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.

New gettymops ranges.....

Detail from the Fairy Toadstool Range: Applique Pictures and Cushion

Adding to the gettymops ranges has been great fun. At the moment I am sticking to only four designs: Fairy Toadstool, Hot Air Balloon, Gingham Bunny and Circus Elephant. I have made these designs up into all sorts of accessories, including: Applique Cushions, Applique Pictures, Applique Children's Hangers, Applique Fabric Mobiles, Doorstops, and will be adding Seat Pads for child-sized chairs and Lampshade Covers for hanging and standing lamps. Don't forget, most of the gettymops pieces can be personalised. I will be adding to the designs for the Spring season, and already have some great ideas based on fairy stories and nursery rhymes so watch this space!

Applique Cushion and Pictures from the Circus Elephant Range

I have attended a few sales and fairs now, but am still learning about sales and marketing - it's tough out there as there is some good competition. I am always so pleased to meet people who love my pieces as much as I do, and I have had some fantastic feedback from customers on my service and the quality of the items I make for them. I should start a new section on the blog to include some of the comments - a real confidence boost for a new business!

Detail from the Applique Cushions




The ranges are all flexible in terms of colour, and I have already been asked to make up both the Hot Air Balloon and Circus Elephant in colours suitable for a girl's room. I have also had one or two requests to make up some of the items from my ranges in a customer's own fabrics or fabric from their child's too-small clothes as a more permanent reminder of a well-loved outfit. Even a tiny baby sleepsuit can be used here!

Gettymops Large Letter in Blue/Red

The Gettymops Letter Bunting is proving to be a real best-seller. These are probably one of my favourite yet fiddly items to make, and this is my chance to use the beautiful vintage fabrics and buttons that I have. I only have a limited amount of some fabrics meaning that each finished length is quite unique, but the fabrics are ideally suited to the smaller letters which make up the bunting. Also popular are the Large Letters, brilliant as an affordable and different birthday or Christmas present. These are roughly A4 in size, and made from one base fabric, with a selection of toning fabrics overlaid to create a patchwork effect. Of course, both the Letter Bunting and the Large Letters can be made up in the fabric colour selections of your choice, or to match the existing Gettymops Ranges, or of course in your own fabrics to match your child's nursery or bedroom theme.

Hot Air Balloon: Applique Hangers, Cushion and Pictures

Finally, I am looking forward to being able to post up pictures of my Next Big Project (capital letters essential as I am so excited about it). I am putting together an applique wall hanging, depicting the Grimms' Fairy Story 'Rapunzel'. It is an entirely new pattern, as although I have done something similar before, I now have so many new and beautiful fabrics, together with some gorgeous vintage pieces, that this will look somewhat different. It will feature finger-puppet characters that can be fixed to the picture in various places, or slipped into pockets, making it a unique toy as well as an original piece of art. I hope to make it sensibly affordable, but still special enough to be the perfect Christening or new grandchild gift. It will be finished in the next two weeks, so I expect to be able to post pictures very soon. In the meantime, I have a detailed drawing and fabric sample pack to help show you how it will work... please contact me on contact@gettymops.co.uk if you would like to know more.

A selection from the new ranges

Introducing Gettymops.... a little dream that I am slowly developing from a hobby into a teeny venture, and eventually (hopefully) even a small business. I love to sew, really love to sew, and have made lots of lovely things for friends and their children, but now think that I can make them to sell to others. I have two little boys (two and eight months), and although I adore them, I need to get started with something other than housework to challenge my mind. I think the things that I make and will be making, are rather sweet and if not totally original, at least unique in their particular design. I also happen to think that they are high-quality and well made.

I have been tinkering with the idea of running my own business, utilising my ability to sew, for some time, but lacked time and real inspiration until earlier this year. Somewhere in the back streets of the Left Bank of the Seine in Paris I found a shop that has inspired me with the ambition to perhaps own something similar one day. It is a beautiful, white-framed, white-painted nursery-furniture shop, selling everything a new parent could want for their baby or small child's bedroom. Old-fashioned cribs, beautifully carved cot beds, tiny rocking chairs, and all manner of changing units, chests of drawers, and miniature wardrobes. But what I really loved were the soft furnishings and other accessories. Cushions, curtains, bed linen, changing mat covers, rugs, lined baskets, framed prints, all chosen to help make a child's bedroom look like something from a story book. Yes, I suppose everything in there was a little pastel and wishy-washy, but this helped tie the whole shop's display together. I was in heaven and walked away dreaming and thinking: if only.....

So here goes, and this really is the VERY beginning. I can introduce Gettymops, the name I have chosen for my new-born business. In actual fact I didn't choose the name, my two-year-old son did, inventing the word when he was trying to pronounce 'forget-me-nots' in the garden with me one day. It was one of those words that you laugh at and treasure, and when I was beginning to think of a name for my business, it seemed to fit. What I am now making is a range of nursery accessories, including, (but by no means limited to!): doorstops, applique fabric pictures, fairy-tale wall hangings, applique cushions, curtain tie-backs, and the perennial bunting with a Gettymops twist. I have some more designs that I haven't yet tried, but at the moment my mind brims with ideas, so watch this space........

.... p.s: these pictures show some of the things that I have made. My Stars-and-Stripes Dragon Doorstop, my Fairy-Toadstool Applique Picture, and an example of the Gettymops Letter Bunting.