A Give Away & Something New...

Ohhhhh...the magic 'G' word!

This is our 100th post and we thought it would be nice to hold a little give away in celebration.This past month has been a rather trying one and this blog has been an almost constant relief. To be able to come here and see what all of you crafty people are up to is a pleasure...sooo thank you, and 'heres to another 100'

This past month there has also been a flurry in new creatures emerging from the StuffedNonsense studio; there's been

Long Johns,

Frowny Puss'

Sweet Cheeks,

Slim Jims,

Little Aprils,

& Hup Two's.

Theres a few more critters waiting in the shadows too...including this guy

He's almost right, we're just waiting for the right nose. They are supposed to be akin to wombats (but with the nose he's got here he looks more like a bear) Do no fear though...we've found the right ones and are just waiting for them to be delivered. The idea is that they have a little pouch/pocket on their front which will have a piece of paper inside it and written on that piece of paper will be something to make you happy...for example 'the smell of freshly cut grass' etc etc. We think we will call them 'Wombats of Happiness'...what do you think??

Anyway, back to the giveaway.

If you would like to win one of our newer creatures (or in fact one of older ones...take a peek at our folksy shop, our etsy shop or our flickr account) all you have to do is tell us: if you could have a Wombat of Happiness what would you like its happy thought to say??

Sound like a deal??

Right...im off to make some dust bunny keyrings (how seasonal...kind of)

Happy Easter.

xxx

We're Not Very Good At This...

Dear followers i'm soo terribly sorry to all of you for being unbelievably rubbish at keeping everything up to date.

The last month has been at times really rather hard and upsetting for us and at other times it has been truly amazing.

Soo...shall we start with the hard stuff (i'll hold your hand if you hold my hand...deal?)Right...around a year and a half ago myself and Arthur ,my partner, (i know that sounds silly but after over six years together boy friend doesn't really seem to cut it does it?) found out that his dad was terminally ill with a brain tumour. He held on for much longer then we thought but last week he past away peacefully in his sleep. He was terribly ill and to see him suffering as much as he was was heart breaking. Whilst it is terribly sad that he has gone, in some ways it is a relief to know that he can now rest without any pain.

I was in two minds as to if i should write about this here but as its one of the main reasons as to why things have been so quiet around here. The whole family is holding up OK and right now we are just piecing everything back together again...trying to get back to normality.

Its not all been sad this month though.

On the 3rd of April we had a stall at the first ever Norwood Feast.

It went soo well, we had an awful lot of fun (even if we did get lost) and we even sold out of some stuff!

We also put the finishing touches on our first order from The Maisonette (i've literally just finished sellotaping the address onto the box!)

AND...

Yesterday we were at the second Crafty Fox Pop Up Market at The Dogstar in Brixton. It was an awful lot of fun and we met lots of lovely people. I had no choice but to be frugal with my purchases ( thanks to my pitiful bank balance) so i left with this really lovely wooden wren brooch

I brought it from Fabric Nation...it took me ages to make my choice (i had to go and get arthur to come and help me!)

and the lovely El and John brought me this awesome bear print from seventy tree..

i love that the picture is made up of the word 'bear' written over and over again.

In other good news i've spent the last two and a half hours listing items on our folksy shop and also on our etsy shop...have a gander if you like.

Well...i imagine that things will still be a bit quiet around here for a bit longer....we've still got some fixing to do...but rest assured i'll be back on full cylinders soon.

Still Here...

...Just about.

Sorry for the lapse in StuffedNonsense news.

Lots and lots have been happening.

Since our last post we have kissed goodbye to our bricks and mortar shop...which is a bit sad but a bit exciting at the same time; it now means we can concentrate on taking StuffedNonsense onto the next level (sorting out the business plan, sorting out the website, sorting out some savings, sorting out some new stockists...and lots of other grown up things like that)

In the midst of the shop removal we have been trying to frantically prepare for a craft fair in London...which is this Sunday ( and yes we are freaking out about the lack of stock...but we wouldn't be StuffedNonsense if weren't chronically unprepared for anything)

We also found out an extra super special shop called The Maisonette would like to stock are creations! Its crazy good news, as they were one of the first shops we approached since the shop closing; so its given us lots of confidence in our products and also in our approach to possible stockists. The shop looks soo wonderful, im gutted that StuffedNonsense is in Cheltenham and many many miles away from Glasgow. The Maisonette has also just opened an internet shop which is rather dandy too...why not head over and have a gander (im 100% certain you wont be dissapointed)

Right...soo heres a sprinkling of pictures....

This cute little desk used to be in the corner of the shop but now its my work in progress desk (full of: four Hup 2,3's waiting for labels, ten Little Aprils waiting for their cardboard tags and twenty one dustbunnies waiting for eyes...i mentioned it has to be done by Sunday didn't i?)

These guys are new and in the same 'range' as the Long Johns...they are called Slim Jims (we're still ironing out the creases in their background story)

Again, in the same range as the Long Johns...this one is called a Frowny Puss'...

And this one is called a Sweet Cheeks....i LOVE the fabric its body is made out of...i want to make PJ's out of it.

What do you thing to the new guys?? Will they fit in under the StuffedNonsense roof?

These ones are still on paper but will be given a lease of life soon...in between this craft fair (on Sunday don'tcha know) and the next one (a two week gap in case your wondering...we must be mad)

Hopefully we will be back soon

(please feel free to send soothing and calming thoughts/comments our way)

Day off Frivolities.

Hello dearest readers, hope you are enjoying your Sunday. This is my last day off before the madness of Cheltenham Gold Cup descends (50 hours in 6 days...ohhhh yeah)

Its been lovely so far i went to a new boot fair (pictures of bargains to come another time) with my number one charity shop/boot fair/coffee shop & cake companion...vicki. You may know of her because she is super talented at lots and lots of things...you can find her over here for her stitchy things and over here for her ninja things. Go and see and wonder at all the wonderfuls she makes.

Here are some snaps of my last day off (we went for lunch at a new cafe...it was delicious)

Vicki has a super cute little boy and he has super cute toys too, i couldn't resist taking a picture of this wonderfully made mouse in a tonka truck.

Honey and Vanilla cheesecake which i had for pudding...

And shared it with this young man.

Then we returned to vicki's house and had tea and gazed in wonder at her new wonderful Japanese pattern book...psssst...did you know that vicki made the top in this picture?...she did you know...and it looked great.

And this is here just because the sun is out and spring is on its way....

Right, time to prepare for this craft fair and this craft fair, they are within a week and half of each other...because we love to make it easy for ourselves!

xx

Sunday Off Times...

Today on my day off i saw...

Your eyes are not deceiving you! That is indeed 'Blue Sky', i'm sure you have heard of it before.

Some Moda fabric that i picked up at the boot fair; along with a vintage table cloth and apron it cost me the princely some of 50p! (theres about two meters of it!)

Today on my day off I did...

Making some samples to send to a seriously wonderful shop (but we're not going to say where yet...in case)

Soo please wish these guys good luck...my fingers are crossed very very very tight!

p.s. four more posts then theres a giveaway!!

A Gift From Us To You...

We were feeling a bit generous today, and whilst listing some new lovelies on our etsy shop we decided to offer up free postage on any item to anywhere for a whole week!

Thats right peeps...a whole seven days of free postage!

How exciting...to get your free postage just pop this code into the coupon option at the check out:

marchfreepostage1

as well as a few other things!

Happy Shopping!

Day off Frivolities...

• Ham, Cheese and Mustard Foccacia from a superb little cafe called Tiffins.
• Mine and Arthurs shadow avec shopping basket.
• Crocus' trying to open up in the sun despite the cold.
• A rather fantastic metal flower display bike.
• New to the StuffedNonsense shelves i present to you 'Little Aprils'...they are cute droplet shaped plushies with ribbon to hang them from...we are selling them individually at the moment but intend to sell them in packs of 6 (your own little 'April Shower'...get it?) we are just trying to sort out the packaging (egg boxes we think)
• Today was also made all the better by going to visit a fantastic illustration show at a small local gallery...i really enjoyed the bird pictures by an illustrator called Philip Rhys Matthews (there aren't too many pictures of the birds on his website but please go and have a look nonetheless its beautiful work.)

So in short things are looking a little bit better... thank you to you lovely people for lending me kind words (i hear February is a common month to get down in the dumps)

I'm off to work on some 'Sweet Cheeks' 'Frowny Puss'' and 'Slim Jims'....intrigued?....you should be!

P.S. Do you like the Little Aprils.

P.P.S. We are going to do a giveaway soon...how exciting!