Christmas Lists

With Christmas less than 4 weeks away I really must get onto the Christmas shopping. I try to write things down in my diary over the year when I have ideas and/or when someone in my family mentions something they like. But each year I still tend to leave a lot of the gift buying to the last minute. My plan and goal this year though is to make some handmade gifts. There are lots of wonderful ideas and projects on One Pretty Thing which is a great place to start along with printable tags and cards for Christmas.
Finally, I just had to share this cute suitcase set. Aren't they the cutest??!!! They are from Urban Baby and I am already picturing them on the chest of drawers in Michaela's room.

All go!

Up until about 6 weeks ago I had had a relatively quiet year and now I'm busy, busy, busy! I participated in the Made on the Left Christmas Market last weekend which was a good day. The market wasn't as well attended as I had hoped but I still sold a few softies, met some lovely people and enjoyed my day there. I have one more market before Christmas, the Handmade Children's Market on Saturday 4th December as well as a few custom orders to complete for Christmas. These are keeping me busy but having participated in two markets now, I have a better understanding of what and how much to make for the upcoming market.
Last week I did some casual work supervising university examinations which was enjoyable. And there have been family birthdays and gatherings in recent days.
I managed to post my two softies to Meet me at Mikes for their Softies for Mirabel project and am hoping that these two guys make a child smile!

My most recent softie creation is a little hula girl. This one pictured was won by one of Little Cloud Factory 'likers' on Facebook.

And finally, I have one more project that I am working on at the moment which I will hopefully share with you soon.

Market Day

My stall awaiting visitors

Well, I survived! I had my first market stall yesterday at the Handmade Children's Market in Booragoon. The venue was really great, there were lots of wonderful stalls and overall it was a good first experience. I was bag of nerves for the 24 hours leading up to it and I didn't sleep much the night before, but I was worried about nothing and was fully prepared with stock, change, bags and some snacks! In the four hours I only sold 4 softies and took one order which is really disappointing. I received lots of positive comments and feedback and hopefully this will translate into orders and sales down the track. I have the Made on the Left Market next Saturday and consequently do not have to be too mad with the sewing this week in preparation. 

Here are a couple more pics of my stall.....



Some babushkas, two red riding hood dolls and spaceboy (notice i borrowed Michaela's new chair!)



New design- boy-bushkas on the top row



Michaela and me

Juggling

I don't know how so many mums do it! Work, family, house, blog, facebook, sleep, friends, the list goes on. I've had a pretty full on couple of weeks and the coming few are much of the same. It has been so wonderful getting involved with the Handmade Markets, and they haven't even happened yet!! There has been lots of emails, Facebook 'likes' and all round interest in both the markets and little cloud factory- really quite humbling to receive so many lovely messages. So, I've been juggling the sewing and market prep with everything else and well, understandably some things are not quite at their usual standard, ie cleanliness of the house and dinners that consist of only 3 ingredients!
I had also been planning on writing a post about my little girl's 2nd Birthday. We had a wonderful Saturday with her and our families and friends. I will share some pics from her Wonderland Tea Party shortly.
So, only two more sleeps until my first market- ahhh!!! I'm feeling ok- have made lots (40!) softies and am really happy with how my table is coming together (will share pics later.) Tomorrow will be printing and attaching tags and packing my car in preparation for an early start on Saturday. I know that I will be quite anxious on the morning before the market kicks off but I have lots of supportive friends and family coming along so that will help.