RoundLondon Gives You Spots

Most of last week was spent hunched over piles of fabric, needle in hand, sewing up new aprons and headpieces in preparation for RoundLondon Gives You Spots at the Queen of Hoxton. And was getting pricked by needles hundreds of times worth it in the end? Well, not really.

While it did encourage me to get off my arse and make tons of new stuff, I really only ended up selling four cards and a couple of brooches during the day itself. And half of that was bought by my dear friend Haryo. The pub was otherwise deathly quiet (well, it wasn't actually quiet as there was a DJ there pounding out music the whole time) - at times, it seemed like there were more people manning the stalls then there were customers.

I'm not blaming the organisers at all, I think they actually did a great job organising and promoting everything. However, being in the Queen of Hoxton for more than seven hours reminded me of why I dislike hanging out in Hoxton in the first place. It's constantly frequented by painfully 'cool', cliquey hipsters who think they're perfectly original and ironic and too beautiful to smile. It's like being back at school all over again, and I hated school the first time.
You guessed it - I was a library geek back in the day. And I loved it.

Anyway, there's nothing original or ironic about dying your hair like Cindy Lauper or wearing a clashing, oversized jumper and skinny jeans. It's all been done before, and much better, by others. Oh, and by the way, 'ironic' doesn't mean what Alanis Morrisette thinks it means. Whew, look who's a ranty-tanty pants today! Sorry about that kids, it's just I always feel so annoyed when I hang around hipsters for any amount of time that I end up wanting to kick things.

Well, let's just look at the pictures, shall we?

I ended up spending most of my takings on these shoes from Rag and Bow.

New headpieces that will be going into the Etsy shop.

The stairwells at the Queen of Hoxton are filled with awesome drawings. This is one of my favourites. It's by Gemma...something. Sorry, I forgot.

End of a long, tiring, hungry day

Fun At The Fete

Eeek! I've been horribly slow at posting lately (no thanks to visitors from overseas, and some 'top secret' work work). All I really want to do today is hide in a dark corner, but I thought I should post a quick update on how the Urban Village Fair last Saturday turned out anyway. My digital camera got commandeered by my tourists for the day, so I didn't manage to get many pictures of the other stalls at the fair.

I've got this rather pathetic photo of the other stalls beside my table, and it was taken so late in the day that about half of the others had already packed up and left. If you squint, you'll be able to see quite a few umbrellas out there. Despite the horrid weather, the day actually turned out be be a success!

The fair was my first one this year, and had heaps of fun! I made enough to cover the cost of the stall (a first! I usually do so badly that I was considering applying for non-profit charity status), met some very lovely crafters, and ate an awesome brownie!

The brownie came by way of the wonderful Cake Collective crew, who also had cute little chocolate hedgehogs, a yummy looking blueberry bundt cake, and some glittery little cupcakes. I had to limit myself to only buying one brownie so I wouldn't - quite literally - eat into my takings for the day.

Cake Collective (left) and loumms (right)

Jo from Kitschcraft also came up for a chat. She makes the sweetest little dollies, and also had lots of brooches and rings with vintage buttons. Lou and Emm from loumms had their stall directly across from mine, and they are two of the sweetest ladies I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Be sure to check out their Etsy shop for gorgeous convertible aprons and Grow Your Own Soup seed packs.

Urban Village Fete

I've been busy over the last fortnight making up heaps of items that will go on sale at the Urban Village Fete this Saturday. It's happening in Peckham (see flyer above for details) and will start from 2pm onwards.

This is going to be the first time I'm doing a stall this year, so I'm pretty excited about it! So excited, in fact, that I've got a huge box filled with stuff ready to go!

I've made up heart buntings, lots of cute little notecards and greeting cards (blank on the inside so you can fill in your own messages), quite a few tardigrade brooches, and I'm spending today making up lots of brooches using scrap yarn and some of my vintage buttons.

If you're in the area this Saturday, do stop by and say 'hi'.

And The Winner Is...

Ana!

Congratulations, your tardigrade brooch will be on it's way to you soon.

Thanks for all the entries for the tardigrade brooch giveaway. If you haven't won this time, don't cry, just keep an eye out for other giveaways I'll be holding in the future!

Tardigrades

Stephen Jay Gould's book of collected essays Dinosaur In A Haystack has been my requisite toilet reading for the last couple of months - which has led to me spending waaaayyyy longer than necessary on the porcelain throne.

This book is also the reason for my current tardigrade obsession. His essay Of Tongue Worms, Velvet Worms and Water Bears features a drawing of a tardigrade (or water bear) shedding it's egg-laden outer cuticle, and is also responisible for sparking my interest in these tiny eight-legged creatures.

So I decided I had to make one.

And one became two.

And two became three! (Very good to know I still retain my elementary grasp of maths.)

They're hanging out on my keyboard now, waiting for me to make more friends to join them. Oh, and if you're wondering why these ones have only 4 legs - it's supposed to be a side-on view, hence the other 4 are hidden.

Once I'm done with the felt ones, I'm off to make a couple of tardigrade softies. Complete with all eight legs.

I'm not too sure what to do with all these little felt tardis, but I might stick a safety pin behind and turn them into brooches so I can attempt to start a tardigrade trend. After all, they've only been waiting for their turn in the spotlight since the Cambrian period.