Preparing for advent

Hyacintvas from julia's store

I found some fantastic new Scandanavian blogs over the weekend

den gode feen

jenny shemoch harmoni

julias vita drommar

&

was inspired to start my advent celebrations sooner than I had planned.

As I mentioned in my last post I have grand schemes for lots of handmade festive creations this year and I spent lots of lovely hours this weekend crafting away. In honour of my new blog finds I am going to start my advent decorating one piece at a time tomorrow.

I love Mr LB, and his handiness.

I was sitting at my desk on Saturday surrounded by all sorts of materials with only a clear A4 sized bit of desk to work on and I went in a huff. Mr LB listened tentatively to my gripes about not enough space, too much stuff, can't get tidy......... and disappeared. 20 minutes later he suggested I take Pablo out for a walk to clear my head.

(As he will delight in telling you, he is always right!), it was just what I needed. Fresh air and a run around with a tennis ball.

When we returned home I could hear drilling sounds coming from our house..

As we went in the close I could smell saw dust......

When we went into the hall I could see screws and hinges......

Mr LB had built me a desk extension!!!!!

I now have a bit of clear desk just for doing computer stuff and I am such a happy bunny.

So with all this new found space I set to work on a few of my projects.

I designed my 2 christmas cards and ordered all the needed supplies. I even got an order from a great patron of my arts, and she wants 150 of them!

I have made a date with my Mum to make ginger snap biscuits as gifts. I'm heading over to her house tomorrow armed with cookie cutters and silver balls. (I will take snaps.)

The tree decorations and ornaments have rolled into one and I made batches of these with air dry clay. I love them! I'll write up a little tutorial and post it on wednesday.


And last but not least a terrarium update. I mentioned my plans to create a world of moss and mushrooms in a jar to my bestist friend Holly, who I knew would understand. Then the following night she turned up armed with beautiful jars ideal for terrariums! We have set a date to go collecting moss ect and I am really looking forward to it!


So this weekend has been busy and I'm quite tired today. How was your weekend?

Festive Crafting

1. first christmas decoration, 2. Christmas Trees, 3. Snowflake Curtain, 4. Linen Bird Ornaments

My little head is buzzing with ideas, I have had to bring a new note book to bed to scribble down all my ideas. I dreampt about working in a Christmas decoration shop last night where people would come in and commission us to decorate their rooms for the festive season. So today I have been so distracted by all the things I want to make!

It all started on Sunday when we got a snug new carpet for our living room. In order for MrLB to lay it we moved everything out of the room and I got to dust, declutter and clean all the skirtings. One of the things we moved out was our beautiful thrift find cabinate,(I'll post a photo soon) but I had to empty it first!

I made about 40 trips to the studio with piles of books and magazines and re discovered all my past issues of Ideal Home magazine. I decided that I wasn't going to put them all back and forget about them, and that I would go throught them all and tare out all the pages that inspired me.

Well this turned into a mamouth task, and I decided to be ruthless. Going through the pages I found so many fantastic ideas for Christmas decorations and handmade gifts. I always try and make at least 50% of our presents, but this year it will be more and all the gifts we give will be hand made. So today I set myself a budget and set out a plan for all the things I'm going to make and time scales (easier said than done I might add!) So over the new few weeks I'll be sharing little tutorials with you on what I've been making.

So here are my plans:

2 x Christmas card designs

biscuits

chocolates

tree decorations

ornaments

garlands

gift bags/ boxes

terrariums x 2

Are you having a handmade Christmas? What are you going to make?

Any one for tea?

Golden tea cup necklace available at Laura Baillie Designs

"What better way to suggest friendliness - and to create it - than with a cup of tea?"

J. Grayson Luttrell, 1930

I have never been a great tea drinker untill that is I moved into my very own flat. I love water and drink glasses and glasses each day, but there is something so much more sociable about a warm cup of tea!

As I work from home, not a day goes by where I don't have a friend or neighbour popping in for a cuppa (one friend in particular calls and says "have you got the kettle on?" )

So to celebrate this new found habit I have created these lovely little necklaces, in honour of all my tea drinking friends around the world. And they are going to be famous, yes famous! Having been working away on my press release for what seems like ages, (a week), I finally got them emailed out last Friday. That day I began to get responses and I this necklace is going to be featured in Sugarscape magazine in their new issue out on Monday 30th of November and online in Janurary!

How do you like your tea?

Mine is either Twinings Chai , Jasmine Green Tea or very milky Tetley!

Pearls of Wisdom - Friendship

Friendship, what does it mean to you?

friendship

noun [C,U]

when two people are friends

a close friendship

definition from Cambridge Dictionary

For me friendship is having someone to turn to when I need advice, a wake up call, laughter and companionship. And to celebrate this I have created these two "Pearls of Wisdom" sets.

Each set contains two separtately gift wrapped gold and silver fresh water pearl necklaces. One for you and one for your best friend. It could be your sister, Mum, close by or far away.

But you can both wear your necklace as a reminder that when days are rainy or full of sun, you have a friend to turn to for "Pearls of Wisdom"

Both sets are available from Laura Baillie Designs & my Etsy shop.

Polaroid Sunday

1. pretty in pink, 2. pink old phone polaroid,

3. a spring breeze turns pale pink, 4. Think Pink - 01

A New Home

The last couple of weeks have flown by here in LBD land. I have had my nose down and been doing lots of planning, research and making. And the result of it all is.........

I have opened my very own store on Big Cartel and now have my own website

Laura Baillie Designs.

To celebrate all my lovely blog friends can get a 20% discount by entering the code LBD001 at the check out.

I am starting to get in the festive spirit by getting the glitter out for my Christmas cards and working on some stitched decorations (some snaps soon), and hunting down some new tutorials to share with you all.

What are your creative schemes and plans for the festive season?

xxx

Monthly Goal Meetup - November

I have decided to join in with Jenna over at Modish for their monthly goals meetup. I have been busy over the last couple of weeks planning, making and planning some more so now it's time to share some of what I've been doing.

:: Octobers goals & what I accomplished::

1. Work on new website. Y

2. Work out new marketing and PR strategy. Y

3. Have 100+ items listed in my jewellery Etsy shop. Y

5. Make up & list 20 new collage pieces for my paper Etsy shop. N

6. Plan this years Christmas card designs, maybe make some up. N

7. Get to 1000 followers on Twitter. N

8. Work out Facebook fan pages. N

9. Start working on a "Stitch a Day" project. Y

I have realised this month that I'll have to keep Papier Delights as a hobby, I can't invest as much time into it as I would like and I simply don't have enough hours in the day. Facebook fan pages are still a mystery to me! I'm going to need to set aside some serious time working out properly how they work. I think I did not too badly last month and am just about where I wanted to be by this time.

:: Novembers goals::

1. Launch new website by 10th Nov.

2. Contact local and national press about it.

3. Share some festive DIY tutorials.

4. Get sales on new website.

5. Make up 50 Christmas cards.

6. Host a jewellery party or 2.

Wish me luck!