Celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who!

A friend of mine is completely obsessed with all things Doctor Who and he informed me a while ago that this year was the 50th anniversary of the programme. So I thought I'd make a silly something to commemorate it and this is what I've come up with (so far!) - A Cuddly T.A.R.D.I.S :-)

The slogan around the top of the Tardis reads "Who Loves The Doctor? Andy!" so it's personalised and on opposite sides says "Doctor" and "Who" (have to credit my husband who came up with that!). There's also a further bit of customisation on the note on the "front door" which reads "AP's TARDIS" in the smallest embroidery I've ever done! It stands 17.5cm tall and 8cm wide and is filled with the same toy stuffing I use for my Cuddly Campervans

It's one of those really silly creations that amuses me no end (I hope my friend Andy likes it too!) and it's the sort of item that usually sparks off all sorts of spin off goodies that I'll be itching to make and show you!

My shops are going to stay in holiday mode till the end of May, to give me time to get myself organised for the Harrogate Home & Gift Show which takes place in July, from the 14th - 17th and which is the first Trade Fair (i.e. selling direct to retailers only) that I've ever taken part in. However if you think someone you know would like one, please let me know in the comments or email me at simmi@gracesfavours.co.uk and I'll slot you into my order list.

Now that the Home & Gift Show is coming round quite quickly I'm starting to have a mild panic (more about that when we get back from holiday!) but for now, I'm just going to leave you with a calming pic of the beach, taken at lunchtime today :-)

St Helen's Beach, Wexford

Summer Holidays

I have been a very bad blogger for the last couple of weeks... things at Grace's Favours HQ have been manic to say the least! We've had Birthday Celebrations, Spring Play festivities and then fun and games with Thomas The Tank Engine:

One of the funny cards I got

Lady Sybil and her pet dragon

Thomas the Tank Engine Day Out

And now after all the commotion has died down, we're on holiday!

We're spending a week in Ireland with my husband's parents (affectionately known as the 'Lovely Out-Laws') which we're ALL loving - life is so relaxed here and the kids adore spending time with their Grandparents (and we've had a couple of lovely lie-ins already!)

Taking a breather from shell collecting on the beach

And then we have a week in a holiday cottage with some friends near the beach, which we're really excited about!

So sorry for the lack of handmade creations this week and next, but I will at least get a couple of posts in while we're away which is more than I've managed recently - but I promise normal service will resume once we get back in 2 weeks time!

Terry Pratchett's Guards Guards

Long time no post - sorry, things have been a bit chaotic here for the last fortnight, hence not joining in the Handmade Monday last week.

It was my birthday in the week, so we were frantically trying to get one of the rooms in our extension in a usable condition for the weekend, as we had 10 friends coming to stay and that was the only room the dining table could accommodate us all! We achieved it, in a manner of speaking - the walls and floors aren't finished, but our wonderful builders got us to a good point:

Then after the fun of last weekend, we had to take it all out again :-(

BUT... then this weekend, it's been the Big Performance!

I know some of you are keen to see some pics (I apologise for them - they're not brilliant!) so here you are.... anyone familiar with Pratchett will recognise some of the characters, for the rest of you - I apologise and can only recommend that you find a copy of the book and all will become marginally clearer!!

Here is the play synopsis:

Guards! Guards! is from the prolific pen of Terry Pratchett and has been adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs.

Terry Pratchett's infamous city of Ankh Morpork is under threat from a 60 foot fire breathing dragon, summoned by a secret society of malcontented tradesmen.

Defending Ankh Morpork against this threat is the entire, underpaid, undervalued City Night Watch - a drunken and world-weary Captain, a cowardly and overweight Sergeant, a small opportunistic Corporal or dubious parentage and their newest recruit, Lance-Constable Carrot, who is upright, literal, law-abiding and keen. Aiding them in their fight for truth, justice and the Ankh Morporkian way are a small swamp dragon called Errol and the Librarian of Unseen University (who just happens to be an orang utan).

The 'Dwarves'

Death in action!

The Watch - drunk in 'The Shades'

Lady Ramkin in full dragon-protective-getup!

Flirting with Vimes

Ook The Orangutan

It was a really fun performance to be part of and our Director did a great job, keeping 25 of us on our toes, with all our lines, getting everyone on and off stage sensibly and with not one, but two flying dragons! (sadly no pics of that, but it was a sight to behold!)

I'm off over to Handmade Monday now, so see what everyone else has been up to and to put my feet up for a well needed rest! More actual creative stuff next time!

Creating Props for the Terry Pratchett Play - Guards! Guards!

This week I've been working on something slightly different - thankfully there's not been too much dust compared to last week as the builders have moved on from wrecking the joint to putting the new roof on, which was just in time as the heavens opened mid week!

I don't know if I mentioned that I'm part of a local Am Dram group and we're performing Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett at the end of April (25th - 27th inclusive in Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire if anyone's keen to come and see me make a fool out of myself (again!!)) and as such we all play a part (geddit?!) in organising the costumes and props.

I offered to make the 4 badges/shields for one scene which has two unnamed Worthies (So I've chosen their Guilds for them!), The Head of the Guild of Assassins and The Arch Chancellor of the Unseen University... so based on pictures that I found online these are the Shields that I've made:

The Guild of Assassins

The Guild of Embalmers

The Fools Guild

The Unseen University Shield

The shields are to be worn on heavy very pompous looking breast plates (which is fitting for these 4 who think they are Very Important People!) and later in the week I'll sneak a pic on here so you can see them on the costumes :-)

Here are all 4 together:

All 4 Shields

And now I'm off to check out what everyone else has been up to in the Handmade Monday link up.

Crafting on a Building Site!

Ok, so that title sounds a little bit more dramatic than things really are here at GF HQ, but not THAT far off.

We are having an extension to our house renovated - the extension was the bit of our house that housed the bakery ovens when our place was a working bakery. The ovens sadly were full of damp and falling down and right in the middle of the room, so had to be removed to make way for...... My New Workshop!!!! (Me? Excited much? Nah!)

This is the bit that's being renovated:

Last summer they did some work on the bottom floor and now, finally, they're raising the top walls, front and back and putting a new roof on. This also involved knocking a doorway through from the top floor into our existing kitchen.

Herein lies the rub.

Originally they weren't going to knock through until the very last moment, thus saving us A LOT of dust inside, but then someone twigged that if they don't knock through now, they won't be able to get a lintel into the new doorway because they'll be a roof timber in the way. So the knocking through started last week:

Steve, The Boss (who Seren is totally in love with!)

The start of the mess in my old airing cupboard which is in the kitchen!

So, now our whole house is covered in a layer of dust! Bless them, to be fair, the builders have tried to keep the mess out as much as possible, but for most of this last week it's been so bad that the kids & I have had to leave the house during the day - ideal timing when it's Easter holidays and it's been snowing!!

But I have managed to clean enough in the evenings to be able to make a pair of baby shoes for my Cousin's new arrival Baby Olivia:

Plain mint green & beige 0-3 month shoes

Mint & Beige 0-3 Month shoes with flowers appliqued on

I love making these baby shoes - they're so fun to come up with all the different colourways and embellishments to go on them :-) Both styles are now available in my Etsy shop.

Now I'm off with a cuppa and the last of the Easter Eggs (mine - honest!) to catch up with everyone else over at Handmade Monday.

Easter Egg Hunt & Meeting The Gruffalo!

Happy Easter!!!

Easter Bunny Bags made last year - which amazingly survived the choc-madness!

Easter Egg Hunt

So last year you may remember (for those with good memories!) that I organised an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids, which of course they loved and in the way that only children can, they've been asking for another one all year, so I duly prepared another one for today, which again, went down incredibly well :-)

 As you'll see the Easter Bunny Bags were used & filled up again this year!











So once we'd scoffed quite a lot of the chocolate & got dressed we spent the rest of the day doing exactly the same thing as last year... off to the brilliant Dean Heritage Centre where they'd just transformed the Gruffalo Trail to depict the Gruffalo's Child story.

These are brilliantly devised scenes depicting the story using chainsaw cut statues! Here are the highlights:

Patrick having a lie-down on The Gruffalo's bed

First scene - "The Gruffalo said that no Gruffalo should ever go into the deep dark wood...."

Ahhh look, The Gruffalo's Child!

All the amazing statues were carved by chainsaw!

"The Big Bad Mouse! So he does exist!"

Excitement at actually meeting The Gruffalo!

There was SO much excitement at meeting THE REAL GRUFFALO as Seren shouted at him! It was lovely :-) The kids had a great time and so did we! Just as well as we're going back in a couple of week when we have friends with kids down to stay.

Hope you've all had a wonderful day and now I'm off to enjoy a cuppa and some chocolate whilst browsing through the other Handmade Monday blog posts!

How to Choose Where to Sell Online

What are my Options?

When I first started thinking about opening up Grace's Favours I wasn't sure where would be best to sell my products... initially I wasn't even sure if I should be thinking about online, craft fairs, in bricks & mortar shops or a combination of all of the above.

The first items I made & sold - a felt alphabet

Should I sell everywhere I can?

A lot of people suggested I sell on eBay, but that was never something I liked the idea of as to me eBay is about people wanting to buy stuff cheaply and quickly... neither of which was something I aspired to. I didn't want my items to be cheap enough to appeal to just anybody and the turnaround time & personalised nature meant making them to order as opposed to having a large stockpile was more likely to work for me.

Personalised stockings were my biggest seller in the run up to Christmas 2011

I found Etsy pretty quickly and decided immediately it was the venue I wanted to start out on, so I set up my shop. Although not terribly well known in this country, it was so big already in America, Australia and in other parts of Europe that I realised it wouldn't be long till it was as big here.

I then dithered about with applying to Not On The High Street (NOTHS), but I decided against as the joining fee is seriously high for a small business and I didn't think my photos were strong enough at the time (March 2012)

One of the early Campervan's I made & photographed

Then I came across a wonderful website called Swanky Maison which is a bit like NOTHS but not as large and with a much more realistic joining fee and commission structure, so I applied & was successful in joining this lovely site - here's my shop front:

My lovely Swanky Maison shop

A few months later I was approached by a new site that was opening up - Mady by Mums with Love and they were specifically interested in my Felt Baby Shoes:

And in the last week I have joined another new site, dedicated to upmarket children's items, who were also interested in my baby shoes, so I have now joined the lovely site Loubilou with more Felt Baby Shoes:

What are Bricks & Mortar Shops?

Bricks and mortar shops are your good, old fashioned real life shops. I have supplied two in the past year - one local to me, where I took in a sample of flower brooches and asked if they'd like to sell them (very nerve wracking experience!) and they said yes, which was lovely, but they didn't sell very fast - my local town isn't an area of much affluence and as a lot of my items are decorative, it's not the best area for my products.

I have also sent a large wholesale order to a shop in Scarborough, who found me through Etsy, they wanted a mountain of teddies and Campervans and these are selling quite well:

How about Craft Fairs?

I did try a couple of craft fairs during 2012 but it was the smaller and cheaper items that sold best, which aren't necessarily much quicker or easier to make than the bigger & more expensive items I sell, so I decided that craft fairs were probably not going to generate me enough money to make them worthwhile given the amount of work they are to get the stock levels up.

A Christmas Market I did, with my friend Pam trying to hide behind the fake fireplace!

Where to find Grace's Favours:

So you can currently find me at the following places, but be warned - this is an ever changing list!!

My Website - www.gracesfavours.co.uk
Etsy - www.gracesfavours.etsy.com
Swanky Maison - www.swankymaison.com/graces-favours
Made by Mums with Love - www.madebymumswithlove.com/seller-profile?vendor_id=100
Loubilou - http://www.loubilou.com/store/graces-favours
Facebook - www.facebook.com/gracesfavours
Brit Chic (Red Bus Only) - http://britchicuk.co.uk/red-london-bus-cuddly-toy.html

New Products for Handmade Monday

I'm very excited this week, for starters because I can now reveal the secret item I was working on last week, but couldn't share until it had been given to it's recipient - a felt picture for a 1 year old's bedroom:

Custom order, now available in my Etsy Shop

My lovely friend & an existing customer asked me for a picture like this one (which was one of my first pieces)

for her nephew, but it had to be kept a surprise as her sister is also one of my customers and follows my Facebook Page which is where most of my new pieces get shown first!

Both were really pleased with it and Benjamin (the 1 year old recipient) well, lets hope he likes it too!

The other thing I've been working on, is something that's been at the back of my mind for a while... a VW Campervan Hot Water Bottle Cover...... Ta-Da!

                                                                     


 As usual, my ever willing volunteers were happy to pose for pictures!

The Hot Water Bottle Covers are available in the shop and can be made in any colour with a personalised number plate (Kids not included unless I've had a really bad day ;-p)

Now I'm going to mosey over to Handmade Monday over at Wendy's lovely blog and see what everyone else has been up to - Have a lovely week!