Charity knitting drop off & Christmas Markets

Its November, where has this year gone? The clocks have gone back, its getting dark early and slowly getting colder.

I personally love Christmas! Decorations, treats and spending time with family and friends.

Some of my christmas decorations available on my Etsy shop

My personal love for coffee is heightened now with all the seasonal speciality flavours! Nothing better than a sweet hot drink all warm and snug inside whilst the weather is horrible.

With this in mind I have designed a few new seasonal Christmas mug cosies - the Rudolph is my favourite - which one is yours?

Available in my Etsy shop from Monday 13th November

I am doing 3 Christmas fairs this winter, the first is Capstans Bazaar at The Baltic Market on Thursday 23rd November for their late night shopping experience. Then its open cultures wonderful Winter Arts Market on 2nd December at the Anglian Cathedral & then on the 7th December I’m back at The Baltic Market with Capstans for any last minute bits!

If your are Liverpool based and would like to shop local for your Christmas presents this year The Merseyside Etsy Team have put together a fantastic Etsy shopping page and with over 500 members you are sure to find everything you need, even for those hard to buy for people - we all have at least one!

A few weeks ago I created a public knitting/crochet patterns for The Merseyside Etsy Team for their campaign for The Whitechapel Centre. They are intended to decorate the centre for Christmas so need to be delivered soon! With that in mind I am asking that they are delivered to me at the next craft meeting on Monday 13th November at The Everyman Theatre. You can see the pattern here. They take no time to make and are a great stash buster!

You might have seen on our social media we have a few issues with the location of the craft meetings and this is due to the changing opening hours of The Everyman Theatre around shows.

I am thrilled to announce however that of January 2018 our craft meetings will be held in the fantastically beautiful Liverpool Central Library! Keep your eyes peeled for 2018 dates coming soon!

Creative Seasons, YouTube Fame & Things to Come...

Wow...that was a mental two months! I was so busy it felt like Christmas & I adored every minute of it!

The majority of my new makes have been custom pieces and there is nothing more satisfying than being pushed, creatively and succeeding; even after multiple froggings! 

New Flamingo!

My Etsy store is slowly getting to how I want it, still has a long way to go, but the hard work is paying off as more of you are able to see it with the more I can get on it! 

Tropical Bunting

The accidental theme for this summer has been tropical, last year it was more nautical but being able to use bright colours really appeals to me.

Fab pen

Summer is now coming to an end and as we head towards the winter months (sadly) my brain is overflowing with new ideas, projects and possibilities.

Coming soon for Autumn

My makes always reflect the seasons, they are in part, a massive source of inspiration to me.

Most of my halloween range is already up on my Etsy store and I've been working away on some new Christmas ideas. Ive seen a lot of fellow creatives posting about Christmas lately and whilst it does seem to annoy the average person there is a method behind the madness. 

Pumpkin keychain

Zombie hand

For a handmade business, Christmas can be the busiest time of the year. We only have one set of hands and therefore meeting demand can be difficult so we have to start early to spread as much of our creative love as we can without spreading ourselves too thin. 

New mug cosies for Christmas 2017

* I say this but there is ALWAYS a point where I end up working till silly o'clock and then get back too it first thing in the morning. However its my passion and I would do it everyday if it was required of me!

When we make we never know who we are making for...as I found out this month when I created a special gift box as a surprise present and it ended up on YouTube! Fabulous vintage lifestyle blogger Laura Salmon said some lovely things about my work and it made me smile for about a week! 

I'm taking a short holiday from Thursday 24th August till Monday 4th September but I am leaving my Etsy shop open - just be aware that the dispatch time will be 2 - 3 weeks from now as my next available postage date will be Wednesday 6th September.

Hobo Wedding...

Hello All!

How are you?! 

I can not believe its been 2 months since my last blog post! That sounded like a terrible confession but truth be told I've changed my working hours in my day job so Ive been trying to readjust my work-work-life balance & I must admit I've been finding it a touch hard. I work on average 8.5 hours a day with an hour commute there & back so by the time tea and washing/cleaning bathroom/living room/admin is done 9 out of 10 times I'm just pooped! I've also moved out of The Duke Street Bazaar. Sadly it's changed direction as a business & it's just not for me. I say sadly as I loved what the shop was & all the other independents in it but things change and sometimes you just have to roll with it. I'm also not doing The Winter Arts Market in St. Georges Hall this year either. It was the highlight of my business year last year but sadly not to be this year. 

However....changing perspective on a situation is good for the soul. (This blog post has ended up so big I'm spreading it over 2!) I did an amazing little fair yesterday (huge thank you to everyone that purchased from me!) down on Lark lane at The Old Police Station! Its the first time I felt really Christmassy as there where classic Christmas songs playing and the organisers had provided us all with mince pies! I also participated in a collaboration with #findmybox and have firmly had a motivational fire burning beneath me.

So...first amazing positive note!

There's a new kid in the Baltic Triangle block called Hobo Kiosk! My first ever craft fair was with hobo only last November & now I stock their beautiful, quirky, vintage treasure chest of a shop!

Located on Bridgewater Street its a real Liverpool experience open Wednesday - Saturday 11am-6pm. Their opening night was phenomenal, to the point that we had to leave at one point as we could not fit any more people in the shop!

Personal wise my best friends got married.

I was Chief Bridesmaid and my boy was the Best Man. After dress fittings, decoration making, stag and hen-do's, speech writing and everything else that goes into a wedding the day itself was just brilliant!

We sang, we danced out of shoes, ate and drank too much and paid for it dearly the next day! ha ha! 

I did catch the bouquet but I can't hear wedding bells in the near future! 

I'll be sharing more on whats been going on in the next few days but tomorrow is our last craft meet of this year at The Everyman!

Why buying a handmade gift means more than buying a gift...

There is no escaping it, the Christmas shopping season has started...

My inbox has a daily enquiry about new products, last dates for custom orders & I already have some confirmed!

The handmade market always booms in the winter months & for a good reason. It's so easy to order stuff online from faceless corporate companies & whilst it's often what people want, a lot of the time it's just something to pad out or to add a little something extra. We all know the type, hair products, chocolate, alcohol. No whilst you will NEVER hear me complaining from receiving such gifts something handmade from a small business always stands out in my memory.

Take my Mums house for example. In the kitchen there are roses from Mothers Day 2 years ago & daffodils from last year. A sunflower from her most recent birthday. 

In the living room is a blanket from her 50th & in my sisters room a blanket for her 21st. 

(Thinking I REALLY need to make my Dad something this Christmas!)

Think I'm biased coz I made them? Nope. I can't remember everything I received for past Christmas's & birthdays but I remember the personalised notepad my sister bought me, I remember the Gir hoodie (from Invader Zim) that Chelle made me.

My sister is awesome & only shops at independent stores so anything from her is really memorable!

The point is when you buy handmade anything you are buying more than just the item. You seal in a memory. You make that gift unforgettable to that person. Might be because you can see the hard work & dedication that's gone into the item & 9/10 it's gonna be something that's got a super personal meaning to the receiver.

You might pay a couple of quid more for something but 70p of every £1 spent stays locally when you shop independently as opposed to 5p when spent in a chain.

My Etsy shop has opening this weekend with a few hiccups but I think we are sorted now! 

As a thank you for your continued support I was offering 20% off this weekend (on orders over £5) but I have decided to extend this till midnight on Wednesday coz lets face it, we are all feeling a bit rubbish till Wednesday hits & we start looking forward to the weekend!

Hello 2015!

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a wonderful time whatever you got up to! I just sat in drinking with the boy as I'd been up super early for the day job but had a lovely New Years Day with my folks drinking champagne with an Indian takeaway! 

Christmas with the boy's family was great but a lot more hectic & energetic than the food based coma at mine! We had snow in Liverpool on Boxing Day which was great as we where out in Woolton Village for my Dad's birthday, although it made getting home difficult but I did get to see Ganthet who had the best Christmas ever at hotel parents! My Mum uses him being there as an excuse to have the fire on all the time as he needs to be kept warm, I swear she is cold blooded herself! 

Now all the festivities are done with for another year everyone is all about "change" be it personal or other. I'm not setting any "must loose 2 stone" goals as I'm pretty realistic on that front & know that come the 15th I'll be back to my old tricks again! It's difficult enough working & trying to run a business & some form of a life without trying to make drastic changes to all parts! It's a good day if I put makeup on! 

Making lots of changes here too at GOPA HQ with the first off being that I'm going for CE certification (toy safety to most of us!) which I will blog about as it means essentially destroying my work in everyday imaginable to see how it copes with extreme stresses! 

I'm going to be putting a lot more varied stock in Rex in the coming months, branching out on the baby, accessories & home wear lines!

I'm also going on a one day course to learn how to use Etsy better as my shop keeping skills are shocking to say the least! I wanted to have a January sale but I've no stock at the minute so I'll be spending this month making!

 

If one of your New Years resolutions was to learn a new skill I still have spaces available for my beginners knitting workshop in Ormskirk & I'll be announcing others asap! There will be lots of themed workshops this year too as they prove very popular! 

I'll keep you all posted on new makes & when I'm reopening the Etsy shop! Now it's back to the pattern drawing board! 

Merry Christmas!

Hello all!

Just wanted to give you a quick heads up that I will be having an Etsy sale starting on the 28th in case you fancy treating yourself once Christmas is over ;)

Gift box for REX competition!

Those local to me Im also having a sale at Rex starting the 27th! Some items have up to 30% off coz Im feeling festive!

Christmas Party at REX!

I've been a bit quiet of late whilst I've been making millions of candy canes & Christmas pudding decorations & I've been up to my eyes in commissions! I've put a few pictures below but A LOT are Christmas presents so cant show too much! Some are AMAZING & I'm feeling really pleased with myself so I'll post them on Facebook & Twitter on the 26th ;)

Ben's 1st Birthday bunting commission!

Vintage style ruffle purse!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all your support since April, everyone who has attended a stitch n bitch, a workshop, bought from me from a stall, placed a commission or liked/retweeted a social media post! I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas whatever you get up too! ;)

Big thanks to Lisa Takes Pictures for this! Pudding on a tree!

I'm at the in-laws this Christmas, first one away from home!

Crochet Christmas lights!

My stocking on a Christmas Tree! 

Custom stocking colours!

Long mittens & baby hat!

Mix of REX shop, Christmas goods & commissions!

The Winter Arts Market :)