This is Wiss...the next step!

Wow! This week has just flown by. I was hoping to have blogged before now but what with a bout of hand foot and mouth, Sell it Mama last weekend, going to see In the Night Garden Live! and trying to buy a new house I've just not found the time!


NB: Wiss is all recovered now and it seems he had hand foot and mouth very mildly, but it has been spreading quickly round nursery. We are currently keeping everything crossed for the sale of our flat and the purchase of a new house. If it all works out then I'll post all about it then! And In the Night Garden Live? What can I say? Yes, it was expensive but Wiss loved it...

Anyway, now that I am actually writing this post I should get round to what I really wanted to talk about. This is Wiss... the next step!


I've been doing craft fairs and mums and babies fairs for around a year now. I started out tentatively, mainly just wanting to gauge if there was a space in the market for my products. It seems there is (which I am over the moon about!) but now I feel that it's time to plan the next step. I want to see if This is Wiss has the potential to become a proper cottage business. I know it's the dream of many mums out there, but it really would be amazing if I could start making proper money from something I love doing (and that fits in perfectly with childcare and school terms!)

As many of you will know, I joined Twitter at the end of last year and through it I have 'met' many fantastic, inspiring, creative people. People who are pursuing their dreams, whatever they might be, and people that are happy to offer advice or simply get involved. I think Twitter is brilliant for networking and already I've made connections that I just would not have been able to do alone.


So here I am, thinking about what step to take next, where to put myself to get seen and how I should go about it all. Stacie Swift has some great posts on her blog Swift Somethings that deal directly with the practical sides of setting up and running a business. She is a fab illustrator, and her boyfriend handily is an accountant! There is information about business accounts and you can even ask her boyfriend questions, but her recent post on reviewing your business came at the perfect time for me. (Do have a look round the rest of her site as there's so much more fun stuff too.)


I'm still working through my SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) but think it's a great way to take stock of where I am and where I want to go. I have a few big plans that I hope to share with you soon, but I'd also love to hear your opinions: good or 'constructive'! If you have purchased anything from This is Wiss then let me know what you think, how you are using it and what could make it better. Where would you like to be able buy stuff: online, at a market or in a shop? Does it matter to you that all my products are handmade in the UK using the best materials possible? (All my stuff can be found in the gallery on my website)

I know this is a big ask and it's time consuming but your opinions are invaluable to me and I'd be really grateful if you would leave me a comment below.


As always, thanks for reading and I'll be back tomorrow with another #silentsunday photograph, and some more sewing projects next week.

#SilentSunday

#SilentSunday

I'm going to start something today on my blog, well actually, join in with something that's been going for a few years. People have been blogging and tweeting #SilentSunday photos which are just that: no words required. Already I am breaking the rules (just this once)!

If you want to find out more about #SilentSunday then just google or search twitter. But the rules are simple: Just one photo, that you took yourself in the week leading up to the post, and no words in the post or the title.


For me, it's a great way to get back behind the camera again (something that has slipped now that I am often chasing around after a toddler) and to ensure I blog more regularly. So that's it, no more words today or any other Sunday. Just a photo...

Pitter patter raindrops, I'm wet through...so are you!

After all the fun and sunshine leading up to Jubilee weekend it was somewhat disappointing when the actual event itself was a washout. I hear that London had some good weather on the Monday and the news reports we saw looked glorious. My family and I went to Ireland so we missed out on all the celebrations but don't worry, we didn't miss out on the weather. Wet is the only way to describe our week in the Emerald Isle, and that's being polite!

We did a lot of driving (1014 miles in total!)

We saw a lot of this:

We spent a lot of time in our waterproofs and wellies (and I was sure I was going to get Trench Foot as my feet were permanently soggy!) It's such a shame; we thought a week in a cottage on a farm in June would be heavenly. I like a real log fire as much as the next person but in summer??!

It was a great opportunity however, to spend time together, slow down, relax and introduce Lewis to the Irish side of the family. We visited Secret Valley Farm and were lucky enough to help feed the kid goats. Even in the rain it was a great place to visit and there's so much to do.

And then one day, the sun came out! It's amazing how the sun transforms everything and everyone.

Unfortunately the rain returned just as quickly as it had disappeared and the end of our stay was just as soggy. Oh dear!

Children are amazing though and it takes more than some heavy precipitation to dampen their spirits. Lewis had a ball, quite literally...

And he now knows all the words to 'I hear thunder...' !!!

The Diamond Jubilee Build-Up - Day Five!

Welcome back to the final day of my build-up to the Diamond Jubilee. I hope there has been something for everyone to find useful, interesting or even just amusing! Today I've got a couple of recipes with a jubilee flavour. They are both pretty quick to make and you could enlist some little people to help if you have them. They will be perfect for any celebrations you've got planned this weekend.

I love a good trifle and think they are typically British, but I was hoping to make something even more patriotic. I thought for ages about what could be the red, white and in particular, the blue. In the end I settled on an interesting combination of blue sponge cake (hmmm!), red strawberry jelly, white rice pudding (Lewis's absolute favourite) and fruit and sugar balls to finish.

I made the individual trifles in jam jars once again as I think they look really cute, and are also easy to transport if you're taking them to a party. To serve, I served the strawberries and blueberries on the side so that each person could decorate their own trifle. I have to admit that they were a bit odd looking - my husband said the blue sponge cake looked like the foam you find inside sofas! But they sure tasted delicious...

This next recipe is from the River Cottage Everyday cook book. I have tried almost all of the recipes in this book and they have all been good, but these cookies are particularly delicious. And they can be ready within half an hour! I have added the red, white and blue myself...

Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
75g soft brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
dried cranberries
dries blueberries
white chocolate chunks


Melt the butter in small pan. Put both sugars in a bowl, pour in the melted butter and beat well. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and stir them in. When mixed well add the cranberries, blueberries and white chocolate chunks.


Dot dessert-spoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with grease-proof paper. Make sure you leave 4cm between them as they will spread. Cook at 190 degrees centigrade/gas mark 5 for 8-10 minutes, until they are turning golden brown. They will firm up as they cool but you want them to be a little squishy. Try to eat with restraint!

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I wish you all a wonderful Jubilee weekend, and I really hope the weather holds for all the street parties that will be taking place over the next few days. My family and I are off on holiday for a week so we will be missing out on all the fun here in the UK but I look forward to seeing all the pictures from the different events.


A big thank you goes to my two special guests on this series: Stacie Swift and No More Disco. We've really enjoyed getting into the jubilee spirit and I hope you have too? Now all you have to do is eat, drink and have fun!

The Diamond Jubilee Build-Up - Day Four

Welcome to Day Four of The Diamond Jubilee Build-Up here on This is Wiss! I hope that you have already been getting some ideas to keep the little people entertained over the coming long bank holiday, but today's post is a beauty.


I am very excited to be able to introduce another fabulous guest blogger. Amy writes her blog No More Disco about her life, her two cute children and her crafting. I 'met' Amy on Twitter and instantly loved her honest and funny tweets. It turned out we have quite a lot in common (but I'm not so sure about the funny green juices!) I digress. Amy has really great ideas for crafts to do with children and I have been wanting to link-up and do something with her for some time, so I was very pleased she said yes to a special Jubilee tutorial for me. I give you Amy...

"Last week when I thought frantically of something different to make to celebrate the jubilee all I could think of was 'crown, crown, crown,' but thanks to a bit of googling I discovered there is to be a pretty monumentous procession of boats down the River Thames, (I knew nothing about this!) and the Queen will be sailing down on a Royal Barge. You can read more about that here. In any case I decided we'd make a boat. Fit for a Queen obviously *ahem*

Constructing the bare bones of the boat wasn't too lengthy but I'd suggest if you are making it with a child under 7 then perhaps having the cardboard structure ready the night before might be helpful. It only takes about 10 minutes. 

I used: 

A cardboard box

Selotape

Some plain paper & a bit of tissue paper

PVA Glue and a bowl

Scissors 

Paint

It's pretty low tech!

I used a fairly thick cardboard left over from the tv box delivered this week. I drew the shape of the bottom of the boat freehand (see wobbly lines) and then made sure there were about 3 inches either side. These will be the sides of the boat so it's really up to you how deep you want it.

Score around the boat's base and fold up the sides and the back of the boat. I had to cut at the front so it folded up nicely.

This is the bit where the selotape comes into it's own.

Cut the shape of the boat in anyway you fancy.

I added two pieces of card vertically with a bit more selotape. This will support the 'deck'

Draw around the base of your boat to make the shape of the deck. Be sure to cut this piece longer than the base and it'll fit really nicely. It doesn't have to be snug, we are going to cover it in wet paper in a minute!

Tape it all up again, I cut a hole in the top for money - long enough for a 50p and about 5mm across.

Mix a bowl of half PVA and half water and then immerse strips of paper one at a time and place them over your boat. Might want to lay that oilcloth down if your children are anything like mine. For reasons best know to herself Ruby put each bit of paper in exactly the same place unless I coaxed her otherwise. A little bit of gentle persuasion, some smoothing and filling myself and we came up with this:

Whilst that dried I got Ruby to count out some pennies....

The whole idea was so that we could compare what 60 pennies looked against 4 pennies. She is 4, the Queen is celebrating 60 years on the throne... do you see what I did there? When I thought about it I realised that the 90 something year old lady next door to me was in her 30's when Elizabeth was crowned. Was she sitting around a kitchen table with her children crafting crowns and decorations? I'll bet she was. It's an amazing amount of time.

We did the whole 'who is the lady on the coin?' discussion and then I discovered two things about this genius comparative exercise. 1) Balancing 60 pennies on top of one another is no mean feat. 2) Ruby couldn't have possibly engaged with something less. She's 4, it was hot, something something 4, something something 60, where's the ice-cream?  was going through her mind. 

Thanks to the heat though we got to paint it up after only an hour in the garden. Some poster paint mixed with the glue did the trick and then it was time to decorate. This couldn't go on for too long however as Ruby declared that 'her legs were tired (!)' and she was going to have to pause in the proceedings.

Now my idea is that they can use this as a bit of a jubilee piñata. I'm going to encourage (read: force) Ruby to go through my change and put pennies into the money box and once it's full we can bash it up and give the money to charity. I think it's a rather nice idea. That's unless it doesn't go missing again. This morning it was inexplicably gone from the kitchen table and George was playing with it in the lounge. It's remarkably sturdy actually - I'm definitely making papier mache toys again. Cheap and cheerful, they don't have to be perfect and the kids love them.

If you don't make one definitely get involved with the papier mache at some point in the future anyway - it is very satisfying!

*note: the flag in the top picture is just a skewer and a printed union jack from the net. It's pretty easy to puncture the papier mache if it's not too thick. Good luck!"

How cool is that? And I love the Playmobil and young Queen Elizabeth finishing touches. Thank you Amy!

Don't forget to add No More Disco to your reader list if you'd like to see more of that kind of thing, plus lovely photos of Brighton and fab granny squares!

Tomorrow is the last day of my Jubilee event and the fever will be building towards the weekend with some great patriotic recipes! Nom nom nom. See you tomorrow!

The Diamond Jubilee Build-Up - Day Three

Good morning and a special hello to all the new visitors to my blog. Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying the Jubilee event on This is Wiss so far.


It's Day Three already and today I've got a couple of tutorials to help you get into the Jubilee spirit.


Crowning Glory


All the children were asked to wear a crown to nursery today, and although Wiss prefers his one made from gold card and sellotape (no accounting for taste!), I thought I'd show you how I made the felt crowns for the Queen & Country exhibition. 


I did cheat a little by cutting out my felt using a lasercutter, but if you don't have one of these at your disposal then careful cutting with scissors or a scalpel will be just as good. This crown does require some fiddly machine sewing, turning all the corners but it's still very quick to come together.


Start by measuring the head of your intended King or Queen, then add a few centimeters to this to allow for the Velcro overlap. Draw a repeating crown shape as simple or fancy as you wish. 

Washing Line Bunting


This idea is so simple that it's almost not worth a tutorial, but our bunting has been making me smile all week so I thought I should still share it. I love bunting; it's quintessentially British! But it can be a little fiddly to make and I always have a problem with where to hang it. And then I had a brainwave!


While Lewis was napping I cut triangles of red, white and blue card using pinking scissors (but normal scissors will do!) I folded over the top 2cm of each flag and pressed down to make a flap. When he woke up I enlisted his help to hang them on the washing line in our garden. He knows his colours and loved shouting out the name of each one as we hung it up. I used some cute bird pegs to secure them but any peg will do!

Once the washing line is full of bunting make sure you pull it up high so that you don't garrote anyone (I speak from experience!) But that's it. Bunting....done!

Tomorrow's post comes from another special guest, Amy from No More Disco so please don't forget to come back and visit for some more great Jubilee ideas.


I'd love to hear what you have planned for the Jubilee weekend so please leave a comment. Have a great day!