SUNDAY... Coffee and Cake

Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...



I'm currently in the process of discovering the classic joys of pregnancy as most of you probably know from my previous Sunday post, and so far this week I've been under the hopeful (yet very naive) belief that because I am approaching the 2nd Trimester, all of the lovely things that have been happening to me lately will cease to plague my days. However I am wondering if I'm going to be one of the lucky ladies that lives in the 1st trimester throughout the entire 40 week period, as so far I haven't noticed any let up in my pregnancy symptoms. Only that they appear to be getting worse! Eek!

When I was pregnant with my son I loved the fact that despite having physical trauma towards the start, and the need for chiropractic care 4 times a week for many months I was pretty fortunate to not experience morning sickness, nor the loss of appetite thing and the like... but bloomin heck, I dont know what's worse at the moment. It's pretty frightening actually, as I'm sure highly amusing for anyone that watches me heaving 100s of times a day, but I have completely lost my desire for food, and because my sense of smell seems to be amplified, any food stuffs I approach sets off this uncontrollable need to be sick. It's terrible and I don't know what to do about it. If it was just the sickness that's fair enough but to loose my desire for food and find every smell I come across physically unbearable worries me a lot, particularly as it seems to be getting worse. I hear a lot of women get this problem but I never imagined morning sickness to go as far as this. I look forward to the day that I dont have to retch all the way through my cooking and spend millions of years trying to get through meals, I only hope that it lets up soon!


Despite the fun and games, I have been back on form all week enjoying finding lots of newbies to help promote and making the necessary alterations in my store (slowly but surely). Glad to have successfully managed it all too in amongst all the goings on at home too, but I have felt that despite the changes something feels a bit empty. The great things I think have been making more time for myself on top of my usual duties, but for some reason there is this feeling that with the blog in particular there is a need for something more. I have been considering adding a new weekly post, which I thought could involve linking to helpful resources, focusing on the arts, design, marketing, business... you know, the generally need to know's for I guess a lot of people trying to work from home as there is SOOOO much that I have found to be handy myself, and not enough venues that list all the need to knows in one place. I personally have 1000s of links bookmarked in my browser and most of the time I'm driven nutty trying to go through what I find to be particularly helpful to me, as my internet habits normally involve me coming across these kind of things then bookmarking them for later reading (lack of time factor). As I do have a lot of good one's (that I have managed to check out) I know for me and anyone that's interested, to have them all available in one place will be handy for future reference. This will all need planning though as I still havent worked out how to make this idea an organised idea, nor how I plan to catagorize topics on the blog to keep things minimal yet accessible. So this one is one that'll come in time. I'll keep ya posted :)

I think maybe I'll end this one for today, as the week has been more of an adjustment to changes than interesting things to share that have occured so hopefully next week I'll have a lot more to talk about, now that I'm back into the swing of things!

FRIDAY - Friday Finds... ChocolateCreative

Friday Finds... ChocolateCreative

This is my eighth interview of the amazing not-so-well-known artists of Etsy.

It has been a long while since I have done my weekly searches through my favourite newest of the new on Etsy so over the weekend I almost felt peace washing over the diffiulties that have surrounded my families lives lately, by just being able to do what I love doing the most here on Blogger and Etsy. I haven't managed to finish updating my own store as of yet, but as you discovered on Monday I found 12 great new artists with wonderful work to share that I wanted to share with the community as my favourite finds of the week. Today I want to introduce my favourite artist of the week in my artistan interview, that makes beautiful home decor printed cushions and textiles. I love her work because it is fresh, unique and elegantly abstract that reflects times of old, as well as the fact that she likes to use eco sound materials like organic cotton and hemp in her eco collection. I think her concept is just so carefully thought out and produced so well that I couldnt resist asking for an interview, and thrilled that she wanted to take part! I'd like to introduce you to Designer Margarita of ChocolateCreative. Also check out her wonderful blog http://chocolatecreative.blogspot.com.



(Just click the images to go direct to the listings)







-- Tell me a bit about you! (Name, Age, Location, and give us a random fact whilst you're at it.) Margarita Lorenzo, 38, London, Spanish at heart, living and enjoying my English life in London.

-- What is your business about then? My business is about creating sustainable handmade textiles and accessories for the house, spreading the word about craft and traditional skills and promoting handmade design above mass produced one.

-- How did Etsy come into your life? I learned about Etsy last year while browsing an American blog, and thought what a brilliant idea!! As it reaches out globally and have a great designers/makers community.

-- Are you working a day job too? My background is in Graphic Design, and have been doing this for the past 15 years, still work part time for a company, but trying to give up on this job to concentrate on my textiles business.

-- How long has the artist in you been 'unleashed' for? For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to do/study art, I went to University to do Fine Art, specialised in Graphic Design, and since them never have stopped studying and learning new ways of expressing my creativity, printmaking and textiles have been my latest studies.

-- What has been the inspiration behind your business? I suppose the main reason is my passion for what I do and make, and wanted to be my own boss for a long time. I believe in handmade design and love making my own things. I look for inspiration in traditional craft, embroidery, stitching, old linens, vintage textiles, the colours and look of old houses in Cuba and Brazil, etc…I like mixing the old with the new and that is what I try in each design, to bring a bit tradition into a contemporary piece.

-- If you could describe your products in three words, what would you tell me? Sustainable handmade textiles

-- What would an average working day for you be like from dawn til dusk? It differs from day to day, (this is when working on my textiles from my studio at home), I am not an early bird, so start around 9.30/10am,
have my coffee while I browse a magazine
read and answers emails
organize the day’s work
If time, go for a walk in the park/have lunch
Print/sew/make cushions
Work on new ideas
Market the business
Run the blog
Shop for materials
And last browse blogs and sites for inspiration and networking while I watch TV on my sofa, absolutely exhausted but very happy!!

-- What's your favourite material and techniques to work with? I only work with natural fabrics, such as Linens, hemps, 100% cottons and organic cotton, I soon hope to start introducing some old linens and vintage fabrics. I want to reuse as much as possible, I value old textiles and believe in recycling very much. I screen print my own designs and use transfer paper for some motives, I love using traditional skills such as cross stitch and embroidery.

-- What is your ideal vision for the future for you and your work? In the ideal world and hopefully in my near future I see myself dedicated to Chocolate Creative full time, and living between Spain (Canary Islands where I come from) in Winter and spending Summer/Spring in London. Expanding the textiles lines and introducing stationary and ceramics. Running the blog, and who knows what my creative mind and new opportunities will bring along the way. I am very certain this is what I want to do as I feel very passionate about it.

-- Away from work, what do you like to do for fun or to wind down? I love being with my friends and family, (they are a very important part of my life and feel very privilege to have so many supportive people around me), cooking and entertaining at home, traveling as much possible, going home to my local beach and relax by the sea. I love going to the cinema, museums, galleries, browse second hand shops and antiques markets, and above all a good piece of cake, cup of tea, good magazine, my cat next to me and my confy sofa, HEAVEN!!!

-- What are you likely to search for on Etsy? Anything that looks gorgeous and is being well crafted, I have already bought a few pieces from it and I am always surprise about how much talent is out there, it is such a source of inspiration!!

-- Any last words? The piece of advice that has helped me the most and that I pass on to you all is: “Be true to your heart, believe in yourself and follow your dreams”. I want to thank to all the amazing global community that is out there, making, designing and creating for being a constant source of inspiration!!