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.

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.

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.

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!