Signing day

Thank you to everyone who wished us luck for our book signing last weekend. Your good wishes obviously helped and we had a great day selling all but one of the books that the store had ordered in.
It was so good to display some of the projects and to chat about the book.

I am pleased to say that i made no spelling mistakes. We did sign and write messages in most of the books and as Alice considers my handwriting to be better than hers it was down to me to write most of them!


A few books were bought as presents and we were asked to write things like 'Happy Christmas Susan with Best Wishes.....' etc. The hardest books to sign were to people we knew who just said, 'write me a message'.


We had a lovely surprise visitor too. Willow from Contemplating Change (one of my all time favourite blogs) popped over with her husband. It was so lovely to meet you both Willow and i would love to meet up again soon for a cuppa and a longer chat. Thank you so much for coming. I just wish i could have spent longer with you that day.

My mum and dad came over too and my mum took lots and lots and lots of photos. No kidding. It was like having the paparazzi. She is getting more eccentric with age and i swear she'll be wearing funny woolly hats soon with pompoms on... just because she can. I rather like the fact that often the older you get the more you feel you can get away with. Seriously though both Alice's and my parents have been so fantastically supportive about all that we have done over the past 7 years and we are so grateful to them for all their encouragement. It was good to see them proud of us.

After all the excitement of last weekend i have had a quiet week with the most exciting thing being the servicing of my sewing machines by Arthur. We were so pleased to find him as he has been servicing machines for over 40 years and our machines have had their best service in a long while.


So today i put my purring machine to work and have been catching up with Christmas orders. I finished this Stocking today and it is now ready to send out.





I have a few more to complete this weekend and then i can have some time with the girls next week as it's half time.
Enjoy your weekends.
Ginny x

Book event

This morning Alice came over and we have been in the garden studio getting ready for tomorrow. It's really great to be finally working in there properly, although as you can see it is already stuffed full..

We have been preparing a few samples....



Tomorrow is our book event/demo day at Waterstones, Farnham which has come around so quick - i can't believe it is finally here.

We will have on display some of the actual projects we created for Sew Fabulous Fabric and will also be there to talk about the book and to demo a few techniques and projects from it. .. and sign copies too which feels very strange. (been practicing my signature Em x hee hee... I am very worried though that someone may ask for a message and that i will make a spelling mistake as my spelling is terrible!) I am really looking forward to the day itself but am very nervous so
please wish us both luck. And if you are local , do try and pop in, it would be great to meet you.

Finally i just wanted to say thank you for the comments on my last post and just to clarify... Magic was on the way UP the banister! We are going to have some fun with these two kitties i just know it!
Happy weekends to you.
G x

oh dear!

a walk into town...

Yesterday i left the kitties at home (they are settling in nicely) and Alice and i took a walk into town with Rufus. It was a beautiful day that had started off on the chilly side but soon become much warmer. I never know what to wear when the seasons are changing and as someone who feels the cold had put on a thermal cami underneath a long sleeved top and a lightweight jumper and then over the top my denim jacket, a scarf and my wool peaked cap which i love. I soon became overheated. The scarf and jumper were discarded into my shopping bag first and later the jacket. I love my hat and it was doing a good job of covering up hair that needed washing.. but i realised how foolish it was to be wearing a wool hat when most other folk were still in short sleeves and sandals. My head was hot. I reluctantly took it off.

We stopped off at Waterstones to discuss arrangements for next week's book event. I am a little nervous i have to admit. The shop next door sells fabrics and although we mainly use recycled, if we are looking for something specific we sometimes use new. We found some perfect linens to use as base cloths for a new project idea. Our reason for the trip was to source these fabrics and check out the charity shops. There are a lot of charity shops in town, seven to be precise. One was closed for refurbishment and two we had checked out earlier in the week. We went into the other four. We found a wool cardigan which we are going to felt in the exact colour we were after - a real result. We also sourced some tee shirts which we hope to repurpose.

I have never bought Christmas cards in October but in Oxfam i noticed these.. 50%recycled charity cards in beautiful designs.

I bought them. It was a morning for bumping into people we knew, catching up, chatting to strangers and of Rufus being admired buy all. I think the sunshine must have helped put folk into a good mood as the atmosphere wherever we went was light and friendly. Alice managed to buy a present for one of her boys birthdays and an outfit for Rufus to wear at his christening. It's coming up soon... i wonder if a 'fairy' godmother should have a new outfit? I do need to finish making that wand.

I do love charity shops and have a skill of flicking through the rail at a great speed to see if there is anything there that interests me. This is a skill i learnt when in my early working life i had to costume 30 dance students on a budget of £100. Lots of ingenuity needed there, so i often hit the charity shops with gusto. I have always thought that the less budget you have the more creative and innovative you are forced to be. I love looking at all the bric a brac too but as our new kittens are rather lively decided that it would not be wise to buy anything breakable. I was delighted however to find this.



An original Mary Poppins souvenir song album with piano music and lyrics. It also contains beautiful drawings and features photographs from the film.
My eldest is learning the piano and as my husband plays, we had a little family sing song last night before the girls went to bed.... 'practically perfect in every way!'


Wishing you all a happy weekend.
g x

Kittens and a blog date....

This week i have been frantically cleaning and tidying... i had some very important guests arriving on Wednesday. Alice joked that they would not notice what a clean house i had and that there is now no 'stuff ' under the dresser and cupboards. I don't think they have noticed but i am so pleased i took the time to de - clutter and get straight before the arrival of these two lively 5 month old boys.



The kitten we were going to have did not happen... the family wanted to keep all 3 of the litter in the end. We had been visiting for 8 weeks and i was so worried that the girls would be upset that i telephoned the cat protection lady who i met when we looked after Fizz. She had five feral kittens... still tiny and only five weeks old. They were coming on well but she advised that it may not be the best option for us as they were so nervous.

On Saturday just as i was leaving to meet Diana, the CP lady called and said that they has two 5 month old black cats who had been found in a dustbin... and were we interested in adopting two. They were so friendly when we met them that we said yes please and then collected them yesterday. I even got carried away and made them a bed ... and then thought it's a bit tiny so made them both one.


...still a bit tiny as i made it before i got the cats. They do love them though and have been snuggled up in them today. This is Paws in his or 'scratchy' Paws as we have nicknamed him as he likes to scratch the furniture. I am so chuffed they like their beds as i half suspected them to take no interest at all.

The check fabric was given to me last week by a family friend and the wadding and fleecy lamb fabric was left over from folkydokee, so they cost me next to nothing to make. We never did know what to use the lamb fabric for but bought it on a whim (Alice's whim ... a long standing joke between us) as ex mill stock. We had loads of it... now most of it has been donated to our local schools, but luckily i had a bit left over to use.



They kittens are very cute and so affectionate and the girls love them. They just want to play with them all the time and don't want to go to bed. As the boys are so close it is fun to watch them play fighting and chasing their tales... hours of fun. They are also very hungry.
This is Magic who seems to be the greediest.



As well as the excitement of new kittens, i had the excitement of finally meeting Diana from Pebbledash. I set off on Saturday for Shere with a map. Even though it is fairly close to me i have never been. I didn't actually look at the map as i prefer to work it out , thinking i have a good sense of direction but actually i now finally admit that i haven't. Yes i got lost. I was very nervous, half expecting a 6 foot builder called Ray, although i had spoken to her the previous night and she did not sound like a bloke. phew! Finally i met Diana outside the Lucky Duck tearoom. She looked lovely and all smiley and i instantly felt at ease. We sat outside as it was a beautiful day and we ordered a large pot of tea and started chatting...
It is strange knowing someone but not knowing them if you know what i mean. I love Diana's blog and photos and her gentleness and kindness... i was so wanting us to get on and we did. I really hope we can meet up again soon. She gave me 3 pieces of stamped sea glass .. one for me and the other two for the girls and some of her beautiful printed cards... thank you again Diana.... we love them.



The afternoon was great but we didn't see much of the village which has been used in many films including The Holiday because it is so picturesque, as we just sat and talked. I think Diana took some photos of the ducks whilst waiting for me but i only took a photo of the sky as we were saying goodbye. Thank you again Diana... it was so good to meet you and please lets do it again. And to everyone else a big sky kiss from me to say thank you. I am so pleased i started to blog as i am richer for all your friendships.

musing...remembering what we do achieve.

I muse a lot.... i have been musing this morning....

This year we grew garlic.

We planted the bulbs in January ... they grew.. have been harvested and are being used in our cooking. I was just now cleaning out the garlic press whilst musing. The bulbs are only small, but still very tasty.

It made me feel happy knowing that we are using them and that this year we have successfully grown them.

I know that often i think only about the things in my life that i don't do and beat myself up about it. This is probably common for many of us. Maybe we all set unrealistic goals. However big or small i find that when i focus on what i do achieve rather than what i don't then i am much happier.

Yesterday I did something some may call brave and others may call crazy. I met a virtual friend. I am so glad that i had the courage to do it and thankfully it was wonderful. I shall write a little more about the day on my next post but all that i will say is that we both wished that Pipany could have been there too.
Wishing you all happy weekends .
ginny x

sorting out the old and moving forward

Today started off so sunny but soon the rain came. I confess that i am not good when it's cold, grey AND raining. I need sunlight or at least a little warmth and i love clear skies.
To take my mind off the weather i have been catching up with a few friends... one who i hope to meet finally this weekend!

I have also been getting reacquainted with a few other friends. Some poor lost souls who have been in storage since our move out of the Flour Loft studio.


They are some old doll designs.... Isadora fairies,which i know we will make again as they were very successful and so lovely to make, and Flora gardener dolls which we made when Alice and i were still working as folkydokee. They are boxed and would make a great present.



We really want to clear some space now (as we have much smaller workrooms) so they are on offer at £20.00 each plus postage (which varies depending on location to be sent). I photographed some of them today and will be adding them to the new aliceandginny website soon... once i work out how to add the shop facility. We would be really happy to see them go to off to new homes to be loved rather than stay with us in a box.



Our old folkydokee website was designed by my husband and it really was lovely. We had an online shop added but as it was so difficult for me to upkeep and change and add things then we - i - decided to buy a basic Mr Site package. It uses templates... a little like a blog which i am used to although it is a little frustrating trying to change the fonts and sizes as it adds all sorts of strange html code... it is not particularly sophisticated either. Has anyone else used Mr site? I would be interested to know how you got on with it. At least i won't have to rely on asking my husband when i want to make changes now... goodness knows i keep him busy already... poor man! I am surprised he wants to come home sometimes...

The new website will be more of a space where we can add tutorials, tips and info about what we are up to. We have added a gallery of some past work too and we will add a few things to purchase from the online shop from time to time.

As well as working on the website i have actually done some sewing today....I have been working out a new prototype doll pattern - a slightly larger one with a separate head as well as limbs. I always think they look so odd till they have their faces embroidered on and they have clothes and hair added. It is nice to see them come to life. I think i am going to try to sew a little each day as i really have missed it recently.
back to my doll stuffing...
Happy evenings to you all.
g x