What are you doing THIS weekend?

You *might* not be into football or Motor Racing...

You might even live close-ish to Upper Boddington (a small village halfway between Banbury and Southam)

You might want to come to the Boddington School Art Exhibition?

I think there will be children's art aswell as amateur and professional artists - Korky Paul - some crafters

AND ME!!!!

Cool - so come along? I won't have all my supplies for sale although there will be buttons and felt packs and bits like that.... but there will be yummy quilts and lavender cushions and bunting and brooches
See you there?

Church Road


Upper Boddington

Daventry

Northamptonshire

NN11 6DL
 
(i'll blog it for those of you in Manchester, Scotland, Germany.... )

Hooray for shopping handmade - on FOLKSY.com

I bought this huge bow for my head - how amazing? I love it so much, from HERE DollyKnits.
THIS IMAGE BELONGS TO DOLLYKNITS

I have bought a bunny print from this delicious artist DEEBEALE and i sooo badly want her new FOX print in Autumn Orange...

THIS IMAGE BELONGS TO DEEBEALE

This shop THE LINEN CAT is just stunning. I have so many things on my 'Wish List' from here and i bought every girl in my life a Lavender Bunny each :)

THIS IMAGE BELONGS TO THE LINEN CAT

I love these sachets - so vintage x i bought my mum one - Ragged Roses

THIS IMAGE BELONGS TO RAGGED ROSES

AND last, but by no means least... i *might* be this artists biggest fan...? I have erm, 4 of her prints and several cards. She is just fantastic and they are every bit as gorgeous in *real* as they are in her photos = ZEBEDEE

THIS IMAGE BELONGS TO ZEBEDEE

I had to share all that with you... they are inspirational artists x

Variations on a theme...

I can see why people might 'tire' of the ubiquitous "Russian Doll".... not me.
I can't. I loved them before they were famous. All the lovely Matroyshka fabrics inspire me with the need to sew... New PinPuffs with lavender, to have and to hold.

New NeedleBook... to have and to use.

I love all the Nordic / Scandi / folky designs and collecting FIGGJO ceramics.

I think there is a cross over here with Vintage and Modern design. That is perhaps what appeals to me most.

I am happiest at the moment when the Useful meets the Beautiful in a domestic setting (LINK) and the Babushka / Matroyshka is the boldest symbol of that.

Beep beep, beep beep, yeh....

There is a song somewhere, sometime... it has that line in it "Baby you can drive my car, ta da da"... New tiny tiny buttons called "Beep Beep Buttons"! The tiny button that make a BIG NOISE..... Another new collection - Limited Edition - 9 bags (no make that 8, i sold a pack last night) of, what i call: LIQUORICE ALLSORTED - you get why huh?

Then a few new mixes / combinations just to inspire people and give a bit of variety / choice to you button bags.... MAMA LOVES DISCO (miaaooww pussycat)

CHERRY PIE... mmm, a good mix of boutons, makes me want to eat PIE!

TICKLED PINK - my favourite of the new mixes. If 50g of each pinkish shade is too much for some customers, you can have a 100g mixed bag of the 3 pinky shades i have on offer.

These are only in BigFish.etsy.com at the moment but i hope to put them on Folksy too :)

Don't fear - that hasn't turned into a complete button blog! I am just in button mode right now... it'll soon be some other mental obsession.... x

Colour Fix...

The Sun went in :(
Colour Fix needed...
A vast selection of BARGAIN priced "50% extra free" embroidery silks (from, dare i say it, Hobbycraft!) OOooooh that colour x Photographing a trio of supersized buttons, ready to list for sale in BigFish

And these lime buttons... make me smack my tongue and lips - i love the taste of limes!

And what i wanted to share was this: A wonderful linocut handprint by Zoe Badger!

http://zebedee.folksy.com/ when i saw it i thought it was perfect in so many ways.

Love the reds and teals and mint green. Love the shapes and patterns. Love the spotty centres. Just delightful...

SO....., uUuummm, i got one in yellow too!

I didn't think i'd love it as much as the red, but i think i love it even more now i have it propped up behind my laptop work station.

Cannot wait to get them framed Zoe x x thanks for selling your artistic brilliance, i luffs them so much x i will be back!!

see ZEBEDEE over at FOLKSY.com

i bought these...

MORE great children's craft stuff...
Meet: Half an Acre... I bought these on a whim whilst bumbling about through Folksy...
(sorry the photos don't do you items justic here x)


Two sets of wooden stencils -
one with a tractor and a spanner and a saw and stuff that boys might be more pre-disposed to?
and the one above which is more of a tea-set with tea-cup and tea-pot...


The tractor set arrives in a yummy green jute bag with a few pencil crayon's in too so really perfect for a gift. I bought these for my ~Craft Cafe~ workshops for children but i will buy a second one for my nephew i think.

I was really impressed with the quality and i was LOVING the smell of the wood (*KFish really wants to work with wood and DaughterFish wants to be a Carpenter when she's big)

Now i need to bombard this Wood Crafter with requests for stencils of:

Mermaids / shells / boats / hats... and anything else?

I have to talk about Julie Arkell...

There are lots of things that I love.....
Dressing up - Being with my Baby - Walking the dog - Tea - Sewing... (that list continues for an age and is evergrowing...) ...and on that list, very near the top, there is the work of Julie Arkell....

I don't even know what to say about her work.

It leaves me speechless.

I am utterly compelled by it. I look at this book alllllll the time. I think about her alllll the time. Images of her work pop into my head day and evening. I am so envious that I am not her but I am so grateful she is who she is otherwise she would never have produced such craft.

All i can do is show you a few images from the small booklet i have. Even if the quality of these photos were better or brighter, they still can't match up to the 'real thing'.

I'll try to tell you what her work makes me feel of:

Think about an eldery lady who has sadly passed away, and you have been asked if there is anything you'd like from her attic before they clear it all and sell the house. There are dusty trunks filled with old lace, postcards and buttons.... there are toys, handmade from paper, wearing woolly hats. There are rabbits - on wheels! that you can pull along with string. There are wooden block clowns with frightening inter-changable heads... you find old letters and postcards from seaside towns and brown-edged photographs of a slim man whose name has carelessly been forgotten. There is a whole world of childhood all huddled and stored in paper. The stories of Summer days spill onto the wooden floorboards as you remember the taste of home-made lemonade and the smell of someones old house-coat.

Twee? maybe. But i think there is also a sinister or 'sad' edge to her work that i fail to capture in words. The sadness is a sort of frustration, like when you can't remember the name of something and it 'kills' you to rack your brain!!

You might also think I am mad, and you know Julie Arkell's work and it isn't at all how I have described... maybe my descriptions say more about me than they do about the artist?
Ah well, look her up and see for yourself. Decide if you like her too?

Julie Arkell.

Born in London 1955

more stuff: http://www.earthangelstoys.com/html/julie_arkell_-_paper_mache.html

and here: http://theconstantgatherer.blogspot.com/2008/04/julie-arkell.html

and look at her here: http://lovelytextiles.blogspot.com/2008/06/julie-arkell-knit-to-embroidery_25.html she herself is beautiful... damn my envy of her brilliance.

Ahhh Julie Arkell, thanks so much for making the world a better place to be x