Cupcakes and Cushions

I was up early on Saturday morning baking lemon fairy cakes for my dear little Hamish and his Mummy. I love the smell of freshly baked cakes. It was lovely to be pottering in my lovely little flat listening to radio 4 and looking forward to them arriving. Of course the cakes had to have candles for the Birthday boy.

We had a lovely day together, starting with a picnic lunch in the my living room, then a trip accross the road and through the gates into Kew Gardens. Hamish dropped straight to sleep as soon as he was in his push chair so Catherine and I took full advantage and headed for the lovely gift shop first as we knew we wouldn't stand much chance of a look once he was awake. Hamish likes shops as long as they contain toys, or unless it's John Lewis, which is somewhere he loves to go to with his Nanna! We both started a bit of Christmas shopping which made us both feel quite virtuous! Once outside again Hamish woke up again and had lots of fun running around, looking at the geese and ducks by the lake and helping Catherine and I to collect some beautiful leaves. We've both been inspired by this months Country Living so I now have leaves being pressed between pages of books at home and will be doing something creative with them in the coming weeks.

Yesterday I had a very relaxing day. The weather was so miserable it was a day to be inside. So I took myself into Richmond to the cinema to see Stardust. What a great film. I guess it is really aimed at children, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I returned home late afternoon, put on the lamps, made myself a hot chocolate and got out the sewing machine. I've started work on some new pieces and I'm going in a slightly new direction with my work. More details to follow but the general idea is that I'm going to be creating more 'one off' special pieces rather than working like a production line and selling a set range of items. Having given it a lot of thought, I'm not factory and don't want to compete with the likes of Laura Ashley. I've decided that I find it boring to create simple designs that I can replicate and make numerous amounts of. Even keeping it simple, it's difficult to compete on price with the high street chains, especially when selling at craft fairs.

I'm excited by this new direction and hope that it will allow me to be much more creative. In the next couple of weeks I'll be adding new pieces to both the little shop and my etsy shop so keep a look out for announcements. Obviously I'll also be testing these new items at the Christmas fairs in Bath and Bradford-on-Avon in December.

I hope the sun is shining on your Monday as it is on mine here in London. xx