Panicking!

I only have 6 chicken doorstops made and the fair is on Thursday. I've just cut out lots of the felt pieces and I have some bodies cut out so I'm hoping that I can pin together at least 10 and get them sewn on the machine today. Then I can put the zips and eyes on tonight. That's the plan anyway - I've just got to get off here first!!
Photo's of lots of chickens later - hopefully anyway!

New stuff

Some new tags here that I made yesterday with the paint card ones. Made from some vintage children's books that had a couple of water damaged pages so they couldn't be sold so I had them!!

Cute little Beatrix Potter tags - I might give some to my sister as a presnt at Christmas cos she hates Beatrix Potter! Only kidding Sarah if you are reading :)

I was also featured in a treasury on Etsy yesterday so I obviously grabbed a screenshot of it for my Flickr group. A nice Christmas themed treasury.

Did you spot the mini chickens? Did you? Did you?! I'm going out this afternoon to spend an afternoon crafting with my friend Alex and our children (not hers and mine just our combined children!) so I will hopefully have some piles of envelopes to show you later!

Edited to say - bugger!! I'd forgotten that I had put the Beatrix Potter tags in yesterdays post. Oh well, good job they are pretty :)

Busy.......

..........again - I really do need to think up some new titles for these posts! I've been very busy with orders and have hardly had any time to prepare for the craft fair that is only 1 week away - eeeeekkkkkk. I'm not complaining though as sales are sales although a little extra time for craft fair related stuff would be good too! I've also been making some gift tags because that's what I've sold most of recently and all my stuff was downstairs. These ones are my favourites - I love the bright colours and the fact that they are mostly recycled!

I've also made some from a couple of old children's books. Quite cute I think! They will be going up onto Etsy this afternoon :)


That's all for the moment - I'm sure I'll be back soon though!

I'm back!!

I know you missed me :) Don't you just hate it when you come back from being away and you have loads and loads of washing to do, lots of tidying and sorting to do and when you panic when your mum and dad (and husband) point out that the big 4 day craft fair is only a week and a half away - AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I will try and get on here to post but they may be very sparse posts as I really do need to crack on with making more stock - you would have thought I would have learned from last time when I was rushing around at the last minute but it doesn't look like it!!

I don't have any new photo's of my work (or bargains!) to show you so here is a photo of the thank you cards that Anya made for her friends to say thanks for her pressies.

Things that aren't chickens

Well one thing but more will be coming soon! Meet Henry the glove monster. He's very cute but he has a complex about his mismatched eyes - people pick on him at monster school - poor chap. He also doesn't like his beauty spot as monsters aren't supposed to be beautiful - but it adds to his character.

Here he is climbing his favourite tree in the garden.

And here he is having a chat with his friend Gordon the Gnome.

And he went shopping the other day and couldn't decide which hat to buy! Hats are from innocent smoothies - go buy some at Sainsbury's on their little bottles.


This was made for all the people on the forum who think I only make chickens!!

Drowning in apples

But in a good way! Here's one pot of apple starting to bubble on the hob to turn magically into stewed apples perfect for pies and crumbles that Matt is very good at making. He added some Weetabix to the crumble topping last weekend and it tasted delicious.


The top photo is one of the boxes of apples that arrived at the weekend from Matt's dad. We got two and the bubbling pot is one of them!! I'm trying to hunt out some recipes for apple chutney/jam/pickle etc so if you know of any then let me know.

I was busy on the computer this morning and Tara was very quiet in the corner - this is why!!

Luckily it was a Crayola brand pen and it washed off very easily - the lesson there is to make sure you have cleared away all the pens - check under the front of the sofa, behind the toy box etc because wherever there is a pen Tara will find it!

And I promised a photo of me dancing at Anya's party so here you go! I'm doing musical statues with Emily but I didn't win :( I was enjoying myself though!

Handmade goodies for Anya!

I love it when people take the time to think about presents and Anya got loads of really nice presents yesterday that she loves (lots of Disney Princess stuff!) But she also got (and I really love them) some gorgeous handmade things from my friend Alex. First up the presents arrived in this gorgeous handmade bag - fab colour and wipeable too - what more could a girl want - oh apart from ballerina fabric!

Next she opened this - a fab chicken hot water bottle cover - she thought it was very cute!

And then the card!! I thought this was such a good idea and they can be personalised with hair, eyes etc! Anya hasn't played with the finger puppet yet but she will do soon I'm sure!

Speaking of cards - we bought a gorgeous one from Amanda at colourart! I've pinched the photo of the card that she put onto the forum but I'm sure she won't mind as we haven't taken one yet. Anya was thrilled with it, as was I, and the customer service was fab!


More photo's of the actual party later I'm sure - including one of me dancing to Superman!! Ooooh - I meant to say too that if you want to buy/commission any of the items that Alex made for Anya then let me know and I'll put you in touch with her :)

My baby is 4!

Can you believe it?? Expect some gratuitous baby photo's here!!

Anya at birth


Anya when she was 1

Anya when she was 2


Anya at her 3rd birthday party


And of course the birthday girl today on her 4th birthday!!


And of course a handmade badge for the birthday girl - made from recycled fabrics naturally!!


Have a fun day whatever you are doing and more pics later :)

99th post!!

Ooooh - I can't believe this is my 99th post! I've even been slacking off because I am stupidly busy organising myself for the big 4 day craft fair I've got at the end of Nov/beginning of Dec. Imagine what this blog would look like if I had more time to blog!

Well I finally have my Christmas cards designed and up on Etsy. I have put the individual ones up on Dawanda and they will be going up onto Tuggle too - hopefully this evening. What do you think? These are the ones that are up for sale - I might do some different ones for my customers.


This is a very short post I'm afraid as I have lots to do! Hopefully my 100th post will involve more exciting things!!

Great weekend!

Well Matt cooked both evening this weekend - chilli on Saturday night and a full roast dinner yesterday - chicken, stuffing, roast potatoes, swede, butternut squash, parsnips, carrots, broccoli and gravy - yum yum yum!! I meant to take a photo of it all but I fogot. He also made yummy apple crumble and we had it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There's also a portion left for me to have tonight with custard - yum yum!!

I've also started putting Christmas things up into my shop - a couple of sets of envelopes, a badge set and the mini chickens I blogged about yesterday. Well I put them up and a couple of hours later they had sold!! Hopefully that is the start of a trend for the coming months! I have some more to make in different fabrics and I'm hoping to crack on with the Christmas cards this afternoon but we will see! Here is a photo (because I don't like to do posts without photo's) of the pony that Anya bought for 5p yesterday at the car boot. She found the 5p on the floor too so it was essentially free - my kind of bargain :) As I type this she is writing a letter at her desk, chatting away to the pony - a good buy I think!

Nearly Christmas - and more bargains!

Only in the Swirly household is it nearly Christmas - I finished off these little cuties this afternoon!

They are mini versions of my larger chickens and are designed to hang from your Christmas tree and make it all festive! Of course they are available in my Etsy at the moment and will soon be available on Tuggle and Dawanda.
More will be coming soon in different Christmas fabrics but I also have to make my Christmas cards and get more Christmas stuff uploaded to my shops so bear with me!

We went to a car boot sale this morning and it was very profitable!! We weren't selling, just buying but I managed to get a lot of stuff for £4.20! Matt came up trumps and got a huge tin of buttons for me for 50p!! I then managed to get another (much smaller) one for 50p too!

I also got a huge load of postcards (about 40) for £1.50 and a tablecloth for 40p.



The postcards are destined for my range of postcard greetings cards (which I haven't actually started yet!) and the tablecloth I'm not sure yet. Some exciting project no less!

I also got a map for 20p and a Topsy and Tim book for 10p. Both are destined to be cut up and made into envelopes/gift tags etc etc! And my last bargain was a pair of children's curtains for £1 - again I'm not sure what I'm going to use them for but I'm sure I'll think of something!

More details of the curtains included some cute close up's are available on my flickr.

Charity shops!

I had to go into town today to deposit a cheque (yeah) so obviously I had to visit the charity shops too as otherwise it would have been a wasted trip ;)

This time although I was looking for fabric I didn't find any - I found clothes for me instead!!

I love these boots - they are half a size too big but I have some insoles that will fix that. I'm also wearing tights today but would probably wear them with socks and that will help too.

This tank top is black although it looks slightly blue! I've been wanting a black one for ages to wear over my colourful shirts. It's also handmade too so that gives it bonus points!


This dress looks like it has been made for me - it fits perfectly! It has rhinestone details on the body and the belt buckle too. I might have to wear this on a night out - if we ever get a night out again!

And this is the piece de resistance - I bought it the other day for £5.99 and I LOVE it!! It fits like a dream and goes with most of my other clothes. The fact that it is bright too helps ;)



I did buy some other things but I will show them to you in another post!

It's and bits

Well I've used the title bits and bobs twice already so I needed to come up with something different! Sorry for the delay in posting but I have been busy tidying my house and we were away at the weekend - I delivered my wholesale order of chickens and Vicky was very pleased! It was nice to get some feedback from an actual person too.

So I have been busy sending parcels - using my own handmade envelopes obviously! Pretty post :)


Making stewed apple with raisins and cinnamon. I going to make a crumble tomorrow night I think - yummy!


Acquiring fabric! The first lot came from Ebay so I paid for that but the second photo is of some stuff that my sister gave me - thanks Saz!



And I've also been putting my business cards into a brand new, custom made for me and my larger than average cards, business card holder! The lovely Sugar Cane came up trumps and made it very quickly for me - and I love it!!