Warm Spice Owl Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed - many thanks to everyone who took part!

This is a festive twist on my popular range of lavender owls. Instead of the usual floral aroma, this owl is filled with my own delicious blend of star anise, cinnamon and cloves. It brings a truly festive scent into your home!

This giveaway will run for two weeks and the lucky winner will win one warm spice vintage fabric owl in buttercup and chestnut. Full details of the competition and how to enter are listed below. Good Luck!

How to enter:

mandatory - Please visit my Etsy store and leave a comment below telling me which is your favourite item.

three additional ways to enter:

1. Become a follower of my blog. Leave a comment and let me know that you're new.

2. Tweet this giveaway: @pouchbags Warm Spice Owl Giveaway: http://pouchbags.blogspot.com/2011/11/warm-spice-owl-giveaway.html

3. Become a fan of Pouch on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pouchdesigns

**If you enter this giveaway, please state clearly your email address, OR your Facebook/Twitter/Etsy username, so I can contact you in case you win**

The giveaway runs from Friday November 25th through to midnight (GMT) Friday 9th December. I will pick a winner at random, and announce the winner on December 12th 2011. Please note: This competition is open to worldwide entries, but if you live in Australia, I will not be able to send a scented owl due to strict custom restrictions. I will be happy to send an unscented version.

**Shop news!** I am also offering free worldwide shipping on all items in my Etsy store for 7 days, starting from Cyber monday and ending on 5th December. Please use coupon code CYBER2011 at checkout!

Vintage love: fabric finds for November

I have been behaving myself recently and I have not given in to my addiction. I haven't bought any vintage fabric for, well, at least four weeks, maybe even five...

But I just had to buy this floral fabric, it's just the stuff I like to use to make my lavender owls and rabbits. I find it has the perfect texture and thickness for making my plush animals. I can't wait to get snipping and making with this lovely lot. It will have to be in 2012 though as I am pretty busy with Christmas orders at the moment!

The other 'zig zag' fabric was given to me as a gift. After doing a bit of googling, it turns out that this Margo International fabric designed by Anna Caldwell dates from 1972. I've found a link to some of her work here, her "Brix" fabric won a Design Council Award in 1975. So, I am very happy that it was gifted to me! I'm not sure what to make with it yet. It is lovely and thick with a nice weave to the fabric.

20% off all vintage trims

Right now I am offering 20% off all trims in my Etsy and Folksy stores. This is a perfect time to stock up on some beautiful fabric trims for your next crafting project. They come in all colours of the rainbow and many are incredibly intricate and highly collectable. A must-have for all you vintage fans! Hurry over, due to the fact these trims are vintage, they are all strictly limited edition, once they are gone...I can't source more!

Vintage fabric Rudolf decorations

Now that Halloween and Bonfire Night are safely out of the way, it's time to start thinking about Christmas...after all it's only 7 weeks away!!

So on that festive note, I'd like to introduce you to my latest creation - vintage fabric Rudolf decorations. Handmade with vintage fabric in shades of amber orange, chocolate brown, pure white and jet black. He's filled with non-allergenic stuffing and has wool felt detailing in shades of chocolate and toffee brown. His look is completed with a bright red button nose.

I currently have two versions for sale, one is unscented and the other contains a delicious combination of dried star anise, cinnamon and cloves. I have had lots of fun making the latter as the scent is just amazing.

So far, I have had lots of fabulous feedback for Rudolf from crafting friends and most recently he was featured on the popular Craft Gossip blog, the Cuteable blog and of the UK Handmade Facebook page, which gained lots of thumbs up from their readers!

Also, if you are quick, there is a chance to win one on the popular Bugs and Fishes blog.

I just wanted to add, I made two versions partly because not everyone will like the festive spice mix, everyone has different tastes! But also because certain countries do not allow dried plant products to be imported into their country, most notably Australia has very strict laws relating to this. So the unscented version is available for worldwide shipping and the scented version is for United Kingdom and Europe only.

They are available in both my Etsy and Folksy stores.

UK Handmade is 3 this Winter!

UK Handmade is 3 this Winter! We’ve come such a long way since we first embarked upon this journey, walking a unique path with the support and collaboration of some great talent.

The Winter issue of UK Handmade Magazine is our special 3rd Birthday edition where you can find out how UK Handmade came to be. It's live and ready to read online HERE (click on the enlarge button to the bottom left to read it full screen) or support UK Handmade by buying the PDF download here.

So why not join us in putting on the kettle, grabbing a comfy seat and celebrating 3 years of UK Handmade goodness.

Visit UK Handmade at: http://ukhandmade.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

vintage love: Clothkits puppets

I love these vintage handmade puppets, not just because they are bright and well designed, but because my Mum made them for me and my brother to play with. I am a pretty sentimental person, and these puppets bring back lots of happy memories, particularly of my Mum sewing at the dining table. They are designed by Clothkits and date from late early 1980s. Clothkits was a big part of our childhood, my Mum regularly ordered kits to make clothes for herself and for me. I remember the pre-printed fabric arriving through the post, my Mum would pour over the instructions and then the sewing machine came out...

Alongside clothes, Clothkits also made toys. This set of four puppets features a lion, an elephant, a tiger and a clown. They are bright and chunky and really appeal to small children. So much so that my brother's daughter regularly performs puppet shows at Grandma's house. Now I have my own daughter, she has also grown to love these puppets, either playing with them herself or watching one of the many shows performed by her cousin. My brother's daughter has had us all in stitches with her stories, which mainly revolve around the fact the lion cannot be King of the Jungle because he is wearing a vest. Its amazing how much fun children can have with four simple puppets and lots of imagination...

Clothkits is such a brilliant business model, as it says on their website:

"well designed clothes without the fuss of paper patterns. All the cutting lines are printed directly on the fabric in a simple format that means even the inexperienced can make garments with ease."

I'm so glad the company has had something of a revival since 2008, it would a shame to lose a business that plays such an important part in my generation's memories. They even have a lovely collection of archive photos uploaded by members of the public on their website. It's worth having a look to see if you recognise anything you wore as a child!

And with the growing popularity of 'make do and mend' and sewing in general, a whole new generation of people are falling in love with the company.

self-sufficientish 2011

Every year I blog about my attempts at being 'self-sufficientish', originally inspired by this website, it's basically an attempt to grow as much food at home as possible, eat seasonally and save some money too!



2011 as by far been our best year for homegrown food, thanks mainly to my Mum and brother taking on an allotment. I must admit, I was sceptical at first thinking they would have no time to maintain it properly and all they would harvest was a variety of weeds. But I've been proven wrong. My Mum has barely been able to keep up with the produce that has been bursting out of the soil. My mum and brother can't dedicate all their time to the allotment, an evening here, a Sunday afternoon there, but what they have planted has grown like mad. Every week my mum has bought us a bag of goodies, ranging from potatoes, onions, courgettes, cucumbers, the best strawberries I've ever tasted, massive blackberries, tons of runner beans, one or two celeriac, a handful of my brother's precious peas, and the most amazing garlic.

In fact we even managed to have a 'no supermarket' meal, which is a first in this house. In August we had an amazing Spanish omelette made from eggs from our friend's chickens, potatoes, onion and courgette from my mum's allotment, tomatoes and herbs from my own garden and it was absolutely delicious. We are all so reliant on supermarkets these days, that it was nice to have one meal where we hadn't had to hand over a single penny to one of them!



I'm also a convert to 'fridge pickle' I know it doesn't look like much, but believe me, it's very tasty. Basically my Mum had a glut of onions and cucumbers, so she went online to find some recipes and found whole websites devoted to using up gluts produced by allotment produce, which is handy! To see the full recipe, please visit this very useful website




I can honestly say we have never eaten so well as we have done this Summer, the produce has been organic and seasonal, extremely tasty and taken minimal cost to produce. We've also enjoyed seeing our young daughter eat such lovely, fresh food. If you get the opportunity, I would wholeheartedly recommend signing up for an allotment, my mum and brother are now complete converts and are already planning crops for the Winter and next year!

***blog giveaway winner - many thanks to everyone who took part in my Autumn giveaway - the lucky winner picked at random is...JillHogan. A selection of vintage trims will be winging their way to her soon***