A week of digital doings online

A number of things which I've been meaning to do do for a while, and I've probably been saying that for a few years now, have finally been done last week which feels quite satisfying.

First up, a new Etsy shop for Fabric Mountain.

This year has been very slow with my Folksy shop, I think I've only had 3 or 4 sales all year and I had been curious about joining Etsy although I always wanted to wait until I move away and have a new address to embrace it afresh. 
However, just recently I have heard so many encouraging stories from other arty crafty people who are doing pretty well with Etsy, it convinced me to get organised now ahead of Christmas crafting.

Thank you so much to Vivienne from Green Rabbit Designs who has given me some valuable advice and info to help me get my shop up and running, much appreciated :) Vivienne has a wonderful shop of knitted bunnies and animals which disappear as soon as they are listed so there might not be any right now!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/GreenRabbitDesigns

So here is my shop and there are some brand new bags which have not appeared on Folksy and which have been finished recently and I'm in the process of adding more.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/fabricmountainuk

To run alongside the Etsy shop and to attract some attention as textile things are in the process of being made, I have started a Facebook business page for Fabric Mountain.

Do pop along and give it a like if you fancy, thank you.

https://www.facebook.com/FabricMountain

And lastly but by no means least, my graphic design business, Wicked Poppy Designs, finally has a new website. This has been a job which rather embarrassingly needed doing for over 10 years and like a lot of things for yourself, it never gets done.

The old site and work samples were so out of date that I was at the stage I didn't even tell people I had a website if they asked. Anyway, it's only simple and made with some Wordpress theme we bought but it looks a lot fresher and I've been able to show new work on it.

http://wickedpoppy.co.uk/

Phew, it feels like I'm finally up to date with some long awaited tasks on the to do list!

Hornsea pottery and Hornsea Station

I made my usual bank holiday pilgrimage to Hornsea for the Nostalgia weekend and huge sale of pots. Lovely to catch up with society members and see the fabulous range of pots they bring to sell every year.

There's always plenty of information posters to read up on rare, unusual or popular pieces in the Hornsea range.
I love the cruet sets from the 1960's and I didn't realise until I read this poster that they were sold through Boots the chemist.

Whilst looking and drooling over the lovely pots, I took the decision to only buy something if I wanted it, needed it and would use it. So I bought a couple of the slightly more rare lidded soup dishes in the Contrast range, I make a lot of soup and it seems to make  more of a meal when presented in a lidded container.They are beautifully designed, they wash well and seem very robust.

And these 2 pin dishes which are in a muramic style with the high gloss decoration. I have none of these in my collection and I shall use them as olive dishes.

After admiring the pots it was such a nice sunny day that I went for a look at the former Hornsea railway station. It struck me that all the times I go to Hornsea and I never knew if the railway station (which was one of the many closed in the 60's) was still standing or derelict. I think this idea to go and look was prompted by a recent photograph I saw of it but it wasn't clear if it was a picture from the past or present so I had to investigate.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the station very much in tact, looking quite lovely and I believe some or all of it is now housing.
This is the main Station House

Here's the rest of the station building

Some information boards about the Trans Pennine route

Most interesting and a nice day to start the bank holiday weekend. Shame the weekend ended with a day full of rain!

My fave veggie cafe is closing and other bits

The end of an era looms as my favourite veggie cafe in Bridlington, The Little Organic Bakery (formerly Bean There), is closing sometime in September. My friends who own it are going in to semi-retirement and looking forward to doing other things now they have their first grand child.

It's a real shame but nothing stands still and I have some lovely memories of happy times with friends and food from my trips to the cafe over the years.
Today was such a day, I met up with two dear old work mates and we went for one last pig out with Bob in tow too. We basked outside in the garden for a while until it got a bit breezy and then moved inside for food.

A delicious black olive tart with salad was munched through at great speed and washed down with dandelion and burdock.

Followed by a chocolate slice and a few things to take away in a bag for supper!
The good news is, the cafe is being taken over and going in to safe hands with a couple who are going to carry on with veggie food so I will probably get to try that before the year is out.

The bank holiday is nearly here and I have the annual Hornsea Pottery Nostalgia day to attend tomorrow. All weekend rows of tables piled high with vintage Hornsea will be for sale, I can't wait to see if any rarities appear.

Shocked to see Christmas fabrics have already appeared in our local Boyes shop, actually I think I've seen a few Christmas things popping up in the shops this month.

Lastly, we had a fox visiting recently, this was my best picture looking out of a grubby window at him, he usually comes when it's a bit darker so I never manage a shot but I got a really good view of him this time, looks in great condition. Hope he survives with all the idiots round these parts shooting who would probably take pleasure in putting an end to him.

Keep safe mr fox and have a good weekend everyone.

Bag making, Spiralising and Instagram

The sneak peek of my fabric designs for bag making on my previous post has slowly started to turn into bags, they are shaping up as cross body purses.

There are quite a pile to stitch up which is going to take a while as I've got busy with real work again after a quiet spell.

Some of the bags match with previous scarves I made.

Here we are in a bit more detail.

This has been the week I joined Instagram as Fabric Mountain, I must admit to having no interest in it before. It just seemed another thing like Twitter, Pinterest and all the other social media to take up more of my time in front of a screen and less time making and creating. However I've recently heard good things about it helping to promote crafts peoples work as it's mainly a visual medium and hence I threw the towel in and joined. Having been warned by Green Rabbit that it can be addictive, I can confirm it is now that I've got going and I'm starting to find my way around!

Other new things this week. Spiralising! I've wanted one for a while, I did a lot of reading of reviews to which one I wanted only to find it was out of stock everywhere I looked. Anyway Amazon reckoned they were back in stock at the end of July so it was just a few days later than that when I ordered and here it is.

It is rather fab and we've made courgetti last night and it's so easy to use and clean that I see it having a lot of use.

I lightly sauted my courgette strands and they did wilt down a bit leaving not a huge portion of food so tonight I'm having another go and doubling up.

This Lurch Vegan spiraliser was definitely worth the wait and great value at about £35.

End of July roundup - creations and trips out

August already and I'm noticing the shorter days and I feel like I haven't done much creative work recently so I just looked back to my photos and found a few bits I'd done in July.

Made a few more lavender wands.

I very quickly (hence the hand scribbled look) knocked up this 'transport' theme fabric design for a competition Print Me Pretty are having next week, I've called the design Motoring Sing a Long as I've popped some song titles onto the design. I've snook my own car on there and a few classic shapes, I always wanted a Citroen 2CV or a Morris Minor van so they are on but I did have an old purple Mini Clubman van at one stage which I loved, I realise now that I like vans better than cars!

I had some designs printed on to thick canvas as I'm making some mini messenger bags although they will probably be a bit more simple and like cross body purses when I get chopping and sewing.

That is the current creative doings.

It's fairly quiet on the wildlife front here, most of my bird friends have moved on or cleared off for a few months to do whatever they do before returning for food in winter. I only see one robin now and again.
However we did have something exciting a fortnight ago, a family of shrews. It was as if they had just popped out of the nest for the first time, tiny little velvety things sniffing around and hiding in the dead leaves. They were quite unafraid of us and standing on the patio they would run around your feet before taking cover again. You need to look closely on these pics as they were amongst a pile of rubble and wouldn't stay still for long. 
We had about 7 of them scurrying all over for a few hours one afternoon and the next day they were gone as quickly as they appeared, never to be seen again.

The strange summer weather has not made it very appealing for evening strolls this year. Probably only been out about 3 times but here are a few pics of Flamborough Head the other week and the lovely wild weeds and grasses.

My sister has been back in the country for a week doing some more hospital runs with my dad so we took her out for the day on Saturday for a change of scenery and some tea and cake! Our trip was not very far away, just over the Humber Bridge.

We went to the Ropewalk Gallery at Barton, it's always a nice place to have a potter around and enjoy the lovely treats in the cafe. New to me this time was a little sculpture garden with some of my favourite sculptural plants, the sea hollies and grasses and not sure what these quite vivid purple pods were.

I hope everyone has a lovely August and it turns out to be a good late summer.