I've Been Tagged!!

I am 1 of 8 blogs that have been tagged by the lovely Jean from Jean's Blog.

Now I have to answer these questions and tag another 8 blogs.

All they have to do is

a) Answer the questions

b) Rework the questions + delete one you do not like and put in an alternative

c) Think of a new question

d) Tag 8 people to do the same.


Your current obsession: Sock Dogs, check out my Hotdog and Me shop on Folksy.

Weirdest Obsession: I have to shut all wardrobe doors and draws before going to bed.

What are you Wearing: Black, scruffy, holey trousers and a new brown maternity t-shirt.

What is for Dinner: Not sure yet, depends how hot the day gets as to whether I can be bothered to cook. If I could be bothered it would be Burmese Vegetables…..coconuty yumminess

Favourite Book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak or Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Last Thing you Bought: Two maternity tops

What can you hear right now: I can hear the wind rustling the grass, water in the fish tank, birds chirping, my daughter watching telly and my son playing in the garden.

Favourite flavour of Ice Cream: I am very partial to clotted cream flavor from either Kelly’s or Marshfield…in fact Marshfield does one with fudge in as well.

What do you think of the person who tagged you: She makes wonderful jewellery which you can see in her Folksy shop and is very lovely for tagging me J

Where is the world would you go if I gave you a plane ticket: Cuba, I would love to see all the old 50’s cars.

Which language would you learn: French as I have family in Switzerland who I am lazy enough to allow them to speak English to me.

Who do you want to meet right now: Lance Armstrong, I’d invite him for dinner so my partner could chat with him, he’s a cycle freak……my partner that is!

Favourite Colour: Blue, but I like all colours really.

Favourite item of clothing: I am not really into clothing, anything that fits and is comfortable.

What size shoes are you: 5

You have £100 to spare, what will you buy: Probably some books to read and some socks and craft bits…..maybe I should be saying stuff for my kids!

Favourite time of day: Bedtime

Who's style do you most admire: I just found a new blog today called Dottie Angel. I would love to a) be as skinny as she is and b) be able to wear the clothes she does. Totally lovely.

What is your own style: Scruffy, comfortable and lazy.

What are you going to do next: Wash up..yuck phooey.

Favourite Films: The Sure Thing, The Sound of Music, The Matrix

Favourite Fruit: Strawberries and Raspberries

What inspires you: Everything

What Music is your favourite this week: I like most music.

Do you have a dream job: Not to have one……did I mention I was lazy?

What would you change in the world: Respect, acceptance, poverty, hunger, cruelty, most things!!…specifically in this country I would want it to be more kid friendly, like when you go to Restaurants on the continent they welcome children, here we look at them and say they are too noisy. Oh yeah, and make childbirth painless.

Favourite animal: Wolf

Favourite Tool: Washing machine

What would your job have been in Victorian times: Lady of leisure…oh sorry, that would be in my dreams, umm some sort of maid.

You are a SuperHero, what would your SuperPower be: Teleportation, so I could go anywhere in the world and see who I wanted in a blink of an eye.

People I am now tagging:

I can't even sew straight

The Sock Garden

Glue and Glitter

Gugaw

Owl on the Sill

Dark Fairy Treasures

Fen and Ned

Dinky Daisy

Thank You Glitzy Kitty

Last week I received a lovely little package from Glitzy Kitty. It was a prize I had won for naming one of her lovely cats. I knew the prize was the cat but was shocked to discover lots of little packages wrapped up. In them were some beautiful pieces of jewellery. Some earrings, a bracelet, a necklace and 2 rings.

Wow!! How spoilt did I feel....well I will tell you.....very very very spoilt.

So this is a big thank you to Glitzy Kitty and a nudge for you all to pop over to her Folksy Shop or her Etsy Shop.

Meet Jasper, Miss Haversham's Cat

Thank you so much Glitzy Kitty for this more than generous prize. I love it all.

Oddsox Feature

I am have been really looking forward to this feature all week because it's from such a lovely lady that I met over on Folksy. Sharon from Oddsox has kindly agreed to answer my many mnay questions.

1. Where do you get your inspiration?

I’ve always loved crafting. My Mum & Gran did a lot of dressmaking and knitting when me and my sis were little so there were always bits of wool, fabric, buttons, lace and stuff in the house. So I s’pose the interest in materials and making started quite early. I’m inspired by craft, designer toy and sock creature books, craft fairs, art museums, sculpture parks, graffiti, pets, the zoo, pebbles, second hand shops, boot fairs… lots more but out of breath now! Flickr is also a fantastic place to lose a bit of time browsing other peoples work. It’s a place to be visually greedy!

2. Describe your work space?

I have two – the one that looks and feels like a workspace - the attic. And ‘downstairs’! I usually have a ‘project bag’ on the go that gets dragged about from garden to dining room to living room. I usually leave quite a lot of mess around me too.

3. When and Why did you start your crafting business?

By accident really and quite recently. After being given a sock monkey book by my sister a few years back I really wanted to have a go. Me and my partner both made some but I didn’t stop. The house kept filling up! We even took them on holiday to the Lake District one year and did some photography with them! Then I attended a craft fair that my brother-in-law helped organise and promote through his design agency. Lots of people asked if I had an on-line shop or website – which I didn’t so that’s what started it!

4. What is your most favourite item that you sell?

I quite like the DollySox at the moment. I also love the amigurumi stuff but it takes quite a long time to make. The two big pieces I had in the shop have gone so replacements are on my very long to do list!

5. Where else do you sell?
Folksy is the only shop I have, I’ve done one craft fair so far and have sold quite a bit to friends/colleagues and people they’ve recommended me to. I have another fair booked for November.

6. Do you do craft fairs and do you think they are a good place to sell?
My first Craft Fair was in March. I was nervous because I new there were going to be a lot of really good artists attending and I thought I’d be out of my depth! I was completely shocked at the reception my creatures got! I think there were more adults purchasing for themselves and other adults than for children! I sold three quarters of my stock. So do I think they’re a good place to sell – well that one certainly was! It prompted all kinds of other unexpected interest too. An enquiry about placing some items in the local museum exhibition space, a college teacher asking if I’d like to go in and do a sock creature making session with the students – plus I’ve had a number of repeat sales to people who visited the fair – one from a lady opening a ‘real’ shop. I don’t expect I’ll always be that lucky - the venue and publicity makes an enormous difference. This one was in the Town Hall and I was jammy enough to have my Sock Gardeners featured on the front of the posters and programmes – so that helped! They’re ugly little chaps and I took them along – amazing how many people wanted to buy them! But I can’t spare them – they’ve got a Sock Garden to keep tidy!

7. Describe your style in 3 words.
A bit mad!

8. What are you working on at the moment?
I’ve just finished an Amigurumi commission for another Folksy lady. She sent me a pic of the cat colours and helped choose the wool and make decisions about his face. I have a couple of songbird orders to make with special Happy Birthday messages. I always have at least one sock creature in my project bag and I’m working on a stripey amigurumi cat. Oh yeah, and I have a 9-5 day job as a project manager at a design agency too!

9. What is the weirdest thing about you?
I’m sure other people think my obsession with socks is a bit weird – can’t go near shops without seeking out socks – even in the supermarket!

10. What 1 item would you like to buy from another Folksy seller?
Henry the sausage dog! He’s just perfect.

http://www.folksy.com/items/29909-Henry-Plush-Sausage-Dachshund-Dog-Toy

11. Where is your most favourite place?
Quiet Greek islands and home.

12. What is your favourite book?
I enjoy lots of fiction but here are some of my favourite coffee table books…

13. What is your favourite film?
Oh no I can’t say just one! All Tarantino, Withnail & I, Romeo & Juliet, As Good As It Gets, Seven, Leon…

14. What is your favourite song?
Oh no I can’t say just one! I’ll go for everything by Radiohead – including the weird creature drawings that appear on some of their packaging!

15. If you could do anything for the day what would you do?
I’d repeat a day from a Greek holiday. Me and my partner went to a beautiful, quiet pebble beach and spent most of the day making pebble pictures and sculptures. I loved the idea of people just happening across them for the next couple of days until they either got washed away or knocked down!

16. You are a Superhero, what is your power?
I’d be a shapeshifter. I’d quite often be shifting into the shape of a life-size sock creature. What a laugh!

She has a wonderful blog called The Sock Garden, well worth a visit with a cup of tea and some cake.

Thanks so much Shaz for doing this interview for me, especially on such short notice!!

Thank You Glassprimitif

I know this is very late and for that I can only offer my deepest apologies to Glassprimitif.

I won her blog competition and received the most amazing prize/prizes. There was so much in there, I was really shocked when I opened it all up. And everything was just so beautiful. If you get a chance pop over to her shop as it really is worth the time.

So firstly, look how beautiful it all looked after I had opened the envelope.

This is everything after I ripped the paper off in a throwback to my childhood Christmas's kind of way.

And these are all the beautiful items that I won.

So this is a huge thank you to Glassprimitif and apologise for the late thank you.

Oh yeah, and she has an Etsy shop too!

Hot Hot Hot

Phew, I am too hot!! With a 30 week pregnancy bump I am finding this heat unbearable.....any good tips out there?

This is a real quickie today as I haven't blogged since last week.

I got another award for my blog which I am over the moon about. It came from Innocence Jewellery, click me to get to her blog, so thanks very much. I am not going to do the 15 pass on's this time as I only just did some and it takes a Looooooongggg time.

And, I won another prize!!! And whilst typing this I realise that I haven't blogged about my previous prize! So tomorrow, I will blog more in depth about those with pictures and links as they came from 2 great shops. The 1st one came from Glassprimitif and the second one from Glitzykitty

Now I am off to flake on the sofa for mins in front of a fan.

Strangelord

Wow, aren't the weeks going quick? Which is great for me in my current state of making a tiny little person...29 weeks and counting.

Anyways, onto my Weekly Wednesday featured seller from Folksy. This week is the turn of Strangelord and when you look in her shop all I can say is....what's not to love? It's so fantastical and magical and appeals to my Kitsch side, which is most of me really.

So on with the interview and all the yummy photos.



1. Where do you get your inspiration?
Over the years I've flitted between disciplines (a spot of painting AKA my degree, textiles/fashion-based stuff, performance), but most recently have settled on collaging and assembling everyday objects together. I'm obsessed with the kitsch and the kawaii, but with a nod towards Dada and/or Surrealism. I'm fascinated by the idea of taking something sickly and sweet and contrasting it with the bizarre, nightmarish or oh-so slightly perverse.

I love the immediacy and integrity of combining found images and objects to make something entirely different.

Inspiration comes from my scavenging nature. I'm a compulsive collector. My media is what others may regard as trash -broken jewellery, old toys, junk shop finds, a pretty button, scraps, charms, trinkets. Patterns, childhood imagery, fragments of text. My friends and family all collect for me. And yes, I've been know to pick things up in the street before. If it's good enough for Kurt Schwitters...!


I'm inspired by Joseph Cornell, Max Ernst, Hans Bellmer. I'm inspired by songs, stories, feelings, fears, everything really. My imagination is constantly in overdrive. Through collaging I like to capture these thoughts and stick them down, along with the mess of seemingly un-associated items, arranged neatly, like restoring order to a somewhat chaotic life.

2. Describe your work space?
Collaging takes place all over our shared Victorian terrace -at the breakfast bar, curled up on the sofa, in bed whilst watching some nostalgic old film or camp musical! I've taken over the back bedroom as some kind of gallery-cum-treasure trove that taste forgot. My work hangs on pretty much every available wall space, and is piled in every nook and cranny.



3. When and Why did you start your crafting business?
See above! I've always had the compulsion to create. I can't sit still for two minutes without arranging things nicely or dreaming up new colour combinations. If my imagination, hands, or both aren't kept busy I fall asleep. Literally. This hyper-activity led to an accumulation of art work. Shows only come up a few times a year so sales through this route are limited, and you can only give each friend or family member so many collaged gifts, so the natural progression was to look for an outlet to tout my wares. That's how I stumbled across Folksy earlier this year.

I don't create to live, I live to create. If people like what I do and wanna buy it, that's a bonus.

I often wonder where the few pieces I have sold ended up. I think there's some kind of art in that -something so personal and unique to me, just hanging there in a stranger's house. They don't know why I made it, but obviously it meant something to them.

4. What is your most favourite item that you sell?
All of it -duh! No, sorry. I like pretty much all of my pieces for different reasons. However I'm especially fond of a little collage I call 'Lepidopterrorist'. It's partly about my fear of moths and butterflies (the big Daddy of all my phobias). I like it because i made it on an awesome vintage tile I found at a car boot sale, but I also love the combination of yellow and purple. Complementary -see I remember colour theory!


I have a couple of box collages I think are pretty cool too. They are my homage to Cornell. I like the idea that you can close the lid and it not only becomes personal and private, but portable too.

5. Where else do you sell?
I love getting involved in art shows and exhibitions as it's always so exciting to see your work up an the walls. I'll be showing at the Great Sheffield Art Show at the Octagon 10th-12th July, with 5 new pieces for sale.

6. Do you do craft fairs and do you think they are a good place to sell?
I can't pretend to be an expert -sorry! I'm more arty-farty than crafty, but I do have a massive respect for skilled craftspeople. I'd love to have the patience to master knitting, or be brave enough to use a sewing machine properly!

7. Describes your style in 3 words.
Gosh, only three? I'm way too wordy for that! Idiosyncratic? Accumulated. Sinister-sweet (not cheating much!).



8. What are you working on at the moment?
I'm almost done with a hanging card collage based on a catacombs/archaeological theme.

9. What is the weirdest thing about you?
At one time or another I have been monophobic, clinophobic, nychtophobic, thanatophobic, necrophobic, iatrophobic, phasmophobic, samhainophobic, trypanophobic, catoptrophobic, mottephobic, claustrophobic, wiccaphobic...I am scared of literally EVERYTHING! I think that makes me a slightly odd kid. Makes great inspiration for my work though.

10. What 1 item would you like to buy from another Folksy seller?
I've had my eye on Zedhead's graffiti print clutch for ages, http://www.folksy.com/items/21042-Graffiti-Print-Clutch-Purse, as sometimes I like to pretend I'm a little bit gangsta. Unfortunately my car is currently dying, so until I get that replaced I can't really be too frivolous!

11. Where is your most favourite place?
PARIS. In my dreams I am there. Had the best trip of my life there two years ago with my fella Alex. I made him a box collage to commemorate it.



12. What is your favourite book?
I urge you to read Tracy Emin's 'Strangeland', what ever you think about her art, or the way she's depicted in the media. Her writings are beautiful.

13. What is your favourite film?
Brief Encounter! It's gut-wrenching. I've never seen anyone so perfectly demonstrate the depths of despair as Celia Johnson. It's those eyes. There's something romantic about stations, isn't there?

I saw a fab stage adaptation by The Kneehigh Theatre Company recently. Not quite the tear-jerker I expected, but they really played up the comic elements and the music was super.

14. What is your favourite song?
There are many, for many different reasons. I would like 'There is a light that never goes out' by The Smiths played at my funeral. Patsy Cline breaks my heart and makes me fall off my chair laughing from one song to the next. 'Moon River' always makes me cry.



15. If you could do anything for the day what would you do?
A lie-in would be nice! The best days are spent with someone close -a stroll round a museum with a friend, hitting the shops for some serious mother-daughter time, prancing around a stately home, my man on my arm, pretending that I really am (as I like to believe) descended from the gentry. I'm easily pleased. I take life as it comes, and find excitement in even the littlest of things.

16. You are a Superhero, what is your power?
To make time stand still. It's racing past me at an alarming rate. Did you ever see the kids' programme 'Bernard's Watch'? I want me one of those! Just think of all the collaging I'd get done!
So that's the end of another interview from another wonder folksy seller. Aren't you all great?
The picture above is my absolute favourite, in fact it's on my favourite list back at Folksy, It's called House. I love it.

Thanks again Strangelord for doing the interview.
Happy Wednesday.

An award from Lily Shay Style

I got a wonderful surprise the other day. I was reading my comments and there was one from a lovely lady over at LilyShayStyle and she had given me an award. An award!!!! I was gobsmacked. So I am humbly accepting the award from her and passing it on to 15 blogs I particularly love.

Here are the Rules:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you have newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

So here are my 15 most favouritest of favourite blogs (in no particular order!)........by the way it's very difficult to choose 15 out of so many fantastic blogs. Viva La Blog!!!

1. The Sock Garden
2. Mollimoo Makes
3. Lucykate Crafts
4. Trashy Princess
5. What's Jamball Upto
6. Widget and Friends
   
7. That Crafty Fish
8. Milomade
9. See The Woods
10. Fabric Nation
11. I Love Red
12. Floating Rabbit
13. Dig The Earth
14. Leigh Sheppard
15. Craft Schmaft

Don't forget to check out all these lovely blogs especially LilyShayStyle. And thanks once again LilyShayStyle it really really made me feel good to get this award.

Ha Ha Ha Ha

Just a quickie tonight with no piccies.

I wanted to share a couple of things that I have found very amusing lately although you might find them cringworthy instead....but these tickled my fancy and made me laugh.

Firstly, my lovely partner has joined our very new village allotment association and in a recent meeting where they were talking about how to dish out the new plots, they decided the fairest way was to pick the plots out of a hat.......whereupon my partner chirps up " We could call it The Plottery" He says he only got a few sympathy laughs, if I had been there I would have been on the floor laughing, guess that's why I am with him.

Next up I was reading a conversation on Facebook between my sisters talking about their rubbish day. One sister then says that she was going to go and drink alot of wine. My Cousin-in-sin as he likes to be called then added "be careful you don't catch Wine Flu"

And lastly, I just spotted a Knitted Brown Beard on Folksy by a shop called Wife of Brian. Absolutely brilliant.