A bit of gentle activism for a Sunday afternoon

Thank you to everyone who has sent in cards to me so far, and extra special thanks to those who are diligently removing any recyclable areas of the card before they pass them on to me.  It cuts down on the amount of work I need to do, and also the amount of storage space I need.  There's a cost element both to my time and to my storage facility so this is important as there is no guarantee with this project that I will recoup any of my costs. 

If you didn't manage to remove the recyclable areas of your cards before sending it also means that glitter from other cards in your package will contaminate the non-glitter parts, meaning that they have to go in the bin, instead of the recycling, and that's quite frustrating.  It might also add to the cost of your postage.  On a different note, I've been getting to hear a lot about where various Christmas gatherings are taking place and the medical conditions of strangers, and I'd rather not, so please please remove these types of information before you send them to me.  But as ever I am very grateful to everyone who is taking part, I know people have various things going on in their own lives and this is a reason I love this quote:

However, I am always keen to turn these things into a positive, so as I've been cutting the backs off cards in the last day or so, I've been jotting down the names of the manufacturers and any charities that the cards support.  I'm going to spend a bit of time, as and when I have a spare few minutes, contacting each organisation or brand and asking if they might consider stopping using glitter or foiled finishes when ordering or working on their next batch of Christmas cards.  Over on Facebook I've been asked for some wording that others could use - hopefully I won't receive too many more card backs so if each person who sends in a bundle could even contact one retailer, charity or manufacturer, it could all add up to a huge impact.  I love Christmas cards, I like giving and receiving them, and I really like the fact that it adds to the funding and awareness-raising activity of charities and other organisations, and I'd like for us all to be able to buy more, not less, boxes of cards next year.

Here goes, and feel free to amend the wording to something more 'you' - these are written with charities in mind so you'll need to adapt them slightly for businesses:

For glitter cards:
I'm writing to contact you having recently received a Christmas card decorated with glitter and featured your logo.  I wondered if you might consider some of the following points when planning for your next release of Christmas cards, which I realise might not be this year depending on contracts and stock levels.  Most glitter used in Christmas cards is a microplastic, and can be dangerous when accidentally inhaled or ingested - both for those working to make the cards, and those sending and receiving them.  Glitter cannot be safely disposed of, can potentially enter our water or soil, and cannot be recycled.  Without clear information about disposal on the back of the cards, some people add them to their recycling collection in error, which then contaminates other recyclable goods, meaning a much larger number of items potentially have to be treated as waste for landfill.  As more consumers become aware of these issues, they are opting not to buy these types of cards, which might have an impact on your fundraising/business activity.
Thanks for considering my request and please keep up the good work

For cards with foil or embellishments:
I'm writing to contact you having recently received a Christmas card which was decorated with foil elements or other embellishments and featured your logo.  I wondered if you might consider some of the following points when planning for your next release of Christmas cards, which I realise might not be this year depending on contracts and stock levels.  Most cards with foil or raised embellishments cannot be recycled easily, if at all, and are likely to end up in landfill, which seems unnecessary when there are so many alternative options out there.  As more consumers become aware of this, they are opting not to buy these types of cards, which might have an impact on your fundraising/business activity.  You may also wish to consider setting up collection points to dispose of these types of cards, or at least providing clear instruction on the back of cards for disposal, so that the burden is not on the end receiver.
Thanks for considering my request and please keep up the good work

I'm not great at writing these things, so if anyone has a better alternative, please drop it in comments here or over on Facebook, or email me at katy@girlindustries.com if you wish to remain anonymous and I'll post it up in a blog post later.

Here we go, 2020

I've wanted to start blogging again for ages, but wasn't sure what to write about, it's been a real year of change for me in 2019.  However, in the last week, my idea to repurpose those Christmas cards we receive which aren't recyclable, has gone a little bit viral, so I have plenty to talk about now!

For those of you following along, or not familiar with what I'm talking about, here's the original image which was circulated at the beginning of December:

I shared it on facebook, which I had about 130 followers on, and usually got about 2 likes per post, and if I'm lucky, the odd share or comment.

Well.

I'm now up to around 700 followers on facebook (and counting - hello!) and nearly half a million people have seen my post.  There have been about 5 thousand shares of the original post, from what I can track, but many more out there I don't know about, where the photo has been downloaded and then shared on.  Unfortunately some of these kinds of shares have the wrong information attached (even though it's correct in the image), so if in doubt, please refer to the post above.

For clarity, I want to remind everyone that if you imagine a Christmas card to be like a little book, it's only the front page we want.  You can remove the back page, dust it off with a damp cloth and shake any loose glitter from your cloth into the bin.  As long as it's now glitter-free, you can put the 'back page' into the recycling.  I like to use the side that isn't written on by the sender for shopping lists, or notes next to the phone to get more use out of them before I put them in the recycling bin.

We do not want recyclable cards.  You can recycle those yourself at home, or make your own decorations from these - tutorials for four different kinds of ornaments are coming soon.

We do not want wrapping paper.  The ornaments I am planning to make need to be made from card, paper is too thin, and is an increased fire risk.  Please don't send wrapping paper.

We do not want gift tags, baubles or gift bags.  We have no facility to store or reuse these.  Please do not send them.

We do not want people to send cards from overseas.  This is expensive for you and creates additional work for us, as well as the postal service.  It creates additional burden on our planet's resources.  Please destroy or repurpose these locally.  

If you wish to recognise the work, time and resources that we (me, at Girl Industries and Rosie, the owner of Weigh Ahead, who has very kindly agreed to be a drop-off point), please consider shopping with us - we post our products all over the world.  Or you could set up something similar for glitter or other non-recyclable cards in your own country - maybe there's already a scheme in place which you could join in with.  Alternatively, if you like what we're doing and want to buy us a coffee (we are going to need several), you can support us at ko-fi.com/girlindustries

But ultimately, thank you for getting behind what was 'just an idea'.  And please encourage everyone you know NOT to buy glitter cards and wrapping paper next year.  

Zero waste wrapping

Cast your minds back to my #livelagom personal shopping experience and you might remember I bought a couple of packs of tea towels, in limited edition VINTER 2018 festive colours.  Which just happened to match my mum's kitchen decor.  And a pack of paper twine.

Here's what I did with them:

Choose a gift - this idea works great with square or rectangular gifts like books or gift boxes.  Bonus points if your packaging can be reused, recycled, or avoids single-use plastic.

Centre your gift on the tea towel and wrap it neatly around.  For extra crispness, you could iron the tea towel before you do this bit, or like me, you could skip that step.

Fold your corners in, just like you would if you were wrapping with paper.

Grab your (IKEA, of course) scissors and that fantastic paper twine.

Cut a length that will pass around your package at least 3 times.  

Pass your twine under the front middle of your package, and then cross it over on the back, to hold your corners in place.  Then flip it over carefully.

Tie a knot on the front to hold everything together.  

You could then add one of my faux glitter gift tags (click through to my shop here) and tie the front with a bow - any excess twine you snip can be saved for future projects, or dropped into your recycling bin.

Of course, this same technique works really well for shapes which would be challenging to wrap with paper... Here's another of my #livelagom surprises I'll blog about in a future post...

Edinburgh shopping walk - shop indie, shop sustainably

I was in Edinburgh yesterday to do my civic duty and once my appointment was over, I decided to spend a few hours walking around the city which first brought me to Scotland in the mid-90s.

One of the things that I had forgotten, but noticed straight away, was how many of the capital's shops, restaurants, cafes, cinemas and public spaces are independently-owned.  On arrival at Edinburgh Waverley, stepping out onto Princes Street, once of the first things I saw was this sign:

I knew then that I'd made the right decision to focus on shopping independent and sustainable as I made my way around town - locally-sourced coffee, front and centre, in the heart of town.

I set off up the Mound headed for Victoria Street, the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books, and a known indie shopping location - with everything from cheese (I J Mellis) to cheesy music on offer (Yes, we are talking about Espionage and yes, that's quite enough about that!).  The window displays here are great, I mean, you wouldn't get something like this in the window of M&S or Primark, would you?

And is it me, or are vintage board games having a moment right now?

At the foot of Victoria Street, in the Grassmarket, is an Edinburgh institution, vintage clothes emporium Armstrong's.  There are several branches around the city, and this was one of my favourite places to pick up an outfit for a Saturday night when I lived here. 

The Grassmarket is a great spot for independent dining and drinking, including Petit Paris, which I finally got to visit earlier this year after years of admiration from afar.  It was so worth the wait!

 But today I'm going Italian, with a breakfast trip to Coletti & Co on Lothian Road, a quick scoot along King's Stables Road (love that name!) from the Grassmarket.   Recently as part of my #livelagom project with IKEA, I picked up a lot of these tight seal jars and I was thrilled to see one in action on my table.

I just noticed my knife there, oops.  That was a cheese and chilli savoury scone but I was starving and it was so tasty I demolished it in short order.  Look how nice my coffee looks, it tasted great, too.  Anyway, I don't take sugar in my drinks but I do get annoyed at the wastefulness of sugar packets (and how tempting they are to tiny hands), so I loved this extra detail. It also reminded me that a zero waste supermarket has just opened not too far from here, on Morrison Street, for all your refillable shopping needs. 

But back to Coletti & Co - I was really impressed in the loos when I saw a stack of flannels in place of paper towels or electric hand dryer in the bathroom. 

If you're on Lothian Road, here's what to look out for:

From a new-to-me place to a very not-new-to-me place, Paper Tiger!  I've been shopping at Paper Tiger since the mid-90s.  It's an absolute institution as far as I'm concerned, and I try to get a new calendar or Christmas cards or notecards or gifts from here every year.  I love the collection of local candles in the window, but do think they could go one better and actually try to capture the essence of Edinburgh a bit more - imagine if the Meadows candle actually smelled of peaty woodsmoke and grass lawn, for instance? 

Inside the shop itself there are also plenty of books on sustainability and how to reduce your environmental impact.  I picked up a box of Miffy Christmas cards and continued along Lothian Road.

Past the Filmhouse....

And along to Lauriston Place, where I snapped this Police Box, like many in the city it's now a spot to pick up a takeaway coffee.  

I continued along to Forrest Road, where I snapped another independent Edinburgh institution, Potterrow, the home of Edinburgh University Student Association.  Entirely separate from the NUS, this was always a bit of a bind as an undergrad visiting other friends at universities around the country because I couldn't access the same discounts on services as they could, but with hindsight now, I value that independence and the benefits of negotiation and organisation from an entirely locally-focused stance.  

And then I made a turn up towards George IV Bridge, passing Greyfriars Kirkyard, the Greyfriars Bobby pub (another favourite student haunt) and the statue of Bobby himself.  If you're ever here, visiting the city, please please please don't rub his nose 'for luck'.  It's one of the most pointlessly destructive things you can do, if you want to 'earn' good fortune, do it by being a decent human being and don't vandalise our statues.  And don't get me started on what they do to the bull statue at the bottom of Broadway in NYC, it's making me cringe just thinking about it.  Keep your hands to yourselves!

So my first disappointing indie experience of the day came from a cafe just a little further along from this statue.  I'm not going to name and shame, but I did walk out shortly after being seated due to a complete absence of customer-focused thinking.  Here are some personal bugbears - I was seated at a bar area, on an uncomfortable high stool, with a lovely view of an internal wall, next to someone who clearly did not want me sitting anywhere near her personal space, and due to the layout of the area, I was practically on her knee.  This made me feel deeply uncomfortable.  The place was really busy and I just got the impression straight away that I was going to be there for two plus hours when I really just wanted a pitstop.  It was almost lunchtime and the breakfast menu was still being handed out, even though they had stopped serving it.  If you wanted a coffee and cake, you needed to leave your seat, go over to the counter, choose a cake but then alert a server from your table to the fact that you wanted cake, and then indicate which one you want.  You could hardly get space to sit down in the first place, so the idea of trying to wander around the place and grab the attention of someone was too much.  Also the staff had different roles, so there's a seating person, a greeting person, a taking orders person and a paying person. No idea which is which, and there was a lot of 'oh that's not me, there'll be someone along soon to help you' going on.  Not helpful.  Not relaxing.  Also I had just had a scone an hour and a half earlier so really didn't want to eat, and there was no sign of whether there was a minimum on card payments.  The whole place was chaotic, cramped, poorly laid out and managed, just too much like hard work.  The menus looked like a GCSE Business Studies project.  I was only in there to get out of the hailstones.  Life is too short.  I walked.  

Just across the road from where I was, the National Museum of Scotland, which I visited to see the excellent Rip It Up exhibition just recently, so that put the idea in my head of having a cuppa in a museum instead.  There are so many museums in Edinburgh, lots of them free to enter, and I like to give something back whenever I can, so I decided to pop along a vennel to the Writers Museum just off the Royal Mile.  And then I got distracted by my favourite pub, the Jolly Judge, which had another 15 mins to go before it opened, so lunch there was out.  

Look at this courtyard, though, so pretty.  

And then I realised I was soaked through, tired, thirsty and needed tea, stat.  So I continued along the Royal Mile to the Real Mary King's Close, a tourist attraction which I never realised had a cafe at the back.  A big pot of tea was less than £3, so I was really chuffed with my decision.  I'll probably talk about Mary King's Close another time, as I've been visiting since before it was open to the public, but for now I wholeheartedly recommend the cafe and little shop there, too.  The museum shops around the city are really excellent, and complement the independent offering perfectly.  If you're looking for a souvenir of the city, or a book on niche aspects of its history, museum shops are the answer!

I skipped Cockburn Street, which is a real treasure of independent shops, cafes and pubs, to cut through one of the stepped closes down to Waverley Station.  I spied this cafe down at the bottom of Cockburn Street, and later found out via Instagram it belongs to a friend's cousin.  So I will definitely pay it a visit next time I'm in town.  I was instantly hooked by the ghost sign on the outside, I love these, and spotted several more over the course of the day.  

The Milkman received a nomination for coffee shop of the year 2018 in the Scottish Independent Retail Awards.  It definitely looks like one to watch.  

I wanted to head over to Rose Street, which is another hotspot of lunch places, bakeries, and shops, to find somewhere cosy to eat and do a bit of writing.  Sustainability was brought to mind when I saw a sharp contrast in how chains and indies do things.  TopShop staff were busy inflating shiny foil balloons for their Christmas window display, and the independent traders next door were attaching a natural and sustainable alternative to theirs, from what I could gather, brought along from the florist just around the corner.  This made me feel ridiculously festive all of a sudden.  

I was really intending to make it along to Social Bite for lunch but it was further along Rose Street than I remembered, and I was getting cold and hungry and my feet were wet and sore from walking through the hailstorm earlier.  I decided to call it a day, but will be back again soon.  City of Edinburgh council gets a bad press on lots of issues (trams, bins, the Christmas market) but one thing they are doing really well is supporting independent traders and making sure there is room for everyone, with the flagships of Princes Street and George Street, and a real sense of community in different areas across the city.  I didn't even get the chance to talk about the Shore, Morningside, Broughton Street and Elm Row, Comely Bank and Stockbridge - all of these are home to plenty of independent shopping, eating and drinking options.  I'm not really a recreational shopper, but I did enjoy my morning exploring and reminiscing, and would definitely consider doing all of my Christmas shopping with the indies of Edinburgh.  

Is anybody out there?

So that'll be five years and a couple of weeks since the last time I blogged, then?  I have been meaning to get back to it for a while, but the right time never came... until now!

I kind of lost the blogging bug after I went back to my day job full time - the darker winter nights made it impossible to get even half good photos, and I had a massive tech issue - my phone and my blog and my social media were all on different systems and platforms, and I think my brain broke a bit from trying to manage all of them.  

So what's changed?  Well, I have a project, and putting it on here is a way of motivating myself but also keeping a record of how it's going, the challenges I face (and hopefully overcome) and if anyone's still reading (or picking back up with the reading), get some feedback and input from you all.  After five years of working pretty much flat out, I'm trying to take a bit of a breather, and get various parts of my home and working life in order, but also to continue to share resources and thinking on some of the things I'm passionate about, namely sustainability, creative reuse and supporting small, ethical businesses.  

I was asked by IKEA Glasgow to join their #livelagom project this year.  Lagom roughly translates to "just right", and it really appealed to me because nothing has been "just right" with my home for a while.  Well, except the people and pets in it, of course.  But in terms of having a home that is welcoming, for its inhabitants and the occasional day time or overnight guest, we're just not there at the moment.  We have four bedrooms at home, two of which are used for actual sleeping in, and two of which are meant for working in.  Unfortunately my study is the larger of the two, and is the closest to the front door, which means it has become a dumping ground for 'things that need sorting out' - which is great, if you actually have time to sort anything out.  Then multiply that by five years of 60 hour working weeks... and the contents of two lots of parents' houses, and you can see how things might get a little out of hand. 

So after a pretty terrible year, I am ready to shift gears, prioritise myself and the way I want to live, and this seems like a perfect time to get started, with the support and encouragement of IKEA and my fellow #livelagom-ers too.  We had our induction at IKEA Glasgow a couple of weeks ago, and last Friday I had my personal shopping session with the lovely Joanna, who helped me select products which have been produced with sustainability in mind.

Let me talk you through them...

So I spent a grand total of £99, and I focused mainly on lighting... which I'm saving for another post another day, just out of shot is a floor lamp for what will become a functional guest room/office/workshop for me.  The lighting is important because a) I have terrible eyesight, b) the room has to work in a number of ways, so movable task-oriented lighting is as important as fixed lighting, and c) the main point of this exercise is to be more sustainable, so I wanted to make sure I could use low-energy, high-performance bulbs, too.

But more about that next time.  For now, I want to talk to you about the glassware in the photo.  I bought a set of 8 of the tumblers on the right, from the Vinter 2018 range.  These were a gift for my friend Wendy, who runs PQ Soy Wax Candles based in York.  She was here at the Country Living Christmas Fair in Glasgow at the weekend, and I dropped off a selection of vintage and surplus glasses and jars for her to use in her candle-making.  I spied these tumblers and I thought they would make the perfect container for a special range and added them into the boxes of glassware I was passing on, as an extra surprise.  They were very well-received, and Wendy kindly gifted us a couple of candles in exchange.  We've already tried out her It's Christmas candle - the fair put us right in the mood - and the soy wax burns cleanly away from the jar, so I know we'll be able to use the glassware again when it's finished.  So far, so sustainable.  Thank you Wendy, and thank you IKEA for bringing us together in real life - we've only ever chatted online before!

Image by PQ Soy Wax Candles

I'll update you again soon to let you know how I've been using my glass storage jars...

Getting stuff done

I had two days off my day job to do various life admin stuff, some of which included getting things finished that I'd been working on for ages.

Some handknitted baby blankets that I planned to donate to a different charity in London (but ended up sending to Woolly Hugs because they sent me their mailing address in double time, before I could lose the email, which is what happened the first time around when I know I saw a link for where to send them on facebook but couldn't find it again by the time I'd woven in all my ends).

My Oh Comely care package is on its way to Liverpool in the post.

I took part in the Inver Cottage craft fair on Sunday (I had the fish and chips).



I even went to see a gig last Wednesday night in Edinburgh, by Public Broadcasting Service.  It was one of the most intense and entertaining gigs I have ever been to (and in my previous life as a music journalist, I've been to a lot).  I enjoyed it so much, I almost had a review drafted out in my head on the way home in the car, I may work it up if I get five minutes in the next couple of weeks.  But for now, I'll say that it was a very good time, and the people watching was as much fun as the show itself.  And I was able to impress with my newfound t-shirt printing knowledge to point out to my friend which shirt was the best value for money i.e. the most expensive to produce but still priced the same as all the others.  I love me a bit of insider information!

Is it November already?

I can't believe I haven't blogged in two whole months.  They have been two whole super-busy months, mind you.  Here's a catch up on what you missed while I was missing in blogging action.

I started a new business, and had a bit of a crowdfunding adventure.  If anyone wants to hear more about our experiences, let me know and I'll blog about it.  It's going pretty well, and it's been great working as part of a team with a fellow creative person, and a supporting cast of fantastic designers.  We are launching our online shop any day now, and the first batch of orders will be sent out very soon - they are being finalised by the printer as I type!

I took more than 50 orders at www.girlindustries.etsy.com - a large percentage of which were custom orders for a combination of last-minute and forward-planning brides.  This kept me busy!  November has been quiet so far, so if you wish to order a package of envelope seals/custom stickers, multiple packs of confetti for your big day, or other elements of table decoration or packaging, now is a good time to get in touch about your requirements.

I've been working full time in my day job, and have had to scale down my freelance working at least until Christmas.  I am not sure what the new year will bring, but for now I can take on short-life projects like online shop support and proofreading/editing work and usually turn these around within 48 hours.

I have been continuing to destash my craft room and although you can't really tell to look at it, I have made a serious dent in the level of supplies I've been holding on to.  I still have a long way to go, but plenty of projects underway to help me with it.  Now the room has to be even more multipurpose than ever, I need to use the space more flexibly and in a more organised way.  I can feel another eBay binge coming on, I hope they have a free listings day soon!

I've signed up for two fun swaps over the Christmas period.  The first is organised by Oh Comely magazine and I have been partnered with someone who is going to be so fun to make for.  A mum-to-be with a love of all things vintage.  I have the perfect gifts in mind.  The second is a decoration swap organised by Laura over at Dropstitchblog.  I have no idea what I'm going to make, but you can still sign up for the swap until midnight this evening, I think, so get involved!

I've been reading Posie gets Cozy a lot and feeling inadequate, so I try to only read it now and again, and treat it a bit like a made up world.  I do love that blog (and I loved making Maggie Rabbit, and A enjoyed helping and seeing Miss Maggie come to life) and I'm grateful to Alicia for sharing her life.  It also reminds me of being on honeymoon in the Pacific Northwest, of real seasons and time to sew, knit and cook to my hearts content.

I've also been a bit more sociable lately, and have been to craft fairs, meeting up with friends, having family days out, and this week I'm even going to a gig.  Which will no doubt make me feel super old, and I will be driving, and trying to cope with an early morning the next day, so possibly not the best idea ever but I am looking forward to it!

Keeping busy

So this is why I've been so busy lately - working on a new project with Jo of StellaMyStar.  Nearly ten years ago now I had a conversation with a fellow crafty type about creating a line of children's t-shirts, but I couldn't create the necessary artwork myself (no skillz) and the artist I first approached to collaborate with didn't see how their work would translate to a t-shirt format, or how someone could sell t-shirts outside of a traditional clothing store setting - why sell online?  Won't people need to try them on first?  Well luckily the independent handmade sector in the UK has changed a whole lot since then!

Fast foward a few years and suddenly everything fell into place.  After many years of running my own businesses and a few more years of working with crafters, artists and designers in Glasgow and beyond, I was in the right place to get started.  Jo and I put our heads together last July and we started planning - it's been a long time in the pipeline, but somehow time speeded up on itself last week and all of a sudden we were ready to launch - and to make sure our t-shirts will be ready to post by the start of December!  Up until the middle of last month, only our designers and our immediate family knew what we were planning, and now we are ready to shout it from the rooftops.

You can find out more about the project, and how to buy from our first collection of t-shirts at the Mimi and Will website at mimiandwill.com and you can pre-order from our first collection here - the best part is you don't even have to choose which shirts you want straightaway, which is great because we have lots more shirts lined up to release before the end of October.  Please share our links with anyone you know who has children or might need child-shaped Christmas presents!

and p.s. - Girl Industries isn't going anywhere - so shop with confidence!

All change!

I'm having a huge sale in my Etsy shop right now to clear inventory and let me make room for lovely new things from September onwards.  As more of the older stock clears, I'll be adding a few surplus supplies I have to my Etsy shop.  I have big things planned for the shop!  I'm planning to continue with stickers, tags and more paper goods but I want to work in my favourite colour palettes and work more on a themed basis, in tune with the seasons, and with trends.  I'll still be keeping it as upcycled, green and eco-friendly as I can, but I want to make my range more stylish and more coherent.  I want to work towards bringing my customers a great visual shopping experience while retaining the quality of a great product and the price of a great buy.

I'll be discontinuing my current envelope range, but you can always ask about custom orders if there's something you'd like me to make for you.  I'll keep the zines in my shop too, and I have a new one drafted up that I just need to typeset and choose the cover for, and we're good to go!  Oh, and I still do work to proofread and edit listings, and remotely manage a range of online marketplace accounts, so get in touch if you'd like to talk about those services.

The main reason I'm scaling back on the Girl Industries shop is that the other work I have on at the moment (full time day job, a carefully built up freelance portfolio from when I did not have a full time day job, and a new additional business venture on the horizon) is becoming too much to manage alongside such a diverse mix of products and supplies - not to mention trying to fit in a home and personal life.  By scaling it back a little, I can cut myself some slack, I hope, and try to find more of a balance between everything.  Every purchase you make from the shop will help me towards that goal, so if there's something you've had your eye on for a while, there's never been a better time than right now to pick it up!

I know a lot of my crafty pals and readers are in a similar boat at the moment, so what are your top tips for finding balance in your life?

Fun days out

For a couple of weeks in the summer we were able to spend time together as a family and do a few day trips.  These included:

Blue Peter Garden at Media City while I was staying with my folks in Salford



A close encounter with some ducklings at Tebay services on our way home



Strawberry picking (and more besides) at the fantastic Cairnie Hill farm, near Cupar



Fun with meercats, penguins and some pretty terrifying tigers at the Blair Drummond Safari Park

A day at the beach at Burntisland, Fife

 Yes, those are hundreds of people on a tiny strip of sand all going shades of lobster in the 30 degree Scottish summer sunshine.

On holiday

So back in the olden times, I'd have cleverly researched, drafted, got photo clearance and scheduled some fascinating blog posts to tide everyone over if I was ever took soon time out for myself over the summer.  Well, times have changed and I'm super busy and needed a real, proper, break so here I am with an update on where I've been, instead.

First up, I went to see my old school for one last time before it gets knocked down.  The old sports hall (which was opened to great fanfare during my time there) had an amazing exhibition of old photos from over the years - including a few of me on stage in various productions.  I kind of wish I'd stuck with the acting but my parents weren't so keen on anything extra curricular, preferring me to concentrate on the academic side instead, so I dropped it shortly after being offered the role of Viola in Twelfth Night in 6th Form.  The role went instead to someone who's now a very very very well known theatre director.  Just like if I'd stuck with the radio alongside my old co-host (who's now a very very very well known Hollywood movie editor with an Oscar nomination under his belt) or my old student journalism chum... who just wrote the Guardian's lead article on the new Alan Partridge film.  Can you see a theme here?

Anyhoo, in the interests of being a bit more extra curricular, I'm super-busy with all kinds of improving activities.  I just took on an extra role (and an extra day) at my day job.  I'm working hard to focus and rationalise my Girl Industries range - more on that in a blog post still to come.  I'm also working on a freelance basis giving support and providing practical services to a number of online outlets, which has been really interesting work and is definitely something I'll be sticking at.  I also have a brand spanking new venture which I was spending all my Fridays on when I wasn't working in my day job on Fridays.  This new venture should be up and running in the next couple of months, and it's something I really really can't wait to share with you.  And did I mention I have a 2 year old and a long-suffering husband...?

And all this comes from one photograph on the wall in a disused sports hall.  I always come out in those psychometric tests as a 'text' person and not an 'images' person, but maybe my increased attempts to broaden my horizons are proving to be an instant success!

Happy 4th!

Patriotic buttons by ThisOnesMineDesigns on Etsy

I thought I'd help celebrate what I just heard described as 'the day the UK and America had a break-up' by doing the blog equivalent of 'drunk-dialing' to reminisce about old times.  Sorry for the lack of photos - you'll have to go clicky on the links.

Here's the first half of a list of my top ten places to visit in the States, and why I like them...

Fannette Island

I took an afternoon cruise around Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe back in July 1999, and was told about an English eccentric who built a castle on the island and had her butler row her out there every day to take afternoon tea.

With a little investigation, this lovely vignette turns out to be somewhere on the scale between borderline and absolute CLAPTRAP but it's a great story and the real information behind the place is just as interesting.

Lake Tahoe is on the border between Nevada and California, and my friend Jo and I were actually there to see Tom Jones. We weren't disappointed! Although the flight into town from Las Vegas, over the mountains in a single engine plane, was pretty hairy.

Lost River Caves, near Bowling Green

Apart from playing a key role in the American Civil War, and also being the rumoured hideout of outlaws like Jesse James, the best thing about this place is the fact that it was used as an underground (literally and perhaps figuratively) nightclub back in the 1930s. A bar area is hewn into the rock and there's a substantial dancefloor area too. Our tour guide when we visited (me and Jo again, but this time in July 2007) told us that the advent of air conditioning alongside laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol did for the bar in the end, but it's great that it's been restored and kept so well - a really interesting day out.

The Intersection of 1st and 1st, East Village, New York

Before I even noticed this wonderful hidden gem, this particular intersection has some great memories for me. These are mainly to do with shrugging off hangovers on the way to the 2AV station to catch the ever-useful F train, drinking coffee outside in snow or heat to wake me up for a day's shopping or sightseeing or trying to fortify myself for a day out with family! It's just around the corner from the storefront radio station, EVR.com where you can see Mark Ronson, Andy Rourke and other well-known musicians broadcasting all day every day. I've spotted everyone from Moby to Chris Klein and overheard all sorts of bizarre conversations right here - 'you've lived in New York your whole life and you never ate felafel? We're going for felafel RIGHT NOW' - three club kids heading into SoHo at 6.30am, presumably heading for home but with breakfast first. I also had to chuckle to myself as I overheard a girl chatting to her dachshund, Nathan - great name for a sausage dog! And you know where the F train goes... Coney Island! I think that's synchronicity (or something...)

Mount Hood, Oregon

I think I've probably mentioned this place to everyone I know at least one time too many, now, but I can't recommend it highly enough! On our honeymoon, the husband and I drove up the first 6000ft of the mountain, as I'd heard about the brunch at Timberline Lodge on the internet and wanted to give it a try. As soon as we arrived, we changed our plans, we were going to stay! After the super-helpful reception staff gave us a mini-tour of the rooms available that night, we splashed out on a lovely little room near the bar bwah ha ha. Best spur of the moment decision ever. The scenery, the facilities (outdoor swimming pool!), the staff, the restaurant, the bar, the brunch (wow, the the bloody mary here is excellent), the history (and I'm not just talking about the exterior shots for The Shining, or Roosevelt's visit in the 30s) and if I hadn't pretty much ruled skiiing out of my life when I realised quite how accident prone I am without the added bonuses of snow and sheer drops, I'm sure I'd love the outdoor pursuits available almost year round, too.

Roosevelt Island
Okay, so like many of my working days in midtown, I'm back to the F train. I spent New Year's Day 2006 exploring Roosevelt Island with my cousin and his wife (who just had a baby daughter on Monday - hooray!). All of us had worked in midtown only blocks from the island, but none of us had ever made the trip across on the tram (or cable cars, as I would call them). At that time, gentrification was just beginning, and new apartment buildings were springing up or being sold off plan. We walked a full circuit of the manmade island, and managed to spy plenty of cool sights, like an abandoned and empty swimming pool (this photo by Alex Guidouk is so much better than the one I took), the former hospital at the south end of the island that was used in the creepy Dark Water movie, and even managed to fit in some time for delicious lemon meringue at a diner, yum yum.

So those are my first five....

More to come!

Maggie Rabbit

Life is a bit hectic right now so it's very rare I get to sit down and actually make anything for the sheer love of crafting these days.

So I treated myself recently to the Maggie Rabbit pattern over at Posie gets Cozy, mainly because I hadn't finished a project for Amelia in ages - the rug and the quilt are STILL on the go - and I wanted a little quick win that would help me use up some of my fabric stash in the process.

I'm not sure what's going on with her ears here, but they are lined in blue and grey dotty fabric, which co-ordinates perfectly with her skirt

Downloading the pattern made it even quicker to get started, although I did wait a couple of days for some felt yardage I ordered on eBay - I didn't have quite enough of the same colour to make all the rabbit parts.  Now I have enough for several rabbits but that is no bad thing - there is a family baby being delivered AS I WRITE which is super-exciting and of course will require lots of gift-giving opportunities.

Anyway, I cut out the pieces for the rabbit in about half an hour, then sewed them up over the course of 3 one-hour train commutes - although if I'd remembered my scissors on the first day it would have been a bit more productive.

I hadn't had time to actually get the sewing machine out and set up for months, and we had a bit of a false start on Sunday morning, when I finally decided that the rabbit needed more than a single pair of boots (one of which has been lost for the last two weeks, anyway) to keep her warm.  Thank you to everyone who gave me technical support over Facebook - I think it was down to the fact I was sewing with denim - it was pretty lightweight denim but still.  So by the time I got the sewing machine out and ready to go, I wanted a bit more of a challenge and decided to have a go at adapting this skirt pattern by House on Hill Road.  I want to make a not-quite-as-twirly version for Amelia, so I took the opportunity to test my maths, but in miniature.

Maggie seems to have a bubble skirt effect going on, but I think that's partly down to the stiffness of the denim as well as the shortened main pieces of the skirt.  I'm looking forward to showing you the results of the child size skirt as soon as I get another chance to sew - and hopefully this side of Christmas!

Eating from our garden

Slightly scattergun approach to radish planting effected by child making run for front drive

We've had nearly two whole weeks of sun tan weather here, what a difference it makes to our life at home.  Our garden has been fairly neglected since we moved in, but after knocking down a dilapidated shed, moving MANY barrowfuls of pebbles, digging up lots of old paving slabs, a full carpet, miles of plastic sheeting (maybe an exaggeration) and making do with only plastic troughs for our (eventually drowned) home grown food last year, this summer we are on track for a much improved outdoor space.

We're not there yet, as the mound of pebbles where the shed used to be will tell you, but since last Friday we've been eating from our garden with the first few crops of radish.  Next job is making the shed we're keeping a bit less friendly to woodlice and wasps, replacing its roof and if I can convince the husband, painting it in some pretentious National Trust colour.  I want sage green with beige accents but I'm fairly certain I'll be getting Creosote and told to like it.  Hey ho.

So only the radish came from the garden, and the child only ate a babybel and some ham but it's a start

Oregon honeymoon flashback

Happening right now on the Posie Gets Cozy blog.  A visual feast, if you like rain and lush green trees, interesting buildings and well-used solid wooden tables.  And knitting.  There's always lots of knitting.

Calling all stationery fans

I'm in love with this website, LagomDesign.co.uk 

I want ALL the cards.  Sigh.  At just £1.20 each, I think I can indulge myself a little.

Here are my favourites, in no particular order:

Tiger card


Sausage dog card



London card