Christmas Wreath Giveaway Prize

Do you remember, many moons ago, (nearly a whole month ago - when I wasn't entirely grey!) I held a giveaway, to celebrate my 1st year anniversary?

Well I have finally finished the prize! The prize was for a wreath, based on whatever theme the recipient wanted... Claire, the lovely lady who won the giveaway, said she would like a 'wintery scene' on her wreath, so this is what I came up with:

I am totally in love with it and will be making another one, which will be taking pride of place in my living room for the festive season!

I have listed it, as a made to order item in my shop and can be ordered for posting within the UK up to December 18th.

Final posting dates are up in my shop announcement and there is also a special sale happening this coming weekend... it's something that is very popular in The States, and because Etsy is an American site, they are heavily promoting all who take part. It's call the 'Black Friday & Cyber Monday' sale. Black Friday being the day after Thanksgiving and when traditionally a lot of Americans start thinking about Christmas in earnest, having got Thanksgiving out of the way.

The sale runs from 9am (GMT) on Friday 23rd November until 9am (GMT) Tuesday 27th November 2012 and using the code CYBER2012 you can get 10% off all purchases in my shop.

I'm off now to check out all the lovely Handmade Monday posts

Simmi xx

Shall I Tell You A Secret?

A really BIG secret?

Are you sure you're ready????

I'VE JUST HANDED IN MY NOTICE AT THE DAY JOB!!!!!!!!!!!

J

Can you tell that I'm pleased and rather excited?!

I've got a million and one things to do before I go at the end of December but I just want to dance about and sing!

I was planning to leave in the Summer as that'll be when Seren's gearing up to go to school and it'll be all change, so it seemed like a good time, but I've been getting more and wound up and stressed about not having enough time for every aspect of my life, so we've managed to work the finances out so that the kids can carry on at their nursery (with slightly reduced hours) and I will have 3 days a week to dedicate to the business come the New Year.

I am really looking forward to it as I get very frustrated to have so many ideas and not enough hours in the day to achieve even half of it!

Sorry for the lack of pictures and lots of waffle!

Handmade Makers Market

Yikes! I've just realised that I've got just over 2 weeks till the Handmade Makers Market in Oxford and I'm in a little bit of a panic about having enough stock!

I haven't done a craft fair or a market since the summer one, but to get the stall looking as full as this:

I had to spend every spare minute of my 2 week holiday in Ireland, with the out-laws (nah, my lovely in-laws!) designing and sewing.... HOWEVER.... for the next 2 and a half weeks I'm working, looking after my kids and going away for a child-free weekend to London! The words 'Oh Bugger' are currently reverberating round my head!

I think I'm going to have to start geeing myself up with lots of coffee and because sewing seems better done in the mornings.... lots of early alarm calls!

Photo: www.etsy.com/shop/HopePhotoArt

Belatedly off to join the Handmade Monday link up and visit all the other lovely blogs (when I should be making!)

Handmade Monday

I've decided to take the plunge and join something I've been reading about for a while - Handmade Monday which takes place, yes you guessed right, every Monday on the fantastic Handmade Harbour blog.

This post is to join in on the 91st Handmade Monday and it was after reading the gorgeous blog post from a fellow Etsian, Natalie from Free Spirit Designs which also featured my Poppy Appeal Brooch that I decided to join in.

Poppy Broch - all proceeds of sales during October & November are going to the Royal British Legion.

But today I wanted to share my newest VW Campervan, which has been designed for a wedding! The lovely customer who's bought it is the sister of the Groom and she was able to sneakily find out what colour Campervan the couple have hired to be their wedding car and so I've been commissioned to match their cuddly camper to it! Such a lovely idea.... what do you think?

Wedding car to hire from Beetles About

My Campervan complete with ribbons

It would seem a lot of people are choosing to incorporate Campervans into their wedding plans, so I'm hoping this will become an integral part of the VW range.... watch this space for more news!