This has been my To Do List for the week .....

Deliver bunting to Charlotte
Go to Sports Day
Meeting about Leavers Disco
Go to District Sports Day
AGM for Village News
Take to cricket training
Help at Cycling proficiency morning
Pick up from tennis
Sort out Archie's birthday present
Book-keeping help for the morning
Take to Cricket Match
Drop off at Scouts clear up
Try and fit in having drink with friend for her birthday
Orthodontist appointment
Buy Archie new trainers
Drop boys at Mum's after orthodontist
Go to party {this is a task I want to do}
Write, edit and get ready Village News for proofing
Prepare and post daily orders for notonthehighstreet customers
Prepare and post orders for Rose & Aster and Vintage Style Hire
Try and ignore dust, dirty clothes and hungry family

At least I've got some honey (and a cheque) for doing the book-keeping :-) so we can all have honey sandwiches.

Bunting, Bunting and More Bunting

Would you like to see what 150 metres of fabric double-sided bunting with handmade binding tape looks like? You would? Good. Ta da here it is ....

In all honesty it doesn't look that impressive does it? I really hope that when it's up in a few weeks time that it will look a bit more impressive than this photo. I will bore you with photos in July.


Also for the record I hereby promise to my husband, my children and my mother to never, ever, ever make this much fabric bunting again.

It took a long time and I also need to publicly thank my lovely Mum for helping me. Without her I just don't think I'd have got it done. I had about 10m of binding left at the end and so cut out a few more pennants so that I could keep it as a permanent reminder to myself to think before saying yes to things {yeah likes that's going to happen}.

Monthly Photo 2012

Halfway through this little exercise now and I've decided that next year I'd like to do the same thing but need to think about choosing a subject that is a little more interesting!

 

Bunting, Bias Tape and More Bunting

No time for blogging ... no really .... I've got to finish making 150 metres of fabric bunting. Yes ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY METRES of bunting for the village fete. To be honest with you it's not exactly a solo project as I'm so badly behind that my lovely Mum is doing a lot of it. She also managed to get 40 odd metres made by some of her friends.

I honestly thought it wouldn't take long. How on earth could I possibly think that 150 metres of double-sided fabric bunting wouldn't take an inordinate amount of time? Give me my card bunting any day of the week!

Mum has insisted that I also make the bias binding which to me is a total waste of my life. Although saying that I did almost (only almost) find it enjoyable yesterday afternoon now I've worked out how not to steam burn my fingers. I know she's right and it will be much stronger than shop bought bias binding but honestly it is a bit of a faff, no it's a complete an utter faff.

I did have a bit of help from Oscar {briefly} keen to try out his sewing skills.

I've got another 88 metres to make. Mum keeps telling me it will be fine. However, now that I have children I say that too in a calm, "don't worry it will be fine" voice so I'm afraid I no longer believe her. I even cancelled a lunch invitation on Saturday. But perhaps if I really crack on I can still go ...... 

Birthday Age Bunting

Some orders require a bit of email discussion with the customer and a couple of weeks ago an order for my Birthday Age Bunting was one of those. The customer wanted a slightly different design and also had a bit of a trouble ordering and we exchanged emails back and forth. The emails were all very light hearted and funny and the last email simply said, 

"I need a stiff drink after making my way through that maze. Do have one too!"

This week I received a photo with accompanying email from this hugely entertaining customer saying,

I wanted to thank you for your excellent service and the lovely banner. Party was last night and a great success. The restaurant Andrew Edmunds in Lexington Street is known for its charm and atmosphere -they are experts - but your bunting looked wonderful and they were much impressed. Thank you.

It is really, really kind of customers to take the time to email me AND send me photos and these are the customers that I wish I could meet face to face as it would be lovely to say thank you in person and see if they are really as I imagine them.

I think I've mentioned before that once an order goes out I tick it off and forget it and so when an enquiry pops up with an old order number, my heart automatically sinks because I think there is something wrong, perhaps they didn't get it or worse perhaps they don't like it. I never think someone will be taking the time to say thank you and so you can imagine as I've got two of these emails in a week it makes me very happy :-)

Happy Father's Day

This is one of my most favourite photos - it is a picture of Oscar and his "Ten" in my parents' garden. Why Ten? Dad didn't want to be called Grandad so he was Ken to all his grandchildren or if you couldn't quite say your Ks (as Oscar couldn't) he was Ten.

As the years pass since he died I wonder what Ken would have made of how my boys have grown up. I think he'd be pleased that they love sport, I think he'd be horrified at their table manners. He'd like how much they get on with each other but he'd probably disapprove of their haircuts (or lack of). I know that he'd talk to them as if they were adults.

Dad never really liked going away from home too much and always said he'd like to visit family in Canada and Australia for a day and then come home again. I feel like that today, I wish he could just pop back for a day and see how we are all getting on ....

Morris Men ... hankies, bells, dance and music

I'm never quite sure about Morris dancing and find it a little bit, well a little bit odd really. Odd is good though and as we live near Thaxted, a village renowned for its Morris dancing heritage, we get to see a lot of men dressed in white with bells jangling from their trousers. 

Last weekend it was Thaxted Morris weekend and to be completely honest as a family we weren't even going to bother going to watch as we go every year but in the end I did pop in with a friend and his daughter. I mainly went to collect our takeaway and eldest son (in that order) but luckily we also arrived at the perfect time to view the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. 

I'm plainly normally ensconced in the local wine bar when the Abbots Bromley starts because for all the years I've been going to Thaxted Morris Weekend I've never actually stood and watched the whole thing before. I enjoyed it. It's always quite a moving experience when a crowd is hushed and reverent and as it wasn't as crowded as normal we got a good view of the procession down from the church into Thaxted. Haunting and strangely mesmerising (aside from the aeroplane flying to Stansted Airport!). I was actually quite pleased I've finally seen the whole thing!

Chevron Bunting

If, like me, you have a little look at pictures on Pinterest or perhaps you read some American blogs you too may have noticed a bit of a chevron trend?

It seems that the chevron is the new stripe and not one to miss out on a trend I decided that I'd like to design and make some chevron bunting. I also decided that I'd like try a different shape and so please welcome to my bunting range the Chevron Bunting! Who says bunting has to be triangular and I rather like the way it hangs. I'm wondering if I should offer it in smaller sizes or perhaps this is one bunting that needs to be large?

Viola's Coronation Birthday Party

I just love it love it love it when a customer sends me a photo of the bunting I've made for them. Here is a gorgeous photo I received this weekend with an accompanying message.

The bunting was beautiful. It was my daughters Birthday on coronation day, see attached photo of our little family party.

Viola certainly is a lucky girl as that is a pretty spectacular birthday table!

Village Jubilee Celebrations

There was pavlova

and tattoos.

There was reluctant dressing up,

and a wonderful band that

meant there was a lot of dancing.

Our little village even had one of the 4,000 beacons across the land.

We had a wonderful Diamond Jubilee celebration weekend.

Happy Jubilee Weekend

Union Jack Picnic Lunch Bags by Archie

I've just come back from a lovely Jubilee Picnic lunch at Archie's school and on the way home posted off the last of the orders with a sigh of relief and a gasp of "phew". Just one more Jubilee bunting to be hand delivered tomorrow and then I'm done for a few days. I have had the most unbelievably busy time with orders lately and so I'm looking forward to having a a break from the Post Office for a bit and I think they'll be glad to have a break from me too!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Jubilee weekend.