post market pinks! (the opposite of blues)

I had such a brilliant time at Made In The Shade on Saturday. Here is my stall, all pristine and ready to go before any customers arrived. I was really happy with how it looked. I had laid my wares out on the living room floor for a practice run on Friday night and was really struck by how... cheerful it all looked together. It was nice to see everybody's reactions as they came across my stall: lots of smiles (and laughs) alongside more than a few confused faces! Well, to be fair, I'm not sure why I embroider soap stars either!

Here's a wee close up of the whole stitched Walford gang together.

I made lots of sales and sold at least one of nearly everything on the stall which was really nice. Makes me think I officially have no duff products! Ha! All my new products (I'll share pictures soon) went down a storm and I actually sold out of little red riding hood brooches! I was still sewing pins onto the back of them as the doors to the Lighthouse opened but I'm so glad I managed to get some finished in time. They have been a long time in the making with much experimentation and tweaking to get them to match up with what I had in my head (again, pictures to follow) but I seriously LOVE them and am officially delighted with how they turned out. It was so exciting to see that other people liked them too!

Graham came and helped out on the stall (another gold star for him!) and quite a few friends stopped by. Most exciting of all, my mum and dad made a surprise appearance! They had travelled all the way from Elgin just to see my little stall. How sweet are they? They took Graham and I out for a lovely dinner afterwards and stayed for the rest of the weekend. I can't believe they kept it all top secret :)

So, all in all, a top day! My head is buzzing with ideas (some new ideas and some tweaks on old ideas) and I'm really hoping I'll get to do more markets soon. Come on, Christmas, do your worst! I'll be ready for ya!

Made In The Shade! 12 hours to go!

Originally uploaded by We Are Made In The Shade

Don't forget to come along to Made in the Shade if you are in the Glasgow area tomorrow. I am so far from ready it's not funny but I have bagged myself a glamorous assistant (for the second half of the day, anyway) so at least I won't have to be embarrassed on my own if I don't manage to get it together in time! I've still got a million things on the go but nothing that's finished. I'm wandering from room to room juggling various things and generally making a huge mess. I think I may have been over ambitious... Right, better go and do some damage limitation/get organised. Wish me luck!

all about the schedule

1. You're the Salt in my Stew,, 2. The Man From Another Place, 3. Drink me!, 4. Feist "The Reminder" album cover, 5. Untitled, 6. Untitled, 7. stamped, 8. 10,000 Foxes, 9. mice potatoes, 10. House embroidery, 11. Hoops on Display, 12. Fair isle love, 13. 4_tree_pillows_090809, 14. skull and cross bones vintage buttons, 15. New bird pin, 16. on the beach

Eep! Two sleeps til made in the shade and I am WAY behind schedule. I've also been dealt a vicious blow in relation to my embroideries - the frames I use have been... DISCONTINUED! So now I am having to reschedule the schedule and make an unscheduled trip to ikea to investigate alternatives. My schedule!! I'm still finding the time to go for a late breakfast in Jaconelli's today though. Yippee! Eggs, chips and beans!

In the absence of available time to take photographs (and the seeming absence of progress to photograph, even though I have been a slave to craft, I swear) please enjoy perusing my latest flickr favourites.

yee ha!

After much deliberation over how to spell 'yee ha!' (yea ha? yee-ha?) I made this little horse embroidery last night. The fabric is maybe my favourite fabric ever (I bought it to make tiny cupcakes) and I have only got a teeny piece left. It was fun to make an embroidery that didn't take all day, just the duration of the X Factor, pretty much. Well, an X Factor and a half maybe! Not that I was watching the X Factor, oh no...

If I make any more of these, I think I will take them to market. Yee ha!

missing presumed sewing

Originally uploaded by Tom Messenger

This picture has nothing to do with anything really but I realised I hadn't blogged in almost a week and wanted to pop in and say hello. It's too dark to take photos tonight (my flat has VERY high ceilings with a super dim energy efficient light bulb only if you are lucky!) so I decided to go with my most recent favourite on flickr instead. Isn't it great? I originally found Tom Messenger via grain edit, which is where I find out about many things I end up favouriting.

My absence from the old blog (I actually had no idea I had been away so long) has been due to a flurry of crafty activity, mostly sewing. I went on a three day long Eastenders sewing rampage (a rampage, I tells ya!) which has given me less than a handful of Eastenders portraits... Oh well, at least they look good, if I do say so myself :) I think my stitching is going from strength to strength (go me!) but just is not getting any faster unfortunately. Oh for the day when I can charge a price/sew at a pace that gives me an hourly rate close to half the minimum wage! Ha! Yesterday I gave my eyes and fingers a break and made a zillion (yes, that is correct, a zillion) vintage recipe cards, redesigned their label (looking goo-oo-ood!) and packaged them all up. Today I sewed vintage buttons onto cards and made a good deal of progress towards doing something exciting with my teeny tiny red riding hoods. I am so excited about that and am hoping it will all be done within the next week. There's a fair bit of waiting for things to dry but I guarantee I'll be sharing photos as soon as they're finished because I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty excited about them. Yippee!

Why this flurry of crafty business? Well, firstly, I have a stall at Made in the Shade in just seven days time and I am not at all as prepared as I had hoped to be. I am very scared but also really excited as I have always loved being a customer at Made in the Shade and it IS going ahead in the Lighthouse after all (Saturday 26th September, 10.30-5, please come!). This all feels very pro crafter to me! Secondly, I won the most amazing prize of a year's free shopify shop, courtesy of the wonder that is Super Cute Kawaii! How brilliant is that? So pretty soon I will have two (or maybe even more... mysterious...) online shops. My next goal is to have people buy things from them. Ha!

I am going to try to stay productive in the run up to the market so I may not be blogging as much as usual but I'll try to share projects as I finish them. I'll just have to try to remember to take photos before the daylight fades!

anyone in need of a used car?

Yes, it's the late, great Frank Butcher. It was tough deciding whether to put him in his polo neck and jumper or in his bow tie and birthday suit, both classic Frank looks! I opted for the child friendly version in the end. Frank is the first male character I've managed to draw. I have tried a few others but they were frankly (boom boom!) unrecognisable. I'm pretty pleased with how ladies' man Frank turned out though. He's not staying in this frame, which is why he looks a bit blotchy in these photos - the edges of the material are all bumphled up behind him just now. He will be getting tidied up and transfered to a navy frame (to match his true love, Pat!) once it arrives in the post.

Still on the subject of Eastenders/embroidery, my Dot Cotton embroidery was featured on the fab Cuteable today. Yay! Thanks, Lynsey!

has anyone seen my willy?

Here he is! I've been wanting to do this embroidered portrait for the longest time.

Here's his owner. Anyone recognise her? She was the second character created for Eastenders and was in it from day one, as was her dog, who was meant to be a yorkshire terrier but was replaced by a pug with greater acting prowess at the last minute.

Together forever, Ethel and her little Willy.