Updates, March 2014

Sorry for the length of time since the last entry, I have been a busy bee, going between work, antique fairs and a meet up with Etsy and Pinterest in London!

Yep I met up with PinterestUK!  I was so excited!!! I was part of a very small group invited to join a couple of Etsy admins and the Marketing manager of Pinterest in the UK to see a presentation and ask questions, we got so many questions answered on how to benefit our businesses via Pinterest. I was so glad I made the effort to get up super early and squeeze myself on to a train and several underground trains in rush hour.
Other shops that were at the meeting were:
colorbloom
bylykiard
evajeanie
andsmile
and last but not least VintageCuriosityShop

I also recently spent the day at a large antiques centre where I found some fantastic pieces for my garden when they are planted up I will show some pictures to you.

My shop has also been busy which is lovely as it is coming up to my 2nd Etsy birthday and my 100th sale. I think it has been due to Mother's Day this weekend and all those lovely people have been buying for their dear old mum's.

My favourite image from my Pinterest this week.

Happy Patrick's Day!

Top of the morning to all my beautiful Irish peple and the many many many who toast St. Patrick today.

clover

I was very blessed to spend some time in Ireland late last year with some wonderful friends and it is a beautiful country. This photo of clover above I took at my local church cemetery a few weeks ago. Enjoy the day and celebrate!

Take care
Love Clara x

Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade

creating new lines

So lately I have let some lines expire from my shop, and others have sold out and I will not be replacing them as they do not really fit with my shabby chic theme. What made me create with red felt? Lol oh well moving on. This means it is time to create some new things and add some wonderful vintage pieces. I bought a bolt of  cotton a couple of days ago I plan on making some new shabby chic curtains with that. I also sourced some wonderful vintage crochet place mats which have been added. I have made some bunting. So all in all I have been a busy little bee creating new and exciting things for you. What do you think of the items I have been making? I want to make more of the bunting as it is really pretty.

vintage crochet place mats, set of four

white lace bunting, hand stamped with a doily design

Spring clean and Wanelo update

Had a little bit of sunshine this week and that always overfills my energy so my dad and I decided to cut down some trees in the garden as they were overhanging the neighbours and they were really too close to the house that the roots may do future damage. So sadly they had to be chopped back quite a bit.  I also cleared out some fabric for the charity shop. I love a clear out the light feeling of making space. I seemed to have a growing pile of fabrics that I knew I wouldn't be using for myself or to make things with for the shop. An afternoon was spent sorting out and stacking them up and then taking them to my local charity shop. The lady in my local shop was thrilled with the fabrics as well which made it an more enjoyable good deed. Though I hate clearing out fabric it just feels wrong as I see so much potential in fabrics and even now a couple of days after clearing out I still worry I have done the wrong thing and think I should have kept it all for the future. Which is crazy I know! Stop judging me ;-)

I have also opened up a Wanelo account. If you don't know what this is, it is an online community of shops where everyone can share images from these shops in to groups. I am not loving it at the moment I have to say. It doesn't seem to make sense. My feed is full of products I don't like and I didn't put them there.They have categories but I can't choose where my products go except the basic Woman, Man or Home. It seems a bit odd and more geared to big shops especially the trending tab. How can a little shop like mine compete with massive home retailers in terms of traffic? Any way I shall keep trying to like it and see how it goes over the coming weeks. If you are interested here is my store link:
http://wanelo.com/store/clarashandmade
If you are on there and can give me any tips please please leave comments I need all the help I can get. Heehee :-)

My pinterest page this week was followed by PinterestUK, which I was very excited about and then they emailed me with an interesting proposal which I can tell you more about soon hopefully.

Take care
Love Clara x

Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade

Re-cycle, Up-cycle, Re-do

Sad looking green cupboard

Painting going on nicely.

 So I bought this little green shelf, curio cupboard, shelf, I don't know what you call it, but the washed green paint effect was awful, I could see runs in it and it was just a nasty shade of green. But I could see this being super cute if painted white. So I bought it and these are the photos of me re-cycling it in to something pretty again. I took out the fret work and replaced it with jolly fabric and I think it looks super sweet now don't you? This small cupboard is now ready for your shabby chic home, it is really versatile and can be used in any room of the home, you can sit it on a sideboard or hang it from a wall. It is currently for sale in my etsy shop. Click on any image to be taken straight to it.

Curio cabinet.

Love Clara x

                               Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade