Friday 23 July 2010

A Short Break



I am having to take a short break from making as I am due to have surgery on my hand (thankfully my left hand!) at the beginning of next week.


I shall be closing all of my online shops on Sunday night so if you would like to place an order please do so ASAP. I hope to be opening my shops again after a week or so, I will see how well I recover and keep you posted.


I plan to catch up with my blogging whilst I recover and will be doing some one-handed posting for you (!) and hope to create some lovely inspiring treasuries. This will give me a chance to continue being creative whilst I am waiting to get back to making.


Have a lovely weekend and I shall be back as soon as the grogginess of the anesthetic has passed! Cx

Monday 12 July 2010

A Quick Catch Up and an Exciting New Customer!

I have not been very good at blogging lately, sorry. I have been so busy designing and making but the end is in sight and I look forward to having a bit more time for wedding makes and online shop revamps very soon.


One thing that was keeping me busy was preparing for a big meeting in London. All of the hard work was worth it and I am pleased to say that Jane Churchill have purchased some of my design work for their Nursery Collection. I can't wait to see how they develop my artwork to become part of their range. It is really exciting to be working with such a wonderful brand.


Whilst in London I was finally able to make it to the V&A Museum for the Quilts Exhibition (shortly before it ended) and thought it was great, so inspiring, I really enjoyed myself. My Mum has the accompanying book so I shall have to have a read of that next time I visit. My Mum visited the exhibition before me a kindly bought me these two quilting fabrics from the exhibition shop:




After looking around the exhibition I added to this little selection with these:




I look forward to making use of them all. I shall have to think of something really special to make with them. I have always wanted to make a patchwork quilt with fabrics and embroidered and appliquéd pieces that bring back happy memories. Perhaps having visited this inspiring exhibition is my prompt to make a start.


I have a few customer meetings this week too so am busy working towards those at the moment.


Whilst I am here I also wanted to point you in the direction of the delicious blog 'Cakes I Create'. They recently featured my Cupcake Wedding Card in amongst all of their tasty looking cakes and recipes. 




Thank you for featuring me 'Cakes I Create'!

Claire Hurd Design in 'Kitchens, Bedrooms & Bathrooms' Magazine!

I am really excited to share these pictures with you today. I was approached by 'Kitchens, Bedrooms and Bathrooms' Magazine a short while ago asking for one of my Liberty Print Make-Up Bags. They were putting together a feature on denim entitled 'All in the Jeans' and wanted to include my make-up bag, of course I jumped at the chance!


The feature is in the August edition of the magazine, available to buy now. And here is my make-up bag on page 34!



Tuesday 6 July 2010

Handmade Baby Goodies

My handmade personalised elephant baby bibs have proven to be very popular so I have added a new boys design and made my cupcake bib personalisable too. These bibs can be found in my online shop HERE.




I have also listed two one-off appliquéd and embroidered textile artworks in my NOTHS shop. There is only one of each artwork available making them a truly unique gift to welcome a new baby in to the world. I am offering these artworks to my Blog followers and Facebook fans at a 15% discount (with free P&P). Payment needs to be by paypal. As there is only one of each artwork available they are offered to you on a first-come-first-served basis. If you would like one of these artworks then please email me at studio@clairehurd.co.uk.







For full details on these artworks click HERE for the baby blue bear and HERE for the baby pink bunny.

Handm@de Winchester Summer Craft Fair

The Handm@de Winchester Summer Craft Fair took place on Sunday and it was my first time having a stand there. The guildhall in Winchester is a lovely venue but rather dark so I apologise for the quality of my photographs. The organisers did a great job of getting people through the door and the fair was significantly more busy than the Cambridge fair I was at last November.



If you are visiting my blog for the first time having picked up my business card at the fair a big welcome to you! I hope you enjoy reading about all of my crafty goings on. Thank you to all of those that showed an interest in commissioning personalised items. Do have a browse around my blog and my online shops to see my full range and contact me on studio@clairehurd.co.uk for more details.



As always at the Handm@de fairs it was great to meet the other sellers and share experiences and advice with eachother. A special hello to the lovely Louise of Lolly & Boo who I met for the first time and had a lovely long converstation with about selling on Not on the Highstreet. Also a big hello to Cath of Emerald Framing who is a familiar face at the Handm@de fairs and always full of encouragement and smiles. It was great to see you again Cath!

Thursday 1 July 2010

So Busy, Busy!

I just wanted to pop by to let you know I haven't forgotten you, my lovely blog followers. As always happens in life everything has come at once!


My trusty Bernina and I are working hard towards preparing for the Handm@de Craft Fair in Winchester this Sunday, making hand-crafted personal touches for my Wedding and creating artworks for my portfolio.



I haven't really talked about my portfolio work much here on my blog but I shall share more with you as soon as I can. I had an important meeting on Tuesday and am pleased to say that I sold some work and have gained a very exciting new customer. I also have a few more meetings coming up so will be very busy for a little while longer. As soon as all of my appointments are over I am going to treat myself to a few days dedicated solely to wedding makes before I run out of time!


Thank you for bearing with me, I shall share more exciting designs and makes with you soon. Cx