making xmas stockings

29 November 2015

Mince pie season has commenced! ...and also, it's that time of the year when my brain turns into that of a five year old, I get so excited about xmas! This year I have mainly been making things for our shop, so I probably won't be making xmas pressies for everyone like last year.

Nether the less, I have really enjoyed making stamps and printing fabric and making candles AND cards for the shop too! I thought it would be nice to make a batch of stockings out of the same linen that I used to make the pouches.

I made some slightly different designs, and our tot chose this one for her, trees with white and gold snow ( I used fabric ink and fabric paint).

We decided it would be nice for the forthcoming baby to have a stocking too, as our tot already treats it like one of the family already. I put a temporary label on this one so I can stamp on a name next year! I'm hoping Santa will fill it with useful things like a natural baby sponge, wooden teether, bibs, hairbrush, pyjamas, bottle etc...(I may have already organised this ; )

I lined them with some spotty cotton that I have had for a while.

At our RUST shop, we have some new shelves that I painted and my mister put up, to house the cards I have been making...

These ones have vintage pictures on them with gold glitter.

...and some stockings for the shop too. Not sure if any will sell, but they look nice and xmassy in the shop!

I will be focusing my attention on our very neglected house soon, as I have got lots of decorating ideas for this year!

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Winter festivities 2015

22 November 2015

Xmas has arrived at our shop, oh yes indeed! The reason we jumped at the chance to get our mitts on this shop was because we saw a beautiful shop front with a lot of potential, with a repaint and gutting of previous tenants cabinets in the window. It has two huge windows that are perfect for decorating. Now we are in the deepest depths of winter, we decided to go for a wintery forest feeling, so I cut out trees from white cardboard, and my mister went off to find some tree stumps cut to size. We ordered masses of fake snow and drew snow drops on the glass with chalk pen.

We also brought my tricycle in from the cold, and put our potted xmas tree in the back (that was also in the garden since last year!). Our littlleun loved throwing snow all over it.
I have been making a few Junkaholique items for the shop too. I already showed you some of the linen pouches I made, but I also made some scented candles using little vintage coffee cups I have been collecting. I used pure soy wax (which burns twice as long as paraffin wax and does not create any soot or nasty toxins in the air) and essential oils. The smell in our kitchen was amazing. I used Pine, Bergamot and sweet orange essential oils so it was definitely getting me in the festive mood.

In the shop I spent all day making labels, very satisfying ; )

I have also been making huge mounds of xmas cards too, with added glitter of course! It was a bit too dark to get any good pictures but I will post more to our Instagram soon.

And, I made a few little candles in tins which you can take traveling or camping, or anywhere!

The candles and pouches are only available to buy directly from our shop in Yarmouth Isle of Wight. Happy November peeps!

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forest house

16 November 2015

We had a little holiday last week, just four nights, but for us it is very unusual to pay for somewhere proper to stay instead of just camping. When you run your own business, you get used to not having any long holidays...no paid holiday, sick leave or maternity leave...(I was answering work emails the day after giving birth last time!) I much prefer it to working in a boring office that I used to many moons ago.

Anyways, it's been quite some year for us, my mister refurbished our Tokyo shop, then a few months later we signed a lease to our new Isle of Wight shop, shortly after that I found out I was having a baby, so working hard fitting out the new shop with constant nausea and fatigue was one of the hardest things I have done in my life...oh and entertaining a toddler a the same time! Needless to say, we needed a break, so we booked one of these wooden chalet type houses in the woods in Hampshire.

It was so lovely to get away somewhere different, although I never want the kind of life that you need a holiday from, it was nice not to be able to do anything or worry about work or the housework! Just looking out of the window or sitting in the hot tub (yes, me and my nipper were careful about the temperature ; ), playing jenga etc...

Our tot just never stopped running about the house since the minute we arrived. She had a huge meltdown when we had to leave. She loved the hot tub so much, we were talking about having one installed at home!

The forest is very near one of my favourite cities, Winchester, not far from the Isle of Wight. It is amazing at xmas time with so many gorgeous lights.