Cory is a fan: Birdhouse Blessings

I stumbled across these darling birdhouses the other day on Etsy, from Birdhouse Blessings: 

Eeee!  So cute!  Yet again, more things I covet but cant have without any outside space with this flat.  One day I'll have a garden, one day!  And I will hang adorable birdhouses like these:

I remember when I was young my father made birdhouses.  One of them he made for a woodpecker, and it was long and deep - the woodpeckers liked it!

I've always been really interested in birds, and knowing what type were landing and eating seed on our porch - here in Britain there are many different birds to the ones I knew on Vancouver Island.  I think the Blue Tit has to be my favourite, tied with the itsy bitsy Robins they have over here!  TINY they are!

Bookshelf Necklace News!

Well I've made a big decision... I've reduced all my bookshelves by £5 (the ones that were previously £30 are now £25, and the ones that were £25 are now £20... the Beach House Bookshelf Necklace, which was already on sale for £20, has been further reduced to £18 until the end of the month)!  Why did I do this...?

The reason!  I've been making these necklaces for a while now.  I'm getting better and faster, and I'm less wasteful with the materials.  Also, I feel like I can handle any increase in volume if more people buy them at the lower rate.  Most of the sales this month have been for my Beach House Bookshelf Necklace, which has been at £20, which is the rate I had been thinking of lowering many of the necklaces to - and since I'd been thinking about this change for a while, and I just decided to go for it!

It might not seem like a big difference, but these necklaces are actually what pay my bills!  90% of my sales come from people buying my bookshelf necklaces, so this actually feels like a big change for me  as the impact could be big.  Hopefully it all works out, and perhaps my jewellery will reach a wider audience.  I'm ready and curious to see what happens!!

New Items: Teacup Earrings!

I've finally figured out a way to make teacup earrings!  It's taken a while, and a lot of wasted fimo, but now I feel comfortable with them and some are up in my shop!  More colours to come soon.  So far my favourite are these red polkadot teacup earrings:

Very cute, very alice!  I've seen a few people say 'alice' as an adjective, to mean 'in the style of Alice in Wonderland' - an interesing addition to the language!  But should I capitalise it?  I guess we say 'mesmerise' without a capital, and that word is from a man named Mesmer... hmmm!  Something linguistic to ponder on a Monday evening.

Second Craft Fair!

That's right, I've had my first and second craft fair this month!  The most recent was in Kentish Town in London, at Torriano Infants School.  It was so fun to go to a school and see all the little kiddies running around...

Here's a picture of me at my table, ready for the day!

My lovely husband also came and helped out.  Or, went and found nice things for us to buy!  There were some really nice tables and we came home with some chilli jelly, a tin of green tea, and a felt badge I swapped a pair of my earrings for!

It was a lot shorter than the last one (and so were the tables and chairs!!  Kid size :)) so I think it went better than the first fair I did.  There were more people, and I sold a bookshelf necklace!  I also sold two sushi necklaces to two little girsl who were best friends :)  They now have matching sushi necklaces around their necks, so sweet!  With that and some pairs of earrings, I considered it a so-so successful day.  Not bad at all considering it was the COLDEST day I've ever experienced in May!

Where is the Spring?  Soon we're going to be expecting Summer let alone Spring!

My First Craft Fair!

That's right, I executed my first successful craft fair on May 5th, and I didn't die or anything.

It was actually a lot of fun!  I was so nervous beforehand, simply not knowing what to expect; but it was super straightforward.  Bring items.  Find table with name on it.  Set up table.  Sit for 8 hours and chat to nice people.  Done!

There wasn't an incredible amount of footfall - one seller mentioned this was the first craft fair she'd been to where she hadn't sold a SINGLE THING (gulp)... but luckily I was able to sell a pair of my teapot earrings within the first few minutes!  Unfortunately that just set me up for dissapointment, as I didn't sell another pair until 2 hours later!  At the end of the day I had sold 5 sets of earrings, 1 set of hair clips, and one set of 3 pairs of earrings.  It was an alright start, and I'm excited to be going back again for both the Saturday and Sunday at the beginning of June!



My items all lined up and ready to go!

Coryographies at In With The Old

I have some pictures to share of my items that are being sold at In With The Old, the cutest little handmade crafty shop in London:

May 9th (also my birthday!) was the celebratory opening of the shop, which has officially already been open for three weeks.  It's so cute!  There are about 20 different makers that contribute to the shop, and it is run by Alice, who makes incredible pieces out of reclaimed treasures.  The shelf in the above picture is one of the items she sells - apple crates turned into adorable shelves!

Other makers' items include adorable headbands, beautiful prints of birds (wearing hats!), intricate applique felt brooches, lovely fabric teacups, and even those cute frilly pants to put over baby's diaper!  It's a lvoely shop, and I always want to spend more time in it - it's a shame I'm not in London so much anymore!

If YOU are in London though and fancy having a look around, follow the link at the start of this post and check it out if you have time!  You will leave with a lighter wallet, I garuantee you.

Tutorial: Make Tiny Teapot Earrings

My first tutorial!  I'm happy to say I've finally got my act together and sat down with painted nails to deliver a video on making my tiny teapot earrings.  Have a look - and try for yourself!  It's not as difficult as it looks to make tiny things!

All you'll need to participate: 2 flat earring studs, polymer clay (any colour), glue (such as super glue), and varnish (or in a pinch, clear nail polish).  Enjoy!

Guest Blogger at Christmas Pie Crafts

Last Friday I was guest blogger at Christmas Pie Crafts, a blog that if you haven't checked out you should!  It's very fun and full of fun things with links to a great crafty community.

Check out my post on getting start with polymer clay - and why all that time spent as a child playing with PlayDoh has finally come in handy :)

http://christmaspiecrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/todays-guest-blogger-is.html

And the winner is...!

I'm happy to say it's time to announce the winner of my most recent giveaway!  Let find out the winner of my Antique Bookshelf Necklace and pair of Blue Book Earrings...

As always (as in this time and last), I've drawn the winner out of my magic hat...

In all there were 13 separate entries, so good odds for everyone!

I cut up slips of paper and wrote a name on for every entry, then swirled them around a bit... ready for the draw!

With eyes shut, I choose the lucky winner...!

And hooray!!  The winner is Nina Koo-Seen-Lin, of The Kooky Toon Book Corner!  Congratulations Nina, I'll be contacting you in a bit to tell you the good news :)  Hopefully you like your new necklace and earrings!
Giveaways are fun, so I'll surely be starting another one soon.  Check back and enter, they're open to everyone!

She Likes Brains

I'm happy to say my Reading in the Park Necklace has been featured on one of my favourite blogs, She Likes Brains: http://www.shelikesbrains.com/gifts/reading-in-the-park-necklace/

This blog features gifts for the (slightly) nerdy girl (for example, me) - and you can trawl through and find some great fun things!

LOVE UK CRAFTERS

LOVE UK CRAFTERS is a great initiative started by Popular Crafts Magazine, and will be running throughout 2012.  It's bringing together a lot of UK crafters, and you can read more about it here: http://www.popularcrafts.com/news/article.asp?a=10411&utm_source=s0040&utm_medium=s0040&utm_campaign=s0040

Here's one of the videos featuring a bunch of UK crafters - some that I recognised! :) http://bit.ly/IsEK9D

I'm hoping to meet more UK crafters this way, and get my name out there more as well! 

Happy May 1st! And May sale.

Hooray, it's May!  May is my favourite month of the year - not just because my birthday is in May, but because I love the weather - it's warm but not too warm, and the bugs aren't out yet!  Sunny days in the park reading, longer evenings, and Spring meals of fresh greens instead of the winter fare of stews and pies.  Above I have a lovely picture of Vancouver's cherry blossom season which I am missing here in the UK :(

To celebrate May, I'm putting my Beach House Bookshelf Necklace on sale for £20 - I actually wanted to put a tiny shell on the top shelf of this necklace when I was first designing it, to make it more beach-y, and I have the shells in a little bag unused - but I was worried it would make the necklace less popular!  Maybe I'll make another necklace with a shell on it instead...