Tag: Honey and Ollie

Happy New Year!

The Challenge

I was going to try and catch up with what I’ve been doing since the middle of November, when I last posted, but honestly I don’t really remember! I know there have been two craft fairs (a small one and a big one), and I’m sure Christmas was in there somewhere, amongst a whole lot of germs, but mainly I’ve just been going to work, coming home again, being ill, making hats, and trying to sell them. Not a lot else going on really. I was so poorly over Christmas that my niece doesn’t even have her annual dress yet!

I’m currently panicking like mad about having to go back to work on Monday, and still being a bit ill, and not having actually achieved anything with my time off over Christmas despite having lots of things planned. I’m trying very hard to take a little bit of time to myself, to write my work rota into my diary, get myself organised, and have a good think about what my goals need to be for the year ahead.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

I’ve downloaded Susannah Conway’s Unravelling The Year Ahead workshop again (it’s free! go for it!), and have just completed a rather puzzling Oracle reading that I hope will become clearer as the year unfolds. I pulled an extra card to try and find some clarification, and was met with The Challenge… so that didn’t help much. I didn’t buy Leonie Dawson’s workbooks again this year, entirely because I never actually filled them in. The thought of having to make plans and examine my life in detail when all I wanted to do was NOT BE ILL was all a bit too much, to be honest. I may have rather cheekily printed out a clean copy, and am merrily changing all the 2014s into 2015s with a big fat marker pen. Sorry Leonie! Maybe next year…

I have, however, chosen a word that I want to be able to embody this year, and that word is focus. (I’ve also ordered another One Word bracelet from Honey & Ollie, to wear with last year’s.)

Last year I tried to do far too many things, with the net result that I didn’t put as much time and effort as I would have liked into the things I was really enjoying. I spent too long thinking about what might sell rather than what I wanted to make, and that just made me miserable.

This year it’s about three things:

HATS, SHOES and DOLLS.

Hats first, as I have a stand at a local wedding fair in three weeks’ time. Lots of preparation to do for that. But from February onwards, I’m hoping to be able to do some work on the other two.

Mind you, such a lot depends on my health, and of course first and foremost I need to be well enough (and stay well enough) to go to work. Whether I have the energy for HATS, SHOES and DOLLS after that remains to be seen.

Modern technology and a call to action.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

I’m still getting to grips with all my modern technology. I seem to have settled into the iPad quite easily, although it’s useless for writing a blog post – the keyboard takes up so much of the screen that I can’t see what I’m doing. Otherwise though, it’s been amazingly easy to use, and I’m losing every waking minute to adding things to Pinterest. (Follow me! It’s dangerously addictive.)

Paul’s also upgraded his phone, which means I’ve inherited his old one. I’ve spent a chunk of this afternoon switching over to the iPhone 4, which is lovely, but it looks different from my old one (thanks to a software update), which is discombobulating me more than it ought to. Anyway, while I was setting the photo above for my lock screen, I was reminded that I haven’t actually shown you my new bracelet!

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

I ordered it from Honey and Ollie at the beginning of the year, and it arrived (all the way from California) on the 12th of February – much sooner than I was expecting it to travel all that way.  It arrived accompanied by a little crow holding a star (perfect!), who is now pasted into my journal.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

This is the back – and the lovely box it arrived in. The back is so pretty that sometimes I flip the bracelet over and wear this side as the front. The silk ribbon just ties around my wrist.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

Like this!

It’s a One Word bracelet (pendants also available), and this was my chosen word for the year.  I figured that putting it on my phone as well as on my wrist would give me a little kick every time I start procrastinating instead of working. Perfectionism and procrastination are my two biggest enemies (alongside getting distracted far too easily), and I have a tendency not to even start doing something unless I think I can do it right first time. This is my handy reminder to JUST DO SOMETHING, even if it’s something very small, and not very perfect.

Speaking of Not Very Perfect… today I was attempting to make a very simple cowl to go into the Etsy shop – just two rectangles sewn together. What I have actually made is a fully lined moebius strip, and I haven’t got the faintest idea how I managed it! Couldn’t have done it if I’d tried. I’ve unpicked the cowl three times, and I still can’t get it to turn right-sides-out. Definitely a sign that I wasn’t really well enough to approach the sewing machine today!

Shopping Spree: Skulls, Skeins and a Spindle

Handmade polymer & gemstone earrings from Honey & Ollie

Look what arrived today – my lovely new earrings from Honey and Ollie! They arrived super quick, all the way from California. So quick that I wasn’t expecting them for about another week! As a recovering goth, I’m still irresistibly drawn to Things With Skulls, and these were so pretty that I couldn’t resist.

Handmade polymer & gemstone earrings from Honey & Ollie

The skulls and flowers are made from polymer clay, with sparkly little gemstones dangling at the top. The findings (all hand made) are copper, which complements the stones beautifully. The hooks are a really lovely shape too, and they stay in place very securely. Despite being quite big, they’re really light to wear, and I’m definitely going to be adding more Honey and Ollie pieces to my wish list.

Handspun and hand dyed yarn from The Outside, with hand carved drop spindle

This is my little haul from the Museum of English Rural Life‘s Traditional Craft Fair.

All from The Outside, on top is a hand-carved drop spindle. It’s made from yew, and it’s a bottom-whorl style. Excuse the red acrylic leader, I was so keen to try it out that I grabbed the first thing I could find! Once I’d figured out how to do a half-hitch to hold the yarn in place, I grabbed some fluff and started to spin straight away. It’s a lovely spindle, and I’m really happy to have one of my own instead of having to borrow from work. Now I can practice at home, and make as much wobbly, lumpy yarn as I like!

Handspun and hand dyed yarn from The Outside

Speaking of yarn… this is neither wobbly, nor lumpy. It’s handspun from blue faced leicester wool, and it’s lovely and soft. The vibrant colours are all from natural dyes, and this should be just enough to make a pair of rainbow-striped mittens.

The colours, from left to right, are:
1) Weld & madder
2) Weld
3) Weld & woad
4) Weld & woad dipped in madder
5) Woad & weld
6) Woad
7) Cochineal (orange oxidised to blue)

I had a lovely chat with Romilly about dyeing, including planting up a dye garden and not being afraid of mordants. There is definitely going to be some experimentation with colour and fluff in my future! For now though, I need to practice my spinning, and think about the perfect pattern for my new rainbow-coloured mittens.