Tuesday 31 August 2010

Who's a Hoot?

Here's a sneak peak at the almost finished Owl pouches/pencil cases. The Local Natives are now keeping me company, as my mind is spinning, full of lovely pretty designs needing to be drawn! I have missed this...the designing and making, how ideas just flow and loveliness happens and the more you create the more ideas you think up. I am getting so excited for Falmouth now! I keep thinking of all the new things I will learn and create! The excitement is too much! Who needs chocolate (or drugs!?)? My fix is right here! 


love emme lou x

I'm a Wolf

I don't know what it is but I can't create without music, played as loud as possible. I have given The Foals new amazing album a break from constant loop and am revisiting Sea Wolf, I love this song!
 
I'm having a productive day so far...just sourced and ordered Mawata Silk, dye and beads for the Poppy's. How I do love being organised!  A lovely day of making cute things for the shop update and friends for dinner and press release brainstorming! I have so much to do in preparation for Falmouth too but I brought my dress for the Freshers Ball yesterday and a 1940s leather doctors bag for all my uni supplies (yet to buy!); it's the cutest bag I ever did see! I'll post a photo when it arrives!   There is so many exciting things coming up, but for now it's sewing and completing my last week of my Summer job! I can't wait for Autumn term!
  love emme lou x

Friday 27 August 2010

Hoot Hoooooo!

Just wanted to share a little snippet of what I'm working on today...

 

Tonight is Date Night with my lovely boyfriend so I'm signing off and switching off my phone, thank goodness the sun is shining, perfect date weather! Hope you have a great night! 

Love emme lou x

Seeing red...Poppy red

I decided not to put it off any longer and went to the fabric shop in Truro. Luckily I only live a 10 minute train ride away from Cornwall's small city. I have given up asking people to come with me...I've dragged too many friends and loved ones there, stood bored and impatient in the place where time stops still, causing me to panic and ultimately making the wrong choices in my haste to keep them from hating me!
I needed to source Poppy fabric. I want a head start, to have some stock already to tide me over in case things get too busy which I am expecting, what with starting Falmouth in a month! I went to Marks & Spencer's first to get an energy boost; the fabric shop sucks all life out of you with the mass of choices. After my yummy brownie and smoothie I braved the shop. I found the exact colour of the Appeal logo and was thrilled at the price too! I wondered why it was placed with all the silks due to the price but took it to the counter along with two balls of rowan yarn, some pretty liberty fabric I couldn't resist and some checked linen for a new project!
I soon found out that the fabric was on special as it was the last of the batch of silk taffeta and wouldn't be getting anymore! To top it off the normal price to get more from the supplier (possibly not the same shade) was almost 4 times as much! Luckily the lovely girl has reserved it for me until my orders come in and  I can pay a holding deposit, paying for it as and when I need it! Thank goodness! I'm trying not to think of if I need more but I will be able to get thousands from the roll so for the sake of costs considering a charity is involved I hope I don't need more, but wouldn't it be amazing if I did! I feel a bit in limbo at the moment, just waiting, but after how well last year went, just keeping it local, I think I will be really busy! 
 The photos are only about a third of the store (upstairs)! There is a huge yarn and knitting section, as well as crafting, upholstery and costume departments! Not to mention the downstairs store too! I'm off to my sewing room today to make pretty things and back to school items for my shop update coming soon! 

Love emme lou x

Glad for Gladioli!

We haven't been to our allotment in weeks, maybe a bit longer! The thought of how bad it will be, after the last visit, where most of the crop had been eaten by big fat slugs had us in a grump. So I forced James to take us and prepared myself to be extremely disappointed. I had one beautiful flower, standing with others yet to bloom. This pretty thing lessened the blow of having no tomatoes or courgettes and only one runner bean (the naughty fat slugs had them for their dinner). The red onions and shallots were perfect (James is going to pickle them! yummm) and we found lots of potatoes too. I'm looking forward to next year now. After the stress and worrying things wouldn't grow and then seeing things flourish with barely any help has made me feel excited for next spring. We have learnt so much this Summer and should have enough to feed us all summer and winter next year! But for now it's some delicious potato salad and pickled onions!
 
Doily decorated bottle 'vase' (see earlier post for inspiration source) 




Love emme lou x

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Guess what....

I am going to be a Godmother! I went round for dinner at Colin and Choos tonight, taking the pregnant lady Whip It to cheer her up and was told their choices of Godparents. I was so shocked when they said my name! I may have deafened the baby with my squeals of surprise and blinked away the tears. So not only am I going to be at the birth but I will also be, along with Emmy and Luke, the little cupcakes Godparent. I am so truly touched and excited. I can't wait to meet you little baby! I'm designing lots of cuteness but waiting  for the scan to finalise colours etc!  Aren't these booties the cutest thing ever from Pleasantly Plump Knits?! Must get on with my no.3 goal!


love an excited emme lou x

Monday 23 August 2010

a day of loveliness


Yesterday we took the girls to Trereife Park near Newlyn for the Hidden art Design Show. It wasn't the best place to take two 15 year old girls, they spent most of the time chatting by the sandpit out the back and ate crepes whilst I met designers, saw old friends and walked around the beautiful house and gardens with James dreaming up lovely things. It was such an incredibly lovely place with a cobbled street  behind the house with a cafe, stables, a walled garden and just the right amount of vintage loveliness without being pretentious.
The inside of the house was so cute, my favourite room was the vintage pink and cream bedroom overlooking the front lawn, oh so pretty....
I met Poppy Treffry (who is super lovely) and saw Sue Dove, my former tutor and textile artist. I met so many lovely designers, and have a fair few things on my christmas list already! My favourites were Bonbi Forest where I brought the cutest owl scarf (below) and Buy or Die selling sweet printed vintage and reclaimed textile jewellery, I got a lovely pair of studs!
 This is my awesome owl scarf from Bonbi Forest..
I loved this cute ceramic bird bracelet from Julie! So sweet! She was just as lovely.
 
I love these girls! Summer Rose and Hannah are the worlds greatest and cutest teens! We love their visits so! 
love emme lou x

Birds of a Feather

I stopped by at Birds of a Feather on Saturday to take some photos for them. Juliette and Sarah are so super lovely, Juliette has a fantastic eye for new up and coming designer/makers, sourcing from folksy, etsy and online and Sarah is an amazing business woman who I admire so much, they are best friends and together they make Birds of a Feather. Here's a few photos from the boutique in the old Drill Hall, St Ives...Lisbeth Dahl, Rice, Lisa Stickley and Noah Noah are a few of the larger brands featured in store. Heart zeena , Tea and Ceremony and Amber Marie are smaller designer makers.
 
My rosette brooches, hand crocheted & stitched with vintage fabrics & birdie cushions.

 Last but not least here's Laura's cute little bow tie backs. So cute!

love emme lou x

Saturday 21 August 2010

I'm Sew Happy

I woke up really early today, two hours before my alarm clock, and felt surprisingly well. Thank goodness this bug/cold has only latest a few days. I missed the early train to work so me and the girls have an hour to kill. I'm photographing the boutique Birds of a Feather today, where i brought this gorgeous Tea and Ceremony notebook for Falmouth lecture notes. I love it! Wonder what new goodies they have in today. The girls and I had a brilliant girls night last night. A ridiculous amount of chocolate, cream, and two nick sparks movies, needless to say there were a few tears. I had to read my book during A walk to Remember else I would have been crying too! That movie gets me every time, even though I have seen it countless times. I painted my nails for another distraction and used a sharpie to make cute polka dots!

 

love emme lou x

Friday 20 August 2010

Tissues and Tidying

I have just said goodbye to James. He's now on the long journey back up country for the weekend. Luckily he went to buy food to feed the girls tonight so I don't have to brave the rain in my sniffly state, oh the lovely Cornish weather. I have a million things to do before the girls get here this afternoon. Tidying for one! It's amazing how quickly the house gets consumed by dirty dishes, things in the wrong place and laundry when you're ill. So with Passion Pit blaring (at a volume my poor head can handle) I'm making my way around the house. I'm hoping to get a few designs made up today so Summer Rose can model them this weekend for my much overdue shop update. For now I'll leave you with this little bit of loveliness found here. I may use this idea to label my dye pots!
 love emme lou x

Thursday 19 August 2010

Sniffles and Shoes

Yesterday I woke up with a scratchy sore throat, that had me in a grump, knowing that I was getting ill. It was the longest day and Lauren had to leave work as she was so poorly with this cold bug thing, (that started with a sore throat) which made me even more grumpy knowing I was more than likely going to end up with the same fate! It is the worst timing, there is so much to do, emme lou shop updates, Falmouth summer homework, poppy prep and there is a new opportunity coming up which is amazing! So this morning I woke up to a million kisses as James left for work and felt horrid. I groaned my way downstairs and saw that I missed my Kurt Geiger boots delivery while I was at work (£160 down to £75! Thank you Amazon!). I threw on a jumper and dabbed a little concealer as not to scare anyone and walked around the corner to pick them up! They are so very cute and made me feel a tiny little bit better, so I am wearing them to break in the leather whilst sniffling(sweatshirt, leggings and cute boots isn't a great look). James has left some delicious homemade watercress soup (he's the bestest!) and I'm going to rest a lot in preparation for two teenage girls visiting me tomorrow for the weekend; whilst James visits dear old friends and his family back in his hometown. So for now it's Little Women and looking at my pretty boots to make me feel better!

 

love emme lou x

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Tattoo

I decided to get a tattoo for my 23rd birthday. I was so over the moon with it how it turned out and the fact that it was delicate and subtle. There was one little tiny patch where the colour didn't take (on the C) so me being me and a complete perfectionist had to book in to get it touched up. My Tattoo artist Mandy from Shoreline tattoos has left so I had to get another artist, a very well known awesome artist to do the touch up. It was a shaky start, she didn't believe me that it was a blue tattoo even though it is clearly blue and refused to believe me. She went to use the BLACK again and i said no it is blue, her reply was so you want it like the rest? I was like umm of course! So after explaining exactly what I wanted her to do for the third time she mixed some colours and started work. The touch up is black! I was not a happy bunny when the covering came off the next day and called them in a state. Apparently it will settle down into the same colour in 10 days. If not I can go in to get it fixed. I really don't see how it can fade to a completely different colour when it faded from a brighter blue in the first place?! Moral of the story, do not trust someone just because they are meant to be awesome! And don't trust that they will actually listen to you....hopefully I will be proven wrong in 7 days and it will be perfect...hopefully; but for now here is the tattoo before said touch up, looking pretty cute!
  

love emme lou x

Yoga....

So last night I had my first yoga class in what seems like forever; number 4 on my 4 simple goals before 2011. I invited friends around for dinner...yes I cooked! I made stew and dumplings which went down extremely well, I began to enjoy it after a few mouthfuls as I realised it a. didn't kill anyone and b. actually tasted good! I may have to cook more, with the help of Jamie Oliver of course! After eating far too much Kate and I went to yoga! I was sooo excited to have the brilliant Lucy teaching me again but after looking around and waiting for her in the studio I realised (once the 'other' instructor began) that she wasn't taking the class. I was a tad annoyed but gave the 'other' instructor a chance. She was awful, so slow and hesitant, and didn't quite understand why my knees wouldn't straighten, the phrase 'my knees are dodgy' seemed to get her to stop touching them! After a few poses the class was over, no music, no chanting, no namaste, and no feeling of enlightenment or even a mild workout. A rather disappointing first class. I'm hoping Lucy was just sick that night, if so i truly hope she gets better soon! My lovely boyfriend stopped by the shops on the way home so Kate and I could get Country Living magazine to cheer us up! That, apple strudel and underage and pregnant seemed to do the job! Nothing better than food, trash TV and great friends to get you over disappointment! I hope next weeks class is better!

love emme lou x

Monday 16 August 2010

Date night...Craft night!

So this is number 2 on my list of 4 simple goals. Friday night was our first date night, which didn't have the smoothest start! Silly me was busy researching, and blogging and didn't realise the time. I left the house at 5 and forgot that the local shops in the small town we live shut just before 5, therefore not only was the green grocers and butchers shut for the super yummy ingredients but the art shop was shut too so no card could be brought which was one of the main things needed! I tried not to panic, cursing myself for my bad timing...yet again and trekked to Tesco. I was cooking dinner (for once) to surprise James, I am not a cook and normally things catch fire, (like Jamie Olivers cook book which now has a lovely char grilled hole!) or the food burns. I am a baker, all things yummy and sugary, banana muffins are my best but whilst James loves my baking I thought he deserved to come home from a stressful week of deadlines to a home cooked dinner. I made it to tesco and brought all my ingredients for steak and Guinness stew, feeling rather grown up with my basket and list. I had to call James as they didn't sell film in the smaller store so he took a detour on the way home to buy some which also luckily gave me enough time to power walk home! He was surprised and touched  that I was cooking for him, yet he still hovered, cringing as I awkwardly cut vegetables and lit the gas hob, (I'm quite accident prone!).  I ordered him to go do geeky stuff and before I knew it my stew was simmering and looked remarkably like the stew in the picture! We gathered everything for craft night and printed out the template pieces for the pinhole camera!! I have been wanting to make one for the longest time and was sooo excited! We cut each part out and scored the fold lines, then glued the tabs (my job as I have nimble fingers and James is heavy handed!) It was quite tricky but several hours and a mini midnight photo shoot later it was complete! I love it so much and am trying not to worry about the film. As the first one, it's bound to not be perfect and I'm not even sure if I have been winding the film on correctly but even so I'm trying to let the excitement over ride the worry! 
If you want to make your own cute pinhole camera you can buy the e-book from here, or the paper camera book itself, with all the designs from here



We're looking forward to next weeks date night!  love emme lou x

Friday 13 August 2010

4 Simple Goals (before 2011...)

So for those who know me you will already know that i'm a little in love with Elsie Flannigan! Yes it sounds cheesy and gushy but I really do admire her and all she has achieved. She is an awesome role model and inspiration; anywho enough about how much I adore her and lets get to point! I saw over on her blog, a beautiful mess that she has put together a project, for other bloggers to participate in, consisting of 4 simple goals, to be completed by 2011. We have to blog as we go and do a final post just before the new year. I know, 2011 you're thinking, plenty of time! There really isn't! Scarily enough we have just over 4 months to go, how quickly this year is going! So I have finally decided on my 4 SIMPLE goals, one of which isn't simple at all. It will require a lot of work, long hours, most likely a huge amount of stress but excitement too as the work will pay off....hopefully! So my first goal, the not so simple goal is....
1. To take the Poppies nationwide. For those of you who don't know about the Poppies i will fill you in! Last Summer I created these cute cream poppies using mawatta silk, organza and beads. I took them to my first ever craft fair in Falmouth and gained a commission for a bride who ended up having them in her hair and on her wedding dress which was amazing! Sitting around one night in the countryside with our dear friends, we were dreaming of the future of emme lou. Mike had the awesome idea of making them red and selling them with a precentage of profits going to the Poppy Appeal. It was such an exciting idea! With butterflies flying around my stomach I rang my local RBL in Truro, Cornwall and pitched the idea. Next thing I was asked to come in for a meeting which went really well. We agreed on prices, selling them via my folksy shop and their fund raising events and would see how they go. A year later and another meeting, that took place last week and the future looks very red!! Poppy red which has a hint of orange so I believe. New designs will be added and a few changes here and there! I will blog as I go, from mid September through the busy remembrance weeks in November and a round up before the new year! I look forward to sharing this amazing time with you and thank you Mike, one third of my creative team! You had the idea and I made it happen. I have some truly wonderful friends, let alone an amazing boyfriend who helps me with the late nights meeting deadlines and gets roped in now and again! I coudn't do it without him!  
Now onto my other 3 simple goals! And these are simple...
2. Date Nights! I want to have one night a week, that is purely ours. NO phones, NO facebook! NO T.V; doing things that are silly, cosy, new and fun. Whether that be driving somewhere we haven't been before and exploring (there are so many places we haven't yet been in Cornwall) or just cooking together eating at our cute table wih a bottle of wine. Maybe even a few no electricity nights, the last power cut we had was so much fun! I want to document these nights, our nights as we have very few photos of us together, and I will make a little date night scrap book. Tonight is our first..craft night date night! I am so excited! 
3. Learn to knit/crochet baby shoes and hats! my friends Choo and Colin are expecting a little cupcake in the new year, and I am going to be at the birth! I am so beyond thrilled, touched and excited that I can be there! So I have been brushing up on all things pregnancy and baby. I have these 4 months to learn and make oh so cute baby accessories. I am a tad excited!!! So i am going to enlist the help of a brilliant knitter, Clare  who hopefully will teach me in exchange for cupcakes! We have to wait until the 9th September to see whether its buttons or bows! yay!
4. Go to Yoga Classes again. I missed a class, then another then too many to think about going back as I had lost flexibility. A few months of pilates and then the same thing happened again. I will go to classes, and practise at home.  I have booked and paid for a class on Tuesday night!  I hope my lovely boyfriend won't mind taking me! Maybe he will even take classes with me?! I can't imagine so! 

So there are my 4 simple goals to complete before the new year. I am so excited and this is what I need to make my life richer and happier! Yay! I must go to get supplies for tonight! 

Love emme lou x

a little bit of loveliness...

 
                 love emme lou xx

Thursday 12 August 2010

where I create....

 

  Mr Bird flies above me watching everything I do. He has his little eye on me looking out for tantrums. Sorry if I scare you Mr Bird!

love emme lou x

Wednesday 11 August 2010

Que Sera Sera...

whatever will be will be. I spend so much of my time planning, thinking of the future, of what may or may not happen, making lists, and worrying. I quote Doris day, my idol, constantly but do i really listen to her and to the advice I give to others? I was reminded of this song first thing this morning and  it has reminded me that the future is not ours to see, we have to live in the present and the future will follow, life and our dreams will fall  into place. So much has happened that I have not planned for, but this has made me who I am and I wouldn't change any of it for all the buttons in the world. I am going to try and take each day as it comes, try to only plan a few weeks in advance and try not to be so obsessively anal (you may chuckle!). This blog has been in the planning for quite some time now! But my obsessive need for perfection has had it on hold, but I am so happy to be part of the blogging world finally and can't wait to share my crafting life with you. So here's to Doris Day, the woman who created the love of vintage in me, a true inspiration. Thank you for the best advice and I promise to listen!

  love emme lou x