Last minute!

There was a time, I remember it well when I would sew when I wanted to and go for coffee when I wanted, without thinking, without planning and without really caring.

Those times are long gone, somewhere in the last year something changed, I don't remember how or when.

I would have gone for a coffee with a friend and well, kind of written the rest of the day off, not even think anything about it.

Yes I'd have a mad panic a few days before a craft fair but then that was nothing new after all I spent most of my school and Uni days doing it :-)

Anyway, it dawned on me the other day that things had changed without me even realising.

I now fit sewing around everything, every moment is precious, whether it's taking my kids to a club, having lunch with my husband or sewing. I have to admit I never write a plan down...I think it would traumatise me too much :-) but, in the back of my head, in amongst the jumble of family life I do have a work plan.

I plan my time efficiently, if I wake up when my husbands on an early shift and can't get back off to sleep I get up and do some cutting before the kids get up for school I don't waste the quiet house time. 

Don't get me wrong I still have times to myself watching Jeremy Kyle eating everything I possibly can find while slurping cups of tea but they are followed by a few hours of sewing or other work.

And do you know what amazes me even more....I'm actually enjoying it! I am in control, I'm getting things done and I'm where I need to be when I need it to be done....it's such an exhilarating experience.

So I suppose it doesn't matter at what point things changed, the point is they did and by not knowing I didn't get to fight it, somewhere deep inside I'm still that girl who thrives on the last minutes but somewhere is also the older woman who actually can't be bothered with the stress anymore of last minutes :-) 

It appears I'm growing up with a business and family in quick pursuit! 

A summer, A Zipoplin and A lifetime ago

Well I suppose I'd better start with the latter...I'm rubbish at this blogging lark.

I think about writing but then everything else happens in life and it gets pushed to the bottom of the pile :-/ I'm thinking this has go to stop and I need to make more of an effort to write about what's in my head, so you have been warned :-)

Next I suppose I'd better tackle the summer (I'll leave the most exciting until last) this year has been a bit of a roller coaster, I mean if you'd have told me 8 months ago that I'd be led in bed 9 days before Christmas feeling slightly smug but a little stressed I'd have quite frankly laughed at you. 

Not only have I got on a very fast train that at times I've wanted to get off or to make it slow down I have been able to enjoy time with my family. When I gave my job up exactly 2 years ago, times became very hard. 

Why did I give my job up, goodness knows....only joking, well, my middle child has Aspergers or as it's referred to in the medical profession, Autistic Spectrum Disorder. At the time I worked as a Deputy at a Preschool and although I was contracted for part time hours my work load unfortunately forgot this. The work became more and more, so did my paperwork hours and this had a very hard knock on effect on my children. My middle child found it hard to cope and became increasingly fraught, his well being began to suffer and this hard a serious knock on effect on the whole family, in particular our oldest child who became more and more embarrassed and found it increasingly hard to cope. Times were hard and my job had to give before I just gave up, they were dark, dark days were we struggled to cope with life as well as money. 

BUT this year things turned around, I don't mean with family life, for after making one of the hardest decisions in my life things got a lot better very quickly. It started slowly and then gathered pace, don't get me wrong we have days in those dark places but then doesn't everyone? We're less stressed (well most of the time) but more importantly my husband and I are back in control of our family and we are in charge....or that's what we tell the kids :-)

Which brings me back to summer, as I said when I gave up my job money was tight, going from two wages to one nearly killed us and in 2012 our beloved caravan had to sit patiently in storage as we just couldn't afford to go on holiday, we could barely afford the storage fees, we looked at every way around it but it was just the way it was. So as she (the caravan) sat patiently waiting we went to stay with family for a few days which kept everyone happy that year.

I suppose the point where I finally allowed myself to believe that Poplins were special was in July this year when for the first time since I gave my job up we got my beloved caravan out of storage and went on holiday as a family with enough money to enjoy a holiday to wales! 

You see when you buy from someone like Fairyknowz each penny counts, the money goes somewhere special, I don't mean it funds my holidays...although my children think it funds their ice creams :-) each penny goes somewhere that matters, it doesn't get lost in an abyss of wages, bills, people with no faces...it goes to new fabrics, products, happiness, well being, food! 

So you see, buying local and from small businesses is so vital for the economy in just as an important way as big companies pour money into the economics of the world.

I know you've read this far patiently, listening to my droning but I just can't bare to put Zipoplin on the end of this bit of blog.....it needs one all to itself and yes it really is that important! ... and really that exciting :-D 

A dissertation a lifetime ago

In 1997 I graduated from university, it seems a whole lifetime away now, but recently I've been thinking about my dissertation.

For those of you who don't know, I'm dyslexic so, my dissertation was a massive obstacle for me.
As I was on a design course most people (there weren't many of us) chose to do theirs on history of a designer or a decade etc. But I needed something I could really get to grips with, something out of the ordinary and argumentative lol
It was a time in the fabric industry where people wanted natural unbleached cottons and silks, normal everyday people were becoming more aware of the environment and the impact we had on it and supermarkets were manufacturing thier clothing from it.
I can't quite remember how it became about, probably something to do with me doing anything against the flow, but I ended up writing about the fact that in reality cotton growing at that time was really quite bad for the environment compared to some man-made fibers. I ended up getting an amazing mark for it, far more than I could of ever wished for.
Nearly 16 years on I've been thinking about that piece and how my work effects the environment. Of course things in material manufacturing have moved on, dyes are much safer, less toxic and manufacturers are much more aware of the effects they have, carbon footprints etc. etc.

I try and be as effective as I can, if I can source locally I will, it doesn't change the fact that I use cotton, that its dyed and that its got a carbon foot print.
So I'm trying to use every scrap of fabric I can possibly use.

I firstly designed the bigger poplin, then I made a medium and a small but noticed I still had scraps and unless I made a miss-matched poplin they were sat in a drawer. I contemplated using them in patchwork quilts and did cut lots into squares but as I've become more busy I just don't have time to make quilts.
Then the Pram sized poplin was born out of scraps, a great size for babies and a lot more mobile for pushchairs, but recently its been bothering me I've still got scraps.

After a friend challenged me to make a tiny poplin it started me thinking, if I could save my tiny scraps then I could make a little poplin out of them.....a Scraplin.
So after 16 years the dissertation is still in my mind, up til now hidden away but still in there somewhere!
Definitely something to think about.

I still have minute scraps but they're not big enough to get anything out of...but if in the future I can find someone locally who makes handmade paper...they would be great for them :-)

Keep your eyes out for the new Sraplins!

Lie ins not lions! CE Marking and an origin of an idea :-)

I feel cheated sometimes, it's the school holidays here in Leicestershire and I haven't managed a lie in once. The house is still quiet and calm before the storm...yep the kids are still in bed.
They've been off for a week now and every morning without fail I've been wide awake way before 7am :-(  Just what is going on? Am I destined never to have a real lie in :-( don't get me wrong I get loads of work done while the house is quiet but please, just once would be nice and then I wouldn't be falling asleep at 9pm when my husband and I actually have some adult time together :-)

I've had a few emails lately asking about where I got the idea for Poplins and CE Marking too.
So here goes...

CE Marking is a legal requirement of toys in Europe that includes any item that a child may like or appeals to a child, i.e. a cushion cover etc. There's lots of information and support out there to enable you to CE Mark and conform to these standards. And there really is no excuse not to do it. There are at least two facebook pages dedicated to the subject which both are friendly and supportive.

https://m.facebook.com/CESupportPage?id=126189994180309&_rdr
and
https://m.facebook.com/CESupportPage?id=126189994180309&_rdr

Don't just turn a blind eye and think because you sell at craft fairs or to friends it doesn't matter, it does and it does because this is the welfare of our children that is being protected by makers conforming to standards. I know I sound harsh but it so easy to test that there is just no excuse not too.

The idea for Poplins came from a conversation I had with my youngest daughter while she was poorly in bed with a broken collar bone. I was trying to take her mind of the terrible pain she was in and we were talking about what she loved about her well loved rabbit Sarah. I kind of had a Urika moment where I sprang to life with a pen paper and followed very quickly with some scissors, in an hour or so I'd made like a mad woman and the first poplin was born. I knew instantly I made something amazing!
It had a narrow neck for little hands to hold, soft ears and face to stroke, a pillow shaped head so it could be led on, really floppy arms and legs...perfect for dragging and knots for arm and knee joints.
Poplins in themselves haven't evolved much as they work so well but I still have urika moments where I have an idea for a different designed poplin like the rabbit or Taglin.
I love my Poplins and they really are my thing, I get attached to each one and they all have their little quirks......and yes I'm probably going mad, I probably think I was always a little of the beaten track...best way to be I think ;-D

Have a fab bank holiday weekend with maybe a lie in or two :-)

A realisation!

Good morning everyone, I'm sat here waiting for the kids to get up listening to David Cameron on the tv rowing...sorry debating! I'm not quite sure how the kids will get up on Tuesday for school :-) I love them lying in on the school holidays, they look like angels when they're asleep, so quiet, like butter wouldn't melt! And the rowing doesn't start til later :-)

It has come to my attention, it started as a little voice in my tummy and I didn't want to listen, you see I never want to listen when it's something good about me. I love my family so much and I'm so proud of them and what we achieve, but me on my own, well that's very different.
For a while this little voice has been talking, telling me to listen to things people are saying and I've tried to hush it away but the realisation has come that they're real, that they're good and that I can't ignore them anymore :-D
You see I'm the girl who adored Guns and Roses when everyone else liked chart music, I'm the girl that was picked on and was scared to walk to junior school, I'm the girl who didn't know what racism was until she went to uni (that was a shock!) I'm the girl who thought she was thick until in my last year of Uni found out I am actually dyslexic, I'm the girl who always tried but never quiet hit the mark, the one born on a Thursday and has struggled with, well just about everything! So at 37 years old it's quite scary to have realised that people think your an inspiration (as someone called me this week) and are helping me on my very fast train ride to Poplin world.
I'm finally learning to take the compliment and the help and their excitement and allowing it to affect me, yes me.......and I have to say it's a rather wonderful feeling :-)
Here's to lots of rather wonderful feelings to come this year :-)
Happy New Year, don't give up xxx

Getting out the house can lead anywhere :-)

Well my husband says I've turned into a hermit, he says I like sewing so much I've forgotten what it's like to go out of the house apart from of course the dreaded school run :-)
And hes right!
I love sewing and when I'm in the 'zone', designing, cutting and sewing I'm quite happy in my little bubble in my warm, quiet house...I don't want to go out. When I'm in the house I wear very unattractive joggers or other similar trousers, they allow me to move around the floor easily which is where I am when I'm not sewing at my machine. Therefore to go out means making an effort not to mention getting cold and wet this time of year so yes, I'm quiet happy in Fairy Hollow :-)
Any how after a few comments from the hubster I was starting to wonder if in deed I needed to make an effort to go out after all can you really run a business without leaving the house apart from saying the odd hello outside a classroom....I was admittedly beginning to wonder :-/
I knew someone cyberly on Facebook called Lesley Bee, we'd been chatting for a while on Facebook and although we actually live in the same town we'd never met in person. She is the most amazing photographer have a look at her website http://lesleybee.co.uk/
How she finds the time I'll never know but she's also an amazing advocator of local businesses, she runs a page on Facebook called Support Hinckley Bussineses which is a great help for all local businesses. As a spin of from this she came up with a fab idea about local business ladies meeting up, maybe for lunch, maybe to talk about business, but definitely to help each other with business.
The first meeting came along and there was a decent turn out...it got me out of the house and the magic words 'nice food' was all I really needed to persuade me to go :-) Although I hate the stand up and talk about business thing, OK anything, in front of a group of strangers fills me with dread, I actually found it inspiring, nerve racking but inspiring.
By the time the second meeting came last week our decent turn out turned into twenty six (or there abouts) local businesses and a true network was born. Lesley Bee should be extremely proud of herself for inspiring and bringing together businesses which are already fantastically networking and even more proud that she got me out of the house and inspired me to be proud of my business and very excited about the change in products for Fairyknowz as well as more importantly teaching me that its actually very good to get out of the house and network! :-)
From all this came an email from one of the businesses asking me if Fairyknowz would like to be involved in a local church tree festival and this is where the next couple of blogs will help anyone interested in making some easy, homemade tree decorations from things you may have around your home or using some very cheap bits and pieces for yourself. 

Super Exciting Times

It's been a while since my last blog and a lot has happened.
My youngest daughter's broken her collar bone and while sat on the bed with her came an idea between us for a snuggler.
I was trying to cheer her up so got some paper and pen and I drew what we discussed. We talked about how it needed to be floppy, "draggy" and snuggly :-)
To cut a long story short a Poplin was born.
In fact it's been a real project with help from lots of people already. My husband's friend Les helped with tools to test (which I still have under ransom) my youngest daughter helped with the design, my son helps with names, my eldest daughter with poems, Ian Howarth with beautiful drawings, The Soap Fairy Hinckley with support and nagging and yet again my poor hubby...with well just about everything!
So you see for the first time in my life I'm actually willing to stand on a box and scream about my new product...in fact I'm so excited about it I might actually explode!
So watch this space :-)