Strawberrykitten

Well it’s our due date today but no sign on baby Wheatcroft *humph* i must say i so ready for him to come out now, although not looking forward to the actual process :/

I know i havent blogged in a few weeks so i thought i’d make one long post, as it might be my last for another few weeks!

Firstly, upon requests from friends and a need to remember what it looked like here’s a few photos of the baby bump!

I also thought i’d upload some photos of the nursery, it’s now as finished as it can be, with a few bits and bobs we’ll have to buy and fix up along the way…

[left] our new ikea mushroom light and the ‘where the wild things are’ prints i put together [right] His wardrobe full of clothes donated by some great friends! thanks guys!

[left] His bookshelf topped with the very first bear i made and a miniature version on my granddads old fishing boat, he made these amazing models! [right] The bear family portrait i painted for Simon for our 1st wedding anniversary, we decided it would be nice in the babies room

So what’s been happening on a strawberrykitten front – well August has been a great month sales wise, which prompted us to look into making it into a real business. I have now registered as self employed and will be really pushing my bears and other crafts once we’ve settled into our new life as parents! With a christmas fair coming up i’ve been working hard on getting a large stock of bears made, and i’m going to keep pushing them out until the baby comes. After the fair i’ll be working on a new range of products – not sure what they will be yet mind!

Visit my shop to see some new animals.

Last week was a good week! As i said in a previous post it was our 1st wedding anniversary and we went to the yorkshire wildlife park which we’re lucky enough to only be about 5 minutes away from (infact we may be going again today thanks to season tickets) We had a really good walk around and managed to catch the lemars getting feed. I love lemars, look at these little fellas

On friday we had a hospital visit and i was given a quick 3rd scan to check the babies position – he’s head down! although annoyingly the doctor wouldn’t confirm it’s a boy as he got it wrong a few weeks ago.

Even more good news is i’ve been accepted onto the Craft candy ‘candy cane’ christmas fair which will take place on the 27th of november at the millenuim galleries in sheffield. I can’t wait and am hoping it’s really going to kick start my craft business I’m desperately thinking of how i’m going to display my bears and present the table, i really want to make a woodland type theme, maybe using fake grass and small logs for props/ label holders. I have a lot to make and prepare for it anyway, hopefully a new born wont stop that :/

Yesterday i worked on a custom large bear and made these…

They are tiny envelopes with tiny bear letters, i plan on packing one with each bear, according the the bear you buy, this letter is from rocco, i think they’re super cute and i love being able to give little freebies away, i might put a business card in too when i get some made.

Well I broke my blogging promise didn’t I!?! I haven’t yet had chance to take photos of the nursery, the weekend was full of cleaning and visits. I’m hoping to get some computer stuff done tomorrow so
Maybe then!

After a week of tidying I really wanted to get crafting again this week so I finally completed my new dear plush which you can see in my shop and between crafting stints I’ve been working on getting a stock a scarves made. I’ve just started making a pumpkin for a Halloween bear and a silver fish for the polar bear, also a prototype raccoon – excuse the bad photo, my backs hurting so much ive had to stop and have a lay down so I’m blogging from my iPhone.

God I feel like I’ve totally abandoned the blog over the last week or so and I’m really sorry for that. I thought I’d give you a quick catch up and hopefully get some proper blogging done next week.

I’m officially on maternity leave now and have about 5 weeks left!! Eep!!! So this week I defiantly think the whole ‘nesting’ thing has started, I can’t stop tidying and sorting things around the house. We sorted and moved around the spare room in order to free up some shelves for the babies room and it’s also made the room a lot more useable in terms of crafting use for me which is great – I just need a spare minute to craft now!! I’ve also been working on the nursery, I’m not sure on furniture placement yet but it is starting to look nice I’ll try take some pics in the next few days I promise!

As for an update on strawberrykitten – my Market guy got a bit more fur and will hopefully have more in a few weeks, so I went ahead and applied for the craft candy Xmas craft fair – I really hope i get accepted I’ve also got some ideas for new shop items and will hopefully get around to starting them next week if I get all my other jobs done hehe I’ll keep you posted on any new items as they come, I really want to kick it up a notch before the baby comes.

I’m struggling with pregnancy at the moment, it’s hindering my making abilities and socialising abilities and perhaps I’ve been letting it get me down recently. I only have about 6 weeks left until D-Day and 4 days left until I finish work, so hopefully I’ll have more time to finish projects and tidy the house etc along with nice long rests.

What has brought it home and made it more exciting is the fact that we bought our pram and cot at the weekend, although hearing other people we may have left it later than we should, but that’s just us! It should all arrive some time this week and I’m soooooo excited to play with the pram – I’ll take piccys when it’s here

So my plan this weekend is to hopefully get the nursery finished, or at least make a start on getting it finished, we just need bedding and a few bits and bobs and I have a few craft projects I want to make for the room – one being some bunting with his name on and maybe some cute cushions etc.

So all anyone asks now is ‘are you getting excited?’ and up to now I’ve kind of just nodded even though in the back of my mind I was really terrified, but now I do feel excited (and still terrified!)

On a strawberrykitten front I’m really starting to panic – I’m running so low on faux fur and the guy I get it all from on the market can’t get hold of any, so I’m having to source somewhere on the internet. You wouldn’t think it would be hard to find fake fur but it is!! It’s more expensive so I’ll have to bump up my prices and it’s hard to trust a photo of a fur fabric as the texture and length has to be just right to make my bears.

This problem has seriously hindered my plans as I fully intended to apply for the craft candy Christmas fair which is now open for applications but I don’t want to commit to do anything where I need a large stock making and then not be able to fulfil orders. I hope I can get this sorted as I would love to do this fair, if I got accepted that is! I have an awesome idea for a table display and hopefully would get some great Christmas sales!

I’m going to pop to the market today and talk to the fabric man, maybe he can get hold of it if I buy a whole roll or something, failing that I found an ebay seller that I’ll have to try before applying for the fair – I’ll keep you up to date on any further developments, I really don’t want to have to shut up shop with it going so well so far, even though I know I can make other things, I really love my bears.

Wow today i made the etsy front page! which ment i sold 2 bears instantly! fantastic

Shop update – I’ve finally sold some bears! After being open about 4 weeks I got my first order over the weekend, a custom order for a giant frank bear…

[here he is before he got shipped]

The next night I got another order for the vampire bear! and today i got an order from the UK! So 3 bears in as many days! Very exciting, I hope I can keep the sales coming in

So other than the shop starting to gain momentum I have been consciously trying to do something either shop related or creative everyday – I find I get quite down when I can’t be creative.

I’m really trying to get my picture book plans rolling and because it’s using my bears as characters i’ve been doing some little drawings and paintings to make into business cards/ I.D/ thank you cards to be included with any bear sales. Here’s some work in progress…

[i love every stage of watercolour painting, it's got such a nice quality to it and its really enjoyable to use - i wanted to use my inks tonight but they have glued themselves shut, so i'll have to see how i want to finish them off when the watercolour stage is done] <- click image to see larger version

I’m going to get these cards printed at moo cards I think, maybe have some of them with actual photos of the bears too, not sure yet – oh and stickers too, that’s something I want in the future, maybe when more sales come in to pay for it!

In an effort to get into a creative routine I have started arranging the spare/computer room. I’ve dug out all my paints, inks, pencils etc and put them in my little ikea draws (which need painting to make them a bit prettier!) and I’ve put all bear construction tools and materials on the window sill for easy reach whilst constructing. There’s still a hell of a lot of stuff to sort out in that room – definitely a work in progress!

That’s me signing off for now – off to do a bit of shop promoting and more painting.

Just a quick post to announce my strawberrykitten etsy shop now open!! I have a few handmade bears listed so far – please keep popping by as more will be added very shortly! Happy shopping!