Monkey Business

I'm probably totally crazy for deciding to take this on, but, who knows when I'll have the chance to participate again in a craft fair. The christmas craft fair on Bowen is HUGE! It's a one day event with about a 100 vendors (just a guess). Last year, my table was not in the best location so this year, I made sure to have prime real estate. Last year, a lot of people recognized me from previous summer markets, when I would make and sell sock monkeys (I'm officially known as the sock monkey lady over here - could be worse), and were disappointed that I had dropped off the monkey making wagon. So, seeing as my time is tight with other deadlines, I have decided to focus on monkey making once again, and have a pretty good start on the assembly line. If time permits, I may try to add some pinafore dresses, journals and christmas cards.

Progress:

Pretty Little Invites

Very good friends of ours just had their dreams come true...a baby came to join their family four weeks ago. They are enjoying the roller coaster of new parenthood and to help celebrate this beautiful addition, a couple friends and I are throwing a little Jack and Jill baby shower this weekend. I wanted to make some invitations and decided to use some supplies that I already had at home. I am very happy with the outcome.

I was inspired by all the pretty bunting flag patterns I've seen recently, and decided to use that simple repetitive shape in pretty, girly colours. To jazz up the back of the invite and to add some more thickness to the cardstock, I spray glued the invitations to two different scrapbook papers. Cut them out, then used my round corner punch to finish them off. The envelopes were looking a little blah, so I printed up some labels, glued them to the fronts and added a little butterfly accent with some of my scraps left from the card backs. Voila - pretty little invites for a pretty little girl.

Lovely Hairpins

Here's some sweet little hairpins I've been working on to match the dresses. I'll probably sell them as mis-matched pairs that work well together. So far, I've been making button hairpins, metal flowers and I have some gorgeous acrylic mum cabochons on the way. I'm having lots of fun!

Lovely Sparkles

So apparently summer has taken over here and my posts are getting few and far between again...sorry. We just got back from a short road trip to Alberta to take Logan to Drumheller and the Calgary Zoo to see the dinosaur exhibits. He was totally in awe of the 86ft T-Rex that looms over Drumheller's main hub and the prehistoric exhibit at the Calgary Zoo was the icing on the cake. I'll post some pictures soon.

In the meantime, I have started making some little earrings and came up with a fun way to display them. I've taken double sided scrapbooking paper, rounded the corners and sewn a thin band of brown kraft paper, which I ran through my printer with my logo, and a brief description on the back. What do you think?

The Short Version of the Long List

It seems I have a lot on my plate at the moment. I am at the stage where each day blends into the next, and I am left with that sinking feeling that I have not accomplished anything on my To Do List. So I thought I'd start posting completed projects so I can look back at this blog and realize that I have actually been productive.

Our summer market has started, and I want to have a table as soon as possible. My list of items for sale are pillowcase dresses, superhero capes + headbands and vintage inspired children's jewelry. If I have time, I would also like to have some baby items: boo boo heat sacs (little owl stuffies filled with organic flax seed inside), soft wool balls and maybe some security blankies...not sure.

Here's some of the dresses. I have six completed, three just about there and three more to go. This week will be superhero capes and then on to the jewelry. Lots of work, but lots of fun too!

Shop Update

I am now offering FREE SHIPPING for all items in my shop . Can't go wrong with that!!

Bowen Island Market

Exciting news alert - the Bowen Island Market is back this year and is going to be the best it has ever been! A group of fellow crafters, farmers and foodies got together last week, to brainstorm how to bring back the market and bring in the crowds that it so deserves. The market had started to get a little stale this past year or so with many long time crafty islanders moving off, or being fortunate enough for their 'hobby' to turn into a full time job, or (like my selfish self) going off and having babies. There's a lot of new talents over here, and we're making it our business to set forth and seek them out...so don't be shy!!

This year, we have three little rules: MAKE IT . BAKE IT . GROW IT

The last year that I was part of the market was in 2006. Here's some pictures of our table (me and my crafty friend, Karen of Bluebelle).

There is going to be a blog, promotional mailouts and some other fun tidbits to get this market started. So stay tuned...

Cards for Cancer

Machine sewn cards for my contribution to Cards for Cancer .

Brainstorming

I just bought this book yesterday. There's a lot of great ideas on how to promote your craft company and make yourself noticed in the marketplace. One idea was a newsletter or a mail order. I have to admit, as you can probably tell, I'm finding it difficult to keep up with the Monthly Makes so maybe a tutorial could be part of a newsletter/mail order that is quarterly. I'm brainstorming aloud hear - would anyone be interested in signing up for a quarterly newsletter? Or perhaps for a small fee (to cover shipping) I could put together some super duper awesome quarterly mail orders that would include all kinds of fun treasures.

Hmmmmm...let me know.

Little Worlds

How much fun are these?!? Logan and I - okay more me than Logan - became addicted to making terrariums last spring. Unfortunately, they didn't do as well as I had hoped. So this time around, we decided to only use mosses and baby ferns, rather than all different kinds of plants. We also added little characters to our baby forests - our windowsill is lined with little worlds.