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.

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.

Bank holiday weekend and what a busy one it’s been! Saturday began with painting the babies room, now even though we’re renting we decided to just suck it up and paint it magnolia when we leave – so bright turquoise it is! I’m really pleased with the colour, it really pops against the floor.

Mum brought over my old wardrobe, which even though it looks sizable it is a kids one, plus means we don’t have to buy a new one. So I decided to get everything we had in there, including a few bits and bobs both bought and kindly donated by friends (the wardrobe is full or wonderful gifts! Thanks everyone) mum just got back from holiday in the yorkshire dales and visited all the Beatrix potter shops, hence the Peter Rabbit toys and the lovely box set of books which I used to have when I was little.

Aswell as the where the wild things are prints I made we also have some awesome prints by our good friend, Andy Welland

I will post more photos as the room progresses ( oh and forgive the bad quality photos I haven’t got my flash yet!)

So Sunday consisted of getting my first cupcake order completed for an actual paying customer. Someone I work with wanted mint and pistachio cupcakes for her mums 70th birthday party. I was so excited to get the order although once I was making them it became quite nerve racking, hoping that they came out ok. I think they turned out great, the flower cutters I bought worked a treat and the purple colour was perfect.

So Monday morning had me delivering the cupcakes, I was so nervous and hope she liked them! I won’t know until tomorrow if they tasted ok. See it’s so different from selling a product like the bears as once it’s sold it’s sold but the cupcakes, being something people consume is a bit scarier!

We also fitted in a trip to my dads in to munch on a yummy tea of paella and a chocolate tart – no photographic evidence as i ate it all too fast, as well as spilling everything in sight! i blame pregnancy for my clumsiness!

I haven’t had time to make anymore bears this weekend but i have decided i’m going to get the canon flash instead of the sigma – hopefully in the next week or two, so i’ll get their photos taken and put onto etsy to officially open for business!

This weekend has been a busy one and all we ever seem to do is make more jobs for ourselves. after deciding i want to jump back on the crafting band wagon i realised we’d need more desk space in the spare room, which involved swapping the whole room around. This has of course meant the room is in even more of a state than before and it kills me knowing how much there is to do and not having the time!

Other than that i did a little baking today, my plan is to take a set of cupcakes into work each week. Here’s this weeks…

They are strawberry flavoured – vanilla sponge with jam and strawberry buttercream. Hopefully the girlies at work will like them!

This weekend we also nipped to our new mothercare that just opened. Although we are getting a lot of baby equipment from friends and family, we still have a lot to get and looking around the shop made us feel even more clueless…we have some serious planning and list making to do…but i love making lists!! I also have a wedding to go to in 2 months and i’ll probably be twice as big as i am now, they had some really nice weddingy dresses, annoyingly not on their website so i can’t show you.

Anyways, i feel i’m slowly getting back into this blogging malarky, as evidenced by this loooong post. i think being able to use the Mac rather than being all squished on the sofa with the macbook helps. And in a few weeks i’ll start posting more piccys of the babies room, crafty stuff etc etc…Also not 100% happy with my blog theme yet so will be tweeking it every now and again, certainly not that bothered that i work none stop on it…it will do.

Right off to rest as i’m being kicked and poked by little hands and feet

Well i’m stuck at home recovering from a mega migraine, so while i can stand to look at a computer screen i thought i’d get some blogging done. due to being in today the landlord is finally popping over to look at the colours for the babies room

i personally change my mind about which one i prefer everyday, today i’m liking the dark turquoise. The plan is to get the room done over the next bank holiday weekend, we have all the furniture apart from the cot which is getting donated to us by family, then a quick trip to ikea for some shelving and other goodies. if i get time i may post some room inspirations and cool finds later, as long as my heads up to it.

Oh and let me know what colour you like best!