Jo Avery – the Blog

It’s owl time again!

There are lot’s of big changes happening in my life at the moment. I think this seems to be the case for a lot of people, perhaps something to do with the planets! We are doing some major re-structuring with our business in an attempt to survive the recession and this should mean that, once

Handmade labels and the missing photos!

I finally found the photo of the last few bits of handmade Christmas presents that got left off the last post. I just want to mop this up as it is niggling me!So here is the aforementioned Coloured Pencil Roll I made for my neice Ana. Read more about this here.And here are the special

What I did in my holidays!

I was very lucky to be given a beautiful book of Japanese textile ‘gifts’ by my dear husband, Jonathan, for Christmas. It is called ‘Kokoro no Te’ which translates as ‘Handmade treasures from the heart’. And I have had such a wonderful time trying out some of the projects over my Christmas holidays!It is filled

A handmade Christmas part 3

I’ve rounded up most of the photos of the rest of the presents I made for friends and family this year to share with you all.So this is going to be a reasonably long post! Mainly because I’m dying to show you the new things I have been making from my Japanese book over the

A handmade Christmas part 2

Now Christmas is over and the presents have been opened I can share with you a few more of the gifts I have been making over the last month.Here are 2 little baby elephants made for the 2 new baby boys born this year.This one is for Ewan who I made the cot quilt with

A handmade Christmas part 1

First of all, mucho apologies for not posting at all in the last two weeks. It’s just the time of year, too much to do at work, Christmas shopping, along with a visit to my folks and the most time consuming thing of all, making lot’s of my christmas presents! So here’s a sneak preview

Introducing Blackford and Morningside!

Welcome to a beautiful, sunny, winter’s day in South Edinburgh! I am going to take you on a short tour of the area where I live. No crafting today just some healthy exercise and fresh air and lot’s of interesting things to see.Above is the lovely, sandstone, terraced street that we live on. Our house

Corsage Crazy!

I have been having great fun making these crochet corsages for Christmas presents. Each one is a bit different as I am making then up as I go along. I couldn’t really find a pattern I liked so have just been experimenting. It is very satisfying putting the different colour combinations together and choosing the

New York!

Well I’m back from NYC! And what an amazing city it is! We had a wonderful time and I was really upset to leave. I’m usually always pleased to get back to Edinburgh, but not this time.I managed to just about fit everything in that I planned. All the usual stuff, Empire State Building, Grand

Liz’s visit

I had a lovely weekend with my best friend Liz. She came up from London on the train on Friday afternoon and we headed straight for the haberdashery department in John Lewis!Liz has had a terrible year fighting off breast cancer (successfully, I am very happy to say). She started this beautiful blanket made of