Boxes boxes everywhere....

Our next house move is imminent, and I sit and write this surrounded by painting sheets and piles of books. We shall be making a more epic move than before: exchanging the idyllic Dorset countryside for the bleak and historical Northern German plains. My sewing machine stands alone, waiting to go in the car (I won't let the packers touch it), and it may be a few weeks before I am able to tackle any larger projects. Curtain-hemming and essential repairs to cushion covers will have to take precedence for a while!

See you on the other side....

Hooray! Access to gettymops.co.uk is restored!

After some wrangling with the web-hosting support services, I have finally been able to get back into my web-hosting account and can now start to rebuild the site. I hope to be able to add a payment facility onto my website at www.gettymops.co.uk and update the pictures. I have started offering personalisation on the Dragon Doorstops that I sell through Notonthehighstreet.com and should really add these little chaps to the ranges available on the website. See what you think!

Dragon Doorstop made especially for George!

It's good to be back in the bloggersphere!

What an age since I last sat down to update this blog! I am ashamed to look at the date of the last newsflash.

Life has moved on and I am endeavouring to get some new products out there via my NOTHS.com shop. It has taken off beautifully, and I am indebted to the team over in the NOTHS.com office for all their hard work on the marketing side, taking the pressure off me and allowing me to concentrate on the sewing. I do very little to promote the products, and yet the orders come flowing in. If you can afford the investment then I would certainly recommend applying to become a partner. It has given me the confidence to think that one day, when the time is right, I could take this project from the dining-room-table workshop to a larger enterprise.

I have also signed up to www.followtheflag.com which has gone live in the last couple of days. An excellent forum for forces 'dependants' (like me) to promote our business enterprises or valuable skills, thus making it easier to promote and develop our abilities in a world where our careers come a very definite second-place to the demands of life as an Army/Navy/RAF wife or partner. Do take a look, particularly at BishopMarineArt in the artists section. My talented father-in-law.

A short missive this time as we are in the throes of another house-move and I must get down to the nitty gritty of sorting out my endless fabric supplies. New products to post up very soon!

Feeling considerabely better than I did in the first half of this month, I am tackling my sons' bedroom decoration (again - it needs updating from a baby's nursery to a little boy's bedroom). New curtains & pelmets, new bedspread, and a few little bits and pieces to put up on the walls. I'm going to use my Dragon Doorstop as an inspiration, with the dragon himself on the curtains, along with a brave knight, and campaign tents and jousting knights on the pelmets. At least I hope to get around to doing it all! I made some Letter Bunting with Dragon ends for a customer recently, and am still working on a set of pictures and cushions to go with him.













I have made quite a few more of the large letters now, in different colour combinations. I am not sure how to describe all of the colour ways though - the blue/red/yellow for example depends very much on the base fabric I use. If the blue stars that I use for my dragons, then the whole effect is paler than using a blue gingham for example - perhaps 'blue stars' and 'blue gingham'? Let me know if you have any other idea!















Other than that I am looking for a 'proper job' at the moment. We have definitley decided that I need to use my professional qualification to earn us some serious cash, and whilst I have no intention of giving up gettymops, I am in complete agreement that we need to finance our dream-house and see the boys grow a little older before I take the next step and get someone in to help me with the sewing or even outsource it abroad.

I am suffering from the 'tired of January' feeling. I always dislike January, and February as a matter of fact. The excitement and enjoyment of Christmas is over so quickly, and although I still smile every time I think of Christmas Day (my eldest little boy who is nearly three was just at the right age to understand what was going on), I really struggle to get enthused about weeks and weeks of grey/wet/cold weather before Spring starts to set in. There was a little relief when we had a couple of inches of snow, but we seem to be in a bubble down here in Purbeck, and it soon melted and we had no more. I wouldn't wish to have experienced the hardships some have had to suffer with the snowy weather, but it would have been nice to have a few more days of it down here, it's such a mood lifter!

So, time to try to beat the winter blues with some serious creativity. I tried my hand at some more 'grown-up' designs as Christmas presents for family this year, and will put some onto notonthehighstreet.com/gettymops to see what the buyers think. We invested in a new camera just before Christmas and I think these photos show that it was worth it! I love the coffee pot cosy that I made for my Mum, and will make one for myself when I get the time.

I am also cheering myself up by finally getting on with some of the sewing and decorating jobs that we have outstanding around the house; my husband is such a talented chap with a paintbrush too, so he is fully employed in the evenings. I now have a revamped dresser/shelf unit in the kitchen. and he has painted my plain lamp stands beautifully, to match my favourite china.

So I'll get on with January, and ignore the depressing dark weather, and look forward to Spring. Watch this space for more of my new ideas. Oh, and I spent some time sprucing up the website over Christmas, so have a look and let me know what you think! www.gettymops.co.uk

Happy New Year!

Well, it's done - gettymops is officially up and running on notonthehighstreet.com

Follow the link or click on this: www.notonthehighstreet.com/gettymops

Many of you will have seen the products in detail on one of my stalls, but have a look at some of the images now available on notonthehighstreet to see what I'm up to at the moment. I haven't yet uploaded all my stock, but will do slowly over the next few weeks, and will be updating this site and www.gettymops.co.uk with the all new Knights and Dragons range in the New Year - it's fabulous, and based upon my favourite Stars and Stripes Dragon doorstop!

You can still contact me directly to order any of the products on notonthehighstreet, or to chat about bespoke items. I have spent the last hour cutting out and putting together a Circus Elephant Applique Picture in pinks, and will upload a picture when it is complete as an example. Remember - I can be totally flexible when it comes to colour schemes. Just contact me directly on contact@gettymops.co.uk

notonthehighstreet.com update!

I have just spent the best part of the last two days uploading as much stock as possible onto notonthehighstreet.com Hours and hours of waiting for photographs to upload, editing them, and writing out short descriptions, long descriptions, tags, keywords, terms and conditions, links.... I think it will be worth it but boy do I need the hot toddy my husband is preparing for me right now! It's all very exciting, and I feel that things are really beginning to move forward. I needed to spend the time carefully photographing all my pieces to make them look their best and to compete with all the other beautiful things on noths.com

It's been on of those weeks when the 'is it all worth it' feeling begins to creep in. I have a large number of orders to fulfil, and want to get them done early to enable people to give them as gifts at Christmas. I also had a sale on Thursday and was not at my sparkling saleswoman-best, as I was beginning to feel quite unwell. I came away feeling that it was worthwhile in terms of sales, but absolutely shattered. There were some great stalls there - not least the fabulous and very talented Home Is.. lady, whose little wooden houses and address/name blocks are so popular with everyone I know. I don't have her website details to hand but she really does have a brilliant idea and an artistic flair! I'll post her address up as a favourite asap as I think she deserves as much publicity as possible. I have one of her painted houses on my wall at home, together with the numerous addresses I have lived at, children's birth dates, and puppy arrivals hanging underneath. It always draws comment!

So, feeling just a little deflated on Friday, I set to work on the gettymops noths.com homepage, and have given it my best shot given that I'm not the most computer literate of people - I sew well though! I'll be getting their feedback on the images, text and so on in the next week, and then hopefully will have a live link from this blog to my very own shop. Very exciting. Watch this space.... In the meantime, here are pictures of some of the stock I have uploaded, I think the doorstops are new to the blog, as may be the Large Initial Letters. I can also give a sneaky preview of the Rapunzel Tower, which has saved my sanity as I have loved making it so much. More soon!

A boy's Large Initial Letter. I use a basic fabric and then layer on patches in contrasting fabrics using a variety of decorative stitches. Selling at £8 these are a great birthday gift.

The Hot Air Balloon doorstop. Just fabulous in the classic sky blue/navy/white and red colours and a really popular design with customers. £15 for gettymops customers.

The Fairy Toadstool doorstop. Well weighted but still dainty in pale pinks, neutrals and lemons.

Images from the Rapunzel Wall Hanging: Rapunzel and The Witch detail, and the Wall Hanging as a whole. Some tweaking still required, but I am so pleased with the finished result! The figures are all finger puppets and will fit one adult finger or two little-person fingers. Soft colours work really well. I have tried to choose colours that will last a little girl from birth to leaving home for University, and to make it a heirloom beyond that. No sickly pinks thank you! This one hasn't had it's banner sewn on at the top of the tower. This is where I sew on the child's name. Hand embroidered in silks and completed with a button detail it really finishes Rapunzel's Tower off.

Oh, and finally, I have started making Christmas decorations. Stars, hearts and gingerbread men, all in festive gingerbread-coloured linen and red gingham with button detail hanging loops. Now I just have to get started on hand embroidering children's names on to them. Actually I am quite pleased with the way they have turned out. Very festive. I think I shall have a whole string of them on gingham ribbon in my kitchen.