My Creative Space - Artists Hangout

I'm going to use My Creative Space today to write about what I did last night :) I went to Artists Hangout and taught people how they could use stuff from around the house to make upcycled gift tags. I think it went well!

This was my view for the evening overlooking the canal - not too shabby eh?

My table at the start of the evening :) I took book pages for people to doodle onto and some other book pages for people who didn't want to draw.

A couple of views of Cafe Cargo where AH is held once a month - this is before it officially opened and it gets much busier later!

And these tags were made by a boy called Jos - he came back to make more later but the headline group were on and the lights were dimmed so I couldn't get more photographs. He was such a polite boy too :)

I did draw quite a few gift tags myself to stock up my shops but didn't get any pics - you know what they look like anyway! Oh and the headline act Harp and a Monkey were fabulous - check out their page!

Linking up with My Creative Spaces today.

Come and see me and make tags :)

Tomorrow evening I will showing people how to use things they have around the house (cereal packets, damaged books and pens) to make upcycled gift tags. It's part of The Artists Hangout that is on every month in Foulridge near Colne.

The Artists Hangout is great and brings together creative people from all disciplines. Tomorrow (30th May at 7.30pm) is a crafty themed night and as well as myself there will be people making paper beads, mosaics, needle felting as well as some live music, poetry and book reading in the performance section. I've been to a couple before and really enjoyed it. It's based upstairs at Cafe Cargo, Warehouse Lane, Foulridge, BB8 7PP. Basically, once you get onto Warehouse Lane keep going until you hit the car park at the end :)

My new daily ritual

I normally have fruit tea every day but I make it in a cup with a bag. Until Matt spotted a Bodum teapot in the charity shop  for £2 that is!

I am experimenting with teabags and the contents of teabags at the moment but I am going to research where to buy loose leaf fruit tea from in the UK - not even sure if it is possible! If anyone knows where I can buy some red fruit loose tea from in the UK then do let me know :)

Around my garden

Some close ups of flowers in my front garden :)

Taken yesterday while the girls were out playing on their bikes in the gorgeous sunshine!

Auction stuff

How the car looks once we have been to the auction :)

Quite a bit of the stuff is bought in job lots so ignore the little baskets full of stuff - they came with the sewing machines. As did the wicker baskety thing. They are now back in the car ready to go to the charity shop!

I am trying to get some of the stuff into Anya's Attic but it just takes so long to photograph, measure and list! I am persevering though as I think Matt and the girls are sick of boxes of stuff everywhere!

So far today.....

.....I have

Sewed a nice pile of business cards

Sewn some more hexipuffs for my quilt

Wondered at the fact that my scrap pile seems to be growing all by itself!

And have wound some more bobbins using my sidewinder - looks like a face doesn't it?

I'm now going to spread a huge pile of mouldy pages around my house in a bid to air them :) Lets hope it works eh?

Yesterday

We went to Sams (the local scrapstore) and I grabbed these wallpaper and fabric books :) Oh and filled a trolley.....

We called at the charity shop on the way back and I got this skirt and fabulous blue flight bag :) I can't decide if I'm going to keep it or put it into the vintage shop.

Matt made this delicious rhubarb, macadamia nut and white chocolate cake for pudding after leek and potato soup that the girls and I made. We were stuffed last night! And even better, the rhubarb and leeks came from my sisters allotment!

I listed two sets of Babar mini envelopes that I made at ballet on Saturday and I have two more sets to list today. Cute aren't they?

I hope today is just as fun!

Video tour of my craft room/studio!

I tidied up the craft room yesterday and while it is tidy I thought I would use my phone to take a video :) It should embed in the post below but if it doesn't then I will add the link to the You Tube video too!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAYYuXMpG8o

Ignore the stupid high pitched voice - not sure what is going on there!

My new motto :)

What do you reckon to my new motto? Do you think it will help me stay motivated? ;)

It certainly worked yesterday as I tidied and cleaned the craft room and hoovered the now visible floor! Go me!

Stickers, get your lovely stickers!

Just like one of my customers has done :) Sophie from Imogen's Imagination (gorgeous hats!) had a stack of old product photographs and didn't want to just get rid of them so she contacted me and asked if I could make stickers from photographs. A test sample was made up using some of my own photographs and yes I could!

I think it's a great idea to use up any old product photographs you have hanging around. It would work equally well with old brochures or other promotional literature.

Now all Sophie has to do is decide how she is going to use her stickers and what to put in the space on her shelf where the photographs used to be! Isn't upcycling great?

Real life alert!

Real life photographs coming up now - avert your eyes if you don't like mess.

The girls craft table - currently filled with plates and craft stuff.

The coffee table

The sofa - yes there is normally crap all over two seats with one space to sit!

Clothes drying (our tumble dryer is broken and it's constantly peeing down outside!)

Clothes pile at the bottom of the stairs.

The dining room - enough said!

Stock boxes from Saltaire :)

Ok so the reason for posting these photographs is that I often get comments about how I manage to do it all - you can see from these that I don't do it all! I can blog (both here and on Cuteable) and make pretty things but the housework tends to fall to the wayside. To be honest neither Matt or I mind but I would like to try and keep it a bit tidier purely so that I don't have to rush around like a mad thing when people are coming round! So my question is, How do you do it all?

Fun in Skipton

The girls had today off school as it was a teacher inset day so we decided to make the most of pretty much everyone else being back at school and head over to Skipton!

The castle :) The 'long drop' i.e. toilet suspended above the river was a big hit as always with the girls!

Girls with a canon!

And 3 more reasons to visit Skipton - the fab little newsagent that sells a huge range of craft magazines including ones from America! Thanks to Sarah aka Ditsy Bird for pointing the way!

A quick hello!

In the form of bullet points (well little lines but they will do!)

- I'm having lots of fun at Saltaire and have one more day to go today. Do come and say hello if you are nearby.

- Here are some slightly dodgy photographs of the bunting on my stall.

- It's made from my gift tags (why didn't I think of it before!) I've had great feedback about it from customers so it will be going into production soon.

- I love my smart phone! I can Tweet and take pictures to my hearts content. At one point yesterday I was chatting via Twitter to a lady who had a stall in the next room! We've been so busy that it's been hard to get away.

-Although I did manage to buy some new things - some as presents and some for me.

-My mini envelopes are doing really well - I had to make some rapidly yesterday as they had all sold!

-Over and out!

Bank Holiday fun!

This Bank Holiday weekend (5th, 6th and 7th May) I will be in Saltaire showing my wares in the gorgeous Victoria Hall along with lots of other makers for the Makers Fair. I will be in the main hall so do pop by and say hello - you will recognise the chickens I'm sure! There is also a huge raft of other events taking place such as Open Houses, childrens activities, Mendhi tattoos etc etc. You can get a full list here.

Saltaire is a lovely place to visit so if you are in the area then do drop by, have a wander round and say hello!