Exciting news!

I just accidentally found out that my mini moo business card envelopes are featured in the Storque today, with news of a coupon discount with moo, too!

Check it out here:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/getting-creative-with-moo-4204/

I feel like a celebrity! I'm sure it'll wear off soon, but it'll be fun while it lasts...

Out of season

Okay, so it's the middle of June, but bear with me! My mum's side of the family left us with a not-so-great legacy, Reynaud's Syndrome. You don't have to click on the link, the key thing is that we always, constantly, have cold feet. All the time.

We're big users of hot water bottles, and I promised my mum ages ago that I would make her a new cover for hers. I have the ideal variegated bluey purple acrylic yarn, super-washable, but I can't find a suitable knitting pattern. I'd like something with the opening on the horizontal, halfway down the bottle, made up on straight (not circular) needles and that costs less than $10 to buy - preferably free!

I've googled but don't like the look of any of the ones I found. Can anyone help?

NEET magazine

Girl Industries' handknit turtle is currently featured on p129 of this great online read. Update your Flash, folks, you're in a for a great read:

http://www.neetmagazine.com/

Photo (c) Susan Castillo, from a recent Glasgow Craft Mafia photoshoot

Hey hey, it's market day

See you at the Buff Club tomorrow, where I'll be crafting not selling, and at Mono on Sunday where I'll be selling and crafting! Yippee!

If you can't get to Glasgow but want to join in on a great new Craft Mafia competition, click here

Productive day

From this:

To this:

Makes me happy.

(no it's not all shoved inside the box, either)

Weekend fun

All that outdoorsy goodness in Strathbungo and at the beach yesterday has put me in mind of festival season. The result of this (and also down to a bit of an in-joke that's been flying around for the last couple of months) is my 'TP in the Park' brooch. I hope you like it!

Edit to say that: T in the Park is a Scottish music festival, for those of you outside Scotland :-)

Wowsers!

I was here today. It took my breath away, but also totally inspired me.

What did you do this weekend?

Bungo in the Back Lanes... and more!

For your crafting pleasure, there are 3 fantastic events taking place across Glasgow this weekend.

You can catch me from 1 until 4 at Bungo in the Back Lanes on the South Side, no doubt rocking my new Sarey Poppins sunhat if it's a sunny day.

Sarah herself will be at the Hidden Lane festival, over in the West End.

And if you don't catch my other Glasgow Craft Mafia friends at either of the above, you'll no doubt find them soaking up the retro atmosphere over at Made in the Shade at Glasgow University. It goes on until midnight - so you've plenty of time to fit everyone in!

Coffee kilts

In the midst of all my wedding preparations, it's been the fiance's turn for a treat. He's been along to the kiltmakers to get his own ordered up. We have six weddings on the cards for next year, so we thought now was definitely the time to invest in the old national costume.

While we were at the kilt shop, I was drawn to a basket of offcuts, and here's the result. I enjoyed working with the tartan, hand sewing is always so relaxing. I can see myself making a lot more bits and bobs by hand with this luxury fabric. I also might start stocking my own tartan offcuts in the shop - what do you think?

The first batch of tartan coffee kilts is now in the shop, one of which has a special prototype discount. Snap them up because I can see these being very popular, what with it being Homecoming year, too!

Bungo in the back lanes

I'm so excited to be a part of this event! Rosie's Retro Styling is hosting a mini-Glasgow Craft Mafia market on Saturday in the south side of Glasgow. I'll be there, along with Asking for Trouble and Pumpkin Sputnik.

Check out the website for full details, and try to pop along if you can, it'd be great to see you!

Catching up

I've been so busy these past few weeks, I've barely had time to blog. Wedding preparations have slightly taken over my life, and I've been ticking things off my list regularly. Bridesmaids shrugs are all but finished (I think I've mentioned my love of knitting and my dislike of making things up), but then I took it upon myself to make one for me, and I think I'll be making another for a friend's birthday in a couple of days!

I've really enjoyed getting back into knitting and I have a huge amount of yarn to work through as I'd neglected it for so long. I've made up another list of projects, large and small, to help me destash. I'm going to be road testing some of these projects at upcoming markets in June and July, and online. During August and September I'm going to take a little break from markets, to make sure everything is in order for my big day.

My envelope-making skills continue to be in demand. I've had a lot of interest from photographers in my 5 x 5 inch envelopes, which are the perfect size for CDs/DVDs. Jewellery sellers also seem to be keen on my 4 x 4 inch envelopes, which are just perfect for necklaces and bracelets, and my little 3cm square envelopes which hold rings very snugly. In response to this demand, I've made up a special pack which you can look at in my shop. I'm totally open to customising the pack to suit your needs, all you have to do is ask.

The other thing I've been doing, which has turned into a bit of a time vampire, is playing with my new pedometer. It's part of this game for the DS, and I knew I'd love it as soon as I saw the advert on TV last week. I try to walk to and from work every day, or at least one way or the other. My current per day step record is 16,978, with a daily average of 12,000. My walk to work is about three miles long, through the industrial east of Glasgow. It's lovely on a sunny evening, and it gives a new perspective on local landmarks, like the football ground, or the local market when the traders have cleared away for the day...

Creative friends

It's just occurred to me that a whole glut of birthdays are taking place right about now, and they have one thing in common: they are all fantastic friends!

Oh, and they are very creative too. Check out Alina, Colin and Ian's work! Happy birthday, one and all.

Tomorrow is going to be a whole day of awesome!

Remember your school days? And the annual summer fete? Well, mine was never like the one at Glasgow's Steiner School, on Lumsden Street, in Yorkhill.

There will be a cafe with loads of vegetarian stuff and baking, live music, a BBQ, games, craft activities for kids (clay modeling, necklace making, pinwheels and willow fairy rings). There's also henna and face painting, a book sale and a miniature pony!

There will also be firemen and a fire engine. In fairness, we had that at our school, along with Welephant.

There is such a lot going on crafts-wise over the next three weekends in Glasgow, I think I'll need a separate blog post to sum it all up. While I have an exciting trip to the (sssh!) V-E-T-S on the slate for tomorrow, a little birdie tells me that Covetables, with her creatures, craft kits and cupcakes and Miso Funky, with her PG-13 selection of embroidery, will be at the Steiner School. The fun starts at 11.30 and finishes at 4, so I'll try to drop in once the cats are settled at home.

Don't forget Dad!

June means Father's Day is just around the corner, and there's plenty to choose from out there in the world of craft and sustainable gifts.

Take a look at my guest post over at the Glasgow Craft Mafia blog for a little inspiration!

From the sublime to the ridiculous

I'm busy with my day job, but still catching up with the internets, while I'm on the road. This one is the sublime, because good clothes are hard to find, and you know I love prawns, but this is ridiculous. Seriously. Life's too short to make a shrimp out of a plastic straw.

Synergy!

Looks like Craftzine.com is doing a month-long special on DIY weddings. I'll be watching their blog posts even more closely than usual throughout June. And I watch them pretty closely already, I can tell you.

Wedding crafts

So I like to make envelopes and I love kraft paper. Nothing would stop me from making at least one element of my wedding stationery.

And here they are, along with part of our invitation, designed by the amazing Leslie Hamer, of Unlesssomeonelikeyou.etsy.com. She took minimal input from us and still managed to read our minds, and create exactly what we wanted.


We also love our postage stamps, which celebrate great British inventors from the period when our wedding venue would have celebrated its heyday, when industry in this country was at the height of its development, and success.

I've been industrious, too, on a set of shrugs for my bridesmaids. Here's one being modelled at the Buff Club on Saturday. I knitted this one up with the help of a pattern from ficklefiberdiva on etsy.com. I managed to put it together in one afternoon, just like the shop announcement says. You can see for yourself, it looks great on, too. I think my bridesmaids are going to be happy with this.

I've been working on an exciting zine project charting my progress towards achieving the perfect handmade wedding. It looks at little crafty bits and pieces that anyone could do, hints and tips for planning your day (I'm an events planner in my day job), a little bit of romance, and all the crafty businesses and suppliers who are working towards making my big day unique and so very 'us'.

So if you're planning your own wedding, love a romantic story, want to help one of your friends or relatives with their nuptials, or find some great ideas that could work for parties and events of all stripes, watch this space for more info on how we did it. It's shaping up to be a great little read!

Star-spotting

So, aside from all the superstars of craft that I met at the Handmade Haven this weekend, I also saw some real life celebrities over the weekend, in Edinburgh.

First up, that historian off the telly, doing a piece to camera on Hanover Street.

Fact fans should note that I once did some modelling for a well-known line of toiletries in the building with the pillars, in the background.

Then we saw the lovely Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, swoon.

Halfway through his cookery demonstration, some lucky people got to taste his strawberries. Almost getting carried away with jealousy, imagine my surprise when I noticed my chief bridesmaid in the crowd.

Also on hand was this guy, who I think does the wine on Saturday Kitchen and is just about the most irritating/watchable person on TV. I wish they'd had the guy who does the voices on Come Dine with Me, just wandering around with a loudhailer, commenting on people. Are you reading this, Channel 4?

Whatever you've been up to this weekend, I hope you've had a good one, and that the sun was just as shiny in your part of the world.