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......

what have I been up to?

not blogging that's for sure and that is naughty.

I like blogging but I am just so tired at the moment. I am now the size of a beached whale and getting to sleep at night is so hard. Baby Sister likes to wake up and kick me for most of the night and the weight of my pregnant belly just gives me a dead leg! ouch...

but I am a happy chook after a good run of sales and two press features - country living mag (but sadly only the back of a tshirt) and in Sustained Magazine which is a really interesting publication that I hadn't come accross before.

They have featured my old oak tree organic cotton tshirt. I can't for the life of me manage to take a screenshot though of the online version.

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.....

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....