New EU Vat Regulations and blog break

There are new tax laws coming into effect in January for countries in the European Union regarding digital sales. From January 1st, businesses selling digital items to EU countries are obliged to register and pay VAT (Value Added Tax) to the country in which the customer lives.

With these new EU VAT regulations coming into effect in January, I'll temporarily to close my Etsy shop Lynlubell until I can work out just how I should handle the sales of digital patterns to my EU customers. It seems onerous for a small hobby shop to have to register for VAT in each EU country where a customer may buy a digital pattern, but that is the way I understand it at the moment. Etsy are bringing in some changes to help with the process and I will keep you posted on how this progresses.

In the meantime please contact me through my blog if you are interested in any of the pincushion patterns you may have seen in my Etsy shop. Leave a comment below and I will get back to you. You may also email me directly at "lynette dot warner at gmail dot com" in the usual format of name1.name2@gmail.com

On another note, I will be taking a break from blogging for a few weeks. I should be back here with you by the end of January with batteries fully recharged.

Till then, happy stitching!

Season's Greetings

Christmas has come and gone and I hope it was a truly cheery time for you.  I have had my daughter and her family here and they will be with us for a couple more weeks too. For us it was wonderful to spend Christmas with two little ones in the house and see the anticipation  and excitement in their faces as Christmas unfolded.

This was my 3 year old grandson's top Christmas wish, and he still sleeps with it in his bed at night.

Yes, its a stop sign! What's it for? Well, it's to stop the traffic! You have to wonder at the workings of a 3 year old's mind.

The house has been busy these last few days. There was great concentration yesterday using the new cookie cutters to bake cookies with Mom and wearing his new pirate apron.

This sunny little chap makes the most delightful burbles and goo sounds. They are difficult to describe but they remind me of the character Morph in Tony Hart's TV Show that was aired in South Africa in the 1970's and 80's. I just love listening to him as he explores his little world.

Did I do much stitching before Christmas? Yes, but it was all on the sewing machine. With 4 grandchildren there were lots of aprons to make, bean bags to sew, and warm tracksuit tops to finish in time for the big day. Doesn't Aidan look sweet in his little top?

As this year draws to a close, enjoy the rest of the festive season and I wish you a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2015. May you also have many happy hours of stitching to look forward to in the coming year.

Christmas Ornaments

Making little things is always enjoyable for me and I have just completed drawing up the pattern for three little canvas work Christmas ornaments.

They can either hang on your Christmas tree or be used as scissor fobs and mini pincushions. Add tassels and hang them on doorknobs or attach them to special keys.

The Christmas Ornaments pattern is available in my Etsy shop Lynlubell which you can visit by clicking here.

Its a nice quick project to complete in time for Christmas and a perfect opportunity to use up threads from your stash.

Happy stitching and take care during the rush of the Festive Season.

Free Christmas fonts

One of my favourite blogs that I visit for inspiration and crafty ideas is Craft Gossip.  Being the Christmas season there are lots of Christmas related ideas, links and projects. Many are free and this is where I found these Christmas fonts.

Look at the Christmas story depicted in 9, all the tree shapes in 7, and symbols of Christmas in 3, 11 and 16. There is no chance of having a white Christmas in summer in Cape Town, but those snowflakes in 5 are really pretty and just waiting to be used somewhere.

The fonts are free for you to use on your Christmas cards, gift tags and letters. Click here to find the free Christmas fonts on Lil Luna's blog. I wonder what you are going to do with them?

I started writing this post yesterday and today there is another link to free Christmas scripts on Craft Gossip. Click here to take a look.

Barefoot sandals at Oakhurst Girls' Primary School

This morning a group of girls at Oakhurst Girls' Primary School in Rondebosch had a morning of embroidery, stitching and beading. The project was to make a pair of barefoot sandals.

The Cape Embroiderer's Guild arranged for a group of volunteers to teach some basic embroidery skills such as threading a needle, starting and ending threads, spacing of stitches, straight stitch, buttonhole stitch and how to apply beads. A two hour workshop is not long to do all that but the girls loved it and they turned out some super work.

There are going to be some pretty feet around this summer. Well done girls!

Later.... These photos of the beautiful 'no-shoe shoes' were kindly sent in by Sue Kingma:

If anyone from the workshop has more photos of their completed sandals, do send them to me and I will add them to this blog post. My email address is lynette dot warner at gmail dot com, written in the usual format myname.surname@gmail.com

Barefoot Sandals

A group of us from the Cape Embroiderer's Guild got together to learn how to make barefoot sandals, something quite new to me. This was in preparation for a workshop at Oakhurst Primary School where the Guild teaches by invitation at the end of the school year. Two grannies of the school joined in too. The more helpers there are the more individual attention each girl will have at the workshop.

Toody Cassidy put together wonderful kits of ribbon, beads and felt and showed us how to embroider and make up the barefoot sandals. Each kit was different and we had a rainbow of exciting colours with which to work.

Jill was the first to complete her barefoot sandal.

Then Stella.

And here are our efforts by the end of the morning, not all completed, but we sure had fun. 

Jill managed to finish both sandals - and they have matching toenails! Very pretty. 

I'm sure the girls are going to love making them! They are super for prettying up bare feet and just in time for summer here in Cape Town.