Studio Envy

I've seen quite a lot of photographs of various creative spaces and studios since entering the blogging world and I must say that I find so many of them totally amazing and inspiring. I currently have a small bit of studio space spread pretty much throughout every room of the house and bits and pieces hidden away in the corners of most cupboards and long to have it all in a place as amazing of these.... jealous, moi, never!

These are some photographs of Jenny B Harris' studio space taken from her lovely blog All Sorts - *swoon*.

A recent Tweet led me to discover this fantastic workroom belonging to Lucy Davidson don't you just love the clipboards and Gemma Correll prints.

And Lucy has an Icebat which is always good by me!

And following on from my recent post about Penguin and Fish (Kitty delivery for the shop is tomorrow eek, can't wait), take a look at this wall of softies, Love love love.

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Saints and Pinners

I recently discovered Saints and Pinners whilst reading this great blog by Blueberry Park (You should definitely go take a look at Karen's blog, she makes some beautiful things and is very inspiring). I love discovering new UK websites selling beautiful fabrics, it can be quite a task to source nice new fabrics and you can be so limited when buying from the USA as they always add a hefty sum of import tax to your order which is not so nice.

This website has some gorgeous fabrics and so so many I have never seen before so of course I had to get the old credit card out and order a whole bunch of new designs to build up my stash. When I order fabrics I normally get a selection of designs which catch my eye regardless of colour, themes etc but I was quite methodical in my approach to this selection and ended up with quite a colour co-ordinating bundle of fat quarters, nice. I couldn't have been happier with my parcel. My fabrics arrived beautifully wrapped in tissue and ribbon, with a lovely card inside and the fabric packs I ordered arrived in their own separate bundles with name cards on - it was lovely to think that they spent so much time on attention to detail which can so often lack from other fabric stores, so I guess what I'm trying to say is all in all I am pretty happy and will be shopping here again!

So.....what to make with these gorgeous new fabrics, that is the question? I am going to try to develop my soft toy shapes and maybe make some bears in bags or wearing scarves etc. I need to make some framed pictures using small scraps of fabric for the house in Nethy Bridge, Aviemore we are currently helping do up to rent out - will blog more about that later on.

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Book Love

I know I'm away to sound so typically British by moaning about all this rain but sorry I'm going to do it again. It is still pouring outside and my time off work is turning into one big "sitting on the sofa on the Internet for hours and shopping online fest!Well if I'm not spending my cash on a holiday I might as well treat myself to some other nice things - right?

I ordered some books from Amazon yesterday all in the name of creativity of course so that if it is still raining next week I can perhaps be sewing machine bound instead of sofa bound. I talked a while back about how I wanted to give quilting a bit of a go so thought these two books above would point me in the right direction (I'm always a sucker for a pretty front cover too and these two tick that box).

And I thought I would just go ahead and order these two as well. They will hopefully be a good source of inspiration and maybe give me some ideas for future projects to tackle - so come on postie get these to me asap so I can stop being a slob, I'm being sucked into a world of eating cakes (not so bad really) and daytime TV (pretty darn bad).

(Photos taken and books purchased from www.amazon.co.uk)

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Coming Soon

Here are some of the cutest kitties you ever did see made by the super talented Alyssa of Penguin and Fish, and guess what some of their pals are crossing the Atlantic as I type and will be popping up in the shop very soon, excited? We are.

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Handmade Nation

Well that's me on holiday from the day job for two whole weeks, yep you heard me right 2 whole weeks away from the Overgate Centre which is gonna be a lovely break. Unfortunately I'm not actually getting to go anywhere on holiday which is a shame as I long for some sunshine and to get out of Dundee for a few days but this might have to wait until my next week off in September and I have a few days booked in Italy in October for a friend's wedding which is going to be amazing so I cannot complain.

This week I don't really have too much planned, maybe a little bit of crafting to help decorate the house in Nethy Bridge we have been helping get ready to be rented out, it is looking great but needs some decorative touches to make it feel a bit more homely, but more about that as and when I do anything.

However, on Wednesday I will be attending a screening of Handmade Nation at the DCA which is going to have a talk and question and answer session afterwords with Faythe Levine. This in itself should be great but I'm also going to meet up with a good friend beforehand for a long overdue catch up and will hopefully get to put some faces to names as a whole load of Glasgow crafty types are venturing up to Dundee on a bus for the event too, so here's to a few days of relaxation and some crafty meet-ups.

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Etsy Craft Party

Like Etsy? Like parties?

Well if you are in or near Dundee on June 18th then come along and join us in the DCA from 7.30pm for the mother of all crafty meet-ups! Well that's the aim of the game anyway.

We're aiming to be in the Top 50 Global Etsy Craft Parties, and we need your help! All you have to do is RSVP via http://www.meetup.com/Etsy-Craft-Party/2927/ If we can confirm more guests than Seattle and Brooklyn (we can do it!) we'll get an ace Party Pack from Etsy with loads of presents and prizes for all of our Craft Party guests. So make sure you do it, put Dundee's craft community on the International map and come along for a great night of fun - Do it, you know you want too!

Oh and incase you missed it the first time you MUST R.S.V.P via this link:

http://www.meetup.com/Etsy-Craft-Party/2927/

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