Dinosaurs

This week has been all about dinosaurs (well in crafting land anyway)! This week in 'real life' has been jobs, stress about jobs, lots of work, cleaning, Christmas decorating, more thinking about jobs, woodland walks, more cleaning and more Christmas decorating. Its been nice in places but mainly just bit exhausting, so I've been very pleased to spend time in my crafting corner later at night working away on my final few pre-Christmas makes...and that has been all about dinosaurs.



This custom made crown is on its way to its owner today and several sets of dino bunting will be making their way this week too. :-)



I have to admit I find it really gratifying when I have a design that people really like (to a point anyway). The dinosaur crown gets a good few likes on Thisel & Bean' etsy store and after selling a set of the dinosaur bunting recently, I had a run of other people wanting it too which has been awesome! Hilariously (well actually not hilarious at all) someone liked the design that much that they copied a photo of the bunting and posted on their Facebook page as their own work! Grrrrr! They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but I cant say I'd ever imagined someone actually trying to copy my work! Anyway, that has managed to take the shine off the dinosaurs for me a bit. It also means that I am having to think a bit more about how I present my photos online. I have a watermark that if I remember to I'm going to try to use. It annoys me a bit to be honest as it makes me feel a bit suspicious about peoples intentions when I know that a lot of the online crafting community is lovely and friendly and wanting to help each other out rather than anything else.

Speaking of lovely communities I'm linking for the first time in a very long time with Handmade Monday held on Lucy Blossom Crafts

Planning

For some reason rather than hunkering down, resting, nesting and winding down on the possible craft business front ready for baby #2, I seem to have done the complete opposite: 

• I have applied and been selected for a local show (hurrah!)
• I finally got insurances sorted out
• I have looked into CE testing (and yes I have to do it - boo - but am ready to start getting that sorted)
• I have taken some promotional photos of children actually using my products for marketing (post on that soon)
• And have finally ( after many months of ummming, ahhhhing and online stalking following several logo designers) have finally commissioned a fellow Etsy seller to design my branding!

Phew! I'm exhausted from even looking at that list! Added to which I managed to wangle 5 half days this month of child care for Owen that I could devote ENTIRELY to Thisel & Bean business. SUCH a luxury! I have loved every second of the time spent planning and making (mainly factory line style making for Christmas), making and planning. I have such a sense of achievement about it all at the moment but still have a way to go...

My master plan (if you could call it anything so grand), is to have myself in a position that from a legal and marketing point of view I am ready to ramp up my selling. I'm aiming to have everything in place for my first proper big fair on November 8th (more about that soon), where I'll also be promoting my Christmas wares properly for the first time. Then as my maternity leave kicks in and we (hopefully) adjust splendidly to life with to live with 2 children, that if I have the opportunity, I can use the base I have already built to start making and selling more!

 
How lovely it would be to get to the end of my maternity leave knowing that I could maybe pay for myself to work one day a week or something on Thisel & Bean!


Chances are admittedly slim, but a girl can dream! Wish me luck!

The Woodland Creatures

So first there was one...

Love this photo btw! Then there were two... twit - twooo!

And now I'm desperate to make more! So I'm thinking a badger, a hedgehog, a mouse (!?), maybe a squirrel and a rabbit. Is that an unlikely bunch of characters to hang out together? There's a whole world of woodland wonderfulness to be opened up and explore. Loving it!

Woodland puppet set now available in Thisel & Bean's little Etsy shop

Have a lovely weekend!

Can you tell?

Not feeling big on the words today. Suffice to say that I have new things up in the shop. Hurrah!

There's a dash of this...

Quite a lot of this....

And a sprinkling of that...

Still having light issues! Grrrr! It feels glaringly obvious to me. Would love to know if other people  see it too... or dont! Can YOU tell?

Happy Thursday! Joining in with Made by Hand

Version One - Combination Four

So as I mentioned at the weekend, I am totally going to end up making all four versions of the spotty crown, but I was really feeling combination four (the yellow, green and blue one) so thats the one that I made up first.

I ended up throwing in a few pinks dots for good measure, as when I laid everything out on the crown, it needed a little something extra. I think it's all the better for it in my opinion. So that one is now happily housed in the shop with the others if you'd like to have a browse.

The Olly # 2

Slightly belatedly linking to Too Cute Tuesday (being thats its Friday!) to celebrate the joyful fact that I have finished a new crown! Hurrah! It looks a little like this:

Its the Olly #2!

The Olly #1 was made for a little boy I know named Olly (funnily enough) for his first birthday. I think his older sisters may have enjoyed dressing up in it a little more than him (lol) but I really liked the simplicity of the star design so I had always planned to make a few more.

I have to say, I'm definately going to use a mix of primary colours again as it has worked really well. The colours really seem to pop dont you think!?!

Anyway its happily made itself the newest addition to by fledging new shop. Take a look here if interested. Or pop on over to Funky Polkadot Giraffe for other crafty goodness!

And theres more!

Bunting (as featured in my banner) now up in the shop. Its actually starting to look like a shop!It gives me the happies! :-)

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ThiselandBean

Sound the Trumpets

I'm obviously on a roll this week as I have just this second uploaded my first ever items to Etsy! Woo hoo!

If you are in the market for a felt crown, feel free to go and have a look: http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ThiselandBean

Hilariously I've had the shop for years, just have never used it. Its already been a learning curve but I hope to be putting up many more items soon.

This is my latest creation. Inspired the Owl ribbon. I think its my favourite so far!