all ready

I'm sure you are all sick of looking at stuff for the craft fair, so here's some lovely lovely buttons instead.

At last everything is ready for tomorrow. Tagged, priced, labelled, ironed, packaged and tucked up into four large plastic crates.

It's my first craft market so I've no idea what to expect... my lovely friend Julia is coming to help me, so at the very least we will have a giggle and drink lots of tea. Hopefully I'll sell something...

And now I feel the urge to go and paint my short, stubby, needle-pricked and ink-ravaged fingernails dark purple.

Keep everything crossed for me.

the sounds of a quiet house

Today the light is very dim. The earth is moving gradually further and further from our sun and each day will become shorter and shorter over the next five weeks.


This is bad news for people who are wanting to take photographs of bags and accessories... but I have had a go and you will see a few bits and pieces throughout the length of this post.


This week as I've been stitching and snipping, printing and stapling, painting and packing for hours and hours and hours, I've been hugely aware of my senses. For the most part my eyes and hands have been too busy to notice much other than the few square inches in front of me, but my ears and nose have been wide open.

The sounds of the house and the space around us: crows in the tall trees, the wind, the distant traffic, the gentle hum of my laptop, a far-off train, the hiss and click of the iron. The smell of paint and ink and paper, the way each fabric smells different when it's ironed, the bouncing unruliness of polyester ribbon.


And at some point in the day - at least just for a time, because I like the silence too - the comforting tones of the radio, filling the room with stories, plays, odd little programmes about cider or 24-hour shopping, and repeated late-night music shows.


So that's been my week. What are the sounds of your house?

return of the clones

Here, then, are the successful ones, the happy ones, the perfect ones, the ones who are going to be allowed to show off at Quarry Bank Mill craft fair this weekend.

They are celebrating by doing a little circle dance.

If you'd like to come and see them dance, and you are lucky enough to live in Manchester or Cheshire, please pop along:

Quarry Bank Mill Craft Fair
This Saturday and Sunday 15th and 16th November
11am-4pm
£1 adult entry

Quarry Bank Mill and the Styal estate is well worth a visit if you haven't been. There are woods, a winding river with places to play Pooh Sticks, and a fabulous working cotton mill. It's National Trust so the website will tell you more.

Hope to see you there!

meet the family

Shhh... don't let them hear, but despite their cheerful and stoic faces, this poor little family have all been cruelly rejected on grounds of appearance and technical ineptitude.

They are lined up in order of experimentation: I wasted a whole day on this yesterday, each time hoping that this one was the final one, and each time finding problems with the face, the ears, the stuffing hole or the roundedness of their bottoms. Poor little catbears.

Anyway I am pleased to report that some sort of perfection has now been achieved and the new superduper smartypants catbear will be appearing soon at craft markets in the north west of England, sporting a variety of attractive outfits.

I will get him to pose for a photo before he goes.

a frenzy of making and sewing

So far November has been bonkers. I've hardly left my artroom except to eat, sleep, and today, to come to work - a welcome rest. The day after I signed up for Art Every Day Month and the Christmas Ornament Swap I decided it would be nice to do a Christmas craft market this year...

Now the house is overflowing with bags, hearts, tree ornaments, gift tags and pincushions...

Which is nice, but... will there be enough? Will I get everything done in time? Will my family still be alive at the end of next week?

Oh and another thing...

What if nobody buys anything?

corners of my house

Today I'm sitting making embroidered linen hearts for a craft market that I'm doing in ten days' time. Too busy sewing to write very much, so I thought I'd show you some things from my house instead.

holiday ornament swap

I'm excited to have signed up for this:

A brilliantly simple idea hosted by Cake and Pie and Freshly Blended, which, in return for a little making and packaging, should see ten different handmade Christmas ornaments plopping through my letterbox in December!

How lovely is that?

Come and join in!