Welcome to the first ever blog from Fyne Country Crafts on the edge of Loch Fyne in the Scottish Highlands! I want to create a blog that focuses on crafting, thrifting, growing your own vegetables and just random things that make life so good.
I have been running my craft business from home for 4 years now and I love each and every day of it, waking up wondering what I might create today- and as any crafter will tell you, some days are better than others. Some days the ideas just flow and other days, well...those are the days I tidy up the craft room/studio :-)
I love a wide variety of crafts, main ones being sewing, knitting, writing on rice jewellery and my latest guilty pleasure- needle felting....soooo addictive!
I will start my blog with an intro to my business and the items that I sell....
Here is an example of my name on rice jewellery;

I sell these on eBay and Etsy and at craft fairs, having been inspired by the ones that I have bought over the years- I have ones that I bought in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China from over 10 years ago and they are still going strong! It is very lucky to have your name written on a grain of rice, so I find that I sell loads of these! Here are some samples of rice that I have written on;

The most I have ever written on a grain of rice is "HAPPY MOTHERS DAY" and that was on ONE SIDE of the rice grain! It does take a lot of practice but I enjoy it very much.
It really is like creating a piece of miniature art- the picture above is of real dried flowers and to give you an idea of size, the glass pendant is just over 3cm in length! I love finding new miniature items to go into my pendants, as well as the pretty glitters and real dried flowers.
I get a lot of requests for memorial pendants too, especially ones for pets and even quite a few sadly for little babies who were born asleep :-( But also plenty for happy occasions too, such as birthdays, anniversaries and even marriage proposals!!
Here's another couple of photos for those interested;

I have customers from all over the world for these and I love the fact that when people ask me what I sell they are always surprised! Anyway, enough of my rice pendants, if you would like to buy one, then click one of the links below;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Name-Rice-Grain-Pendants-Glass-Vial-Glitter-Real-Flowers-3-10-/251014363337?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Celebrations_Occasions_ET&var=&hash=item8014c59e29
http://www.etsy.com/listing/93792739/rainbow-flowers-name-on-rice-beautiful
I also sell lots of pin cushions- cats, pandas, cute ones and all with decorative bead pins! I have also started selling the sewing patterns to my items recently too- so get crafting! Here are some of my pin cushions;

Again, these are available on eBay and Etsy as are the sewing patterns if you want to make your own- and they do make GREAT sellers at craft fairs, especially when you get a load of them made up in different fabrics and arranged nicely on the table. Apart from pin cushions, I sew a number of different items, including these- a Family of Christmas Puddings and a Family of Pumpkins;

I even scent the Pumpkins and the Puddings with fragrance oils! They smell divine and when you have a set of 3 smelling like Pumpkins and Christmas Puddings, then they really bring the season into your home. They are quite fiddly to make- the Puddings especially but I love hand sewing so much and my sewing machine hasn't seen the light of day for years now- I even sew curtains by hand! I also made this quilt by hand- it took soooo long to do and now I can't part with it, the colours and the fabrics just make me happy :-)

As you can see, there are a lot of little squares to sew! It is also the background to the Fyne Country Crafts logo and probably the best thing I have ever made (yeah, I'm proud of this one!)

But my latest crafting addiction is NEEDLE FELTING! Honestly, I was surprised too. I had a bought a Toadstools Felting kit from Panduro Hobby website and like many things I buy, it lay dormant for many months until one day I picked it up to have a "stab" (sorry, couldn't resist) and 6 hours later, I was still stabbing the wool! I find it so relaxing and it really is just like meditation. Please give it a go! Here are some of my creations;

That last photo is of my Clover needle felting mat- buy it from Quilt Direct as the large size is only £11.90....they are about £18 on ebay! I started out with the foam pad in the Toadstools kit I got but soon that started disintegrating and I was getting tiny pieces of white foam mixed into my pieces- most annoying! Do you like the pink craft mat? :-) So girly, every crafter should have one!
The item on the felting mat (it's like a brush really) is one of my owls with a felting needle sticking out of his side. If you are wondering how felting works the needle have little jagged pieces that catch the fibres of the wool as they go in and basically tying them together so you start out with a handful of wool and start stabbing it with the needle and gradually it takes shape.
You really can make anything - gorgeous jewellery (that's what I'm doing after the owls!), little creatures, pictures, or even miniature teddy bears like in the first photo- that little guy is only 4.5cm high! That took me a very long time - even the tiny honey pot took several hours- the letters are stitched on and measure 2mm in height. I will let you know how my latest projects are coming alonga shortly.
So that is the end of my very first blog, I hope you've enjoyed it and please feel free to drop me a line if you have any comments - good or bad- or any questions.
Best Wishes to you and yours
Alison X