I am so bad at getting myself to do useful things. I will sit around in the mornings before work literally willing myself to get up and get dressed and won't be able to even stand up. So naturally I'm not the best person at being motivated, but I do get inspired really easily. I'm hoping that if I can keep myself organised for now and inspire myself using moodboards etc, I'll get the energy to do self-motivated projects. There's so much that I want to do - and have to do if I want to get anywhere - so I have to force myself. I've just finished three years of university so I think it's natural for most people to want to relax a bit after that but I know that if I stop, I just won't get started again! I'm not going to be naive and think that I'll do everything that I want to but I have to try at least. Anyway, rants aside here's a few things that brought me to this post. 

This is the first post on my remodelled 'lifestyle' blog - I'll still be writing about illustration but now that I'm no longer a student I wanted this to be a much more personal space for me to blog. It's pretty terrifying that I'm not a student any more and I have to try and find a real job (eek!) but I have to stay inspired and motivated.

The previous Sunday Laura and I went to Vintage Village in Stockport's Victorian market hall. It's such a good quality fair, home to great vintage and craft traders and as always we had a blast! Vintage Village is on the second Sunday of every month and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. This Saturday (23rd) is National Market day so there's going to be a little bit from all the different markets that are offered at the hall, including Vintage Village and The Handmade Market, which I've taken part in before and actually have a table at again this Sunday! So make sure to pop down this weekend for the fun of the fairs.

If you know me, you'll know I love my dog and I've become obsessed with everything to do with dogs, so I went on a little mission at VV to find the best dog themed items.

Despite the fact that deadlines are looming, I stupidly decided it would be a fantastic idea to do a stall at a craft fair today. Okay, admittedly it didn’t go badly except that I didn’t sell any of our D&AD Christmas cards, which I was really disappointed about because it’s sort of last chance before Christmas now. I went to the craft centre on Friday for a portfolio visit but unfortunately Kathryn forgot to set her alarm clock so she wasn’t there when I got there. We arranged to reschedule however because I was busy making things to sell I missed out on an opportunity for another portfolio visit which was very silly of me because I’ve only got one down so far.

The print fair we did a couple of weeks ago and today were quite similar in the way that I think people were mostly looking to buy functional things rather than prints, which is a shame because Carrie-Anne’s prints are really lovely. I made some Christmas tree decorations which did quite well, put out some of my tote bags, key rings and some new headbands but I didn’t sell any of them! I think it’s just a case of trying not to let it get you down too much and keep trying because eventually you’ll find somewhere that is in your demographic. For example, my Christmas tree decorations were sold primarily to small children that were there with their families! So that was sweet.

I’d really like to try having a regular stall at the Stockport market craft fair because if you’re a regular then you can build up a bit of a fandom and spread your name out there more. Although I am kicking myself a little bit now because I have loads of stuff to do, I am glad I did the stall today because it went a little way into figuring out things like this and what to do for the next one and so on!

Below are the images I created as my response to the compound noun 'ice cream man'; the brief we were set by Lord Whitney. I chose Ice cream man as I wanted to do a larger piece related to the small fiddly work I normally do, it was a lot easier to work on a bigger scale as you don't need to worry about every thread being visible. I also chose it because I love to make sweets related work as most of you probably know! I tried to spend as little money as possible to create the costume; I used ironing board underlay felt from Aldi and cardboard boxes that I took from Poundworld! I sewed him together mostly with my sewing machine which took no time at all and hand sewed the rest. The ‘idea’ behind the ice cream man is that Mr. Whippy was once a regular man but his obsession with frozen treats got too much and he became an ice cream! :) I've included some of the 'making of' photos so you can see the progress.

I really enjoyed this brief; it was so much fun if a little embarrassing. I had to get in the costume at one point and I feel the pain of my poor enlisted friends and family that I forced to post in the silly thing. I met some very grumpy shop owners that wouldn’t let me take any pictures (especially in the Arndale!) and some absolutely lovely ones like the nice people of Sivoris. Sivori has a wonderful history, they’re the best known ice-cream men in Manchester and in the 60s they ran an ice cream factory in Levenshulme (about 5 minutes from where I live), an ice cream cafe and over 40 vans. They were so sweet and let me into the storage room where they keep the vans, which are all absolutely beautiful, each one is so unique. It was so much fun to do something different and work quickly on this project. I love the work of LW and after meeting they just made me like them even more! Such lovely ladies and I'm hoping to go to Leeds to visit their studio very soon.

the things I am loving this week:

1. these blogs!

Sew Tara - 'sew' lovely, and full of diy projects!

Giant Dwarf - I absolutely adore Sue Eggen's work.

Rockstar Diaries - the only way to describe this is beautiful. Their lives are beautiful. *sigh*

2. Food. Nothing new there for me but this week I've had loads of delicious delights. (and sometimes for free, yay!)























































































































3. Tattoo designs































I want this so badly. I ache.

4. Doing fun activities!

The Johnny Hannah exhibition this week was lovely, and I'm going to Salford Zine Library and Manchester Craft and Design centre this weekend. Love love.































5. 'Cat films'

This is fabulous. My favourite film + cats.































6. Movember!

Excellent idea, excellent cause. Excellent. All of my moustache bags have sold on etsy this week, which is nice! Going to print some more and hopefully ask the guys over on the Movember website if I can sell them on there, if it's not too late!































7. Making things NOT for uni.

I do have fun with my work, obviously but sometimes it's nice to make something fun just for yourself. ciao for now!

1. DIY!

I've been reading various craft websites with loads of DIY projects, alongside searching for DIY on pinterest, I've also found great sites like Tip Junkie, cut out and keep, and the amazing Design*Sponge. I already own about a zillion sewing books now but if I get an idea of something I want to make in my head, I can just search and voila! So useful :)

Speaking of DIY, I got a better snap of the mittens I made yesterday, if anyone wants some, just bring me a shrunken jumper!































2. These blogs:

Funkytime - again, she does a lot of DIY posts too but she's so very stylish and her house is spectacular - life crush!
My paper crane - we all know about my love for Heidi Kenney, but I love reading her blog and catching up on what she's been up to, she's always making something fun!


3. Learning about cockroaches!

Haha well... not particularly but I am making a plushy cockroach prototype for the Insects project, he's pretty cute so far!

4. Obi

Look at himmmm... good poochy ♥ he was being my sewing mascot yesterday. I'm just like one of those mums that never stops talking about her children...
































5. Soundtracks

I've been listening to a mixture of Camera Obscura, She & Him and Little Joy whilst working this week. Blissful.

Same time next week!

I went to the Great Northern contemporary craft fair on Saturday, and I found it was a really useful and interesting visit. There were lots of makers that I admired the work of, as well as gaining tips about branding and presentation. The only downside I think was that there were 4 rooms in all, so there was quite a lot to process and because it was so busy it was quite overwhelming. I feel like I forgot about a lot of stalls as soon as I had seen them because of the sheer amount of work there was overall!

However, these are some of the crafters I really enjoyed and their amazing work; first off there was Rachel Eardley, who makes a lot of lovely jewellery but I was drawn to the embroidery work on her website, particularly these two pieces. Very simple in nature as she has embroidered just the small biscuit on each but I thought it was very interesting and unusual that she had sewed her work onto vintage napkins! On her website she says; 'already lovingly stitched and crocheted on by their maker, I then use traditional techniques, hand stitching my drawings onto each piece to complement what is already there' lovely!

























































Next is Caroline Kirton. On her website she describes her work as; 'snap shots of how I view teenage life, by observing my daughters and their friends. It is an observation of my relationship with my daughters as they progress through their teenage years, and considers how this relationship is always evolving.' She uses a combination of free machine embroidery and appliqué, and occasionally screen prints her fabric beforehand. I like her unconventional use of patterns and colours, and her stall at the show was lovely, she had used rows of bunting in patterns that matched her work which was a nice touch.






























































Finally, and my absolute favourite of the show, Jennifer Collier. Miss Collier's work is outstanding, she uses found and vintage papers and creates 'fabrics' from them by using techniques such as 'bonding, waxing, trapping and stitching'. She treats the paper as cloth and sews together to create objects such as cameras, sewing machines and tea sets. On her stand she had flyers which was really useful as I took one to remember her name, (for the rest I snapped the names above the stalls on my phone camera, haha!) this is definitely something to consider as not many other makers had thought to do this.





























































Last night I watched Kirstie Allsopp's new program, Handmade Britain. In the program Kirstie hopes to enter craft fairs across the country using contemporary and traditional methods of crafting, and in episode two she entered a few papercraft categories, one of which was titled 'something new from something old', and she made some rings out of damaged vintage books. I thought this was nicely linked to Jennifer's work because she uses something old, like book pages or an atlas to create an interesting decorative household object.

I also employed the 'something new from something old' technique today! I accidentally felted (shrunk) a Christmassy cardigan recently, so I decided to make some mittens with it! It was so easy and only took about an hour, definitely worth it (sorry for the rubbish picture, it was dark by the time I'd finished)