Now its the brooches turn :(

Alas I am also saying goodbye to the felt brooches I have been making for the last couple of years. Time to focus now on all things bag related and although I am sure that there will be sometime in the future where I will make more now is not the time.
There are only 4 left on my website and are a steal at £3 here. The last remaining pieces of my felt items are going fast which also means there will be some changes coming on my website....Oooooohhhhh exciting :D

On the good news front Fantastic Mr.Fox and Miss.Mouse found a new home today, they will be travelling all the way to the U.S.A. They are both packing their suitcases as we speak (type?). Miss.Mouse says she is nervous but Mr.Fox says he is ready and raring to go ;)

Today I have been working on the Felt Project I mentioned a little while ago for Annie. Well Annie, its almost there I am hoping to email you the main part tomorrow and then get the rest in the post to you on Wednesday. I have had so much fun with this project. I love how sewing never feels like work!

OMG I'm so excited/nervous!!!

Just look at this BEAUTIFUL hall, isn't it gorgeous. The photo is of the Assembly Rooms in Bath, UK. And now that its signed and sealed (well apart from my acceptance letter to send tomorrow) I can reveal the reason for the cryptic phone call on Friday.

I had an inkling on Friday but had official conformation Tuesday, Bagladee will be exhibiting at the Handmade in Britain Show in Bath 17th-19th June this year. There are around only 70 exhibitors showing off their talent and I'm so excited that I will be one of them :D

Here is a lovely photo of the exhibition last year with the chandeliers hanging above. Very posh!! ;)

I did have a little panic about it but now I've settled down I'm excited and nervous but good nervous. I will have a lot of new designs to show so its going to be a very busy year for me. Brilliant!!!

Today I am....

.....exhausted!! Yesterday C and I filled a builders skip with the remaining rubbish and stuff from the garden (including many bricks, slabs of concrete and about 1/2 ton of soil). Slept like a baby last night.....bliss. And was quite surprised that when I woke this morning I didn't feel like I'd been hit by a bus :D

Today I had to do a full day at the day job and boy did they work me hard.....end of months in the manufacturing industry can be a nightmare at the best of times but a part time worker trying to work 2 peoples jobs = long, manic days for Emma :(

Anyway now I've got that off my chest (thanks guys xx) Here is a pile of cosmetic pouches that I am currently making felt and ribbon corsages for. They were the ones from my photo in this post.

Hopefully (being very optimistic there) they will be listed on my website at the weekend. And the answer to the cryptic phone call will be revealed tomorrow :D

Remember this photo? Well just look at her now!!

Remember this photo from this post?

After some gentle persuasion, a little bit of ironing and top stitching she now looks like this.....

Isn't she pretty? She's a little reminiscent of Spring, full of the hope of Summer and her name is Cordelia. Some might think it a little strange for me to name each of my bags but I think they all have a personality of their own.

I have sold 1 already and the other 2 are available to buy here.

Pencil cases, oven cleaner and how do you?

Bit of a random post title :D Today I completed one of those chores that you would think would be disgusting, boring and pretty much one of those things that you put off doing (which I have for quite some time). Armed with pink marigolds and Mr.Muscle I tackled what used to resemble an oven ;) An hour later and it was gleaming!!! Job done!

To add to the clutch bags on sale on my website, there are 3 pencil cases . Was £9 now £6.50. There are only 1 of each left and inside each you get a set of mini coloured pencils, a ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener.

cute girly pink with hearts.....

contemporary grey with peach.....

Lime green with fluffy clouds.

Calling on you Folksy peeps to give me some help, currently on my blog I have a slide show type thingy for my Etsy shop but cant seem to find a widget for my Folksy shop. Do any of you Folksy sellers have one on your blog for your shop and can you point me in the right direction to create my own? TIA

What are you doing?

this was/is me yesterday and today, lots of pouches in wip. There are only 3 complete in this photo but today there are 8 sitting on my desk and still a big pile to sew together. Work has been ramped up at bagladee HQ and its going to be a busy month March.

Today I received a potentially exciting phone call, I say potentially because it was a little cryptic, but the content was pointing to a 'yes' which after panicking for around 20minutes I decided it was a good thing. Now I'm being all cryptic :o/ don't want to jinx it so I'll keep it under wraps until I know for definite.

Fancy a bargain??

Anyone??

All 3 of these bags are on sale at www.bagladee.com for £12.50. They were £25!! There are only 1 of each and they are the end of line stock that I have left before the new range of clutch bags are revealed at the end of March. But be quick there are only 1 of each!!

This one is my fav, I adore the fabric and the magenta lining goes perfect with the green and teal.

Very pretty for the summer......

Love this print too, and it has a contrasting silver lining to compliment the pink.

Lots of other bargains coming soon :D

The last one....

...the white rabbit. This is my last 'woodland animal' and I think that he is my favourite out of all the felt creatures I've made. I think its the pure white, almost looks a little angelic.

He is listed over here (folksy) and here (etsy).

I really have enjoyed (playing) working with felt over the last few months and no doubt the felt characters will appear again in the lead up to Christmas later on in the year but for the time being I'm putting them on the back burner. There are so many other things going on at bagladee HQ :) So the ones that I have listed in my etsy/folksy shops are the only ones (bless them).

An exciting project coming up soon with the very lovely 'Annie the felt fairy', cant let the cat out of the bag just yet, but I'm sure you're going to love it (*whispers* it involves felt!). Check out Annie's blog here.

Check me out posting twice in the same day ;)

Happy Valentines Day

....To you all xxx

Sadly no one snapped up my felt hearts :'( so they are now listed at £3 (wwhhhooooooooooo!) And if you are in the UK with postage that's just £4 bbaaaarrrgggaainnnn!

Hope you all have a lovely evening.

bag sketches

This is what I've been up to this weekend....coming up with my new bag designs. They are all ready for me to get cracking with constructing the patterns. In the end I decided on 2 of the designs so I'm going to save the third for later on in the year.

And since the bag designs have been chosen it was time to go fabric sourcing......I swear that has to be the single most exhilarating thing for someone who is obsessed with bags and fabric. I shan't tell you what I spent this morning as it will make your eyes water, but there were some gorgeous prints ordered.

Also completed: tea drinking, cake making, stand prep decisions, prop buying, kindle cover (version 2), new cosmetic pouches cut and ready for sewing.....

Thinking of having an almighty fabric destash (no not the stuff I've just ordered :D but some other stuff I just haven't used). I have so many lovely prints that are sitting in my studio, seems a shame that its not getting used. Maybe a good time to have a crazy sale on my blog?? Hhmmmmmm.

Wiley old badger

No I'm not talking about a family member ;) Today is a little bit Topsy turvey for me. I have swapped shifts at work so that I can be at the house while we are having some plastering work done on our new porch. C is off having his car seen to, so I'm here until 12 and then I'm off to work until 5. It feels very strange.


Not really knowing what to do with my morning, I listed another woodland creature in my Etsy and folksy shops, answered some emails and put together another to do list. Its getting smaller, which is good as it means I can concentrate on my new bags.

Yesterday I spent a few hours sketching ideas for 3 new bags, these will replace the 2 styles that I currently have for sale on my website. I now have my 3 final designs all drawn up and have some new supplies on order, I just need to order some gorgeous fabric and I'll be all set to get sewing.

I cant wait to get stuck in, I'm a little nervous, as I mentioned in my previous post I am trying to push myself and be more adventurous with my 'skills' to take things to the next level. So there are a lot of new elements to my designs that I have not tried before.

Off to fabric shop now!!!! Yippeeeeeee, my favourite part of making bags :D

Whats next???

Double shift today at the day job...yuuukk!! Now armed with a cup of tea and a packet of hula hoops I thought I'd drop by with a proper update.

I don't think that I will ever catalogue everything that happens at bagladee HQ the way its supposed to be, my blog is very similar to my personality, very sporadic, some times full of energy and a little bit all over the place ;) However I do try to get it all down on here as I see it as a place to make sense of all the craziness.

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will know that last year I attended the BCTF (British Craft Trade Fair) for the first time. Since then bagladee (and I) have blossomed so much in that year. It really got me thinking of where I wanted to go with my little business, before this I was quite happy plodding along. Now I've found that I have this inner drive that I never thought I had to push myself that little bit further. It has been playing over in my mind for the last 4 months or so, 'what next' and 'how do I take it to the next level'. I have had so many conversations with C and written down so many ideas and lists and made so many drawings and measurements......
......and this new clutch bag is part of the what next. This is just the start, I have a lot more up my sleeve!!

C is busy drawing up the specs for my stand for this years trade fair and I am soooooo excited. Now I know what to expect and what is expected of me and where we (bagladee and I) are going in the future. Cant wait!! :D

Sshhhh

Don't make too much noise you might scare her away :) This is Ms. Mouse and I've just added her to my folksy and Etsy shops, so simple but so cute, don't you agree?

From her cute little nose.....

To her matching pink tail.

I hope you're not scared of mice? I used to have two pet mice (a long time before we ever had cats) they were called Mickey and Minnie (how original...not!!), silly really as they were both girls :D

Ugly duckling

How can something so ugly as this alien looking thing turn into be something so beautiful??? Easy....turn it in the right way through the lining :D

She is sat on my work desk waiting for her flower corsage.....she is soooo pretty, her name is Cordelia. I will introduce her to you at the weekend.

Pppffffff!!

I so wanted to blog today with lovely photos but its just been MANIC and tomorrow I have to work the day job all day :(

So I guess photos of new listings, new bags and fabrics is just gonna have to wait *sigh* have a lovely evening,

See you soon. xx

Are you feeling....

uninspired???

Sometimes I have days sometimes weeks where I feel so uninspired there is no point me trying to pick up a project and work on it. But recently I have found something that motivates me and to be quite honest almost sounds quite ridiculous.

I cant say that I have ever really been a 'fan' of classical music, I do like a very wide range of music styles though. Some might say extremely eclectic. Recently I've tuned my DAB radio into Classic fm and now I think I'm addicted to listening to it whilst I'm working. I have the attention span of about 3 minutes, I can concentrate for this long then I'm looking for something else to stimulate me whether that be a cup of tea/coffee, flicking through sewing magazines, sifting through fabric etc. Since listening to Classic I've been much more focused. Does that sound ridiculous, can someone really be more motivated and inspired by the type of music they listen to? I have tried other types of music and radio stations but I keep going back to Classic as I get much more accomplished when I do???? Strange??

Do any of you have methods to keep you focused and motivated? Or am I just sounding like some crazy bag ladee?

I just have to say my mind is buzzing this evening, I have to keep scribbling things down and drawing and adding to lists.....You'd think I'd had too much caffeine today. When really it because I've finished a new bag and I'm beside myself with excitement about it. Well I do LOVE bags ;)