Hello March!

Perhaps it's because my birthday sits right in the middle of the month,(and because it's a little on the short side anyway) but February has a habit of whistling right past me, and this year has been no different. But, on the plus side, March is shaping up very nicely indeed!

On  Saturday I'll be taking part in my first fair of the year, at the amazing Camp and Furnace.

The Baltic Arts and Craft Fair before Chrtistmas was a brilliant day, lots of wonderful sellers, brilliant live music, and just a really fantastic atmosphere. I'll be fully stocked with Mother's Day gifts, a basket of half price bargains, and I'll be debuting my new range of Liberty knot jewellery too.

And on Sunday the Made Here shop in the Metquarter are going to be celebrating their First Birthday!

 

A big milestone for this brilliant shop, there's live music,  half price framing on prints all day and there's even going to be cake! If you're in the Liverpool area I really recommend checking it out and supporting your local independents.

Still in Mother's Day mode, Thursday sees me working with Craft Creative again on my sailor tattoo inspired Cushion Workshop.

I'll be showing you how to create your own retro tattoo style design, and teaching you all the stitches you need to adorn your cushion cover, a night out and a gift idea in one! We'll be at Percy Gulliver's Printshop and Social, above the Shipping Forecast, 6:30 - 9:30. All materials and equipment are provided, you don't need any previous experience and you can have a glass of wine while you create! Book tickets by getting in touch with Craft Creative here.

 

And if that isn't enough fun for you there's still Threshold Festival to look forward to! 3 days of live music and events for just £20, from the 8th to the 10th. I can't tell you too much about my involvement in this but if you take a wander round Liverpool's Baltic Triangle next weekend there might be some new additions to the area....

And that's all for now! Do let me know if you get a chance to see any of it, and come and say hi if you're about! Hope you all have a lovely March!

Prize Time!

I promised in my last post that I'd do a giveaway very soon to celebrate reaching 1000 views on my blog. It's getting on for a year since I started this blog, and this coming weekend will be one year since my first ever craft fair, so lots to celebrate. As it stands I'm only 6 likes away from 100 on my Facebook page too so if anyone wants to help me out with that we'll have even more to celebrate!
If that wasn't enough I'm also working on two very exciting new projects with some great small businesses, and the Made-Here pop up shop in Liverpool, through which I sell my work, is relocating to an exciting new location in the city and it's even bigger than before! Could things get any better?

To mark all my good fortune I will be giving away this stripey purse and rosette;

Made in soft cotton ticking in red, and with one of my trademark 'surprising linings' it has a zipper top and a wrist strap for safekeeping of valuables, money, phones, cameras, haberdashery... The rosette is made in red and ecru ticking and isjust the right size for attaching to the pouch, and has a 1" locking brooch pin so you can wear it on your coats, hats, cardis, dress up your pets...

 What do you need to do to win? Just say hello! Leave a comment below, you don't need to follow my blog (but if you'd like to I won't stop you!) Do you also have some good news to share? Share it here,  or just introduce yourself, it's nice to know who I'm talking at to. And I know the prize is a bit female oriented, but don't let that put you off chaps, just think of it as a mother/sister/daughter/girlfriend/wife present you don't need to buy!

In two weeks time I'll put all the commenters names in a hat and draw one out for the winner. Easy!

PS. This giveaway is open to anyone, no matter where in the world you are!

One Of A Kind

  Just thought I'd share my newest creation with you all.

 

It's made from a beautiful screen-printed floral furnishing fabric and is lined is silk duchesse satin. I think it's the most luxurious thing I've ever made!
I've only made one bag with this sort or large frame before, and I wasn't 100% happy with it, but this one has turned out exactly how I wanted.

I love the shape of the bag, and the way the metal complements the colours in the flowers. I had a little of the fabric left too so I made a coin purse to match!

 Both the bag and the purse are available at the Made Here Pop Up shop in Liverpool One, opposite Topshop.

A Quick Word Before I Go

I've been a bit quiet recently, and I'm headed back to the Shire for the Easter weekend, but I promise I'll write a proper post soon!

In the meantime here's a little taster of what I've been working on the last couple of weeks. All these will be available in the Made Here Pop Up Shop in Keys Court, Liverpool One.

A First Time for Everything

When I returned from Oxfordshire 2 weeks ago I was looking forward to an exciting new venture I was to be a part of, and was anticipating some late nights and frantic making to be ready in time. I fully expected to have to juggle this activity with my day job and, with trepidation, rang work on the Sunday for my hours. This is where the weirdness began, as I wasn't on the rota til the following Friday. Eventually I got a few shifts to cover, because as much as I like the thought of a week and half off I also like the idea of getting paid. After these few shifts in work I realised that all was not as it should be and, without going into details, I suspected the worse. Sure enough, the next Monday rolls around, still with no shifts secured for the following week, and I get a phone call from the owner saying he is closing both the cafe's and I no longer have a job.

That folks is the first time I have ever been made redundant. Hopefully it will also be the last. But as I got off the phone to my former boss I wasn't feeling sad, or scared, or even angry (yet). Instead I felt a little twinge of excitement, and as the day wore on and news spread (the first person to ask me about it being my friend in Bristol, who had heard about the closures via SevenStreets) and my colleagues and I exchanged texts and arranged a last get-together my feeling of excitement grew. For the first time in three years I would be able to focus solely on my creative work. Whether this is a financially viable situation remains to be seen and I still have numbers to crunch and phone calls to make, but for the next few weeks it is my only option and I'm pretty bloody excited!

The other First I have experienced this week is the first time I have had my work stocked in a retail outlet. This is the exciting venture I alluded to at the start, and the reason I think I'm feeling so positive about losing my job. The shop is of the pop-up variety, open initially for two months in a busy thoroughfare in Liverpool One, and is only selling locally made work. It's been organised by the team at Made-Here, who's arts markets I've taken part in before, and the shop is beautifully designed and all the work is fantastic. I'm so proud to be a part of it with so many other talented artists.

If you're in the Merseyside area I strongly recommend stopping by and having a look around, there's such great variety of products in there you're bound to find something you love, and you'll be helping independent makers, like myself, to make a living out of something they love.