get your zombie on

If you're free and in London this bank holiday Monday, come and visit Zombie Rockin' at The Lexington, Angel.

There will be lots of stalls selling zombie goodies - including a few of my friends: Nicola will be selling cute gory accessories, Kaiser will be selling papier mache sugar skulls and screenprinted t-shirts, Emma will be selling her monster plushies, Joe will be selling his kitsch cards and Kate will be selling her gorgeous rockabilly fascinators.

There will also be all sorts of ghoulish activities, with a film screening and plenty of music (plus I think I heard a rumour about a bit of burlesque!) in the evening.

The FB page is here, if you want more deets.

In anticipation, my desk has been covered in things like this for the last week or so:

It looks as though it will be an ace day out! Hurrah!

my favourite things this week #66

♥ amazing Dolly print from The Dapper Paper Co.

♥ pretty rocking cat skeleton by Illustrated Ink

♥ love this Ron print by Dave Mottram

♥ super cool MC Hammer kitty mirror from Scientific Culture

♥ check out this fab kitty bowler hat DIY by Ally of Now That's Pretty

♥ this geometric fox skateboard painting by Matthew Paris is just beautiful

♥ officially awesome printable certificate via How About Oramge

♥ I really like this cute bury your secrets project

♥ this crocheted sugar skull mask is truly awesome

popping up a pop-up

It’s been a bit of a while… and it’s been an insanely busy couple of weeks.

On a bit of a whim, I decided that I fancied opening up a pop-up shop. An hour after seeing a property I thought would be a good one, a deposit was left, and 16 hours later I started moving in.

I had 4 days to prepare for the opening weekend; four days to fully clear and clean the unit, paint it, furnish it, contact friends and potential stockers, design the logo and advertising, set up email and a website, write and send contracts to the stockers, pick up/take delivery of stock, set out the stock and decorate the unit, send out a press release, give out leaflets promoting the shop opening and plan the actual opening event – cupcakes and Bucks Fizz for all!

In those four short days, we managed to source 23 designer/makers to stock their goods in our little shop – and for the first week everything was going super duper well.

It was almost inevitable that something might go wrong after all the awesomeness, and sure enough, after just over a week we found out that the unit we were occupying did not actually have the correct paperwork to be rented as a retail unit. Not wanting to get in trouble with the council, we decided the best course of action would be to leave the unit. We ended up losing our rent deposit, the “landlord” refused to return it despite him receiving it under rather strained consequences, but to be honest I was just glad to be out of there.

We found a new unit for the shop almost immediately - the new one is in a much better location and much more likely to attract our target market. Let’s hope this one goes better!

We open for business later this week…

Fresh Meat graduation

After weeks of almost constant falling over, being bashed about by some lovely ladies and many injuries and bruises, I’ve finally finished my Fresh Meat course – hooray!

We had a little awards ceremony after our final session – and look which award I was given:

Hahahaha, I guess they picked up on my stubbornness in those few short weeks of training!

And now it’s onto Intermediate training – eek!

I think I deserve a little pressie for completing my first batch of training, right...

hooray for my first pair of derby shorts!

South London craft fair - tomorrow

If you happen to be out and about in South London tomorrow, why not come and visit me at my stall in Hither Green at the spring FUSS fair:

The fair is kinda small, but uber cosy and full to the brim with lovely traders and tasty treats... plus all of my rabbits and glittery things - how can you possibly refuse??

You'll also be able to see some new flower jewellery from my friend Sian of feltheart... take a sneaky peek at some of her pretties...

Hope to see you there!

new work in progress... an origami menagerie!

I have my roller derby rules test today :/

I have my roller derby written rules test in 3 hours time... I've been reading up like a fiend, and tried a little online test to check how I'm doing...

90% correct is pretty ace!

I need at least 80% in the real test to pass - cross your fingers for me!

my favourite things this week #65

♥ gorgeous looking kaleidoscope chocolates from La Grande Epicerie

♥ pretty pretty pretty sparrow necklace by Elizabeth S Murray

♥ I love a bit of Rainbow Dash cosplay via Fashionably Geek

♥ super cute etched silver rabbit ring by The Rabbit and the Tiger

♥ ooh, I would love a crocheted unicorn hat - pattern from Sweet Kiwi Crochet

♥ check out these pretty wall lamps from Hartendief - I just love the raccoon one!

♥ wow, this cake hotel (with meringue rugs!) looks AMAZING!

♥ incredibly sweet 'helveticat' print by Bethany of neatshop

♥ The Harmonic Series is an awesome art/music project by Manuela Donoso & Luisa Pereira

Camden-ing

Phew, all this Camdening has meant that my desk has been covered in masses of jewellery bits in various states of completion every day for the last couple of weeks.

My first day at Camden was pretty awesome - it was great chatting with other stallholders and wandering round seeing the other new traders, but it was bitterly cold and snowing for part of the day, so we barely saw a soul in the way of customers.

In a way though it was kinda nice to have a quiet first day - it meant we could think about stall improvements and fiddle around with displays as much as we needed to, without getting in the way of people who might have been looking at our stuff.

I got some ace feedback from the peeps who run the market, and my stall buddy Caroline and I have been asked to join a new craft initiative at Camden Lock Market on Fridays in April - so we'll be having our first one in a couple of days - eeeek!

If you're around on any Fridays in April, come and say hey!