Catching Up - Stitches Show and CHA news!

I've been away for most of this week at the Stitches trade show in Birmingham. I go every year but usually just for one day, however this year I had lots of exciting meetings planned and things to do so I stayed for the whole thing!

I was very lucky that when I got to the hotel, I was upgraded to a suite, so I had a star on my door and a little balcony opposite the bed (though it was far too cold and rainy to actually go out there!!)

For the first day my assistant Lisa came with me and we had a fab time checking out all the new products, including my brand new stamps for Personal Impressions!! (I still squeal a little when I see my new products)

When she left, I quickly rushed back to the hotel for the CHA UK AGM and networking event, I'm super pleased and proud to tell you that while I was there, I was elected to the board of directors! To even be considered was an honour, let alone selected and elected! So for the next 3 years I will be working on some very exciting projects for the craft industry alongside a number of fab industry experts (am I allowed to squeal again??)

After all of that excitement I treated myself to a little lie in in the squishy hotel bed (surprising how much sleep you can get when you don't have furry peeps snoring in your ear and trampling you! lol) before heading back for the last day of the show on Tuesday, I had lots of exciting meetings lined up and I can't wait to start telling you all the new and exciting things coming soon! I also got to have a little crafty time with Tania at WOW embossing, making this pretty pink ring...

I had dinner that night with the rest of the CHA UK board so we could all meet each other properly and then I was up early Wednesday for an all day board meeting (my first one!!) before heading home to Essex, I think my furry peeps missed me, what do you think??

Now, Lisa and I are frantically catching up with emails and things, and working on the reveal of this months 'A Few of My Favourite Things' kit (watch your inboxes this weekend!!) I will be back very soon with some crafty things and projects to show you very soon too.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

The End of a Busy Week!

Well, Friday has once again sneaked up on me! This week has been another super busy one and I feel like I've barely had chance to catch my breath let alone blog or craft.

At the beginning of this week I visited the UK craft trade show Stitches in Birmingham, I had just a few hours there Monday and a lot of show to see and people to meet up with!  Of course I had to make a teeny bit of time to go and see Tim demonstrating his new Distress Markers and the Distress Stains...

After my meetings I made the most of the couple of hours on the train home to catch up on some sleep! Tuesday I spent the whole day catching up on emails, phone calls and other bits of work that had come in on Monday - why is when you spend a day away from everything twice as much happens?!

Wednesday I was able to take a day to go and meet up with Emma at our second home, Selfridges in London, we shopped, gossiped and had lots and lots of coffee before heading home (with just one little yellow bag, such self restraint! ;o) )

Thursday was spent on book research, magazine write ups, a new work proposal, some product design and a bit of illustration, with lots of tea drinking in between of course! and today I had some errands to run (luckily my Mother in Law came to help - what a star! and B was home early to help too, yay!) and this afternoon, back to work again, although I do plan to take this evening off to snuggle and watch a film with B and Fuzzybutt, hopefully then they will forgive me for working most of the weekend! I can't wait to get back in my studio, my little fingers are itching to craft!

Finally, Melly has some fab projects to share over on her blog today with the new Easter Tea Party Kit - I hope you will pop over and take a look!

I hope you have a lovely weekend, I'll see you next week with some crafty projects,  guest blogging and some news!

Sarah x

A Day Out!

Sunday I had a day out, a visit to Stitches, the UK craft trade show. I had lots of meetings lined up, all of which went very well, you'll be seeing new developments soon! and I met some lovely new people, some of whom I hope to be working with in the near future... :o)

While I was there I met some of the regulars I speak to on Twitter, here I am with some you may recognise,

I saw lots of the lovely new products which will be hitting the shops soon, I can't wait to get my hands on them! I also watched some demos including Tim Holtz (of course!) no pics this year though, despite taking my camera, I was rushing around so much and chatting so much that I didn't get to take many pics and didn't even grab a coffee until we passed Starbucks on the way home!!! By the time I got home I was EXHAUSTED and crashed in bed at around 8.30, was asleep by 9!! shocking LOL

Of course that meant an early start so I thought I would be productive and take Fuzzybutt for a nice long walk - she wasn't at ALL happy with that - she is a funny dog, she doesn't really like walks and would prefer to just have a run around on the green outside our house and then go back inside! She's been glaring at me from her snuggly duvet position all day, don't think I'm forgiven.... take a look at that moody, sulky face!

This week I have crazy deadlines, finishing off designs for 2 different clients, designing 2 new mini collections for another, finishing up my illustrations for the Bologna Book Fair and some other bits and pieces. I do love busy times though, I think it keeps you motivated and enthusiastic about your work when you have a busy and varied schedule!

I'm trying to decide whether to go to the London Book Fair in a couple of weeks, if any of you have been please let me know what you thought (you can e-mail me if you prefer)

Until tomorrow!
Sarah x

Tim Holtz Fever!!

Everyone seems to have Tim Holtz fever at the moment, including me! Finally got my mucky little hands on his lovely book yesterday (Karen at ScrapShed finally relented and let me take it home - she wouldn't let me have it before in case I took it to Stitches and tried to get it autographed like an embarrassing groupie, mwahahahaha!) now I've devoured it all and of course seen the fabby demo at Stitches on Sunday so over the last day or two I've been stocking up on lots of things that of course now I've seen I actually literally cannot live without!! Like my lovely new Tim Holtz Stamp Binder - if you ever see this "in the flesh" you will not be able to resist - lush!!

Also now have new stamps so of course need lovely new ink pads and as Karen needed some swatches to show off the colours I got to play with them all first - yay! you can see in the pic I managed to once again get myself in a right old mess and have fun creating them, here's me "demoing" the new colours

My favourites are Rusty Hinge, Crushed Olive and Chipped Sapphire (which isn't purple as it looks on the packaging but actually a lovely dark blue, like a night sky)

You can see that the packaging (below) is not a great representation of the colours - they are much much better in "real life"

Think my overall favourite is still the old walnut stain, I just LOVE it! Right I'm off to get some new samples made up and try all the techniques in the book I haven't yet tried!

Stitches

Today I went to Stitches to see and stroke and stare longingly at all the fab new products - I'm sooooo excited and can't wait to get my hands on them all! Watch out for all my new samples coming soon.......

Watched a fab demo by Tim Holtz and a couple of others on the stands - came away feeling all fresh and inspired again - yay!