the gift of (somewhat hideous) owls

I'm not quite sure how it's possible, but I seem to have inadvertantly forced my lovely friend Laura to start collecting owls. It could be partly due to the fact that they are still just about everywhere at the moment despite my attempts to pass the title of internet's best bird to the more-deserving pink parrot, and partly because I find them popping up in the most ridiculous places/situations.

The first owl I ever gave to Laura was a housewarming gift - a fairly hideous, but somehow also wonderful, kitsch owl-shaped teapot. I gave it to her with the proclamation, "if you think it's too hideous, I'll gladly take it back home with me". Amazingly, she accepted it and it has lived on her bookshelf ever since.

Since then, every time I see a hideous/fabulous owl in any form I will almost definitely buy it for her...

Wonderful crocheted owl magnets? I bought her two.
Insane looking enamelled owl beads? She'll be getting them very soon (shhh!)
A weird owl head on a key pendant? How could I possibly resist?

You've got to admit - the owl head on a key is pretty special just on its own, but perhaps it'd be even better with a bit of snazzing up... let's add some Swarovski crystal eyes... and some more crystal beads... and perhaps a couple more charms... and a nice long chain so it's nice and obvious if she ever wears it... PERFECT!

I can't wait to let my imagination and bead box run wild with this - I'm sure she'll love it!

lovely new stockist - a room in my house

After having a stall at the Vintage Tea Party & Gift Fair in Highgate, run by the lovely Cristina and Susanna, I was asked if I would like to stock some of my origami goodies in their little shop, A Room In My House.

Tucked away just off Church Lane in East Finchley, North London, it's a rather familiar haunt - just across the way from my old primary school, and round the corner from my granny's house!

The shop is like a big, lovely dressing-up box, and while the girls specialise in vintage clothing, accessories and homewares, there are also pretty crafty bits and pieces and handmade goodies scattered amongst the vintage gems.

If you happen to be in the area, why not pop in and say hello?

{website} {facebook} {tumblr}

amazing Pokémon cross stitch

It's my little brother's 22nd birthday tomorrow. He has loved Pokémon pretty much forever, and lately he's become interested in crafty things too (though I can't tell if it's ironic or not...)

I really wish I had the patience to make him something as awesome as this Pokémon cross stitch - which took Linda 8 months to make, but I reckon it was totally worth it. Perhaps he'll get one for his 23rd if I start it soon!

Amazing, non?

injury time & Pinterest the saviour

At first, the thought of taking a week off to let my muscles heal after this epic fail was totally OK with me... "sweet, a whole week to just sit about and make a few sparkly things, and no need to even get out of my pyjamas. Lov-er-ly!" ...I naively thought.

It's been 13 days since I hurt my back in that fall, and I'm getting thoroughly frustrated at not being able to do all the things I want/need to do. I'm lucky that I work for myself, and have been able to do some of the things I have needed to do while curled up warm and snuggly in bed. Post Office runs have been done by the ever patient chap of the house, so I've just had to concentrate my efforts on getting orders out on time and 'resting'.

It is, however, increasingly hard to know what I can do to keep occupied while 'resting'. I'm not very good at doing nothing, even when I know it's what my body needs. My brain is too busy planning and designing and thinking and worrying to just sit about doing nothing in its vain attempt at rest.

So, I've read a few books and I have the entire new version of the WFTDA rules to learn, and that's keeping me busy-ish, but reading rulebooks is not the most exciting of things, so when I've not been reading I have been spending an unhealthy amount of time on Pinterest.

Oh Pinterest! If you were a person, you would be one of my all time favourites!

The only downside with playing on you, you wicked little website, are the dozens of projects I feel I now MUST try, none of which seem to be very likely to be accomplished in this state.

Let's take a peek at some of the things I am determined to try when I'm back on my feet and able to move around:

sew some pants // scoff some earl grey cupcakes // Jambalaya boxes!

decorate my lampshades // make some dinosaur snowglobes // sew myself a tail

make my studio sparkle like crazy // do some Valentine's RAOKs

That should be more than enough of an excuse for my body to stop being broken already!

Finsbury Park balloons version 2

Since writing about the pretty balloon mosaics at Finsbury Park station, I've wanted to make some old-fashioned style balloons inspired by them, but had no real idea what exactly I wanted to make.

As usual when I'm not sure what to do, I started fiddling with a few bits and bobs in my studio... and came up with these little do-dahs:

What do you think of them?

I've made some of them into brooches, but I'm not sure if I should make more of the same or try to develop a better way of making them, or just not bother making any more and keep the ones I have as personal trinkets.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Street Feast opening night - tonight!

OK, so this is a little bit last minute, but...

...if you're free tonight, come down to the opening night of Street Feast in East London.

This will be the first night market in their new winter location - Hackney Downs Studios - and as it is the opening night you can expect live music, a film screening, 16 awesome food traders as well as some very special arts and crafts stalls...

More deets can be found >here<

Wonder Hill Market - this weekend!

I have been a crazy/super busy/stressed-out/sleep-deprived pretty-thing-making

machine over the last few days, and perhaps this weekend it will pay off!

Here is where I'm going to be spending my weekend:

It would be lovely to see you if you're in the area!

More deets can be found >here<

guest post on Under A Glass Sky

My lovely friend Ems moved out of London yesterday, and for the rest of the week she will be letting some of us take over her blog, Under A Glass Sky, while she unpacks and settles in. I've written a teeny tiny tutorial for her today - why not pop over and take a peek!

elevated envelopeeeeeeee!

Aaaaaages ago I signed up for Tara's project, The Elevated Envelope, but I completely forgot to post pictures of the envelopes I made, so here they are... better late than never, right?

My envelopes were all folded from tracing paper, which was drawn on and covered in pretty tape. Included inside the little packages was a little length of tiny bunting, some tiny envelopes with strawberries on, a tiny origami crane and some pretty bunny confetti. It was such fun putting everything together!

I was a little disappointed not to receive many envelopes back - when everyone was supposed to receive 10 envelopes I only received 5 - but hey, that's always a risk when you sign up for online swapsies, I guess.

Have you taken part in any crafty swaps recently?

a little trip to Renegade (and photos thereof)

Woohoo, Renegade was back in London this weekend so I obviously had to go and visit it...

I met Susie there and we started off our crafty spree by doing one lap of the entire fair without making any purchases. It's our rule of craft fairs, otherwise we often run out of money by the time we get to the last stalls. That first lap alone took over an hour, since I kept seeing people I recognised and chatting with stallholders about their blogs. I flippin' love Renegade, and it's super exciting to play the game of craft-celebrity spotting!

First up was Miwary's stall. I always want to buy everything whenever I see her at various craft fairs, last time it was a tiny mouse brooch... but this time I had to resist, boo.

{Miwary}

Miso Funky is always full of such cute stuff - I was on a very strict budget so had to stop myself from getting a "What Would Delia Do" sampler, but Susie couldn't resist getting an "In Case of Emergency Breakdance" sampler - and who could blame her.

{Miso Funky}

Next to Miso Funky was Kim's super cute stall Finest Imaginary - check out the cute fox face!

{Finest Imaginary}

The next awesome stall we came to was Alexa's stall, Foamy Wader. She had the most original display methods I have ever seen at a stall - her gorgeous necklaces were hanging off huge vintage spools!

{Foamy Wader}

Plus look who was manning the mailing list!

Our next stop was Deb's stall, where I just had to buy a sleepy hedgehog pin, and Susie bought a teeny tiny ice cream pin...

{ladysnail}

I think my favourite stall of the entire fair was 'hand over your fairy cakes' - and look how cute Sally and {unknown name chap} are! So cute! I loved Sally's stall, it was so bright and cheerful and gosh darn adorable! And I am totally now stalking Sally on Pinterest and Twitter. She's my new favourite craft celeb - and she's a doctor! Awesome, non?

{hand over your fairy cakes}

Susie bought a stag head necklace from her stall, and I spent about 20 minutes working out which of the incredible brownie/scout badges I wanted - I finally went with an Akela one. Oh yes.

{hand over your fairy cakes}

Next was Sarah's stall Magasin, which I have always loved. Again, I wish I could have bought everything, but I was very restrained and just got a teeny green V pin. If she had had any plonker pins in stock I would totally have bought one, but there were none left, boo.

{Magasin}

When I first saw designosaur I had to high five Jacques (I think it was him) for the amazing pun. Genius. And then, obviously, I had to buy a tiny silver triceratops brooch. Rarrrrrr! Whilst perusing I suggested perhaps making an ankylosaurus (everyone's favourite dinosaur, right?) and apparently he's already in the works - wooooooop!

{designosaur}

I got some adorable wooden gift tags from oh hello friend you are loved, and loved their display. What an ace way of using vintage cupcake tins!

{ohhellofriend}

Another of my favourite stalls was Brendan and Ruth's super pretty stall, i am acrylic. They hand cut all of their acrylic jewellery using a fretsaw, making it super unique unlike most other acrylic crafters who use laser cutting for their pieces. Susie bought an awesome rocket necklace from Brendan, and we both enjoyed his badge and the fact that he was wearing a flat cap. On their stall was a tiny version of them and their stall, which I couldn't resist photographing:

{i am acrylic}

~~~~~

Phew, after all that excitement I needed a bit of a sugar hit, so I headed out to my favourite sweet shop on Brick Lane, Madhubon Sweet Centre, and bought all of the burfi: almond flavour, pistachio flavour and mango flavour:

Burfi is pretty much the best thing ever invented. And an excellent way to round off such an awesome day of crafty fun!

crafty pay it forward via Small Good Things

Despite being a bit rubbish and not actually doing many bloggy things myself for a few days, that doesn't mean I've not been reading them like a blog-reading floozy. Oh yes.

One of my new favourites is Emi's blog, Small Good Things. It's full of super cute projects and DIYs, pretty nail designs and, of course, lovely photos. It might be easier just to show you some of my favourite projects:

1// plastic animal pincushion
2// stripy nails with bows
3// wire word rings
4// bow earrings
5// cute bow scrunchies (yes, you read that right - s.c.r.u.n.c.h.i.e.s!)
6// Doxie ribbon holders

Last week Emi posted about a Pay It Forward project she had signed up for:

...and I got excited and decided to join in.

Here are the deets:

~rules~

I will send a surprise gift to the first three commenters on this post. The gift will be a handmade surprise by me and I will send it to you sometime in the next 365 days. All you need to do is the following:

Leave me a comment – I will get in touch with you about your mailing address and some other information about yourself.

To complete signing up, you must play along too by blogging a similar post and pledging to make a surprise for the first 3 people who comment on it.
~~~~~~~~~~

Go on, sign up and join in!

Woo, random crafting is exciting!

a cake-and-crafting Princess party

Sometimes all you need after a long week is a nice relaxing day spent with some good friends, preferably involving cake and crafting. And that's exactly what I did last weekend - Georgia and Alison popped over for tea, cake, crafting and Disney Princess films.

Alison knocked on my door wearing glittery fairy wings and brandishing a wand - a perfect start to the afternoon - and brought with her the most amazing homemade cupcakes (and her own cake stand, no less!). Half of the cupcakes were vanilla sponge with purple butterflies atop, and the other half were vanilla and raspberry flavour with pink flowers and glittery shimmer sugar on them - and both were utterly delicious.

Georgia was beautifully dressed in a mint green dress, with a tiara and everything. My trousers and t-shirt combo was not the most princess-y, but I did have a wand and a tiara, so I was at least a little in character.

We started the afternoon with a little tour of my new studio - where many boxes were opened and taken into the living room in order to create pretty things while watching films. As Alison didn't have a tiara, and Georgia had no wand, they set about making them as we put on the first film - 'Sleeping Beauty' - which I had never seen before. 

After that we had 'Beauty and the Beast' and then 'Aladdin', before the boys turned up. They're not so into the princess thing, so they got to choose the next film - and they chose 'Wizard of Oz'. No princesses, but a bunch of flying monkeys so it's all good.

We ate vast amounts of pizza, scoffed the last of the cakes and then played a few rounds of Oz Fluxx before ending the night with a couple of rounds of Zoo Am I?, which is fast becoming our favourite late-night game. It is, perhaps, a little ridiculous that a simple game for young children can be so fascinatingly fun for a bunch of grown-ups, but it really is!

As the streets outside quietened down, we dozily walked our guests to the local train station where we said our goodbyes, before strolling back home through the streets of Walthamstow in the crisp evening air.

5 friends. 4 films. Probably slightly too much cake, but an awesome day nonetheless!

inspiration: 20 of the best spool DIYs

It was the wonderful Emily's birthday a few weeks back and I bought her some (though I say so myself) fabulous little gifties!

As well as the 'practically perfect in every way' deco tape that I knew she had her eye on, I also found this little dolly made by Emma of The Lucky Fox and knew from the moment I saw the red hair, immaculately made-up face and bunting ribbon that it was an Emily-worthy gift.

Ever since finding that spool dolly I've been a bit spool-craft obsessed... I've been scouring the interwebs looking for spools and DIYs so I can have a play with some myself, and create my own little spool dollies/jewellery/decorations.

Here are some of the prettiest and most creative spool crafts I have found:

{one} {two} {three} {four} {five}

{six} {seven} {eight} {nine} {ten}

{eleven} {twelve} {thirteen} {fourteen} {fifteen}

{sixteen} {seventeen} {eighteen} {nineteen} {twenty}

Do you like spools as much as these folks seem to?

Any of these projects take your fancy?

handmade joy exchange

A while back I signed up for Anne's Joy Exchange on her blog, My Giant Strawberry.

It's taken a little while, but everyone has now finally received their goodies, and I'd like to share what I received with you...

My package was from Michelle of Rediscovering Me - and it was perfectly suited too...

How awesome is that??? Michelle knew from this post that I love hot air balloons, so embroidered me my very own little lady on an adventure! I can't wait to go frame shopping to find a nice frame in which to display it!

~~Thank you so much, Michelle!~~

My swapee was Stina from Honey Wild, to whom I sent some pretty glittery goodies. I hope she likes them!

You can read about all of the swaps/swapees on Anne's Joy Exchange Celebration post.

Have you taken part in any swaps lately?

pretty new necklaces...

...ready for my next craft stall in Angel Islington tomorrow. If you're about, come and say hi!

~~~more info about the fair here~~~

memories of a glorious French summer

In my second year of uni we were advised by our tutors to spend the summer getting some work experience. I decided to get some life experience instead, and spent a long, glorious summer living in the south of France, surrounded by families who knew very little English.

It was quite an experience, and one of my favourite summers ever. Staying just outside a small village, there was nothing in the immediate vicinity, so every morning I rode an ancient bike into the nearest town to buy fresh bread for breakfast and anything else the family needed.

Mornings were spent writing, drawing and making pretty things. I was just a little obsessed with beaded animals at the time, and spent many hours creating tiny butterflies from rocailles and bugles. One morning, while beading in the garden, I was kindly informed by a local artist that there was to be a craft fair in the town centre the next weekend, and that I should set up a little table selling my beaded butterflies and some bracelets I had made. It was quite a challenge as a shy, foreign 21-year old, but once I'd got my head around the currency and money-related words, I was good to go. My French teacher would have been proud to see me selling my wares in French!

Mornings may have been for work, but afternoons were for more adventurous pursuits - canoeing in the local river, chasing tiny lizards in the garden, wading around watching kingfishers, cycling through the nearby forest on the search for butterflies, or swimming in the nearby lake.

It was absolutely incredible, and feels totally surreal thinking about it now - I had forgotten loads of it, until I found a bag of beaded butterflies in my studio a few days ago and the memories came flooding back!

How did you spend your favourite summer?

craft stall analysis and inspiration

I attended a craft fair as a stallholder for the first time in about 10 years the other week, and although our stall looked pretty cute, it wasn't as super duper snazzy as it could have been...

stall analysis - possible good things:

♥ it was eye-catching - there was a selection of different items
♥ nice bright colours and sparkly bits made people interested
♥ items clearly labelled with description and price
♥ most items were loose so people could pick them up to have a closer look
♥ different height levels to add interest
♥ items were cheap, so could be bought on a whim

stall analysis - possible bad things:

♥ maybe too many things - was the stall overwhelming/cramped?
♥ bright colours and glitter could be seen as a bit childish/silly
♥ not enough variety of items
♥ not enough difference in price - e.g. there was nothing over £10

♥ not original enough - it was a pretty standard display style

Can you think of anything I might have missed?

Since then I've bought a letter rack to hold cards, a tiered cake stand to hold little trinket-y things, and a heart-shaped wicker box just for fun...

...but what better way to get inspiration than to look at other peoples' stalls? Look at some of these great stall pics I found:

1 // look at that lovely bunting from Aroo Studio

2 // tall clean white displays from Babee Crafts

3 // lovely turquoise background from Elise Blaha

4 // good ol' tiered cake stand from That Crafty Fish

5 // hairpins on ribbons from Hip to Piece Squares

6 // egg box display from Whimsy Love

7 // baskets and suitcases from needle book

8 // cute cloud displays from Timber!

9 // lots of nice hanging things by Kajsa

10 // another suitcase, this time with pegs, by Eyeballs by Day, Crafts by Night

11 // awesome fabric-covered crate by weggart

12 // another suitcase, with tiny bunting, by saturn_art

13 // boxes, frames and shelves by Dotty Delightful

14 // tiny glass ice cream bowls from heartfelthandmade

15 // gorgeous yellow plates from pollyannacowgirl

16 // lovely happy bright colours from seesuestitch

Can you think of any interesting ways to snazz up my stall for next time?

surprises in the post: a unicorn embroidery!

I've been looking forward to receiving my stitch swap goodies in the mail for weeks now, and they finally arrived today!

I got a lovely parcel from Lisa of The Bunny Log - as you can see:

As well as my a.w.e.s.o.m.e. unicorn embroidery hoop, she also included a bunny ear frame, a pin badge and some chocolate, nyoms!

I'm saving the chocolate for now, but my bunny ears frame and unicorn will be up on my new studio wall just as soon as I get me some new pinboards.

I can't wait for the next swap, it's such fun getting surprises in the post!

Thank you so much, Lisa!

a precious button collection

I met a lovely crafty lady named Alison, who writes Another Little Crafty Creation, at a party over the weekend. Knowing the other was a crafty type too, we ended up spending a good couple of hours chatting about crafty stuff in general and button-sorting in particular...

{tiered button jars} {charm sampler} {sewing wallet}

{blue, white and red} {Christina's button glasses} {Jenny's heirloom button art}

The conversation centred around how it is possible to spend hours sorting buttons, and it reminded me that one of the last things I was given by my Granny B was her precious button tin. Although I've had it for years, I open it very rarely. It seems too special to have out or to play with, so it lives on a high shelf in my studio. I have never removed a single button from the tin for the entire time I have owned it, I don't feel as though I should disturb anything in there - it's exactly how my Granny left it.

I'm intrigued by what it contains though, and I would love to delve into the tin and explore the buttons, but I feel it would be disrespectful. I know that probably sounds ridiculous, but that's just how I feel. I just wish I knew the stories behind them all, where they had come from and which items of clothing they had once adorned. Granny B had the tin of buttons for such a long time that I imagine there are some in there from my dad's childhood. I never thought to ask before the tin was actually in my possession, but oh how I wish I had.

I know deep down that Granny B gave me the tin of goodies to look at and to "play with" and maybe even to use, and I am honoured that she felt I was the grandchild most likely to appreciate it, but I have to have a long hard think before I decide what to do with them. It's all well and good having the tin act as a little shrine, but I don't think she would have wanted them to just sit in their box - she would have wanted them to be used or at least looked at. That's most of the reason I want to know their significance - I don't want to waste extra special ones on something that isn't worthy enough for them.

Perhaps I should display them instead of having them locked away? I would like to keep them all together, so perhaps a nice display might be the way to go...

What do you think?

Do you understand my crazy sentimental logic, or just think it's silly?

the FUSS craft market was super awesome!

Can you tell how nervous we were?

That craft fair that I got myself into such a tizzy about turned out to be super duper fun and a great little day out. I was sharing my stall with my brother's lovely girlfriend Alex who is the artist behind Animal Cafe. She sells super cute individually hand-drawn cards - my favourites are below, but you can see all of her designs in her Etsy shop.

As well as dozens of glittery bows, I made a whole bunch of new stuff, including some pretty neat (even if I do say so myself!) hot air balloon brooches...

The items which didn't sell at the fair will be photographed and put up in my shop in the week, so keep a look out if there's anything you like the look of!