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!