HandM@de Craft fair - Cambridge

Had a lovely day and the sun came out too :) Lots of chatting to lots of lovely Etsy peeps, quick wander round the normal Saturday market then back to the fair to man the team stall. I also had a quick dash round taking some photos so here they are. Click the photo to go to their online shops - lovely ladies all :)

Handm@de Craft fair - Cambridge, UK - tomorrow

Four of the lovely ladies that I've met through Etsy have organised a craft fair in Cambridge and it's all happening tomorrow. I bottled out of having my own table but the Etsy UK Street Team is having a team stall so I'm popping along to give support and man the stall for a little while. Judging by some of the posts on Twitter and Flickr, there is a fair amount of last minute panicking going on which is one thing I'm not missing after all the stress I gave myself for my initial venture into the world of craft fairs! LOL

I'm just going to enjoy myself - talking, eating and taking sneaky candid shots of all the lovely stalls and stallholders. The doors open at 11am at The Guildhall in central Cambridge, postcode is CB2 3QJ if you want to google map it. If you'd like a preview of some of the sellers, have a peek at their blog here.

Craft Fairs - I must be mad!

As you can see from my previous post, I was prepping for my 1st craft fair. Well, the day before the fair, I went for a job interview - really good timing with all my stuff everywhere, all the last minute bits running through my head and then having to be 'professional' for an hour. It seems I can multitask because I did get the job and started the next Tuesday after the fair.

Anyway, so, how did the fair go? Pretty well I think, for a 1st attempt. I managed to find Debsmuddles' house to pick her up en route which was just as well because she knew the area and got us to the Community Centre on time. We went in and found the lovely Trish from Re:form, one of the organisers of the event and a fellow Etsy seller. Set up didn't take too long because I'd done the sensible thing and had a practise at home the day before.

Then the doors opened and I pasted a smile on my face and prepared to meet my first ever face to face customers. There was a fairly constant flow and after a while, I relaxed and just chatted to anyone who stopped long enough to look. I sold about 30 cards over the course of the day which covered my table fee, fuel and snacks but it was fun so that was OK.

One thing I did discover - people didn't seem to want to rummage or flick through the prints in the basket or the cards in the card stand. But that was OK - I also worked out that neither the basket or the card stand was going to fit in my suitcase for the next craft fair in London anyway!

Photo of me at Handmade, Leigh-on-Sea, courtesy of Reform ©

So I started a new job and had to print a few more cards to replace the sold ones, ready for my next outing to We Make. This time, Debsmuddle came to me and we caught the train together. My case was fine for wheeling around but I hadn't taken into account all the stairs on the Underground and we hadn't checked on maintenance problems. It worked out OK though because the train terminated at Stratford which also has the Central Line tube station - just the one we needed - straight through to Tottenham Court Road. Ten minutes walking later, we found a Starbucks next to the American Church where the fair was being held. Grabbed a coffee and went to set-up.

We Make was organised by a lovely group of ladies who happen to be fellow Etsy sellers so it was with lots of squealing and many air kisses later that we got going. Debs was at the far end of the room from me so I just quietly got on with it. No basket or card stand meant that I had to rethink my display - luckily I had asked for a wall behind me so I blu-tacked a few of my larger prints up there and leant one very large print against the wall from the table. My magnet displays fitted in between and I laid all my cards out on the table.

The carol singing started and the doors opened and we were ready to face the public. I stayed by my stall for a fairly long while before wandering round to see/meet the other sellers. I was really strict with myself and didn't splurge on anything even though I could probably have maxed out my credit card quite easily with all the lovely stuff on sale. I'd also borrowed hubbys' little camera so dashed round to get a few shots - I can't believe I didn't take a shot of my own stall though - I'm hoping someone else may have. so here they are - just a few of the lovely ladies selling at We Make - I haven't put them all here but there are more on my flickr stream if you would like to have a look :)

All in all, a fun day out, meeting lots of lovely Etsy sellers but very tiring and boy, do I know how heavy that suitcase was - here I am two days later and I can still barely lift the kettle, my muscles are aching so bad!

Twitter-ing On ...

So it seems to be the latest fashion over on Etsy to join Twitter - the forums are full of twitter-this and twitter-that threads. They say that apart from being a bit of fun, it's also possible to do a bit of promotion over there so I caved in and joined. I added the widget to my blog too so if you have a peek over there on the right --->, you should see it. If you're on Twitter, drop in say Hi :)

I don't know how long I will last but I'll give it a go and see whether I like it or not. Can't ask for much more than that really can I?

Darn - I'm so slow sometimes! - Giveaway Too :)

I've just popped over to the POE team blog to have a look at some of the fantastic images produced by this talented bunch and spotted this link to a video slideshow on Youtube which the lovely, generous and patient Bill (Houseofsixcats) has put together for our team. I had the email and put it in my to-do folder and then missed the deadline completely! DOH :(

Anyway, there will be more slideshows up coming so now I have to decide which ones to submit. I'm currently on a bit of an abstract/high key kick so I'm thinking Pink Blush and Delicate but my Green Ladies and Three Fishing Boats always seem to get the most reactions - what do you think my lovely readers?

Pop over to my Etsy shop and suggest your two favourites for me to submit for the next slideshow - I'll put all the names in a hat (metaphorically at least!) and the winner will get a 7x5 inch print of each of their 2 suggested prints.

Make sure to leave your contact details, either via a blog link or shop link in your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner. Deadline is midnight Sunday 19th October (wherever you are) and I will post a winner on Monday 20th.

Woo Hoo - I'm in two treasuries today :)

Over in Etsyland that is - a selection of 12 items chosen by an individual (usually with a theme or colour choice) and with the added possibility of that list being chosen for the front page. Both these are gorgeous and a bit different so fingers crossed one of them makes it to the front page!

A big thank you to Flandersfield and Matchstickgirl for including my prints in their selections.

Shout Out for ClaireLaraine :)

This lovely lady is on a one woman mission to highlight all the fabulous UK indie crafters, makers and designers she can find. She has room for advertising and regular features and this week my Etsy mini is on the sidebar :) I've only just started keeping track of my views on Etsy so hopefully I should see a little spike this week - keep your fingers crossed - I could really do with some sales as the outlook on the job front seems to be pretty bleak at the moment :(

So if you like handmade, well crafted items, pop along to ClaireLaraine's blog for her latest 'finds'.

Bang Goes the Diet!

I have a very sweet tooth and when Marmalady got into her fudge making, I was sunk! I bought some vanilla fudge from her a couple of weeks ago and suggested a chocolate version at the same time. Her vanilla fudge is to die for but the chocolate version must be handmade by angels, it is so sublime. I can also highly recommend her fruity flapjacks, her millionaires shortbread and now, she's just listed coconut ice - we are so sunk!

And in the same week, my cake swap goodies arrived from Deepa at LazyGiraffe - another few slices of heavenly chocolate cake-y goodness. Now this didn't last long, once hubby started drooling, it was pretty much a-goner! Just managed to shoot them both before they disappeared although I have to admit, it wasn't just hubby that scoffed them :) LOL

Woohoo! I was featured on a blog :)

One of the lovely photographers on the POE team (Photographers of Etsy) has included my 'Three Boats' photo as one of her picks for todays feature with a theme of Boats :) Pop over to her blog and say hello - or you could pop to her Etsy shop where each 15% of each purchase goes to a childrens charity - lovely Allie, thank you :)

On other news today - You may have noticed a new face over there on the sidebar - that is the new team logo for the Etsy UK Street Team. We are busy getting organised - the new blog is up and the team shop is being revamped.

I've also done something a bit silly (well, sort of) - I've joined in on Project365 over on Flickr and started a new blog to keep track of it. It's a photo a day for 1 year and with my track record, I'm not sure how long I will last! I'm hoping the challenge of picking my camera up everyday will get the ol' juices flowing again and I should certainly manage to shoot some stock while I'm at it (also sadly neglected at the moment).

So, that's it for now - I may be back later as I've been shooting this morning. I haven't actually downloaded them yet so if I get all happy and excited about them, I'll pop back to show you :)

Treasury Madness

Etsy has a feature called a treasury - individuals can put up a page of 12 items (with 4 in reserve) either on a theme or just items they like and it's stays in the lists for 2 to 3 days then expires. It's a form of promotion that is very popular and there is always a mad rush to get one when the window opens (the window opens when the number of treasuries reduce down to a specific number).

Until now, that number was 333 but when I popped in yesterday evening, it was up to 700! It seems there was a technical problem so admin decided to give us some extra spots to play with :)

So I popped into treasury west (a testing area but still functional) and up popped the window so I grabbed a spot. Many people have a list already prepared, just in case but I don't seem to be around at the right time very often so I usually grab one then find stuff to fill it with. This time, I decided to go with photography (now there's a surprise! and based it on my own current favourite, 'Just a Whisper'.

There is some mighty talent on Etsy and especially in the POE team (Photographers of Etsy). We are slowly getting organised to promote photography on Etsy and there is a lot going on behind the scenes. They've recently started a blog to showcase our talents which makes for some good reading if you are 'into' photography or just like looking at fabulous photos.

Life Just Got Busy!

Well, how embarassing! There I was in the last post, congratulating myself on keeping up with the Day2Day theme and promptly missed the next 2 weeks! Oops! Well I do have a good few reasons - straight after that last post, I found out the following week would be my last on my current temporary assignment. Lots of calls to various employment agencies, talking things over with hubby, trying to work out what to do and obviously, a daily photography challenge that didn't rank very high in my priorities.

The week ended quietly after one of the busiest weeks I can remember and the lovely people I have been working with for the last year bought me a huge bouquet of flowers and got me a lovely funny card - one of the noisy ones - which made me jump out of my skin when I opened it!

The following day, I had arranged with the lovely ladies of School House Arts to try to teach them how to photograph their products and projects. I loaded my studio kit into the car, charged camera and laptop batteries and tried to think of everything else that we might need and then set off for a day of playing with my camera. We're all fairly outgoing so although I don't really know them very well, chatting and explaining camera stuff took care of any nerves I had.

Nickie has the most amazing quilted, handpainted, embroidered artwork thingies (not sure of the correct technical term, sorry) I've ever seen, Debs does wonderful things with fabric including little felt doggie brooches, Sharne had a beautiful quilt which she said has a minor imperfection so it just sits in her attic (!!!) and Margaret quilts, patchworks, character dolls and makes bags too. So much talent in one small old village school - and they all managed to get some improvement in their product photos at the end of the day, except Margaret who definitely needs a new camera (are you listening Margarets' hubby?? LOL).

I also showed them some basic photoshop bits that would help once they got home to practice but I've a feeling we were all a bit tired by then so I don't know how much sunk in. I know Debs has been having a go at home, keep going Debs, it just takes a bit of practice :)

So for the last week, I have been at home all day - not lazing around, eating sweeties and watching daytime TV - oh no! My to-do list has grown considerably over the last few weeks so I have been working my way through that.

I've written and submitted 3 blog feature interview questionnaires, ordered new cards and envelopes (square this time), printed 40 mini cards and a pile of bookmarks for promo items, ordered card display stands, designed and ordered new business cards, taken a couple of orders on Etsy (yay!!), started work on my tax return, organised my stock photo records and had lunch with Mum several times.

I've also been working on Technorati ratings and getting links organised for a new project I'm involved with (details coming soon) and for several other things that are going on behind the scenes, as it were.


What I haven't done, is take any photos (of anything), written any blog posts, listed any new items on Etsy, written anything for the UK Etsy Street Team blog, done any housework or tidying, got dressed everyday or done any gardening!

Oh well, nothing has turned up for next week so it looks like I'm going to have to make a start on the housework :( but I have promised myself to get some new photos up on Etsy but also to print a load of cards and re-photograph them for existing listing - good practise for easy listing in future.

Day2Day - wk 7 - Just an Ifit week

What's an Ifit I hear you ask? If it got in front of my lens, it had it's photo taken! Very similar to my ifit meals - if it's in the fridge, throw it in the pan (also known as a sort of stir fry). Also a pretty horrid week all round and to top it off, I have failed to do a photo today so only 4 this week :(

Day 1 - Monday I tried to cook a cake to send to Lazygiraffe over on Etsy. We've been partnered up in a Cake Swap. This is the devastation of my kitchen after cooking AND it wasn't very nice either!

Day 2 - Tuesday and all the neighbourhood starlings decided my roof was the best for a party! I love watching them when they all fly up together but boy, do they make a noise meantime!
Day 3 - Wednesday and the sun came out for a while. This beauty (Red Admiral) was so busy stuffing his face, he didn't take any notice of me or my camera! I have cropped this one quite heavily so you can see his eye and his tongue (proboscis) quite clearly (only if you want to, of course!).

and Day 4, Thursday. Just yesterday morning, I heard a news report that the small tortoiseshell butterfly numbers have dropped 80% since the 1990's. I hadn't seen one all summer then just one day after hearing the report, there were two of them on my buddleia. This poor fellow has a very tatty wing so I'm guessing he's either been attacked by a bird (and got away) or he's an old boy.

So I'm Ecletic...

and apparently, according to one of my collegues, that's what makes me interesting! I had to think about this one and you know something? I think he may be right - about the eclectic thing anyway! How did this comment come about? Well, we were chatting in the office, as you do and someone mentioned something rather offbeat and I had a story to go with it. Later, on a completely different subject, I had another anecdote to add to the conversation and so the day goes on. Not only did he call me ecletic, he also added nerd (very hesitantly though) 'cos I seemed to know stuff about some techie bits too!

If you ask people some simple questions like favourite colour, fav animal, fav author etc. most will have one or two in each category. Me? I have loads of everything which is probably why I find it so hard to make decisions.

My favourite colour? all the purples and lots of the blue/greens especially with a touch of pink thrown in.

Favourite animal? Dolphins, lions, tigers... oh and dogs and owls and whales (you get the idea!)

Favourite author - Anne Maccaffery, David Eddings, Clive Cussler, Colin Forbes, Dean Koontz (depends on my mood)

Favourite music - I like most things from Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly through to Led Zepplin, Meatloaf via Robbie Williams, Pink and Anastacia!

My photography shows this too. I'm still experimenting and learning in the various genres but I have worked out that my best landscapes are mostly flukes whereas I can pull off a lovely flower macro fairly regularly and easily.

So is there a point to this post? Yes! I've worked out at long last what I want to do with this blog or rather what I don't want this blog to be.

I don't want it to be a continuous daily advert for Etsy and its' enticing shops. I don't want it to be all about me and my rather ordinary, mundane daily doings and I definitely don't want it to be full of short waffley posts just for the sake of posting something!

So tonight I'd like to launch my new look IMPROV BLOG :) I'm setting my visitors (that's you!) a challenge - leave me a comment with something offbeat or random to talk about and tomorrow I'll post about that - whatever it may be. The only subjects to be avoided are religion and politics - too many arguments lie in those areas and I don't want to upset or offend anyone.

So get your thinking caps on and set me a challenge :)

New Notecards

Wow, I've been busy this week, hence no posts! It's our financial year end at work so I've been sorting out all the last minute bits and pieces that should have been done already but just haven't had the time! But I finally got a few minutes to myself today and have managed to put up 2 new notecards in my Etsy shop so ta-daaaaa here they are :)

I've got one or two others to list this week but I'm going to keep them for another post in case I run out of inspiration! I need to add a photo of the actual cards to my listings so my task this week is to print and photograph the individual cards - unless I can work some photoshop magic, of course. I bought a pack of wonderfully glossy prescored photocard blanks but I don't really want to print them in case they don't sell. Yes, I know I can use them myself (and I often do) but I'm trying to keep my 'stock' to a minimum and just print to order.


I did think about taking some into work and taking orders but as I'm a temp it seems a bit cheeky! Might have to ask the boss if it would be OK - see what he says. I've also got to design a bit of packaging. At the moment, I just put the card and envelope in a cellophane bag but I want to add an extra bit of paper with my details on - just looks a bit more professional in my opinion.

I've been trying to find a printing company that will print small runs of individual designs. I really don't want 250 of each card - not only will it cost lots of dosh, it's the space requirements too. Moo do individual prints but they actually work out quite expensive, especially if you want to sell them yourself. If you have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate some links/info.

Etsy-versary Competition

Well, I did promise a post about my Etsy-versary coming up on 30th March so here it is! I know lots of Etsians do giveaways or discounts for their anniversary but I wanted to do things a little different. I've also just noticed that this will be my 30th post so in honour of the 30 link between the two - I'm going to run a little competition here and offer a choice of prints or notecards from my Etsy shop to a value of $30 :)

The winner will not be restricted to those images showing in my shop - a quick visit to one of my stock portfolios (I think Lucky Oliver has the largest portfolio) will give a much wider choice or if you'd like one of the watercolours that I've featured in my earlier blog posts - that will be OK too.

Just have a guess what this close-up is a photo of and leave a comment. All the correct commenters will go in a hat/bowl and I will pull a name out. I will contact you to find out what you would like and get your address and we sort everything out from there - oh happy days!

Competition closes Midnight GMT Monday 31st March - this is 5 hours ahead of Etsy time so 7pm Etsy time but I'm not sure about the rest of the world!! :)

New Poll on Photography

I just read a thread about polls over on Etsy and as I've been thinking about it anyway (I do a lot of thinking about things!), I decided to have a go. I found one on Blogflux but couldn't get it to work so came back to a basic blogger one.

I'd love to know what you think - I'm still developing as a photographer and haven't really settled in any one particular genre or style yet. I love photographing animals but opportunities are a bit limited in my area and with my work schedule. I'm also not an early morning person so the thought of getting up and being on the road before dawn is totally alien to me. If I could go on another safari in Kenya, I would be soooo happy - we had amazing luck with our last trip and I got some super shots. I've got more experience now though and better equipment so I would love the chance to do it again.Please leave a vote - it's just a click and will give me some ideas as to which direction to take my shop. As I've mentioned before, the hardest part for me, is deciding which image to list!

Tagged - V2

Yep I got tagged again - Sarah over at BlueBoyGifts / TheBalmShoppe has kindly tagged me and has been waiting for my 7 facts very patiently! I'm useless at this sort of thing - I don't think I'm particularly unusual or have strange hobbies and I've had a very normal upbringing with few major upheavals. But anyway, here's the rules

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


Fact 1 - I cry very easily. I have been known to cry at a part of a 30 second advert on TV. I cried when Baloo died in The Jungle Book (OK, I know he didn't now, but at the time I didn't know) and I was 37 when I watched it for the first time.



Fact 2 - I'm a fence sitter - I can see two sides to most stories and can see loads of options when trying to decide on something. This makes decision making very difficult. When we redesigned our garden (all 30x15 feet of it) I had about 20 different plans in my head and had to leave it to hubby to pick his best bits. That's also part of my problem over at Etsy - I just don't know what photos to list!





Fact 3 - I'm a dabbler - six months into a new hobby I just sort of stop doing it and never go back. I've done cross stitch, knitting and ceramics - bought the equipment and still have loads of bits sitting in boxes in the attic. Photography has been the exception - 5 years down the line and I'm still as hooked as ever.


Fact 4 - I'd love to be more adventurous but as I get older, I'm getting way too sensible. I have parascended off a mountain top and I've abseiled down a 7 storey building (for charity) and I love scuba diving but I never made a parachute jump. Unfortunately, I don't think my back would let me now. I fell down stairs 10 years ago and still occasionally suffer with whiplash type pains and sciatica.

Fact 5 - My best selling photos on stock are mushrooms! Yep, a punnet of lowly button mushrooms in various setups are my biggest moneyspinners. They probably cost me 70p ($1.40) and so far they've earned me in excess of £50 ($100) albeit across 6 stock sites. Wish I could luck out like that a bit more often eh?

Fact 6 - I don't watch movies very often and I hate watching a movie more than once or twice. It's the same with books - I just remember the story too well and can't let myself just enjoy it :(

Fact 7 - This has taken me nearly one and a half hours to write 'cos I'm struggling! :) (yes, and #7 is a bit of a cheat but I'm hungry!!)

Now I know I'm supposed to tag 7 more peeps but I'm pretty new at this blogging lark and I don't really know many peeps yet except the Uk Etsy gals and they've all been tagged so if you read this and fancy doing 7 facts about yourself - go ahead and consider yourself tagged! :) Drop me a comment here and I'll come read your facts, I promise.

Tulip Mania

I've been tagged but as I was tagged a little while ago - I'm taking some time to think about 7 different random facts that may be interesting as opposed to just facts - if you see what I mean! So, what's that got to do with Tulips - well nothing really except both have come from comments on my blog - Yeeee Haaa (insert little happy dance icon here!) I got comments :)

Tulips - Mrs Kwitty left a comment so I wandered over to her blog to have a nosey about and she's blogged about the Cottage Style Street Teams' Tulip challenge. Now I'm not a member of the Cottage Style team but I do have some tulips so I thought I'd share some with you too.


This pink and cream one is a weed - in that it sprouted in a large pot of bright yellow tulips - obviously a wayward bulb from another bag got in there somehow. I was so pleased with this one, I entered it to a national competition. Didn't get anywhere but it was worth a try.


The deep purple/pink one came from a cheap bunch from the garage (gas station to my US friends). I needed something to shoot for a friends birthday card and she loves purple. It's heavily cropped because it had opened fully and was on the verge of dropping petals so there are gaps between the petals at the edges of the photo which I found distracting. The end result is one of my only square photos - I just don't seem to be able to 'do' square formats. I'm working on some panoramics at the moment and having trouble with them too - I'm obviously a rectangular sort of person :)

Hotbed of Talent

Where is this hotbed, I hear you ask - well Etsy Photographers of course! I started putting together a list for a treasury but I never seem to be around at the right time so I thought I'd pop a few here for your delectation and delight :) Today we have just a few gorgeous Monochrome Landscapes - I'd love all of these on my walls but hubby objects when there are more photos than wallspace!



I've also had a play with widening my blog writing space - I just feel that with a photo left or right aligned, it can be difficult to read down the side and it messes with my head so I hope you find this easier on your eyes. Bit of a late night post and dash, I'm afraid but I'm finding there aren't enough hours in the day for everything I have to do, let alone everything I want to do. Ho hum :)

Just a Quickie - part 2!

Following on from my post a few days ago regarding Dianes' watercolours - I've finally found some time to process a few. Here's a couple to give you a taster of what's likely to be coming to my Etsy shop soon.

Over on the right there is a link to some of my stock portfolios - if you can't see something in my shop you fancy - have a look in my stock and let me know - I can always list something for you. I find it very difficult to choose what to list because everybody has different tastes. My stock is a much wider selection - safari animals, flowers and some landscapes as well as portraits, white background objects and other miscellaneous captures although I'm still trying to work out what sells over there as well! LOL