Girl Industries

Seen around Glasgow

2012-01-29T13:28:00.000Z

These gorgeous stained glass windows on Bath Street instantly transported me back to a different time, such detailed and long-lasting work.

I love having my new little camera with me all the time, it lets me share little details of my day like this. I wonder what will happen when the building has new owners or tenants. I think it's a shame that the adjacent dance studio has changed the windows a little, but at least they aren't lost for ever.

Speaking of books...

2012-01-26T20:59:00.000Z

I’ve just finished making a project from a newish craft book that was passed my way by Marceline, of Asking for Trouble. When I reviewed a few of my craft books for Issue 1 of my Answers on a Postcard Zine, a comment I received was that people don’t tend to review craft books by making some of the projects and giving a commentary, but that would be the most helpful thing for a potential buyer of said craft book. So with this in mind, I found a project I’d really like to work on and here’s how I got on.

The book I used was State of Craft, and for starters I tried the oversized beanbag pattern by Custom Made, using some lovely floral fabric kindly given to me by Sarah from Sarey Poppins, ooh a couple of years ago! I didn't like the original plan to have a big flappy bit outside of the actual beanbag, so I reinforced the edges of my fabric to begin with instead, as part of a longer process to help strengthen the seams.

Preventing fraying on the edges with a zig zag stitch, recommended in the pattern

I had a few problems with the description of how to put in a concealed zip, I just couldn't get it through my head with the instructions given, but I found a tutorial online to help me instead. I didn't need to use my zipper foot (which was fortunate as it seems to have disappeared), because the zip was pretty snug and flat so I had no problems with getting close enough to it.

Double-reinforcements for the edges with zig zag stitches on top of the original straight stitches

I thought the diagrams were really helpful but sometimes I couldn't see how the numbers on the pictures actually matched up to the narrative, which was frustrating. I read the pattern about four times before I just went for it, and it didn't fill me with confidence before I started as I just couldn't envisage the mechanics of what went where, but this is my usual problem with patterns and trying to visualise something on paper in 3D.

So in the end, I did a reasonably good job, mainly down to being really careful about drawing lines to sew along in tailor's chalk before I started. I find these bit so tedious but it's so worth it.

I'll be attempting another couple of projects before I pass the book on to another crafty friend who'd like a go at the beanbag for her little girl. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I totally altered the size of the beanbag, too, to toddler size for Amelia. Now to eBay, to order some beans to fill it!

p.s. I finished One Day and was disappointed by the fact that every single character was pretty unsympathetic, and as soon as they got their acts together - BOOM deus ex machina and radical/cop-out ending (which my mum tells me the Americans wanted the writer to ditch for the film - reassuring as it wasn't just me then).

What's on my kindle?

2012-01-23T20:55:00.000Z

Disclaimer: I'm linking to Amazon a little bit, further below. They aren't referral links, for the record.

One Day, via amazon.co.uk

This is also the year of reading a lot more. I used to be a bit of a voracious reader, but with one thing and another (okay, doing an MSc, running a business as well as a full time job, having a baby that could never sleep or be quiet, now a toddler that can't sit still) I haven’t read anything that requires a massive amount of attention span for a couple of years. Now things are calming down a little and I have my lovely commute and my new kindle, I really have no excuse. So far this year I’ve read The Help, World War Z and I’m now 14% through One Day. One Day feels a little close to home, what with a student flatshare on Rankeillor Street, a joint honours degree in English and something else, and scruffy northern lass/over-privileged public schoolboy protagonists (in my experience, you can pretty much put all the students in Edinburgh into one of two camps – hardworking overachieving state school kids from Scotland or the North of England who couldn’t go to Oxbridge because they needed to work part time to pay their way through university, or Oxbridge rejects from public schools who simply cannot comprehend why someone with four grade A A Levels would work on a checkout on weekends when they could be at the polo, and cry when Daddy cuts their clothing allowance). Seriously, I saw a 18 year old girl during Fresher’s Week a few years ago striding through the New Town with a genuine Dior Saddlebag. Two fairly senior members of the royal family were in my year (one on my course) and Prince William had nights out in Edinburgh most weekends. I knew a lot of girls called Antonia, Clemmy and Tiggy, but not many called Joanne, Sharon or Lindsay. I had to show someone how to MAKE A BED because she’d never done it for herself before. I only really speak regularly to one person I knew at university now, and we became friends working at Sainsburys, it was just coincidence we were both in the same year and based around George Square. I think I’ll make a note to myself to watch the film as well, I’m sure it’ll make me feel nostalgic. I think the one thing that everyone who goes to Edinburgh to study comes away with is a deep love of the city, and I'm just grateful I get to spend a couple of days every month there for work.

Dior Gaucho Saddlebag, via www.purses.com (of course!)

Next on the reading list are some of the real actual books that I have on my bookcase to read once (or re-read one last time) then pass on. I’m trying to reduce my book clutter along with everything else. Then I want to have a go at the books on the BBC best 100 books list that I didn’t have to read while I was studying literature. Because it was voted on by the public, it’s not too skewed towards the dustier classics, and you can kind of tell which ones were voted for by people of different ages and so on. Whether I can force myself to read any Jacqueline Wilson or Terry Pratchett remains to be seen... In fact, I may work my way through the top 200 as there are a lot more books in the second half that are more my kind of thing.

My moonlit commute

2012-01-20T13:30:00.000Z

The drive from my house to drop Amelia off in the morning... I wasn't driving, by the way!

You can see the Wallace monument on the right, and on the whitish blob higher up on the landscape to the left is Stirling Castle (centred directly over the silver car immediately in front of us). I never used to be a morning person, but with views like this on my way to work, I could get to like it.

What's on sale?

2012-01-17T20:32:00.000Z

Now added to the sale in my Girl Industries shop....

Buttons! Envelope seals! Zines! Go on, treat yourself :-)

While you’re in the mood for shopping, check out Pushpin Publishing, where there are loads of fab new zines to choose from.

Getting organised in January

2012-01-15T20:08:00.000Z

Calendar by 505 designs, at www.505design.etsy.com

What is it about January, and the feeling of being overwhelmed by stuff, emails, things to do? I love a blank calendar and a year filled with possibilities, and I’m trying to reflect some of that in my home, my craft room , my shop and even my email inbox. I’ve decided to put just about everything in my shop on sale, really clear the decks for the new year and some new ideas. Of course, with the limited amount of time I have to work on my Girl Industries line, my new collection won’t be ready until Easter or thereabouts, but that works fine for me.

Like most people, we’re really watching our pennies here as well. I’m undergoing the somewhat never-ending task of unsubscribing from a lot of the retail emails that I’ve signed up for in the vain hope of getting a deal. Except it’s not a deal if you don’t really need it, so goodbye! I’m also shopping from the freezer this month in another decks-clearing attempt, with the by-product of saving money, too.

Another two-for-the-price-of-one deal that helps me get organised and costs me absolutely nothing is this gorgeous and fully customisable calendar from 505 designs. I have one copy at work so I can keep track of roughly where I’m meant to be, and another in my craft room so I can keep an eye on all the various goals I’ve made for myself this year. I can’t help but be a little cynical – we’ll see how this lasts into April when I’m back at work 5 days a week – but for now, I feel a lot more like I’m on the straight and narrow after all the chaos and tiredness of December. And I can’t wait to show you some sneak peeks of new products, too!

Fabric clearout

2012-01-12T15:42:00.000Z

I've been going through my fabric stock and making tough decisions on what needs to go. I went through a bit of a phase of buying designer fabrics last year and still haven't worked out what to make with them, so I'm passing them on to someone who'll make better use. I've put them all up for auction over on eBay, so click on the link if you'd like to browse. I treated myself to a new tiny camera in the sales so I'm hoping to at least recoup my costs for that!

Here are some terribly-aligned photos of the fabrics on offer (20 minutes of faffing in blogger is my limit for one day!)

I'm hoping to add lots more of bits and pieces from around the house in our usual post-Christmas clear-out over the next couple of weeks - let's see if I manage to get that done on top of everything else I need to do *groan*.

New lavender cats

2012-01-10T15:06:00.000Z

Having run out of my original gingham check fabric (as seen above), there's only one blue lavender cat left in my Etsy shop.

You can buy new blue cats (those ones down there) exclusively from Ethics Girls, and here's a massive stack I'm currently working on to replenish my stock.

Today's my second day back to the day job since the long holidays, and it's so satisfying to sew new little faces on as I whizz through the countryside on the train.

Today I'm mostly working on...

2012-01-08T14:58:00.000Z

Turning these pre-cut envelope shapes

into the finished article...

... which you can find in the Girl Industries Etsy shop - with only one set left in the oriental gold colour way (the stack in the top left of the first picture) and gold swirl, which is coming very soon!

Tutorial: a quick way to upcycle your Christmas Cards

2012-01-04T14:26:00.000Z

So it's time to take down the Christmas cards, update my address book, upcycle what I can and recycle the rest.

I'm a bit of a clipboard fan (my day job involves a lot of clipboard-related activity, like risk assessment, quality assurance and report writing), and I've had this small acrylic version for ages. I have a feeling it came from muji, but it could be from Paperchase. In the past I've used it as a frame to hang pretty postcards and greeting cards in my bedroom and study, but for a little while now it's been hanging around in our living room with a hotel room notepad in its little grip.

The notepad ran out over Christmas, so I decided to replenish it with the blank insides of our Christmas cards.

First of all, I measured up the free space on top of the clipboard. 10 x 14cm, if you're interested. Then I got to work with my trusty guillotine and had a few zen moments of calm, straightforward, repetition.

I've hung up the finished article in our kitchen, and popped the unusable clippings/written on bits in the compost bin. I couldn't decide which image to have on the back - as we'll probably use the notepad for shopping lists, this 'Eat Drink and Be Merry' print seemed apt. But I also love the detail and hard work that's gone into this tapestry representation of the nativity scene, too.

If you'd like to do something similar, but don't have a little clipboard like mine - consider hole-punching the top of the used cards and using bookbinder rings (like these, available in my shop) to keep all the pieces coralled. The beauty of doing it this way is that you can use pieces of varying sizes, as long as the holes line up.

What do you do with your old Christmas cards?

Just found another three!

2012-01-02T14:04:00.000Z

In the spirit of getting things done in 2012, I opened my lavender box to this sight...

Which means I have not one but FOUR lavender cats left in this colourway. For now, anyway....

New cats in new colour combinations coming soon, too! A photo of completed cats will be on its way just as soon as I've stitched 'em up.

A productive and happy new year, everyone :)

Wallpapering... the fun way!

2011-12-27T13:55:00.000Z

Well, you know I love wallpaper and you know I love to gawp over the lovely products over on the Hermes website. So I couldn't have been more thrilled to find this silly little game to play when I really should be doing other things.

Check out the wallpaper range and have a go for yourself - there is always lots of really interesting stuff to see on the website. At the moment I'm really loving the film series, Hearts and Crafts, just lovely!

Sale now on!

2011-12-24T13:13:00.000Z

Visit my Etsy shop right away for amazing bargains in the Clearance Section - starting from just 20c! I'm having a big clearout to make way for new stock and new products. If you're the kind of person who likes to stock up on Christmassy things in the sales, you have come to the right place!

As well as Christmas themed bits and pieces, my most popular item is also in the sale. My destash paper packs are available for a limited time at $2.50.

Everything in the clearance section will NOT be renewed and only a handful of the Christmas tags might make a comeback next year so don't be disappointed if there's something you've had your eye on.

I am down to limited stock on chickens, lavender cats and paper string. I don't have any of the same fabric left for the lavender cats and I probably won't be making too many more chickens for a while. I only have one reel of white string left and a couple in black.

I'm still going to be popping in and out of the post office over the festive period, so as soon as you treat yourself, they'll be ready to post. Happy shopping!

Christmas is coming early!

2011-12-22T20:25:00.000Z

Well, it looks as though Christmas is coming early for me this year! I think at least a few of you will know that I am a huge fan of Huey Morgan, having spent most of my maternity leave dancing around the kitchen to the songs he played on his show on 6music while covering for Lauren Laverne last year. The fact that he is an ex-Marine from the Lower East Side does not hurt, but the reason I absolutely love to listen to Huey is that he knows so much about early hip hop and basically the late 70s/early 80s New York scene. One of my very favourite films is The Last Days of Disco, and that era is Huey's era too. He tells stories about bands, and places and music in a way that is passionate without getting to the point of ranting. That, my friends, is a rare skill in the world of the modern music enthusiast.

Flyer for our evening shindig, designed by Leslie Hamer of unlesssomeonelikeyou.com

Lauren has a regular feature on her programme called 'Memory Tapes', which I absolutely love. She asks listeners to email in with the track listings from CDs or tapes or playlists from times gone by and then gives them a call to chat over how said collection came about and so on.

When I was starting my holidays last weekend (before I got my awful cold), I decided for fun to send in the playlist I made for our wedding reception, back in 2009. During last Friday's show they announced that they were looking for Christmassy compilations, so I duly wrote on the bottom of my email that the collection of songs was not at all Christmassy but then I told a fairly dull anecdote about a night out one December and a one-man karaoke performance of the Band Aid single, which I hoped would make up for the lack of festivity to the list.

Well, I guess it did. Because they are going to play five of my songs tomorrow morning and Huey will be having a little chat to me at about my playlist at 10.40am. Tune in online or on your digital radio or your telly if you can. Who wouldn't want to take over their favourite radio station with their own choice of music, and chat to their favourite DJ about the best day of their lives? Thanks for the best Christmas present ever, 6music!

I really really hope I am not bumped from the schedules now I've told everyone it's happening...

So much to do!

2011-12-21T12:02:00.001Z

Handmade mobile, a Christmas present for my baby nephew

So you know when you finish work for the holidays, and there's so much you have to do, and you've been putting it off because you know a job badly done is worse than a job done late, and you have a full week with childcare to take care of it all once you finish work, so you don't stress or worry about it too much? And then you get the flu?

Yes. This happened to me. So I've been dragging myself out of bed only to pick up and drop off the baby, my early-ish pre-Christmas organisation came in very handy because at least all the presents and most of the cards were sorted. But the things I had planned to do like finish off some handmade presents, sort out a pre-Christmas sale in my etsy shop, catch up on the blog (I have so much to show and tell that I've been working on/looking at/admiring out there in the world of handmade!) and think ahead to next year's NEW PRODUCTS (two out of twelve actually finished and made, one photographed, sigh....), have a big sort out of the craft room etc., have all been bumped. On top of this I've had some SERIOUS problems with the people who were supposed to be at least attempting to sell my flat, and need to spend most of tomorrow sorting out a new estate agent. I also have a huge event to plan, make stock for and prepare for which is yikes - only really about six weeks away, and I've had the grand sum of ONE conversation about a collaboration I'm doing for a new product especially for this event.

Gosh, I feel bad even sitting here and typing this when I could be doing something more productive. Although as you all know, procrastination is my friend and I've already spent the morning putting away laundry, picking up flea treatment at the supermarket for the cats, stacking the dishwasher and ahem, having breakfast and a read of the local paper in McDonalds.

In the spirit of getting things done, here are the main things I want to catch up with you lot about.

Some of the handmade Christmas presents I made - I was in such a flu-fogged panic that I didn't even take a bloomin' photo of one of them before I managed to get it in the post on Monday morning, so I'm hoping the recipient will take one on Christmas morning.
The sale I'm planning for the etsy shop, I've decided to clear out a lot of older products to make way for new things.
I'm also planning to destash a lot of the designer fabric I have, as well as a few bits and bobs of haberdashery. As part of this, I will discuss my rule about fabric, to which I have NOT been adhering and the ensuing crisis of conscience that this involves.
The zine exhibition in Salford, at which I took one or two sneaky photos of Amelia which may or may not have had my zines in the background, naughty naughty
The special event that I am preparing for which I will have to talk about A LOT, and the exciting collaboration I've been working on especially for this event.
The new zine I've been planning - I still need to make my spreadsheet of who is writing about what, but as I only really have about 10 or so confirmed volunteers and no submissions yet, please do get in touch if you fancy having a go. I haven't written anything yet either.
Issue 8 of the Answers on a Postcard is so nearly ready to print it isn't funny BUT what is even less funny is that I need to reformat the files for printing which is driving me bananas even without flu-related brain fog.
I need to have a 'getting things finished' drive in the New Year. I have unfinished projects I have been working on since I was pregnant in 2010. And before. This is not going to be tolerated in 2012. If any of you would like to join me in a 'get it finished' challenge I want to see one thing finished by the end of every month. I want to see before and after photos. I want to feel your shame and your elation so I know I'm not alone!
I want to do better at blogging and keep on top of things next year. I want to buy a small digital camera that I can fit in my handbag during the January sales to help me do this. I LOVE my DSLR but boy is it a pain to cart it around. My old 2007 issue digital camera is pants and will be traded in to help fund this.
I want to hit 200 sales in my Etsy shop in 2012. I also want to be stocked in another couple of outlets either online or b&m as I have had such good experiences with the wonderful Ethics Girls and Vertiline in Love. I have a couple of ideas for 'exclusive' ranges for shops which fancy taking on some of my work and a couple of shops in mind that I'd love to work with...

So there you are, the edited highlights of my to-do list! In the meantime I am going to get today done with, sort the flat tomorrow, and then have a lovely 12 days of fun with my family over Christmas and New Year. I wish you all a lovely peaceful and calm Christmas, and a happy and healthy New Year!

Better late than never - Wednesday wishlist

2011-12-15T20:37:00.000Z

I'm back on the jewel colours, I can't resist them. Check out these purples...

While I'm here, I was featured in a treasury celebrating upcycled Christmas decorations, which are all on sale in the UK - leaving my fellow Brits a few more days for last-minute impulse buys. Thank you www.bakersbitsandbobs.etsy.com for featuring me :)

Baby Booty Sale

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000Z

I'll be in Glasgow tomorrow for the Baby Booty Sale at Kelvinhall. I'm sharing a stall with A Home for All Seasons, and while we both have a lot of secondhand, new and unused baby things between us, we'll be there on Saturday in our crafty capacities - with a focus on baby gifts, keepsakes and Christmas gifts for new parents and the young'uns. Come and find us, and say hello!

More details here, but the sale runs from 11-2pm and is a pretty pretty good idea. Now to make sure I don't leave with more baby stuff than I arrive with...

Can't make it to Glasgow? If you're in the UK or Europe, you still have time to buy online at the Girl Industries etsy shop before the recommended last posting dates for Christmas. But hurry!

Wednesday wishlist - pandamonium!

2011-12-07T20:41:00.001Z

For those of you don't know, our local zoo recently took delivery of two giant pandas. The new arrivals go on show on the first day of my Christmas/New Year break from my day job. I'm so excited to see them, and created a treasury celebrating all things ~~pand~~handmade in the UK!

p.s. I have been away for a short while, and pre-occupied with real life stuff but now I'm baaaaack :)

Christmassy makes - from an unusual source

2011-11-28T20:40:00.001Z

Before I spent so much time commuting, and tired, I wasn't a big magazine reader. Things have changed. I've always been fairly voracious as a reader. I'm one of those people who doesn't get travel sick if I read, and if you've ever eaten breakfast with me, you'll know I can't resist reading the packet of cereal back to front. I also have an MA in comparative literature, so freebie supermarket magazines are somewhat outside of my usual reading material as a bit of a literary snob (although I've bought the National Enquirer every Friday since October 1999, and had a shameful six-month affair with my then-flatmate's Take a Break collection, so that does go a little bit against the grain of what I've just said...)

However... I really enjoyed looking at the craft projects in the latest freesheet from Tesco, and even had a facepalm moment when the solution to a problem I'd been mulling over for a good 12 months literally stared me in the face. I've been designing a range of mobiles and couldn't decide what to hang the hanging bits from... of course I didn't even consider using the inner part of an embroidery hoop, and I even have a few of them upstairs to choose from!

With the sheer mind-numbing meh that regular commuting and early mornings bring, my attention span is shot. Maybe it's time to revisit and expand my zine collection for something to read when my mind's not all there...

Recommendations for magazines (any subject matter) or zines to read are welcome - hopefully I'll find a whole load of new zines to search out and buy after my trip to the zine exhibition at the Salford Art Gallery and Museum on Friday!

Something caught my eye...

2011-11-25T18:50:00.000Z

...these handknit napkin rings are popping up in my etsy activity feed all the time, and I think they've graced the UK front page at least once.

My eagle eyes spotted that the yarn used by maker The Feminine Touch is the very same yarn from the blanket I made for Amelia earlier in the year - looks stunning with that shade of turquoise, doesn't it?

Wishlist Wednesday

2011-11-23T20:08:00.001Z

My wishlist intersects perfectly with my to-do list this week. I need to get to work on my Christmas card list asap, and this festive collection is great inspiration to get started.

New zine project - do you want to be involved?

2011-11-22T12:05:00.001Z

I know, I know, I still need to get to the printers with the elusive Issue 8 of Answers on a Postcard BUT great new ideas can't wait!

I’m starting a new writing project and I'm looking for contributors. After my experiences of 'meeting' amazing crafters with Answers on a Postcard, and the fun of producing a monthly black and white booklet so I thought I would quite like to do it again next year, but start looking for contributors now.

The new project is called ‘Three days in...’ and can refer to travels you’ve been on, or talking about your home town, or a place you’ve researched that you’ve always wanted to visit. Basically I’m looking for either an itinerary of things you can’t miss out on if you were going to visit a place for the first (and potentially only time), or a reflective piece on three days you’ve spent somewhere, like a diary entry or essay, or a collection of photos/drawings/illustrations or even scans of ticket stubs and so on from a specific place that when you link the images together, they tell a story and build up an image of the specific place.

Each entry or submission will be categorised into groups represented by a little icon - a suitcase (traveller), house (home town/living there) or an armchair (somewhere you’ve planned a visit to without actually going there yet). I can’t afford to pay anyone for their contributions as I’ll never make any money out of it – they’ll be on sale through my etsy shop to cover production and postage costs and anyone who contributes can have a free PDF version to print off at their leisure. I'll also be submitting copies to a number of zine libraries I'm in contact with, to spread the word! You get a byline photo and links to your blog/business next to your name as a promotional opportunity, and of course I'll be on about it all the time on my blog.

I don't have any fixed views on word count etc, especially if people want to add their own photos or scans of ticket stubs etc, but it should all fit into 2-8 sides of A5, ideally.

Have a think about it and get back to me if you fancy getting involved, and have a place in mind. I'd need a firm commitment by the end of the year so I can keep in contact about your piece during 2012 - I'd like to get this project finished before the end of the world, at least :) If this isn't for you, but you know someone who would like to contribute to the project, point them this way!

My email address is katy AT girlindustries.com and you can find my previous zine series, Answers on a Postcard, at www.pushpinzines.co.uk or on display in my home town of Salford as part of this exhibition.

Last day of my Crafty Attic feature

2011-11-21T12:15:00.000Z

A quick reminder that today is your last chance to stock up on Girl Industries goodies for a bargain price over at Crafty Attic. See my blog post here for more details. Happy Shopping!

For the stationery lovers

2011-11-18T11:46:00.000Z

Found via @presentcorrect on Twitter

Hudson - Against The Grain from Dropbear on Vimeo.

Wednesday wishlist

2011-11-16T11:46:00.000Z

Today it's all about me! You can buy everything you see below with a deep discount via website Crafty Attic. Go and check it out!

Everything in my shop is included - that's gift tags, supplies and zines (the above image is not clickable, as I made a private treasury - I have a feeling that making and publishing treasuries which only feature your own products is probably frowned upon)
You can still buy in time for gift giving and dressing up your Christmas presents. My last posting dates for the UK will be 15 December (due to family commitments, so I'm a little earlier than the published Post Office dates) and for the rest of the world, I'm in line with the Post Office guidelines

Table from the Royal Mail website

Can't wait to see my zines!

2011-11-14T09:32:00.001Z

I somehow forgot that aaages ago, I sent some zines off to the Salford Zine Library. This blog post over at Postmodern Pain reminded me, and reminded me that I'll be able to go and visit them in person when I'm visiting my parents at Christmas as the exhibition runs until 29th January. It also caused me to kick myself because the exhibition started on 15th October, which means I could have called in two weeks ago when I was eating at the McDonalds JUST ALONG THE ROAD from the gallery 2 weeks ago, when we stopped off en route from Norfolk to Alloa on the way home from our holidays!

Photo via Postmodern Pain blog

Isn't it bizarre how a photo can instantly jolt you back in time? The Art Gallery and Museum in Salford has loads of memories for me. It's the first museum I ever visited, and spent a lot of time there as a pre-schooler. The reconstructed street, a bit like the one from the Transport Museum in Glasgow (now the Riverside Museum), holds tons of memories, especially the tiny little old-fashioned curly-toed shoes (I'm making a mental note to remember to take photos, you won't believe what you're seeing). I can't wait to show Amelia, although I do remember what a scary place it could be, the lights dimmed to preserve the exhibits, and the spookiness of the dummies and empty shop doorways.

via historyextra.com

At one point, my parents nearly bought a home converted from part of the old fire station across the road. It was so exciting because it was tall and thin and had THREE FLOORS, and we would have had a little bedroom to share at the very top of the house. It's funny how things turn out, because that almost completely describes our house now! Except the only thing it's converted from is a loft in an existing house, and it's my craft room up there in place of me and my sister, but there you are.

Photo via Trovit homes - my mum's old office is the window at the top right of the photo!

My mum worked just along the road from the gallery in the former Salford Royal Hospital (now converted into apartments, are you seeing a theme?), I was once in an episode of Coronation Street that was being filmed at the pub next between the hospital and the river, and I got my first ever job at the Sainsbury's just around the corner on Regent Road (opposite Salford Lads' Club), walking past the museum when I jumped off the train at Salford Crescent.

I know my zines are definitely there because I read this. Can't wait to go and visit them! A huge thanks as well to all the contributors to the series, it'd be nothing without you :)

Window-shopping Wednesday

2011-11-09T22:00:00.000Z

I'd be so happy to receive any item on this list, but I particularly love that coin purse. And the wonderful brooch! And the bear plate! And... and... who am I kidding? I love them all.

Come and find me on facebook

2011-11-07T14:35:00.000Z

I did it, I created a Girl Industries facebook page! Come and join me! I am not sure of the next step! But I'm having fun getting there :)

Jolly red gift tags, now available

2011-11-04T15:11:00.002Z

I somewhat absent-mindedly relisted a set of gift tags from last year's collection, and was spurred into action when they sold almost immediately!

Inspiration struck when I spied a handful of hanging files on clearance in my local supermarket, and a few quick punches later, I backed them up with offcuts of gorgeous linen paper, and strung through some bakers' twine. The end result is these beautiful tags.

I even finished a set with embroidery thread just in case of the inevitable bakers' twine backlash (if it's not already here, I'm sure it's on its way). Just let me know when you check out which thread you prefer.

I also had these Christmas tree shapes in stock from a couple of years back and I've decided they really must be used.

Ditto for a set of plain tags that I hadn't found the right project for yet. Suddenly it all just fell into place. These particular tags are very limited edition and I only have the one set of four, so don't hesitate if you like the look of them!

How are you preparing for the festive season?

Window shopping Wednesday

2011-11-02T14:52:00.000Z

Better late than never, here's a very wintry treasury I put together earlier today. Phew it's been a hectic week, so I deliberately drew on a restful palette to try and slow down a little.

There are some beautiful items in this collection, and how enchanting is that secret door?

Hangtag bag

2011-11-01T10:27:00.001Z

Photo by Coach NY

How much do I love this new bag for next season, from Coach? The answer is: a lot.

Check out the detail:

Photo by Coach NY

Of course if you're looking for hang tag style at a fraction of the price, you can always treat yourself to a set of my photographic gift tags.

Window shopping Wednesday

2011-10-26T13:24:00.000+01:00

I've found that I'm always drawn towards muted colours, greys and browns and soft mossy greens are amongst my favourite. So when bold, bright treasuries pop up in my activity feed, I find them extra-inspiring, especially this one from GlassPaperScizzors.

With this in mind, I've relisted my Christmassy gift tags, in bold seasonal red. Because a red hot gift requires a red hot gift tag!

Going on vacation

2011-10-24T19:45:00.000+01:00

I'm closing up the shop for a few days as I'm not very well, some virus thing that's doing the rounds. I'm off on a mini-break at the end of the week so I'm putting all my energy into getting better. See you in about a week or so.

Stagtacular!

2011-10-22T12:33:00.000+01:00

So from wintry, I'm now back to feeling Autumnal after hearing about a fantastic new exhibition in Sheffield, Stagtacular! If you're in the area, read more about it via Vertiline in Love. One thing I wish I had a camera handy for was when I saw a stag by the side of the road in December 2009. I was driving alone, back from Loch Lomond through dense fog to my flat in Glasgow, after a weekend in the countryside with friends. I was so glad that stag was on the side of the road and not in the middle of it!

Window shopping Wednesday

2011-10-19T12:26:00.000+01:00

This week I've been inspired by actual windows! The shops in Glasgow are full of jewel tones this season, particularly the inky blue crockery from Hermes on display in Frasers and the deep purple bags in the window at Mulberry. Here's the take on this season's hottest colours from Etsians (mostly) in the UK.

Basketweave blanket update

2011-10-17T12:04:00.000+01:00

I finally managed to get some half-decent photos of the blanket I made recently for Amelia's cot, now the nights are getting a little colder.

Basketweave is one of my favourite patterns for knitting, and it's so easy and quick to knit up into a repeating pattern that is striking in its simplicity. I particularly liked knitting with this yarn, Sirdar Denim Ultra. It is quite 'splitty' to knit with, so you need your wits about you, but the shade of brown I used was made up of about 10 strands comprising cream, dark chocolate and milky coffee colours which worked so well together.

To come up with the pattern, I simply measured up the size of Amelia's cot (well, looked it up on the IKEA website, because I do most of my knitting while she's asleep in said cot!) and checked out the ball band. Denim ultra knits to 9 stitches & 12 rows to 10x10cm on 10mm needles. I don't have 10mm needles, so I knitted it up with 10 stitches to 12 rows on 9mms and tried to keep my knitting on the loose side.

I wanted my blanket to have 10mm "squares", so I cast on 70 stitches, k10 and p10 (repeat) until I'd knit 12 rows. Then I swapped to p10, k10 to create the woven effect. 120 rows gave me a blanket that was 70cm x 100cm and fitted the cot a treat. It took just over 4 balls of the yarn. If I had more of this yarn, I might have knit up several more panels to make a larger throw for an adult sized bed. It also makes a great textured cushion cover, just measure up how much you'd need to form an envelope around a cushion pad, and get knitting!

As it is, I'm keeping an eye on eBay as there are some great bargains to be had at the end of the season, and a blue denim version would be just the thing for my nephew's bed.

Treating myself

2011-10-15T14:37:00.000+01:00

While you're reading this, I'll be in Glasgow collecting my brand new lovely sewing machine from local craft supplies emporium deluxe, The Life Craft, in its new premises at De Courcey's arcade.

While we're talking sewing, here's my first-ever attempt at patchwork from a couple of weekends ago, a cover for my old machine as its original plastic cover was seriously falling apart. In an ironic development, my husband was so impressed by what I'd made, he has decided that the time has come to upgrade to a far better machine and we're calling it an early Christmas present - hurrah!

If you're interested in making such a cover, here's how I made it. I loosely measured the width, height and depth of the machine and calculated how many 10cm squares I would need to cover the surface area. I sewed them together in strips and made a cross-shape piece of patchwork with the strips, which I then lined with plain navy blue fabric, after closing up the strips to fit around the machine in a kind of paper-bag effect. I checked the size by holding it against the machine as I went (I am not the scientific type), and it worked out kind of okay. I think if I make another one, I'll be more disciplined about measuring and trimming and squaring up my work as I go, but I was so excited to see how it would look that I kind of rushed the sensible aspect of my work.

I'm sure there'll be more patchwork to come - in fact I posted up a photo on my personal facebook page and had some interest in commissions from friends - so stand by for more photos of my patch-themed handiwork here.

Window shopping Wednesday

2011-10-12T14:26:00.000+01:00

Oh I can't wait for Hallowe'en this year! I'll be enjoying the last day of my holiday in England, kicking up some leaves and trying to take as many photographs as I can - because Marceline has proposed it as the next Day in the Life bloggers date.

In the meantime, to help you get into the mood, too, here's a collection of some lovely spooky things from Etsy for this week's round up of my virtual shopping list... but what to choose?

If you fancy winning something spooky, hop back over to the Asking for Trouble blog and try to get your mitts on a little handmade ghost before the contest closes on 14 October.

My kind of office

2011-10-10T12:48:00.003+01:00

Ahhh, I dream of days when I might work in a cosy little corner like this:

Photo credit to The Window Shopper and finding credit to friend of Answers on a Postcard, jeweller extraordinaire, Laura Baillie. I hadn't caught up with Laura's blog in ages and was really excited to hear that she is having a pre-Christmas sale event at her beautiful home, on 12 November. For more details, check out her blog. If you can't get to Scotland, but still admire Laura's work, find her on facebook for giveaways, special deals and great competitions.

Window Shopping Wednesday

2011-10-05T19:38:00.000+01:00

I was thinking the other day that I should really sort out my music collection, there are some records I haven't heard in ages and would really like to dig them out again. Our CDs are all up in my husband's parents' loft, this was meant to be a temporary measure as we moved, but then our iTunes account imploded somehow, so we need to re-download them all.

As most readers will know, we really have our hands full at the moment with two full time jobs, two homes, three businesses, one child and two cats to juggle, so digging out my 2000+ CDs is not a priority right now. Yes, I have a lot of CDs. In my defence, I used to be a music journalist and music was a big part of my life. Fifteen years ago if I wasn't reading a book, writing notes and and listening to a CD all at the same time, I was probably asleep. With the radio still on. Instead, I am relying on 6music and of course my own wonderful (!!) singing voice to keep us going. This recent treasury was inspired by the last song on Bjork's album Debut.

I am still a little bit on edge when I see people making art with altered book pages (oh my gosh you can't write on a book!) but I am trying to relax about it a little bit. This treasury marks an important step in my recovery, and I hope you enjoy it.

Window Shopping Wednesday

2011-09-28T11:25:00.000+01:00

Well, the nights are fair drawing in and lately I've found myself browsing etsy for (I know, I know) Christmas presents. I've decided to share some of my finds here on the blog with a series of Window Shopping Wednesdays where I can combine my love of making treasuries with bringing you some great makers and must-have items. I'm trying my best to keep it handmade this Christmas, and hope you can, too.Here are a couple of treasuries made to celebrate one of my absolute favourite things... kraft paper!

Frrrrront page!

2011-09-26T12:40:00.001+01:00

I nearly fell off my seat there while I popped on to Etsy after finishing off my lunch. One of my treasuries made it to the UK front page! There are some lovely lovely things on the list that would make fantastic gifts to yourself or your friends/family. I am coveting just about everything there so you know, bookmark it ;-)

I had been planning a regular feature for the blog for some time, and now I need to get my skates on and do it - Window Shopping Wednesday - which will be a collection of my favourite things on Etsy and will absolutely definitely start this week. Yippee!

Have a fantastic Monday and may your week be just as surprising - in a good way.

Are you a VIP?

2011-09-21T11:36:00.000+01:00

Today sees the start of my feature over on Crafty Attic, a new discount site where you can buy art, craft and supplies at a one-time-only reduced rate. VIPs can have early access to deals, and get an extra discount for only $4.99 a month. Non-VIPs get access to deals a day later, and still get a great discount. Shipping is included in the voucher price, so it's a great way to make buying handmade cost-effective, and to discover new-to-you artists, designers and makers.

Crafty Attic is brand-new, only 9 days old, so I'm delighted to have been chosen as one of the very first people to be featured. You can sign up for daily deal emails, or link with Crafty Attic via facebook if you don't want to hear from them in your inbox every single day. Unlike other daily discount sites, you don't actually have to sign in to view the deals, ideal if you're in a hurry and just want to check out who's on offer today.

Hope to see you over there!

Being a completer

2011-09-18T22:21:00.001+01:00

This weekend I am trying my best to get things done! Right now, having taken some really good photos on Friday afternoon, I am listing supplies in the Girl Industries Etsy shop that need to vacate the premises. I have realised there is a finite amount of time for crafting in my life at the moment, and there are some things I'll just never get around to using. So my loss is your gain, I am passing them on at far less than I originally paid for them because I need them to GO AWAY and be purposeful or beautiful elsewhere.

I also started AND finished a project all in one go on Friday night. I even made a mercy dash to deliver it because it was a dark and stormy night, so the photos aren't brilliant, because they were shot in my living room, in the dark. A friend asked me to design and make a draught excluder for her wider than average double farmhouse doors. As they are of the many and varied pet-keeping persuasion, I decided to celebrate their reptile collection with what has been dubbed 'the tartan python' - made from offcuts of kilt fabric direct from a tailors in Glasgow.

If you'd like your own home protected from draughts (the tartan python also masquerades as Justin Windowsnake), do please leave a comment or drop me an email. Available as the completed product with local delivery, or as a snake skin, with a Velcro (R) fastening or closed seam, self-stitch end, and full instructions for you to stuff it yourself. Stay warm this winter!

I haven't finished the big basket weave blanket I was making the other week, I was actually giving myself RSI the heavier it got but I am soldiering on and there are only 20 rows to go until it is finished. Hopefully I'll have photos very very soon. It is shaping up beautifully, and everywhere I look at the moment are big beautiful knits. I'm looking at you, Stella McCartney. Nothing but the highest of fashion for my little girl.

Oooh, and my team won, so, go Trojans! The final is in London next weekend, how exciting!

Low stock alert

2011-09-16T11:23:00.002+01:00

I'm down to my last reel of white paper string and there is very limited stock of lavender cats available - and hardly any of the same fabric left. If you've had your eye on any of these things for a while, stock up now while they are still available. When they're gone, they're gone.

Thank you to etsy seller Cherry Hill Jewelry for featuring my lavender cats in her latest treasury. Click here for more lovely lavender finds.

They're all here!

2011-09-08T19:33:00.001+01:00

At last, you can find an updated selection of the Answers on a Postcard series in my Etsy shop. If you'd like to catch up with more than one at once, you can buy yourself a Girl Industries instant zine collection.

Issue 8 is conspicuous in its absence for the time being, I still need to get myself down to the printers to pick up some copies, all in colour!

More exciting zine-related news to come very soon!

Little Birds Market, this coming Sunday!

2011-09-06T13:50:00.001+01:00

You'll find me upstairs at Sloan's on Sunday for the next Little Birds Market - look! There are my hand-stitched cards in the flyer!

If you can't make it on Sunday (come in through the entrance in Argyle Arcade, you'll find me there from 12-5pm), you can always pick up a set of cards from my Etsy shop.

Ooh, have a look at Cuteable! My cards were featured there yesterday as well.

Last minute top speed knitting

2011-09-03T21:44:00.003+01:00

I really shouldn't be taking the time to blog tonight as I'm on a mission. My friend plays for the West Coast Trojans, an American Football team, and we are hoping to go to their match tomorrow afternoon (Scotstoun, 2.30pm, if anyone's interested!) but I have a horrible feeling it'll be cold.

So after finding some very reasonably priced Sirdar Denim yesterday on a jaunt to Hobbycraft, I thought I could get cracking on a big bulky warm blanket for the little one. I was inspired in part by flicking through the new White Company catalogue last week, as we were ordering new towels in the sale. I noted that the White Company handknit their big blankets in blocks - I thought about potentially buying extra wool to make up additional panels so we can use the blanket in future on A's big girl bed when the time comes, but then realised I need a huge amount of chunky wool sitting around like I need a hole in the head!

Anyhoo, here I am knitting up 8-ply yarn in a lovely blend of browns and white, in a huge basketweave pattern. I feel all zeitgeisty now as this lovely cushion just popped up on Etsy's front page. It's by Laurimuks, who is a fellow knitter right here in Scotland, her work is just lovely.

I'll be back shortly with the pattern for the blanket (my very own!) and some photos. I hope you are all having a lovely evening, and weekend :)

Upcycling hits the mainstream

2011-08-27T20:01:00.005+01:00

A cardboard hopper of Johnson's baby wipes caught my eye as I rushed out of my local Asda the other day - the magic word 'upcycling' caught my eye! Find out more on packagingnews.co.uk (oh yes!) and find out how they are reusing their packets before they hit the rubbish bin.

Ella's Kitchen and Kenco coffee are also running similar schemes, which involve consumers returning the packaging to the manufacturer after use. Of course this involves expense and further resources, and that's before you get started on the remanufacturing process. I would love if these companies could look more closely into biodegradable or compostable packaging (like our preferred tea bag brand, it's great to throw the empty packaging onto the compost heap when we're finished with it). There are only so many wipe clean reusable shoppers that you can get through in a lifetime, and if the brand is plastered all over it, then it's not really for me. But it's a step in the right direction, and it just goes to show, there are so many more things out there that you can get an extra use out of before it hits the rubbish bin.

Vintage shopping

2011-08-25T11:11:00.001+01:00

A recent arrival in our home is this amazing wooden hippo piggy bank. His little leg pops out of its socket so you can retrieve your pennies!

Amelia is totally spoiled rotten by her grandparents in terms of toys, books and clothes, so I wanted to pick up something for her first birthday that she can treasure for years to come. It's robust enough to stand up to a bit of childhood rough and tumble (obviously it will be staying on the high shelf for a few more years to come) but delicate enough to be taken good care of.

Happy Birthday, little one.

Some live photos from Vertiline in Love

2011-08-22T11:13:00.002+01:00

I am watching the drama unfold live on Twitter... Claira from Vertiline in Love is unpacking her order of Girl Industries goodies! Follow Claira at @vertilineinlove for all the latest.

The more I see it, the more I like the new packaging I designed for use in shops. I can feel a whole rebrand coming on with these new lighter colours.

Find me in Sheffield!

2011-08-21T09:15:00.002+01:00

I'm returning to my Northern English roots... sort of! The wonderful boutique Vertiline in Love has relocated from Edinburgh to Sheffield. I've been busy putting together a few boxes of new stock for this gorgeous little shop and here are some of the things I've been working on...

New tags... exclusive to Vertiline in this rich green colourway!

New packaging... especially for bricks and mortar retailers so they can price it up in house - and no web address on the packaging, just my business name.

If you are anywhere near Sheffield, or visiting Yorkshire in the next wee while, I can definitely encourage a visit to Vertiline in the Nichols Building. Otherwise, Vertiline will be open for business online shortly!

Little Birds Market - Sunday 11 September

2011-08-18T09:12:00.000+01:00

I'll be making my return to craft markets at the Little Birds event on Sunday 11 September. You'll find me upstairs in Sloans, with a new selection of Girl Industries products, some of which you won't find online, so it's well worth dropping in!

I'll update you nearer the time as a little nudge. Hope to see you then!

Day in the life 14 August

2011-08-15T12:15:00.005+01:00

Nominated by Julie, and as part of Claire's project, today is time for another Day in the Life post. Phew, two in two months! Today is the last day of freedom before I go back to full time work in the morning, so it's a pretty momentous occasion. I haven't been to my day job since 18 May last year when I was in receipt of some pretty scary blue light medical care and subsequently signed off work for the rest of my pregnancy. My lovely little girl will be 1 next week, and my fantastic childminder returns from her summer holidays in the morning, so it's back to work for me.

My poor old cat is quite unwell, so after some emergency treatment yesterday, he needs to go back for another antibiotic injection and a good check over. As usual, he got an infected abscess, this time above his left front leg. He is either just standing there taking a beating from whatever is fighting with him, or he's letting them get in the first swipe before he totals them. Last time it was his face, just missing his eye, the time before that, it was the front of his left leg. We've caught him squaring up to a pit bull before now, so nothing would surprise me.

So I was determined to make the most of today and we had a great time. Here's what happened.

7.30am we all wake up, get washed, dressed and eat breakfast. By 10am we are in the car and ready to go. Amelia has been dressed by her daddy in a cool blue t-shirt, beige combats, her new grey jumper that we got in Salford earlier this week (my mum gave it us and it *was* paid for, thank you very much) and even a pair of shoes.

10.10am I forgot to buy mayo yesterday so we cheat and buy pre-made sandwiches from Tesco on our way. We are off to the Scottish Deer Centre for a picnic and to feed the animals.

10.20am We are properly on our way now, and we drive along the A91 towards St Andrews. We pass Balado, home of T in the Park, and we smile at the aeroplane in the field. I catch up on yesterday's newspaper, and I'm delighted to hear that actress Katherine Parkinson was a grade A geek growing up, with a penchant for wearing medieval dress, from age 14 to about 21. Brilliant. I am less delighted to read the Family section, where usually brilliant advice giver Annalisa Barbieri implies that domestic abuse is not domestic abuse unless it is violent, and that anyone suffering abuse should be left alone to sort it out themselves, as they are adults and deserve not to have their private lives interfered with. I think that this is possibly some of the worst advice ever given and this puts a bit of a downer on my morning. I put the paper down and concentrate on the lovely North Fife Tourist Trail scenery.

11.10am We're here! Down to the serious stuff first, time for a coffee and a biscuit and a quick mooch around the gift shop before we go into the Deer Centre proper. Priorities, people.

12noon and we're in, just in time for the Birds of Prey demonstration. An owl lands on our picnic table. A hawk eats some unidentifiable bits of chicken a bit too close to us for comfort. A very young kestrel gets every instruction wrong and messes up the last bit of the presentation in a quite adorable way.

12.30pm and we settle in a clearing near to the wildcats for our picnic. My husband's head is looking pretty sunburnt and we decide to break out the picnic blanket under a shady tree. Just as well as the heavens open and we eat good old traditional British damp Quavers and sandwiches. After all that, the "healthy eating" sandwiches are made with yogurt instead of mayonnaise and taste very odd. Excellent. We change the baby's nappy on the picnic blanket in the rain (oh the glamour!) and get the footmuff out in time for the sun to burn through again and we take the footmuff off the pushchair again. We move on to feed the sheep before another weather-based intervention has to take place.

1.20pm and the sheep are eating food pellets (bought from the Deer Centre) from my hand. We see reindeer, the fox enclosure (but no foxes) and I take Amelia up on the elevated wooden squirrel walk, from which we see a coathanger and a man picking his nose, but no squirrels.

2.10pm and a go on the squashed penny machine later, we're out of there. A sleeps in the car while we nip along to Balgove Farmers Shop and Cafe for a cheeky afternoon tea and a bit of posh food shopping.

4pm and we're back on the road home, ready for the evening rigmarole of Amelia's dinner, bathtime, story and bedtime. This takes us up to 7.20pm, when I cook bacon cheese burgers, using Balgove bacon and local cheese, Red Anster. It's a cross between Red Leicester and Cheshire, with added garlic and chives, and tastes lovely. Fittingly, for this kind of dinner, the Radio 4 show Americana is playing in the background as I cook and we eat. I learn about the stock exchange in Chicago, which as you'd expect from the mid-west, is much like our corn exchanges from years past.

I pop upstairs at 8pm to resettle the baby, who has woken up. While I'm up on the top floor (we have two bedrooms in what used to be the loft), I nip into my craft room and spend nearly an hour creasing and folding around 40 envelopes in preparation for an extra trim and some gluing tomorrow evening. When I pop the TV on at 8.47 downstairs, I kick myself that I've missed the best part of Dragon's Den, but I lighten up when I realise there's a new series of Young, Dumb and Living off Mum on BBC3. This is trashy reality TV of the best kind - with a sarcastic Robert Webb voiceover - and makes me glad to be in a proper job. One of the types of work experience they are sent on this week is cleaning a youth hostel - something I once did over a summer in Edinburgh and would not like to do again. The University rents out its student accommodation over the summer and it's managed by the Scottish Youth Hostel Association. By strange co-incidence I ended up cleaning in my old building, and even my old bedroom, overlooking the Pleasance Courtyard. I had to stop when a stag party tarred and feathered their groom in one of the flats, using treacle and a burst pillow. I'm very very very allergic to feathers when they aren't on birds, and found myself unable to breathe, a horrible experience. I actually quite enjoyed the cleaning aspect of the job, and the methodical completion of repetitive tasks was very relaxing. I was actually working three jobs that summer (an office job collating and summarising media reports of British defence contracts for the MOD and a customer services supervisor at Sainsburys, too), as I had to make up for lost time when I couldn't work during term time while I was living in Paris.

10pm and I have a Green and Blacks hot chocolate before bed. Yikes, a new era begins tomorrow, I'd better get a good sleep!

Treasury feature: slick pink

2011-08-12T20:50:00.002+01:00

Another treasury, this time featuring the LAST EVER set of oversized grey and pink heart coasters. If you've had your eye on these, snap them up now, as I just sold a set earlier this week and these are the very last ones.

Treasury feature: strings

2011-08-10T20:47:00.002+01:00

I've been lucky to find girlindustries items in a few treasuries this week - thank you to everyone who comments on and browses these lists, and a huge thank you to the lovely people who compile them.

Teeny tiny shiny envelopes

2011-08-07T11:36:00.001+01:00

Aren't these tiny sparkly glittery envelopes cute? They're just 3cm square! They come with their own matching white folding cards, that you can customise to your heart's content. I am sure you can do a far better job than my sad attempt!

Find them in my shop and snap them up before they're gone, as they are upcycled from one piece of sturdy gift wrap there are only 16 of the little blighters in the whole wide world...

On your marks, get set, knit!

2011-08-05T15:40:00.002+01:00

Wow, in just over 2 months' time it'll be the closing date for this years Big Knit! UK knitting magazine, Knit Today, has put its usual contributors to work on some fun new patterns for tiny bottle toppers. Including... Pss Beatrice's hat from the first of this year's Royal Weddings. Brilliant!

Time to get knitting - see Innocent's website for the closing date and where to send your completed hats.

Wallpaper envelopes - new!

2011-08-02T08:24:00.000+01:00

I decided it was time for a bit of a shake-up in the wallpaper envelope department and have added a new size to my repertoire!

They are available in 12 different pattern/colourways (all from Laura Ashley's wonderful range) and all bin end samples, otherwise destined for the recycling.

My big task for naptimes this week is to upload all 12 varieties to my upcycled envelopes section in the shop, but in the meantime, here's a snapshot of the whole range.

I'm ready for custom orders and each colourway should yield around 50 envelopes, so they're ideal for your larger projects. I even have co-ordinating offcuts available that I'd be happy to send free of charge if someone creative fancied teaming them up with their own handmade cards.

With smaller offcuts, I've started making up co-ordinating envelope seals, but they are a little further off making their debut in the shop just yet. I love this time of year, it's the traditional stationery purchase month!

Taking stock...

2011-08-01T10:44:00.004+01:00

Warning: this is going to be one of those posts all about me. Skip it or indulge me, your choice :)

I go back to my full time day job in two weeks today. Gosh. The last fifteen months have been extremely challenging, more so than I ever imagined. Some of the misconceptions that I had about pregnancy, babies and life as a parent have been blown completely out of the water. Before I had a baby, the only people I'd ever really spoken to about all that stuff had had fairly straightforward pregnancies, and births, and where things had become a little complicated, had received appropriate and timely medical care. I certainly had never known anyone spend the last six months of pregnancy and first six months of their child's life unable to stand for longer than 20 minutes and unable to walk further than one side of their house to the other. I thought babies slept 16 hours a day when newborn, and could be awake and not crying simultaneously, at least some of the time.

I knew the phrase 'you're pregnant, not disabled' wasn't a nice thing to say, but I didn't know you could become disabled from being pregnant or having a mismanaged delivery. I didn't know I wouldn't be able to even walk to a local shop for a pint of milk or to the playground on the other side of my back garden so my baby could go on the swings until she was 9 months old. I really never thought I'd be the kind of person who depended on a car to get around. I also didn't think I'd be the kind of person who would feel jealous of someone walking to collect their older child from school the day after they'd had a baby, when the day after I'd had a baby I was hooked up to all kinds of drips, drains and who knows what else, wondering if I'd ever live long enough to walk my child to school.

What I did know was that I was always going to go back to work - I'm even more determined to help make a difference to people who work in and use NHS services now - and that I will manage to balance being a mum, a wife, a friend and an employee with having some kind of social life and keeping my businesses going, as well as planning for another idea I have up my sleeve. Now just to think of what to say when everyone asks me did I enjoy my 'year off'. I always have the instinct to go a bit 1920s in these circumstances 'the heart failure, major surgery and feelings of having to conform to societal expectations of a new mother were a crashing bore, but that aside, just tickety boo, thanks'.

Luckily, I have just two short weeks to dwell on this, well, two weeks of nap times, anyway. In other news, I've made some new envelopes, and normal service will be resumed in my next post. Hurrah!

Crafty Attic

2011-07-30T11:20:00.000+01:00

Do you remember recently that I posted about a site called Heartsy? Well, Heartsy has now mostly shifted away from handmade/independent sellers and a new site called Crafty Attic is picking up where Heartsy left off. With a provisional launch date of 1 September, Crafty Attic looks like another interesting prospect for us crafty thrifty types - keep your eyes peeled for more news!

Another lovely person with an amazing sale on...

2011-07-28T10:57:00.003+01:00

Miss Kapow! How could I not notice your incredibly generous sale over on Folksy at the moment! Now I've had my pick of lovely things (mwah ha ha), everyone else, have at it!

You won't be disappointed :) Not with offbeat and laugh out loud funny cards like these Creepy Christmas numbers... Even Radio 1 was playing that song at teatime the other day, you can't help but sing along.

Summer sales

2011-07-27T08:52:00.005+01:00

Glasgow crafters Glitterysah and Asking For Trouble are having some very generous sale offers at the moment, now is a great time to add to your stash of gifts for those last-minute birthday panic moments!

I love Sah's zip up purse, a snip at only £4, and this Asking for Trouble button bag - I'm really into this lovely shade of fresh blue right now!

The Titchables clearance sale rolls on, now with much reduced stock but an increased 50% discount, using code sale50 at checkout.

And if you're looking to stock up on yarn, take a look in the Life Craft eBay outlet.

Anyone else having a sale right now for me to take a look at?

Done and done

2011-07-25T21:00:00.000+01:00

Just in time for the new arrival, the blanket is done and ready to pop in the post. Now all I hope is that the postman knocking doesn't interrupt any precious moments of sleep! My new nephew arrived last night, just as I'd opened the last bottle of champagne from our wedding, perfect timing!

Nearly there...

2011-07-21T22:13:00.001+01:00

The blanket I'm working on for my new nephew (due any day) is almost there...

Wedding season

2011-07-18T08:42:00.000+01:00

As summer is well and truly underway in this part of the world (not that you'd know from the photo above, taken in my very sunny craft room), I've been inspired to update my confetti packaging. And in turn, this confetti update has inspired how I package and send all of my goodies!

Of course, the beauty of this is that I can update the labels with whatever text you like - the names and wedding date of the lucky couple in the case of confetti, or a message for the recipient if you're buying a set of notecards for a gift. I can even switch up the twine colours to match what's hiding inside.

Now my confetti looks much more appealing, I'll be showing you a lot more of it in my shop. I have to admit getting a bit carried away with the punches when I wasn't very mobile last year, but didn't have the concentration to knit or sew. I love the idea of having the confetti I made from a damaged French romance novel at a wedding, so much fun to pick the pieces off each other and have a nosy at the words! I love that soupir is hiding in there - ahhhhh!

When life hands you lemons...

2011-07-16T10:59:00.001+01:00

A new-ish treasury

New in the shop!

2011-07-14T12:42:00.000+01:00

These gorgeous little envelopes and matching embellished flat cards are available in the girlindustries etsy shop right now! At $4 for a set of 5, they come in at a dinky 7 x 11cm, or 4 1/4 x 2 7/8 inches.

Upcycled from a day to a page calendar, each set of five notecards includes a variety of cats and background colours in each set.

A day in the life

2011-07-13T10:54:00.001+01:00

It's that time again, Claire has called us to action to produce another Day in the Life post. I took part once before, last February. Catch up with other contributors, Catherine, Marceline and Laura (amongst many others, it's even happening over in Brooklyn) and take part if you like!

3.55am Wake up to hear the battery low alert in the baby monitor. Plug it back in and amble dangerously back to bed. I don't really do half asleep.

6.12am Wake up again, this time it's the baby asking me to nip upstairs and get her. In the universal language of pre-speech infants. Which is loud and irritating so I drag myself out of bed in a bid to make it stop. We settle in bed and I spend the next half an hour keeping her away from my glasses, my iPod, my book and everything else that is on my bedside table.

6.42am I am relieved from crawl-preventing duties by my husband and nip downstairs to make coffee and milk. We have our drinks in bed while we watch all the latest from the Island of Sodor, where the trains are slightly more efficient than Scotrail and make it to their final destination without the use of a bus replacement service. Which was yesterday's special adventure.

7.52am I am showered, breakfasted and dressed in the lovely giraffe t-shirt I bought in Portland, OR on honeymoon (it still fits! it still kind of fits!), by coincidence, Phil has dressed Amelia in her giraffe t-shirt, and we head off to the childminder's farm, where Amelia is spending the day in preparation for my return to work next month.

8.10am I get the weekly shop in at our local supermarket. Included is a big box of Lemsips as me and the husband continue to shake off bad colds. In the middle of summer. I also buy six packs of Stoats porridge bars as I really admire the guy who set the company up in Edinburgh around the time I was graduating and moving on to big retail, and they are reduced to 49p for five flapjacks, with a use by date of September. Result! Interesting fact: we were going to have Stoats bars as our wedding favours if we hadn't found The Other Mousie to make pirate kitties for us instead!

8.40am Unpack the shopping, and a few scooped up random items from the car - including a handknitted baby blanket, and a toy owl I made on Saturday night. Tidy the living room, including putting away random bits of owl for future owl making purposes.

9.05am Race upstairs to get some details on an eBay item I'm selling that finishes in ten minutes, for a last minute question-asker. Race back downstairs to post the details on the listing, just in the nick of time. It is a sample size Clinique lip gloss and it netted me £1.74, from a person with 'giraffe' in their user name. Today is too giraffey by far and it's only just gone 9am.

9.20am I package up 10 items I've sold over the course of the weekend and fill out a proof of posting form. So far my day is incredibly exciting, so I go for a cup of tea and a sit down. I'm knitting a baby blanket for my sister with Rowan Calmer yarn, the same kind of yarn used in the blanket I made for Amelia last year. My new nephew is due to arrive any day so I'm not entirely sure why I started this yesterday and not six months ago but hey ho. It's a big departure for me with bright bold boyish colours, and I enjoy working on the first few stripes as the pattern unfolds.

11am I realise the time and consider leaving the couch. I pick up my laptop and impulse buy two sets of vintage fabric remnants from Etsy seller Rope, that I was eyeing up on Sunday. I make a treasury based around zines and coffee, and wish I could afford to buy all the zines on this list.

11.45am I realise the time and run upstairs to my craft room to finish off the last zine in the Answers on a Postcard series. I format the pages into PDFs and zap them downstairs for my husband to print off on the supercomputer. My printer upstairs needs new ink and I keep forgetting to pick some up.

12.47pm Time to make lunch and maybe dose up on another Lemsip. We're having chicken pasties with mash and gravy. Yum! After we've eaten I tidy up the kitchen and wait for my New York friend Sabrina to phone for a catch up.

2pm I settle down for a bit more knitting and a watch of the newish HBO series Treme. I'm up to the last episode having watched the whole first season in the last four days. It's a great programme and I definitely recommend it. Don't wikipedia it to find out more (like I foolishly did, when trying to check whether the location filming for Davis' hotel job was in a hotel I'd stayed in on one of my few weekend trips to NOLA - later on in the series the same hotel is used again and the front door and signage is shown, and yes it was!), there's a terrible spoiler that kind of ruined part of the series for me. One of my favourite actors (Steve Zahn - one of the cast in my favourite film of all time) is in it, and what's more, he sings! There's a great ensemble cast and separate storylines which occasionally interlink. And there is so much wonderful music in it, you can watch it while you work on a craft project and still get loads of enjoyment from it. If you've been to New Orleans, keep your eyes peeled for great location filming, like Preservation Hall, Cafe du Monde, Pat O'Briens, all the usual places.

3.30pm I start to think about finishing up what I need to do, like collect in the recycling bin (today is collection day and our bin is halfway up the street where the council workers left it), check my email for any more orders to send out, quickly write a new home card (from Dude and Chick) for my sister and her family, who are moving house this week as well as anticipating a new arrival any minute!

5pm and I'm home with the baby. We play in the living room for a while before thinking about dinner. Amelia has already had something at her childminder's house, but me and Phil are having her favourite, asparagus, with our dinner, so she joins us at the highchair with a few pieces of asparagus while we have an early-ish dinner at 6.30pm.

9pm and a bit more knitting later, I catch twenty minutes of a TV documentary about Orthodox Jewish people in my home city, Salford. The accents make me feel a bit homesick and I think about going to bed. Just one more stripe of the blanket before I go up with a night-time bottle for Amelia and hope for everyone to have a full night in their own beds.

Disclaimer: I cheated and wrote about Monday because Tuesday my cold turned into the flu and I thought that 10am napped, 11am drank lemsip, 12noon napped through lunch, 2pm more lemsip and a scone because I couldn't face cooking 4pm napped etc was a bit dull

Flash of inspiration!

2011-07-08T13:35:00.006+01:00

I feel like giving something back to celebrate finishing my zine project, Answers on a Postcard! Tell me a surprising fact about you that you are willing to share in a teeny-tiny mini zine. You can even remain anonymous if you email me your fact and TELL ME that you want to remain a mystery contributor.

Or post your comment here so we can all see it! Or send it to @girlindustries on Twitter. Email me your postal address so I can send you a free copy once all the responses are compiled. Katy at girlindustries dot com. Do it!

Lovely shopping

2011-07-08T09:37:00.004+01:00

I haven't been to the V & A museum in oooh, ages. But I'm signed up to their email news service and love it when news of their shop sales come through. At the moment there are excellent bargains to be had out of season for Christmas decorations with a handmade feel, and I quite often buy stationery from the museum for Christmas presents - they have a great range of designs and I feel good knowing the money is supporting the museum in these troubling times for the arts and public institutions. How wonderful is this memory book, in bright powder blue?

If you stray away from the sales section, you can browse fabric reproductions of vintage designs available by the metre, many of which are also reduced in price. But the sale itself is worth a look, with offers like this felt feather decoration, a snip at 30p! Or a crocheted Christmas tree bauble for just 50p! It's a good reminder that now is the time to be thinking about Christmas stock for our own shops - 2011 is flying past and it'll be Autumn before we know it...

Card making

2011-07-07T10:13:00.000+01:00

Can you believe my little girl is nearly a year old? I'm in the middle of making a TV birthday card for her in enough time to send in to Milkshake for her birthday. We're big fans of the sea side at the moment, and of course, Peppa Pig (thank you BT Vision for hour long back-to-back shows without ads, you are cheaper than employing a cleaner) and here she is making sandcastles with her little brother George.

The obligatory photo of the birthday girl will be hiding under the sunshine!

PIF of the week

2011-07-04T13:24:00.002+01:00

This week's PIF is a small batch of envelopes I made from a hoarding poster advertising the release of electricity, by Suede. I have a ton of these posters saved in a big tube from my student days and wondered if there's a market for some lovely nostalgic envelopes - I'm viewing the PIF as kind of test marketing!

I've even thrown in a set of co-ordinating grey flatcards. Envelopes measure approximately 7 x 11cm and cards are marginally smaller with rounded corners. Also happening in the etsy shop right now is a bit of a flash summer sale. Use the code TOOHOT40 for 40% off, but hurry because I'll be withdrawing the code at some point this week .

My workspace this week

2011-07-02T18:56:00.004+01:00

So with only FOUR weeks to go before I'm officially back at work, I'm trying to finish off as many half-done projects as I can, especially as I've been applying to craft markets for the run up to Christmas!

This week I've mainly been finishing off envelope and notecard sets that I needed new glue in order to complete. There's a specific kind of archival glue that I use which is kind to the paper and really durable, and I had run out. After a mercy dash to WH Smiths last week, all the cut out and scored envelopes can be finished off and packed away. With the offcuts from my envelopes, I try to use as much as I can for confetti shapes and also price tags. Here's a snapshot of (one of) my (three) desk(s) with it all going on!

Eagle-eyed Suede fans, look out for a special PIF on Monday...

Look what we made!

2011-06-30T10:22:00.001+01:00

With the help of Vonnie, at the Life Craft, Amelia took part in her first ever bit of crafting! Like mother like daughter, she likes a bit of stamping, but in Amelia's case, she is so resourceful (and doesn't get spending money yet), she has resorted to using her hands and feet as stamps!

We came away with some lovely grandparent gifts - the ones in the traditional colours - and a lovely teal version for Amelia's newly-painted green and teal bedroom. If you haven't had the chance to get along to the Life Craft yet and you're anywhere near Glasgow, do get yourself or the kids along for some crafting, cake and coffee. It's on Great Western Road next to the Post Office, just a hop, skip and a jump from the Botanic Gardens, on the same side of the road as Oran Mor. As well as drop in pottery painting, a great selection of crafting supplies and of course, amazing home baking, you can get booked on a range of different crafting courses all taught by local experts.

PIF of the week

2011-06-27T17:00:00.002+01:00

This week you can get my TP in the park brooch for just the cost of shipping and my Etsy listing fee. My day job colleague Emily helped me come up with this idea to celebrate Music Festival Season (because you can never have too much loo roll at a festival), and as this year's season is in full flow, this is my gift to you!

Buy it now in the Girl Industries Etsy shop.

Handstitching on the TV

2011-06-25T10:17:00.001+01:00

I was banned by my parents from watching TV channels with adverts when I was little and I'm rebelling by allowing Amelia to watch this show on Channel 5. It's called Hana's Helpline and it's about animals in Wales with problems, they phone a duck called Hana and she sorts them out, with help from Owen the Owl and Beti the bat. Like all the best kid's TV, it's stop motion but this time made with felt puppets, which are exceptionally cute and the attention to detail is fantastic - my favourites are Owen the Owl and Ernie the Eagle! It doesn't look like it, but these are photos I took directly of our TV during the programme - I'm pretty impressed and just a little smug that I didn't even have to pay for it - it was a free gift last summer in place of my usual mobile phone upgrade - the first time I've ever owned a TV larger than a portable and our first flat screen, too. Very swish for us!

Strange coincidences

2011-06-22T12:31:00.001+01:00

So I was getting ready to send out the latest zines from the Answers on a Postcard project to one of my subscribers, as well as the winnings from my recent Haunt contest and I was looking for a postcard to write a little note on.

Would you believe that the first one that came to hand was one from the same area where Haunt is based? I visited the Catskills in 2000 on the most amazing rickety old Adirondack Trailways bus out of Port Authority with my room-mate Sophie for a fun weekend out in the wilds.

Photo by: http://www.seaoats.etsy.com/

Also, I was randomly browsing Etsy and this pencil case by seaoats leapt out at me from someone in my Circle's favourites list... The photo the designer has used to make the screen print for the fabric shows the skyline of Exchange Place, a swift glance to the left from where I used to live, and a very familiar sight from days when I would take the World Trade Center ferry in to work. I tried to find out if the ferry still runs (it doesn't) and this led me to the PATH website, and their photographic archives, which are available for sale. I love this shot from 1912, the railroad has only added a handful of stations in the last 99 years.

And now I feel all homesick for NJ, so I put together this treasury to help me wallow in it then feel better. Enjoy!

Next time, I may bore you with places I have lived in Edinburgh... or Paris maybe.

PIF of the week and a zines update

2011-06-20T17:00:00.002+01:00

As I clear out my craft room I've found a lot of projects that I simply ran out of steam with, and decided not to continue. It's all good stuff that I've put time and effort into, so I've decided to offer it in my Etsy store as a PIF of the week. If you haven't come across a PIF before, or you have but don't know what it stands for, it's Pay It Forward, and it means that the buyer only has to cover P&P and your Etsy listing fees to take it off your hands. So I'll update you here every Monday about forthcoming PIFs of the week, and hopefully you'll find a bargain that's just up your street!

First up is this set of hand-cut upcycled luggage tags. I was originally going to use them as part of my packaging, but changed my plans once I realised no two of my sales were alike, so different packaging solutions were called for every time. The tags are unstrung, blank kraft on the reverse and are just shy of business card size - around 3 x 5cm

More sale-type action can be found over at Pushpin Zines with a special offer on the Answers on a Postcard series - with THREE new zines added to the series. The new issues are exclusive to Pushpin until the end of August so grab them while they're hot! Find out more about the new questions and answers over at Pushpin by clicking on details of #9, 10 and 11.

Some good news and some bad news

2011-06-18T21:38:00.001+01:00

Well, I'll get the bad news out of the way first. I wasn't lucky enough to be picked for a Heartsy deal, gaining only 18% of votes from potential buyers (the usual threshold is 28%) but I think it was a pretty valiant effort and I certainly won't be deterred from trying again with a different micro range to test on people. Some sad news, too, Answers on a Postcard zine contributor Titchables (Issue 8, Crafting Spaces, still to be printed!) is closing down her supplies shop on Etsy. Use the code sale40 for a generous additional 40% off her already reasonable prices.

The good news is, I have a fantastic new online stockist over at Scotland-based http://www.ethicsgirls.co.uk/- where the ethos is very much on the reclaimed and recycled...primarily with clothing, but also with gifts, which is where I fit in. Head over there to take a look!

Craftseller

2011-06-15T11:46:00.000+01:00

My lovely husband brought me a little present with the weekly shop on Saturday morning, the first edition of this brand new glossy magazine. Even better, it was presented with the thoughtful comment 'this is not because I think you need help to sell things, I just thought it was more interesting than getting you Hello magazine or something'. Ahhhh.

I really enjoyed looking through this magazine and hope it progresses to give lots more advice and support for those of us selling crafts in person and online. At the moment it's very focused on how to set up a business, and gives lots of patterns which the designers have given permission to sell - very unusual for a craft magazine! I don't think I'll be making anything directly from the magazine but it does have lots of great tips for suppliers and supplies, packaging, photography and presentation that I found really useful. I did get a bit huffy when I noticed the 'monster knits' tutorial for a phone pocket (on the bottom right of the photo) was very similar to how I remembered the DS pouch I made as a gift in 2009, but then I always have to remind myself that four people invented photography at about the same time and my monster was a home-made version of a well known Japanese creation so who am I to criticise!

Each of the projects are rated for skill level and most of them are easy, so if you do fancy having a go, I can recommend it. There is the usual blend of inspirational success stories from established craft entrepreneurs and advice from Etsy UK staff, too. There was a free gift of 'professional stickers' to finish off your crafty creations but I they were all pastelly colours and they wouldn't have tempted me to pick up the magazine any more than the content. I think a more useful gift would have been advice on how to design your own packaging and a link to some free collage sheets or fonts or similar but then, I am sure those new to crafting may have found a quick fix even more enticing. All in all, a good read, and I'll be interested to see if the magazine develops to cater for crafters at a more advanced stage of making and selling their own self-designed wares.

Postcard pals

2011-06-12T11:12:00.001+01:00

I took part in a really cool snail mail swap organised by Claire of Miso Funky last month. I was so excited when my post card arrived! Molly sent me a tea and flowers themed card - you can never have enough of either tea or flowers in my opinion, so I was delighted to receive it and will be putting it up in my craft room to remind me to take a break now and again.

I also made a new Twitter friend when Liz, cake maker extraordinaire, received my geeky Popeye fold and mail notelet, too. I used to love sending letters to my penfriends Martine, Elin and Olivia when I was a teenager - although I cringe to think what I must have written. Yikes! Luckily I'm still in touch with them via Facebook so it can't have been that bad :)

I hope Claire does another swap soon - I still have a huge postcard and notepaper collection that I'd love to put to good use. Not too mention a good few upcycled envelopes... You can find one or two of my favourites in each of my paper destash boxes. It's all good stuff in there!

Quilting for beginners

2011-06-10T11:02:00.000+01:00

I had a little go at making a quilt today! My niece received a baby doll for her 3rd birthday, along with cot, pram, all the good stuff, but I got a call to say that her dolly was getting cold at night because she only had a tea towel to use in her bed. Well that wouldn't do at all, would it?

I grabbed a couple of vintage pillowcases from my stash (the furry sort of deep-piled cotton ones, what's that stuff called again? Is it flannelette? That doesn't even look like a word, does it?) and set to work. Luckily my sewing machine had just been fixed by Jen at The Life Craft, so I was all ready to go. I had a little bit of a fleece blanket left over from making a blackout blind/wall hanging so that went in the middle of one of the pillowcases, which I trimmed to tea towel size and turned inside out to sew up all the edges, leaving a gap to turn it back right side out again and closed up by top stitching all around. I then did a few lines of top stitching to keep the fleece in place, giving a very amateurish (but just fine for dollies) quilt style look. I then made a pillow out of a bit of old sheet, stuffed it with toy stuffing, sewed it up and made a matching envelope-style pillow case. The whole thing took me about two hours and was the most fun I've had with my sewing machine in ages! Not a swear word was uttered, something of a miracle.

Here's A's toy elephant testing it out! I have a feeling there will be many more photos of this kind to come and that makes me very happy indeed.

Pushpin Publishing goes live!

2011-06-08T11:29:00.000+01:00

My answers on a postcard zines are now also available from new Glasgow-based zine distro Pushpinzines.co.uk. Pushpin is brought to you by the talented designer behind Asking for Trouble and stocks a range of zines from around the world. There's a section for reader reviews, and I'm hoping readers have kind things to say about my attempts at zine-making!

There's a fab travel section on the website and I immediately ordered up this zine about Portland, OR, where Phil and I spent a few days on honeymoon. If I ever visit again, I think I'll do a ton more research before we go, as we didn't really make the most of the places we could have gone to, and didn't enjoy nearly as many of the microbrewed local craft beers as we should have. We did have the most amazing time at the zoo, though, and my husband got to ride on a yellow school bus for the first time - between the offsite car park and the zoo itself - which was one of his highlights of the whole trip. Yes really. Sigh... Anyway, I digress, but I am looking forward to reading the zine and also posting a review. Hurray!

One of the things that makes Pushpin such a great website is that support is also offered should you want to get into making your own zine. A bespoke service is available, to help you with all the design and layout issues of making a zine, amongst other things which you can ask Marceline all about, or if you just want to dip in a toe, you can invest in Marceline's Let's Make Zines minizine, which is a bargain at just a pound. After being involved in writing, design and making zines for oooh, about 20 years at a guess, there is a wealth of knowledge contained in this little zine. In fact, I defy you not to find something you love on this website. Happy shopping!

Buttons galore!

2011-06-05T11:20:00.001+01:00

I've just done a big button update in the shop, but there are plenty more where these came from. There is something lovely about sorting through my big bag of buttons (you can get your own over at askingfortrouble) and carding them up. I hope you find something amongst them that is just perfect for a lovely project - much better than having them languishing in a bag in my sewing chest.

Swirlyarts and Gniwle are winners!

2011-06-03T10:45:00.001+01:00

Random.org has chosen a pair of lucky winners. A Pear lip lust is on its way to Lynsey of Swirlyarts and Gniwle has won the Bettie lip lust - Gniwle I need your address so I can put your winnings in the post - email me at katy at girlindustries dot com to get things rolling. Thank you everyone for playing along and if you wish to treat yourself to anything in my shop, have yourself a little WINNER discount code for 25% percent off, which is valid until 10 June.

Another Hank purchase

2011-06-01T11:09:00.002+01:00

I knew this gorgeous bag reminded me of something when I saw it in the Made by Hank shop...

The view just around the corner from our house as I drive towards the motorway! It's hard to get the full effect here, but with all the bunches of greenery on the landscape I always think of the tough ruffles on my Made By Hank bag.

With all the rain we've had recently, it's looking extra lush and gorgeous, don't you think?

I almost can't believe those blue skies are real, given the bad weather we've had recently (Force 8 gales nearly destroyed our roof!) but I assure you, I really don't have the photoshop skills :)

Giveaway reminder and a big thank you

2011-05-30T11:12:00.001+01:00

There's still time to enter the competition to win a Haunt lip lust. Just click here for info and post a comment on the original post by midnight UK time on the 31st May!

Also I'd like to say a huge thank you to my lovely friends and readers who have voted for me over on Heartsy. I have another 6 days to wait for the decision on whether I'll be featured in a deal, during which time my vote is still live, so you aren't too late if you'd like to give it a shot. Either go directly to Heartsy.me, sign up and click on my deal, or go direct via this (affiliate) link which will get you $5 off if you decide to buy one of the daily deals.

Unfinished business

2011-05-27T10:58:00.001+01:00

Nothing quite focuses the mind like knowing you're back at your day job in 12 weeks, and your MSc dissertation is due just after Christmas. In the meantime, I have a ton of unfinished projects around the house, some for home, some for Girl Industries and I really need to pull my finger out and get them finished. One of the projects I've been working on for a while is a rag rug for Amelia's room.

In true upcycling style, it uses worn out t-shirts from all of the family that we really couldn't have given to the charity shop or popped into the Salvation Army hopper at the supermarket. I've just about finished chopping up all the t-shirts, and the next steps are:

Check there are no more t-shirts to use up.
Chop up all remaining useable t-shirts.
Decide on size of rug and cut rug canvas to size.
Use spare canvas offcuts for a bit of a practice.
Go at it on the main canvas.

I'm not knitting as much these days as I find most of my crafting time is in the evening and is often interrupted. Amelia is pretty good at going to bed and falling asleep, but occasionally is woken by the light-ish nights, noises outdoors (curse you, ice cream vans), or a runny nose, or the threat of teeth coming through. So it have to work on something that is easy to put down and even easier to put away. As she gets more mobile, the putting away aspect is going to become even more important, wish me luck! I'll try and keep you updated on the rug as it develops, but if it's anything like the still unfinished but in constant use curtain I made for our front door, you could be waiting a while!

Collective craft buying with Heartsy

2011-05-24T10:30:00.005+01:00

I'm sure you can't use the internet these days without stumbling across collective buyer sites like Groupon, Itison, and the like. It's no different in the crafting sphere, with new site heartsy.me. However, there's a twist in the heartsy process, deals are juried by site users and of the 20 or so submissions received daily, only 4-6 make it in to the daily newsletter and deals.

I'd had a few referrals show up in Google Analytics from heartsy but it was only recently I did a bit more investigating, and of course, had to submit my own deal for consideration. If you want to vote for me and take part in other prospective deals (clicking on whether you like the sound of a deal or not does get pretty addictive!) you can sign up here. This is a referral link, so you should get $5 for signing up, redeemable against a future deal, as should I.

You do need to sign in to be able to vote on specific deals, as well as to see those deals running today, but if you'd like to do this without taking part in the referral programme, go straight to heartsy.me, or the link to voting for Girl Industries, which is here. You can also sign in via facebook, but personally I'm a little wary of linking anything 'monetised' to facebook. I like to keep my finances and my friends separate!

I'd be delighted if you could vote for me, my pitch is open for the rest of today. If I'm successful, I'll let you know all the about the deal as soon as I can. Hitting 'publish' on this post is breaking me out in a little bit of a cold sweat because the Englishness in me sees asking for votes rather than getting them on my own merit as not quite cricket. And I can't help but feel a little bit like hmmmmm for setting out my stall for Heartsy, while I don't know the outcome of whether I'll be featured. Or maybe I'm just jealous that I never thought to set up something similar first! However... Heartsy is a pretty nifty operation and I did get a great deal on supplies recently via a Heartsy deal so it's worth your while to take a look at what's on offer. It's definitely brought a good few shops to my attention that I may well shop with in future, too. And I do rather like having a website in my life that I can obsessively press F5 on for a few days until the novelty wears off (while I see how my votes stack up!)

Haunt lip lust giveaway

2011-05-20T16:45:00.005+01:00

Hi everyone! To celebrate the summer opening of wonderful bath and body emporium, Haunt, I'm giving away two of the shop's wonderful products from my very own stash.

First up is Bettie, a lip lust in a delightfully exotic flavour, evocative of the glamour of days gone by. Secondly we have the fresh zingy flavour of Vanilla Pear, sweet and clean. Both soothe and moisturise your lips, giving them that little extra shine, too.

I'm going to give the pair away separately, so that's one tube for each of TWO LUCKY WINNERS. This is your chance to see what I've been going on about for the last couple of years, Haunt products rock!

But of course once you've perused Erin's shop, to see her description of the two flavours, I'd like you to tell me in the comments here which flavour you'd prefer to win, then hop over to my etsy shop and tell me which of my products you like the best. I'm having a big sort out in my craft room and want to streamline the things I sell, with your input.

Please tweet, blog and repost about this giveaway to your hearts' content and most of all, good luck, I hope you win! Closing date is 30 May at 12 midnight British Summer Time.

UPDATE: Giveaway will remain open until 31 May at midnight due to accidentally putting that date on my update post. I am an official idiot.

If the baby ever naps today...

2011-05-20T11:24:00.003+01:00

... I will do a giveaway right here! Clue: it's something to do with the fact that Haunt is having a summer sale this weekend...

Coming soon... buttons!

2011-05-17T18:11:00.004+01:00

The crafty destash continues... look out for a whole new section of reclaimed and vintage buttons in the girlindustries etsy shop soon.

What's cooking?

2011-05-15T15:30:00.000+01:00

The book...

The recipe (we used macadamias because we don't have any hazels right now)

And....

The results - yum!

With apologies for the terrible light at the far end of my kitchen, but you get the idea.

Now here's something I never knew about

2011-05-10T12:25:00.000+01:00

The BBC has picked up this blog on its Open Country page. I'm an avid Radio 4 listener and blogged about one of their programmes which discussed the decline of Fair Isle knitting last summer when I was a pregnant insomniac.

Thanks, Statcounter, for bringing this to my attention - I've had visitors from all over the world since being featured there! Follow the link to find other bloggers talking about Fair Isle knitting and other issues discussed on Radio 4, as well as listen to the original programme.

Craft destash!

2011-05-03T13:30:00.004+01:00

I'm starting an uber-clearout in the countdown to returning to work. First up, on eBay, is a huge chunk of my collection of knitting and papercraft magazines, finishing in fits and starts ('cos that's how I list 'em) over the next 10 days. Just look me up, I'm called Kippersmum - my ginger cat is called Kipper and I thought I would be a memorable name!

I was given a huge partworks collection of crochet and knitting patterns from 1989/90/91 called Creative Needles and I'm selling it off as a 10-pattern lucky dip via my Etsy shop. Coming to both eBay and Etsy will be button packs, trims and ribbons, surplus fabric and more bits and bobs over the next few weeks as I get my craft room organised before I go back to my day job. 11 weeks and counting!

I've also rejigged my craft paper destash item and have 12 sets packaged up and ready to go. Now with 50 different paper ephemera pieces which all fit into a lovely repurposed A5 box for you to keep nice and safe once they arrive instead of loose in a folder or envelope. The collection now includes spare 5 x 7 inch photographs from my travels around the world, including this sepia-tinted shot of the Bethesda Fountain in New York's Central Park, where I used to spend many a happy lunch hour back in the day.

Let my loss be your gain, and stock up on craft goodies while they're at a bargain price. Buy three or more items and I'll refund your postage (UK or international) via PayPal if you mention 'blog' in your notes to seller or a convo before 17 May 2011.

New banner!

2011-04-30T17:41:00.001+01:00

So I obtained myself a new banner for my etsy shop and thought you'd like to hear the story behind it. Like most things I seem to buy these days I heard about it first on Twitter. An art student called Mia made it for me, she is charging a dollar a word to write anything within reason in chalk on the pavement. Just click here if you'd like something of your very own. All proceeds go towards paying off her student loans and having finally cleared my (twelve year old) student debt a couple of months ago, I am all for helping someone else on her way to early repayment.

Mia also sells her art through this page on her website. I love her style and there are lots of purposeful and beautiful things to pick from. I particularly like her handmade yet practical playing cards set. Gorgeous!

I'm very tempted to get another message for a very unique birthday greeting for my husband next month, or my little girl's name to frame and put on her bedroom door. Oh the possibilities!

Break out the bunting, I'm unstoppable!

2011-04-26T11:54:00.006+01:00

I'm really ploughing through a whole lot of unfinished projects at the moment, and feeling pretty chuffed with myself. I've updated the shop with three new products this week, and the latest is timed to tie in with Royal Wedding Fever!

For years I've been putting little hearts in my knitting as a little kind of 'trademark', especially when I was making hats for Innocent's big knit. And of course there's almost a whole section of my etsy shop dedicated to confetti hearts. I've wanted to make miniature bunting for ooh, ages, and with my recent wedding-related cross-stitching project, all these ideas collided in a big flash of inspiration and here's the result:

I wish I was back at my day job at the moment so I could pop a string of this bunting on my desk in time for Friday. However, I am also aware of the fact that I would have to be doing work if I were sitting at my desk, so I'm kind of glad I don't have to be back for another three months!

Of course, this bunting is endlessly customisable, in different colours and even with letters spelling out 'bride', 'groom', 'wedding', the date of the wedding or the names of the happy couple. Or all of these things! Each square is 2cm by 2cm, uses dmc threads and the aida is backed with a layer of fluffy felt, to keep it in good shape. Luckily my stitching is pretty neat, even on the back, but I felt (ahem!) that the layer of felt just finished it off nicely.

Head over the shop now to pick some up - if you're in the UK, I'll even rush it out to you in time for Friday!

More useful offcuts

2011-04-25T12:13:00.001+01:00

In an attempt to make the most of the card I'd bought to go with my handmade envelopes, I saved even the littlest slivers in the hope of giving them new life.

So here in my shop is a limited edition set of bookmarks or gift tags with a teeny heart cutout and the ever popular bakers' twine.

When I was looking for a contrasting book to lay the bookmarks against, I was very pleased with myself to remember this little piece of history, my gran's diary from her days as a Justice of the Peace in Manchester. Not just the ideal colour and size for these photos, but a great trip down memory lane as I'd never got around to looking through it properly after I inherited it when I was a student and living away from home in France. I was surprised to learn that in 1978 (the year after we all went to Russia together when I was only a couple of months old) my Gran also visited Israel and spent Christmas in Spain - exciting times! My gran would have been celebrating her 99th birthday today if she was still with us, what a milestone.

Upgrade your envelopes

2011-04-23T11:47:00.002+01:00

New in my shop is an envelope upgrade, big 5 inch (12.5cm) square envelopes with co-ordinating flat cards. Each new set will be added individually because my cardstock is all rescued from fellow crafters overstock via Etsy's much-missed Alchemy feature. Making these sets extremely limited edition because I don't know when I can get more... Each set costs $10 and is available by clicking here. They're particularly handy as wedding thank yous, you can even pop a CD of your photos in with your thank you note, it fits perfectly!

I've been playing around with stamping up offcuts, for thank you notes and enclosures with orders. This makes me wonder whether I should add some co-ordinating designs onto one side of the flat cards, or if part of their appeal is their simplicity. Any thoughts welcomed on that front!

In the meantime, here is a suggestion for co-ordinating stationery to complement my envelopes from a fellow Etsy seller...

Letterpress key notes by Dempsey Press

or how about some lovely handmade paper - this stuff is so smooth you can even run it through your printer!

Handmade notepaper by White Dragon Paper

p.s. I had intended to include a whole selection of different notepapers but I am sensing a serious gap in the market here.