Poppies and buttons

What.  A.  Week!

It all started on Monday morning when one of the stall holders at the Millets Farm Craft and Gift Fair (I blogged about her beautiful buttony creations here) contacted me to ask if I would like to supply her stall and online shop with sets of fabric covered buttons which I had been making for my Etsy shop.  Of course I said yes, and set about sorting the mountains of vintage Laura Ashley fabric scraps I had been given earlier in the year and had yet to find a proper use for:

I thought to myself "yeah, twenty sets of buttons, a week or so to sort it all out, no problemo..."

I thought wrong!  For on Tuesday morning I received a text from Miss L:

"One of the girls I work with is married to news ed at ox mail.  She has bought one of your poppies and the mail want to do a picture story on you in time for Friday!  Scary I know but fantastic opportunity to plug the crochet!  Going to give her your number because you can't turn this chance down.  Hope that's ok. X"

Crikey!  Certainly scary and most definitely a fantastic opportunity!  One small problem crossed my mind:  I had no poppies left!  Since making about 16 back in October, sales had been steadily increasing and I had given a couple away as gifts and raffle prizes, until I had sold my last one not 24 hours before.  So after work and a quick phone call with the Oxford Mail, I raced home, telling everyone I knew on the way the good news, and locked myself in my room to rustle up some more.  Very late, and eleven poppies later, I had enough for the photo shoot.

On Wednesday I had a phone interview with Mr Oxford Mail Reporter Chap, and, slightly worried I had portrayed myself as a sad 29-year-old singleton with only crochet for company, I raced home once again at the end of the day to prepare myself for the arrival of Mr Photographer Man.

A gazillion photos later, and flashbacks to Mrs A's wedding, and jaw ache, it was all done.  What am I going to do with all these poppies I thought, since it seemed too late to add them to my Etsy shop, what with 11.11.11 being less than 48 hours away.  And then I had a brainwave:  I will take them to the lovely Jo at Darn it & Stitch, my favourite shop in Oxford, and ask her if she will please pop them in a basket on the counter with a little sign saying "£6, all proceeds to The Royal British Legion" and see if they sell.  Oooh yes! she said and it was done.

On Thursday morning I took the poppies down to Darn it & Stitch and by 5.30pm all but three poppies had sold.  Amazing!

On Friday morning I got up at 7.00am and practically ran to the newsagent to see if I had made it into the paper.  Actually, I already knew I was in it, because Mrs A had already texted me to tell me I was in there, nestled amongst some esteemed war veterans, teachers and army cadets each with their own stories to tell.  I felt very honoured to be included:

And you might think that the excitement stopped there, but no, there was a further surprise waiting for me when I got home from work on Friday evening:  my crocheted poppies had been included in Mollie Makes' poppy mosaic on their blog! 

Mine is the third one down on the left-hand side.  To be included in this, with lots of other beautiful poppies and creative people was the icing on the cake for me, especially since I owe part of my renewed creative spirit to Mollie Makes and their continually inspiring magazine. So thank you Mollie Makes, and a high five to all those people who used their creativity to make poppies to sell in aid of The Royal British Legion and to remember those people who fought and gave their lives so that we could be free, and those servicemen and women who are fighting for our freedom today.

Yesterday morning, I received a text from Jo at Darn it... to say that all the poppies had been sold!  Hurrah!  AND I sold a further 2 poppies as a result of the newspaper article, so I've yet to tot it all up, but I think that's nearly £200 I've raised for The Royal British Legion.  Thank you to everyone who helped me reach that amount.  I will be sending a cheque to the RBL in the next few days.

And now on to today.  I joined what looked to be a bumper turnout for the Two Minutes Silence at the village war memorial today, and found out that a couple of people in the village have been doing some research and have discovered a further 10 men who lived in the village who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars.  I wonder how they could have been "forgotten"?  There will be an exhibition about these men next year, so I suppose I shall find out then.

The rest of today has been spent making buttons and putting together this post, and writing lists of things to do!  I have entered a couple of Christmas Swaps this year; the Craft Tonic Christmas decoration exchange, and A Christmas Curiosity Project, so I need to come up with some ideas for those, plus I have the wedding favours for my brother's wedding to start thinking about, but more about those in another post....

daaa" post to share with you) and that will happen soon.....I hope! Haha!  I've only just noticed that this little paragraph didn't quite turn out right!  And none of you told me!  Anyway, I think it was meant to say that I have another "ta-daa" post to share with you, for a cowl that I crocheted what seems like ages ago now, and that I know I've promised you all a crochet-filled post, and that will happen soon, promise.

Thank you all for your kind comments on my birthday blog post.  I have decided to pretend I am 30 already as some of you suggested, as this seems like the easiest way to come to terms with it in time for when I actually reach the dreaded three-oh!

I leave you with a sneaky preview of the buttons for The Button Room:

Christmassy stars, complete with new rubber stamp from The English Stamp Company

Now I must go and get on with making the rest of the buttons...

Much love,

Emmalemonade x x x

Edited to add:  I didn't even mention the Giveaway!  How awful of me!  I haven't forgotten (well, I had, but only temporarily) and it will be happening, just as soon as the button-making and orchestra concert (I didn't mention that either, did I?) are out of the way.  Maybe I'll postpone it until I reach 300 followers on Twitter?! I'm at 250 odd now I think.  What do you reckon - giveaway now or giveaway at 300 followers?