Keeping Cosy!!

Well, here is what I've been up to today.  The rain was whipping round the caravan and inside my shed it was a bit dark and gloomy (not to mention cold!).  But inside the caravan it was nice and cosy and with Royal Ascot on the telly, I spent a happy afternoon finishing off the stitching in these little leather notebooks whilst keeping an eye on the Ascot fashion and listening to my other half muttering behind his racing paper.  I made these two little keyrings with some scraps of leather lacing too.  I like adding them to people's parcels as a little 'thank you' freebie and they are fun to make. Not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon at all!

I've been tweaking my Etsy shop in preparation for reopening and I want to take all my newly made stock outside and photograph it as soon as the weather allows.  I tried making a lightbox out of an old cardboard box last week and I think it will be useful, especially during the Winter when it's a struggle to find good light to photograph in.

I think it's safe to show you this.  It's a 30th birthday present for a friend who is very girly and likes pretty, feminine things (unlike her friend who is a total tomboy and likes crawling under hedges, looking for bugs and working with leather!).  She has mentioned in the past that she would love a notebook with a beautiful lady on the front, so I thought I would give it a go.

My attempts at drawing beautiful ladies was pitiful, but luckily, my eldest DD loves art and is pretty good at Manga-style drawings, so I paid her a wee sum to do the design for me.  Here was the result -

Once we'd got the sizing right, I just traced the image onto the raw leather and carved out the design with my little swivel knife.

I put an inscription inside as well because you don't turn thirty every day do you!  It was a looonngg time ago that I turned thirty, it makes me feel kind of old just thinking about it!!