Wednesday 9 December 2009

Bust craftacular

Looking forward to seeing everyone here! I'll be there with my Seaside Sisters in our beach hut! xx

Monday 16 November 2009

Pop-up Xmas boutique at Truman Brewery


The Seaside Sisters will be here every weekend (Thursday to Sunday) from the end of November.

Friday 6 November 2009

Dulwich Craft Fair

DCF-Logo.jpg

Dulwich Craft Fair


St Barnabas Church Hall
Dulwich Village, London SE21

Sat November 14th, 2009
St Barnabas Church Hall
10am - 5pm
Nearest Stations: Dulwich North & Dulwich West

Saturday 31 October 2009

Happy Halloween

How lovely to have Halloween on a Saturday. A spooktasitc day ahead of crazy pumpkin carvings, trick or treaters, chocolate eyeballs and halloween art. I've been busy making halloween brooches for trick or treaters and party goers.
We had lots of fun with our spooky stall at Bethan Elfyn's Mini Boot at the Social (alas no pics until I find my camera!). Our homemade gingerbread went down very well along with the pumpkin chocolates. We met such lovely people and the venue is fab - very simple and stylish, and great music. We were charmed by Barefoot Dance of the Sea - harmonies, flutes, maraccas and sweet songs.

If you're over at Camden Market today, take a peek at my fellow Spooky Sisters stall - Handmade to Measure. She will be inside the Camden Lock Market with a selection of halloween purses, her wonderful owls and some of my Halloween brooches.

Monday 19 October 2009

Spooky Sisters... at the Social

The Seaside Sisters will be swapping seagulls for spiders and anchors for pumpkins and stepping out as the Spooky Sisters at Bethan Elfyn's Mini Boot at the Social. Expect crafty halloween treats galore alongside musical offerings from Milberg + Spencer McGarry Season + Barefoot Dance Of The Sea and Dj spots from Bethan Elfyn. Come and visit us...

Bethan Elfyn's Mini Boot
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 from 7pm - midnight
The Social (nr Oxford Circus underground)
5 Little Portland Street, London, United Kingdom

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Affordable vintage fashion fair

The affordable vintage fashion fair hits the streets of London again on October 25th. I can't wait! Lots of vintage goodies and another chance to sample the yummy delights of the Lady Luck Rules OK Pop Up Tea Shoppe! I'm also taking my Fabric Nation stall there, featuring vintage fabric bags, hair slides, brooches and purses. There will be over 50 STALLS OF THE FINEST SELECTION OF AFFORDABLE VINTAGE FASHION, ACCESSORIES AND HOMEWARE in collaboration with http://www.ragandbow.com/ as well as...
HANDMADE AND RE-WORKED FASHION
DESIGNER VINTAGE LABELS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES
KILO STALL – FILL A BAG AND PAY BY WEIGHT
LADY LUCK’S POP UP TEA SHOPPE
TRAID RE-MADE SALE & ‘CREATE YOUR OWN’ WORKSHOP
WAH NAILS POP UP NAIL BAR – AS SEEN IN GRAZIA

Scrutton Street is located just off Great Eastern Street, 3mins from Old Street Tube and a mere skip from Liverpool Street.

The Affordable Vintage Fair
Sunday the 25th of October
12:00-17:00
Sustainable Studios
65-71 Scrutton Street
Old Street
London EC2A 4PJ

Sunday 20 September 2009

Beliefs and promises


Today is a special day. We were married on a sunny afternoon in a Devon pixie meadow surrounded by our smiling friends and family, after 17 years together. This is our first anniversary. More than yesterday, less than tomorrow.

'Beliefs and promises' by John Hegley

I believe in dog, the rather all bitey.
I believe that saying I will do something
makes me more likely to do it.



I believe that a bus is less well served by a single operator
than if you crew it
but I still believe in thanking the driver when I get off,
although if the exit is through a middle door
you can’t make eye contact with your thanks
unless you go down to the cabin before leaving
which all seems a bit much for this small courtesy.
I believe that Jesus would have been a smoker.
I believe that Buddha would have been a good goalie.
I believe there is a greater whole which I am part of.
I believe in not ending sentences with prepositions.


I believe that rules are there to suggest the possibility of
breaking them,
but I don’t believe that rules are made to be broken
because that’s just another rule.


I promise to remember that you are beautiful.
I promise to remember that I too am beautiful.
I promise to be less negative and paranoid,
who are you looking at?





I promise to sing.
I promise to dance.
I promise to love.
I promise to kiss.

I promise to think before I speak.
I promise to speak before I think.
I promise to spink before theak.
I promise to know when to stop.

Thursday 17 September 2009

Jam tart

It's been a little quiet on the blogging front as I have been busy helping set up this... It's T'Art, a group of artists, designers and crafter-makers working in Tooting. We met each other as we are taking part in Wandsworth Artists Open House and despite not knowing each other, in just a few weeks, have set up an art group with a website for Tooting Artists and organised an art trail for the open house with fabulous prizes. Totally inspiring! I am lucky to have such fabulous neighbours and they are all T'Arts! I like the name too. It's all about being dressed up and out there. Creating and flaunting what we all do. It's also a yummy pie, each slice a different flavour, textiles, printmaking, glasswork, painting, photography, sculpture, jewellery... and it's all in Tooting!


Wednesday 9 September 2009

it's all about the leaves

September is my favourite month. Leaves and leaving. Leafing through books and photos. It's all about the leaves.
Some of my favourite 1950s and atomic textiles have these lovely leaf images on them and I have been sewing them into brooches with little beads, hanging them in my tree and waiting for them to fall so I can make a wish.
Each leaf you catch is a lucky day next year.

Tuesday 8 September 2009

scared of love

I met some nice people at the weekend who reminded me of this.
A record cover I made for a Small Factory record called Scared of Love / Lose your Way, that we released on our bi-joopiter label with Slumberland records about 15 years ago or so. A Small Factory record was beautifully painted on a page of lost records on Atherton Lin's 2010 calender. They have reminded me, now that autumn is here, to make time to draw and listen to records. And don't turn the calender pages until the month is here.

Friday 4 September 2009

Fancy...

...is a new Etsy Treasury up from Quercus Silver. Thank you lovely for including me and all those splashes of autum yellow.
See you at We Make Autumn Fair this weekend in good ole Stokey!

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Shop revamp


I so should be working very hard indeed right now. But thought I would give my shop a little makeover with the help of this.

Monday 24 August 2009

hair slides


Someone asked me if I made any of my flower brooches into hair slides, so when I found some vintage plastic hair combs, I had to give it a go. I love the colours of these plastic combs.
And as I won't have time to write about Bust until after We Make, read all about it here and here and here and here and here and here!! And interviews and films here.

Sunday 23 August 2009

We Make and Of Cabbages & Kings Autumn Fair

Phew! Bust Summer Craftacular was fabulous. Lots of stories to follow. All that creativity under one roof was overwhelming. When I had a chance for a quick scoot around the stalls, all I could think was 'wow, that came out of your head' - it was all fabulous and the Seaside Sisters had lots of fun. I'll catch up with all my storiess later as there's lots of work to do as it's the Autumn Fair in a few weeks!! In the meantime, some stories here.

Friday 21 August 2009

Bust Craftacular

The Seaside sisters are busy getting their outfits ready for tomorrow. I spent a fab weekend with some crafty lovelies making my seaside sisters pinny. And we are very lucky to have some specially made seaside fascinators for the occasion handmade by Hatastic - take a peek here. We will be showing these off tomorrow along with all our seaside wares, and if you're quick you can buy one of these amazing one of a kind fascinators too! More on that crafty weekend to follow. In the meantime, see you all tomorrow and don't forget the secret password.

Monday 3 August 2009

Seaside swap

This week has a seaside theme. Loving all things seaside, I couldn't resist taking part in a seaside swap organised by Contented. I enjoy taking part in these handmade swaps, it's inspiring seeing seeing the different ways interpret the theme and all the inventive handmade crafts that emerge. I also like the challenge of thinking of things to include. My partner was imagingermonkey, who makes beautiful quilts. She applied these skills to creating a lovely picture for me - I love it, I like the worn denim sea.
My parcel arrived as I was on my way to Craftwerk and I couldn't resist a peek before I set out. Lucky I did as the bucket was immediately put to use to display my new bunting anklets on my stall.
I love all my swap gifts, I'm a fan of glue&glitter, and it was nice to see both me and my swap partner associate cups of tea with the seaside (I sent her some teacup buttons on a cafe postcard) and the different seaside buttons we found.

These are some of the things I sent her. You can just see the Solitaire postcard peeking out and some ephemera including seaglass and a Blackpool tram ticket.
I found out she liked Norfolk and Suffolk, so made her one of my seaside purses from the area and used the opportunity to try out a new seaside bag design.
I also found an old postcard from one of her favorite seaside spots. I had trouble finding seaside sweets in south London that didn't contain beef, but I think the coconut ice I found fits the bill. It's pink and sweet and one of those things I always wanted from the pier when I was little. I was so pleased to see the sherbet fountain in my parcel. I had just seen that those shortsighted Barratt people have change the packaging to a horrible plastic tube and wondered where I was going to find an old paper packet. This joins my gallery of sweets past (so far a smarties tube!).
And this was an opportunity to buy some seasidey gifts from fellow folksters, so my bag of goodies included Ilike postcards and a Treaclezoo lolly brooch as well as some seaside inspired buttons I added to my own seaside pics. It seems we have similar tastes as I also received some Ilike postcards back! Perfect as I love these but wouldn't have bought them for myself. Thank you! Seasidey wishes for you!

Makey Do!

Brooch making all round at the Makey Do! This was a few weeks ago, but I'm still catching up after a frenzy of craft fairs. Here are some of the sweet brooches made by children and adults at the Makey Do organised by JennyFlower a few weeks ago. I spent the day showing children how to sew and being impressed by the wonderful colour combinations everyone picked from bowlfuls of buttons, felt and crochet flowers. It was lovely seeing boys as well as girls making brooches for themselves, their mums and teachers. Some were already confident sewers and others were sewing for the first time - it was a great privilege to teach them.

It was lovely to meet Jenny at last and with over 700 people through the doors of Sandwich Guildhall, all her amazing hard work really paid off.

I had a very early start, leaving home at 5am to catch the train from London in time, but was rewarded with a lovely day out, seeing the meerkats in their wooliness and meeting new sellers, including makers of mermaids and all sorts of loveliness, including knitters, embroidery, biscuit and chutney makers and these buttons...



And we were kept going with homemade cakes and cups of tea served through the Guildhall's panelled serving hatch. This building was fill of all sorts of nooks and crannies that I could have spent all day taking pictures of.

And it was lovely seeing familiar faces again from Handmade Craft Fairs, including the lovely Kali who shared some celebratory chips with me and the rest of the makey doers outside the Guildhall, and drove me all the way back to London - thanks, you're a star. She has been updating her shop with lots of lovely new jewels, so take a peek.
Sandwich looks a sweet and interesting place from the few glimpses I had, so hopefully I will pop back for a day trip.

Seaside sisters


All hands on deck for the Seaside sisters! We met up for Craftwerk on Saturday and have tons of plans for the Bust Craftacular. Sewing frenzy starts now!