winner!

Yes, the giveaway is closed and someone had to win in the end. Here's a little video from Teen Wolf, one of my favourite films, to help get the celebratory vibes going.

Wi-i-i-i-i-i-in in the end!

However, there is a little twist in the giveaway's tail... Since the only people who entered (not counting anonymous entries) were loyal readers whose addresses I already have*, the winner is going to be notified by post rather than announced on here. So, thanks for playing along, Lynsey, Claire and Emily, and keep an eye on your letterbox as one of you will be receiving a parcel shortly. Hooray! Who will it be...?

* Please email me if you have moved in the last few months!

giveaway... g-5 and counting!

Meaning you still have five hours (nearly) to enter the giveaway, both here and here, for your chance to win a set of EastEnders notecards and/or two EastEnders lavender bags made by yours truly. All you have to do is leave a comment before midnight. Don't say I didn't give you fair warning!

tie a knot in your handkerchief

Remember to look out for my Dot and Pat embroideries in tonight's Mary Queen Of Shops! It's on BBC2 at 9pm and is apparently another great episode (with or without my stitching). Sadly, I will be at work when it's on, which means you are my eyes! I think, at best, it will be a fleeting background moment (somewhere near the end of the show) so you may have to test your observation skills if you want to spot them... You should also be able to see some of Miso Funky's excellent cross-stitching skills on display, so keep your eyes peeled :)

And remember to enter the giveaway. I've extended the deadline to midnight on Tuesday, so you still have a day and a bit to leave your comment and be in with a chance of winning all four EastEnders notecards (that's Pat, Frank, Dot and Ethel). So far, the entrants have a cracking one in three chance of victory, leaving the field wide open for latecomers. Also closing at midnight on Tuesday is a giveaway of two of my EastEnders lavender hangers over at Miso Funky. You can (and should!) enter both, so no excuses for tardiness! Win, win, win!

it's traditional round these parts...

My first ever blog post was about the Glasgow School of Art degree show. I did go along this year and, although it's a bit late in the day and the show has long since been taken down, I thought I should share a few of the things I saw. It's traditional, you see. I didn't have time to do the whole thing this year, so only visited my three favourite departments - visual communication, jewellery and ceramics. (I don't feel so comfortable in the fine art department when I'm on my own anyway, plus I always get lost in that building!) The fact that I didn't see half the show combined with the fact that I am a bit hungover today, means that this is really going to be a whistle-stop tour. Look. See. Move on. Look. See. Move on. You'll like it that way, I'm sure :)

The very fun display above was by Emily Harding, who does a very nice line in screen-printed book covers.

These rabbits were a small and hardly representative part of Kirsty Gifford's work, but I liked them a lot (and know some rabbit lovers read this blog and might like them too).
Laura McGinlay used wires to write health and safety (ish!) messages about electricty. I love wires - so colourful on the outisde and shiny on the inside!

Paul Allan's flowchart explaining the rules of cricket made me laugh. I thought I knew that I didn't know anything about cricket but it turns out I didn't know the half of what I didn't know. That sentence probably makes as much sense to you as cricket does to me.

I couldn't work out who made this cow, but I applaud their sensible approach to the degree show, making something they can actually use (as shelves) after the show is taken down. All the things in the cow are made from cows. As a vegetarian, I was quite upset to learn that I shouldn't be using Pritt Stick. Pritt Stick is one of my favourite things in the world!

The textiles department had some brilliant stuff in it, but (as usual) photos weren't allowed there. I nicked this picture of Eva Joly's material from craftscotland. You should go and visit Eva's website. Her textiles are so much fun to look at. She uses lots of household objects and great colours, as you can see from the example above. She uses the CMYK process that's usually used in newspaper production to print her patterns. I like the newsprint effect.

The other person I really liked in the textiles department was Emma Shannon, who I can't find anywhere on the old interweb (other than that she has tweeted twice quite a long time ago) so I can't share any pictures or info. She had made textiles with patterns based on tower blocks etc. (she even had an 'I ♥ brutalism' badge pinned to one bit of fabric) and had some really nice papercuts of buildings in her research work. I wish I had sneakily snapped a picture or two because I'd really like to see her work again/be able to show it to you!

This brooch (I think it is a brooch?) by Gillian Harvie was great, though you might not be able to tell in this terrible photo. (It's hard to photograph things in glass cases though. It's not my fault - see the boss!) The long bit of type in the middle says, "This was one of the worst things we did." This reminded me of the long car journeys involved in summer holidays as a child (always to visit my granny in Islay apart from the two times we went to Yorkshire) and the very negative postcards I would send to my friends, even though I was having a good time really.

These beauties are by Victoria Lemon who uses typography in her jewellery, as you can probably work out without me telling you :)

And a (bad photo of) some very eerie work in the ceramics department by Yiru Wang. Gave me the heebie jeebies, this did! There are some better pictures on flickr if you want a closer look.

So, there you go - a spot of culture for you. Hope you enjoyed it :)

adjust your set

I woke up this morning with an idea in my head and headed straight to the craft room, where the idea became a reality! Can you tell what it is? Yes, it's the famous test card girl. The clue was in the title, really!

She is mega tiny (as you can see from this photo) and was a faff and a half to make, I don't mind telling you, but making her has made me very happy :)

I've also been making some other things last night/this morning, though none of them are at the photographable stage yet. My craft table is looking insane, with piles of paper and fabric and glue and pens and scissors and bottle tops and sequins and sewing machines (well, sewing machine - singular!) and buttons... My brain is overloading and I keep zooming from one idea to the next without bothering to clear up in between. So far, this approach is working well for me, but I do wonder if there is a tipping point... This is so much fun, though! Whoopee!

how appropriate!

polish matchbox label
Originally uploaded by maraid

My new crafty direction is not appearing (not that I want it to appear in the space of a week or two - I am hoping to enjoy the process of finding it) and I am still doubting my EastEnders decision, though knowing deep down it is a good one. Today somebody asked me what I made and I found I had nothing concrete to give as an answer, which was a bit scary. Who am I? I've lost my identity, man! Am I even allowed to say how excited I was about Stacey giving birth last night or does that cross the line? (Sorry, but I do just have to say how miraculous it was the the baby really did look like Bradley, even though it's not his baby in the show let alone in real life - as far as we know...) Anyway, after all that doubting, I randomly came across this quote from Andre Gide: "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." Vindicated or what, people?! Ha ha! Not only did it seem very appropriate, it also gave me the perfect opportunity to do a sneaky, cheaty blog post from flickr using yet another matchbox label. Isn't it nice, though?

Other highlights of the day...

*Getting to subtitle an episode of Horrible Histories (it's so good!) and write the following - HE BREAKS WIND TUNEFULLY

*Seeing the end of the very exciting football match between Italy and Slovakia - knowing nothing about football, I just like goals and bad tackles/amateur dramatics, so this was a good few minutes for me!

*The feeling of the dishes being done (though not the act of doing them)

*Messing about with scissors and paper in the craft room, filling a jar with paper triangles - yes, I have a plan...

*Seeing (and hearing!) my cat and the neighbour's cat fighting even though they were separated by a window - comedy genius.

*Finding out that you can (if you look closely) see some of my Albert Square stitches on Monday's episode of Mary Queen Of Shops - I can't wait to see it :)

doof doof (or the end of eastenders)

Hello! Can you believe I have been blogging for exactly two whole years? Well, apparently I have and I thought that seemed like a suitably dramatic moment to announce what is (for me) a big decision.

As the brighter buttons amongst you may have guessed from the title of this post, the big decision is that I'm not going to make any more EastEnders products from now on. For a long while I have been feeling as if I had been drifting down a crafty path that I didn't necessarily want to be on and that the ever expanding EastEnders range was somehow to blame. I'm not sure what exactly tipped the balance, though seeing Handmade Nation and all the enthusiastic and creative people in it who were really good/skilled at what they did certainly helped give me the little nudge I needed.

I feel as though there are so many different crafts that I want to try (and some that I have already tried that I want to explore further) and that I'm not really giving myself the chance to do it because I'm spending so much of the little crafting time I have reproducing the same reliable products, which (once the initial design has been created) don't require that much skill/creativity to make. It has been a hard and scary decision to make and doing a stock take of all the products/saying goodbye to the gang did bring a tear to my eye, but (but!) since I made the decision, I've had more fun crafting/been more creative than I have in years.

It does kind of seem like madness to give up my most reliable sellers (and the thing that most people know me for) but I've had a really good long think about why I make things and, while selling is a thrilling part of it and not something I want to stop doing, the fun of creating is something that I've been missing for a while. I've been telling myself that it doesn't have to be forever and that I could come back to EastEnders once I've got my crafty groove back, but to be honest, I'm hoping (and expecting) that I'll be zooming down so many other fun arty crafty paths that I won't feel the need to come back to EastEnders at all.

So, what does this mean? Well, for one thing, it means that if you've always fancied that Ethel and Willy lavender bag/Pat and Frank notecard set/Dot Cotton embroidery, then you'd better get your skates on, because once they are gone, they are gone, gone and gone, people! I will not be replenishing any items that sell out! Go now and check out the shop!

However, it also means (since I do love my EastEnders range and did want to do something fun to celebrate its passing) that you do have a chance to win a little something. In fact, you have two chances!

If you would like to be in with a chance of winning four EastEnders notecards (one each of Dot, Pat, Frank and Ethel) then leave a comment here on this blog post. You could tell me your favourite doof-doof moment, suggest a new crafty avenue for me to explore, tell me I'm doing the right thing (please!), wish me happy blogaversary or just say hi. One comment will be picked at random at midnight on Monday 28th June Tuesday 29th June and that person will win all four notecards. Don't forget to leave a link to your own website or your email address so that I can contact you if you win!

Or how would you like to win two EastEnders lavender hangers? If so, visit Miso Funky (purveyor of many quality handmade items and the first ever stockist of my EastEnders range) to enter their very special giveaway!

Better still, why not double your chances and enter both giveaways?

Maybe you'll even win twice!

So, here's to another year's blogging and the new and exciting crafty endeavours I'll be able to share in it :)