Bust London Summer Craftacular

Firstly, Sarah Elizabeth arrived on 16th June weighing 9lbs 14 ozs (4.5 kgs)! She has a long body, funny wee legs and a shock of dark spiky hair.

So we've been settling into life as a family of four. Big sister has been great with the odd blip. She has nick named her little sister 'the gosling' and it has kind of stuck!

On the littlechook front I have cut some new templates such as a horse and a lobster but they are not yet on tees. I found a new organic cotton supplier aswell so have some really lovely new tshirts to work with.

Lastly I applied for the Bust Craftacular in London on 22nd August and was accepted. Help! Got to get busy making......

Bloggers Block?

Is there such a thing?

I certainly haven't had the inclination to write anything for a long time! I've found online selling so time consuming too. Why do etsy, folksy, MISI, Trunkt etc all require different photo sizes, file sizes etc etc etc! It's driven me mad.

However I am much more motivated now after an online break where I have been concentrating on new designs and just doing some sewing projects for the hell of it!

On the home front too there will be a new littlechook arriving early June and I must say the first and second trimesters were pretty hard going with constant morning, noon and night sickness.

My little lady is very excited at the thought of having a baby sister. When my sister was born I used to try to sell her outside our local shop while my mum was shopping. Hope history doesn't repeat itself but then times have changed and there's no leaving the little 'uns outside now while you shop!

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.....

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/

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

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.

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.

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!

Broadway Market Show and Tell

Tonight is the show and tell at Broadway Market for non food items so I am taking littlechook tshirts and tea towels along to see if they will allow me to have a stall. I think I can be given a 'casual pitch' so I can have a stall say once a month.

The market is every saturday but that would be a bit much for me. I don't think I'd have enough stuff! It is a brilliant market though, right by london fields so you can have a picnic once you've finished your shopping.

Wish me luck!

http://www.broadwaymarket.co.uk/market.html

The Crouch End Project

Tonight was the shopping evening in Crouch End which was fun apart from the sudden downpours. We were a bit soaked. The Crouch End Project is a collective of independant retailers which was set up to promote local shops and the unique character of the area.

We nosed round the lovely Powder boutique and I almost succumbed to a Orla Kiely stripey top but I stopped myself as the purse strings around littlechook need to be tightened this month as I've had a few unexpected expenses like shipping my heat press off for repair.

We ended up munching some delicious food in Banners which is a real Crouch End institution and great for some people watching.

My etsy shop has been neglected this week so I am going to spend sometime on it this weekend and have decided to have a sale on the vintage fabric cushion covers as I want to begin to move my shop over to be dedicated to my print designs.

littlechook loves brixton

Didn't manage a post yesterday out of sheer exhaustion! The day started at 4 am when the little lady woke up early. I left for the market at 6.30 am getting horribly lost on the way (those AA road maps are rubbish!) I managed to get to the Elephant & Castle and muddled my there from there!

The market was great. It was on the famous Electric Avenue. Brixton totally rocks! It has such a fantastic atmosphere. I saw so many ladies wearing the traditional nigerian wax prints made into beautiful dresses and loads of folk just rocking their own look.

I managed to sell a fair amount of littlechook handmade goodies (mainly cards but also two cushions) but I am not sure the organisers publicised the event enough. One of my last customers of the day was the chair of the local residents association and she said she didn't know the market was happening and it was something she would have sent details of to her mailing list.

There were some other really talented folk selling crafts there and I will hopefully blog about them this week.

Hubby and the little lady joined me after lunch and they both had a great time. My daughter just seems to take everything in her stride and she was walking round the market charming all the shopkeepers!

We got home in time to watch the Euro 2008 final but I slept through most of it only waking up to see Spain lifting the trophy. Yay!

Today was catch up on sleep and housework day. Hubby is kindly making me spag bol tonight and I am enjoying a glass of red wine.

i want vintage!

This super cool newish website was featured in Grazia a few weeks back and I had a wee look at it and decided to take up the free trial for some ads.

Lots of the usual suspects are on there: clarissa hulse, jan constantine, ulrika may with their vintage goodies and now littlechook is muscling in.

They have a newletter for customers which this week is on the very important subject of cushions and they featured me me me! My 60s floral cushion is hanging out with the cool crowd. I can't post the feature as it's a pdf thingy and I can't figure it out!

http://www.iwantvintage.co.uk/

Apart from this excitement I did do some work today printing tea towels and cutting flock shapes for the t shirts in preparation for saturday's craft market. My lovely sister looked after Katherine. The little lady was made up to have her Auntie Ali with her all day. Thanks sis!

vintage fabric from the states book

I bought a book called 'Vintage Fabric From The States" in the Tate Modern bookshop on sunday but only had some time to have a look at it properly today and it is gorgeous. The range of fabrics is really good with lots of sweet little florals, polka dots and some really fab children's prints. It is split into rooms to with fabrics for the kitchen, bedroom etc. Somehow though I have managed to buy the japanese version rather than the english one I was reading in the bookshop! Not fussed though as the images are great.

I really like the style pages in it too especially the pic with the cotton reels. I am for some strange reason quite into cotton reels at the moment. I have some proper vintage ones too in my sewing box inherited from my gran and I remember playing with them quite vividly from when I was little. She had a great button collection too and that was always great fun so I am keeping some for Katherine to play with when she is a bit older.

I actually used some of my 'vintage' thread on monday night as I was making two box seat cushions for my sister's companies stand at The Bar Show at Earl's Court. I felt quite apprehensive about making them as the fabric was a beautiful silk from the Gainsborough Weaving Company and I was worried I'd mess up and waste the fabric but it all turned out fine. (littlechook breathes huge sigh of relief!)

organic cotton kids tshirts

My samples arrived! They are 100% organic cotton t shirts and are also fairtrade. The only drawback is the sizes only seem to go up to 18 months. Colourwise they do white, unbleached and red. Somehow I have managed to forget to order the red ones! They feel lovely and soft. No chemicals or pesticides are used on the cotton. I am interested to find out more on their fairtrade aspect though and how this works. I am really aware that I don't want to be printing tshirts for kids that are made by kids. Not right in my book.

The manufacturer is Mantis World and their website is http://www.matisworld.com/ The website on the label though is http://www.tenderlovingclothing.com/ but it doesn't seem to be working???

No chance to add any printing as yet. I have decided to stick with the littlechook name but go for FlockStars by Littlechook. I am thinking of having a second etsy shop for the vintage cushions and using the littlechook on for all the printed, organic cotton cushions, t shirts and tea towels. So far my designs have rabbits, squirrels and deer. I am about to add pigeons, woodpeckers and foxes.

That's it for now, off to eat chicken fajitas an drink pear cider for dinner.

Like mother, like daughter

Haven't had a chance to photograph my latest street find which is destined for the seven dials/carnaby street pop up shop but here it is.

I am developing a slight obsession with vintage suitcases and luggage. I already have a lovely silver steamer trunk which is being used to store all my vintage fabric cushion covers. I rescued this little beauty with Katherine's help. The outside is a lovely coloured tweed fabric but when we looked inside and saw the paisley patterned lining fabric we both said 'ooohh' and she was coming home with us.

My long suffering husband says I am corrupting a toddler with my magpie habits. I think it's all in the genes...

Katherine made a little bed for herself inside the suitcase this afternoon. She's been a bit off colour these past few days and possibly has chicken pox. We just have to wait to see whether her rash turns into the actual pox. I have calamine lotion ready.

So no nursery for her today and hence no new designs for littlechook. Hopefully I'll catch up on my new flower circle designs over the weekend.

sex and the city the movie

all I can say is it is totally brilliant.

Laughed and cried in equal amounts. Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha were all just amazing. The clothes, the city and the men. Fantastic. We loved it. Thanks sis for booking the tickets. When are we flying the New York???

Also went to London Zoo today with Cat, Zahra and Daria and we saw a baby warthog. Not something you see every day but very cute. Also managed to get some cute pics of the little lady modelling the latest tshirt design. Hopefully some of the pics will be good enough to appear on the littlechook website.

a long day of sunshine

the beautiful sunny weather continued today and it is still hot tonight.

had a family day today with a visit from my mum which is lovely. we had a takeaway from jai krishna veggie restaraunt. It's on stroud green road, N4 and the food is the best indian food ever. Katherine had a lovely time with her gran and got new playdoh with an upsy daisy stamp.

only littlechook related activity today was having another look at the t shirt designs and seeing what I like and what I'd like to do next. Have alot of ideas at the moment but so little time, the usual story!

etsy in living etc

more fab press coverage for etsy on the living etc website. Living etc is probably the biggest interiors mag in the UK and it is a great read. They always support new designers too.

Shannon Morton admits her etsy addiction and hopefully this will inspire other UK folk to buy handmade aswell. I wish though she had highlighted that there are lots of UK sellers as people can think etsy is just US based designers.

I noticed she picked out Heather Moore (skinnylaminx) and she is one of my favs. i'm going to order some of her tea towels for my mum to hang in her new kitchen (well its still a work in progress at the moment and they seem to have no heating, no roof and no kitchen wall currently) gulp!

http://www.livingetc.com/blogs/editors_blog/Shannon_Morton_admits_to_an_itsy_etsy_internet_addiction_article_255826.html

the long thread

littlechook has been featured in the long thread blog. She picked the funky daisy vintage fabric pillow cover to feature in etsy finds friday. thank you! I can't upload the picture but it is www.thelongthread.com as features lots of talented designers and makers. Well worth a read as it is both stylish and informative.

I haven't been on the internet over the weekend as our broadband was broken (again) and we were out and about enjoying the sunshine.

Visited Broadway Market on saturday morning and munched loads of delicious food and bought my sis a really pretty vintage dress. The whole area is vibrant and crowded but it was great fun to explore a different bit of london. And we saw a guy sitting outside a pub in a bowler hat stroking a pineapple!