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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.