Handmade Oxford

My blog laziness knows no bounds but I have been busy concentrating on designing and making a whole bunch of new baby and toddler tshirts. My hands are curled into small claws after cutting large batches of flock into many lovely deer, squirrels, rabbits, stars and other forest creatures!

On Sunday though I was part of the Handmade Oxford Craft Show and what a day! It was so well organised by Becci and her team and the town hall is a stunning building making such a nice change from mouldy old church halls that are the usual location for craft fairs.

And everything there was handmade! No re sellers , no sweatshopped in china crap! There was so much lovely stuff and I met some nice folk like cloudhopping, snap dragon beads and poor robin whose etsy shops and blogs I have read and admired so it was lovely to meet and chat.

crafters rock!

bugs and sniffles

It's definately autumn now as it is pretty chilly in the afternoons and both the little lady and I have been suffering with colds and sniffles. She has a terrible chesty cough and hasn't been sleeping that well so all my well intentioned 'perpare in advance' for the christmas craft fair season have fallen by the wayside.

I've also got a part time job working for my sister at her company Neon which has been good fun. It's very interesting to see behind the scenes and I am proud to be part of her very successful company aswell.

As a little treat I have bought her a skinny la minx tote bag (and err one for myself and some stickers for the little lady...). I thought it would be something different for her to carry her work things around in.

I love Heather's work and as she featured the urban craft stars on her blog for me it was high time I visited her shop for a little purchase or too. I'm hoping the mugs are back soon as they wuld make lovely Christmas presents for my mum and dad.

office gossip

our internet connection is fixed at last thanks to the lovely Colin and Ben at Tiscali. I actually managed to load a new item - a red bird treasure tote bag onto folksy and started on updating my etsy shop.

Somehow though my new camera makes the picture's dimensions too big for etsy size so that's another technology challenge for me to wrestle with.

My other challenge is being back at work part time. I do though have the most family friendly employer aka my sister. Her company Neon goes from strength to strength in the world of PR and I am very very proud of her. I think alot of people do dream about running their own business but not everyone actually takes the leap but she has done so very successfully.

Royal Parks Half Marathon

Yesterday starting in Hyde Park was the Royal Parks Half Marathon ran by around 12,500 people including my very brave sister. Her time was about 2 hours and 15 mins and that was with a sore ankle. She also ran in style wearing gold leggings.

She picked UNICEF as her charity and she raised a fantastic total for them.

We missed her at the start of the race but we made sure we were at the finish to see her cross the line. It was a hot day so everyone was sweating buckets and the water and bananas at the finish line were in demand!

There was also a food and fitness festival for the spectactors including a portuguese hog roast mmmmm

Well done my sis!

Treasure bags for little 'uns

I'm working hard on new images for my littlechook website and managed to get some great shots in finsbury park with the little lady modelling the bags. She had a great time helping me stuff them with paper bags to make them more photogenic then we hung them in the trees. They looked really sweet and the squirrels and loads of passer bys were intrigued!

Hopefully I'll be able to get this internet problem fixed and get the new images of the mini toe bags onto etsy and folksy soon. They sold really well in the pop up shop so I have high hopes for them at all the christmas fairs this year.....

finsbury park life

My blog discipline is all over the place at the moment and my posting is a bit erratic but I am still struggling with a crappy internet connection which is making me lose the will to live.

Still had a nice day today with the little lady. We took some of the little treasure tote bags up to finsbury park and I hung them in the trees and took some pictures. The park looked lovely today in the autumn sunshine but it felt alot colder today. We also made friends with some squirrels including one who tried to climb in the buggy. The little lady was ready to fight him for the raisins!

slow, slow and slower...

We spoke to a nice tiscali call centre person last night and thought our problem was fixed but nooooooo....

It is driving me crazy having intermittent internet access. I have new things to add to etsy but can't and also I seem to be unable to add any photos to my blog either.

On the bright side although I didn't win the Howies/Folksy competition they are sending all the shortlisted designers £30 in Howies vouchers which is nice as I really need a waterproof type coat as I can't push a pram and hold a brolly in the winter weather.

And it feels so cold at the moment. I've had the little lady modelling but I've had a long sleeve tee under her tops as I don't want her to catch a cold. I'm ordering American Apparel long sleeved baby tees for the winter range (doesn't that sound posh) as I'm struggling to find organic cotton ones.

At least the AA ones have been made under fair working conditions. I do wonder when I see baby items for sale on various 'craft' sites at such low prices - £3/$6 for a 'onesie' if the person selling them thinks about how they were made so cheaply. I have friends working for a few design companies who have visited Indian and Chinese textile factories and it isn't a pretty sight. Virtually no health and safety for a start.

Yes I do sometimes buy the the little cheap supermarket clothes but I always feel really guilty and try not to buy too much. I hate the idea of children's clothes made for us westerners by developing world children. Kids should be out playing and getting an education not slaving in some sweatshop.

broadband hitches

I've been trying to put this post up for 5 days now, hopefully it is now fixed. We will see when I try to upload the picture....

I got a new digital camera , a fuji finepix, as an early birthday present and it is fantastic! I keep wandering round the house taking random shots of anything and everything. I did manage to persuade the little lady to model one of the new tshirts (bribed her with a biscuit) so she struck a pose and I think they turned out really well.




I'm hoping to set up a new etsy shop soley for the tshirts but need to get a few more decent pictures first. I'm glad I went for the organic cotton ones and they are washing and wearing really well. I did print onto a couple of the really cheap fruit of the loom ones and you get what you pay for.....

new etsy purchases

well finding some cash in my paypal account was nice after a little flurry of etsy and ebay sales so of course this was burning a hole in my virtual pocket so I decided to buy some supplies and also a little treat for myself.

I bought magnet backing which are used in the back of a badge instead of a pin and hey presto you have a button sized magnet. We've had fun making some vintage fabric magnets which are residing on our lovely fridge at the moment.

The seller , kungfucowgirl.etsy.com also very kindly sent me two fantastic Obama 2008 badges plus some stickers and a picture of a punk hedgehog. The little lady was transfixed by both the stickers and the hedgehog and spent hours playing with them. The simple pleasures of toddlers!

She also loves the kungfucowgirls logo sticker which we cut off the envelope - The little lady declared that the baby fairies live under the mushrooms. Then we made shortbread biscuits. It's all good in the world of littlechook!

babygros aka 'onesies'

I really liked my singing bluebird from the Howies/Folksy comp entry so I re cut the flock shapes again and used them on a babygro (onesies as the US etsyians call them) and also tried the rabbit and love heart designs on other babygros and they are just cute as a button!

I've been thinking about other garmets that I can use my designs on as t shirts will be more seasonal and just now everyone is thinking about keeping their little ones warm. So I am trying long and short sleeved babygros and long sleeved toddler t shirts. It's been hard to find organic cotton ones so I think I will have to go with the american apparel long sleeved t. It's not organic but at least I can be sure it hasn't come from a sweatshop or been made by children....

The folksy display in howies

We were in town today shopping for a suit for hubby so we went to carnaby street to have a look at the folksy display in the howies shop and it looks amazing. I really like the way they have displayed Bbel's bracelet and necklace by drawing a figure and arm onto a brown bag. The folksy logo is made out of some distressed chunky wood and it looks really good.

The voting systems is basically stick a gold star beside the one you like best. So if anyone is passing the shop and wants to vote for me that would be ace!

There are more pics on my flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlechook/ and in the flickr folksy group http://www.flickr.com/groups/folksy/

Move over etsy - folksy rocks!

I made the final!

of the Howies/Folksy competition! I am so excited as I never win anything. Well I did win a prize in primary 2 for a painting I did but I got myself into trouble by inventing a middle name (elizabeth) for myself as I was always annoyed that I didn't have one.

Anyway......

My Free as bird tea towel will be in the window of the carnaby street store as of today. I think that the final winner is decided by a public vote (just like the x factor but I am sure JamesB is much cuter than simon cowell) so I am going to hassle everyone I have ever met to vote for me me me!!!

Going to Selfridges tomorrow morning so will pass howies on the way to see how fabby the window looks with all the folksters in it. There are some fab entries which can be seen on www.folksy.com

Howies/Folksy competition

Folksy are running design competition in conjunction with Howies and I decided last night to do a last minute entry. I had been thinking about their 'life is complicated, sport is simple' theme for a while and had some ideas but true to form life is complicated and I hadn't had any time to do anything about them.

So last night I cut some flock, did some embroidery and came up with a bird themed tea towel.

I went for a tea towel cos everyone has to do the dishes and I wanted a design that would remind you to hurry up, dry up and go outside.

The winning designs will be displayed in the window of the Howies carnaby street store during london design week. There are some lovely entries on folksy at the moment. I like Stitchy Woo Woo's freedom to wheel tote bag and Lucy Player's simple illustration.

my little treasure

I am in the blog dog house as I haven't been blogging for ages. No excuses really apart from a visit from the grandparents and just general tiredness.

I didn't realise I hadn't uploaded the pics I had taken on our day out in brighton and this one just sums up what happy wee soul my daughter is. (most of the time!). She loves buses at the moment.

Design wise not much happening either but trying to get back on track. Few sales on etsy for vintage fabric cushions which has been nice and I'm trying ebay again to see what happens there.

featured seller on etsy

The current featured seller on etsy is Bombus aka Amelia who was part of the urban craft stars pop up shop. How exciting to actually know a featured seller on etsy!

The pic is of one of her decoupage mirrors and a chair covered in an old london a - z. When this was in the shop I noticed that our street was on one of the legs.

Congratulations Amelia!

where are the children?

A little hungover today after a lovely anniversary meal at La Bota in Crouch End last night. Still trying to unpack everything from the pop up shop too!

So I'm avoiding this by flicking through Living etc and Real Homes.....

Living etc has a featured house this month belonging to Sara Berman. On the floor plan it does show a playroom so I can only imagine she locks her kids in there in order to keep the rest of her house so 'stylish'.

I had an interesting conversation recently with a woman who works in child health and development and she said she is seeing more and more children from middle class families who are not allowed to be children as they live in these perfectly styled homes with no consderation to their needs.

She said many are not allowed to use paints or play with water toys in case the house gets dirty or heaven forbid the kids get anything on their clothes. The kids have their lives totally managed with 'play dates' and 'french lessons' but they never get time just to lounge about or to just play outside.

I find that really really sad.

In another conversation with a woman who used to work in primary schools I found out that many schools hardly teach art, sewing or music anymore. I strongly believe that everyone is creative in their own way and that in children this should be encouraged and supported.

Without creativity I think our society gets smothered and the world is a greyer place. Thank goodness for etsy and folksy so I know I'm not alone....

Ok rant over.....

Hello Battenberg

The lovely hello battenburg was at the East London Craft Guerilla on Saturday and she has got the most gorgeous collection of handmade toys, badges, baby pixie hats and bib/burp sets. She uses vintage fabrics and simple shapes to make really beautiful things. www.hellobattenberg.etsy.com

I love the birdy with its button eyes and so does the little lady. I also love her pixie style hats and I need to measure the little lady's head so I can do a custom order. It's always dangerous when I've got a wee bit of money in my paypal account!

Another etsy sale today to Australia! I sometimes wonder if my mum distributed some flyers or business cards before they left Melbourne....

discovering folksy

My blog discipline has faded a little recently due to being so exhausted by the last week of the carnaby street pop up shop. The clear up and clear out ended up being really stressful due to one man and van cancelling and the other ending up being late and going to the wrong address - nightmare!

So I've been taking it easy today and spending some time with the little lady. I have also discovered the new 'uk etsy' in the form of folksy.com and have managed to list a couple of things so far, one kids tshirt and one vintage fabric cushion cover.

It looks great and so good to be able to buy and sell in £ and not have to pay the paypal conversion charges (dick turpin wore a mask!). However I'll be interested to see how they spread the word about folksy beyond the crafting community or will they fall into the etsy trap of marketing to sellers?

I asked loads of people who came to the shop if they had heard of etsy and very few had. These were the sort of folk who were happy to spend their cash on our handmade goodies. Hmmmm

Sew Long Good Buy

The east london craft guerilla are holding the 5th and final outdoor craft market this saturday in the garden at the back of the Penny Fielding Beautiful Interiors shop in Walthamstow village and littlechook will be there. It is organised by the lovely Deborah Daniel who is also busy organising the E17 art trail on 10th September.

I managed to staff the pop up shop for the final saturday after a wee mix up here and there so I will be taking a selection of my lovely organic cotton children's t shirts along for my stall. I may possibly squeeze in a small print run of the linen/cotton tea towels - maybe!

More info on the market at http://www.eastlondoncraftguerilla.blogspot.com/

urban craft stars and skinny la minx

The urban craft stars are featured on skinny la minx's blog today. I got in touch with Heather Moore to ask her if she would feature us and I am so chuffed she picked us to write about. She also says she has seen an empty shop that would make a perfect skinnylaminx pop up shop. I hope she does as her work is so lovely.

Her etsy shop was one of the first shops I discoverd and I love it's simplicity. Her designs are always printed in a lovely pallette of soft colours.

Thank you Heather! We went to Brighton today (it was very wet and cold but nice to see the seaside) and it was nice to come back to this feature.

The little lady had a ball and was paddling in the sea with me but was most taken with the teacups ride on the pier!

charles and marie

came across this website today - http://www.charlesandmarie.com/

to be honest I am not 100% sure what they do! They seem to sell a variety of products in limited editions aswell as blogging and doing alot of travelling as they have just finished the New York Gift Fair and are going to Paris for the Maison et Objet show. They seem a wee bit 'try hard' for me but I did like the simplicty of the sun jar by toby wong.

However I do like their frank minded website where they talk the global sameness of cities as small independant retailers are edged out by the big corporations. Personally I am heartened by sites like etsy and folksy that give us designer/makers a chance to sell to a global market but then it's hard to have your voice heard outside of these arenas in the wider press.

baby tshirt photography

Another attempt at photographing the tshirts today as the sun was out this morning. I tried to keep thing simple by laying them on the grass. It did seem to highlight the colours especially with the red tshirt with the rabbit and squirrel. Cropped them tonight and may add them to my big cartel and etsy shops if I am able to stay awake!

Good day in the pop up shop today aswell with plenty of sales.

Hoping for some rest and relaxation tomorrow and a trip to hampstead heath for some fresh air after the stale air of the tube today.

little flockstars

Spent some time yesterday trying to photograph the new tshirt designs but the pics didn't come out too well. It's quite dark in the pop up shop and too many shadows. Also I'm not sure how good tshirts look when not on a real child! My toddler is way to wriggly for a model!

I've added some pin button badges to the toddler tshirts. For the singing birds tshirt I have added a badge made from vintage sheet music.

Struggling a bit to get some good images for my website. I'm switiching from linking http://www.littlechook.co.uk/ to etsy to linking to my bigcartel shop. I am hoping in the longer term this will be more cost effective as there's still no option to pay in anything other than dollars on etsy and the paypal conversion charges are extortionate.

Urban Craft Stars on Living etc.com

it's a dream come true! http://www.livingetc.com/news/Urban_Craft_Stars_article_265888.html

Living etc is my fav interiors mag. I have every copy going back years and I have refused to chuck them away during any housemoves/clear outs!

And now they have featured the urban craft stars on their website! It is so exciting and so kind of them to feature us. There's a click through to etsy aswell so hopefully more uk buyers for us etsy folk too.

The pop up shop is so busy today aswell and people love our things so it's all good in the world of littlechook today.

http://www.livingetc.com/news/Urban_Craft_Stars_article_265888.html

Kim Parker Textiles

I've seen bits and pieces of Kim's work in the past but until looking at her website I didn't realise how lovely it is. http://www.kimparker.tv/ She is on the back page of this months living etc (finally got myself a copy) and I think her style is very individual and beautiful. I love that she is self taught too. She uses colour so beautifully and talks about painting flowers how she feels them rather than how she sees them.

"A designer with an exuberant style, Parker combines her own fantastic floral prints with unconventional flea market finds, fashionable antiques, and unique modern pieces to create a vibrant, colorful look"

To me she is the opposite of the blonde wood, neutral and sterile strangehold that masquerades as some kind of minimalism. Homes are meant to be lived in!

Her cushions really caught my eye and I'd love a couple for my sofa. I have just found some amazon vouchers so I may order her book Kim Parker Home although I am not sure I can get both this and Soule Mama's book. I find her blog very calming in the swirling madness of parenthood but that's another post!

Life in the pop up shop continues with a really busy day today with some great sales including one from a lovely american couple. Plus yesterday someone bought one of my kids tshirts! I was beginning to think no one liked them except me and the little lady!

in and around carnaby street

On saturday we had a really busy day in the pop up shop as we had our friends and family day plus I had been busy putting flyers everywhere I could think of around carnabay street and soho and this seems worked.

I really enjoyed chatting to other shop owners aswell and found some beautiful interiors shops. Many are tucked away round here and need searching out but they are worth the trip for the beautiful and unusual items and knowledgeable service they offer.

One of my favs is lifestyle bazaar in newburgh street. http://www.lifestylebazaar.com/ filled with well edited choices including china, lighting, glassware and furniture.

wee birdy blog

features the urban craft stars today which is so kind of her!. I love Rebecca's insightful blog with her pick of the london shopping scene. Her blog covers fashion, design, beauty and style in general and it is not just a 'oh look at this etsy shop' kind of thing.

You can tell she really researches her features and edits and picks the best from a range of designers, new and established. She picked out a vintage fabric cushion cover from my etsy shop in blue and white french ticking with a pink floral on the reverse. Oh the lady has style!

My blog posts are overlapping a wee bit at the moment for several reasons including the fact that I am so knackered and I am not really getting any new littlechook work done. Being away from the little lady has been really hard too. More for me than her I suspect though!

I do feel the littlechook blog is the place to be a bit more personal about me whereas urban craft stars is about the 'collective' and what we do with the pop up shop.

But - it is friends and family day tomorrow in the shop so if you are around Carnaby street come and see us for champagne and cakes. Yum.

new designs

I've been working on more print designs and am thinking now about printing them onto some vintage fabrics as well as the organic cotton. I've been incorporating the paper cut outs with hand drawn images mainly of beetles and moths with some cut outs with text on them.

When I get some time that is! Between Urban Craft Stars shop, blog, my blog, little lady's molars, and a flurry of etsy sales I am knackered!

The little lady is in a nursery play today about all the different countries the children in the nursery are from and they are dressing in national costume. Her's is a bit lame - all I could find was a tartanish dress. Did manage to score points though by taking hubby's sporran and kilt pin along for the kids to see.

where have they gone?

I've lost living etc. I can't buy the latest issue anywhere. Has it sold out? what is in it to make it so good that everyone is buying it?Also my selvedge magazine hasn't arrived in fact I think I am missing two issues now.

What is going on?

I'll have to make do with surfing the living etc website until I can find a copy.

Apart from that I've been lucky enough to have some etsy sales recently and the pop up shop is keeping me busy too. Our flyers arrived so we are busy spreading the word. We are also now featured on the official carnaby street website. http://www.carnaby.co.uk/events/events_item.cfm?id=80

Anorak

I came accross this brand in this month's real homes - anorak. http://www.anorakonline.com/ and I love the prints and the made in the uk philosophy. Her website is great with pics of Laurie Robertson as a child in various campsites they used to visit.

I have been thinking about taking Katherine camping at some point especially after meeting a couple who take their two children camping alot and they are around Katherine's age. After our trip out of london to willows farm yesterday I am hankering after a bit of country living. Oh and I really really want a rabbit!

Back in the pop up shop tomorrow after a day not feeling too good and the little lady is cutting her molars so we are all a little under the weather at the moment.

Inside the pop up shop

here's a little preview of whats in store for you when you come to the pop up shop!

Flower image is by Ryokan Art on canvas. Tea towel is a lovely new flower circle design by littlechook (me!) on a 50% linen , 50% cotton tea towel. The bag is by the lovely urbanknit and is my favourite one of all her bags and purses in the shop. The little kids treasure bag is a mini tote with a flock print - this one is called Tweet. The cards are by Bombus and use recycled maps and magazines.

The shelf and the elk came from my house which is looking bare with all the furniture now in the shop.

We worked hard on saturday to get all the stock uploaded onto big cartel so we can now take crdedit and debit card payments too.

day 2 in the pop up shop

and here is a picture of the outside of our shop in all its glory.

great day today with plenty of sales and lots of chat with people who love our work. Also met the lovely steven who makes toys, childrenswear and other goodies - http://www.myhappyaccidents.etsy.com/

I am really enjoying being in Kingly Court and meeting lots of new folk and Carnaby Street was buzzing when I was dragging myself home tonight. I remember the world of going for drinks after work with a spring in my step and a twinkle in my eye.... but then that was LBT (life before toddler)

And big thanks to the lovely Richard for coming to the rescue of the Urban Craft Stars today and fixing our wi fi. Beers are due!

pop up shop open for business

I totally forgot to take photos of the shop on its first day!How silly was that??

We had a first great day in our carnaby street pop up shop though and made a few sales including a bag by peppermint twist and a t shirt by my mums a hippie. I also met the manager of our neighbouring shop, Stromboli Circus Shop (vintage clothing) and he gave me some advice on dressing the window and lighting the shop which was really kind of him. We plan to change the windows round every few days to keep things fresh and to ensure that all our urban craft stars get maximum exposure.

Kingly Court really gets going in the afternoon and in the early evening they have live music so it's a really nice atmosphere. The smell of the food from the Chinese restaraunt downstairs drives me into a hungry frenzy though...

Ok, off now to update my etsy shop and then into town to open up for day two...

the pop up shop is full of goodies!

and we open tomorrow for business! Today was a day of very hard work by all of the urban craft stars and it looks fantastic. So if you are in the Carnaby Street area come and see us at 1.4 Kingly Court (1st floor).

Our stars are:

Urbanknit

Peppermint Twist

My Mums a Hippie

Bombus

Ryokan Art

FreeflowMamas

Littlechook

Hope to see you in the shop soon ready to spend your pocket money....

pop up shop is almost here!

I got the keys to our unit today which makes everything seem very real now for our pop up shop. I have also just read our fabby urban craft stars press release written by my oh so talented lil sister.

Off to bed now as knackered and need to be up early for our 'man and van' arriving to take all the props and stock down to carnaby street. I am worried I have more than a van load and will have to follow in the car!

urban craft stars blog

finally today I managed to set up the new urban craft stars blog. I am hoping that urban craft stars will become a force to be reckoned with in the UK design and craft scene helping its members to gain publicity in the press, opportunities to sell their work and time to network with each other as being a small business owner can be kinda lonely sometimes!

Whilst I love etsy it isn't the most well known site in the uk and as far as I can see promoting etsy outwith the US doesn't seem to be a priority for them. I did contact them tonight about the carnaby street pop up shop as I think it would be great if they could feature us somewhere on the site.

I need a website so I'll have to talk nicely to the lovely Jen of http://www.jhollywooddesigns.com/ , designer of the littlechook website, etsy jeweller and soon to be mama for the second time around!

So have a look at http://www.urbancraftstars.blogspot.com/ and if you would like to join us the email me urbancraftstars@googlemail.com It is not just for etsy or dawanda sellers but for any indie designer/makers who are UK based. You can do anything - jewellry, textiles, knitting, ceramics, illustration, fine art, photography - as long as it is handmade.

exhaustion sets in!

For some mad reason I decided to print a whole new series of cushions and tea towels for the pop up shop which has left me absolutely knackered with trying to organise everything, look after the little lady, update my etsy shop etc etc - the list is endless!

And the prints haven't turned out the way I want them to either. My ideas are still in my head and I really need to do something with them.

I am thinking of making changes to the website again so I've been looking at other websites for inspiration and I really love Melin Tregwent's site, http://www.melintregwent.co.uk/

It's fantastic to see a welsh woollen mill using its traditional skills to create some gorgeous fabrics. I love the vintagey feel to their products and I love the bags. Everything is photographed beautifully too. Their blankets look really soft and cuddly. I'd love to visit the mill next time I go to Wales to see mum and dad. Having worked in a textile mill I am always interested to visit and I especially like buying fabric remnants in mill shops!

urban craft stars

is the collective name for all the pop up shop designers.

So far confirmed we have:

my mums a hippie

urbanknit

peppermint twist desings

bombus

Tim Williamson (photography)

and of course littlechook.

Most of us sell on etsy already but I'll post profiles of each over the next few days in advance of us opening our pop up shop in carnaby street. It's all very hectic but very exciting too. Thought I'd start with an urbanknit tote bag which I am very fond of!

hero shots

Tonight we had a meeting of some of the 'urban craft stars' who will be part of the carnaby street pop up shop. All tonights stars are etsy sellers. Our lovely PR specialist aka my sis has asked for our bio and logo in order to put together a press release along with four images - hero shots!

I really love this expression for some reason! I need to now pick mine which is proving difficult. I've included a possible here so any feedback on this is very welcome. Needs some cropping and editing though.

I also spotted the most amazing sofa in a secondhand shop today. It is a pink upholstered two seater with a scroll back and arms. We glimpsed it's loveliness from the bus window and are going back tomorrow for a closer look!

all things original

Doing some research into etsy like sites tonight and came accross allthingsoriginal.com

It's a beautiful site featuring some really fab designers including bombus (who is going to be part of the carnaby street pop up shop).

I have decided I am in love with the coffee table covered in decoupage with a vintage 1960's london map. It belongs in my living room!

I do wonder though how many of these types of sites can be successful as I know from my time in the corporate world how much time and cash is needed to develop a website and then all the marketing and PR needed to get the name out there. I think alot of folk still think 'build it and they will come'.

This week though I am really looking forward to meeting the other pop up shop folk and to having another peep into our unit and to deciding how we will arrange all our goodies.

all change please!

Change is in the air....

It's still hot and sunny here in london and I'm enjoying it while it lasts having picnics in the park.

Labour have lost the Glasgow East by election, Obama has been doing a JFK in Berlin and littlechook is organising the pop up shop and has new etsy sales - yay! I am surprisingly un stressed. (for now).

I have also decided not to make up any more vintage fabric cushions. From now on I want to concentrate on my own print designs. I just feel that is now the right direction for me and I am full of ideas at the moment.

Tomorrow is the little lady's birthday party so I'm looking forward to some family chill out time filled with food, drink and catch up chat.

the pop up shop

is finally going to happen....

I saw our unit yesterday. It's in Kingly Court just off Carnaby Street. The unit is absolutely massive so I am hoping that we can do it justice.

I am keeping in mind though all the Mary Queen of Shops programmes I have been watching and how she advises her clients to keep the layout and fixtures very simple. I love the interior of the Mayfair Stella McCartney shop with its vintage style wallpapers combined with modern touches like the bright pink bag display unit.

My aim is to move us as far away from a 'craft fair' with its horrible 'behind a table' philosphy to a place where customer can browse and touch the product, see demos of knitting, embroidery and other crafts and really talk and get to know who is behind the product. I have a fab bunch of designers ready - some london etsy folk, others I have met at craft markets.

In order to keep costs down I am planning to use some of the victorian pine vintage furniture I have already plus we are of to find a cool sofa and chair at one of the many second hand places round here at the weekend. Plus a trip to Ikea for some open shelving too.

I have big plans so watch this space!

the studio clear out

is now complete! I have room for my heat press, sewing machine, printing stuff as well as my stash of lovely vintage fabrics all boxed and labeled.When I packed my latest etsy sale to send away to the customer I could actually find all the things I needed without having to run up and down stairs or saying any sweary words. Result!

The room was used as a kitchen by the house's previous ocupants so I have a very useful sink and some much less useful kitchen cupboards and a cooker (now covered by a piece of chipboard and has my lightbox on it). The second pic also shows the crazy light which you can pull down or up. I have managed to raise it up a bit so I don't keep hitting my head on it!

children's bedrooms

Whenever I see children's bedroom in interior magazines like living etc and elle dec it makes me feel a bit sad as they are always so 'styled' and more for adults than kids. Recently DesignSponge featured a Yellow and Grey colour scheme which to me was really bland and had very little to stimulate a child's imagination.

Ok so the pics here of the little lady's room are after a good tidy and hoover this morning but it is a room for playing and enjoying. Yes it does have elements of her mum's style in it - vintage furniture and crochet blankets but it is for her to enjoy as she grows and if she wants Barbie wallpaper at some stage then so be it!

The wardrobe I bought on ebay, it is victorian pine and it is gorgeous. The child's chair I resuced from the side of the road. The rug is from ikea (it's really easy to clean) and the grey toy cupboard was given to me by my mum.

The wallpaper is cream with silver flowers - it was here when we moved in and I actually really like it now!

Busts 4 Justice!

I received an invite on facebook to join the group Busts 4 Justice! Basically Marks and Spencers think it is ok to chrage more money for bras above a DD cup. They say it takes more development and technical expertise to make the fuller cup sizes. Busts 4 Justice say this is rubbish as you don't pay more for a size 20 dress than you do for a size 10.

And they have Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman as the group avatar. I loved that show when I was little, although I did think the lassoo of truth was a bit of a lame accessory! I loved it when she used to catch some random bloke who fell of a roof. My friend and I re enacted this by getting her little brother to jump of a wendy house roof.

Luckily there were no broken bones!

So after being distracted by this important topic I did manage to do a quick revamp to my etsy shop. I also want to start a DaWanda shop but just getting to grips with the website.

New Kids Tshirt Design

made this one quite girly with a red heart and one of the pigeons is singing away. The little lady has taken to rubbing her nose against the flock shapes! I used the moo cards as the washing instructions label as the flock needs ironed on the back (although who the heck irons kids clothes!!!)

The tshirt itself is organic cotton and I was surprised at how soft it is. It is so different to the fruit of the loom t shirts that I think it does justify the higher price tag. I got some new t shirt samples today including some red organic ones from Mantis and some long sleeved unbleached ones.

I also got some Fruit of the loom v necks and I ordered a Large and X Large and I cannot believe how small they are! I can barely fit into the XL - it is sooo tight accross the chest I looked like I should be headed to the Playboy mansion. So I have scratched them as the tees for the 'plus size' collection.

I'm having more luck with tshirts from the supermarkets but the low price does make me worry about the conditions of the workers who make them.

Ideally I will buy two overlockers on ebay this weekend and will make my own t shirts eventually. My mum will be helping so we will be a two women sweatshop!