Do you know this lovely bijoux boutique in North London’s trendy Muswell Hill? If you don’t please read on. If you do, you will undoubtedly agree that it is a little gem full of delightful home furnishings and other accessories handpicked by the shop’s owner Sarah, who herself, having impeccable taste, chooses only the best and most interesting pieces that independent designers have to offer.
I can proudly announce that amongst all the beautiful crockery, sumptuous blankets and cushions, leather bags, summer baskets, delicious candles and jewellery Sarah found a place for MrsGKnits beaded crochet bracelets. The colour palettes for the shop were personally chosen by Sarah and bracelets hand-made to order and those colours are exclusive to Cosi Homewares, so if you’d like to see them you must visit her shop.
If you would like a preview of all the treats Cosi has in store click here. However, the website has only a fraction of the goodies that fill the shelves of this lovely little shop.
I urge you to pay Cosi a visit and have a walk around Muswell Hill while you’re there. With plenty of cafes and restaurants offering just about any cuisine you can think of, an old church transformed into a pub and stunning views over North London you can bag yourself some stylish stuff and spend a lovely day out. Well!? Off you go now!!
If you believe Valentine’s Day is a special, romantic date in the calendar I will not have to convert you. But for those cynical grumpies amongst you, who consistently claim us soppy, cheesy bunch only propel the commercial machine that is Valentines please, please read on. For what I’m about to show you is not commercial, not cheesy or soppy for that matter. The little selection I’m presenting to you consist of beautiful items, which were handcrafted by people of various talents, who believe in non-commercial production of unique items of their own design. So if you decided to say no to the white fluffy acrylic bears and cards sparkling with rainbows of sticky glitter consider these – one of a kind, uniquely designed gifts – not a fluffy bear or a speck of glitter in sight. Enjoy!
Huge thanks to all the artists featuring in My Funny Valentine selection. The showcased items and a variety of their other designs can be viewed and purchased from:
1. DIG THE EARTH 2. LynwoodJewellery
3, 4. MrsGKnits 5. Harvey Crafty Cards
6. Glassprimitif 7. Silky Prudence
8. Talking Beads 9. PANTSANDPAPER
Today for the first time QueenOfHerts opened for business. The shelves in the shop will be filling up steadily. Still lots of designs to list, lots of photographs to take and of course a bit of promoting to do.
In one day the shop has created a fair bit of interest and with time and with more designs I hope to delight you all and satisfy your need for unusual, edgy, one of a kind, stand out from the crowd jewellery.
I hope i have whet your appetite with my selection of photos and you will visit the new shop.
I appreciate all feedback and tips how to improve QueenOfHerts and make it a shop you will truly love.
With the New Year there’s a new venture taking shape. I wouldn’t like it to overshadow MrsGKnits, which has been a success in its first few months of existence. Success, which I will be shortly confirming on this blog with the satisfied customers’ comments and hopefully some pictures of lovely people who appreciate finer things in life and live to enjoy the unique, luxurious knits from MrsGKnits. But another time about that…
This post is dedicated to MrsG’s little sister. Ladies and gentlemen I give you QueenOfHerts!
QueenOfHerts was born from my exploration and pushing knitting and crochet to see what else can be done with a few unorthodox materials. First it was beaded crochet bracelets, then crochet and knitting with wire and then the imagination was truly let loose. Like most of my knitting designs, which you can see in MrsGKnits (my luxury knitwear emporium), the final results are not obvious until the late stages of completion of the piece. I enjoy the whole creation process, from gathering a few eye catching bits through the discovery what shape they will take. At times this might be a very long time until the Eureka moment when the idea how to finish the design comes suddenly and the piece takes its final shape. And from there I found I actually enjoyed teaching myself how to make other jewellery pieces and that’s where QueenOfHerts became a mixed bag of crochet and knitted wire, beads, knitted and crochet necklaces and corsages and a few other bits put together.
The new shop will be opening on Folksy soon and I will be back here to announce the launch officially. Watch this space folks!
This is all so exciting! I’ve been asked to do another Christmas Fair.
This time MrsG will be accessorising the beautiful, trendy people in East London upstairs at the Britannia Pub in Victoria Park Road, E9.
There will be a village fair going on as well at the Victoria Park, so it’s worth popping over to have a look.
The entry is free and the craft stalls in the pub will be open from 12-6pm, plenty of time to browse and bag yourself and your nearest and dearest some lovely, hand-made, unique goodies.
You really don’t want to miss this one!
My first craft fair was an interesting experience. First thing to say is that the setting was even more gorgeous than in previous pictures. And this is my little corner… and yes there is method in this madness!
The fair was busy, sadly the crowd were the golden oldies – all with free bus pass, some with a zimmer frame. I suspect they all came to visit the building, which was open to the public for the first time in a century, rather than grab a gorgeous handmade, uniquely designed item. Sales didn’t hit the heights we all hoped for, but the venue gave a lot of exposure, and i already had enquiries about commissions and knitting workshops so onwards and upwards.
I managed to meet up with a couple of lovely ladies from Folksy.
This is Tracy from DKCrystalDesigns
and this is Hilary (on the left) from Haptree
And these are Sorcery&Sparkle (well their knicke
rs to be precise)
Also a couple of lovely friends popped by to say hello, which was great and…wait for it… old MrG came for “support” – got me a cup of tea, stayed an hour then got bored and went home. Shame on everyone who missed it!
There’s a new venture next week but about that tomorrow.
now...
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After a reasonably busy Thursday I needed a day to relax. I haven't done any wet hand felting for ages so I decided to set the scene, I picked a perfect project and spent the day ruining a beautiful hand-knitted by myself some time ago Alchemy mohair shawl with soap, water and s
ome serious rubbing action.
Lack of studio and a designated place of work meant that everything had to be set up on the kitchen table...
I work just off Totthenham Court Road, and that in itself is reason enough why I don't venture out shopping in West End. I'm there 5 out of 7 days of the week, and don't relish shopping trips when West End is full of weekend shoppers and tourists.
The day was absolutely gorgeous, sun shining making the flowers on the back wall of Liberty's come to full bloom.
I managed to finish a little project on the way back, another one of many bracelets is completed.
It's official. Cupcakes are all the rage! They are fashionable, they're in, they're it! Why are they the sweet of the moment? Maybe because they're easy, maybe because they're bitesize or maybe because they're delicious and oh so pretty!
The art of the cupcake is getting popular and fast. It's such a simple piece of sponge that's pretty fool-proof and yet offers the huge potential to make it look like a cute little work of art. Is it any wonder we're all doing it?
I'm happy to confirm that in spite of slapdash decorating my red velvet cupcakes have passed the friends and family taste test!
