It's all going on...

(Apologies if you saw this as blank post previously- technical problems!)
I'm busy finishing off some pieces for the Art Presence show at the Centrespace Gallery, which I need to deliver tomorrow. The private view is this Saturday (the 28th) 6.30 - 9pm. If you are in Bristol, do feel free to come along. There are lots of artists exhibiting, and the emphasis is on work that's suitable for presents, so there will be lots of lovely things, I think. It's always good to get handmade presents and support the art/craft community.

As well as cards and framed assemblage, I've created some new, simple word badges. I like using words in my work, and I enjoy finding new ways of doing it. The style is very different from a lot of my handmade stuff. I'm not a natural minimalist(!), but it's effective sometimes. You probably can't read the small print in this photo, but it says they are 'guaranteed lo-tech', with no printing involved.

Maybe my changes in style account for my confusion over names, as I described in my previous post. A big thank you to everyone who has commented and entered the giveaway. 45 comments and counting so far!! A lot of these were due to a lucky coincidence. Following a link from another blog, I just happened to find 'Meet Me at Mike's', where they are hosting links to giveaways this week. So lots of new visitors have found me, which is all very exciting. And there's still lots of time to enter the giveaway, if you'd like to!!

ps Sorry the photos are a bit rubbish, but during these dark rainy days, I've had to take photos under a lamp on my desk - not ideal! Will it ever stop raining???

100th Post - Giveaway Time

100 posts! Woo-hoo! Cue the brass band and streamers!! Huzzah!

OK, simmer down everyone, I know you're all over-excited by this awesome news. What do you mean, you did 100 posts in less than a year, and you're underwhelmed that it's taken me about 18 months? Speed isn't everything.

Anyway, prepare for more excitement. Oh yeah. Because you're going to have a week of unbearable suspense wondering who will win my blog giveaway!! The winner will have an all-expenses-paid trip to their letterbox to receive a fab parcel of my handmade and vintage goodies!

Handmade, you ask? Why yes, I've been making a few things, and will be making a lot more, I hope. I've been planning to open a new online shop for my handmade, crafty things for months. I wanted a separate shop because I decided 'Kitsch and Curious' didn't really fit my new work. Also, in the past, when I'd tried to put handmade things into my Etsy vintage shop, they were totally ignored. (Possibly wisely...) So I hope a separate shop will have things flying off the shelves.

Actually, my first shop on Etsy.com was for handmade stuff. It was 'The Dolls Have Eyes'. I didn't really understand how to get the best out of Etsy and I only sold one card. Oh. and someone ordered an altered doll, but never paid for it. Not a great track record, but I still like the name and have a website www.TheDollsHaveEyes.com. Trouble is, nobody else likes it much.

So that experience has made me think hard about a new name. A bit too hard, actually. I have considered hundreds of names. I'm not exaggerating. Everything from Velvet Morning to Midnight Feast, Red Feathers to Grey Squirrel, Peanut Park, Peppermint Carnival, Little Plum, Budgie, Pigeon, Plastic Posy, Curious Mind, Tangerine Art Engine, and...so...on....

I had settled on 'Hey Tiger!', but started to lose confidence (isn't an exclamation mark is a bit showy?), and have now returned to a previous front-runner, 'Nearly Teatime'.

But now I've totally confused myself, and I need help. I'd love to know what you think. What will fit best? 'Hey Tiger!', 'Nearly Teatime', or something else entirely?

Please leave a comment and your name will be entered into the giveaway draw on the 3rd December. The winner will receive one of my dolly teacup pincushions, a magnet pack, a handmade greetings card, and other little goodies. And as I'm feeling all generous and Christmassy, there will also be a runner-up prize. This is open to everyone, no matter where you are in the world, so I hope I can lure out you lurkers too! Please leave a comment !

Oooh, look!

Time to share some of the goodies I got at THAT fair. (If you couldn't get to the Vintage & Handmade Fair, sorry we all keep going on about it, but it IS brilliant. Congratulations and thanks to Jayne and Michele for all their organising.) I mean, just look at all that!
And that..

And there were other things that I can't show you (Xmas secrets!). But this next one was a present to myself.
And thinking about present-giving on special days, my next blog post will be number 100!! So to commemorate this notable landmark, I'll be doing a giveaway. Woo hoo! So keep watching, and I hope you won't have to wait too long.

See you on Saturday?

I know I have been very blog-silent of late. I hope you all understand. If you're a last-minute person like me, then you will know how the run-up to Christmas can get very busy with making. I have had my head down for the last few weeks. But I thought it was about time I popped by the blog and said hello, in the hope that you won't forget who I am completely.

Hmm, I hear you say, a case of bad planning, surely? Yes, I know perfectly well that if you want to sell Christmas cards, you're supposed to have them all ready at Easter, but I have yet to master that sort of timetable. Instead, this week has found me busy making cards, magnet packs and other goodies as well as sorting through mountains of vintage china, and oceans of old dolls, getting ready for the Vintage and Handmade Fair on Saturday.

The teaset (top) will be coming along, and I will also be taking my charming old dolls' heads like this one, and this box of kitschy vintage pom-pom pets. (I can't actually identify all the animals...) And so much other stuff that I'm thinking of getting a team of porters to carry it all.

Hope to see you there?

Only 63 days to Christmas

These days, it doesn't take much to make me feel under pressure. I have just got the West Bristol Art Trail out of the way, and was psyching myself up to make stuff for the Vintage and Handmade Fair, when I got an email to say that my work has been accepted for a large group exhibition called Art Presence at the Centrespace Gallery in Bristol. This is great, but I have to submit work by the 6th November. The idea of the show is to provide alternative Christmas presents (average spend is £30, apparently), so I'm not sure that the work I have to hand will be suitable. Hmm... I better get going.

I told myself earlier in the year that I must make lots of opportunities to sell my work in the run-up to Christmas. Now that I'm faced with just a few opportunities, I'm panicking slightly. As ever, I am hopelessly under-prepared. I think I got a bit side-tracked by making more 'arty' pieces for the Trail, which are necessarily more time-consuming and experimental. I have quite a few unfinished pieces, which are interesting, but not particularly saleable, and will just take too much time right now.

So I didn't even get as much done for the Trail as I hoped. This is my table in the pic below. The nice thing about my stuff is that people generally stop to look. Mostly in a 'What the hell IS that?' kind of way, but at least they look! It was a nice day, but not busy. I only sold one piece (not counting cards and badges, that is.) Oh well.

Art Trail This Weekend

This post is a shameless plug for the West Bristol Art Trail this weekend. Bristol appears to be a city of artists, and there are now at least four different art trails each year. Each one covers a different area of the city, and artists in that area open their homes to exhibit and sell their work. I'm not exhibiting in my home, but in the Hope Community Church. We have a preview evening on Friday (tomorrow) 6 to 9pm, and then we're open 10am to 5pm on Saturday (17th October). The trail as a whole is well worth a visit, if you're in the area. You get to see all kinds of art, AND you get to have a nose in other people's houses!

I haven't got as much work finished as I hoped, but I'm quite pleased with my new technique using beads and pins. I've pushed in a lot of pins now, and boy, are my fingers sore!

Pretty crazy

Goodness me, I've been a very poor blogger lately. But it's been deliberate, really. I've been trying to focus on getting some projects finished, and so I have to stop myself from spending too much time on the interweb. It's rather like not being allowed to watch TV until you've done your homework. Rather a sad state of affairs for a woman my age, but there you go.

However, I thought I'd do a quick 'show and tell' of the wonderful junk (or tat, if you will) I got from the charity shops in Weston-super-Mare on Saturday.

I was in sunny Weston to do another tour of duty at The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe (art exhibition plus sweets). In fact, I left Mr Kitsch doing the shopkeeping with Camilla, while I went went off round the charity shops. I haven't been shopping much lately, so I think I went a bit crazy. I would have bought more, but I just couldn't carry it. And, yes, obviously I need this many china animals...(rolls eyes and sighs impatiently). Well, duh!