Vintage earrings

I'm trying to gradually get caught up with showcasing my Etsy items over here on my blog. I like reading other blogs where people occasionally show what they've recently listed in their shops, mainly because it's often faster than wading through thousands of search returns and I mainly follow blogs of people whose style I like. Obviously if it's ALL etsy listings then it gets a bit tedious but it's a nice way of picking up a treasure or a bargain from time to time.



I bought these off a girl on thriftstore a while back, with the intention of putting them in my Etsy shop. Later on, when I was looking for a pair of shoes for Frances' wedding, I managed to part trade the earrings and some money for the shoes I eventually wore to the wedding. I love Etsy for that!

Vintage jumpers

I know it's not quite the season to be blogging about jumpers but lets face it, not everyone lives in balmy California or toasty Sydney right? Much as I love Scotland, the summer can blow goats so I figure it's good to be prepared and keep your knitwear to hand at all times.

These two little jumpers have been on my Etsy for a wee while now, the peach one for longer than the black. I think they're both super sweet and if they suited me at all, I'd definitely be keeping them. They both quite effectively display how rubbish my photography skills are though and I think that's partly what's stopping them from gaining more attention, black and peach it turns out are not my strong points when it comes to taking pictures.





Any suggestions from you crafty folk? Short of buying a better camera or setting up some kind of light box or investing in photoshop, I don't really know what to do when I'm on such a tight budget. Of course, if Second Fiddle were my main business, I would definitely do all of the above, but for the moment it's just a hobby-that-makes-a-bit-of-money and so I guess I'll just have to put up with the odd rubbish photo!

Windowsill Farm in June

Here we go, finally up to date with the garden updates! I filled the second veg bed and planted it up, so it's now full of beans, tomatoes, broccoli, leeks, carrots and salads. In theory. We'll see how things grow over the summer.

The second veg bed:


The strawberries I got off freecycle last year. Look how big they're getting, they grow up so fast - sniff


Come the autumn I want to clear the weeds and put grass seed down. There's an abandoned pile of bricks in the garden as well so I want to use them to build a path to the compost bin. We'll see how all these grand plans work out!

Garden in April

OK, so this post is embarrassingly late but here's the garden in April. Windowsill Farm just keeps on growin'!

As you can see, I haven't made much of an impact on the weeds (and it's even worse now, photos to follow...) but the first of the two veg beds was filled and ready to go in April. At the time, I planted onions, garlic, strawberries, a climbing rose and some irises. Tune in later to hear what happened come June!

The first veg bed:


Look at the weeds!


They're taking over :-(

Latest Etsy offering mark 2

So, I've been a busy bee today and sorted through my patterns. I filed and organised my knitting patterns (I know, I'm the coolest) and re-filed my sewing patterns in a more suitable receptacle (i.e. not shoved on top of my craft books in the study).

Whilst I was having all this fun, I came across 47 vintage knitting patterns and 5 sewing patterns that I have no use for. Enter Etsy!.



These vintage sewing patterns date from 1978-1981 and are all plus sizes, which I think was relatively rare back in the day. You can check them out in my shop over here.

Latest Etsy offering

I made this *months* ago but only just got round to finishing it off and listing it on my Etsy shop. As you can see, it's quite the complicated piece of sewing and I feel completely justified taking 3 months to finish it.

I've made a few for friends as presents or for sale and they seem reasonably popular, so I want to make a few more over the summer in different colours and fabrics. They're nice and easy and if anyone buys them, would make a nice little bit of pocket money for me!





The buttons are actually pink material, properly vintage, taken straight off a dress my Mum used to wear in the '80s! I added an extra picture on my Etsy shop to compensate for the overexposed first photo (my camera will not play nicely today), you can check it out over here if you so desire.

Pickle plushie

I made this stuffed toy corgi for my friend Alison as a part-her-birthday-present, part-Pickle's-birthday-present. Pickle is Alison's corgi and it was her birthday just after mine. The ears came out smaller than I was hoping as a small hole developed in her forehead so I had to go back over that area to fix it. Other than that though, I'm pretty pleased with it, it's a bit rough and ready but it looks pretty much like her! Alison was pleased too and that's all that matters I guess.







I tried to match her markings on each side with photos of her on Alison's facebook, here's one of the original for comparison:

I'm back!

Hello everyone, I'm back!

Apologies for the long delay in posting, those who read me already know that I sometimes can't post for long periods because of uni work or placements. Those who are hopefully here via Oranges and Apples, please don't be put off by the large gaps in my blog, I've got lots of exciting things to post about in the next few weeks, once I get my flat and life sorted after being away!



In the meantime, check out the marvellous 500th post giveaway over on Oranges and Apples, one of my vintage scarves is part of the prize!

We'll be right back...

Well, tomorrow I'm away for 2 and a half weeks on placement down south. I'm working at Newmarket Equine Hospital so I'm pretty terrified of messing up but it'll be good for my CV!

So this is me signing off until the 21st, but please check back then ♥