The Sunday Post // we're back!

27th May - the last time I published a post on our blog. Not very impressive! But what can I say, it has so far been a beautiful summer; we've been working on lovely orders, new things for our stockists & whilst also secretly working on our Christmas range. There's been a lot going on!

If you haven't taken a look at our website recently, check it out! We are now selling gorgeous coasters & placemats, locally made & available in a lovely selection of our designs. As for Christmas, the range is very nearly ready, but we obviously can't launch it yet - August is a little early, even for me! 

So stay tuned for weekly studio & product news, Christmas launch updates & hopefully more blogging goodness (sorry again for the huge hiatus between posts) - until next time! cx

The (extremely belated!) Sunday Post

Gosh, my last post was in October - I honestly can't believe it's been that long! But it just goes to show what a busy time we've had here since then. There is so much to sum up, that the best way to describe it all is in a series of photo montages! 

First up (above) - Christmas 2012... our best Christmas ever, it was frenzied but wonderful from start to finish, we had a fantastic feature (5 pages!!) in Country Homes & Interiors magazine, and rounded off the year with a wonderful snowy trip to the mountains in France with all of our family, eating and relaxing - it was pure heaven.

2013. No sooner had we landed back on UK soil and it was time to get ready for our first trade show of the year, Top Drawer. And so two weeks into January I headed off to London with our product range and props in tow, and had a lovely few days meeting buyers, interesting contacts and having early morning catch-ups with all of my 'fair friends', old and new. I eventually made it back home with a broken car and a chest infection... and then the snow arrived!

It's been a beautiful snowy week here in the Cotswolds... I have been recuperating, (my car is now fixed, yippee), making troops of egg cosies, and venturing out on treacherous trips to the Post Office! We had a lot of rain overnight, and awoke this morning to green grass and blue skies... I could almost be fooled into thinking Spring might be on the way! cx

The Sunday Post

HELLO! It's a crisp morning here today and the sun is streaming in through the studio windows keeping it nice and snug ready for a day of sewing. Yesterday the November issue of Country Living dropped onto the doormat and to our delight we discovered our 'figgy pudding' tea cosy on page 24... 

It's really made the weekend for us, and we are now even more excited about the upcoming Christmas fairs in November! But there's a lot to do before then...

This week we've been working on stock of linen and cotton tea towels, including our new natural linen tea towels, and a new design too - wine glasses. We're hard at it this weekend, working on napkins, aprons and new placemats... time to get back to the sewing machine, happy Sunday everyone! xo

The Sunday Post :: our week

HELLO! Hope you've all had a lovely week, I honestly don't know where the last seven days have gone, and all of a sudden we are a day away from October - eek! We had a delivery of festive chicken mugs earlier in the week, which have all been snapped up! We are now awaiting another delivery... so if you would like to sip your tea or hot chocolate out of one of these this winter, we will have more in stock soon!

Although still early (I know, we haven't even had Halloween yet) we've been quite focused on Christmas this week. People have been getting their orders in early, so we've had plenty to keep us busy in amongst trade orders, also for lots of Christmas goodies! And inbetween the wind, rain and clouds, we've had spells of beautiful Autumn sunshine, like this..... x

a week of launches...

HELLO and happy Sunday! This week has been a week of launches - from our new natural linen tea towels (lovely and rustic, we're so pleased with them) to our Christmas Shop! And I'm excited to say that the Christmas orders have been coming in already... yesterday was our busiest day of the year so far!

Our 2012 Christmas Shop features everything from jolly figgy pudding napkins, to tea towels, cosies and Christmas gift tags - that I started last night. Each one is hand-drawn and painted and this year I am doing three designs: robins, puddings and penguins. It was great to pack my first festive tags of the season!

This year we are also producing a range of 3 Christmas cards: Merry Christmas (below), Let it Snow and of course, Figgy Pudding. They are available individually and also in a Pack of 6, which includes 2 of each design and lovely recycled brown envelopes too. On that festive note, I am off to pack a few more cards... have a wonderful week and catch you all next Sunday! x

A very French Christmas...

This year we enjoyed a very snowy and very French Christmas... with orders all posted and things in the studio just about under control, I decided that a few days either side of the big day itself might be one of the only chances I would get to take a break for a while, so I jumped at the opportunity!

Before starting CMT I spent a couple of winter seasons as a chalet girl, and I've kept in touch with a lot of the people I met during my time in France. So I asked on a whim about the availability over the festive period, and to my delight there was space for us! We packed our suitcases and jetted off to France for mulled wine, cheese... and even turkey on Christmas Day!  

Joyeux Noël xx

noël

As we are winding down for Christmas there is just enough time amidst the last-minute order posting to show you a few festive images from Pinterest... snowy scenes, twinkling lights, baking and cosy homes......

...it's my favourite time of year and these lovely photographs depict everything that is wonderful about winter, I hope you enjoy them and Merry Christmas to you all! x

The Makery Christmas Market

This weekend we spent two lovely days at The Makery Emporium in Bath, where we had the opportunity to set up shop for the weekend at their first ever Christmas Market. We met wonderful customers, other designer-makers, and The Makery staff too, who were fabulous - thank you ladies! 

When I'm next in Bath I know where I'll be heading... straight back to The Makery, it was like home from home amongst the fabrics, threads, cotton reels and all sorts of sewing/crafting delights...

...and ever so festive when it got dark in the evenings and the Christmas lights were turned on... Happy December everyone!

Festive Fairs!

After a delightful day of shopping (and selling!) at the Christmas at the Orangery fair in Clifton yesterday, we have spent most of today catching up with orders and writing lists of what to make for next weekend and our next festive fair! 

Next weekend (3rd & 4th December) we will be at The Makery Christmas Market in Bath. We are so excited to set our little 'shop' up again, this is honestly our favourite time of year. 

Seeing the results of all our hard work culminate in a stall full of goodies is so rewarding, and I would set up our stall every day if I could!

So if you are out in Bath next weekend, or nearby and fancy popping in to see the wonderful array of handmade delights at The Makery Emporium, sat nav BA1 5AR and come and find us at 16 Northumberland Place in Bath... hopefully I can restrain my excitement until Saturday! x

Country Living Christmas Fair 2011

Yesterday was a day of recuperation and unpacking after the Country Living Christmas Fair which finished on Sunday. We had a fantastic week and met so many wonderful people over the 5 days, and now can't really believe that we're home again, what a whirlwind! 

So here are a few snaps of our stand, that we shared with the fabulous Julia Davey (Julia Davey Ceramics), who helped the week to fly by - thanks Jules :) 

We are now catching up on orders after a week away, so have plenty to get our teeth stuck into, hope you all have a lovely week, and if you didn't make it to London we will be selling lovely Christmas wares (both our own textiles and Julia's ceramic goodies) at our next festive event, Christmas at the Orangery in Clifton, Bristol on the 26th November, hope to see you there! x

Robins & Puddings

This weekend I have been hand-drawing lots of card and gift tags for one of my stockists, so thought I would introduce you to a few of this years festive cards and tags...

robins card...

figgy pudding card...

small pudding tags...

and last but not least, small robin tags...

New Bunting!

With the Christmas range getting underway here in the CMT studio I have turned my hand to my bunting. I have just about used up the last of the spotty charcoal, teal and blue that I have been using for my larger sized bunting since I began making bunting, however now that the spotty has stopped being produced it was time to look at new fabrics and colourways for new bunting. A while ago I introduced 'mini bunting' to my range and due to the success of this cute little version of the larger bunting, have decided to go for mini all the way!

After getting my entire fabric collection out, arranging linens and cottons in piles of colours and patterns that I liked the look of together I now have 3 new mini buntings... a combination of spots, stripes, linens and cottons, and now also a longer length of 1m 50 too!

First up, floral mini bunting...

...spotty blue mini bunting...

... and last but not least, spotty red mini bunting - jolly and festive and is actually a sneak peek at my Christmas range, to be revealed at Home & Gift in mid-July! x

Happy Christmas!

Welcome to my slightly delayed 'Sunday Post'. Today was my last day for posting here at CMT, so I am now officially on 'holiday' (supposedly!) Apart from having a break on Christmas Day, I have a few more bits and bobs to get done before the new year. But whilst on the subject of holidays I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas, have a lovely festive period, enjoy lots of eating and general merriment, and thank you for all your support throughout 2010.

New products for 2011 are now ready for action and I have spent large parts of the past two days updating my website ready for the new year (scarily not very far away!) So on this snowy day I will give you a sneak peek of some of my new goodies for the new season and the new year!

Merry Christmas everyone x

Katie Bonas' Open Workshop

On Thursday I ventured to a lovely Cotswold village called Yanworth, home to the workshop of Katie Bonas, who hand paints antique furniture giving it a new lease of life. It was another frosty Gloucestershire morning and I piled my goodies into the car wearing 2 pairs of gloves, 2 jumpers and a large coat! But I arrived at Katie's wonderful barn with plenty of time to warm up and take in the wonderful surroundings of her stone barn workshop.

It was the perfect setting for an open workshop and my work was on display alongside Katie's furniture, Lolly & Boo's boxed artwork and Sarah Hardaker's beautiful linen products.

The barn had a steady flow of people throughout the day, the mulled wine was flowing and mince pies were being warmed in a baby Belling in the corner of the barn. It was a great setting and fantastic to be amongst such lovely company design-wise. The day rounded up at 3pm, and I headed off back to the studio to continue with my Christmas orders!
Here is a little excerpt from the CMT Christmas newsletter I sent last night...

* free gift-wrapping *

For the remainder of the Christmas shopping season I will gift wrap all orders I receive in lovely brown paper and festive red string! So that ought to save you some time in the next two weeks to spend doing more fun things like making eggnog or decorating your Christmas tree! * click here to pop over to my website *

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last posting date...

To make sure you get all your Charlotte Macey goodies in time for Christmas I will be accepting orders up until (and including) Sunday 19th December.