The Saints Summer Street Fair

Well what a day we had! And PHEW was it hot!! With my fair skin I am so surprised I didn't manage to get sunburnt it was a scorcher!!

Well we started the day very early to make sure all the market stalls were set up in the right places and all the stallholders were happy with their stalls. They were and so were we!

Our sellers always seem to be so clever with how they decorate their stall and display their products. I am always so excited to see how they show off the wonderful things they've made and it always suits what they make so well!

So we officially opened at 10am but when you're on a street it pretty much starts as soon as the first customer parts with their money! As far as I could tell that was pretty early because before we knew it the street was heaving with people and I was running around trying to sell raffle tickets for Joel Millerchip's fantastic paintings and signing people up to our mailing list.

I couldn't move around LoveOne for all the people in the shop, it was so busy and lots of people heading to the back garden to get a delicious cream tea from Simpson's Deli. They went down a storm let me tell you! And their brownies
went very well with my evening cup of tea.
So here are some pictures of the stalls and some of their holders.

Check out our facebook for more pics


Jack the Cat. Lucie Ellen. House of Ismay. Kluck and Jess Lucking.

Postcard Sets

New in my shops are these postcard sets. I have four up for grabs at the moment. Two lots of 3 designs in each. £4 a pack.

I'm rather excited as I had them printed up with postcard backs too so you can send them to your friends!

The three designs say "Come For Tea" "I'm Just Having A Brew" and "Have You Heard The News?" all hand drawn by me professionally printed.

They're all in little cellophane packets too which I think is the post exciting part for me!

Visit the shops to take a closer look. Etsy and Folksy

Suffolk New College End of Year Show Part Two

Next student to be featured in my top picks for the Suffolk New College End of Year Show posts is Benjamin Carr.

Ben uses a lot of images he has found and then works on top of them with paint, pen and ink to create a new piece of work with only parts of the previous image still present.

I particularly like his way of using different media and use of collage. His work feels spotaneous, making his sketchbooks interesting viewing because you can see that the marks come so naturally from his pen or paintbrush. What i'm trying to say is Ben's work is clearly born from passion and natural ability and actually not being able to stop making work!


Like Bryony Jones he was a finalist for the Drawing Prize and from these pieces you can see why! I especially love the way he has cut away the top layer of this piece to reveal the paper underneath and used repeat pattern, something I love to do in my own work.

Take a look at Ben's Website for more info, his blog and more work.

Ben was also featured on Brown Paper Bag recently.

Suffolk New College End of Year Show Part One

Last night was the end of year show for the Pre-Degree Foundation Studies and National Diploma Year 2 students at Suffolk New College where I work.

This event proves to be incredibly inspiring and exciting every year because there really is some absolutely outstanding talent on show.

I always take lots of pictures of the work I am particularly keen on and so this year i've decided to blog about the work and the artists I put on my favourites list.

First up is Bryony Jones. Her work is inspired by a journey into space, she came up with designs and screen printed the images until she was happy with the outcome. She then printed a length of fabric with designs layered on top of each other and finally applied rainbow holographic heat transfer foil. Believe me this IS as exciting as it sounds.

As you can see from the photograph she has combined bright and neon colours with the beautiful foil and finally created a pair of hareem trousers and a jacket! For this project she won the award for best Fashion and Textiles project.

I also really loved Bryony's drawing class work for which she was a finalist for the Drawing Prize. I love Bryony's eye for colour and complete fearlessness when it comes to combining colour. It works so well and if you met her you could see her love for colour flows through her as well as her work.

I will highlight another one of this years' students later.

NEW!!!

I've had rather a busy week looking after Milly while she settles in and making things too. So I have come up with some new products, new things always excite me and i'm constantly wanting to expand my product line so hopefully you'll like them and so will other people!

First up is the Pincushion Necklace. I've made many brooches like this and a necklace for myself but never made a necklace to sell. I get a lot of compliments when I wear mine so I thought i'd try one out in my shops and see how it goes.

Next is the Crochet Lover Badge. Available in all the same colours as the Knitter badges but for those who want to show their love for the other wool based activity! I often try to think of ways to expand my badge line to other hobbies and art based things, more on the way I hope!

And finally my favourite of the new additions. The Tea Cup Earrings! Unfortunately I can't model these for you as my ears have very large holes in them but I will try to get someone to do that for me soon. These will be available in all the Tea Cup Badge designs and probably the other random badge designs I conjure up.

Check out my Etsy or Folksy shops for these items. I will be adding them shortly.

Saints Summer Street Fair

On Sunday 27th June St Peters Street in Ipswich will be hosting the first Saints Summer Street Fair as part of the Ip-Art festival. I Make Fun Stuff have gathered together local artists and makers to sell their wares and help prromote the independent shops and businesses on St Peters Street and St Nicholas Street. A thriving part of Ipswich town centre that is often neglected by shoppers using the main street.

The shops and cafes will be open so you can explore these unique places and stalls and find yourself some goodies and tasty food.

Fingers crosses the weather is good for us!!

The Royal Opera House likes tea

Yesterday i had a phone call from my good fries Cathy at LoveOne. She had a man in the shop who was buying her out of my tea cup badges and wanted 15-20 more!! Luckily I was just on my way to the printers to pick up the posters for the Saints Summer Street Fair, which is 2 minutes down the road from the shop.




So off I popped, fresh posters in hand (more about those later) and tins full of badges. After a catch up about fair progress and a good gossip Will Tucket of The Royal Opera House returned to buy 34 tea cup badges and a tea cup necklace! It came to £94.99! All at once! Blam! Here you go! Crikey that was exciting.

I asked him why he wanted that many and he told us about the play he is showing at the new Jerwood Centre, Dance East at the Ipswich Waterfront. It's called "Pleasure's Progress: A tale of sex, wigs, wags and bawds". The tea cups were for his cast members and the necklace for his assistant as a little in joke. In the production the main female character is interrupted by her husband while in bed with her lover and asks him for a cup of tea to distract him! How appropriate my badges were for little favours. Sometimes your work is just in the right place at the right time!

Re-Opened Etsy Shop!

Hang out the bunting I have good news!

I have re-opened my Etsy shop and stocked it full of stuff. In celebration every order for the next week gets a free badge, just state which one you want in the "message to seller" box when you order!

Yay! It's good news!

Cuppa Tea And Cake Etsy Shop

A new arrival

This weekend we added a new member to our previously 2 person family. Her name is Milly.


I've had cats all my life so when Chris and I moved into our own home it was only a matter of time before we added a small feline bundle of fluff to the family. I must say our house really feels like a home now, I'm used to having an animal around to call on for strokes and attention, I used to live with a dog but those animal lovers out there will know there is a big differences between cats and dogs.


Milly settled in really fast, 30 seconds of hiding under a blanket and that was it, we were overwhelmed with purring and rubs with no limb left unattended! She has a lovely habit of rubbing you on the cheek, like a face butt really, very cute and she purrs like a trooper.

So now she's found her feet she's zipping round the house getting into all kinds of mischief and mewing most of the time. She doesn't like not being able to see what you're doing and has to be involved in everything. And when she does snooze, only a lap will do! She's lovely and very cute!

Yum!

Cheese scone triumph.

Booty and Goodies!

Goodness me, I do love vintage finds! We went to our local car boot on Sunday. I think my expectations were a bit high, I haven't been to one in years and I think I had forgotten how much tat people have to sell! Okay okay, I know, "one persons' trash is another persons' treasure" but really, there is so really not nice stuff. We were walking round and I saw a young girl walk past with carrier bags of what looked like interesting stuff and a couple of old leather bags. I said to Chris "I think she's got all the good stuff already" but I shouldn't speak too soon! I managed to get the little leather suitcase in the bottom picture for £3 and a big pile of stamps and embroidery transfers, also for £3. Lovely!


Then on Thursday my friend Cathy of LoveOne and I went out into the Suffolk countryside to find some old furniture for the shop. It was wonderful! We wandered round some shops selling vintage furniture and garden stuff, had a cup of tea and a cheese scone, or a cream tea and managed to get a few goodies. I got that lovely enameled jug with my gorgeous Lupins in that is sitting in our fireplace. Wow I love old stuff!! My eyes glaze over with excitement when it comes to vintage goodies and clothes and furniture. Happy happy days!