PHEW!!

Well...we said we would raise some money for Haiti...

And boy did we do it! A HUGE thank you to every one who helped out today, the sellers, the customers, our friends, arthur for making tea, john for carrying bags of cakes, rich for taking photos (not the ones you will see here..yet..he has a fancy camera so there will be better ones to come soon!) We made a fabulous (drum roll please..) £240 for UNICEF to go towards the relief they are providing in Haiti as we speak.
'Well, this all sounds wonderful' i can hear you say 'but what about some pictures?' Ohhh alright then...

TaaDaa...the first batch of cakes done!

A Tea break...i swear i am not eyeing up the wonderful Victoria sponge...honest.

Some of the other baked wonders. Don't worry...the cakes were lovely but we aren't going to open a bakery instead of running our shop. We were baking these beauties until half ten...which is probably responsible for Bex looking like this this morning...

But on the other hand it was responsible for all of these lovelies cakes. the giant cookie was donated by the lovely Mrs Smith (or Bex's mum)...

We thought we would finish up with some pictures of the lovelies which were so very kindly donated by NelliD, Lou Peaujeux, Oh badgers, and Wollies....

NelliD's wonderful jewellery...The coolest buttons and brooches from Wollies.Awesome badge sets from loupeaujeuxSome cards from Bobbie Thomas.Just a sampler of some of the awesome screen printed cards from OhBadgers.

Well, I'm afraid I'm in danger of falling asleep at the laptop so that's all for now...

thank you!

xx

Posted by Bex

HandMade for Haiti's Little Helpers...

O.K. so when we said we would be back on Saturday with some more info on HandMade for Haiti what we meant to say was we will be back a week on Saturday...hope your not disappointed in us...and if you are we hope we can fix it with some lovely pictures for you right now!

So we're going to let you know about the four (yep that's right four!) new and exclusive sellers to StuffedNonsense. They have ohh so kindly donated some of their handmade wonders to our cause...but be quick...their lovelies are only here for the 27th and two weeks after that, then they will be winging their way back to their masters.

O.K....Ready? Then we shall begin....

First up we have NelliD, we are super chuffed that this talented lady wanted to help our village tea party inspired fundraiser. We've had our beady eyes on her handmade wonders for a while. She describes herself as an 'eccentric British designer, with a love for all things Royal Britannia and Kitsch Fairy tales. Her choice of colour and shape in her jewellery is seriously cute. She also has a healthy appreciation for face hair...something which is must for us (as both of our handsome young man friends have hairy faces.) See for yourself...

I'm am seriously a little bit in love with these beauties, the gold flamingos are wonderful.The wonderful 'Tashley Tote'..tipping her hat to the moustaches!Such a kitsch brooch...love the little flower details on it. Find NelliD on her folksy, etsy, her sparkly website, her blog and twitter. Or in StuffedNonsense from the 27th!
Next up we have Oh Badgers. OhBadgers is run by Steph and she is an illustration student with a rather lovely talent for making lovely things. we were first attracted to her work because she uses lots of images of birds (and I love birds...in fact I'm typing this with my favorite bird jumper on!). we love her Screen Printed Owl envelopesAnd also her Ostrich Skeleton Pendant
Find more of her lovely work on her folksy shop, or her etsy shop.
Then we have, the wonderful creations of Olly from Wollies. We've had dealings with this talented young lady before and we have to say that's he is truly charming. She describes her work as 'Colourful, Quirky and Made with care' We are in love with every item she comes up with we actually need these little beauties. And these little brooches are such a good idea (we know because we have one ourselves!) Find her on folksy, her blog, or her website.
Lastly but by no means least we have the ohh so talented Lou Peaujeux, She is a freelance illustrator with some serious style! Her cards are wonderful, we love the way she makes them around commonly used sayings such as these awesome cards
And we just love her style of illustrations, especially (yep you guessed it) her birds...
We're pretty sure that we need this mirror. Find her on her folksy shop, or blog.

Well, what do you think? its going to be an awesome day isn't it? we've just got the metres of bunting to make and the cakes and then we should be there...fingers crossed! we will keep you posted and promise to take lots of pictures of the day for you (if you can't come!)

Speak Soon

xx

Posted by Bex

February's Featured Seller!!!

Good Evening, How are you all doing?

We think its about time that we got on with this featured seller business (as this was something we wanted to roll out in December!...never let it be said that we are un-organised!)

So without further ado...

Ladies and gentlemen please may we introduce you to the wonderful creations and talent of Emma Castle; the mastermind and fabricator behind Bagladee.

This lovely lady has been brightening up our Internet world for a while now thanks to her cheerful blog and attitude to making.

Every item that she makes is soo wonderfully finished and designed that they leave you in wonderment. No job is too small or large for Emma, she delights in the challenge of a custom order.

If the Bagladee lovelies we have in the shop aren't quite what your looking for please hop over to her website, blog or etsy shop! we guarantee you wont be disappointed! The pictures speak for themselves really!

Emma very kindly agreed to answer a few questions for us...

1.Who are you influenced by.
I would have to say my fellow bloggers that I have met throughout the time I've been crafting....they are so lovely. Being in a creative social environment always inspires me.
2.Whats your favorite thing to make?
Oh no, can I only choose 1? Well I'm going to cheat and pick 2!! Machine Sewing: it has to be making the new bags in my collection, they are more challenging to make and I like a good challenge! Hand sewing: it would have to be my felt brooches, I like nothing better than a cup of tea, sitting with a mountain of felt around me and my sewing tray on my lap.
3.Whats the best thing about being able to sew/make things by hand?
The look of appreciation and admiration on a recipients face when they see what you've created.
4.Tea or Coffee?
Tea, no coffee, no tea....errrmm both!! I have to admit I drink far too much coffee, I own a very lovely coffee machine so I'm a bit partial to a latte or cappuccino or two :)
5.Whats your favorite colour?
Magenta, with teal a very close 2nd.
6.Who's stuff are you loving/liking at the moment (folksy shops,etsy shops etc)
Obviously I'm a fan of the quirky little creations from Stuffed nonsense, but I also lovely paper-and-string, sweetpoppycat, shoofly on etsy. I have to confess I don't spend half as much time on folksy as I'd like, but I do love my friends shop mybeadyeye on folksy, she does the loveliest jewellery.
7.High Street or Hand Made Street?
Handmade is always a winner over hightstreet but sometimes its necessary to buy hightstreet over handmade (sorry!) although I'm definitely not a label lover and I'm always conscious of where my purchases are coming from and how they are made.
8.If you were stuck desert island what three things would take with you?
My sewing kit
fabric/felt
My journal
I could sew until my heart is content whilst listening to my favourite songs and writing ideas and drawings in my journal.....can I be stranded now pleaseeee?? :)

Sooo there you have it, that is Bagladee, please pop over and say hi because she is a lovely lady who we know would be pleased to hear from you!

We will be back on Saturday with some new HandMade For Haiti News!

Posted by Bex

HandMade For Haiti...

Hi There!

How are you all today.

I would like to apologise for the previous wordy post....I was typing as i was thinking (BIG mistake) However StuffedNonsense is back with a more concise post full of information about a super wonderful charity event we have planned. soooo...drum roll please!

HandMade For Haiti.

HandMade for Haiti will be on Saturday the 27th of February and it is an exclusive shopping day for anyone who is able to come. we are going to pack our little shop to the rafters with handmade awesomeness. All money raised will go the section of UNICEF which is dealing with earthquake victims of Haiti.

When we say exclusive shopping day what we mean is that we will kit out our shop in the style of village tea party. so prepare yourself for bunting, cups and saucers, cakes, party rings, tea, 1920's music and other such wonderful things.

As well as our own hand made items we will also be stocking some extra special bits and pieces from a wealth of other very talented designers and makers. all ready confirmed are NellieD2, Wollies and LouPeajeux...fingers crossed we will be able to offer the people of Cheltenham a right 'ol shopping shindig.

If any of you lovely people reading this would like to donate some items please get in touch! rest assured we will take no money from you (or the sale of your item) and will return your items (if they don't sell on the day) two weeks after (in case we can persuade people to buy at a later date!)

O.K. onto some pictures. As some of our readers may know we also sell our stuff in a super cool shop in Cirencester (a local village) called MADE. This shop is wonderful, its like a trip to a sweet shop whenever we take new stock to them. Well they rang us earlier in the month asking for some new lovelies, we jumped to our stations and sewed furiously until our sewing machines could sew no more! ( the poor things!)...Crabbittz's and Snoozes (without there faces...rest assured they were sewn on that night!)Normal DustBunnies and DustBunny key rings.Warm Thoughts (i like how lost and confused the little one at the back looks)

We also sent up a few more bits and pieces, and are going to be going for another trip in the next few weeks!

Right...that's it for tonight folks. watch this space for an interview with the ohh so talented Bagladee and more info on HandMade for Haiti.

Take Care x

Posted by Bex

An Idea and a Propostion...

Evening all! how have things been treating you?? we were wondering if it would be OK for us to run an idea past you all...OK? right then...here we go....

As we are sure you all know, the recent events in Haiti have been devastating. The suffering that is going on there is terrible and we've been feeling a bit helpless. we don't have lots of money so cant really donate money to any of the many charities. We know they say every little helps and what not but we feel that we may be able to do something a bit more substantial. We have come across a few etsy shops who are donating all money made to the Haiti cause...we know the lovely lady who is organising this one, the money raised going to DoctorsWithoutBorders. This got us to thinking that perhaps we could set up a day in our shop where any money made from the sale of certain items goes to a similar charity. We also started to think that we could perhaps make a bit of an event out of it...we're thinking cups and saucers,bunting,party rings,streamers etc etc.

The next bit is where you wonderful people may come in to it...are there any of you who would be willing to donate a few bits and pieces (made by your own fair hands) to be sold in our shop? As a shop we never ever take commission or triple prices...normally all we ask for is £10 a month rent, however we don't want to do this for this event. what do you think? you would get to see some of your wonders in a bricks and mortar shop (a super feeling!! we can assure you) for free! we are hoping that there are a few of you that might be interested.The prices of any of the donated items will of course be set by the maker and as mentioned we will put on/change nothing.

The plan would be to advertise the day (which will probably be a Saturday) all over the land that is Cheltenham, crack open the tea party for about 12 (although people could get into the shop to buy and browse from 10am). Hopefully lots and lots of people will come and buy lots and lots of Haiti items and we can raise lots and lots of money for the cause.

We are thinking that any of the items which don't sell on the day can either be posted back straight away or stay in the shop until they sell...we also toyed with the idea of opening a folksy shop to sell from...we would pay the 20p listing fee ourselves. At the moment we're leaning toward a combination of the last two (keeping the items in the shop and also registering them on folksy)

For those of you that think you might be interested but are a bit wary of the items being in the shop rest assured, everything is insured and we all ready have five other people selling in the shop too...so we are good to our word!! We can also send you over a copy of the contract we normally give to everyday sellers in the shop...we can alter it so it works for only a few items...that way you know what we always promise to do and you have something a bit more binding.

I think that's all the main points typed out, if its not anyone's cup of tea then i think we will still do it...just with all of our hand made wonders but we think it would be a great opportunity for everyone out there to give it a go! If your up for it drop us an email at stuffednonsense@hotmail.co.uk

Of course all of you are invited!!

We will finish up with a little snap of some new embroidered pictures that we are working on....

The Crabbittz have well and truly landed in the shop!!

Speak Soon

xx

posted by bex

and the monsters finally....

Hello.... sorry for the super long wait for these monster pics, but here they all are finally....the cute and wonderfully weird monsters by the awesome people of Bristol, at the best indoor picnic we've ever been to.

The Bestest Indoor Picnic Ever!!

Phew!! we've just about recovered from a very busy indoor picnic! The monster making table went down a storm! we were a bit concerned about the snow so we decided to take our first ever business trip! (fan fare please!) We took loads of pictures on the way so that you could join us on our journey....

First we waited for a train in the cold...hence the woolly hats...(that's el on the left and that's bex on the right)

Bex read some Wolverine comics on the train (that's right shes 23 and reads comics...)

The hotel we stayed in was super fantastic...It had an I Mac in the room!!!

And a free sewing kit! Bex found it hidden in the wardrobe!

After we had explored our room we headed into the bright lights (and very slippery pavements) of the City! We went for dinner at an ace pub called Start The Bus....Bex discovered (as Merry and Pippin did in Lord of the Rings) that 'They come in pints!?'

On the way back we got hopelessly lost....that's why bex has a 'I'm lost in the snow and I'm cold' face on.

We woke fresh as daisies the next day (in the hotel...not the park we got lost in) ready and raring to show the good people of Bristol how to make little monsters StuffedNonsense style.

Here is our stall....as modelled by Bex.

We were very busy ALL day....and we forgot the key ingredients for a picnic....food. we sewed for six hours straight with nothing but ginger cake and tea in our belly's.

Look how busy the picnic was!

Pictures of the monsters made coming soon...