The Dandy Lion Market

I survived A Glamourous Affair! Actually I more than survived, I had a lovely day and am really looking forward to being back there on the 16th September. So... those of you in the Islington area, make sure you come and visit then!

Anyway, the point of today's post is to tell you about THIS SATURDAY. This Saturday happens to be a very auspicious day. For no other reason than it's my birthday and therefore is going to be a good day. I wasn't too sure about whether to have a craft fair on my birthday or not, but I decided that actually I love what I do and if I'm serious about getting Creating Trouble to take off I can always have a party in the evening. Which is exactly what I'm going to do... 

This Saturday Creating Trouble will be at The Dandy Lion Market so, if you are in Kentish Town, please please come and have a look. I'll be downstairs with The Pirates and there are plenty of stalls upstairs as well. It's looking to be quite a fun day (and it is featured in Time Out which is exciting!) 

What?  The Dandy Lion Market

When? Saturday 1st September 12 - 5pm

Where? The Oxford, 256 Kentish Town Road, NW5 2AA

Click on the picture to go to the Dandy Lion's Facebook page for more details

    

A Lovely Glamourous Affair

I'm so glad that the first of a whole 'season' of craft fairs went well. On Saturday I was at 'A Glamourous Affair' in Islington where I was lucky enough to have a really good pitch near the door downstairs and surrounded by lovely people.

First of all I had Kate of Kate's Fascinators on my left. Kate makes absolutely stunning fascinators and top hats with really intricate beading and feathers. I fell in love with a gorgeous green one that I really loved. Sadly I don't have any events planned and, while I am obviously trying to convince all my friends to get married, take me to the races, have babies etc etc so that I have an excuse for a fascinator, no one is being very obliging so I shall have to wait a little while I guess. Anyway, you can see her facebook page by clicking on the picture and go over and like it. I'm hoping to see Kate again at A Glamourous Affair next month but also at a few other fairs over the next few weeks...

On my other side I had the lovely Alice of Stitch Your Soul. Alice makes quilts, comforters and other textiles but what she was mostly selling on Saturday were lovely homemade soy candles. She finds vintage tea cups, glasses and bowls to pour her candles into and, because they are made of soy they don't ruin the ceramics or glass. Which means that once your candle has burnt down, you can use your tea set or glass again and you have a lovely piece of china or glassware! What a fabulous idea! Alice sells on Etsy as well as having a facebook page so both links are here: Etsy and Facebook

There were of course lots of other lovely crafty folk around - it was really nice to see Emma of Knickerbocker Glories again and meet all the other amazing stall holders.

In true Bank Holiday style it poured with rain which obviously affected the number of people coming through the door - although there were definitely some visitors who were just trying to avoid the downpour! But the atmosphere inside The Library Bar was great, some of my friends came to visit and say hello and Creating Trouble did quite well. There are some coasters, penguins and pendants all off to find new homes - mostly to be given as gifts I think. One of the pendants I sold was the blue cityscape pendant. It's always been one of my favourite designs and I hope it's new owner loves it.

I also sold a round blue pebble mosaic pendant but... I only made it this week and didn't have a chance to take a photo of it before I sold it! It was a really striking design though so I will definitely be trying to make another one of them this week. Hopefully this time I will remember to take some photos!

All in all, I had a lovely day and it has set me off for the next few weeks in a good way. I'm really looking forward to the next few craft fairs, meeting some of the lovely folk and hopefully selling some more pieces.

#Silent Sunday

#Silent Sunday

First of many...

Starting next weekend, Creating Trouble will be all over London for a few weeks doing craft fairs left, right and centre. If you're free, it would be great to see some of you so please come along and show some support. I will be selling my mosaic jewellery, coasters, new cufflinks and some textile pieces that I haven't yet revealed... and don't forget it isn't just me who will be there. There are always lots of lovely crafty people and vintage-type things on offer and I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself.

First up: A Glamourous Affair!

When? Saturday 25th August from 11 - 5pm

Where? The Library Bar, Islington

Click on the picture to go to the website

Hopefully will see some of you there...! Please come along and tell friends about it - the more the merrier!

An update on the progress of my goals...

A while ago I wrote a blog post of goals I had that I wanted to get around to. So I thought I would do a bit of an update on them... There is still a long way to go obviously, but then again, some of these goals are long term ambitions!

1. Make the insane city quilt
2. Go camping... umm I need a tent. But you never know I might do this sometime this year
3. Manage to get through at least 3 months without a hospital visit  It took months before I managed this!!
4. Make a dress - it may have been cheating a little, but I made this.
5. Finish the crazy bird mosaic. Ummm... yes, about that mosaic...
6. Book onto a new mosaic course. I will as soon as I can afford it. 
7. Sell over 25 items on Etsy That was quite an achievement - I don't spend anywhere near as much time promoting on Etsy as I should
8. Do a craft fair - I've got craft fairs coming out of my ears! Watch this space for info...
9. Go out somewhere at least once a week - it's too easy to sit inside and watch rubbish TV
10. Learn how to bake my own bread. Mmm
11. Grow tomatoes - although at the moment I would go with managing to keep something alive!
12. Visit Scotland and Ireland - I went to Edinburgh over the Easter weekend, now I just need to get a wriggle on with the Ireland trip... although a return to Scotland is appealing too!
13. Learn to drive - I have finally managed to get my provisional license and have had a few lessons so am on my way.
14. Do a video tutorial on the blog...keep your eyes peeled!
15. Finish writing the children's story I've been writing forever.
16. Read over 50 books in a year.
17. Declutter...
18. Try to cook something new every week - or at least every fortnight.
19. Host a giveaway There've been a few now...
20. Create designs for monsters and make them.
21. Go on a massage course - I can't think why I wanted this as a goal!!! Not planning it for a while. Can I change it to: try out fencing / go rock climbing? Both of those I have been doing recently! 
22. Learn more about music - I can usually sing something but never have a clue who sang it or what the title is!
23. Have over 1000 twitter followers. Thank you to everyone who has followed me. 
24. Go travelling... umm well that's on hold for the forseeable future!
25. Get my business cards and website sorted out.
26. Save a bit of money (or 24 will never happen!)
27. Make A Granny A Day - ha ha: I've been so concerned about Craft Fairs that I haven't done anything like that! 
28. Visit New Zealand and Australia
29. Eat more healthily (I've lost nearly a stone!)
30. Continue enjoying life generally Not that this can ever be said to be achieved but I am enjoying all my outside work activities recently

18 out of 30. Not bad considering some of those are more long-term goals than things that can just be achieved in a week or two! Also, it's interesting how a year can change your perspectives... why I ever thought I would want to do a massage course or grow my own tomatoes is totally beyond me. Actually tomatoes isn't such a bad idea, but I live in a first floor flat so it isn't about to happen any time soon! We have just started growing our own herbs though...

What are your goals? And have you achieved any of them? Wouldn't it be great to say: 'Hey I made 30 goals and did all of them'? That would be a serious achievement.

Maybe I should do something like this every year? 

#Silent Sunday

Plans are Afoot...

There are some new projects going on at Trouble HQ. For a start, have you noticed a new page in the link bar? Yes, it says 'shop' and it means that... you can now buy directly through the website! I am still of course selling on Etsy as well, and indeed I have more items listed there than I do in the shop section of my blog but, it's a big step up for Creating Trouble and I'm looking forward to someone making use of it! Please go over and see what's on offer - there will be more listings going up over the next few days and weeks but it's always quite a long process trying to word things right and work out how best to describe your products.

Next up... I'm turning www.creatingtrouble.co.uk into a proper website! At the moment it's just a blog with some links to other places and I've been meaning to make it more than that for quite a long time. So now is that time! It's presently very much in the early stages; working out what text I want, what I want where, photos etc but it's going to happen, and it's going to happen soon! Don't worry though, you will still be able to see this blog and I will still be writing as often as I can. There will still be my weekly features and I will be sharing new things with you regularly.

In addition to that I have some quite exciting news. Remember back in January when I said I wanted to start doing some craft fairs? And then I did? Over the course of this year, I have been a stall holder at 3 fairs - I figured that one every few months was a good way to break myself in. Well, I got back from Grand Cayman thinking I really do need to be more proactive about Creating Trouble so have jumped right in. I thought I really needed to step up and do some more fairs - maybe one every month or every 3 weeks. It hasn't quite worked out that way though. I'll be hosting a stall at a number of events in the next few weeks - in fact I have 4 lined up on 4 consecutive weekends from the end of August through to the middle of September. Woah! I suspect that by the end of them I will be absolutely shattered! Watch this space for news of where I'll be and when.

My biggest concern right now though is... do I have enough stock? And the simple answer is no. So over the next few weeks I am going to be a seriously busy bee as I try to make enough pendants, cufflinks, coasters and more to sell at craft fairs! I'm guessing I will have to start thinking about not taking all my stock with me just in case I have a particularly successful day and run out! Please be slightly patient with me if I don't manage to blog quite as often as I do usually, or if my weekly features are a day or two late. It's not intentional, it's just me trying to get everything done in a very short amount of time!

#Silent Sunday

That Friday Feeling...Holiday

Today is the last day of my holiday! Boo. This evening I get back on a plane and fly via the Bahamas back to the UK where I'm sure it will be raining ready for my return. I've had the most amazing time here in Grand Cayman - from swimming with sting rays and snorkelling on the reef to drinking rum cocktails on the beach and spending time with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew. I thought that a holiday theme would be the most appropriate theme for today's Etsy shout out - my one is coming to an end but it is the traditional time of year for summer holidays to commence. So here are some lovely things that I have found that you might want to take with you on yours...

Keep your hair under control with this pretty hair comb by Damsontreepottery

Shalotte makes such lovely magical pieces and this necklace is no exception.

Love these buttons from ButterflySue

And you'll need a gorgeous shoulder bag for all your accessories. Why not this one by Saysie?

How many random facts can one find about summer holidays? It was a bit of a hard one this week but here you go:

• The tradition of summer weddings was begun by the Romans who would choose Juno's month, June, for weddings as this would bring on her blessing.
•  August is the busiest month for travel and tourism.
• The Dog Days of Summer refer to the period between July 3rd and August 11th when Canis Major's star Sirius was believed to be closest to the sun and was blamed by the Romans for the intense heat, droughts and sultry weather. 
• The summer solstice in the UK is on June 20th. It was celebrated with dancing and bonfires and couples would jump through the flames. The tradition held that crops would grow as high as the couple could jump.
• What I call a holiday, Americans would call a vacation.  In the US a holiday refers to time off due to a national celebrations whereas in the UK a holiday is just any time that you aren't necessarily at work. 
• Today's youtube clip could only really be Summer Holiday. I prefer the Mike Redway version to Sir Cliff Richard's one.