I've moved

I've decided to create a new blog with typepad. Please come visit me here at http://hopeandfaith.typepad.com. I might still post a few Braveart related items on this blog but for just now you can find me regularly babbling away over at Hope and Faith.

Lots of Love

Charlotte xxx

Braveart and Bridgewater

The more I read through the pages of my Country Living magazine and the more I sift through the wonderfull blogs on the internet, I'm starting to consider changing what Braveart is and what I want to do. Ideally I'd love to combine my love for tweeds ( especially Harris Tweed) with chintzy fabrics, florals and stripes. I love my scottish roots and in the first place really wanted Braveart to be a quirky Scottish business selling handmade cards and gifts using tweed and other bits and bobs. But I really don't think tweeds and florals/stries etc go together! So I think its all or nothing. What I mean is I either have to stick to Braveart and its tweeds or change my name and kinds of fabrics I use and go for the English country look. But I really love the fact that I'm Scottish and I don't know if I want the Scottish element to show through in my products. Is it possible to do both? Mix tweeds with stripes/florals etc? I really really am unsure. Maybe thats my niche! Mixing Scottish tradition with Vintage fabrics. Mmm, I'm starting to like the sound if this.

Enough about the business! We've just had our kitchen re-done - walls not painted yet, - maybe sometime! However I've started buying lovely things to go in it already. I never let things finish properly before I start something else. I'm terrible for that!

Our Landlady has very similar taste as me and chose lovely kitchen units. Very country looking ones -Cream with simple pine door knobs on which to hang pretty things!!! Thank you Caroline! I decided I also want to start a collection of something. But it has to be practical as well as pretty. Not thimbles or Highland Cows ( no offence to those who do collect the afore mentioned.) Something that would look nice in the house so I decided to start my Emma Bridgewater collection. Hhmmm, not a very original idea but her stuff is sooooooooooo pretty, I couldn't resist!

I'm a bit of a bargain hunter/ thrifty girl to say the least and my collection actually started at my local charity shop when I managed to pick up my first piece - a Happy Brithday mug for £1.50! How chuffed was I! Anyway, the next was a Christmas Tea Towel which I got from TKMAXX of all places. They were selling them in sets of three. So I sold the other two on ebay and made a profit!

I love her stuff but the prices are unjustifiable for me - a stay at home mum -so finding these items was great! Then I was given my next piece, a little mug that said blue without you from my Mum. How sweet! I might put pics up of them all but for the mean time I shall leave you with my latest purchases. A Mother and Father mug for Calum and I! Not that he'll appreciate it - I will though! Oh and how could forget the cute little jam pot! Another bargain at just £4!

Hope you all are having a productive day. Remember life is all about choices. We can choose to have a GOOD DAY or choose to have a bad day. You might say its not that easy. Sometimes its harder choosing to have a good day if things are getting you down but making that choice to make it a good day can make all the difference!

Love Cx

My dream house!

As a huge Monarch of the Glen fan ( I'm not sad, honest! I just love that way of life!), when I opened my 21st birthday card in september, from my in-laws to be, my draw dropped in amazement as I read the words "a weekends stay at the Gatehouse Lodge at Ardverikie!" Where Monarch of the Glen was shot. I'd always jokingly said I'd love to go there for my honeymoon (might be some time). I was so excited but had to wait 5 months as it is sooo booked up that 23 -25th february was the earliest they could get for me. Anyway, we had a great weekend, just me and Calum, the granparents looked after Murray. We walked round the estate and along the private beach. Took lots of photos. Have put some up for you to see.

I haven't posted on this for ages! I don't know where the time goes. I was planning on posting once a week atleast but that fell by the wayside big style. My march resolution is to post more regularly. Its nice to share your life with other like minded people.

I'm still slowly building my website and making bits and bobs to sell. Murrays grannie retires in the summer so I wil have more time to make a go of things with the business then. For just now I'm just letting things tick over. My mum, being an accountant, keeps reminding me that the main reason businesses fail is because they grow too quickly.

Anyway, must get on, got Murray to get ready for nursery. Then I've got a whole 2.5 hrs to myself. Bliss! Although, there is a huge pile of ironing to be done. We'll see.

Be back very soon.

Love Char xx

My first Christmas Fair

Sunday arrived sooner than I'd hoped as I would have liked to have made a few more/different things for my stall. But I needn't have worried as I was delighted with the response from all the wonderful people who bought the Braveart items that I did make. The best seller seemed to be the wooden hearts ( see picture) that I patiently painted, sanded down and stamped with words and tied with twine. I have to admit, they are my favorite too. I never got round to making more brooches, friends snapped up the ones I had posted earlier and I gave my sister the harris tweed one to wear on her jacket on friday, when she goes to collect her prize for best new business idea ( organised by business gateway and scottish entreprise) in her region. Fingers crossed for her to win the national prize. Good luck Lou(ise)
Anyway, getting back to the fair, It was great fun and I can't wait to do my next one. Unfortunately the website isn't up and running yet but i think i'm just going to take things slowly with it as I don't want to get ahead of myself, I'm not the most organised of people.

Thank you to everyone who wished me luck for the fair. Apologies for not posting more often or returning comments. Looking after a 18month old is very tiring and haven't had the chance to post and look at other peoples blogs as much as I'd have liked.

Christmas wishes to all, better go and write some more Christmas cards before it's too late and have to spend more money sending them 1st class instead of 2nd.
C x

From trash to treasure

I've just realised its been two weeks since I last posted. Oops. Doesn't life just fly by! All you creative people who already attend all these wonderful Christmas Craft Fairs must be rushed off your feet. Last post I showed you some of the wonderful buttons I had received from a friend...... Finally I've managed to make something from them.

The first brooch I made is from felt, seed beeds and a lovely button. Hoping to make a few of these in different colours for the Christmas Fair I'm going to be attending in Killin. Honest opinions please!? Do you like them? Would you buy them? How much for etc? I've got prices in mind but amn't sure if they are resonable prices. Please let me know.

The second brooch is made using Harris Tweed which I LOVE!!! I want harris tweed to be my main material that i use in my proucts. At the moment I am using small pieces of the tweed that I have managed to buy from a company who sells their offcuts ( which is great as the minimum order of Harris Tweed is 4metres at £15 a metre = £60! And thats just for one pattern) I love using the offcuts aswell as its recycling the bits that no one wants and turning them into useful and lovely( i hope) pieces. I have also sewn on a Hrris Tweed label as this is important in showing the authenticity of the material.

I also use the harris tweed on handmade cards and notebooks. Hoping these will sell well at the fair and on the website, which is why I have'nt really posted in a while. I'm trying to get the website launched before the fair so that hopefully when people buy my items, they are then able to go home and go on the internet to see my website and learn a bit more about BRAVEART. I'm enjoying creating it, just hope other people like it and what I have to offer.

Better go, got oranges drying in the oven to tie onto willow wreaths and garlands that I'm making for the sale. I'm loving making all the things. I'm in my element and its just confirming to me that I'm doing the right thing- doing what I love!!!

C x

Buttons, buttons and more buttons

I've just been given a huge lot of buttons by a friend who no longer wants them! (How lucky am I!?) I couldn't let her give them to me for free so I said I'd give her a percentage of my profits if i sell stuff made from them at the Christmas fair I am going to be at. The picture shows only a select few...there are loads, I'm in button heaven! I'm thinking of making button bracelets and corsages/brooches with them.

Will post some pics of the finished items. Am going to try and do some crafting tonight when little man (Murray) is asleep and daddy is out playing badminton at the village hall. Time to myself........Bliss!

CATH KIDSTON MOBILE PHONES- WHATEVER NEXT!

As much as I love Cath Kidston's style and products, I had to laugh when I came across these mobile phones on her website. Pretty they are, but oh, whatever next!

Traditional Lemonade with a kick

Another of my entries to the show was to make a fruit drink so I decided to go for a american recipe which wasn't the best idea as it was all measured in cups, but I managed to get a third from it. The KICK was that it was ginger lemonade and I wasn't sure if I'd put tooo much in it. Only time would tell, once we kneew the judges decision!

I'm so particular about how things look, I couldn't just put it in a plastic bottle that had previously been home to highland spring etc, so I decided to go on the hunt for a nostalgic lemonade bottle, with a hinged cap, i knew exactly what i was looking for... and i found it! It made the lemonade look so good, it didn't matter if it tasted rubbish! But it obviously didn't as I got 3rd prize!

20 GOING ON 40 ish????

This is a while back but I'm just trying to relate to you how I'm so not a typical 21 yr old! This summer, at our annual Killin Agricultural show I decided to have a go and enter a few things in the Horticultural and Handicraft Show, of which all of the WRI entered! I was the youngest adult entrant and for my first go, I didn't do too bad. I received a 1st for my pencil drawing of a flower head, which is actually the flower that is posted on the website. I've not got a great pic of it, might put one up later. I also did a few flower arrangements which I received two 2nds for. I was amazed- the lady who won 1st had been doing it for years and was a bout 3 times my age with about 3 times my experience.