Autumn 2014 is coming

I have had a cracking summer! My Etsy shop has been doing better and better, the day job is not being wholly horrid, and the weather has been absolutely marvellous. The last few summers have been very soggy and miserable. In contrast this one has seen temperatures over 25°c for many weeks on end, this coupled with being  close to the sea and family has been wonderful.

orange clouds, photo taken July 14 in my back garden. no filters.

Today has seen a drop in temperature and some heavy showers of rain, and to be honest it has been so nice to pull on a large snugly cardigan and lounge about this afternoon and put on a film and eat biscuits. I love summer I truly do, but Autumn is my favourite time of year. I am looking forward to cool mornings and nights where you can sleep without being too hot. Blackberry crumble and custard and other such lovely desserts, but you still get warm afternoons and lots of golden sunshine. I love the colours of Autumn, the golds, oranges and light browns of leaves turning colour and the stepping on them as they fall from the branches all crispy and crackly.

image is NOT my own and taken from Google image

What is your favourite season? and what do you like most about it?

Take care
Love Clara x

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

Spring has sprung!

OK so the weather... Us Brits love to talk about it, our country comes to a halt when it happens in any slight variation, (too hot the roads melt, too cold and the airports close, too wet we flood, too dry we have hose pipe bans). At the moment we are in flood after having a crazy amount of rain for like the last year. I am certain my toes are webbing as I type. All the rain has made it a very mild winter so far and technically we are still in winter. Just yesterday I lifted my umbrella long enough to see clumps of Snowdrops as I walked through the church yard.

The little buggers wouldn't stop bouncy about in the breeze so the image is not very sharp, forgive me, but they are so small and sweet I had to show them to you! Spring is coming, and hopefully some sunny days so us Brits can all dry out.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade

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

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

Love Clara x

Today I am spring cleaning!

Spring cleaning should be invigorating and lively, right? Well not for me as I am trying to spring clean my huge pile of fabrics and ribbons. I have made a huge mess and will need to hoover to rid my place of loose threads and bits of fabric. I have sorted out the ones I am not using, the ones I will use and those that I simply can not let go of, yet, if ever. As a crafter I love squirrelling away supplies for future brain waves that will actually be made in to a project to be sold, and some pieces I just hoard as they are too pretty. As I have said before I own many vintage ribbons, pieces of lace and crochet doilies that are too beautiful to cut or to create with as I have not yet come up with a fitting design for them. But alas today is the day when I shall actually photo and measure some pieces of fabric that I know I will not use. So I will put them up in my Etsy shop and hope they quickly find a great owner who will make them in to something wonderful and use them till they can not be used any more.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/176802541/destash-fabric-de-stash-linen-yarn-dyed?ref=listing-shop-header-0

New Years resolutions/ goals

Hmm. Well this year I have to admit I am kinda stumped on what to do personally. Maybe this will be the year when I stop talking about doing regular yoga classes and actually start doing it. I have made several goals for ClarasHandMade, which include making this blog and more lovely things for the shop. I have already been making next years Christmas advent Calendars as I figured I would not fancy making those in the middle of summer! This is a little sneak peak of one of my designs. What do you think? It is made of white linen and I have hand applied the motifs and hand stamped it with last years Christmas rubber stamp gift set.

sneak peak of Christmas 2014

I am going for a Swedish theme with these and I will also make some Christmas stockings to go with them. I found some gorgeous ribbon on my travels the other week. I think these have quite a folk/Swedish feel about them don't you? The red will definitely go on another advent design I have in my head.

ribbons

As usual these will be in limited supply due to their handmade status! My current stock can be found on my Etsy shop: http://www.clarashandmade.etsy.com

Have you made any goals or resolutions for 2014 yet? I would love to hear about them in the comments below. 

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


Love Clara x