Happy Monday :)

Hope all those who have today off for the bank holiday are having fun and all those who haven't, oh well, hope work is OK!

It's my brother's birthday today so we're having lunch later- salmon, new potatoes, salad and birthday cake :) Happy birthday bro. x

I've been meaning to show you the new photos of my cards I've been taking, they're much improved I think:



All available here

Quick edit, here's a picture of me and the birthday boy out celebrating on Saturday night...

Oh my!

I've just found this artist and felt compelled to blog about her straight away! How beautiful are Catherine Campbell's drawings, collages and dolls? I really want a copy of this print:





1. The Pattern Book badge set, 2. Quiet Please badge set, 3. badges, 4. For It Was a Very Dull Day, 5. The Adventure, 6. spooked..., 7. bird tales... 2, 8. bird tales... 1, 9. some prints..., 10. quiet please..., 11. little pin-up..., 12. little pin-up..., 13. little pin-up..., 14. up in the trees..., 15. paperdoll set - "In the Garden", 16. paperdoll set - "Into the Woods"

You can see more of her work on flickr, etsy and her blog.

UK Etsy gang go mad in York...

14 UK Etsy women, the biggest art department (in the biggest school) ever seen, lamp post graffiti, pub grub, take away, flapjacks, needle felting, screen printing and green and blacks chocolate.


Photos can be seen in full here.

Etsy UK. Photographed & uploaded by Charlotte

New banner!

Do you like it? Updated the one in my etsy shop too.

Used this tutorial to give me some pointers as although I've made a few before, I've never been quite happy with them. I think my new photos help too and a cool font from dafont.com.

Heading off in the morning for a very exciting weekend of craft, wine and green & blacks chocolate with some fellow Etsy UK girls. Back next week with photos and stories! Have a lovely weekend everyone x

Crafty Blogger Interview: Rhian

Here is the first in what I hope to be an ongoing series of interviews with fellow crafty lovelies who also blog. Rhian and I have been friends for around a year now after first meeting in a Craftster journal round robin. We got chatting via our respective blogs and have swapped parcels of hand crafted goodness and lots of emails since then. She is a super-talented and creative lady and I hope you enjoy this interview with her.



When & why did you first start writing a blog?
When I was about 16! It was a livejournal one, and was just another way to document stuff for myself. Three years or so later, my youngest brother died, and I deleted the whole journal – it felt like the memories in there were too much to cope with. I have no regrets about that. A year or so later, I started another one. Then, just recently, I changed to blogger. I use it as just another outlet for self expression really. I don’t view it as wholly a craft blog, fully a scrap blog, it’s just a blog of my world, and that incorporates a lot of “stuff”! That is the story of my blog life so far!

What is the first thing you can remember making?
Oh my goodness, I’ve been making “stuff” forever. When I was a younger teenager I used to help out in a lot of children’s clubs, I would always be organising crafts to do, jewellery, painted pebbles, pine cone men, Christmas decorations, flowers made out of plastic bottles, the list goes on!

What or who is your inspiration when you craft and also when you write?
Wandering around the kiddie section of shops! For real! Maybe that says more about my style and ability than anything ;)
Also: leopard print pants, beautifully decorated cupcakes, piano music, a good photograph, clouds, rain, pretty paper, Sex and The City, adverts, vintage things, fruit tea packaging, odd socks, happy post, paperchase, my friends, fairy lights, teacups, birds soaring in the sky, honesty, travelling, cardboard, vanilla bubble bath…
I get a lot of inspiration from books and music and films. I love them, when I find a book or a film or a song that I love, I will literally read, watch and play it continuously. Some of my favs at the moment have to be:


Crafting for me is a form of therapy, so some days I will just need to get something down on a piece of paper, or I’ll need to sew to make my mind focus on something. There doesn’t necessarily have to be anything that sparks that need off, other than to just do it. The act of creating something, sharing my heart, putting my heart into something is how I manage to ‘do’ my days.

What are your favourite materials to use when crafting?
Felt! Felt all the way. No need for hems! Ha. Always, sequins, lace, ribbon, buttons, and paint. All the pretty things!

What do you listen to when you craft?
So much, but lately a lot of: Leeland, Four Tet, City and Colour, Lotus Child, Ingrid Michaelson, Kate Nash, and also just specific songs like, Whole Wide World by Wreckless Eric, Breathe Me by Sia, On My Bones by Kendall Payne.

What’s the one thing you’ve made that you’re most proud of?
One of the favourite things I remember making was a Birthday gift for a friend. It was a pile of junk CD’s, sanded, painted, pretty things glued on, all kept together with a giant key ring – each CD had a poem by her favourite poet. I loved making that gift. That was made in the days before Sid (my camera) so I didn’t actually get any photos of it.

What other crafty blogs do you read and why should we read them too?
You should definitely read:
The Wish Jar - Keri Smith is one of my favourite illustrators and just all round mind blowingly creative.

Hula Seventy - I’ve been reading this blog for about 2 years. Every one of the posts makes me think, and want to make. Its necessary weekly reading!

Crackers + Honey - Karissa Cove is quite sporadic in her updating, but when she does it is always so adorable. I found her three years ago, and have loved her for three years. She is big time inspiring.

Crafty Mcgee - Pure craft. LOVE IT.

As well as all the links on my blog – which are always an excellent read.

What crafty plans do you have up your sleeve (if they’re not top secret)?
I made this banner a couple of weeks ago:


And have some weird random ideas bouncing around in my head about how this could actually be turned into some kind of charitable blog, event? Maybe simply because I’m working on a whole cupcake series for my etsy, and am on a cupcake overload!

Many thanks to Rhian for agreeing to be interviewed. I hope you all enjoyed it and don't forget to visit her blog, dandelion wishes.

This weekend I...

... made a skirt from a pair of jeans



... and wore it to a lovely pub by the river where we had lunch and a drink




... followed by ice creams on the beach and a lovely walk with the dog




...and finally we had a walk around a picturesque lake.



Hope you all had great weekends lovelies. x

Challenges...

A while ago I posted a link to 101 things in 1001 days. I started writing my list some time ago and I will share it here when I've finished. But one of things on the list was to sign up to Wardrobe Refashion. So here's my pledge:

I Christine pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoated, recylcled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftyness brings! Signed Christine x.

I've mainly signed up because I spend too much on clothes, I have loads of clothes and I haven't made an item of clothing for myself since high school. Should be fun!

Happy Saturday

Hi everyone, hope wherever you are you're enjoying beautiful sunshine like we are today! I've popped inside for a few minutes to cool down and to catch up with my blog reading and to say hello.

I made this card set last week which I really love. I need to set up and take some better photos, unfortunately along with the sun we have quite a strong breeze so I can't take any outdoor photos. Will try and find a sunny spot in the house instead.


Click the photo to go to my etsy store

I meant to say thank you ages ago to Rhi for the Rockin Blogger award she kindly bestowed upon me. Thank you lovely!



I'm going to be really lame and not nominate anyone as I can't decide! But I consider anyone who reads this blog as pretty rockin'!