U-handblog

You ROCK!! And 'cos you do, here's a bag tut for you!

Oh! Thank you so much for voting on your fave banner and taking the time to give such full comments on changes that you'd make.  I'm very touched by your kind words and enthusiasm.  My designer and I have been reading through each and every one of your replies with great interest OXOXO!  Have you voted yet?  You have until the end of Monday 1st Oct (can anyone believe it's almost October already???!)

I'm spending this weekend finishing my up and coming bag tutorial - yay!  After that I have to hack my way through my email inbox -  I'd rather be making up this very cute bag by Ali of Machenmachen (thanks Ali OXO).  Ali very kindly sent me the link to her excellent tutorial and pattern a little while ago but my email box resembles IS a haystack so I just rediscovered it today.

Go get Ali's excellent PDF pattern and instructions for her cute bag here.  Enjoy!

Pick a banner and win a bag frame!

Remember how I said that this blog is going to have a bit of a design tidy up?  Well part of that tidy up involves a new blog banner.  The present banner doesn't exactly bowl me over (that's because I made it and  I'm kerrrrapp at web and image design) and anyway it's time for a change.

My designer gal (I'll introduce her soon) has come up with 2 banner possibilities that I want you lovely readers to vote and comment on.  Here they are:

Orange Banner.

Blue Banner.

Cute aren't they?  Now, these banners are drafts and they can be changed i.e. larger font, different colours, etc. 

Here's what you could win if you take part in the vote.  I am giving away to one lucky draw winner a 14" Hex Open bag frame worth £7.95.  I used a hex open frame to make this cute purse, and I will also be using this very frame in my next tutorial to make a yummy craft tote bag, so you'll be prepared for the tutorial!

Your vote would really help me out and I want the blog and it's banner to look nice for you.  So to take part all you have to do is to comment on THIS PARTICULAR POST by:

• voting on the Orange Banner OR the Blue Banner, AND
• commenting on what improvements (if any) you would make to your choice.

I will draw the lucky winner after this weekend on Monday 1st Oct.  Thanks, and good luck!

FYI I have just written a post on 'How best to describe your craft goods to boost your sales' in my other blog.

Wednesday (bag) eye candy.

Quick!  While the boss isn't looking (or the kids are at school/asleep/busy playing), here are some delicious bag pics for you to sneak a peek at.  They have all been sent to me by my lovely readers and customers.  Thanks guy (yep, we got a sewing dude amongst this lot), and girls.  I've put them in the U-Handbag Eye Candy Flickr.  Click on any of the pics to see my comments.  Enjoy!

I sooo want this Carpet Bag by Anne in UK.

Amy Butler's yummy Sola Soak up for grabs!

Wooo! It feel great to be well again.  It gets me every time how much I take feeling well for granted, but I'm tip top again, and it's a sunny day!  Thanks to everyone who sent get well soon wishes - OXO!   Still, with the aid of lap top (and mugs of hot choccy), I didn't stop working:

• this blog will getting a bit of a design shake-up (I'll introduce the designer at the grand unveiling, she's a lovely gal).  We are also working together on something else rather exciting - but I must resist opening my chops about that for now...mmmphhphhhff!
• I have more or less finished designing the new Bag Tutorial for this blog, keep an eye out!
• my other blog, is getting a really great response.  I want to thank everyone who has read it, commented on it, and subscribed to it.  It's been great for my confidence and I'm so grateful :)
• If you want to be in with the chance of winning that bottle of Amy Butler's Sola Soak, skip over to my other blog and enter the draw.  You have until the 2nd October.  Good luck!

Want an Amy Butler, heaven scent treat for your delicates? Then pop over to my other blog!

 

There will be another yummy Amy Butler up for grabs coming soon on THIS blog - keep an eye out for it!

Dec. 07 - Pretty Quick Party Purse

All that fruit that I've been eating and I'm coming down with a cold???

I've been staying in trying to keep warm whilst I been sewing.  I've got my little fan heater out of the attic and I've got one of my home made hats on.  Brrrr!

I've finished the December 07 bag for Sewing Word Magazine. The magazine theme for Dec was: the colours red, green, gold, and silver, and items that are quick to make.  So I designed this quick and easy to make party purse in ireidescent green silk, and I have called it 'Pretty Quick Party Purse' because...er...it's pretty, and it's to make quick...and...

But first, what does this choccy bar have in common with my new purse?

Magazine cover, Dec 07.

Front view.  I have added a satin bias piped edge to the sides and bottom, used a hex open frame, and silver hand chain.  I have also made silk beaded flower pin just to pretty things up a bit.

Side view.  With satin bias piping trim.

Inside view.  Hex open frames are great because they are secure, convenient to use (they pop open to a hexagon shape, and stay open until you pop them shut again).

Beaded silk flower pin.

I'm off to bed, sniffle, sniffle...

How to get your kids (and adults) to eat up their fruit!

I just wanted to tell you about my 2 fave purchases from this month.  They are a recipe book, and a smoothie maker.  I am probably about to preach to a lot of converted, but I'm never in time to start trends, and I don't rush to the shops the get the latest blah blah!

Al and I never eat fruit (except maybe juicy cherries), we're better with veggies, but not quite good enough.  I have bought fruit thinking I really will make the effort to eat it, but in the end it shrivels up in the bowl whilst I guiltily walk past it each day.  It's not that I don't love the taste of fruit, it's more I'm too lazy to eat it, all of that peeling, sticky fingers, and dispensing of the pips (life is so hard!).  Not anymore though!  This morning we each ate 1 nectarine, 8 strawberries, 1 apple, 1/2 banana, and a pot of yogurt in one go!  That'll clear the skin, and get the works going nice and regular :)  Yesterday we ate a bucket loads of blueberries and apples. Yum yum yum! 

We popped the fruit into this Smoothie Maker (which I chose because it doesn't cost much and it had better reviews than other makes - I'm very happy with it) with yogurt and oats.  You whizz all of that fruit up, and you have it for brekkie (with nothing else) and you don't feel hungry until 1pm, cool eh?   Very useful if (like me) you're trying shed a bit of a midriff tyre :)  And if smoothies will trick us into eating fruit, they'll definitely hoodwink the kids!

Very good smoothie recipe book, well written with 57 easy and yum recipes.

I can see that our smoothie maker is going to be used a lot and it's NOT going to be one those kitchen gadgets that end up never seeing the light of day, gathering dust in the guilty cupboard (like our steamer is!) Do you have any dusty kitchen gadgets in your guilty cupboard?

PS:  FYI I have just written about The difference between Marketing Yourself & Marketing your Craft Product in my other blog.

And the winner of the Big Bag Making booty is...

For me, part of the fun of doing these draws is thinking of the best questions to ask you in the hope that the comments will be lovely for you & I to read.  Your comments to the last draw certainly made for some lovely and funny reading!  All I can say is that you lot have some VERY nice partners, and or Dads; aren't we lucky?

Righty!  There were 176 entries (5 which were duplicates that I deleted, leaving me with 171 entries).  The trusty Random Number Picker decided upon the number 67.

So will Kari who wrote:

"My husband has this really great way of stealing the thoughts right outta my head! LOL

No really! I'll be thinking something, and he says it (and usually because it's hilarious,) I snort out a great big belly laugh. The first few times it happened, it was a little unsettling; but now I relish how we both find humor in the same exact places."

Please step forward and let me know what your addresse is so I can arrange getting all of this stuff to you!


Thanks for entering everyone!  Sorry if you didn't get lucky this time.  There will be another up for grabs draw coming soon...

A big Thankyou to you guys!

Aw!  I just wanted to say a BEEEG "thank you!!" to you for being so supportive about my new blog.  Your kind words of encouragement are really touching, and they mean heaps to me (she grins!).  Y' know what?  It was like being shown around a new school by someone nice on your first day :)

You lot are a sweet bunch of folks!

Yesterday I said that I would introduce the other specialty bloggers who make up the rest of the  eMoms team of bloggers.  I'd say that there is something for everyone amongst this lot:

• Internet Business - co written by Wendy Piersall  (the founder of eMoms).  Here you will find info, and debate on squillions of issues surrounding being a parent at home, blogging, and running an online business.
• eBay selling for parents - written by Megan Jordan (who's made a good wodge from selling on eBay).  Here you will learn tips of the eBay trade.
• Freelance Parent - written by Lorna Doone Brewer & Tamara Berry (Both are Mums, and both are self employed).  Here you will find info and debate on issues to do with being a parent who works for themselves at home.
• Parent Product Reviews - written by Erika Jurney (who is fanatic about testing products!).  Here you will find tried and tested reviews on books, toys, and and other parent/child gear.  You'll also find giveaways too!
• Dad Balance - written by Derek Semmler (who is a self employed Dad who works from home).  Working at home isn't just for the girls!  Here Derek talks about the issues surrounding being a Dad who works from home.
• Seasonal Kids Activities - written by Sharon Hutton (who is a busy Mum to 3 girls, and she also works at home).  Here you'll find all sorts of great ideas to the little ones amused (and you calm!)
• Craft Boom - (written by yours truly!)

Coming next:  I'll announce the winner of the Bag Booty Draw...fingers crossed everybody!

Phew! A New Craft Business Blog by me, please check it out!

This should help explain why I haven't been posting on this blog as much as usual.  Newborn babies are always a bit more demanding than toddlers, but I think my little family has begun to find a bit of a routine, and I'll return to posting  more regularly.  Thanks for bearing with me!  Toddlers?  Newborn babies?  What is she gabbing on about?  Well, I have been commissioned by Wendy Piersall owner of the EXCELLENT eMoms at Home business blog to write a blog about running a Craft Business.

Wendy is passionate about women and men going onto business for themselves and on her terrificly popular blog she provides LOADS of information on how run this business from home.  Recently she commissioned 6 folks (of which I am one) to write their own business specialty in their own blogs, under the umbrella of the eMoms blog. 

I will now write most of my Bag Selling Tips and Advice post on my new blog, but each time I do I'll include a link to it on my post in this here blog.  I hope that works out, we'll find out soon enough.  I want this new blog to be inclusive, so very soon I will be inviting folks who already run their own craft business to show case their work, talk about their own business, share any business knowledge, and run interviews (it will be a great way to promote yourselves.  Please don't think I'm abandoning U-Handblog for pastures new.  This blog is my first love and it always will be :)

That's me!  I now also write Craft Boom a blog about marketing and running art & craft businesses.  Today's post is: How to market your business (for free).


So for anyone who is (or isn't yet, go on you can do it) running their own craft business skip over to my new blog and please comment on my new blog and let me know what you think.  I do have first date jitters and some first words of encouragement from you good folks would really help calm them down! :)

I'll introduce the 5 other folks who are writing about their own home business specialties in my next post. 

It was like climbing up a mountain without a sewing machine!

Awwww! You lot are really romantic (and funny!) Your significant others sound like they are lovely chaps (and chapettes (Hi Mark!), which must in part explain why we crafters are such warm and happy individuals.  I seriously hope your partners appreciate you as much you appreciate them, they better had!  Have you told us what you do, or don't like most about you partner yet?  You might win a whole wodge of bag making gear.  You have until the end of tomorrow.

I've just had a wonderful weekend.  Al & and I can't take long holidays because we are too busy, so we try to sneak off for (rare) long weekends if we can.  Last weekend we went climbing and abseiling in the Peak District.  The Peak District is a large (by UK standards) and stunningly beautiful national park with air so clean it tires you out, friendly people with a nice and funny sounding accent, and it's great for outdoor stuff like climbing!

View from our very nice B&B bedroom window.  It's an old mill which has been converted  into industrial units (nice place to work eh?)  The B&B was a lovely place to stay, friendly hosts, lovely room, and a breakfast too big for a wheelbarrow!

This face is what we had to climb on our first  day - YIKES!  We went with this outdoor pursuit company to do our climbing with.  They are a great bunch, and we would definitely go with them again (ask for Duncan ("Job's a good un"), to be your instructor; a knowledgeable good egg, who's forever laughing!)

Suited and....

...and booted!

"Does my bum look big on this rock?"

"Wait! I can hear something ripping!"

"Let go of the tree???  You must be bloody joking!"  Here we are just about to abseil off a ridiculously high quarry edge.  You can just make out the tops of some of the trees BELOW us.

"OK, why not let go?  I'm sick of paying the bills anywaaayyyyyyyy...."  To see more climbing shenanigans look here, and here.