Nonnie

Coming soon........

Making a come back

Hello, yes it's me, I'm still here!

Gosh this has been difficult to do. I've been feeling like getting back to my poor little neglected blog for about a week or so but I seem to have had writers block, or should it be called 'bloggers block'? I feel like a do when I've had some time off work and you come back and feel totally out of it. Like everyone else is in a secret gang and you're not a part of it.

Anyway, today I decided to take the leap and start again.

And in a sense I am starting again. I've decided that I want to take the blog in one direction only and that is to share all things pretty and creative with you all. Not that I won't occasionally tell you what's going on in my life, but I feel the blog had become far too much about my personal life and not enough about my creativity which is why I started it in the first place. So with my website coming on extremely well(nearly ready to show you all!) and a new house and garden to develop, I shouldn't be short of material.

But for those of you that are curious, just a little catch up on life in general. In the last month I've moved from my little flat in Kew to a little house in Oxfordshire. To be more precise, the house of my lovely boyfriend Simon! I couldn't be more happy and content and still have to keep pinching myself to believe that my life has changed so much since the beginning of the year! Recent weeks have seen us take a lovely(and very romantic) trip to Paris and a very lovely weekend in Ieper in Belgium which is my new favourite place in the whole World.

So back to being creative again. My work space is not really up and running yet, but I did manage to carry out a commission for a lovely reader of my blog, Sally-Ann, who wanted a cushion for a friend to include the initials of the friend, her husband, and child. I was a little nervous about this one as she really left it in my hands as to how it would look and what fabrics I would use, but I was really pleased with the result and luckily so was her friend!

So the job this weekend is to get a lot more sorting done in the house and hopefully I'll be able to set up my little sewing area and then I can finish off the website. I'm also hoping to get out into the garden and I want to share that with you. I'll be back again next week so in the mean time, hope you all have a good rest of the week and it's sooo good to be back with you all again.

xxxx

Progress

Just to proof my new state of love isn't totally distracting me from my creative work, I thought I would show you just one of the new products that will be in the new website. These vintage linen lavender filled hearts will be living in the 'laundry' section of the shop and available to order. I've loved making them as they're all hand sewn so can be done while I'm watching TV at night.

The shop is pretty much done now but it is rather empty so I just need to complete all the items I have designed. It will be done in the end!

Hope those of you in the UK and especially the South West and South coast are all safe and well and not getting too blown away by this terrible storm. Here in London it is very wet and windy but not as bad as other parts I think. Wherever you are have a great week. x

PS, incase you're wondering, the dinner was delicious, as was the whole weekend!!!

Clearing the decks

As the new website is coming along nicely, I've been looking at all my stock to see what will be going in the shop and what won't! Ideally I want to start afresh which means clearing the decks of items remaining from last year. I have quite a lot of my handmade cards left as I went a little crazy when I made them for last years craft fairs! I've held on to a few for myself but I've decided to offer the rest to all of you in sets of four(images below). There are seven sets altogether and are priced at £5 for each set including postage. Bargain! Please email me if you would like a set, stating which one. I only have one of each set so it's first come first served. I can take payment by paypal or cheque.

I can't tell you how happy I am that the weekend is here. I've had a busy week and I'm looking forward to relaxing. My new man is cooking me dinner tomorrow evening! I can't tell you how happy that makes me. A man who not only can cook but enjoys it!!!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend wherever you are and that the sun shines. xxx

Here are the sets. I'm really sorry but I can't start swapping cards from one set to another. Each set is as it is.

SET 1 - Sold, thank you!

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SET 2 - Sold, thank you!

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SET 3 - Sold, thank you!

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SET 4 - Sold, thank you!

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SET 5 - Sold, thank you!

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SET 6

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SET 7 - Sold, thank you!

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Details

Ooh I've been having a lovely pottering few days. Not only have I been sewing lots but I've been having a major spring clean and move around of bits and bobs in the flat. Above is the new look sideboard. I've gone all neutral apart from the little spash of red on the lampshade. I've really got a thing for cream and white at the moment. A lot of my frames were already either cream or white but those that weren't got a coat of paint. Even the lamp base got painted! My Christmas twigs are still going strong but while I'm in the Cotswolds at the end of the week I think I'll be raiding Mum and Dads garden for some branches with buds to force. Going to need them to hang my Easter decorations on!

The bookshelf has been re-done as well. Absolutely everything came off and went back on again in a totally new way. Only white or pale blue paperbacks were allowed back! Oops, just realised you can see the ugly sofa without covering in this shot. Better get the cover back on quickly.

Ah, that's better. Actually the blanket above is a new purchase. I popped up to the big yellow and blue warehouse yesterday and got some great bits and bobs, this great crochet style blanket being one of them. Oh, and the little cream tea light holders you can see in the first picture. Obligatory tea lights, a new wine rack which was super cheap but very smart and a couple of picture frames. Not entirely sure why I chose half term for a trip to Ikea? It was packed but I knew what I was looking for so whizzed round quickly and was back home in no time.

I love re-arranging objects. I really had fun colour coordinating my books.(a little obsession of mine!) I've been arranging the bookshelves of a certain supermodel lately(sorry, I'm such a show off!) so it was nice to be able to spend time doing my own. Especially as my books and objects are so much nicer!

Well time to get back to it, the hall is still full of clutter that has come out of the sitting room and there's more sewing to be done and orders to be prepared. Not to mention a new website to be worked on. Did I say I was on holiday this week?! x

 

A Sneaky Peek

A productive day yesterday. New cushions, a bag, lavender hearts. All will be in the new website soon. Unfortunately the flat has been turned into such a tip with all my creativity that I have nowhere nice to take photos. Everything will be packed up for a Cotswold photoshoot later in the week.

I'm off to the cinema shortly to see Jumper. I know he's rather young for me but an hour or so of admiring Jamie Bell should be a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

I'll leave you with another little sneaky peek. Some lovely flowers I received this week! Hope you're all having a lovely sunny Sunday. x

 

Well, what a response! I hardly imagined that asking the simple question of whether or not I should cut up the cosy, would create such a reaction. Thank you all for your thoughts. Overwhelmingly the response was to cut the cosy, but for those of you who said don't cut, I've come up with something of a compromise. The cosy is going to be transformed but it will not require any cutting. I'm saying no more for now incase my idea doesn't work out, but if it does, then the finished article will be for sale in the next few weeks in my little shop. Infact, if I can get going a bit faster on the website then it might be the first item for sale in the the new home of 'Nonnie Home'. If the finished article doesn't sell then it will go for the chop at that point! Oh, and I should say, for Sue's benefit, that from now on there will be no more talk of 'chopping', just very careful cutting!

The picture above is of the welcome that greets you as you step through the doors of Mum and Dad's lovely B&B. I wanted to show you this today as all being well they are going to being mentioned in the London Evening Standard in the Friday ES magazine this evening which is very exciting for them. When I say all being well, they don't know exactly what is going in or whether it will be much of a mention but hopefully it will be something good. They had someone staying a couple of weeks ago who is a writer and was writing an article on his favourite places to stay in the World. He was supposed to stay a couple of days but ended up being with them for almost a week and announced that he would be mentioning Mum and Dad's place in his article! Before they knew it Dad was speaking to a lady from the Evening Standard and sending accross pictures of the house! But as it's quite last minute they don't really know what they will get, whether it will be just a line of text or more. Whether any of their pictures will be featured or not. There is of course the possibility that they won't be mentioned at all. I'll be popping out later for a copy(maybe more than one if they are featured) and I'll let you know next week what the out come was.

I'm off again to the Cotswolds tomorrow to go to a Burns Night party tomorrow(yes, I know it's actually today!) in Mum and Dad's village organised partly by Mum and with a starring role for my lovely Scottish Brother-in-law. I think it started with Mum asking John a bit of advise on how the evening should progress, and has ended up with him being the Master of Ceremonies and having to write a poem in honour of Burns! Sounds like it's going to be a fun evening. Only problem is I'm supposed to wear a bit of tartan and I have nothing as yet. Going to have to get my thinking cap on quick!

I've been busy working away on more Valentines things and they're now in the shop. I'm going to be adding more things, including similar items but with a pink rather than red theme. They should be ready by the start of next week. For those of you who like to buy from Etsy, they'll also all be going into my Etsy Shop in the next few days.

Well the sun is shining here finally and it looks like it might just last all weekend. It's amazing what a bit of sunshine can do. Gives you the feeling that Spring is just around the corner. Have a lovely weekend dear bloggers and I'll see you all again next week. xx

Spring Coloured Inspiration

I've been working on some new pieces this weekend. I'm trying to be really good at the moment and be creative with the fabrics I already have rather than falling for the temptations of new fabrics. I have so much I could probably make enough items to sell all year! It was only as I finally sat relaxing last night and looked over at the other sofa where I had laid the cut out pieces, that I realised the colours I had randomly picked matched the colours of the flowers sitting on my cabinet! So I guess that even though I was working with what I had, I still had those spring influences in my head.

The patchwork came along very well over the weekend too. It really seemed to work telling all of you that I was going to finish it. I stitched all evening on Friday while watching Jamie Oliver and got all of the decorative back stiching done. All I have to do now is finish off the edges! I'm hoping I can manage that this week, although I am trying to work hard at getting a lot of new pieces made both for my etsy shop and my new website which I hope to have up and running within the next month!

As well as all the sewing, I had a lovely time on Saturday in Marlow with the family. Hamish was a very good boy while we were out at lunch. He's so grown up now. Mum brought over an old book that belonged to my Sis and I and was an absolute favourite.

Did anyone else know Harold Bean? I hadn't seen this book in years and I'd forgotten just how cute it was. It's all about what jobs Daddys do ending up with Harold Bean who is an ice-cream man. The illustrations are absolutely brilliant with so many things to look at on each page.

Hamish really loved it particularly because there were some fire men(like Fireman Sam!) and 'Bob men' or in other words, builders(Like Bob the Builder!) Not quite sure who is more his hero, Sam or Bob but he loves them both so any similar characters are always popular.

We went back to my Sisters for tea and cake then I looked after Hamish while his Mum and Dad went for a drink. My first time babysitting went very well although given that he went to bed before they went out, it wasn't exactly hard work! I don't think he was aware that his Aunty Nonnie was looking after him at all.

Well I'm off back to the sewing machine again now for a little more stitching before bed time. xx

Positively Patchwork

Remember this? For any of you who have been reading my blog from the start back in August 06, you might just remember that I started this patchwork quilt back then. I'm slightly ashamed to say that it is still not finished! It lays folded over the arm of one of my sofas pretending to be done and every time Hamish comes to visit I have to put it out of the way because it is full of pins. Infact I keep thinking that I need to buy more pins and then I remember that I have at least 30(probably more) stuck around the edge of the patchwork.

So having read Mia's post today about the fact she is starting another patchwork quilt, I am setting myself a challenge here and now to finish the one that I have started. And you lot are all my witnesses to this personal challenge. You can nag me about it if you like. Say around the middle of February. Feel free to say, 'hey Fiona, is that patchwork quilt finished yet?!'

The crazy thing is that it is so near to be finished. The patchwork bit is actually done. It's the backing that is half finished. I'm actually just backing it with vintage white sheet without any padding inbetween as I don't want it to be too bulky. What is taking the time is the fact that I am hand stitching through the two layers along each patchwork join, in one direction. I'm doing this in red embroidery thread so that the white side will not be plain but will be decorated with rows so little running stitches. I'm about half way through this process. I then just need to put some sort of binding around the edge. So it's really close. Just got to get on with it instead of thinking about new projects.

Well it's the weekend again. After a dull, wet week I'm feeling really ready for it. I have a lovely day planned tomorrow as I'm going over to Marlow for lunch out with Mum, Dad, Sis, Brother-in-law(John) and wee Hamish. It's John's Birthday on Monday so he decided he wanted to have lunch out all together. Marlow is such a lovely place to go to so I'm really hoping the sun might shine. On the way over there I'm planning on popping into a craft shop my Sis told me about to pick up some new bits and bobs for getting creative.

Hopefully Sunday will be the day for being creative. I hope that you all have a lovely weekend whatever you're doing. xx

Christmas Bargain

Further to my last post and the distasterous fair, I have decided to offer my Christmas cards and decorations at a special price to people who I hope will appreciate them - all of you! So for this week, I am offering any card or felt decoration at £1 each plus £1 postage and packing to anywhere (yes, even Australia, Canada or Timbuktu!) in the World. Just drop me an email or leave me a comment stating what you would like from the list below. With the decorations, the colour of the ribbon may vary slightly but the felt will be the colour you choose.

1. SORRY, CHRISTMAS TREES ALL SOLD

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3. SORRY, RED HEARTS ALL SOLD

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