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.