They're all here!

At last, you can find an updated selection of the Answers on a Postcard series in my Etsy shop. If you'd like to catch up with more than one at once, you can buy yourself a Girl Industries instant zine collection.

Issue 8 is conspicuous in its absence for the time being, I still need to get myself down to the printers to pick up some copies, all in colour!

More exciting zine-related news to come very soon!

A day in the life

It's that time again, Claire has called us to action to produce another Day in the Life post. I took part once before, last February. Catch up with other contributors, Catherine, Marceline and Laura (amongst many others, it's even happening over in Brooklyn) and take part if you like!

3.55am Wake up to hear the battery low alert in the baby monitor. Plug it back in and amble dangerously back to bed. I don't really do half asleep.

6.12am Wake up again, this time it's the baby asking me to nip upstairs and get her. In the universal language of pre-speech infants. Which is loud and irritating so I drag myself out of bed in a bid to make it stop. We settle in bed and I spend the next half an hour keeping her away from my glasses, my iPod, my book and everything else that is on my bedside table.

6.42am I am relieved from crawl-preventing duties by my husband and nip downstairs to make coffee and milk. We have our drinks in bed while we watch all the latest from the Island of Sodor, where the trains are slightly more efficient than Scotrail and make it to their final destination without the use of a bus replacement service. Which was yesterday's special adventure.

7.52am I am showered, breakfasted and dressed in the lovely giraffe t-shirt I bought in Portland, OR on honeymoon (it still fits! it still kind of fits!), by coincidence, Phil has dressed Amelia in her giraffe t-shirt, and we head off to the childminder's farm, where Amelia is spending the day in preparation for my return to work next month.

8.10am I get the weekly shop in at our local supermarket. Included is a big box of Lemsips as me and the husband continue to shake off bad colds. In the middle of summer. I also buy six packs of Stoats porridge bars as I really admire the guy who set the company up in Edinburgh around the time I was graduating and moving on to big retail, and they are reduced to 49p for five flapjacks, with a use by date of September. Result! Interesting fact: we were going to have Stoats bars as our wedding favours if we hadn't found The Other Mousie to make pirate kitties for us instead!

8.40am Unpack the shopping, and a few scooped up random items from the car - including a handknitted baby blanket, and a toy owl I made on Saturday night. Tidy the living room, including putting away random bits of owl for future owl making purposes.

9.05am Race upstairs to get some details on an eBay item I'm selling that finishes in ten minutes, for a last minute question-asker. Race back downstairs to post the details on the listing, just in the nick of time. It is a sample size Clinique lip gloss and it netted me £1.74, from a person with 'giraffe' in their user name. Today is too giraffey by far and it's only just gone 9am.

9.20am I package up 10 items I've sold over the course of the weekend and fill out a proof of posting form. So far my day is incredibly exciting, so I go for a cup of tea and a sit down. I'm knitting a baby blanket for my sister with Rowan Calmer yarn, the same kind of yarn used in the blanket I made for Amelia last year. My new nephew is due to arrive any day so I'm not entirely sure why I started this yesterday and not six months ago but hey ho. It's a big departure for me with bright bold boyish colours, and I enjoy working on the first few stripes as the pattern unfolds.

11am I realise the time and consider leaving the couch. I pick up my laptop and impulse buy two sets of vintage fabric remnants from Etsy seller Rope, that I was eyeing up on Sunday. I make a treasury based around zines and coffee, and wish I could afford to buy all the zines on this list.

11.45am I realise the time and run upstairs to my craft room to finish off the last zine in the Answers on a Postcard series. I format the pages into PDFs and zap them downstairs for my husband to print off on the supercomputer. My printer upstairs needs new ink and I keep forgetting to pick some up.

12.47pm Time to make lunch and maybe dose up on another Lemsip. We're having chicken pasties with mash and gravy. Yum! After we've eaten I tidy up the kitchen and wait for my New York friend Sabrina to phone for a catch up.

2pm I settle down for a bit more knitting and a watch of the newish HBO series Treme. I'm up to the last episode having watched the whole first season in the last four days. It's a great programme and I definitely recommend it. Don't wikipedia it to find out more (like I foolishly did, when trying to check whether the location filming for Davis' hotel job was in a hotel I'd stayed in on one of my few weekend trips to NOLA - later on in the series the same hotel is used again and the front door and signage is shown, and yes it was!), there's a terrible spoiler that kind of ruined part of the series for me. One of my favourite actors (Steve Zahn - one of the cast in my favourite film of all time) is in it, and what's more, he sings! There's a great ensemble cast and separate storylines which occasionally interlink. And there is so much wonderful music in it, you can watch it while you work on a craft project and still get loads of enjoyment from it. If you've been to New Orleans, keep your eyes peeled for great location filming, like Preservation Hall, Cafe du Monde, Pat O'Briens, all the usual places.

3.30pm I start to think about finishing up what I need to do, like collect in the recycling bin (today is collection day and our bin is halfway up the street where the council workers left it), check my email for any more orders to send out, quickly write a new home card (from Dude and Chick) for my sister and her family, who are moving house this week as well as anticipating a new arrival any minute!

5pm and I'm home with the baby. We play in the living room for a while before thinking about dinner. Amelia has already had something at her childminder's house, but me and Phil are having her favourite, asparagus, with our dinner, so she joins us at the highchair with a few pieces of asparagus while we have an early-ish dinner at 6.30pm.

9pm and a bit more knitting later, I catch twenty minutes of a TV documentary about Orthodox Jewish people in my home city, Salford. The accents make me feel a bit homesick and I think about going to bed. Just one more stripe of the blanket before I go up with a night-time bottle for Amelia and hope for everyone to have a full night in their own beds.

Disclaimer: I cheated and wrote about Monday because Tuesday my cold turned into the flu and I thought that 10am napped, 11am drank lemsip, 12noon napped through lunch, 2pm more lemsip and a scone because I couldn't face cooking 4pm napped etc was a bit dull

Flash of inspiration!

I feel like giving something back to celebrate finishing my zine project, Answers on a Postcard! Tell me a surprising fact about you that you are willing to share in a teeny-tiny mini zine. You can even remain anonymous if you email me your fact and TELL ME that you want to remain a mystery contributor.

Or post your comment here so we can all see it! Or send it to @girlindustries on Twitter. Email me your postal address so I can send you a free copy once all the responses are compiled. Katy at girlindustries dot com. Do it!

Pushpin Publishing goes live!

My answers on a postcard zines are now also available from new Glasgow-based zine distro Pushpinzines.co.uk. Pushpin is brought to you by the talented designer behind Asking for Trouble and stocks a range of zines from around the world. There's a section for reader reviews, and I'm hoping readers have kind things to say about my attempts at zine-making!

There's a fab travel section on the website and I immediately ordered up this zine about Portland, OR, where Phil and I spent a few days on honeymoon. If I ever visit again, I think I'll do a ton more research before we go, as we didn't really make the most of the places we could have gone to, and didn't enjoy nearly as many of the microbrewed local craft beers as we should have. We did have the most amazing time at the zoo, though, and my husband got to ride on a yellow school bus for the first time - between the offsite car park and the zoo itself - which was one of his highlights of the whole trip. Yes really. Sigh... Anyway, I digress, but I am looking forward to reading the zine and also posting a review. Hurray!

One of the things that makes Pushpin such a great website is that support is also offered should you want to get into making your own zine. A bespoke service is available, to help you with all the design and layout issues of making a zine, amongst other things which you can ask Marceline all about, or if you just want to dip in a toe, you can invest in Marceline's Let's Make Zines minizine, which is a bargain at just a pound. After being involved in writing, design and making zines for oooh, about 20 years at a guess, there is a wealth of knowledge contained in this little zine. In fact, I defy you not to find something you love on this website. Happy shopping!

Recycling... almost as much fun as upcycling!

After spending the last 12 weeks getting my flat ready to go on the market, I finally have Mondays and Tuesdays free to work on crafty things (and my dissertation, which I'm determined to finish before I go back to work in July). We have a lovely childminder called Tina who will be looking after Amelia when I go back to work and with all the work I needed to do on the flat and our house, it made sense to start her off a couple of days a week now. Especially before that magical time (around 9 months) when separation anxiety is due to set in. Providing I'm not too tired, I also have time to work in the evenings now, so blogging should be back on track, and tweeting, too.

I'm dying to show you what I'm working on today, but the weather outside is terrible, which means the light in here is awful. I have a lot of unfinished projects that I started when I was pregnant and I'm trying to get them done in some kind of order. I also really want to finish off my zine project as I put so much work into it during 2009 and 2010, as did my interviewees, that this really is my top priority. However, I have to work on it on the computer in my craft room, where all the responses are saved and my scanner/printer is set up. It's a little bit too old to be wireless, unfortunately. And my craft room is not exactly in its most hospitable state at the moment, as you'll know from recent posts.

I'm currently of the frame of mind that Mondays will be happy crafting Mondays, and Tuesdays will be slightly more dull home admin/housework, physio and dissertation days. I will see if I manage to stick to that and don't just find myself pottering in the craft room. Our house is finally starting to come together a little bit more, especially as my husband had a week off last week and we managed a trip to IKEA and to get quite a few jobs around the house done. I'm particularly pleased with him for removing the integrated fridge from our kitchen (never worked properly since we moved in) and replacing it with a recycling centre so that a) I don't have to run out in the rain every ten minutes with a used newspaper or food packaging and b) Little Miss Inquisitive can be kept out of the composting caddy once she gets a bit more mobile! What's particularly pleasing is that now we have somewhere to keep our jute and canvas shopping bags, instead of 'wherever they land'.

New things are on their way for the shop, too, we just need a bit more of last weekend's sunshine before I can get things photographed nicely.

Before: After:

All about zines

And the July issue of Answers on a Postcard is here - pick up your copy in my Etsy shop quick sticks!

If you've ever wanted to put together your own zine, but weren't sure where to start, there's a great opportunity to learn the basics and get some pointers on where to find out more taking place in Glasgow this week. Fellow Glasgow Craft Mafia member, and long-time zine maker and collector, Marceline Smith, will be on hand this Sunday to speak about all things ziney. Alongside Jen Collins of Hello Jenuine, at the new-ish Glasgow crafts and art outlet Welcome Home, the zine workshop will take place this coming Sunday, from 2-4pm.

I'm so gutted that I'm too enormous with child to make it along, and hope that Marceline and Jen might consider re-running the session in future. I understand that a zine to accompany the day is being produced as I type, which you should be able to find alongside issues of Answers on a Postcard in the Asking for Trouble Shop.

Of course the quickest way to get involved in making a zine is to join in the with the Answers on a Postcard project. There are four issues remaining, and it's not too late to answer one or more questions in order to take part. All you have to do is drop me an email at katy [at] girlindustries [dot] com - I've skipped the punctuation here to avoid receiving lots of spam email automatically generated by machines - but just chuck an @ and a . in there to get your mail to the right place. Or leave a comment here and I'll be in touch!

Win with Miss Baah

There's a fantastic giveaway taking place over at the blogging home of Answers on a Postcard contributor, Miss Baah.

Based here in Scotland, designer and maker Elspeth has a quirky Etsy shop full of jewellery and handmade purses and pouches. I know what I'd spend my prize money on if I'm lucky enough to win...

This awesome purse with lovely penguins all over it:

And how about this brooch - love the shiny tentacles!

Head over to the blog right now and help make Miss Baah's first giveaway a success - you've got until Monday 2nd August.

Hello new readers!

I'm really excited to have been featured in two different places this week, Popular Crafts magazine, and the blog of Answers on a Postcard zine contributor, and card maker extraordinaire, Konnie Kapow!

Konnie's work is so original and creative, and she's a local Glasgow crafter, too. You can find her interview with me here, and her Etsy and folksy shops are just a click away.

Welcome to all my new readers, no matter how you found me, I hope you'll stick around and say hello.

Answers on a Postcard is here!

Hello everyone! I'm feeling far more chipper today because the latest issue of Answers on a Postcard is in my Etsy shop and ready for sale! This month's question received a huge range of responses, and the burning issue was: crafting and home life, do they always mix? To find out how those of us running a part time or full time crafty enterprise alongside all the demands of keeping your home reasonably ship shape, click through to the Girl Industries Etsy shop to pick up a copy!

We've even got some new contributors this month, in the shape of Frayed at the Edges, who I met for the first time at a notebook-making taster class recently - that's an example of Julie's lovely stiching above - and Laurafallulah, whose floral logo (see below) I first spied on the excellent Bugs and Fishes blog absolutely yonks ago, but still makes me smile every time I see it.

As ever, contributors to the zine can pick up their discounted copy here. You can pick up this month's edition, and any from the last few months that catch your eye, too. Just let me know in the notes to seller bit which ones you'd like - or if you're anything like me - convo me after you hit the big green button and go aaaargh with forgetfulness. Hurrah!

Thanks go to all my readers and contributors for their input and support - this wouldn't be half as much fun if I was just making them for myself! Although I'm kind of nosey like that, so I think I'd probably still do it anyway.

My craft room

I'm hoping to get this in even better shape for the forthcoming Answers on a Postcard crafting space issue, but in the meantime, here's how my attic craft room (complete with ensuite!) is coming along...

I'm hoping to add a sofa bed, eventually, so it can do double-duty as a guest room. And I definitely want to display all my crafty treasures on the walls, too.

Calling all contributors and collaborators

As you know, I'm nearly halfway through the year of Answers on a Postcard zines. It's not too late to join in, or submit more answers, if you have already taken part.

I have an email of the remaining questions, plus some new ones, lined up and ready to go, if you're interested! Drop me a line to katy at girlindustries dot com, or leave me a comment here with your email address and get involved.

The zines have been a great success so far, but I'd love to make the rest of the year bigger and better. As ever, it's a fab opportunity to get your name out there with the rest of the crafty community and those all important customers. And with only ten weeks to go until the patter of tiny feet hits Penman Towers, I'm itching to get organised before I really find out what busy is all about!

And don't forget, as well as being available right now in the Girl Industries Etsy shop, you can also pick up a copy of the zine on special offer over at Asking for Trouble. Until tomorrow, the buy one get one free deal on all of the zines on offer in Marceline's shop means you can pick up one of the zines in the Postcard series and discover something new, too.

Retail therapy

Image courtesy of Spring Chick Designs

I really enjoyed watching last night's episode of Mary, Queen of Shops. I've always been passionate about retail - when I wasn't taping songs off the radio, knitting myself ill-designed jumpers or reading under the covers as a child, I was most likely selling buttons to my unwilling sister, stuffed animals and dolls in my "shop". My first ever job was in a supermarket, and I worked my way up to store manager in 5 years, taking time out to start an MBA in New York, with placements in product development (Blackberry, VOIP technology) and high-end retail (heritage French couture, luxury goods websites). Regular readers will know that I started my first business at the age of 15, designing and selling stationery and making and selling small haberdashery projects -the business went on to win a national Young Enterprise award and, cringe, a computer for my school!

I kind of stepped away from it all for a few years to work in the public sector as I felt that it was a waste of my energies to make other people rich, if I couldn't make a ton of money for myself, I was going to make a little bit of money and try to improve the quality of life for those who needed it most. The ethics of big business and the absence of morality and compassion I'd observed in the board room and management team meetings weren't something I aspired to emulate, or have my name associated with, and I took a step back. And then with the advent of online outlets like Etsy, I realised that I didn't need to keep putting that night class at web design school on the back burner.

So I found myself in business as a homepreneur, but missing the direct social interaction of face to face contact with the customer. So last night's TV show really got me thinking, and like most 'reality' business tv these days (I'm thinking Country House Rescue, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares too), it appears to have a three part formula.

Know your competitors and the wider market
Actively expand your customer base
Trust or nurture your employees' expertise, and empower them to work hard for you

One thing I think the programmes tend to gloss over is that you need to be doing this stuff all the time, not just when you set up shop, or when you get a TV show intervention.

So how would I translate these ideals into actions for the sole trading, non-b&m marketplace?

Identify and maximise your USP - find what sets you apart from your competitors and refine then promote this angle. It could be your unique skills, training or process, the superior quality of your product, your responsiveness to customisation, your packaging, presentation or photography style.

Think laterally about your customer base, and how to draw in the internet equivalent of passing trade. Provide guest posts for blogs which complement but don't compete with, your product or range. Collaborate with people you admire, and be selective about how and where your promote your work.

You are your workforce! Sharpen your skills and stick with what you do well. You can't do everything, but you can network and skill swap as well as buy in the things you need. Remember you wouldn't be expected to do certain things in paid employment without having training or coaching, so don't put unrealistic pressure on yourself to do well at things you haven't done before. I'd be lost without buying in design services and off-site printing, for example. Be your own cheerleader for the stuff you can do well, and don't be scared to reevaluate and even walk away from a product or process that's no longer working out.



For more business advice from successful indie businesses like t-boo, Asking for Trouble, Swirlyarts, and Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics, consider picking up a copy of the latest issue of the Answers on a Postcard zine, where I asked contributors what hard-won advice they'd give themselves, looking back.

Catch up on Answers on a Postcard

Can't get your fix of my zine project while the Girl Industries etsy shop is on vacation? Fear not! AskingforTrouble.org has a great deal on all the zines in her shop at the moment, including your favourite interview zine. The buy one get one free deal is too good to miss, and there are a whole range of good reads in the shop, so if you're up to date with Answers on a Postcard there's still plenty more to treat yourself to.

I'm a big fan of Asking for Trouble designs and products, so hop on over to the shop and pick yourself up something lovely. And a couple of zines, of course! My current favourite (and best recent buy!) is this fantastic volcano tote with an Asking for Trouble illustration over at Zazzle. Luckily the volcano doesn't look like it'll be out of fashion for a long time, and with Fuji threatening to blow its stack later in the year, I'm going to be the best equipped and most trendy shopper at the supermarket for a few months to come!

Image (c) Marceline Smith/Asking For Trouble

Lots of news!

What a busy weekend! We got the keys to our new house on Friday, so I was pretty quiet over the weekend while I cleaned and prepped our new kitchen/diner/living space for painting. Mr P had the luxury of going up the ladders and getting up close and personal with the paint can. In the midst of all the activity, I managed to distribute subscription copies of the latest issue of Answers on a Postcard, which is available for purchase in the zines section of my Etsy shop. Contributors, as ever, can get a copy by clicking here.

I had a good response to my blog contest and now have a collection of new questions to ask contributors. I’ll be writing out to you once I’m all set up in my new attic craft room. Pictures to follow sometime in June when we officially move in, I want to get it just so before I share some photos! The lucky winner of the contest is Bronwyn, with her excellent question "what's your favourite tool/material/supply and how do you use it"

Thank you to everyone who took part, both posting on the blog and by emailing me directly. Bronwyn is a local crafter based in Glasgow and a fellow Glasgow Craft Mafia member. She makes some lovely things from found objects under the temptingly tasty name of Rhubarb Crumble and I’m always envious that she has managed to whip her sewing machine into serious good shape. If you’re already here, I know you’ll appreciate her upcycled treasures, so have a look at her shop on Folksy, and her tutorial-packed blog, too:

Commiserations to Marceline but all is not lost as she wins the pleasure of my company this weekend when we drive out to the countryside to set up stall at a craft fair in the beautiful Botanic Garden at Benmore, on the Argyll Peninsula. If you can’t make it (or want to make a shopping list before you set out), visit Asking for Trouble and Girl Industries to stock up online. Marceline is a huge supporter of the Answers on a Postcard zine and has copies available in her shop. She's currently running a special offer, too, so take a look. Also, now the Icelandic ash cloud is rearing it's gritty grey head again, take a look at the selection of products on Zazzle.com which Marceline has designed. I have a tote bag on its way to me as we speak!

Benmore Open Day & Craft Fair
Benmore Botanic Garden
Free entry to Garden all day, regular trips aboard the Benmore Explorer, guided tours of the garden including the restored Benmore Fernery, Chainsaw Carving and a marquee shall host Tombola, Preserves, Cake & Candy Stall and our annual Craft Fair.

Date: 9 May 2010
Time: 12:00-17:00
More info

This is your last chance to shop Girl Industries in person this summer, as I’m having a baby! All being well, I’ll be back in time for the autumn market season in October, with all the new goodies I’ve been planning for ages, including some brilliant collaboration opportunities with some of my favourite crafters. I have to apologise in advance for any baby-themed shopping features over the next couple of months as I sloooooowly get sucked in to the lovely handmade and very much non-essential baby things on offer around the internets. Between the house move and the new arrival, I’ll be closing my shop periodically from now until September. If you have custom orders for envelopes, please let me know as soon as you can, so I can schedule them around my other commitments. And I’d like to reassure everyone that normal Answers on a Postcard service will continue as planned, with subscribers’ copies out on time and new issues uploaded to the shop every month as usual. Hurray!

Houses

We're off to take a look in Habitat shortly, and have been browsing the Crown website this morning (yes, things sort of changed for the better with the house situation, phew!), so I thought I'd take a quick browse of some fun housy-type things on the internet.

First up, via the popular lifestyle blog A Cup of Jo, this fantastic bedside table:

Not quite a house, but I expect at least one room in our new place will be quite industrious, I'm delighted to see that Pearson Maron have a sale to celebrate their third Etsyversary. And I just had to pick up my own miniature factory what a lovely thing!:

I've been busy starting to make change of address cards using these fantastic and repurposed house stickers from Answers on a Postcard contributor, Swirlyarts. I just hope I can find my address book once we start to unpack!

I was so thrilled when I found the new home stamp at my local Hobbycraft because our new house has three storeys, so it matches perfectly!

The range of non-human houses on Etsy never ceases to amaze me. We can't have birdhouses in our garden because of the furry predators living in our house, but if I could pick one, it'd be this work of art from Reedsbeachbirdhouses - I almost want to move in!

And let's not forget dolls houses - I'm more used to Barbie's pink plastic dreamhouse, so I would have loved to have had a friend with one of these amazing creations from Adobedollhouse's shop instead. What a sense of place and history in this perfect scale model!

Him indoors is really looking forward to having a shed again, so I'd love to invest in one of these mugs for him to take with him while he's doing whatever men do in sheds, from British artist Esther Coombes:





Esther uses ceramic paint and her modern urban illustrations to add new direction and purpose to her charity shop finds. She takes custom orders and I'm really enjoying her style, so maybe she would take a commission for a set based on the front of our house...

I'm off before I get started on decor, wall art and furniture. That's a post for another day!

A little contest...

I'm currently working on putting together the next issue of Answers on a Postcard and thought of a fun little contest. I originally had just over 12 questions to ask the contributors to the series, and some questions have been more popular with our correspondents than others, which means I think I'll have to double up on some issues to make sure my customers are getting lots of answers for their money, every time!

However, this will still leave me with a few additional issues to publish towards the end of the year. Before I write out to current contributors to ask them to think about some new questions, I'd appreciate your help...

Email me at katy (at) girlindustries (dot) com, or leave a comment on this post with your idea of a fun and interesting question to ask. I'll randomly pick an answer from the list to win a prize of a four month subscription (January - April, to help you get caught up) to the zine series, or a refund on your original purchase if you've already bought a subscription.

If I pick your question to be a theme for an issue of the zine, not only will I send you a copy of the issue in question as a little thank you, I'll also credit you as a contributor in the zine and online.

Of course I'm always looking for new contributors to get involved, so email me or leave your email address in the comments here if you haven't answered any questions yet. You get access to the contributor rate for subscriptions and zine issues, and the chance to impart your pearls of wisdom around the world - with copies so far being sent to the US, Europe and all over the UK.

You have until the end of the month, Friday 30 April, to get your thinking caps on, and leave your comments here. I can't wait to hear your questions and comments, so don't be shy!

Hot news about Hatastic!

Chloe Hayward designs chic, wearable and eco-friendly millinery pieces for a range of occasions - going by the name of Hatastic! I first heard about Chloe via Handmade UK and was thrilled when she agreed to answer some questions as part of the Answers on a Postcard zine project.

I'm excited to hear that Hatastic! is making its catwalk debut in the next 24 hours, so if you're in or around London, head on over to Spitalfields to see these beautiful pieces up close and personal. You might even snag some goodies if you're an early bird!

Full details are available on http://www.alternativearts.co.uk/, or hear hot news from the horse's mouth at www.twitter.com/hatastic, and you can snap up your own showstopper just in time for wedding season in the Hatastic folksy shop.

More info:


HATASTIC!
DEBUT AT

ALTERNATIVE FASHION WEEK
19th APRIL 2010

ALTERNATIVE FASHION WEEK
presented by Alternative Arts
19 - 23 APRIL 2010
Spitalfields Traders Market, Crispin Place, Brushfield St, London E1 6AA (Liverpool St Station)

HATASTIC! the home grown label from Surreys own Chloë Haywood (launched in March 2009) has been selected out of hundreds of applications from independent designers, to show her first collection on the catwalk at Alternative Fashion Week on Monday 19th April at 1:15pm at Spitalfields Traders Market accompanied by The Really Tight Corsettes a live contemporary Jazz band.

THE COLLECTION is called RECREATION and as is typical of AFW, original and recycled textiles are a major feature. The collection is 10 headpieces/fascinators made out of old games such as playing cards, jigsaws and even lego!

HATASTIC! a label aware of the environment and therefore is an eclectic range of unique handmade hats, fascinators and hair accessories inspired by the beautiful bits and bobs sourced from remnant boxes and junk shops. Elegant, witty and timeless - everything a hat (and a woman) should be! The bridal range is also incredibly popular. Bespoke service also so COMMISSIONS WELCOME!

ALTERNATIVE FASHION WEEK is where all the best new designers are to be discovered.
It provides a genuine alternative for them to present their work directly to the press, public and the fashion industry. Designers come from all over the UK and other parts of the world including Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Serbia, India.

THE FASHION MARKET that surrounds the catwalk from 11am to 5pm each day is a shopping sensation with stalls selling an exotic range of clothes, textiles and accessories.
Hatastic! will be there all week, and will be able to get a LIMITED EDITION Diamante Domino Hairclip until stocks last.

I hit 100 sales!

Photo: Digital Tech/Flickr

I'm so excited to have reached a milestone with the Girl Industries Etsy shop - 100 sales! I was particularly delighted because it was a subscription to my zine project that ended up being number 100, from an interesting and highly creative local crafty type who has contributed to many of the upcoming issues.

Thank you to all my customers over the past 18 months since I got started. Hopefully this is just the beginning.

Hot off the press

Issue three of Answers on a Postcard is here! This month’s theme is Ultimate Crafting Goals and we have a grand total of 27 contributors. As ever, it’s not too late to take part, so convo me via Etsy or drop me an email (address over to the right, there) if you want to take part.

I’m also accepting suggestions for new questions to go on the list, so post here, or shhhh, keep it a secret and contact me in either way suggested.

A huge thanks to everyone who’s been involved so far, as a customer, contributor, and the many of you who are both! The promised blog features on individual contributors are coming soon…

It's here! February's Answers on a Postcard zine now on sale!

This month's issue has contributions from 23 crafters, including yours truly, from all over the place, and all kinds of crafty disciplines. Well, with the exception of bath and beauty people, so if that's you, get signed up to answer some questions. Just drop me an email to the address on the right, or convo me via my Etsy shop.

If you're a contributor, you can get your copy via this listing, just make sure to specify if it's issue one or two you're after - if you don't leave me a message, I'm sending issue two!

Everyone else, head to the special listing right here. If you prefer to shop in pounds sterling, remember you can pick up a copy from http://www.askingfortrouble.org/

Feedback on this issue so far (from subscription holders) has been very good, and the theme of the issue is crafting rituals, hear all about the routines and processes we go through when we settle down for a bit of crafting.