Weekly round up

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It’s been busy busy busy in the studio this week, there have been plenty of late nights, it really is a home from home so it’s a good job we have a nice comfy sofa.  I’ve extended the printing table from 6 to 8 metres, printed up wholesale orders, done lots of designing for some new screens, printed up the new Pods fabric and prepared the studio for the big fabric delivery due today. Here is some of the exciting goings-on from the past 7 days.

table

Table extended from 6m to 8m

Padded top on table

Top stretched and fixed and rail back on – all done!

Bit of photography of new size fabric pieces

New Pugs design coming soon

New Pugs design coming soon

Wholesale order, printed and ready for it's new home

Wholesale order, printed and ready for it’s new home

Pods fabric

Pods fabric

 

Failure…is an option

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fail

One third of the way through the BEDM challenge and I’ve failed miserably. I knew May was going to be a busy month, so it would be difficult, but I did think I’d get a little further ahead to be honest.

I’ll post later this week about what I’ve been up to but I’ve mainly been busy with some custom print orders, new designs and the big BIG table extension. More to follow soon.

Onwards and upwards and back to the sporadic blogging.

Instagram, my love

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Instagram

My favourite social media channels tend to be image based.  Pinterest and Flickr are other happy places to share but nothing compares to Instagram.  I’m very picky about the things I post though, usually no more than one or two things a day, but in my kind of work, it’s a great way to document the whole process, from set up, to printing, to finished fabric.

Here are a few of my favourite people to follow, enjoy…siansburys, yardagedesign, littlebirdyhere, gemmacorrell, littlebohemian.

First job

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The Famous Sheffield Shop

I really can’t remember how old I was when I started my first job as it’s a place that become a permanent memory from my childhood.  It was at the shop my mum worked two days a week, ‘the famous Sheffield shop’ selling all Sheffield made cutlery, scissors, tools and more.  To use this as my ‘First job’ post is a loose interpretation of todays BEDM topic but still, it gave me my first insight into the world of retail and I got to look at fascinating things all day.

Typical jobs included dusting, more dusting, rearranging stock, counting and clearing out the stock cupboards and many more of the things I went on to hate years later when I started working in retail.  The really interesting bits were having a good nosey at all the stock including the wonderful collection of books about Sheffield and the cutlery industry.

In moments of real boredom (or when we were getting on my mum’s nerves) we were encouraged to go next door to the best bookshop in Sheffield.  We’d then disappear for an hour or so and could be found sitting on the floor at the back of the shop and tucking into a new book which we’d pop back and buy at the end of our ‘hard days work’.

One very vivid memory is of the terrifying till, it was very loud and used to snap open and shut with a bang, it was lovingly referred to as Arkwright’s Till due to the similarities to the hilarious till on Open All Hours.  I also remember I wasn’t very keen on serving any of the customers, that’s something my mum used to encourage both me and my sister to do but I was too shy to talk to strangers.

The shop was started in 1983 by Don Alexander and it was just a lovely place to be. Don’s wife (one of the nicest women I’ve ever met) children and then later grandchildren were frequent visitors and helpers. A regular set of locals were also in attendance and would often sit down for a cup of tea and a chat.  Don retired when I was in my early twenties and the shop changed hands, but my mum is still working there, and popping in to see her still reminds me of those days and never fails to make me feel like a little kid.

 

Pets = Pugs

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Lola-and-Ruby

M Y  F A V O U R I T E  S U B J E C T.  I do talk about Lola a lot, I know I do, so bear with me as there is no getting away from the fact that today’s BEDM post is all about Pets.  I did think about showing you all the pets I’d ever had, but then this post would just go on forever. Plus it wouldn’t be very interesting to look at due to the lack of pet photos and thirdly I would be hideously embarrassed by the photos that do exist (I was a child of the 80′s, that should be enough explanation for you on that matter.)

So instead, I’m going to show you my darling Lola and the sweetness that was Ruby.  Anyone who has ambled towards the top of my blog knows that there is a link to a page dedicated to them both, but I’ve gone into the vaults to find all the daft photos that usually don’t make the cut, one of the best things about Pugs is that they pull the daftest faces.

Lola-licks Ruby-chewing Lola-in-bath Lola

Lola-and-Ruby-sleeping

Lola-eating-wool lola-smiling

 

 

 

Bank Holiday Fun

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It’s bank holiday here in the UK (and the hottest day so far this year) which usually means that the roads are nice and quiet as everyone has got in their car and/or caravan and gone looking for a nice bit of peace and quiet away from the city.  Life in the Waterhouse family just carries on as normal on a bank holiday, it’s another day in the studio for us…

Table of Trinity

Finishing the table of Trinity in Emerald

Sweets

Sneaky bank holiday sweet eating

Notebooks

Organising stock

G Plan Chair

Starting work on the G Plan chairs

Ready for sanding

Ready for sanding

 

Fit and Healthy

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It’s day five of Blog every day in May challenge and, apart from a major cock-up on Thursday/Friday, I’m managing to keep on top of the posts. Today’s theme is fit and healthy and what a better way to start this post than by sharing this wonderful Etsy item with you. I love it, but maybe I love it for the wrong reasons, as my weird sense of humour loves the thought of a fork that can make you feel guilty when eating chips!

Make Healthy Choices - Hand Stamped Fork

Hand Stamped Fork by ForSuchATimeDesigns

I decided the best theme for my post on this topic was discussing a couple of the pitfalls of being a busy workaholic and how to try to maintain some kind of normal healthy lifestyle whilst running your own business.

Food Glorious Food
After a few years of gradually piling on the podge I finally got my arse in gear and lost just under 3 stone.  I’m now the size I used to be – before I got married, before I got addicted to home baking and before I got too busy to eat properly.  At my busiest I was working full-time, running Craft Candy and running my own business.  This led to some terrible bad habits and me and Owen would either eat on-the-go at the studio, or come home late and get takeaway before we jumped back on the computers and carried on work until the early hours.

Antidote….Prepare and plan – I plan all our meals for the week ahead, not only does it keep the food bills down but it stops the ‘what shall we have for tea?” conversation that ultimately leads to a takeaway.  We now eat healthier meals and have stopped the bad habit of being so busy that we skip meals, or go for the quick easy option of a takeaway.

Walk don’t Run
I am quite an active person and being on my feet all day printing definitely helps, but I always was active, just a bad kind of active. It was the stressed kind of active when you spend your time running from one job to another or from one meeting to another event.  The good kind of active is getting some decent exercise and making time to fit it in.

Antidote…I walk every day and it’s no longer a stressed walk-almost-run, but it’s a deep breathing, taking the time to get your body moving kind of walking. I don’t have the cash to go to the gym but I can still get some good exercise by using the free things in life. Make your exercise enjoyable and you’re much more likely to find time to fit it in.

No time for anything else
I have a million hobbies and interests (all though to be fair, most of them are textile related) but workaholics find it hard to fit hobbies in and you should never underestimate the importance of looking after yourself in other ways than just eating the right things and getting some exercise.

Antidote…Find some time for yourself to do what you love. Step away from the work, it’ll still be there when you go back. What good will you be to your clients and customers if you’ve run yourself into the ground and forgotten to look after your biggest business asset? That’s YOU by the way! I like to read, knit, sketch and hug a pug and that helps keep my mind healthy. Find whatever you love and make time for it. Your body and brain will thank you for it.