The Make Awards 2012

We have just arrived back from the not on the high street.com make awards which were held at the beautiful Syon Gardens in London. It was a really exciting day and a great opportunity to meet other partners with noths.com and also to meet the lovely faces behind noths.com (I was a little star struck by Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish).

Both myself and my husband Tony are partners and were also both lucky enough to be shortlisted for prizes within different categories. My category was best store front and Tony's was for Best Product for his Solid Oak 'Hot Stuff' trivet:

When we arrived in the main hall it was a real suprise to see that all of the shortlisterd partners had large photo's of one of their products displayed on easels on the tables around the room. First of all I could only see Tony's and thought they had maybe only included a few, but Tony hunted for mine and when we finally found it I felt incredibly proud :)

It was a really relaxed, but busy day filled with interactive workshops and seminars with help and advice on how to get the best from your creative business and how to take it forward and grow. But at the end was the really exciting part (the Awards).

There were two other partners in my category. Both with super storefronts and unfortunately I didn't win. I was a little disappointed to find out that I hadn't won, but the competition was fierce and I do feel excpetionally privileged to have made it to the top three. But there was no need to feel too despondent as my super talented husband won in his category!! Go Tony, well done, I am so pleased for you :) It was a really great day, thanks so much notonthehighstreet!

Carrier bag holders

Over the last week I have been working on orders and new designs for my shop. I have also been trying to remove some of the older items to make way for new ones and sometimes it's nice to have a complete change.

But I have one product in my shop that is and always has been popular. These are my free machine embroidered and appliqued carrier bag holders It's funny as I made them initially as a bit of a joke, but I think it has been one of my most popular items. Earlier this year I changed the fabric options, to keep things fresh and up to date, it was also to simplify things a little as my initial listing offered 8 fabric choices most of which were vintage and it was a bit too complicated on the stock control as each one uses a fair amount on fabric and I tend to buy vintage pieces in small sizes I almost had to buy more fabric every time I got an order. But that's all part of the learning curve and product development, I have plan now and a big stock of fabrics that are modern but in a vintage style.

I guess this bag holder has been popular because people are a bit more conscious of the environment and the importance of not just throwing plastic bags away, but re-using them each time we shop, the downside to this of course is a cupboard full of plastic bags, but they do squish down quite small therefore this carrier holder can hold loads.

 I think this is one item that is going to stay in my shop for a while yet. It is also available without the embroidered panel on the front. I make these for craft fairs in smaller quantities from the vintage fabrics I originally used so if you would like one of those you can message me, otherwise they are available from my notonthehighstreet shop

Day 21: Homemade Daily Challenge

A very quick blog update from me today I have got a birthday party to go to this morning at the lovely and very talented Quirky Boots house, Eva and I are both excited, she's at that age now where she understands parties, which is lovely to see, but thinking I might take my ear defenders!

Today's craft is an update on my patchwork quilt:

 It's an appliqued love heart attached with a blanket stitch (done by hand) using vintage fabrics. I hope I can keep up the enthusiasm for this blanket, handstitching is not really my bag. So we'll see :)

Have a super weekend whatever you are doing x