We Make

*phew*

I'm glad I'm home!  Yesterday was a VERY long day... thankfully made shorter by the lovely Sally from Stitchy Woo Woo.

I left home shortly after 6am so I could catch the bus up to London from Milton Keynes.  I'm a great supporter of public transport - but I'm not sure I'd use National Express again!  The website was terribly confusing as to which stops I could use with luggage in the hold - and even a call to their call centre did nothing to help, so in the end I settled for travelling into Victoria Coach station.   Now I had trouble navigating the coach station so heaven help anyone from another country visiting and ending up there!  Anyway by 9:30am I was at the venue - having bumped into Angharad on route (with her lovely daughter and father).

It was lovely to meet fellow Etsian's both stall holders and customers.  I met some blog readers too - which was lovely, as you're never quite sure if you have any!!  The day was quieter than I might have liked, however I made several sales, and a couple of custom orders and it was wonderful to meet up with fellow crafters.

The delightful Abi came up from Devon bringing my custom tops that she'd made - beautiful and I must remember to show you a photo!

The topping of the day came when Sally heard that I was travelling by coach and offered me a lift in her car all the way to Milton Keynes - thanks to Lovealittle's mum Renee for organising that!

Lots of photos of the day can be found over at Flickr::  http://www.flickr.com/groups/750040@N25/

Now if you don't mind - but I'm going for a cup of tea and a laze on the sofa!!

WE MAKE

... London

The 'Made by Cara' stall is off to London, Covent Garden today for the We Make fair.

Do pop along if you are in the area (I've heard the first 10 customers through the door get a free cotton tote bag!).  It starts at 11am and full details are here::  http://wemakelondon.blogspot.com

Me, I'm off to catch the bus in a few moments.  No trains were running before 9am this morning, not quite what I planned.  Last night we were at the Circus and it was fab, and I'll spill all about that too later.  Enjoy your sunday!

C x

Salvation...

How was I to know that salvation would come in the form of a lovely girl?  

In the greater scheme of things finding someone who could replicate a top that I fell in love with, and that is now sadly past its best is probably one that doesn't spring to mind.  However... this is me we are talking about here.  Being one of the larger sized ladies means that I really do not enjoy clothes shopping.  Now I've found a very enjoyable way.  Let me explain...

1.  Take an item you love

2.  Send it to Abi

3.  Choose colour/fabric

4.  Smile repeatedly as she uploads the Work In Progress pictures on Flickr 

5. A week later be overjoyed with the results.

Thats it - simple, one week, which includes me sending Abi the top, her drawing up a pattern to fit me/the top perfectly, her ordering the fabric and Abi finishing TWO new tops.

I'm super lucky too as Abi is coming to We Make tomorrow and bringing the two new tops and my old scruffy original.

Who says couture isn't for the masses!  What you waiting for!

We Make

After all the trauma at the start of June, I really wasn't sure if I'd be going to We Make this Sunday.  However, I am going to! 

So if you are in London this Sunday, do pop along to Covent Garden where you'll find the Made by Cara stall and plenty of others at the We Make London fair.  Full details are on the We Make blog.

In the mean time, I'll leave you with a shot of another of my new lines...

Children's Apron £9.50

and Children's Apron & Baking Set £12

Busy...

Life has been really busy lately, and as much as I seem to do my 'To Do' list never appears to get any shorter!

However - progress HAS been made! I've listed some new iPod cases in the shop today, and I have a BIG STORE UPDATE next Monday with new products to reveal to you all!

I'm still making additional stock for the fair in London next month and my website is just ticking along. It could do with some love and attention - but I think making has to come first. I'll leave you with a shot of some new crayon rolls ...

Macro #13

Pink bias trim and green fabric.
I've been wanting to make some more tissue holders for a while, but I wanted to make a change to my original design. Now I had the basics, but I couldn't get the inner seams just right. Thats a Virgo trait in me. Which leads me nicely onto perfection. I get really cross when I don't quite get something right. It really annoys me on many levels. Typically I make errors when my mind isn't fully on the job - how annoying is that! I don't generally put my errors on Etsy, I don't think there is a particular reason, I just don't. I do however tend to offer them at the craft fairs I go to. Anyway - finally sorted out my tissue holders, and I'm happy with them now. I've listed two new ones and have a further 6 to photograph and list. I'm also trying to increase my stock levels in readiness for the fair I'm doing in Covent Garden later this year.

'

WE MAKE pdf's

Yes, we do!

We Make will be producing a recipe book and a 'How to' book with tutorials from some of the designers involved in the project. This is your advance notice!

For those of you interested in one of these books, keep an eye out here on my blog, or here on the official blog, plus our shop where it will eventually be listed.

For those of you submitting recipes/tutorials I will be keeping the list of submissions here!

Cara x

Macro #3

I really am loving this challenge of a Macro a day...Can you tell what it is yet?

Why, of course it's none other that a balloon thats been washed in my machine. Don't you all wash your balloons too? No, well I didn't intend to either. However, this is what happens when you have a son like mine and a mother who frequently forgets to check pockets. The number of times I've washed stones, tissues (the lint drove me mad, so we only have handkerchiefs now!), feathers, coins, lego, playmobil and even snails - you'd think I'd have enough nonce to actually check his pockets by now. Alas, no. So here we have todays deposit - a washed up balloon. Makes an ace macro shot though.

And other news.... I'm co-ordinating the 'We Make' shop - whats that I hear you cry - well lookie here for the blog and here for the shop! Ooo and put the date of June 22nd into your diary - its the very first 'We Make London' craft fair, and yep - I'm there!