7 things sunday - places I have lived - blogtoberfest day 30

1. Kidderminster
Kidderminster is where I was born and spent the first 18 years of my life.
It is in the West Midlands of Englad is is well known for -
carpets
a football team called the Kidderminster Harriers
a local paper called the Kidderminster Shuttle.
Famous people from Kidderminster include Sir Rowland Hill who invented the postage stamp and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame ( brush with fame - he used to come into a pub I worked in....)
There is a statue of Sir Rowland Hill in the middle of the town...but I don't think there is one of Robert Plant!

Kidderminster, Worcestershire, a photo by lisby1 on Flickr.

2. London. I lived (boy, did I live !!) and studied in London. In lovely south Kensington near Kings Road, Chelsea and also in North Kensington near Portobello Road where the awesome markets are.

Portobello Road market

3. Reigate. Where I worked as a house-mum in a boarding school for a while.
I can only remember that there was a pub across the road and there were some nice walks in the area.

Reigate Heath windmill image from wikipedia

4. Sydney. I lived in a few places in Sydney, none of which had this view -

5. Blue Mountains, west of Sydney where I have lived off and on for a few years.

6. Parkes - famous for The Dish

7. Tucson - famous for being in the desert and hot and having these amazing, enormous saghuaro cacti.

tucson photo from flickr

How many places have you lived in?
Where have you lived? Anywhere exotic?

One more day of blogtoberfest tomorrow!
If you are taking part - how are you going? Did you manage to post every day? Or did you take some time off?

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Nearing the end - to blog or not to blog - blogtoberfest day 29

Well the end of blogtoberfest is in sight - 2 more posts after this, and for better or worse I've stayed the course.

Mostly it has been fine - and lots of fun - and I'm found some great blogs and today I even met (really!) a blogger I first "met" through blogtoberfest! How cool is that?!

It wasn't planned - it wasn't a date or anything, we just both happened to have a stall at the Museum of Fire Doll, Bear and Craft Fair.

But, I digress...I must admit that the last couple of days it's been a struggle to blog. I've been so busy getting ready for the aforementioned fair and yesterday was a pretty lame attempt - I blogged my lunch (!)

And it led me to wonder is it better to have blogged and lost than to never blog at all?!
Or is it better to blog only about worthy, meaningful things and if you don't have anything to say then just "shut up!"?

And with that I will take my own advice and disappear.....

my stall at the Museum of Fire

using a couple of old cases to display tshirts

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Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Wordless Friday - blogtoberfest day 28

cheddar and telopia tomato chutney

gorgonzola and Pulp-it onion jam

My creative space - blogtoberfest day 27

Sewing, sewing, sewing!

fabric by Saffron Craig

kombis coming along

What have you been creating this week?



If you would like to see more creative spaces or join in you can do so here.

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How to organise a craft fair in 3 easy steps - blogtoberfest day 26

Ever thought about running your own art and craft fair/market/show?

It's not as hard as you think....though it does involve some work!

1. Find a venue
2. Find people
3. Advertise

and that's it!

Of course there is quite a lot involved in those 3 dot points.

1. Find a venue.
What are your choices?
It depends on how big or small you want to go, but generally if you want customers to come and browse and have a variety you'll want to have a venue that can fit a number of stalls in.
I'd suggest that for a starter between 10 and twenty may be a good number, but you could always think big and go for 30 or more. Of course that does all depend on #2 - finding stallholders.

a. Your own home - if you have a big room or a big shed or a big yard.
b. A public hall. In my area we have halls that are run by the local council or by a local committee.
There are school halls and church halls.
Sports club halls.
Some organisations have function rooms you may be able to hire.

c. An outside venue.
There may be a public park.
Or a special area set aside for such things.
Some of the places above may have outside sites - schools, churches, sports grounds.
Pubs and hotels, they are often willing to lend their carpark or other outdoors area to you.

d. A pop-up location. This is becoming a popular concept to help revitalise some town and shopping centres. You rent a vacant shop for a period. Some councils have great schemes going - see here.
Or if you see a shop in your are that has been vacant for a while, find out if you can use it for a day - never hurts to ask.

Now with these options I am not able to help you with thing like government regulations, public liability insurance and such.
From my experience here in Australia you will need public liability insurance to cover you and your event. It is worth finding out about this beforehand as this can be quite costly.

2. Find people.
You need stall holders.
Decide what sort of market/event it is going to be.
All handmade? Vintage? A mix of both? Or something specialised eg. dolls and bears, or children's goods.

Are you going to find people by invitation only?
Or are you going to advertise for stallholders?

If you are crafty yourself you may already know a few other craftsters who may be interested...and they may know others.
Or you can advertise - in your local press, on facebook, on your blog, on twitter, on local noticeboards?

You'll need to decide how many stalls you can fit in and how big they will be.

3. Advertise.
This is the crux of the success of your venture.
Places to advertise
- your website or blog
- facebook
- twitter
- local press
- signs around your venue, depending on where it is an local regulations, you may be able to have signs out side on the day and/or before hand.
- public noticeboards
- shops
- get all your stall holders involved. Give then handouts and flyers to distribute to their frinds, family and customers. Get them to blog, facebook and twitter about it.
- and anywhere else you can think of!


Plus!
You'll need a budget.
Work out how much your're going to spend on hall hire, advertising and insurance.
Then work out how much you are going to charge the stallholders.

Very important - Make sure you get payment before the day.

 Go on - give it a try!

Or maybe you've organised an art and craft event - what ideas do you have to share with us?

Huge giveaway! to celebrate my 500th post - blogtoberfest day 24

Who would have thought that I would reach the milestone of 500 blog posts?
Certainly not me when I started this little blog.
I thought "what will I find to blog about?"
"Who will want to read it?"
And all those other thoughts us beginner bloggers have!

But here we are.
And here we are nearly at another milestone - 196 followers!
I'd love to crack the 200 today and then go on to the next ton!

But first - to announce the winner of last weeks giveaway - this one.

The winner is......Belinda - Moonmum!!!!

Yay! for Belinda : )

This week something a bit different.
As a thankyou to you, my lovely readers - 
I'll give a pair of my many and varied earrings to the first 10 followers of my blog to leave a comment here.

So if you are already a follower just say that you are already following.
If you are a new follower, just follow my blog and leave a comment saying that you have done that.

When 10 people have left comments - that's it! and I'll contact you for your addresses and send your little (or large) earrings to you.

Thankyou one and all!

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

Mad about teapots! blogtoberfest day 24

I love teapots!
and I was reminded of this when I saw Little Mo and friends latest creation -

Little Mo and friends

Isn't it sweet?
And I started thinking about the wondrous array of teapots, from the classical elegance of vintage ware -

hall pottery airflow teapot from vintagevasso

to the cottage teaset that I used to covet in my grandmother's china cabinet, like this one -

cottageware teapot from fabvintageestates

Not all teapots are functional they can be sculptural -

scorpion king ceramic teapot by juliesatelier

blast furnace teapot by sluehrstudio

Of course thay can also be functional and whimsical -

tardis teapot by jadeflower

and fun -

puffer fish teapot by AmuseYou

 Some are tiny -

miniature teapot by lawatson

or for one -

personal teapot by Hodakapottery

Imaginitive -

mushroom teapot by alinahayesceramics

Tall -

teapot with cup by ceramicpix

or squat -

amaya by ocpottery

 or somewhere inbetween -

ceramic teapot by hughespottery

Painted -

painted teapot by amybarker

boldly or delicately -

baby's breath teaset by yevgenia

....sorry, have to go Hub is making me a cuppa......

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

7 on sunday - ceramic bead artists - blogtoberfest day 23

Many years ago I was a potter - strange, but true!
And then one day I became interested in beads and jewellery and I thought "I could make pottery beads!"
But did I?.....Well, no I never did, because I became totally obsessed with glass beads and stones ...and you know the rest....
So maybe this is why I am so drawn to ceramic beads and pieces and today I'd like to share with you some of my favorites.

My most favorite ceramic artist has to be Round Rabbit.
The designs are always unique and amazing - glazes so beautiful and always something different, like these asymetric pendants -

pendants by roundrabbit

Round Rabbit's shop is in vaction mode at the moment, but you can see more of her work on her blog.



In complete contrast Jennifer Jangles makes bright, vibrant components - such fun!

necklace set by jangles

I posted a few days ago about my Kylie Parry purchases - this pendant has got to be one of my most faves of Kylie's pieces -

Maku studio acheives wonderful colours and textures by firing their pieces in a raku kiln.
(check out this listing to find out about raku)

raku starburst by Makustudio

Artisanclay uses recycled glass to embellish their handmade pendants  -
Delicious!

deep rich greens and blue sparkly pendant by artisanclay

Earthenwood have been in my radar for a long time!
And the thing that I love is that they don't stand still, there's always something different

bicycle pendant by earthenwood

And for some really out-there other-wordly ancient artifact-looking creations check out wondrous strange.
I am strangely drawn to these raku faces.

soon will be winter moon by wondrousstrange

What do you think?

Do you love the organic, earthy look or the bright festive ones, or the more sophistcated ones?

Do you have any favorite bead artists to share. I'd love to see them.

 In the meantime -

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

In my garden with my new toy - blogtoberfest day 22

Wandering around my garden with my new smart phone and an app called retro camera.





Mountain Devil taken with the The Little Orange Box



Bottlebrush taken with Xolaroid



Geranium taken with Hipsteroku

















Drumsticks taken with The Barbl




Grevillea taken with The FudgeCan



Grevillea taken with The Pinhole

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

What I have been up to this week - blogtoberfest day 21

Another week has zoomed by!
And I got a bit of this'n that done!

How about you? did everything go according to plan?
Any surprises or excitement this week?

As I mentioned earlier my daughter and I have started a fitness pledge - an so far this week I have been for a 1 hour walk, a 2 hour bike ride, a 1 and 1/2 hour buswalk and today I did 45 minutes of yoga from this on-line site.

My 1 hour walk took me round Glenbrook Lagoon, which has lots of waterlilies and weed in it at the moment.

A part of the lagoon reserve has been recenlty burnt - what a shame.

And leaning over a fence from a house bordering the lagoon - a mulberry tree.

I've had quite a few earrings orders via madeit this week and I like to use stickers on my parcels, but I am running out of the ones I'd bought.
However I'd also bought some from thankyou tags from kokovanilla, but wanted them to be stickers.

But wait! I remembered a gadget I'g bought a while ago from a craft show - the Xyron create-a-sticker gizmo!

Then - voila!  I had cute little thankyou stickers.

One of my favorite local walks is along an old fire trail at Valley Heights -

It was a beautiful day and starting to warm up.
The best of the flowers had gone - but the ferns were unfurling -

and there was a whole bank of Flannel flowers at one spot.

I have even found time to make some things with my new beads ...and a few oldies thrown in -

I just love these acid green crackle beads.
First I combined them with vivid orange then something a bit more subtle - with cornflower blue agate and some stripey lampwork cubes.

Whic one do you like the best?

You can find my weekly giveaway here.

Please leave a comment and I'll add you to the draw next Tuesday.

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.