It's been a while

After a short break, I'm back and Maple Designs HQ is a hive of activity again!!

It's been a hectic few months - I got married last month!  As everyone always says, it really is (was) the best day of my/our lives and was so brilliant to spend the day with our closest friends and families....and do it in our special way.

The wedding...Candadian style

I've just returned from two (yep, two!!) lovely honeymoons.  First up we went on a Scandinavian adventure to Denmark and Sweden (two beautiful countries, but very expensive!).  We also had a week in the Cotswolds which was just amazing - such gorgeous places, little villages, great hotels...and the odd craft shops.  Well, it would have been rude not to have a sneaky look inside.

Coffee time

So, now I'm back, I've got a few orders to finish and then it's a few busy weeks in preparation for the Christmas fair season.  I'm booked in for about seven craft fairs over the next few months and I'll post some more information in the next week or so with deails on where and when you can find the Maple Designs stall.

I'll also provide some additional information on the workshops I blogged about a few months ago.

It's nice to be back!

Lyndsey x

More time please

It's been quite manic over the past few weeks in the Maple Designs studio.  I've had orders to complete and get out of the door, new ideas for the up coming seasons along with a whole list of other things.

And it's got me thinking - how can I spend my time more wisely?  There seems to be an ever increasing amount of non-hands on craft related 'things' to do; e-mails, filing, deliveries, Twitter, Facebook and blogs to name a few.

And that's before I've even switched on the sewing machine, picked up a needle or thread or done any of my crafty goodness.

I guess I'm unsure whether I should be regimented and, say, start with e-mails first thing in the morning followed by updates to these lovely social media areas and then moving onto my orders and creative time.  It sounds simple, but Twitter and Facebook, in particular, aren't something that you can particularly put into a timeslot - conversations and threads can take-off at any point and before you know it an hour or two have slipped away, but it seems strange to put myself in a position where I could miss out on a large chunk of happenings for hours at a time.

So, I guess, the purpose of this blog is to ask you, the wide world, how do you get the most out of your day?

 

Let me know - I am genuinely really interested to hear from you and it doesn't matter whether you're into crafts or not, we are all leading increasingly more hectic lives.

 

Finally, thanks to everyone who stopped by at the Maple Designs stall at Mary's Marvellous Vintage and Craft Fair on Saturday at St Mary's.  It was another great day, lovely to meet so many new people and stall holders, a great day.  Keep a look out for up coming fairs where I'll have a stall.

Craft Workshops

I've been spending some time over the past few months thinking of new and interesting ways to make sure Maple Designs keeps being fresh and exciting.  So...I'm looking into running some workshops and wanted to see what people thought of the idea.

First workshop being planned - learn the art of Applique.

What will be covered on the day...

We'll start by with the design or motif and choose from a selection of fabrics to use for the design, then we will transfer this onto a t-shirt, top or babysuit (which will be provided). Finally we'll use a machine to stitch round the outline before adding any final touches to finish your item off.

A finished article...

The workshops are for anyone, from beginner to advanced and will be a relaxed affair.  The date for the first workshop looks like it will be around mid-October.

What will be included:

• All fabrics and materials for your design
• A plain white t-shirt, top or babysuit
• All the tea and cake you can drink and eat!

Duration:     3 hours
Cost:            £25 per person


If you would be interested in joining in a workshop, please drop me an e-mail at lyndsey@mapledesigns.co.uk.

Lyndsey x

Cornwall rocks

Last week I spent a lovely week in Cornwall relaxing and soaking up the atmosphere of this lovely part of the country.

It's the first time back down that way since I was a young 'un and it did not dissapoint.  Our base was a lovely farm cottage (complete with hot tub, oh yes!) and we spent the week travelling around this area taking in some lovely places - Penzance, Mousehole, St Ives, Falmouth, St Mawes and Padstow.

My favourites were St Ives and Padstow, the craft, kiddy and gift shops were simply amazing and hours were spent wandering round the shops, taking in a coffee and people watch and devouring the amazing seafood.  Heaven?  I think so.

Mousehole (pronounced Mousell...I think)

The only dissapointing part of the week was a trip to Lands End - an expensive and tacky tourist trap which felt completely out of place for the area.  With hindsight this probably should have been expected - shame really though.

It's back to it now - the internet in the studio is working again now after a few weeks of, well, not.  I've got some orders to get out this week and preparation for a craft fair in the coming weeks - all go!

Lyndsey,

x

Lights, camera....action!

A couple of weeks ago the first ever Maple Designs photo shoot took place.  It was such a great day - a dream come true to have my very own photo shoot, amazing to have gorgeous models wearing and using my items and brilliant to see the end results.

First up I'd like to say a massive thank you to the Mum's and their little models for giving up their time and taking part, and a BIG thank you to Katie from KTM Photography whose photos are absolutely superb.

It was a really fun day and the kiddies were absolute superstars.  Each one had a goody bag of Maple Designs items for the shoot, including:
- Bibs (fabric fronted, terry towelling backed)
- Dribble Bibs (fabric fronted, fleece backed)
- Taggies (fabric fronted, fleece backed with ribbons)
- Burpee Cloths (fabric fronted, fleece backed), and,
- A range of hand appliqued fabric designs on t-shirts, tops and baby suits.

A few photos were posted on Facebook and more from the day are below for your viewing (and ahhhhhing) pleasure!

Haydn with a fetching 'tash top

No dribbles for Haydn with this dribble bib

Lily wearing an 'L' top and strawberry fabric taggie

Bella, Freya and Jack wearing hand appliqued t-shirts

Freya wears a whale design t-shirt

Jack with his dress down day clothing...t-shirt with tie design

Bunting for Bella

P is for Poppy

Poppy wears a strawberry bib

Lily wears an apple fabric dribble bib

Olive comforted by her spotty taggie

Olive saving mum's clothes with this burpee cloth

All items shown in these pictures are available to order and come in a range of fabrics and designs. 

I can also work on any bespoke or custom items - designs, initials, ages etc - so please just drop me a note to say hello via Facebook or e-mail me at lyndsey@mapledesigns.co.uk.

Lyndsey,

x


 All images used above kindly reproduced courtesty of KTM Photography (c) 2012.

Short but sweet

On Saturday Maple Designs had a stall at the Malin Bridge Primary School Summer Craft Fair which was another exciting event.  The school is only a few minutes away from home/the Maple Designs studio, so I actually managed to have a small lie in!

It was great to be part of a different fair aimed at a different audience than the previous fairs I've been to.  The mix of school children, mums and local people was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

This is only a short post today as I'm really busy getting everything ready for the first ever Maple Designs photo shoot which is taking place this coming Friday.  Fingers crossed the weather holds up, but even it has to be Plan B (i.e. indoors), I'm sure it's going to be a great day.

I'm so, so pleased that seven yummy mummies with their children have signed up for the shoot....it's really exciting and I can't wait to see what happens on the day and the photos that get taken.  There'll be pictures in future blog posts and they'll also be available on the Maple Designs Facebook page.  I'll also be tweeting about it during the day, so make sure you're following on Twitter.

Happy crafting,

x

Summertime Fun

I've just realised it's been a month since I've last wrote a blog post.  That's poor, so I'm making amends for it now.  I'm sure there's lots to update on, so here goes.

On Saturday 2 June, I had the pleasure of attending a jubilee workshop at The Button Tin which was just simply amazing.  I'd recently been to another workshop there which I mentioned in a previous post, and this time didn't dissapoint either.  Gemma was the perfect host and the jubilee celebrations in The Imperial Buildings, where The Button Tin is based, was decorated to celebrate the best of British (along with the rest of Rotherham centre).

I hand embroided another piece for the wedding - will be sure to post pictures in the coming months.  And, the tea, cake and embroidering colleagues were lovely again too.

At home we cranked up the celebrations for Liz and decked out the house and garden with bunting, union flags and put the Pimms on ice.  We had a lovely time with friends and family and the weather was thankfully much nicer than the river paegant experienced.

This last Saturday was the third outing at the Mary's Marvellous Vintage and Craft Fair and it was another great day for Maple Designs.  I was selling some products which went down really well, along with some existing products in different fabrics.

The 'Lion' fabric went down a storm

New addition to the range: Burpee Cloths

Another new addition: Cross stitched hoops

The stall - ready and raring to go

It was a great day and was lovely to meet both old and new crafty friends - make sure you check out Plain Jane Dawson, Red Apple Tree Crafts, Made in the Cellar, Little Denim, Mrs Hotchpotch and Leaf City Press.

The next Mary's Marvellous Craft Fair is in August, fingers crossed I'm successful again in getting a place - you'll here it here or on my Facebook page first!


What's happening next?

I picked up some orders from the craft fair and will be shipping these in the next few days.  I also picked up an order after posting the above pictures on Facebook - I'm amazed how sharing a few words and pictures really can help a small business.  Thank you all for your support - it's really boosting my confidence.

Following this, I've been learning some project management skills from my other half (who's a project manager) and I'm now using a job board for my orders.  I'm amazed how a sheet of A3, a marker pen and some post-it notes has made keeping track of what orders I have on so much easier!

This coming Saturday, 23 June, I've got a stall at the Malin Bridge Primary School Summer Fair - if you're in the area pop along and say hello.  Hopefully there'll be more interest in Maple Designs, my products and some more orders.

Happy crafting,

x