P-P-P-Pick up a Penguin

It's been another busy week at Trouble HQ which would explain the lack of blog posts. Last weekend I went to my parents' house for the weekend so obviously I couldn't take all my mosaics with me. But I could take some felt, thread, ribbons and toy stuffing... Which meant that I got busy making penguins. Yes, penguins.

The penguin family has been growing. Rapidly. I think I have made about 50 of them so far - in all different colours with different ribbons to match. These little guys will be available at the craft fair in Balham on 25th March. However, I can't make these fast enough - I've already sold 7 of them before I have even thought to list them or make more. Obviously that is great for me - but I have to make even more now! 

I'm stupidly busy at the moment trying to make enough things to fill my table. I can't remember the last time I was this productive. I felt guilty last night for only making 4 penguins and I have a really long list of everything I want to achieve this week. It's beginning to get overwhelming...

Have you prepared for a craft fair before? Any good tips you can share with me? 

Project Update

I bet you're all wondering whether I actually still do anything crafty these days - I haven't blogged about my own craft projects for a while but that's not to say I haven't been doing anything... honest! Admittedly, I haven't done as much recently as I would normally have done, partly because it's a new school year and things are a bit hectic and partly because I have had loads of inspiration but no motivation. What is it that Einstein (Eddison?) said? Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration? Well I'm lacking in the 99% bit at present!

I have, however, been doing some things of late...

I know a number of you who read this know me from Twitter as well and may well have noticed that I've been mentioning penguins the last few days. Some of you may also have seen said penguins. I broke a very old keyring the other day but while the charm bit had fallen off, I still had the actual ring. Coupled with a whole load of felt I've had hanging around looking at me for a while now, I got to thinking... I needed a new keyring charm. I can't say I went through a whole load of designs before I got to this one - one of my favourite animals is a penguin and it seemed quite natural to make a penguin. So this is what I made:

Well, I couldn't leave him all lonely, could I? On Tuesday I went to the local hardware store next to work and bought some key rings. So what have I been doing this evening? Yup, I've made some more. The penguin family is now at 5. I have plans for green, red and turquiose ones but at present haven't got any suitable ribbon for them. The red ribbon I have doesn't sit right with my red felt and, when put with the green felt, is a bit too Christmassy. So I need to get some pretty ribbon... I know just the place. I have a question for you: do you prefer the penguins with the white stitching or the ones where the stitching is a near match to the felt? I thought I'd prefer the stitching to be the same but I'm not sure...

What else? Well back in April I wrote a post about bags (you can see it here). The first bag I showed you was the crazy crazy wool bag. I had finished the main part of it and most of the lining but couldn't find any buttons suitable. Do you know how hard it is to find really large wooden buttons? Oh my, it's been a nightmare! BUT... I have finished the crazy wool bag, and in fact have used it a number of times too. I've realised I made the strap a little too long so I am going to pin it and sew it a bit shorter but otherwise I am quite happy with it. Do you like the buttons?

I"m not done yet!!! I have also made a few new mosaic pendant designs! There should be one more but I managed to break it while trying to grout it this evening so I need to take it to pieces and start again. It was my favourite design but the one I knew was the most precarious due to the millefiori I had used in it.

Sadly I've only just taken the photos of these and as it's quite dark in the flat the photos haven't totally come out. The paler one is light green and orange porcelain - totally upcycled materials as they used to be plates belonging to a friend of mine. I couldn't get a close up shot without it all going blurry but once I have the right light I will try to. Of the larger shots, the top one is a repeated red, purple and turquoise mirror design while the lower one has become known as the Google pendant because it's colours match Google's.

Just to let you know - once I have managed to take some decent shots, the key-rings and pendants will be going into my Etsy store - or if you would like one and can't wait for me to take pictures and list them, get in contact with me via the contact section of this blog and I can let you know prices / payment arrangements etc.

That Friday Feeling...08/07/11

I love penguins. I think they may be my favourite animal - from the cute but totally silly waddling on land to the grace and ease with which they move in water. My favourite kind of penguin has always been Rockhoppers because anything that has such a great tuft of hair must be pretty cool, right? 

Because I like penguins, I am totally cold towards seals - yes they have cute eyes, but they EAT my favourite animal, and therefore they must just be evil. So today's Friday Feeling is dedicated to my favourite animal... there are LOADS of penguins over at Etsy so you should probably go and check them out. But for the moment here are few of my favourites:

Not technically possible but I love it anyway  Iotaillustration! Hitching a Ride print 

Awww! If I had a baby it would be wearing this penguin babygrow by NoahandMole

And isn't this crocheted penguin hat the cutest? Great pattern from  MicahMakes

I love all of these - but I have to admit I did initially have about 10 penguins in my shortlist of items to feature this week. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the little critturs. Thought I'd share some penguin facts with you too...

• Penguins and Polar Bears don't mix: penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere while Polar Bears are Northern bound.
• While we all know penguins live in Antarctica, they actually live in much warmer climes too... the Galapagos breed live close to the equator and they are not alone: lots of penguins live in more temperate zones.
• The largest penguins are Emperor Penguins - they grow to the heady heights of about 1.1 metres and weigh around 35kg. I remember being quite shocked by how small they were when I first saw one!
• Penguins and puffins are NOT related. It's like saying a bagel and a doughnut are the same. Yes there are similarities but they are totally different species.
• The penguin got it's name from Auks (pingouin) but there seems to be a lot of dispute about why penguins kept the name - some people think it was a case of mistaken identity: a penguin was mistaken for an Auk chick! Whether it's penguin because the word 'pinguis' meant fat is possible but improbable.
• There are about 20 different species of penguin - and some of them are pretty small.