spring clean!

I've finally picked up a needle and thread (and felt) for the first time in MONTHS. Crafting is going to be really important to me when I'm on maternity leave, and the dream is that I'll contribute to the household income when the maternity pay dries up (I think I'm going to take a year off work, half of which will be unpaid) through crafting. I know it'll be tough, so I need to make as much as possible now, so that later in the year all I'll really have to do is list and promote it online. My focus will have to move off craft-fairs onto selling online, although that being said I'd like to squeeze a few in before baby is born.

So, as well as starting some new sewing projects, I've been looking through my existing stock. I took a handful down to testspace pop-up shop at the corn exchange for their final weekend, but most of it is going online. I'm sure many crafters are, like me, trying to have a final push before the end of this financial year.

ALL stock in my etsy shop is 10% off if you use code SPRING at the checkout. Currently listed are items I've already photgraphed, but there'll soon be plenty more added. So it's the perfect time to bag yourself a bargin!

x x x

Spring sprang sprung

top row: stephieD , cabin + cub , orientalfabrics
middle: OhMyCookies , darlingclementine , CircaCeramics
bottom: thebuttercup , blancucha , sweetbeets

the sun is a shining, the birds are a singing, the flowers are a blooming, lets go outside


x x x x x

kitty kats

I've had a little etsy sesh jumping from favourite shops to favourite shops following a trail of ever wierder and odder finds. Two shops in particular have caught my eye...



link : http://www.memonster.etsy.com



link : http://www.schmooks.etsy.com

The second shop (and to some extent the first) reminds me of the series 'I am not an animal', which was a series made by the BBC a few years ago. Steve Coogan did the horse's voice...if that jogs any memories. I'd reccommend it highly...very funny and very silly.



x x x x x x

if you wanna be my lover

top-bottom left-right:

www.raedunn.etsy.com
www.belleandboo.etsy.com
www.emedemarta.etsy.com
www.erinaellis.etsy.com
www.joettamaue.etsy.com
www.ArgyleWhale.etsy.com
www.royaloaker.etsy.com
www.Blueberrypark.etsy.com
www.circaceramics.etsy.com

Happy Valentines Day!

And if anyone's free on valentines day (Saturday) and lives in the Leeds region come along to the Brudenell Social Club where I'll be selling my badges at a special valentines event with games and cake....fun fun fun

x x x x x

my bearded man

My little bearded beauty (Liam) has started selling his photos on etsy...and is already doing so well. I'm so proud! One of his photos has been used on the "news from the craft and style blogosphere" section. WOW! And he's already selling photos like hot-cakes. I'm too happy for him to be jealous.

We're now an etsy couple :) amypanda and liamhenry sitting in a tree s-e-w-i-n-g







linky link: http://www.liamhenry.etsy.com

x x x x

A little Goodness

I've been browsing through my favourites on etsy and just re-discovered alittlegoodness's shop. It's SO GOOD. Lots of cute fabric and sewing books from Japan. And gocco tools. And wooden stamps. I want to move to Japan so so soooo much. I'd buy the sewing books just for the photos of adorable little children looking cute as pie.













link: alittlegoodness.etsy.com

x x x x x

animals

I'm continually surprised and excited by new finds on etsy. www.enna.etsy.com has some really strange and lovely illustrations involving pencil drawn animal-head sketches on coloured cartoon-like bodies. Really unusual and lovely. My favourite is this top doggy in an anorak, I love the colours...







go see/buy at www.enna.etsy.com

x x x x

geographific

As a history graduate I recognise that am a sworn enemy of geographers and all things science or geography-based. And yet the geek in me is drawn to maps, globes, and funny looking weather devices. I'm such a floozy. No sticking power.


Map envelopes and cute pirate notecards from www.presentsforpirates.etsy.com


Globe piggy-bank www.sweetshorn.etsy.com


Embroidered map collage www.selflesh.etsy.com


Cute little badges www.minorthread.etsy.com

x x x x

new fellas

I've added two new brooches to my etsy shop, and have photos of another two I'll be adding in the next couple of days. About bloomin time too.



Go shop!!

www.amypanda.etsy.com

illustrative

I'm still mourning the end of my time surrounded by children's books of all shapes, colours and sizes. It's led to a fascination (read: obsession) with illustrations of various child-friendly kinds.

I'd love to have this on the wall of the nursery of my hypothetical future-child



www.belleandboo.etsy.com

...while reading aloud from this



www.OhMyCookies.etsy.com

...and < tenuous backstory > this



www.ashleyg.etsy.com


the world is a lovely place x

tiny things

I've just become unemployed. I was working at Waterstones in the children's department, but I was just a lowly Christmas temp so my time there has come to a sorry end. I fell in love with so many illustrations and sweet stories in children's books. I feel inspired in so many ways.

And now that I'm unemployed I have time to trawl etsy aimlessly and lusting over things. I've fallen in loooooove with the illustrations in cosas minimas (blancucha's) shop.







I love the colours. I really really really want one on my wall in a black frame. They remind me of Dick Bruna's stuff pre-Miffy for a bookseller. I keep sighing...I love them so!

www.blancucha.etsy.com

xxx

Christmas kitty

This is the cutest thing I've seen all day. He sums up how I want Christmas to look this year. Cute, felt, red and white, and cat-shaped. Tis the season



It's by inkypaws (www.inkypaws.etsy.com)

x x x x x

I just read this essay by David Foster Wallace on the guardian website

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/20/fiction

I'm quite cynical about this type of philisophical writing usually, but he's actually very unassuming and not at all know it all, but at the same time he somehow manages not to cross the line of being annoyingly self depreciating despite clearly deeply questioning how to live his life. And it's all the more sad when you read it within the context of his recent suicide. I've never read anything by him before but I think I will, especially the non-fiction essays. After a quick look at some of his obituaries he sounds like a really interesting guy. I guess that's the point of an obituary though. I think he's the kind of person who'd find the irony of me discovering him through obituaries interesting.

I sold another badge on etsy hurrah! And I've paid to be on a holiday guide blog, more info to follow. I've never paid for any kind of ad before. Is it cheating? I don't think so, I may as well try just the once. Plus it's nice to help out a fellow blogger and lover of all things handmade

Here's a cute little flask set I saw on etsy, makes me long for winter picnics...


(from www.stephieD.etsy.com)

x x x