Etsy Treasury

I've been over on Etsy almost all day today. I finally got around to taking some photos of jewellery this morning and spent quite a long time editing and trying to get some listings up. As a bit of a break from photo editing, I had a bit of a browse in some of the shops belonging to members of the new team, British Emporia, that I was invited to join yesterday. British Emporia is still in its very early days (as in it only came into being yesterday) and at the moment all the members are crafty folk I already know from the Etsy community which is great - lots of friendly faces. Anyway, I decided that I would make a treasury today as I haven't made one for ages.

I do have a bit of an issue with finding the time to make treasuries and I'm not sure if I am the most talented when it comes to colours and finding things that work together. But here's today's attempt. If you click on the picture, you'll get sent to the treasury on Etsy from where you can browse the individual items and see some other things that these lovely shops have to offer.

I managed to post up a few listings today as well... 

What do you think? (Click on the pictures to go to the Etsy listings) 

I've got a few more photos up my sleeve to list over the next few days, so please go over and have a look over the next few days! http://www.etsy.com/shop/creatingtrouble 

Exciting News

You will have to forgive me for not publishing this earlier. Something went wrong with the photo uploading at the start of December and I haven't been able to publish any blog posts at all for weeks. For once it isn't actually that I am too busy, too forgetful, too...

Anyway, this is quite exciting news for Creating Trouble!

A few months ago I was at a craft fair with a lovely lady called Jules who sells the most beautiful vintage furniture and re-loved pieces as well as some smaller pretties such as lavender sachets, chocolate lollipops and vintage china. And then in November she came to visit some of us at A Vintage Tea Party, a craft fair I was at in Highgate. I was really excited when I got an e-mail from her in late November... I knew she loved my mosaic pendants but I hadn't anticipated that she would ask me if I'd like a shelf in her new shop! 

Early in December I went over to Forget Me Nots Vintage in Highgate to see the new shop and find out more from Jules in person. I took some of my pendants with me and we had a cup of tea and a lovely chat. Which ended up with Jules choosing 15 of my pendants to showcase in one of the window shelves! How exciting is that?

I went over to the shop launch on the 11th December as well for mulled wine and canapes so it was nice to be able to talk to potential customers and see them talking about the shop as well. As it is still quite new, there are new things being added every day still and I'm really happy to know that some of my other crafty friends have shelf spaces as well. 

So, I'm looking forward to an exciting 2013 with new outlets, new fairs, new products... I'm definitely quite excited by everything! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope you have all had a wonderful 2012 but that the New Year blows all those old cobwebs and dusty bits away ready for a fantastic year ahead! 

Do you have any New Years' Resolutions? And what are they?



I'm really sorry I haven't been blogging for a while - I've had a bit of an issue with blogger and images and haven't actually been able to upload or publish anything for a while. I'm hoping that's all sorted now though so I can get back to my usual posts and updates. There've been quite a few exciting developments at Creating Trouble HQ so I'm looking forward to updating you all!

Apologies for not blogging...

Well it's been a really hectic few weeks here at Trouble HQ so I'm afraid the blog has suffered a little because of it. I'd love to say, 'But HEY! I'm back!' but if I'm totally honest, I think you may have to put up with me being a little sporadic over the next few weeks. New Year's Resolution: To blog more regularly!

The main reason I've been so absent is craft fairs, craft fairs and even more craft fairs. I can't even begin to start talking about them, but needless to say it's been crazy busy making sure I've got enough stock for all of them. If you're London based and fancy coming along to some of the fabulous fairs that I'll be at along with some other great artists and crafters, then look to the sidebar on the right and you'll find a list of upcoming events. (That's a new bit on the blog!)

My stall set up at the Balham Craft Fair (25th November) 

I have to say, while I find craft fairs absolutely exhausting, I do really enjoy doing them. There are always some fabulous other crafty folk around (and my Christmas gifts are almost sorted due to some incredibly talented people) and even when they aren't the most successful, I still enjoy getting to spend time with some really great people.

Then there has been the launching of Inspired: London a guide to London designers and crafters - in which I am featured! I'm so excited about it. If you click on the picture, you'll be redirected to the online order form where you can pick up your own copy for just £12.99 - good either for giving as a Christmas present or for using to find some Christmas presents!

The launch of Inspired: London was a really nice opportunity to meet some other great artists and designers from London. It was really fantastic getting to put faces to names as a number of people featured are shops I know from Etsy and being able to finally say face to face how much I like people's work. 

In addition to these, there have been new designs, new lines, more things added onto Etsy and all sorts of other craziness as well. I'll write a separate blog post about some of those as I've got lots of pictures to show you... watch this space! 

That Friday Feeling...Giraffes!

I've just been talking to one of my close friends via that fabulous invention of Skype and asked her what I should pick as my theme this week. She didn't really know what I was talking about when I said 'theme' but asked if it could be anything, like... for example...giraffes? Well yes, yes it can be a shout out for giraffes! This week's Etsy shout out is dedicated to you Shannon of MosaicGeek fame - I hope that next time we speak on Skype you sing me the song I've added at the end...!

Anyway, for those of you who don't know, I do a weekly shout out of some lovely things I've found on Etsy based around a theme. This week's theme is giraffes, of which there are many cute examples on Etsy. Do go and have a search yourself but also visit the shops I've featured - they are great!

What a cute giraffe crochet pattern from djonesgirlz

Sweet little giraffe earrings by fingerprince

I love this giraffe diaper bag by pollywogsandtadpoles

What little snippets of giraffe information shall I add?

• A giraffe can clean its own ears with it's tongue. Personally I wouldn't want to but always a good party trick I suspect... Their tongues are about 2 feet long. 
• Because they are always on the lookout for predators, giraffes sleep very little. They average about 30 minutes a day. And other animals use giraffes as lookout posts for predators. 
• Giraffes can eat about 35 kilos of food a day. They are herbivores and have a strong liking for accacia trees which have all the nutrients they need bar calcium and salt. Because accacia stores water in its leaves, it also helps in keeping giraffes hydrated. 
• However, when giraffes do go and find some water, they can drink up to 12 gallons of water in one go.
• A baby giraffe is about 6 foot tall at birth.
• If they are attacked and cannot run away, giraffes will kick at their predators - and their hooves have been known to sever a lion's head!
• Giraffes can run at 35 mph although only for a short period of time. 
• It is illegal to tie a giraffe to a lampost in Atlanta. Which makes me wonder when giraffes were so prevalent there that they had to introduce that law...?!
• Giraffes cannot cough. Must be a real pain if they get accacia leaves stuck in their throats...!
• Giraffe markings are all individual  - no two giraffes have exactly the same markings. 
• Today's YouTube clip is verging on the ridiculous but for some reason I don't know many songs about giraffes... can't think why! Anyway, it MUST be fun to be a giraffe! 

Exciting News!

I am super excited at the moment because... I've had my first ever quilt commission! I was showing some of my quilts at Tootopia back in September and a lovely customer asked about some of my designs. Last week I got an e-mail asking if I could make a commission quilt featuring some owls and foxes for her expected niece/nephew. I found a few options and we put this combination of fabrics together:

When I actually got the fabrics I realised that they needed something a little extra to stop them from being too busy and mind-boggling so I tempered them with some plain lime green fabric as well. My lovely customer was quite specific about the quilt being non-gender specific so I used green instead of blue which would have been the more natural match in my head. As a finishing touch, she wanted the quilt to feature some stars as well so we used some red fabric with white stars as the binding. What do you think of the finished product? It has a stripy backing as I couldn't find another suitable backing material (which is insane considering how many colours are featured!) so I've used the same fabric as the stripes in the main quilt. It still needs me to sew on a label and finish off some of the threads, but other than that, it's done and ready to go. 

That Friday Feeling...Winter

Brrrr, I know it's only November so the proper cold, snowy months have not yet started but I haven't been able to feel my toes for days now! I am soooooo cold! So what better theme for this week's Friday Feeling than Winter? Here are some of my favourite finds of the week - please do go over to Etsy and have a look at some of the shops I've featured (click on the links in the captions) and also go and have a search generally. It's that time of year when we start thinking about Christmas presents (I said it, the dreaded C word) so Etsy is a good place to start looking. Lovely handmade gifts all round!

Cute little ceramic brooch by LoveandLovelier

What about a wintery cushion to remind you it's warm indoors! By maximilia

Love this chunky scarf by KnitFrekkles 

 I'm not sure whether I want to share any wintery facts with you today... they might make me feel even colder! I'm presently wrapped up in a scarf AND a cowl in a cafe which technically should have heating. And when not typing I'm clutching a mug of hot tea! OK, OK, here are your fun facts for the week:

• Icicles most often form on the south side of buildings
• The record for most snow angels at one time was made in Ontario, Canada in 2004. A number of schools joined forces and 15,861 were created.
• Wind chill is a measurement of heat loss on exposed skin
• The coldest temperature ever recorded was in Antarctica (no surprise then!) of -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius)
• Snowflakes fall on average at 3.1 miles per hour
• The tallest snowman was given a name! He was called Angus and measured 122 feet (37 metres)
• Ten inches of snow melts down into 1 inch of water
• A single snow storm can drop more than 40 millios tonnes of snow, which has the energy equivalence of 120 atomic bombs.
• Apparently if squirrels start building their nests on the lower branches of trees it means we're going to have a really cold winter. The same goes if ants build higher than normal mounds or birds start migrating early.