Christmas Mini Fair

A bit short notice but if you do happen to be in Bristol this weekend, it would be great to see you there. A Christmas Fair opposite Christmas Street - brilliant!

Art Market at Bristol's Tobacco Factory

As I mentioned the other day, I was at the Tobacco Factory this weekend at an Art Market on the Southbank Arts Trail.

It really began on Saturday, when I was getting everything ready, finishing off one more sock animal (that'll need a blog post of its own) and playing about with how best to display it all.

We set off early on Sunday (8am is incredibly early for me). While in the car, I discovered some false eyelashes on my wrist-warmer. But that happens to everyone, right?

What?! I haven't worn false eyelashes since I was 18. Where did that thing come from? I'm still hugely confused. If anyone would like to offer any explanations, that would be great.

By the time we arrived at The Tobacco Factory, I was over the eyelash incident. And that's when I saw a man, wearing trainers and a bin bag (and nothing else), walking down the street.

Just an average day in Bristol.

Back to the Art Market. I liked this sign. Fonts can say so much. This sign tells me that the art and craft market upstairs is full of incredibly cool people selling incredibly cool things. Oh yes.

Inside the venue and we're right back to the obscure again where the lift (aka 'elevator') button is missing its button:

It didn't take us too long to realise that this was an old button and that there was a new, working button (which didn't swallow your fingers) just next to the lift. Added to the humour of the morning though. I must point out that my hand isn't that hairy. That is the hand of a man.

Anyway, back to the market...

The hearts didn't get much attention at all, which surprised me because they were my favourite thing on the stall. If I didn't care about things getting dusty, I'd display them all around the house because I like them so much. But I don't do that.

The neck-warmers got a lot of attention. I think the freezing weather (and the improved presentation!) helped. This one got the most attention:

Which again I find interesting because I like the bluey one on the mannequin best. This lovely olive neck-warmer is now sold. I do have more of this yarn though, so I will be making another one. Eventually. Maybe after the summer, unless someone put in an order.

Again, I was surprised (it seems I know nothing about what people want) that the gift boxes were popular. I always thought that everyone knew how to make them but, when making loads for the wedding last year, I found that people were fascinated by them. I was chatting to one lady about how they are made, but it got a bit too complicated without a demonstration. So, as I promised her, I will do a tutorial for the paper gift boxes on this blog. By this time next month, I will have done a tutorial. Just you wait.

The scarves were tidied up after this photo. Typical, really.

This guy also had a lot of attention, which was nice. He deserves it.

As I mentioned in my post the other day, I had my bag on display (at the Arts Market, not just in my house) and I will also be doing a tutorial on how to make your own bag from carrier bags. Just, be patient. It will happen though.

The bag was another example of me thinking "People like my bag! Nice! But they probably know how to make it so I won't go into detail because they wouldn't be interested in that." Wrong again.

So, it was an alright day. It was nice to hear so much positive feedback. It would have been even nicer if people had been a bit more prepared to spend money (!). I heard a group of people say "Oh look! I've found the prefect gift for Colin! Come and see this! Isn't that just perfect for Colin?" and another said something like, "You're right! That's perfect for Colin! We should get that!", then a third and possibly fourth person said, "Yeah! Get it! Colin would love that!". Then they left.

Colin, I'm sorry. Apparently I sell the perfect gift for you. I don't know what it is, but I bet you would have loved it. Your friends certainly think so. And yet they didn't get it. You know why that is, Colin? They just don't love you enough. Leave them, Colin. Break free! Make new friends!

Clearly I mustn't allow myself to do long blog posts because I start losing it. I think I've spent too much time at the computer today - blogging, tweeting about ME, putting together the sewing tutorial (it's finished, by the way). I'll be back later this week...

Edmund goes to tea

It still makes me smile to see what Edmund gets up to. I saw this the other day. Cute! Thanks for the mention, Kimberly :)

Maybe it's because I don't make that many things (or it's because I only sell a fraction of them), but it makes me all giddy seeing things I've made with their new owners. Do you feel like that? Not about seeing my things - why would you find that exciting? But do you feel like that about things that you have made? That's what I meant. But you may have known that and now I've just unnecessarily explained my structural ambiguity. I must stop. 

It made me think, 'I wonder how many people who read my blog have things I've made...' (a bit of a clumsy sentence there, but it's late and I can't be bothered to reword it). Like the person in Norway who bought some badges (I think that was my first Folksy sale).

Apologies for the weird look to the blog at the moment, I'm in the middle of changing things around. Hopefully, it should look loads better once it's finished.

Anyway, I may have some exciting news to share with you in the next couple of days, so stay tuned. And if you're fed up of never knowing when I'm going to blog next, you could subscribe to my RSS feed (click the 'subscribe in reader' link on the right) and my blog posts will be delivered directly to you! Well, you'll still have to look on your computer. They don't get delivered to your door. That wouldn't work. Unless someone printed my blog posts and posted them to you... No, you're just being silly now.

the bunting is in the shop

Find it here.

Only two in the shop at the moment. I'll let you know when the others have been added. But, so as not to bore those of you who aren't interested, I'll let you know via my twitter feed. It certainly won't be in the next 12 hours though. I need sleep!

pipsqueak joins the band {that's me!}

You may or may not remember that just before Christmas I mentioned that I liked this notebook (alright so "Oh please, someone buy this for me" were my exact words) but I honestly wasn't expecting someone to buy it for me! Vicky: I love you (but, I loved you before you bought it for me - you know that).

I also find it fitting because I've been singing again and have joined a band, of sorts. So Pipsqueak really has joined the band! Love it.


Don't you love those wrist-warmers? I have trouble taking them off. Not because they're badly made but because I love them so much. I do have to take them off to eat though. I've had a couple of fluff-in-the-mouth incidences. Oh dear. Now I've just realised that, in some places, fluff means 'to pass wind'. No, that's not what I mean. You know exactly what I mean so stop being facetious.


Anyway, back to the wrist-warmers. My sister knitted them for me for Christmas! Thanks, sis :)


Job for this week: tidy my desk. There's something I really want to make (well, there are many things I want to make!) and to do that, I need to actually have some desk space. An inch of space would be an improvement on what I currently have.


Ooo don't forget that Wednesday is your final day to order hearts if you want them before Valentine's Day.


Right. I'm going to bed. Cheerio for now! Pippa x

free valentine garlands

Hey! How's your weekend been? Mine's been hectic, but good. I've been to 3 'signing-only' engagements this week: BSL class on Tuesday, a meal with some friends on Friday (one of the friends is deaf, so no voices allowed) and Deaf Church this afternoon. Cool, huh? Interestingly, I find women easier to understand than men. I don't mean in life generally - just their signing. I wonder why that is. Probably just because women are better ;)

In other news, I've decided that anyone who orders from the shop before Valentine's Day can have a free paper valentine garland.

I'm nice like that :o)

Someone ordered one of the purple hearts the other day, so I made their garland in co-ordinating colours...

Yeah I know, the photos are rubbish quality. You know I'm no good with low-light. But I wasn't going to wait until the morning to photograph it because that would have meant packaging it in too much of a hurry to get it posted the next day. Don't rush me!

I did have fun packaging them though. Yeah, the colours don't really go as perfectly as I'd like, but I could only work with what I had.


What do you think of the new blog layout, by the way? It's less fussy, don't you think? More clean lines. I didn't like how things were (or were not) lining up in my previous layout. And massive photos: is it a yay or a nay? (Or is it yea or nea?)


The bunting kits aren't in the shop yet, but I'm working on it.


Pippa :o)

make it yourself {the bunting, that is}

By special request, I'll get these kits into the shop soon.

I only have 7 bunting kits so you'll have to move fast if you want one. I don't think I'll be making more. Certainly not in the next few months anyway.


Don't panic! They're not in the shop yet! I'll let you know when they're up so that you don't have to keep checking the shop every hour.


And if you want one of these before Valentine's Day, move fast.


I'm really unhappy with my blog design at the moment. I'm itching to change it. Ever since I started reading up on design, I'm able to pinpoint what's been bothering me about this layout. I may have to start teaching myself some very very basic html. Anyone know of a good place to start (and don't say college)? But that's not a job for today. No. Today I will be revising some BSL before my level 2 class tonight. Exciting!

Christmas Market December 2009

To those of you planning to do a Market/Craft Fair for the first time, a word: there is such a thing as having too much going on.

Unbelievably, up until a couple of days before the event, I still wasn't sure that I had enough things to sell and was concerned that my table was going to look empty.

Oh. Dear.

'Empty' is certainly not a word which could have been used to describe my stall. I actually had so much stuff that I couldn't display it properly. Better to have fewer things and display them well than look like a jumble sale.

However, I only had one table. So I crammed it on. It looked a mess. But it looked a really cool mess. I had a lot of Oooos and Aaaahs and a few, "You do this regularly?". I enjoyed the look of surprise when I said that this was my first. I even got an invite to a craft fair in the Spring! Woop woop indeed.

My bunting kits looked super cool. Disappointingly, the printers who photocopied my little instruction booklets didn't bother to change their ink, so all of the booklets are faded. I couldn't very well ask full price with faded booklets, so I had to reduce them. An actual printing shop?! I was so angry when I got home. Well, angry is a little strong actually. I was in far too much of an exhausted daze to be angry. Mildly irritated would capture it better.

My bags (photographed at home because I forgot on the day). Mr Pippa did a sterling job on cutting out the sticky labels for the bags.

My business cards all pegged onto the branches. (Thank you to my helpers for pegging these.)

Inside those shelves at the back were pots of paint and ceramics for the 'Paint You Own' kits, which went down really well. Someone actually told me off for pricing them too low! How sweet! So, of course, I'll be hiking the prices up for the next fair. Well, we'll see. 

Finally, I got to use my mini easle somewhere. More business cards!

The sock cakes, for the sock monkey kits. I had quite a few people asking if they could just buy some socks. Others said, "Ooo now I need cake". They made me want cake.

The sock creatures got a lot of attention. Some had never heard of a sock monkey before (which, in my world, is like saying you've never heard of a microwave). One crying baby was brought to my stall and stopped crying. Oh yes. My creations have the power to stop babies crying. When the mother took the baby away, he cried again. She brought him back and he stopped, staring at everything. Impressive, eh?

People loved the bunting but I don't think they realised it was for sale (because I had too much stuff). 

This post has inspired me to do a Craft Fair: dos and don'ts post.


In summary: it was great and I made connections and had fun and it was so encouraging to look at the table and see a load of things that I had made (for someone who is ill, that's a big deal). The feedback from people was wonderful. However, I didn't actually make much money. 


(Deleted paragraph about illness and money and Christmas. Just insert your own boring rant here and it'll save me the trouble.)


Even without it being financially worthwhile, it was great to be able to try it out before embarking on anything too large-scale. Maybe I'll do a craft fair in the Spring. Maybe I'll put these things on Folksy (although it's too late in the year for the Christmas sock buddies! I doubt anyone would buy them this close to Christmas).


I would like to find out about craft fairs in my area though. How does one go about doing such a thing? I bet there's a weekly one in my city but I just don't know about it because I never leave the house.


More pictures to be uploaded to Flickr soon...

Christmas Market Update

Just one photo for today. 


I can't believe I actually thought I might not have enough stuff to fill a table...

happy little hearts

I'll be selling these and more at the Christmas Market in Bristol this Saturday. If you want details, let me know.


I'm really excited. I still need a table cloth. I was fully intending to make some jewellery for my stall but it just hasn't happened. Next time!

me + art + technology = no

So, the sock monkey kits are coming along nicely. Trying to make the instructions was a huge challenge and, after a couple of weeks, I gave up trying to draw pictures on the computer and I got the good old-fashioned pen and paper out and had it done in a couple of days.

By the time I would have learnt how to do it all on computer, I could have illustrated each one of the 50 instruction booklets individually. One day I'll get some Photoshop lessons, but currently, I don't find technology conducive to creativity at all. I'm sure that will all change once I figure out how it works.

The photocopier wouldn't even do what I wanted (it chopped the sides off. It appears that a home printer can cope, but a photocopier can't), so I had to reduce it, but then it was all off-centre so I chopped it all up and stuck it onto another sheet of paper. Paper and glue win again.

And after all of that, I realised that my drawings were not, in fact, finished. I had already decided that I'd draw the red lines on in coloured pencil (no point in paying more for a colour photocopy just for a teensy bit of red), but I forgot about the arrows...

So, I'm slowly working my way through all of the booklets, not just adding the red pencil, but also the little arrows. 


Oh, and my stapler isn't long enough to staple the booklets. 

last chance

This is your last chance to buy something from my Folksy shop. 

Well, not ever, just until after the summer. On Saturday, my shop will be 'on holiday' for the summer. If I haven't sold the neck-warmers by then, I think I'll take them to a bricks-and-mortar shop. So, was there anything you were wanting for the summer? Get in there quick!

When my shop re-opens after the summer (possibly end of August, but September is more likely), I'm hoping to have some new things and some different things in there. We'll see :o)

For now, I am super busy with wedding things. Oh, and I have my final British Sign Language exam in less than 2 weeks too. Oh, and I don't have an outfit for the wedding. So I'm kind of busy (hence the shop having a holiday). 

Please excuse me while I run around like a headless chicken...

Folksy love

For those of you who don't know, I have a little shop in Folksy. And just recently, the lovely Rowan over at Kitschen Sink sent me a message to inform me that my creation were listen on the Top Picks! And not just once but twice... on the same page! There's the red neckwarmer (3rd down on the right) and my Playmobil badges (5th down on the right). Not bad, eh?

Then I clicked on the homepage for the featured good and look who's on the front page! Me again! 

Not bad for someone who has been out of action for the last month.

I made something super cool today. But I forgot to take photographs of it, so I'll photograph it tomorrow. I am really pleased with it. I surprised myself a bit with this one, actually!

Check back soon to see what it is :o)

goodbye miss pink

Believe it or not, this made me a bit sad. She was my favourite sock monkey and I was secretly hoping that no-one would buy her (although at the same time desperate for money).

I'm going to have to make some more sock creatures. After I've finished the wedding invitations though.

did I tell you I've been making wedding invitations?

I'm pretty sure I did. This month, I will be doing a LOT more of that. In fact, all other crafts have been put on hold until the invites are done. Oh yes. But that's not to say I won't have things to show you.

The couple really wanted me to put something on the cards to say that I made them, so I made these little stickers. Cute, huh?

On Monday, I will be showing you the contents of my handbag! Although, I have a BSL exam on Monday, so maybe it will be Tuesday (did you know I sign? Yes I do. So does Mr Pippa!). It's not completely random: I was tagged by Kara to do this and I don't normally bother with tags, but I liked the sound of this one. I think you can tell a lot about a person from what they have in their handbag. Tune in after the weekend to find out...

May your weekend be FILLED with sunshine and smiles and lovely things! HOORAY!

Ps I'm feeling a bit better. Did you know I was feeling really rubbish? I was. But I'm a bit better now :o)

sale now on

I'm having a little sale in my Folksy shop until 20th Feb. Anything you fancy?

I was going to show you this scrapbook page, but I've decided that it's not finished, so I might show it to you tomorrow.

Also, I think I've just made the best scrapbook page I will ever make. I love it. I've got it on display on my easel. I'll show you that later. Right now, I'm trying to catch up with life (it got put on hold while we had snow!).

Cheerio for now.

shop update

There are more badges in the shop, and more on the way.

Fancy browsing the badges, past and present? Here they are.

do elegant badges even exist?

Yes, they do. I'll get back to that in a bit. I've got tonsillitis for the second time this month and the sixth time in a year. 'Feeling rough' doesn't come close. But I'm still going to do a blog post. It's not like I have anything else to do.

Here is a lovely but incredibly plain scrapbook page:

It sat on that easel for over a week, waiting for that finishing touch. And then it seemed obvious...

...a badge!

It's still quite a plain page, but I'm okay with it, as it does have three photos. This wedding scrapbook of mine is slowly getting there.

I needed a name for these badges. 'Swirly badges' didn't really fit. So I decided to call this set 'the elephant range'. No hang on, that wasn't it either...

The Elegant Range are now available in my Folksy shop, while stocks last.

I would happily pin these to a ballgown. But then, you saw what I did with my last ballgown!

I'm going to go and eat some more jelly.