Belle and Boo.

Belle & Boo incorporates a collection of artworks from the imagination of British illustrator Mandy Sutcliffe.

Belle & Boo are two of Mandy’s favourite characters. Belle with her bobbed hair, bright eyes and vintage clothing and Boo - Belle’s adorable bunny rabbit companion and confidant.

They produce beautiful things such as home wear, clothing and paper goods as well as prints of the art works themselves. I think all their things are cute and vintage looking and classic. Their whimsical nature and dreamy faded colouring really appeal to me. I love them. You can find them here.

They also have a blog, which you can find here.

These are the types of lovely things i hope i will be stocking in my shop in due course. What do you think?

The 80s......

Howdy lovely people. Have you had a nice relaxing day pottering around or been whizzing about at work? I'm the latter and i'm a wee bit knackered. Time to sit down on the sofa with a mug of tea and my lovely black cat.

Only one more day to go until the weekend. Do you have any plans? I have a hen do in Bristol this weekend and it's gonna be some perfect girlie fun and maybe a few too many cocktails. There is a 80s theme and neon leg warmers and white stilettos may be making an appearance! Oooh time to dig out some blue eye liner and hair crimpers....

Well if you can dress up on a hen when can you?

Slinkachu

Have you heard of this artist? I really like his photography/street installation pieces. He takes model train figures and places them in everyday outside street situations, mainly in London. I think it would be lovely to be walking along and notice a teeny tiny person in a puddle or on a wall.

You can buy a book of his photos called 'Little People in The City'. It's cute and clever and i like it very much.

How's your week been? Had a nice weekend? I have been a busy bee. So now i am relaxing with a very large mug of coffee and the Good Food channel on in the background. Mmm, Mondays are my Sundays (as i work Saturdays) and i've had a very lazy day. Hope you're having a good Monday.

Crocheting up a storm!

The title of this post makes it sound like i have been being very productive. I have, but not at crocheting. The title is more of a statement of what i should be doing!

I have been in the process of making a crochet blanket for ages and ages. About a year. The problem that i have is that i go through manic stages when i am crocheting like a mad woman and then i have weeks when i do nothing. Which is naughty as i really really want to finish it.

Plus i want this blanket to be big, very very big. Big enough to cover my king size bed so that it can be transformed into a bright, mad and snugly crocheted bed.

What do you think of my work so far?

Do you crochet? What are you making? If you fancy learning how to make a granny blanket of your very own (and who wouldn't), you can learn here. Pip at Meet Me At Mikes is very clever and i used her tutorials and a lovely book i was given to learn how to make a granny square (a granny square is a little crocheted square, much like the ones covering this blog and in the photos!).

A granny square is all i can do right now, but i will learn other stuff one the blanket is finished (there is a crocheted monkey i have my eye on). I really must learn how to join all the little squares together, as it will be a bit of a rubbish blanket otherwise.

Give it a go, because who doesn't like a crochet blanket (or five)?

Cyanide and Happiness.

I realise that Cyanide and Happiness aren't the most PC cartoons in the world, but they do make me smile. You can find them here. I used to spend ages looking at these and killing time when i worked in an office and was stuck behind a computer all day!

The Wuzzles!

Does anyone else remember this Disney cartoon from the 80's? They were my absolute favorite when i was a child. I had a toy Eleroo (the pink and purple half elephant half kangaroo). He still takes pride of place on a shelf in my lounge.

I also really liked Thundercats and thought it was very unfair that i didn't have a Thundercat sword, the one which lit up. I think my mum thought it was a boy toy. I also never got the Mr Frosty toy that i really wanted one christmas.......not that i'm still bitter or anything!

What were your favorite toys and cartoons as a child? Do you still have any of your toys? I bet you do!

Some of the things i have made this week..

I have been very busy this week. I have been making all sort of lovely little things and i thought i'd share some of them with you.

I have also, finally, got my Etsy shop up and running. You can find it here. I hope you like it. I will be listing lots of new things soon.

I have also been making lots and lots and lots of cakes at work. Yesterday i made a cappuccino cake, almond and summer berry cake, chocolate cake, carrot cake, banana and pineapple cake and chocolate brownies! Whoa, that's a lot of cake! However, people need cake, or else what would they have with their cup of tea?

I think today i'll be making a lemon cake, cup cakes and scones. It's sunny here today and when the sun comes out people love to have a cream tea so we'll need lots of scones. I hope it stays sunny as i have tomorrow off  work and if it's sunny i can stroll along the sea front and maybe have an ice cream (i live right next to the sea side so it's perfect for sunny days).

What will you be up to this weekend?

Home sweet home.

I love my home. I really do. It's where all my favorite people (and cat) live. It's bright and funky and cozy and happy. I like nothing more than being at home snuggled under a quilt on the sofa watching Mad Men and crocheting.

What makes your home special? Why do you love it?

Tilly Bloom.

These are beautiful, don't you think?

You really should check out this Brooklyn based jewelery designer. I am in love with her things. My two little sisters are currently sporting purchases i made from her Etsy store at Christmas, you can find it here. She also has a website here.

Hope you are all having a merry day!

Book clubs and business plans

Do you ever feel like you should be doing something but you do a hundred other things instead? That's what i feel like i've been doing lately.

You may or may not know but i have a grand master plan. It is to open a shop which sells the things i make and also the wonderful things that others make, others who need an outlet for those things. And things that i think are lovely and i think that people will want to buy, things that will make them smile and feel happy. I want the shop to be quirky and fun and gorgeous and vintage and lovely. That is my dream.

Unfortunately, i have to do a lot of sensible business type things to make this happen. Things like working out finances and writing a business plan. Not fun.

I have bought books and am doing research (i am good at research, i used to be a lawyer, but that's another story). Research is not fun.

I also have to work. I love my job (it's not the lawyer type job i used to have but a fun job where i get paid for making cakes and chatting with nice people) but it takes up a lot of my time. Plus this week we started the book club at work which is lovely and interesting but means more time away from the grand master plan.

But i'll get there, and hopefully it won't take me too long. Now, back to those books......

Ghost Patrol!

Love love love this guy! You can find all sort of Ghost Patrol things here. He is fab.

Some of my favorite things

We all have favorite things, and sometimes we are not sure why we like them but we do. Do you ever feel like that? I do.

Some of my favorite things:
• pugs
• wispa golds (why have these disappeared again?)
• tea
• Meet Me At Mikes (a shop in Melborne, the owner also writes an amazing blog of the same name and has published two books which i love)
• Etsy
• Domo (google him, he is a fictional character who is the mascot of a Japanese TV station, i am borderline obsessed with him)
• crocheting
• American TV series- especially mad men, true blood and fringe
• cake, all cake

I am sure there are many other things and it changes with my mood, but today those are the things i can think of. What are your favorite things?

Hello!

Thank you for clicking onto my little blog. I decided to start this blog to document all the crafty things i do and also, hopefully, record the process of setting up my own gift/craft type shop.

I have always been a person who loves to make things, i have fond memories of learning how to knit little squares with my great grandmother as a child (which she let me keep in an ornate metal tin which i wish i still had). These days i love to make things for my home, friends and family which they hopefully like and aren't just humoring me!

I also want to record of all the wonderful crafty things i find that other clever people are making/ talking about. I love it when you find something someone has made that you love. Don't you? I tend to then try and think about how i can use that cleverness to make something of my own, sometime very similar, sometime off at a tangent but that's the fun of it i think.

I do a lot of crocheting, knitting and have just started making quilts (well 'quilt', singular). I made it up as i went along and think i should buy a book on how to do it properly as i'm sure i have picked up lots and lots of bad habits already). However, it is very cute and snuggly and bright and covered in bright Japanese kawaii fabric, which i love. What do you think?

I hope that you will enjoy reading about what i get up to. My name is Anna, pleased to meet you!