Teacup Tuesday... beautiful things & necessities

We're tired of bad service so we're taking our custom elsewhere!

We're fed up of having to tell people our website and email is down. Enough is enough we are moving on to a new domain host.

But as with our old domain host the transfer isn't turning out to be simple. The old company wants to delete the site before we move to the new company. It's customer service like this and unreliability that means we are moving. *SIGH* Why doesn't everyone care about their customers like we do?

On a more positive note, we've started a u-ni-k gifts Pinterest Board! Both Anna & I have been on Pinterest personally for a while but it's only recently that they allowed businesses to also have a page. So we've started a few boards based upon the things that inspire us, crafty things we can do with the little ones, beautiful things and of course, no u-ni-k Pinterest page would be complete without the "We love Bunnies" board.

There's a little something for everyone; Mummy (parent) humour, some of our favourite pieces...

So come over and take a look at some of the beautiful things we've found while looking for makers and inspiration for our own crafty lives!

http://pinterest.com/unikgiftsllp/

A day in the life of Sarah and unik IT HQ

Typical day here at u-ni-k IT HQ, minus some of the really crazy bits!

0530 – Look at Daddy DayCare blearily – wave as he leaves for work.

0700 - Go and get DangerBaby who is shouting 'Da DA!!' from her cotbed. Explain that DaDeee is at work. Let baby run around upstairs looking for him and take her downstairs once she realises that he really has gone to work.

0730 – First cup of coffee of the day, phone on and laptop on

0740 – Breakfast. Cheerios / Toast / Piece of fruit

0745 – Quick check of emails, rescue Bunny Bunny from being stuck together with Cheerios.

0800 – Take first sip of coffee having left it somewhere while making the baby breakfast!

0805 – Plug in laptop whose battery is at 3% after late night working. Turn on Cbeebies / Milkshake for the little one who has been pointing and shouting at the turned off TV

0830 – Consider Mummy having some breakfast but start second cup of coffee instead. Then have breakfast. Check emails again!

0835 – Notice that greenhouse has been open all night as I worked too late and forgot I was supposed to tidy up garden before going to bed!

0900 – Finish cleaning up the last dropped Cheerio that I can see and turn off the TV that's not being watched as baby has moved into the soft room to play the piano. Quick check of the emails and open up Dreamweaver knowing that I can't do much until baby nap time

0930 – Garden time! Where it's a little chilly for us still in our PJs

0940 – Washing machine playtime [help Mummy unload and load back up]

0945 – Find second cup of coffee for first sip! Shower time.

1100 – Back downstairs, put first wash on, check emails, open up work not completed last night. Cbeebies back on. Milk for the little one and start searching for blog ideas for me!

1115 – Start preparing lunch for the little one. I cook everything from scratch and usually forage in the garden for some of the ingredients so prep starts a good 45mins before eating.

1200 – It's time for lunch.

1230 – Nap time for her. I knit while she settles – about 15mins. Then work time for me. Blog, Webpages, Emails to makers and press friends.

1400 – DaDA! Time to go and get the humanbean-fullofbeans up from her nap.

1401 – Garden time! Kick the ball, climb & slide down the slide, swing, pick up bird poo and give it to Mummy. Pick some flower buds off the plants. Move soil around in pots. Look for strawberries, look for cucumbers. Consume anything we find that looks ready to eat. Play push a plastic bike that is too big for us around. Make a den with our blanket. Remember about Mummy's water butt, turn the tap on and splash about in the water that is collected in the bucket that now lives under the water butt tap. Get soaked!

1430 – Upload blog! Tweet blog, FB Blog link. Water stop for baby as we do this. Back outside for more garden funtime.

1530 – Snack time and perhaps a visit out to the shops for 'essentials' . Check emails, respond to emails, tweets and FB posts.

1600 - Shop or garden centre or friends house visit for 30mins of being somewhere other than home.

1700 – Milk time again. Check emails, respond to emails, tweets and FB posts. Retweet blog link for our US readers. Indoor play time, soft balls, noisy things, tents with our blanket, help Mummy peg out some washing.

1730 – Tidy up time! Henry Hoover out, washa washa washa (dust) everything in site. Put some toys away (take toys back out). Finish cleaning up yet more discovered Cheerios from the morning. Detangle DangerBaby from the hoover, put hoover away. Start supper preparations. Check emails, send updates, review 30+ emails from Anna and prioritise which ones to read first.

1800 – Bedtime hour on Cbeebies. Calm reigns in the house.

1830 – Supper time for little one.

1920 – Daddy DayCare home – Go mad for 15mins! Mummy tackles the work she stopped doing at 1400hrs to play with baby.

2000 – Bath, Brush teeth, and Book for the little one.

2020 – Bedtime so Mummy knits until she sleeps.

2035 – Sleep for baby

2040 – Supper time for tired parents. Sometimes we even manage a glass of wine with supper.

2100 – Work for Mummy – TV or games for Daddy!

0000 – Sleeeeeep. Need to do it all over again tomorrow.

My name's Sarah & I'm a knit-a-holic

So the secret is out, I'm a knitter. It goes further than that, I'm addicted to knitting and I usually have at least two projects on the go at anyone time, a bag of wool/cotton/bamboo for the next set of projects and an array of knitted pieces lying around waiting to be stitched together. I'm not so keen on the sewing bit as my sewing skills usually let down the beautiful knitted piece. But with the help of the mighty YouTube I think I've cracked that one.

It all started when I was pregnant, my Mum had a hip op and needed some TLC, so I went and stayed with her for a while to help out (ROFL, I had a huge bump and wasn't much help she couldn't bend to pick things up and neither could I... we made a right pair!). Since there's not much an invalid and heavily pregnant person can do of an evening we started knitting squares.

I hadn't knitted in YEARS, in fact my Mum taught me how to knit about 20 years prior and I don't think I'd picked up a pair of needles since. However, we knitted and purled stocking stitch squares in white, pink and green. I'd mastered it, and the squares were piling up next to me, I needed a challenge. So I started to mess about with purling when I should have been knitting to make up letters in the stocking stitch – low and behold I had a K, then a T, then a Y... soon I had squares that spelt KATHRYN. Yay! Now all I had to do was make sure I had enough squares to fill the blanket. Needless to say, I was hooked.

I've now had a few more years to perfect some of my 'make it up along the way' patterns, mainly of small animals:

The Sugar Mice

Loopy Larry the lamb (he's a lovie darling!)

Big Boss Panda:

And more to follow once our chief soft toy tester has finished putting them through their paces:

[My Mummy knits!]

So I'm planning to certify my creations as toys and launch the whole range with the new website in time for Christmas.

I will of course knit to order as well!