Goodies

I have had some wonderful finds recently in my local charity shops and at the I Make Fun Stuff Craft Market.

This bright red leather holdall was from my dear friend Wendy Ashby who had a stall at the market selling off all the things she's collected over the years! Had I been paid I would've bought so much more from her! I also bought a cut glass necklace and two teacups and a saucer which are sitting on my mantlepiece making

our front room look very much like the 1940s.

I got the beryl green teacups in a local charity shop, they were quite a find as I bought a pint jug the same from my friend Cathy's shop LoveOne a few weeks before and had been looking at this style of crockery on ebay. I popped in the charity shop one lunch time and found 11 teacups and saucers, 5 side plates and 5 bowls! All for £4! What a bargain.

And finally i got the granny blanket looking lovely on our old trunk and the rectangular dish in the above picture yesterday, more charity shop finds! I am really enjoying trawling for vintage goodies lately.

Happy days!

I Make Fun Stuff Craft Market Number Two

TAKE TWO!!!

This second market was bigger and better than the one before!! We had 10 stall holders at the first market back in November and this time we had 27!

Check out our website I Make Fun Stuff for links to the sellers Just click on the link at the top marked "friends"

And what wonderful things they had to offer our customers and other stallholders! Everyone was set up and the first customers were the

stallholders themselves popping around to look at other people's wares!

We had a great day with lots of friendly faces coming to explore and spend their money and loads of faces we didn't know coming to the market for the first time and loving it!

We've had some great feedback on our facebook page and our twitter too. Check out the facebook page for loads more photos of each of the stalls and their gorgeous products.

We also had a fab DJ, Andy Mortimer who runs the Uprock club night here in Ipswich. It really made a great difference to the atmosphere. We hope all our sellers had a successful and enjoyable day and we look forward to seeing them again and dearly hope they will come back to us again for another market.

Back to Crochet

This is the project I currently can’t put down. I have a habit of going from one project to another without finishing the first. I had a phase of knitting this time last year for several months, and then I ran out of steam leaving a nearly completed tea cosy sitting on the side waiting to be finished. I picked it up again the other day, but then I got inspired to crochet a big granny blanket to wear like a big chunky scarf. So I picked up a granny square i’d started months ago with the intention of making into a blanket of several squares (here we go again!!) and off I went. I’ve added several rows to it since in any spare moment I get. It’s looking good but is nowhere near the size I want it to be. With my claw like hand I will plough on! Though I suspect it will be too warm to wear by the time i’ve finished it. I do hope I don’t get tired of it before I finish.

Julie Verhoeven for H&M Home

I've loved Julie Verhoeven for years now, every since Creative Review magazine did a big poster of her illustrations as a pull out back in 2000 I think it was.

Now, imagine my delight when picking up the free magazine in H&M with these images in! WOW!! And then disappointment....

They are only available in H&M Home stores in Europe!!! WHAT?!

Do I have any lovely readers who can get me a bag?? I can paypal you the money but I would be very grateful friendly blog readers.

I will be in your debt!

Paper and Colour and Shapes

I am subconsciously drawn to shapes. Usually circles, I find myself drawing circles, cutting out circles, sewing circles. Especially when creating work I haven't planned.

I gave up planning work a long time ago when I finally gave in and realised that what I imagine will never be how it will end up. It is a lot more free and there is no anxiety anymore.

I have recently been working on small 8.5cm squares after being inspired by the Van Doesburg exhibition at the Tate Modern. All those geometric shapes and limited colour palettes really got my brain going in overdrive!

I am also very into neon colours at the moment and mixing them with clashing colours or dull colours that make the neons pop.

So here are the first couple of collage pieces with triangles! Welcome to geometry with Jess.

a nice cuppa tea...

I created this tea cup and saucer set months ago but have had severe problems taking decent photographs of them. Partly due to the dull days and awful weather and also because of the angle of shot and problems with too much light and shadow.

But here they are now after investing in a light cube! I must say it is very nifty, if difficult to get back into it's case! I haven't quite got it right yet but these are much better than the previous ones I took.

I'm about to add this wee set to my Folksy page. So pop over if you fancy

I Make Fun Stuff Craft Market TWO!

We're doing another!! Oh yes and we have more than twice the stalls we had last time!!

We have some stalwarts from our first market. Like Focused Bags who make bags from broken skateboards (these are rad go google them!) Jack the Cat who make beautiful handmade bags from gorgeous contemporary fabrics and embroider them, Kluck who make lovely little things made from leather, paper, thread and plastic and of course Yours Truly!!

We have new people too like Laura Laura who reinvent secondhand knitwear and jewellery into 50s inspired clothes and accessories. Super Duper Things who make nautical inspired jewellery and beautiful things with silhouettes and cut outs. Innocent Oils who produce 100% toxic free vegan cosmetics and skincare products and we're hoping for some baked goods too!

We really hope to see you there