In like a lion

I love our house - it's part of a much larger mill owner's house which was added to over the years to create a marvellous Georgian / Victorian hodgepodge. Our bit is the oddest shaped (very tall and narrow) and quirky with a tower room which, the estate agent told us, was built so the owner could look across the village to the churchyard where his young wife was buried.  Nothing like a story of doomed romance to entrance a buyer. Rather more prosaically (and probably), it also has an excellent view of the entrance to the mill yard and any dilatory workers!

There is a price to pay for character though and the blocked up doorways and rickety floor boards all make for quite a draughty home.  Our living room door, in particular, would never stay shut so I had a play and now we have a furoshiki doorstop!

 
The wraps shown here are the basic furoshiki gift wrap - which has the advantage of creating a handle for when you want to move the doorstop - and a more dramatic looking wrap created by putting all the corners up above the centre, then knotting one around the others to hold them in place. The furoshiki themselves are about 1 metre square and made from remnants so tying them in different ways creates different patterns.

The inside is a calico bag with a velcro fastening which can be filled with sand or rice or beans or whatever you have to hand.

And there you have it - a quick, easy and flexible solution to doors with a mind of their own!  Available soon from the myfuroshiki folksy and etsy shops.

Just contemplating all the things I'm going to / have to do today.  It's always important to include a few treats I think and one of mine will definitely be taking five minutes or so to browse the new UK Handmade magazine - over ninety pages of inspirational articles, 'meets' and 'makes' - including an interview I was lucky enough to be able to do with the amazing Suzanne Stallard of Jelly.  Read all about it!

Ethical community

In essence selling online is easy; all you need is a computer and a camera and you're away.  But how best to reach the people who'd be mostly likely to appreciate your particular product? Setting aside the tricky subject of online marketing and social networking, one of the most important things it seems to me is to find an online market place which caters for like minded folk.  That is why I was so pleased to find Ethical Community, a site which combines interesting and wide ranging articles, interviews and news with a marketplace for eco products.  Perfect for myfuroshiki and we're even featured in a seller's interview! I can see this is somewhere I'll be spending a lot more time.

Rays of sunshine

We've not had the best start to the new year and as a result myfuroshiki has been sadly neglected.  Catching up, it really brightened my day to see that myfuroshiki has been featured in two etsy treasuries recently - such a lovely surprise, especially when they are such charming and colourful selections as these - thank you Gemeaux Designs and smora79. 

Out and about

Just starting to book the myfuroshiki markets for 2011 (carefully arranged around my son's sporting calendar!). Here's where to find us so far. Put a note in your diary to come by and say hello.

April

• Saturday 30, 10am-4pm, Handmade at Haworth  Jo from the Arts Factory has been busy arranging lots of great events for 2011.  This one's at the The Old School Room where Charlotte Bronte taught, just across from The Parsonage. Lots of handmade loveliness including jewellery, textiles, photography, arts and crafts, with tea and cakes from Trufood Catering (worth a visit in themselves!). Free entry.

July

• Saturday 2, 10am-4pm - Made-it craft fair, St Margaret's Hall, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5LQ Come along for a wonderful selection of hand made crafts, all sold by the maker, a cafe serving delicious home baked cakes and free children's craft activities allowing you to browse at your leisure. Free admission.

October

• Saturday 15, 10am-4pm, Handmade at Haworth in The Old School Room Back again for lots of handmade loveliness including jewellery, textiles, photography, arts and crafts, with tea and cakes from Trufood Catering (worth a visit in themselves!). Free entry.

December

• Saturday 3, 10am-4pm, Arts Market, Riddings Hall, Christchurch, Riddings Road, Ilkley, LS29 9LW Gorgeous handmade gifts and goodies - nothing bought in or mass produced - and catering from the ever scrumptious Trufood. Free admission.

Favourite finds - Jemma Louise Murphy

Jemma Louise Murphy applies kanzashi techniques to paper to create stunning artwork and brooches, which are available through Folksy. She also creates gorgeous ACEOs and digital artwork and then creates 3D versions of her illustrations, combining her love of origami with her little luvlee drawings. See more of her wonderful work here.

Happy New Year!

A cute, maneki neko cat, a present from my son, with his paw raised to beckon in prosperity - let's hope he has a busy year!

A little belated, I know, but after a rather frantic end to 2010 and then a couple of weeks rushing around tidying up after it, I feel that the new year's begun!  The boiler's mended (heating + hot water = bliss); lots of little things around the house that needed fixing have finally been done; the local Scope shop has benefited from several bags of donations; the spare bedroom, aka the myfuroshiki creation centre, is beautifully ordered and ready to replenish stocks and my diary is filling up with plans and ideas.  Welcome to 2011!