London haul

So I had a day in London on the 27 Th to celebrate my besties birthday.
My day started with very early train in the rain on a flying visit to my favourite fabric and trim suppliers in East London. Plenty was bought even though the weather was awful with wind and very heavy rain. These guys really are so sweet they don't forget me even though I might only see them once every two months now, especially the guy who sells the trims he always gives me a discount and shows me all the colours I like! What a gem he is!

lilac crochet and pink velvet ribbon

white satin ribbon snuggling in with my doilies

some gorgeous large beads on some Cath Kidston fabric

a puddle of white crochet ribbons

a sweet clothes patch from Liberty's of London

After all this wonderful shopping I then met my bestie and her gorgeous mum for shopping in central London. It started in Liberty's of London haberdashery where I got the cute blue bird clothes patch for on my 1983 green army coat. Oh that is a hard place to leave as a sewer let me tell you. All those wonderfully iconic printed pattern cottons. Ah the sweet pain it was to leave there. We then headed out to a long girlie dim sum lunch and then to my other favourite haberdashery, John Lewis on Oxford Street. Then it was time for afternoon tea and cake before an evening of celebration drinks and dinner in a North London public house. Before catching a late train back to Essex in the rain.
Such a magical day full of laughter, love, a feast of great food, shopping and rain!

Take care
Love Clara x

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

Creativity and an empty head

Hello again,

I have mentioned this about me before but apart from my Etsy shop I also work part time four days a week in a job that isn't very enjoyable nor creative. I occasionally get to release the creative juices and do a visual display at work but there are 'concepts' to be adhered to and 'design briefs' and 'market research' that has to be taken into account. Which is all rather stifling when you want to do something daring and ... pretty.
I find tension from work and commuting up to two hours each side of my working day really puts a block on my ability to design a new piece for my shop as well as leaving me extremely tired.

White feather image taken from Google images.

I need peace and tranquillity to be able to dream up new ideas and more importantly to make the products. My job can be really good to me and they allow me to have several days off together and normally the off days fall midweek, so that really helps me to fill my tank up with energy again and find inspiration for creating something pretty. I get to do all that creative stuff on my days off rather than after work or at weekends when time is limited and others demand your attention. This way I get relative peace and quiet while everyone else is at work so the distractions are few and far between. I find it is only when my head is truly empty and I am free of interruptions that I can find the space to dream up something that people will want to buy. I find an empty head is when I am able to conjure up ideas and images of future projects flow through my mind. I find I often need 12/24 hours to relax and not do anything too taxing. It is during this time I like to take a walk in the woods, or by water or even a trip around the shops looking in windows and people watching while drinking tea in a cafe. Anything to clear my head of stress and worries and conversations that have repeated themselves again and again in my mind. This clears my mind then my head fills again but with good stuff like linen and lace and Mother of Pearl buttons, rather mundane boring real life stuff, and then the creativity flows and life feels good and happy and I make something for the shop.


Love Clara x

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade

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

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

Shopping for supplies

So I have been to London and I have been supply shopping, I bought some lovely white washed linen, it is so soft and drapes wonderfully it is the backbone item in my shop, so many items have this wonderful material as the foundation. It is strong yet beautiful and eco-friendly compared to cotton. I also got some more ribbon and cotton lace as I can not resist having more, but this time I also came across some wonder roses as ribbon, pink and dark pink with  green it is wonderfully romantic and gorgeous! Last but not least I bought some wonderful romantic white ruffle fabric, this I just adore to hold it up and shake it and watch all the ruffles quiver and shake. I have no plans for these at the moment, one day soon I should be able to show you what I have come up with though.

roses ribbon

white ruffles

I moved in the last quarter of 2012 and the area I have moved to while lovely and quiet it is not equipped for a shop-a-holic like me. There is is only one haberdashery about three miles away and she does not sell anything out of the ordinary so I am still relying on trips to London to get my supplies this is a long round trip for me approximately two hours each way so it is not something I do frequently. Do you have problems getting supplies for your crafts? How do you get around this? Do you buy online? I struggle with online buying as I am self taught and so I do not know the terms for the fabrics I want, so shopping can be fraught with expletives and nothing purchased. Oh well I will now be saving my pennies for my next shopping trip in London town.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade

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

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

Love Clara x