Second Fiddle!

Now the advent calendars are being opened and festivities are becoming ever so much closer,time is running away faster than ever.
I may have been quiet on social media recently, but honestly, I have been working my socks off! I have a head full of new designs for after new year that I have been working on, I have had Christmas pressies to make, and lots of lovely bits and pieces to make to sell in Coccuveda. There is only so many hours in the day, so to keep on top of things and hold on to my marbles this girl has been prioritising!!!!
 So Twitter/Facebook and Blogger you maybe feeling a wee bit neglected as of late, a bit like you are second fiddle, well the truth is you are! Technology has slipped way down my priority list for the time being, I daresay I will dip in and out of T F and B as and when I feel the need,  I daresay after all the festivities are over and January is upon us normal tweeting facebooking and blogging will be resumed!

"May your Days Be Merry and Bright!"

"May your days be merry and bright!" just like Coccuveda's Christmas window.

Today the lights went up as I brought some festive excitement to the shop front, Christmas trees are the theme this year.
 Now some folks might look and think the window is maybe a bit busy, possibly a bit OTT, but surely it is acceptable to go over the top at Christmas! I am definitely not the understated sophisticated type, I like cheery bright and exciting so hopefully this is reflected in Coccuveda.
I reckon Coccuveda Rothbury is the place for thoughtful unique locally made Christmas gifts, with a warm welcome and a lovely relaxed atmosphere.

A Parliament of Owls

This Parliament (I am told this is the correct collective name for owls!) of owls have left Coccuveda in Rothbury to their new home south of the Tyne to take up their important position of gracing a Christmas Tree!

This was a special commission for a lover of both owls and Tartan so mixing the two these little characters were created. Each one lovingly hand sewn, which did take some time.They maybe small but there is quite a bit of work involved in their production, from cutting out all the separate pieces, searching through many button jars to make sure there was enough buttons the same,hand sewing all the various elements together, then the stuffing and embellishing. Eventually commission complete and they are heading to a home where they will be adored!
It may be a while before I am ready to sew another owl!



 These cute reindeer are quicker to produce!

New Arrivals.

 Some of Coccuveda's clever crafters have been working hard and have delivered some new pieces that are creating a comfy cosy space in the shop. The lady behind Ragbags has beautifully re-upholstered some nice vintage chairs and she has also brought an old Singer Sewing machine from 1935, with its original instruction booklet, all are now for sale in Coccuveda.

This Lloyd loom style set would look lovely in a bedroom the fabric is just bright and colourful.

Perfect for country cottage style decor this 1960s seat could be comfy fireside chair

     

I am having to excerise a lot of self disipline as I could quite easily find house room for any of these vintage pieces, that is not the purpose of the shop though, I have to remember that I am there to sell not too buy!!!! I repeat that to myself quite regularly!

That Christmas Mullarky!

Well, my scheduled crafting activity that I had worked out recently, to give equal time to sewing, jewellery,  wire etc and Saturday my Christmas making day.......... it all went a bit haywire as Christmas seemed to take over my crafting brain cells. Trees, hearts and peg doll angels, more icicles etc were adding to the collection at the expense of everything else.



Well today I redressed the balance and out came beads, wire and seaglass and  I topped up my Seaglass jewellery range as I have been really pleased with how well it has been selling. It is also a nice reminder of warm sunny times, beach combing to find  all the beauty from the beach that goes into making this collection.

Christmas Trees and Stuff!

Saturday's Christmas day resulted, after a while, in these fabric Christmas Tree decorations. With a good old rummage in my fabric stash I found these lovely green fabrics that just instantly said trees! I had hoped to make more of the Christmas bead and wire icicles but Coccuveda had many happy shoppers on Saturday so time only allowed for three trees.
Well there is still plenty of time until Christmas!!!!! Isn't there????



I have been busy with other things over the past few days, a matching set of  earrings, bracelet and a long lariat necklace made with blue howlite gemstones with a bit of crystal sparkle in shades of purple.
 Seemingly Blue Howlite is supposed to
have a calming soothing energy which helps to still the mind and relieve anger and anxiety, should be perfect to wear while Christmas shopping!

Blue Howlite and purple lariat necklace

Dingle Dangle!

No, I am not one for taking the easy option in things that I make.  Today, for instance, I had set myself the task of making earrings. I realised that Coccuveda was lacking in earrings and they always make such a nice personal little gift so Tuesday was earmarked for lobe accessories day.!!!
I could have taken the easy way got out the headpins, earwires and beads, sat and threaded and no doubt could have produced a canny few pairs, in the time it took me to get 5 pairs made.
The trouble is I am not a fan of creating the same thing twice, i like individual unique things, which is also the essence of Coccuveda.
So wire and pliers were Merrily twisting, hammer and steel were smoothing and hardening, beads were matched and threaded, then unthreaded and matched again, many swarowski crystals were broken and lovely pearls dropped and instantly swallowed into oblivion on the floor. Eventually I had some unique, sparkly dangly earrings ready to put out for sale............ just not as many as I had thought, but I do have to assist lovely customers in the shop at the same time as making and also answer the telephone to all the cold calling utillity/telecom/ppi calls!!!!!

Beauty from the Beach comes in many Colours

It has been a very busy creative week here in my Coccuveda world, I have now tried to organise my days so that seaglass jewellery, beads and wire and fabric and felt get equal amounts of my attention. That is the theory anyway.
Monday was my Roving Rothbury Reporter day  http://coccuvedarothburydaily.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/roving-rothbury-reporter-does-afternoon.html

Tuesday was a sorting out and organising beach finds day followed by a bit of sea glass jewellery making.
Wednesday and Thursday were sewing felt and fabric creatures..... more owls and some more little Tweeters brooches.(pic will come soon) had no time left to package and photograph them.

Friday was a jewellery day, I just love making the Beauty from the Beach Mosaic pendants as the colours you get are so different from what you would really expect from the beach. There are the shades of green and blue but the surprising colours are the mauves, pinks and reds,

Dream Catcher pendants have been proving popular so I managed to get another couple made.

According to my work schedule tomorrow, being Saturday is a Christmas day, so will have to get cracking with Christmas Crackers!!!!

Cute red squirrel!

I heard on BBC news the other day that the rate of decline of our red squirrel population here in Northumberland has slowed down, that is good news for Tufty here and all her friends ,that might appear here soon if i can speed my hand sewing up a bit!!!

Bootiful Booty from over the Border

Dunbar has been an excellent treasure hunt at the beach, seaglass including a few pieces of cobalt blue, much prized! Other finds were lots of little shells, perfect for the mosaics, sea pottery all rounded and smooth. I have a fantastic amount of "Beauty from the Beach" so I best get cracking and get some more jewellery made! I had better make sure I tell customers that this is Scottish seaglass rather than the usual Northumbrian seaglass that I use!

Todays Booty from the Beach!

We all need a holiday every now and again, it becomes a bit more difficult though when you have a small retail business because if you are not open you are not taking any business but overheads still need paying! I am easily pleased though, a few days out here and there with a nice stop at a different coffee/tea shop and I am content. Today's trip in the sunshine had us heading to our favourite beach in County Durham to get more sea glass, interesting pebbles and pottery for making more "Beauty from the Beach" jewellery. I am really pleased with how it is selling so I need to take any opportunity I can to keep my "booty" full so my production doesn't slow down. I wonder how keen I will be to take to the beach in the middle of December in freezing cold windy conditions! Will have to see about that!

Todays "Booty from the Beach"

Pin It!

Just because my crafting this week includes "Pin its", giant pins I have decorated with pretty beads, that are perfect for fastening chunky knits or embellishing a scarf or they also pretty up the lapel of a jacket. I have also been using my seaglass mosaics in making pretty brooches that would jazz up a coat.
Just because I am thinking of chunky knits and coats doesn't mean to say that I am one of those people that are assuming that summer is now over and it is full steam ahead to winter woolies! I am just being prepared!

New String to my Bow!

New string to my bow! That is one of those funny old sayings that we use in conversation etc to make things sound more interesting than just actually saying things exactly as they are.
Literally with" a new string to my bow" you might expect that I am a string instrumentalist that has just repaired a vital piece of equipment but what I am really trying to say is that " I am doing something different or, I have gained a new skill" To "cut a long story short" or to "stop beating about the bush", I have opened an Etsy Shop to start selling my new Seaglass jewellery on the internet.     http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSeaGlassShop

This has been dominating my time over the past couple of weeks, it is surprising how long it all actually takes.

•  Firstly you have to think of a name for your shop, one that will come up easily in peoples searches. 
• Then you have to sort out the design in order to make it colourful and tempting
•  next thing work out all the post and packing costs. 
• The hardest thing is coming up with descriptions for all the products, descriptions that are honest and true to what you are trying to sell but at the same time making it sound interesting. 
• Photography is the next step, or to flower things up again organise a "photo shoot", then do a bit of editing to make sure size is the required size but at the same time trying to make sure the product is captured to show it at its best.

We are nearly there, everything all has to be uploaded and checked and then published and promoted to hopefully achieve the end result of "sales!"

So my time has been well and trully all used up so blogging has "taken a bit of a back seat" as I have given all my concentration to Etsy. Hopefully Rothbury Daily will resume again soon.