SPRING ...AS IN BOUNCE

I've been away on Wordpress blogging about our community garden for a while and find myself in unfamiliar territory but it will all come back to me soon enough.  I'm anxious to make contact with my carry-a-bag friends and followers now that the site is back online and I'm back behind my sewing machine.

My fundamental need to MAKE has won over my need to plant veggies for slugs and snails. I've always been a maker and get immense satisfaction from crafting something with my own hands. I love shopping but for me nothing beats making.  I have a room filled to bursting with fabric, a clutter
of bobbins, buttons and threads and find the lure of selecting, matching and making impossible to resist.  My time outside gave me the opportunity to watch bees and see how many sorts there are and each has its own task -  buzzing, busy and determined.  I think I may be a Solitary Bee as I'm very happy to work alone, as long as I have 6Music on nice and loud.

However, I'll be venturing out to dip my toes into the exciting world of the Pick Me Up design fair at Somerset House this week where I'm running a tote bag making workshop using the new HEALS 1812 fabric range.   Very exciting. - come and visit, make a bag and take it home.
https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/pick-me-up-2014

http://www.heals.co.uk/search?q=1810+fabrics

Nice to be back on the blog

love & peace

Sally

  x

Carry-a-bag to the shops

Okay, I admit it, I've allowed myself to become distracted over the past year.  I've neglected my bags and the blog having fallen in love with a new project. 

Early this year a group of us got together and created a 
community garden on a large plot of derelict land in St Leonards. We called it the Moveable Feast, which describes our plan to grow vegetables and move to a new place if and when the land owners decide to reclaim the land and build houses. (It's also the title of one of Hemingway's books.)  This is our blogsite:
http://www.moveablefeastgarden.wordpress.com 

My passion to make a difference by tempting people to carry bags and refuse point blank to accept any more dammed plastic bags remains undimmed. But business wasn't booming and I began to believe that nobody needed any more bags and indeed by making more I was contributing to the massive bag-build up. People own so many bags - how could they possibly want any more? 
My batteries needed recharging.
  

So I started working outdoors growing vegetables and talking to strangers about our need to reconnect with our food sources, breathe fresh air and feel part of a community.  It's been a bit like having an affair - I couldn't stay away from the garden, I didn't want to miss anything.  And the garden has flourished.

Seasons change and I'm back in the room.  
My fabrics are unfolded, spread out and pondered over. I have markets booked, I'm working in SHOP in Norman Road and I'm sewing bags.  Not masses of bags but I'm a little bit busy making very limited editions and loving it. My website's been dusted off and is looking fresh and I've a new workroom with a view of the sea.  

Happy Days

LOVE, PEACE & HAPPINESS

Sally

 

   

JANUARY 2012

Yes - I am still here! I know I have neglected my blog for a very very long time and apologise to anyone who likes to read it. I fully expect to have lost all followers by now.

Its been a funny time with many distractions. These have mostly been nice ones and there are two new books to prove it. The Little Hastings & Rye Cook Book 2 was published on the final day of November and the whole process was a bit of a whirlwind. It was second only to Jamie Oliver in the pre-Christmas sales at our local Waterstones and I promise we will sort out the typos in print edition 2.
HOME SEWN HOME comes out later this year. Its a starter book on sewing for your home (it's all in the title really)with a vintage twist. I used to write 'how to' books before I started CARRY-A-BAG and like to keep my hand in. This year I plan to refresh the bag business and will begin with the website, so keep an eye on it and let me know what you think via email. I shall be introducing a newsletter and urging everyone to join up for regular updates and special offers.

I love the New Year and all the plans that come with it. I wish you all a HAPPY ONE - there is so much to look forward to.

love & peace

xx

Sally

ELDERFLOWERS ARE EVERYWHERE

It has been an odd Spring this year with heatwaves in April and such cold nights in late May
that weve taken to lighting the fire in the evening. Everyone's noticed how early the flowers and fruit are and we'll have a monster crop of figs in a month or two. And there seem to be more Elderflowers than I've ever seen before. I made cordial on Monday and bottled it up yesterday but actually cannot bear to look at the trees covered with flowers without planning to make another batch. I should like it to last till next year but will be lucky if it makes July the way we're guzzling it. Free seasonal food should never be ignored.
Workwise Aveda keep me busy with lovely collaborative bag projects and the latest ones will be in Liberty's this month to celebrate the new Beauty Rooms. I'm also making another big batch of Union Jack cosmetic bags with pretty floral linings for them, so sign-up with Aveda online http://www.aveda.co.uk for newsletters and their special offers ....which may be one of my bags.
Living beside the sea, when summer looms I find Beach Bags are on my mind and this year I've been trying my hand at silk screen printing, putting big red arrows on vintage striped canvas. I love the results and by the look of it my favourite customers do too - thanks xxxx you know who you are!

Enjoy the summer & Make Elderflower Cordial & Be Happy

LOVE & PEACE

Sally
x

GENEROSITY

A very long time ago somebody who lived in Hastings left land and specified that it

was never to be built on. Instead certain rare trees were to be planted for the enjoyment of future generations. One of these is the Magnolia Grandiflora, now a familar garden feature

but when it was chosen it must have been extremely exotic and unusual.

The wonderful thing is that this tree has now grown so huge it towers over all other trees and the surrounding meadows. It stands tall, a bizarre mass of sugary pink set against bare branches, so wonderfully out of place that it makes you gasp with delight.

By next week all the buds will be open and the earliest ones will drop creating a carpet of pink beneath the tree.
Its extraordinary and wonderfully generous.
So thank you.

love & peace

this time of year

I have been in Dorset, in the heart of the countryside where I was
thrilled by the views of rolling hills, newly ploughed fields and
trees just starting to green up. The lanes were lined with snowdrops and every tree seemed to boast at least one singing bird. The green of the grass was vibrant and the sky a brilliant blue. It was pure joy.
As we drove back to Sussex today something else caught my eye.
Dirty shredded plastic bags stuck in hedges, flapping on barbed wire and woven through branches. In a week or two the new leaves will hide this evidence of people's indifference. Till Autumn.
Grrrrr! There was a car in front of me with an English Flag sticker on the back windscreen and the driver threw his chocolate bar wrapper out of the window. There he was surrounded by fields of green and I wondered what it was he loved so much about England - not the countryside I'm guessing. He's probably never noticed that.
Lately I have realised that the only way for me to deal with this is to pick up the litter that the careless ones leave behind - being angry spoils my day and their messy behavior spoils my neighbourhood and our countryside. That's my plan.

Enjoy that view..........
I took the photograph this morning
with love & peace

Sally
x

ITS FEBRUARY ALREADY

I seemed to have spent an entire month sorting through fabrics and trying to tidy up my workroom. This means business has been quiet, as it always is in the depths of winter. People turn to weatherproof bags
and let's face it without a plastic content nothing is waterproof - well, I suppose there is rubber and oiled cotton but those are not on my 'pretty vintage' radar. So, January is the time to fold and stack. Until an order comes in for something that I know I've seen somewhere....
then I start messing things up again and frankly, that's where I'm at right now. It looks as if nothing has changed but, on the bright side, I have done a mental audit of my fabulous bag potential - and there is plenty of it! Snowdrops have come up, tulips are pushing through and I've seen a couple of blue tits checking out my birdbox.
It's a way off yet but I'm definitely feeling more energetic and so looking forward to the Spring.

LOVE & PEACE & HAPPINESS

X

S A L L Y

ON THE LAST DAY OF 2010

WHAT A GREAT PIECE OF NEWS TO END THE YEAR
THE ITALIANS HAVE BANNED SINGLE-USE CARRIER BAGS!

From now on only biodegradable bags will be allowed.
It is such an admirably bold move,
no messing about the 'deterrent' of charging for the polluting plastic
or making it optional or advisable - an outright ban.
It will be interesting to see how this works and whether
other European countries follow suit.
If it is possible in Italy..... fingers crossed.

I wish you all the happiest of years in 2011
with much love & peace

Sally
xxx

FIRST SNOW TODAY

I love the seasons and this year each one has been very clearly defined - although thinking back I'm not quite so sure about summer. Still, moving on, autumn colour seemed more glorious than ever and now we have proper snow before December. I love snow.
Next week we have a stand at the Midwinter Fair http://www.wealdentimes.co.uk/events/MidwinterFair2010/index.asp
It is being held in huge heated marquees at Bedgebury Pinetum which is just off the A21. We were at this event last year and can thoroughly recommend it for getting into the Christmas Groove. I am sharing the stand with my husband Stewart and the recycling project PLEASE watch their new film about their Christmas Trees on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHBWoodRecyclingCo#p/a/u/0/xWQXTFRPR2A
I shall be selling purses, tiny bags for the tree, spec-cases and The Little Hastings Fish Cook Book which is now in its 3rd print edition.

Life gets pretty hectic from now on
but you know, there should always be time
for a cup of tea with a friend
Love & Peace
Sally
x

AUTUMNAL ACTIVITY

The seasons have not been so clearly defined this year. There is usually a day when you see the change and feel the difference. The trees have hung onto their green leaves and the sun, when it shines, seems too hot somehow. But last night we had our first log fire and the house now has a homely aroma of coziness. Bring it on - I'm ready.
My husband Stewart and our son Roo are busy making hundreds of wooden Christmas Trees, wreaths and stars from recycled pallets for the Conran Shop's Christmas displays worldwide. It's been a huge operation and I am super-proud of their achievement. If you live in Paris, New York, Dublin, Tokyo or London you MUST visit the Conran Shop and see them. The Hastings & Bexhill Wood Recycling Project really know how to raise the bar & hats off to the Conran Shop for commissioning this work in England.
We will be sharing a stand at the Wealden Times Midwinter Fair again and this year it is being
held in giant heated marquees at the awesome Bedgebury Pinetum just off the A21 where they grow the largest assortment of pines in the British Isles. This is a superb and atmospheric Christmas Fair held on 2nd, 3rd & 4th December - please come and say hello. .http://www.wealdentimes.co.uk/events/MidwinterFair2010/index.asp

Wealden Times Midwinter Fair 2010So what with that, the Christmas Trees and at last beautiful Autumnal colours to inspire me, I am snipping and stitching lots and lots of new purses & bags. Watch the website for new additions to the range plus the revival of my most popular shopping bag - the organic calico shopper.

But today I'm having a day off. I shall be looking at the leaves & taking Bizzy the dog for a run on the sands at low tide.

Love & Peace

SALLY
X

TAKE YOUR BAG TO MARKET

It's Farmer's Market Day in Hastings today and the sun is shining. We will go with our Market Bags and fill them up with seasonal treats - English apples and perhaps the first fat pumpkin. Autumn has been trying to creep up on us but here on the South Coast we resist until the very last minute. I am continuing my collaboration with the lovely people at Aveda and have just finished a very special order of gorgeous linen and velvet purses that are heading off to New York for fashion week. I wonder whether their handmade-ness will be appreciated...I hope so.
I heard this week that plastic bag take-up has dropped by 47% nationally. That's really is something to celebrate. Look around and notice that people everywhere are now carrying shopping bags. It has become second nature to reach for a bag before leaving home. Success! I am going to be re-introducing my original shopping bags to celebrate - watch the website for a promotional offer on organic calico bags at the end of the month.

Till then carry-a-bag, ride a bike & greet your neighbours
with a smile.
love & peace

x
Sally

SUMMER FUN

Blogging has taken a bit of a backseat this year for all the right reasons - I've been very busy working and playing. My collaboration with AVEDA continues and I am up to my ears in striped, printed bags due for delivery by the end of the month and there are lots of other interesting projects on the go - more of that later.


I am happy to still be getting online orders from devoted customers all over the world too - so thank you for loving your bags xxx
Anyone who follows the blog will know that I do love a summer festival and this year we has been better than ever with sunshine and warm nights. Glastonbury and Latitude were glorious and I spotted quite a few Carry-a-Bag's which brought a warm glow. (The one in the pic is a 2005 shopper now carrying baby stuff)
My blog entry would not be the same without a little rant and this week I am concerned about the plastic containers used by restaurant's around our way for Take Away food orders. Margins are tight so I am certain they are used because they are the cheapest option - as are plastic bags as opposed to paper bags or cardboard boxes.
"These are absolutely reusable" I thought as I fished them out of my kitchen bin, where my son's tidy friend had deposited them. And they will be used many times in our household but it makes me wonder how many thousands of these perfectly reusable lidded plastic boxes are sent to landfill every day in the UK?
WAY TOO MANY is likely to be the answer. I'll let you know how my research goes.

love & peace & sunshine

Sally
x

Searching for the Environmental Good News

Yesterday I was close to nature walking in bluebell woods but today is
a rainy Sunday so I nipped out early to get a newspaper. I don't buy them very often anymore but I like to see what reviewers recommend music and book-wise and read the clever funny people's columns.
Environmental news always catches my eye and I read that a dead whale was washed up on the shore in California with a stomach filled with plastic bags and an assortment of other man-made items.(PLEASE DON'T USE PLASTIC BAGS) The oil slick from the ruptured pipeline in the gulf of Mexico is 135 miles long and growing. The oil threatens all marine species and people who make their livings from fishing these waters. ANOTHER MAN-MADE ECOLOGICAL DISASTER THAT NOBODY KNOWS HOW TO FIX.

There was also some GOOD NEWS....
The Danes are building incinerators that burn any non-recyclable household waste to provide both heating and electricity. These new-style incinerators filter out all the bad stuff so that it does not escape to pollute the air or the ground. Toxic compounds are isolated and securely stored in facilities deep underground in abandoned salt mines. They can be sited close to the homes that need the power and heating without the usual protests because they do not emit smelly smoke or dominate the landscape. People want to live nearby to gain the benefit of low cost heating and energy. I think whoever is in government after our election this Thursday should be encouraged to take a serious look at this option.

love & peace
Sally
x

Nadja's Very Special Card

Those who work from home will understand that sometimes you miss
the daily interaction with the rest of the human race, especially your customers.
Being an online shopkeeper is a lot less chatty than selling your wares over the counter.
People order and I post their parcels and occasionally they email or send a card back to tell me how happy they are with their new bag - and that makes my day.
This week I was blown away by Nadja's purple thank you card.
I was asked to make a bag printed with "Nadja's bag of love" and lots of hearts and stars.
I didn't know anything about Nadja until I received this card - and it made me smile all day.
I'm going to take a leaf out of her book and send more cards - spread the love!

LOVE & PEACE

Sally
x

NO PLANES

What an extraordinary week it has been. If someone had told us that this would happen nobody would have believed it but here we are with a volcano close by and the travelling public are all over the place. We all know someone who is either stuck here waiting to go or stuck somewhere else not able to get back. My darling daughter was in the queue at the airport on Thursday waiting to fly to the US and now hopes to go on Tuesday (she says by the way that British Airways staff have been incredibly helpful - credit where its due!) other friends have been taking Trains, Boats and Automobiles to get back home.
It's a tough one.
I met a lady today who should have been in Russia at her only son's wedding and there will be tragic stories too. It's all too easy to say GREAT NO POLLUTING PLANES but it isn't great if you are a flower grower in Tanzania who won't be paid for flowers that could not be delivered or a surgeon who cannot cross the world to save a life.
Perhaps the best thing that could come out of this is more funding for solar powered planes - they are being tested now in Switzerland.
Maybe......the volcano will calm down and everything will get back to normal.

Nobody knows the answer right now.
love & peace
and get home safely
x
Sally

EASTER HOLIDAYS

I recently gave up buying newspapers in a big sulk after the
Observer changed everything I liked about it but today I woke up early and succumbed to Sunday Paper Temptation. Tucked inside the Observer is a section of the New York Times which I like to read because it makes me feel more Metropolitan. Anyway, this morning there is a diagram of the Plastiki craft which has begun its journey across the ocean. The craft is constructed from plastic bottles and is travelling across the ocean to focus the world's attention on the massive floating island of plastic wste in the Pacific. They are following the route of the 1947 Kontiki expedition, which was one of the more inspiring things I remember from my schooldays. That expedition leader Thor Heyerdal's name, although probably not its correct spelling, is one I always remember despite forgetting those of my closest friends when I turn to introduce them..." this is er...my friend" I digress. Read all about the Plastiki and track their progress on this site http://www.theplastiki.com/trackplastiki
There is a button on their site where you can pledge not to buy any more bottled water - its a tough one when we have all grown so used to it but I have good intentions so I have clicked on that button. A shocking fact on their site is that 50% of all plastic waste is in the sea. We have to start picking up after people who don't know any better and perhaps someday they will notice and join in.
love peace
...and a bit of chocolate

Sally
x

The antidote to grey

I live by the sea and I'm lucky, I know.
When the sky is brilliantly blue so is the sea, but the same goes for grey and these grey skies are spoiling my sea view. My antidote to this is to surround myself with colour. My workroom is a riot of pattern and colour so I gather up an armful of fabric, sweep aside the breakfast dishes and clear the kitchen table for fabric cutting. I delve into a box filled with ribbons, rick rack and fringes and spend half an hour sorting out old buttons from the tin. Now my old Bernina is raring to go and I've finished my mug of tea so I'll sign this off and make beautiful bags to brighten up the day.

love & peace
Sally
x
STOP PRESS: MIRACLE TO REPORT - SUN NOW SHINING OUT OF BLUE SKY ON TWINKLY BLUE SEA!

IT'S SNOW TIME!

CARRY-A-BAGS ON MY SNOWY APPLE TREE

It has been ages since I've posted a blog one of the reasons is that something has changed on
blogger so my saved sign-in details are no longer recognised. Remember when we only had a pin number to remember those were the days! Now I have long lists of combinations of letters and numbers stored in my head - and inevitably they do get mixed up. Anyway - that's why I've been so quiet.
Two thousand and ten has a good ring to it and I am full of hope. Hope is good but I have heard that optimism should be diluted with a good dash of realism. So I shall hope for a good year but
not pretend its going to be a breeze.

Love & Peace
xx
Sally

Carry a Christmas Shopping Bag

Last week was a bit of a milestone for plastic bags as the Welsh environment minister announced her intention to make it law in Wales for retailers to charge customers between 5p-15p (maybe 5p for useless bags and 15p for really smart ones?) for every plastic bag they use. She gets my vote - even though I'm not eligible to vote in Wales. Reading Lucy Siegel's column in the Observer yesterday I detected that she has moved on to greater issues and was a bit dismissive about the importance of refusing plastic bags in a saving the planet sort of way. It would be a shame if now that 'ordinary folk' have taken the idea to heart it has loses some of its momentum - I hope I misread between the lines. She did however remind us that each bag takes 1000 years to bio-degrade so we should re-use the ones we have over and over again. I'm with her on that and I have no doubt that if its raining and I've just bought some presents I will want the waterproof properties of plastic - so I'll be carrying the best of the under-sink stash from back in the day with me when I shop this Christmas instead of saying yes to any new ones.
Six weeks to go!
love & peace
Sally
xxx

New venture for Autumn.

I have neglected the blog for a very good reason - I've been writing a book - well not so much writing more 'putting together'. Three of us have formed a small publishing company called SeaSaw Books - because we live by the sea and this is what we saw. Our first book arrived back from the printers on Friday and we launched it last weekend at the local Seafood & Wine Festival. A whopping success it was too!
It is called the Little Hastings Fish Cook Book and it features more than fifty recipe contributions from family, friends, fishmongers and chefs with the focus being on the fish our local fleet brings ashore each day. They are not permitted to land any cod until March 2010 because of the EU quota system. It allows them to catch a certain amount of cod each year and because it is quite plentiful around Hastings they have already caught theirs! Now they have to throw back all the cod they catch - dead. How crazy and disrespectful is that?
Our idea was to encourage people to buy the less usual choices such as Gurnard, Huss, Squid and Coley as well as Sole, Plaice and even Lobster - which are all caught in these waters. We have had such fun reading and testing recipes and my husband Stewart has been doing the illustrations on the beach. Debi Angel our world famous designer has put all of this together to make a perfect little cook book for a fiver - Can't say fairer than that guv! Our website is up and soon there will be a Paypal checkout where you can get your copy - a perfect stocking filler. Oh I am SO proud of this! And dear friends ...on the inside back page I sneaked in a little message to ask people not to use plastic bags.

Happy Autumn
love & peace
Sally xx