...,

Volume 3 is out now, available here. It's full of lovely softies, including my softie shoes.

Thank you to everyone who visits Lucykate Crafts for all your support throughout 2009.

See you in 2010!