I have a shop!

I know, it’s shocking but yes you did read that right!

My Etsy store is OFFICIALLY ONLINE!

Break out the fanfare, pop the champers darling – I’m in BUSINESS!!!!!

Let’s not mess about though HERE IT IS!

You can also get there by typing the following in your web browser:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/HandmadeByTiffanyBag

Or just search ‘Handmade By Tiffany’ on http://www.etsy.com (you can even download the app!)

Fingers crossed they all work!

Now apart from my lovely little store, there are some truly beautiful things on Etsy.com and they are all handmade, some are expensive and some not so but they have all been HANDMADE and from someone who knows how much hard work that is, I am officially requesting you have a little browse, just once at least.

I had no idea it took so many hours to just get a few bags on a ready made site! Although  I may have been a little bit of a perfectionist over photos and descriptions and so on and so forth but I hope it’s worth it and portrays a professional handbag designer that looks like she knows what she’s doing!!!!!

I’m so glad I can finally stop feeling guilty about flaunting snippets of my bags on my social networking sites and not being able to sell them without making you lovelies work too hard!  Alas, all that is behind me and despite 18 months passing by I have finally got to a point of being able to share the handbag love.

I’m hoping that I’m now going to have more time to work on some new designs.  I’ve bought some beautiful tweed that I’m dying to turn into something winter-y!

Now I know there isn’t much there but please go and have a look at my Etsy store, tell your friends, buy someone a Christmas pressy, or just pop in every few days so that my sites stats go up a little bit every day and when I check them on my lunch break it will make me smile!

I’m back to the studio ALL weekend working on some new stock and fingers crossed, I may even have some new bits for you all next week! EEK!

Feedback ALWAYS appreciated, despite the rumours I’m actually not perfect xxxx

 

Madness I tell you, Maaadnesss!!!

Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt.

I have had an absolute whirlwind few weeks (with not enough sewing by far!)

Please (once again) accept my apologies for my absolute crap slackness!

Here’s a vague list of the things I have been up to since my last post….

• I went to the opening of a new bar/restaurant…. there was a free bar and free tapas…. winning!
• I went to a ”mammoth” car boot sale in search of beautiful vintage garden things for my ‘ground force project’ which was rubbish and I came away with nothing.
• I went to two of the boys gigs and played dutiful rodey!
• I got my colours done by a hairdresser for the first time in years!
• I went on a hen do dressed as a Barbie (Sailor Barbie to be precise!)
• I went shopping for new work clothes for my new job.
• I left my old horrible job!
• I had a curry to celebrate leaving said horrible job and drank many beers and ate far too much curry!
• I spent 2 days over hauling my sisters back garden while she was away on holiday.  I was Charlie Dimmock for a couple of days but with a bra!
• I lost a lot of sleep that same weekend as I went to collect smallest sister from the airport after she had been away working for 10 whole months!! (Totes Emosh!)
• I started a new, very different but much more enjoyable job.
• I made my Grandma a handbag for her 80th birthday present (at her request! Huuuge target market!)
• I organised and attended (as Captain Pigwash) a Murder Mystery night at a faaaaabulous restaurant in Southbourne called The Larder House!  A-MAZ-ING!
• I attended aforementioned Grandma’s 80th birthday tea party, there was an enormous amount of cake!
• I got told I had to move out of my flat so i’m house hunting.
• I wrote a blog…. well i’m working on it!
• AND this was all whilst doing my full time job, my housework, washing, food shopping, my Dad’s housework, the boys books and learning guitar…
• By the way, it’s been 4 weeks since my last post….

AAAAAAAANNNNNDDDDDD BREATH!

I’m so pooped it’s untrue, but as ever I’M EXCITED and i’m busy busy busy!!!  I’ve booked myself into a Christmas Craft Fair at Antrobus House in Amesbury on Saturday 10th November between 10am – 4pm despite questioning where I will find the hours to make the actual bags that I want to sell!!  But I’ll be there so stick it in your diary and pop along and see me if you’re free!  I’ll be the frantic blonde with bloodshot eyes and a slightly crazed smile planted to my face! (Don’t worry i’ll remind you nearer the time!)

Apart from having to move house in a month, a wedding, a baby sisters belated 21st birthday party and getting my head round my new proper job, I should have a bit more free time to devote to bags in the coming weeks!

If you’re waiting for an order, I promise i’m on it and please accept my sincerest apologies that I haven’t got it to you yet!

I’m soooooo on it! xxxx

My life in pictures (but not necessarily the correct order) below…..

 

G-Ma!

 

My motley murder mystery crew! Snaps for mega effort guys!!

Carnival Dream Barbie and Me!

The boy did a brilliant job as master tradesman (then promptly fell asleep!)

 

Sunday 630am at Gatwick and i’m chipper!!! Just in case she didn’t spot me!

She’s BAAACKKK!!!

 

Auntie Tiffy’s Day Of FUN!!

Phew what a lovely few days of weather we have had (praying it lasts just a little bit longer!!)!  I have enjoyed an utterly splendid weekend although I must confess I haven’t even looked at a sewing machine or laptop since Thursday last week so things (as usual) are still ‘in progress’….  I sincerely apologise for my slacking but let me tell you what I have been up to!!!

So this weekend was my first Saturday off from my proper job in 3 weeks so basically I have been doing 6 days of 9 hour days for 3 weeks with 1 day off plus the hours I spend in the studio or working on my website (yeah yeah I know that doesn’t appear to get me very far!) but nonetheless it’s a lot of man hours and I was/am cream crackered!  So instead of taking the day off I decided to look after a couple of stray children who had nowhere better to go… oh wait… they were my nieces! My sister finally clicked that I’ll commit to anything with enough notice so this was pencilled in the diary some time last decade so no getting out of it, plus they are MY nieces so it wasn’t all bad!

The diary said ‘S & I’ so that means 2? Well somehow I ended up with S & I & L! At least L, at the tender age of 13 is capable of preventing the 5 year old (I) from drowning at the swimming pool!

I spent the majority of the week planning ‘Auntie Tiffy’s Day Of Fun’, I have done this before you know so am well aware that one activity just won’t cut it therefore planning was essential!

So after my 9 hour day at my proper job I whizzed 30 miles down the road to my sisters house for home made pie (you can read her blog about her food fetish here), beers and a movie with the smalls.  I gave up on a lie in when my sisters small holding of beasts all decided to get up at the same time and demand attention/food/freedom, the smalls were all still asleep!

The cats were most put out that the bunny had claimed there bed as her own!

First on the agenda – a Scavenger Hunt!

Running is so much more fun when your age is still in single digits!

I designed it all by myself you know! Cue lots of arty farty shots taken by moi and lots of forced smiles courtesy of the teenager who didn’t like her picture being taken apparently! (just like her mother!)

I = age 5, S = age 7 and L = age 13! *Proud* (and there are more of them!)

By now I had managed to make them all hungry (make ’em work for it I say!) so we plonked ourselves down just in time for the sun to come out and enjoyed a spectacular Teddy Bears picnic! (with real Teddy Bears!)

They’re just so photogenic!

Next stop swimming with Grandma and Grandad (absolute cop out I know but they wanted to come!), fun and frolics in the pool for a solid hour before good old Auntie Tiffy has to ruin it by spotting the FLOATING POO! Seriously, there was a poop in the pool! AND I SAW IT FIRST, I don’t even know how long it was there before I saw it AND I had been swimming near that very spot! AGH! Everybody was very swiftly decamped to the next pool and the nets were deployed!  From my years of Auntie experience I am predicting it was a small baby poo (based on colour & size) and they probably didn’t mean to do it, it probably just slipped out….. Still… Poo! EEK!  Naturally the smalls thought it was HILAAAARIOUS and we spent the next 10 minutes blaming Grandma (“Urgh Grandma was it YOOOUUU!!!”) then it turned to me (“Tiffy it must have been you cos you saw it first!!!! Uuuuurrrrgggghhhhhh). Much hilarity was had!

Most people probably know this but last year I discovered you weren’t allowed to take photo’s at the pool, not that I could have on this occasion as I was in it and I don’t think even Apple have come that far yet but I tried to at one of the smalls swimming lessons once and was promptly informed by a yummy mummy that I wasn’t allowed.  Something to do with bad men and puppies…

We finally left the pool after we were kicked out and made a dash for the park which was bound to be heaving as it was sweltering heat and everybody MUST be in the park on a day like that! NOT TODAY, a near empty park and the other sister was coming to join us with her small (count.. 1, 2, 3, 4) so now we had another L = age 6 and born on my 21st birthday!

The cousins frolicked while my sister and I gossiped about family politics (probably anyway, it happens a lot with a family as big as ours)…

S & I spot L & other Auntie in the distance!

Without even a 5 minutes warning (I think they were all knackered by now) we walked back to the car for the apparently  loooong drive home.  “Tiffy, do you know the short cut home?”, “Errrr… Yes of course!” (there is no shortcut of course, clearly my sister made up this lie to stop bored children whining about the dreadful 40 minutes they had to sit in the car…. as my mother did for us…..)  Mind you I do remember every car journey taking YEARS when I were wee!

Anyway, homeward bound for the small people where I dutifully dropped them off said my goodbyes and quickly ran back to my Micra for a good old chain smoking session all the way back to the boys whilst reminding myself why I don’t have any children and calculating how quickly I could get a nice cold glass of something alcoholic in my hand.  As soon as I sat down at the boys house (half an hour later) I fell asleep….  I sincerely don’t know how people have children, they are HARD WORK! And I don’t even do it everyday! Phew! To my siblings who may be reading, book in advance… I need time to prepare!!!!

Saturday night I was whisked out for a night of ‘letting my hair down’ by the boy who says I work too hard (but moan too much), many ales were had and Sunday was the grand final of Forest’s Got Talent where the boys band came in 2nd out of 13 acts (*proud again)!

By the time I got to Monday morning I had the serious Monday blues, what a beautiful weekend!

So I rushed home from the proper job today full of motivation and ready to get some serious work done on this website.  I changed into my scrots, did a spot of housework, had dinner with my housemate, got all the computers, paperwork and pencil cases at the ready only to discover that my hosting website is down for ‘Essential Maintenance unil 6pm EST’.

I even had to Google EST….

So my lovelies a blog will have to suffice for now but fear not! Tomorrow is another day and I plan to Get. On. IT!

I’ll be back x

P.s – This is what I was sewing last week, a bespoke order for my fairy godmother who is going back to college in her 50’s… You go girl!

The Hermione!

 

LOVE LOVE LOVE the pockets on this one! (Apologies for picture quality, i’m still working on this)

 

Sunday Funday!

Oh dear Oh dear… another 10 days or so has passed since my last post, I really must try harder…

I was going to write an epic exciting fun filled post last Sunday night after an epic exciting fun filled day but unfortunately a glass of Merlot and a DVD got in the way (Friends With Benefits… Nice movie… Mila Kunis is my girl crush right now, can take or leave Timberlake) and I had driven over 100 miles across 3 counties that day so my eyeballs were twitching at the thought of staring at screen for an hour.

Alas, I am here now!  So last Sunday the boy was busy in a recording studio (that sounds mighty grand now doesn’t it… he’s a drummer) and I had various offers on the table over what I should do with my day.  Naturally I should have been sewing or working on my website but I was in need of a creative kick start and it was a nice day so I pleased myself!

First stop – Frome Artisan Market!  My good friend and handmade superstar @gingergeek had previously recommended it and as it is only held every quarter I thought I’d best hop along.  More info here – http://www.stcatherinesfrome.co.uk/artisan-market/

So I poodled along to Frome in the micra, drove through a variable range of weather, spent 20 minutes looking for somewhere to park the micra and then got lost.  I mean proper lost.  Frome is like one of those little puzzle games you have in crackers where you have to get the ball into the hole by twisting and tilting the board. I was the ball.  It’s BEAUTIFUL and quaint and old and the architecture is gorgeous but at a mere 5ft I couldn’t see over the hoards of people milling around the centre and got myself well and truly lost.  I did however smell A LOT of body odour!

The Farmers Market in the centre (you can’t quite see it but it goes all the way down the hill!)

I was trying to find the mothership who was also there with pals and was gasping for a cup of tea after all the weather and driving and walking, I eventually whipped out the iPhone (never ceases to amaze me), phoned the mothership and within 2 mins had received her co-ordinates by text message which I promptly told my little iPhone to show me how to get to and done, I was there.  BRILLIANT!  I am still in awe over what we can do these days!  I was also practically a mile away from where I should have been and quite possibly would never have found her with her pals directions which were ‘go to the top of the hill’ to which I proclaimed ‘which BLOODY HILL!’ (it was hill central!)

Anyway, along the lost path and the quest to find the mothership I found many exciting things…

This big old ball of fur who was soaking up some rays who unfortunately wouldn’t quite fit in my handbag!

This quaint little side street that I now want to live in with the boy! (Although not sure his aforementioned drumming would go down too well!)

Millie Moon! I had a good old perv at the book shelves…

Millie Moon is a brilliant shop filled with gorgeous fabrics and beautiful haberdashery.  I have been wanting to go along for ages as they run all sorts of classes and things for adults and children, I’m all for getting kids sewing and enjoying good old fashion stitching fun.  Kids these days! Pah! (i’m not actually that old but old enough to say that!)  I would recommend checking them out online or following them on twitter even @milliemoon or http://milliemoonshop.co.uk/#/shops/4563394318

So I browsed Millie Moon’s many bowls of buttons, ribbons, pins, fabrics, BOOKS and things and did buy myself a little something despite having a studio FULL to bursting of pretty things….  I LOVE LOVE LOVE these little sew in ‘hand made with LOVE’ charms! I just can’t decide what to put them on yet!!!

Lunchtime arrived (according to my stomach) and yes I had done all of this before lunch and my sister was already on the blower trying to find out where I was as I had promised to pop along to The Great Dorset Chilli Festival (http://www.greatdorsetchillifestival.co.uk/) with her and Big T (he’s my IT department… ha! He’ll like that).  So off I go to find the micra (this took some doing) and after what should have been an hour of driving but what turned into an hour and a half of variable and mildly terrifying weather and dodgy roads and many many wrong turns I arrived in the beautiful village of Wimborne St Giles and the SUN WAS SHINING!!

Locate skin and blister and aforementioned IT dept and realise that I didn’t get any cash out on route.  Sister and IT dept had also run out of cash and the nearest cash point was 5 miles away but they were undeterred in there quest to kill me by going back to the 2million schoville chilli sauce that they had previously found and making me eat it.  WOW. THAT. BURNS! Temporary facial paralysis is an understatement.

Spent the next hour on a death defying chilli session, by now working our way down in heat (1 million, pah that’s nuffin!) with no money for beers, yoghurts, water or food and a tongue that I can no longer feel.  Sibling rivalry is a powerful thing and there is no way I was going to back down and NOT put these things in my mouth, imagine the ridcule! Ha!  I tried it all, my eyes leaked, my nose ran, my lips felt swollen but I can hold my head high knowing I dunnit! Or something.  I won’t go into details about the state of skin & blister, IT dept and myself the following day but we weren’t so smug by then I tell you!

Did you know you can grow purple chilli’s:

Purple chilli’s!

A FUN FUN DAY I have to say!  Sometimes I relish in the fact that I am lucky enough to be alive, own my own car and be old enough to do what ever I feel like just because I can.  This was one of those days! Woo!

I believe @stormplum and @dabigt enjoyed a Chilli themed date night the following Wednesday which involved Ghost Chilli’s sent from our brother in Shropshire.. I haven’t read the results yet but you can find them here… http://stormplum.wordpress.com/ – I predict much hilarity in her writing as usual!

So now I have reached Saturday and the end of my working week (until Monday) so will be spending the rest of the weekend working towards this website actually going live.  Tomorrow I am off to see my mate @gingergeek with a freshly baked Lemon Drizzle for tea and cake and web design discussions (He’s my consultant creative director or something).

Back soon, I promise xx