I just thought I'd like to share a little bit of my Christmas with you. I made this garland with holly, ivy, bay and rosemary to go up my banisters. I'm very pleased to say its still there!

Mum bought me some gorgeous tags, too lovely to send. They went perfectly with the blue and purple baubles I had to hang on my garland! We got them from the shop at the warners textile archive. 

See you again in 2013!! Happy New Year!!!

I went to visit the Warners Textile Archive last saturday. What a fascinating experience. We began with a talk given by Charlotte into the history of Warners and how the company evolved. Then we were given a small glimpse into the textile archive. Jan, a volunteer, talked about some of the amazing fabrics that were woven at Warners, velvets, damasks etc, some a hundred years old, some slightly newer ones and we were shown a few samples. There was one very opulent velvet with a silver background and a raised 3 dimensional design. The skill and time involved in creating these fabrics is phenomenal. The design archive is incredible. There are designs dating back hundreds of years, some designed by Warners own in-house designers, some are collaborations with well know designers and others that were acquired by Warners when they took over other companies, check out this link warnertextilearchive.co.uk/products/wallpaper to view a few examples.

Jan had actually worked at Warners and gave us an amazing insight into what it was like and how well thought of Warners was for its dedication to good quality designs and techniques. Fabric for Queen Elizabeth II coronation was woven here. My mum remembers going around Warners on a school trip to see the fabric being woven. Amazing.

To see the archive and have a talk you need to book onto a tour organised by Invitation to View, or you can visit the Archive's Gallery every Wednesday 10am - 4pm see their website for more information www.warnertextilearchive.co.uk/

Now as its coming up to the wonderful festive season I'll be taking a break from my blog. I may however have time to post a few pictures on facebook.com/chez.beccy if I do have time to create anything interesting!

Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year.

This week I've found some nice card to print my herb labels on. So I'm pleased with that. I have now got some slightly larger jars which I think will be great for storing garlic, sea salt and peppercorns. So I've now designed these labels. 

I've also found some lovely glass bottles for oil and vinegar as well.

I think these would look great with some herbs and spices infused in them as well, such as Olive oil and Rosemary.  So I'll be selling the bottles and jars with labels but and then you can add your own oils and vinegars.

Now I want to designs some cards. I have loads of ideas, just need time to design them! Next weekend I'm going to Warners in Braintree to look at their textile archive. I can't wait, I think there are going to be some amazing fabrics there. I hope I can take pictures. I'll keep you posted!

I now have all of my 4 designs made up into tea towels.

Now I want to do the same with napkins.

I've also been working on my logo, as you can see!

I went to visit a craft fair a couple of weeks ago. It was great there were all sorts of stalls 

there. My goal now is to make enough things so I can do a craft fair. I think it will take me awhile, but its very exciting!

I found these lovely herb jars and have been designing my own labels to put on them. Just what I need for my kitchen.

I also want to see if I can fins some slightly bigger jars that I can store things like garlic and pepper corns. And maybe some nice glass bottles for olive oil and vinegar. 

I always get so excited when I see my new designs printed on fabric. My ditsy floral prints arrived this week. Very pleased with the colours.

 So far I've made up one of each design into tea towel. Just 6 more to make. Now I've ordered some orgainc cotton to make up some napkins.

Once I've made up the tea towels, I then take photos for my shop on Folksy. 

Now I just need to print out the packaging labels!

Well, I've now made up some napkins from the striped pattern I created. I'm really pleased that these are printed in 100% Organic Cotton Sateen. I would like to print my tea towels on Organic Linen/Cotton but it just isn't available, which is a shame. So anyway I'm very pleased to finally have some napkins in my shop. What I want to do is napkins and tablecloths in all of my blue and white designs so they will all go together in any combination. This is my goal anyway.

I've just finished making up the Daisy print napkins. Another item to add into my shop

While I was designing the labels for the napkins I had another play around with the design. I've made it much simpler and I think it looks so much better now. I hope you agree!

So now I just want to make the Tea Towel labels look the same.

This past week I've also created a Chez Beccy facebook page. I was inspired to do it by my friend Annette who makes beautiful handcrafted cards and gifts, Annette Mackie Handmade.

Well its been awhile. I've just been so inspired by the Olympics. Work hard so you too can achieve your goals!!

 So fully refreshed from my lovely holiday I'm raring to go. I've finally got my colours sorted I think. On my ditsy floral design I decided to have pink stamens. I wanted the stamens to stand out more and while I was looking through Vogue at all the gorgeous opulent colours for Autumn/Winter I found like fabulous raspberry pink.

Unfortunately the painted blue background has not some out. I guess the colour variation is too slight to be recognised in the printing process. I'll just have to do the blue backgrounds as flat colour. Shame but there we go.

Anyway lets talk polka dots!! I've seen so many around at the moment. They are everywhere,  Cath Kidston has a whole new range of spotty bags, I saw someone wearing spotty jeans the other day, I just love it. So here are mine.

I think they will sit very well with the ditsy floral designs. So now I'm ordering some fabric so I can make up some more tea towels. I wish I could get the linen cotton canvas as organic.