A SHAMEFUL CONFESSION

Hello Dear Friends and hearty felicitations for a merry and bright Christmas.

And lo! I have return'd unto the land of Blog, fervently hoping that my trusty friends and followers have not deserted me, though I have let them down in a most unseemly fashion.

The truth of the matter is that I have been SOOOOOOOO busy that I haven't had time to do any blogging and EVEN WORSE - can you believe I haven't scrapped A SINGLE PHOTOGRAPH in the whole of 2009! - I've taken hundreds, I've got loads of fabulous stash just waiting to be used, but I haven't had a minute to scrap anything.

Set aside all the usual domestic drudgery and the added delights of being THE CHRISTMAS FAIRY, I set myself up for failure on the scrapping front with the mad idea of going into business for myself. What? Where did that spring from?

Well, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

It all started with a quick romp round our local Accessorize with the BGF. We love their Christmas decorations (although none of them ever go with my silver-white-gold-crystal-the-more-bling-the-merrier theme). I happened to see a little hot pink owl with blingy eyes and felt flower embellishments on its tummy, well I'm sure you know that owls are all the rage at the moment, and I'm afraid that I am an advertising exec's dream customer and I was rather taken with said owl. I looked at the price £3.50 - not bad for Accessorize I thought. I was this close to making a purchase when I noticed that all the felt embellishments had been GLUED on. YEUK!

I'm sure you know that if you glue fabric, and felt in particular, it goes stiff and the glue leaves a dark coloured mark, well this is what had happened to my no longer so gorgeous owl. Pah I thought, I'm not buying that.

But the old mental wheels were whirling, cogs grinding, cobwebs twisting into disgusting grey candy floss - sorry getting carried away with my analogy... where was I... Oh yes owls - I could make one of those myself I thought, and it will be much nicer because it will all be hand sewn.

So, a quick trip to Hobbycraft (Opening soon in Stafford - Oh joy!) a few pieces of felt and a couple of hours or so later I had created my first felt owl and here it is.





As with all these things, it looks better in the flesh than in the photo - but you get the idea. That is one cute owl. So cute, I thought to myself that I bet if I made more I could sell them...

...and the idea kind of snowballed...