Beating the January Blues

Ah January! That dark month where, as I type it’s a mix of rain and sleet that’s hitting my windows. I often lose my creative mojo in January so this year I’ve been trying some new things in the hope it’ll inspire me for new projects.

The first was making jewellery which I’ve never tried before. My sister and her family gave me a voucher for a Swarovski crystal jewellery workshop at Ninvai on Hope Street, Glasgow.

It was the last day of my Christmas holidays and I wanted to make it a fun day. By coincidence Nadine who takes the class (& is also a reiki master) was downstairs which meant I didn’t have to find her room.

On her table was a wonderful array of beads and while she talked me through the morning I picked out the beads I wanted. Several mugs of tea, a cupcake and a lot of concentration on my part I had a set of necklace, bracelet and earrings to take home and wear with pride.

As it’s also the time of year to get cosy I thought I’d give circular knitting a go. In the past it’s always baffled me but with an hours tuition form Ashley at Make It Glasgow I’ve started to crack it and I’m almost finished making a small cowl.

I’ve also been getting on with my drop spinning. I’ve now made my first skein of wool which I just need to set then it’s ready to knit.

Fancy some Shewin n Bletherin this Saturday?

That’s right we’re back!

If you’ve got a hand sewing project you’ve been meaning to finish or are starting a new project why not make a resolution to crack on with it starting this Saturday.

We meet every Saturday from 11am to 1.30pm at Make It Glasgow in the Merchant City for a cuppa tea, chat and of course a lot of sewing. So, if you’ve got an unfinished quilt, want to practice your embroidery or are even making a toy why not pop along and say hello.

Here’s my original blog post about Shewin’n'Bletherin if you want to know more.

Hope to see you on Saturday.

The Christmas Curiosity Box

As you know I took part in the first Curiosity Project, well I had so much fun with it I decided to take part in their Christmas Project.

To recap the idea is to fill a box with goodies up to the value of £25 and send it to an unnamed person. This time we were told their sex and given a wee blurb about them. My recipient told me that she is ” a photographer, love all things photography, anything vintage, and Christmas is my most favourite time of the year”. Perfect!

I set about collecting some items I thought she’d like

The box I sent included:
• a disposable camera that I challenged her to use once or twice a day over the Christmas holidays. I thought it would be fun for her to go old school and have to wait to see the results;
• a wee photo album that I covered with fab fabric from Spoonflower. It was touch & go whether the fabric would arrive on time;
A red wooden candleholder and glass Christmas tree decoration with Santa on in from Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s shop;
• an egg cup (that looks a bit like me – haha) & wooden decoration from Pierre et Coco; and last but definitely one of my favourite finds
• a print of retro cameras by Lola’s Room which should inspire her to keep taking photos.
Fingers crossed she likes them.

This time it wasn’t a direct swap and I’d just said I lived in the city but dream of the sea, love handmade and also vintage. Here’s how my curious friend interpreted it:
- A Very She & Him Christmas ~ I’ve been secretly thinking if buying this so very happy
- Scoop: the Little Handbook of Traditional Ice Cream Recipes ~ please let it be summer soon!
- a gorgeous handmade brooch
- an egg cup with seaside scenes on it
- a fridge magnet of deck-chairs possibly on Brighton beach
- a handmade polybag holder ~ something I definitely need
- two wee picture frames ~ think I might put some embroidery work in them
- domino set ~ will play this with my nephew
- bath gloves and a colour changing scrubby ~ showering just got fun!
- a fabulous card of a cheeky wee couple kissing on Brighton beach with the pier in the background
- mini paper bunting recycled from cards ~ think that will stay up all year round
And I loved the pinecones and dried peppers my curious friend added too.

I feel really blessed and will leave you with some pictures and wish you a very Happy Christmas!

Support your local independent retailers

I’ve been meaning to post this for several weeks and something has always got in the way. However there’s still 6 days of shopping left before Christmas and I’m determined to finish this post. So here goes…

It’s been a hard year for all of us and certainly as a maker I’ve struggled but I want to bring some festive cheer your way curtesy of your local independent retailers.

Most will know their suppliers very well and, more importantly know the products. As such they can answer your questions, direct you to the perfect gifts, giving you a personal service in a relaxed atmosphere that makes shopping special and definitely isn’t like shopping in a nondescript shopping centre. They’re also not as expensive as you think they might be!

Living on the Southside of Glasgow the number of interesting independent retailers had sadly decreased until the last couple of years when, I’m pleased to say, they started to make a come back. I’ve decided to concentrate on Shawlands, Glasgow as time (& weather) was against me as I wandered round them (& it made photographing them very difficult!).

Nestled in a former coach house on Abbott Street is Pierrot et Coco, a shop that I think was made for me. The vintage glass cabinets and tables are flowing with beautiful gifts laid put in a style that reminded me of Liberty of London. I especially loved the colourful silk covered bangles, buttons & haberdashery and interesting looking tea that I will have to buy. Even the raven that sits in the corner watching over everyone fits in perfectly. While they work on their website have a look at their blog for more inspiration.

Across Pollokshaws Road, on Skirving Street is an array of lovely boutique shops and a few cafes. Two shops I can recommend are Young’s Interesting Bookshop and Paper Plane.

What can I say about Young’s Interesting Bookshop other than if you love secondhand books & a bit of serendipity then you’ve got to go in. You should also have a look at their Christmas window which is gorgeous – if you can’t get there check out their Facebook page. Did you know they also run the Sherlock Holmes Society in Scotland? Yup, they know how to please.

Paper Plane (don’t forget to go next door to their sister shop too for gorgeous clothes) is just a couple of doors along from Youngs. This is a bright & airy shop where you’re greeted with a smile and it’s always beautifully scented. They have a brilliant range of cards for every occasion and I love the cute range of crockery for children.

At the far end of Kilmarnock Road is Nuala Ashe who has a sister shop in Clarkston both shops are worth a visit. They have wonderful pieces for sale that make a house a home, yummy smelling candles and even a table full of fun items for your Christmas stocking.

With so much choice i could have highlighted other independent shops in Shawlands such as
- Harkins the Jewellers at the arcade who sell lovely amber jewellery & have an excellent engraving/repair service
- Gold Thimble a new fabric& haberdashery I’ve blogged about before and has also started sewing classes.
- a new jewellery shop halfway down Skirving Street I’ve not been able to pop into yet
- Deli 1901 – they’ve beautiful chutneys, teas, wine & homemade food
And how can I forget
- Southside Records for all your new and secondhand musical delights. Vinyl heaven folk folk like me!

So what’s in your area? Any recommendations for me to visit in 2012? I’d be interested to hear about your local retailers and your experiences with them.

Right let’s get this post published & I hope I’ve inspired you to look locally for some last minute gifts.

I’d also like to say that none of the retailers have either paid me to write this blog entry or asked me to do it.

Definitely the last fair of the year

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Ok so Little Birds Market was going to be my last fair in 2011. Well, it was (honest) until I heard about Govan Togethers’ event Reclaiming Christmas. This just sounded such a lovely family day I’ve decided to share a … Continue reading →

A Day in the Life: 17/11/11

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What a day! Things didn’t bode well when, on my way to work, I had to change bus several times as two buses broke down. Door to door I’m only 3 miles from my main job so I was not … Continue reading →

Can I mention the “C” word yet?

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I still feel it’s too early to mention Christmas but as I’ve already done my first Christmas Fair I suppose it’s ok. This year has been pretty crazy for me and because of it I’ve not had time to put … Continue reading →

The Curiosity Project

A wee while ago I heard about an interesting project called The Curiosity Project. As everything is so gloomy at the moment the thought of putting a smile on a random person’s face by sending them a present and yes, receiving a smile in return was irresistible.

Carefully coordinated by Tiffany the idea is to send gift(s) of no greater value than £20 in a box to an unknown person. You then send a picture of your box & its contents to Tiffany and she lets the world know what you received.

I decided to make some items, buy handmade and put in some goodies they can have fun with. The box was bought at a boot sale held by 6th year pupils at a local secondary school.

So here’s what I sent:
Button bobby pin and felt flower brooch by Lucy Jackson Designs
Owl earrings (already wrapped) by Skull & Cross-Stitch
4x postcard illustrations in aid of Shelter by Stina Jones
Knitted flower wrist cuff, lavender filled heart and mini hand bound notebook by me
2x raspberry coloured Harris Tweed fabric
and
A selection of buttons from my stash.

What I got in return was amazing:
Check out the box which was lovingly decoupaged then tied with teal ribbon
Kodak 1950s Brownie 127 camera in original bag (& instructions)
Beautiful antique lace
Handmade felt heart which has the label friendships are made one stitch at a time on the back
A cool pack of postcards depicting buildings in London
A pack of red, white & blue heart-shaped buttons

How lucky am I?

As the boxes are posted by The Curiosity Project I don’t know the name of the person who sent me my parcel but if it was you THANK YOU.

I’m going to take part and in their Christmas project. If you’d like to be a Curiosity Santa too you’ve only got until 7th November to fill in a form. Forms are on their website.

I’m off now to track down some 127 film as the camera works.

A Day in the Life: 31/10/11

Almost missed this round of A Day in the Life. For those of you who don’t know about it it’s when a various bloggers blog about what they got up to on a specific date and one person collates all the entries. This time that person is Marceline.

So…on to Monday…

For me, Mondays are a bit of a day of rest. Not working my main job means I don’t need to have my alarm on – bliss.

This led to a morning of listening to the radio in my pjs while writing a to do list. It ended up rather a scary, long list and as I started to get on with it a text came through from my dad inviting me for lunch. Well, what was a girl to do?

After lunch we had a dawdle around the shops in Shawlands & I bought a mini set of hair straighteners. Also bought my first Christmas present, get me being organised!

There was no way I could go home before popping into Gold Thimble, my local fabric store. Spent an happy hour in there chatting about fabric and trying not to buy all the trims.

Back home I got ready to post my box for The Curiosity Project. Basically a person co-ordinated boxes of goodies being sent around the world. We don’t know who we’ve received the gifts from or who were sending gifts too until the big reveal. I’ll blog about it once I know everyone has their gifts but here’s a sneak preview of the gifts I posted to my recipient today.

The evening was very chilled, no guisers knocked on my door which is good as I’m a bit of a bah humbug about Halloween. I spent the night on the sofa sewing up some arm warmers and uploading my daily Blipfoto entry. As I’ve got a stall at Shawlands Primary School Fair on Thursday the next few nights will see me busily finishing items for it.

Hope you had a fab Halloween, bobbing for apples and scaring children. Don’t forget to go on Marceline’s blog to read the other entries.

B is for bookbinding

As you know I love to learn new skills and tonight I finally learned how to make my own hand bound book.

For ages I’ve been promising myself that I’ll learn how to create my own sketch and notebooks so when the opportunity came up at Make It Glasgow I jumped at the chance.

Bex was a great tutor who gave us lots of tips so we could take this new skill and make more at home. I’ve got lots of ideas now on how to make books to keep my designs in, writing and sketching and I’m thinking about different types of covers too.

If you’re looking for a relaxing class I can highly recommend it.

If you want to see some masters of book binding get yourself to the Glasgow International Artists Bookfair in Glasgow next year. There will be a chance to buy the most amazing handmade books and learn how to make them. Here’s a wee link to their website: http://www.giab.org.uk