The Dork Knight

Hey guys, so today is hug a GI day! Unfortunately I couldn't find a pattern for an army man so instead I worked on a different kind of crime fighting hero - Batman! Apologies for the very poor connection there but it was the best I could do!

Over the last few years I've volunteered as a runner at various Sci-Fi costuming events in the area. During an event last summer I was introduced to one of the North East's greatest cosplayer's, The Dork Knight - no that's not a typo, that's really what he goes by!

Later in the year I was given the opportunity to attend my first convention as a trader, which I found really scary! Up until this point I was used to only selling at craft fairs so to then move on to a convention was a really daunting prospect but one I knew I needed to at least try. As soon as I got there and set up I felt awful, everyone around me was a well established business or trader in collections etc and there was me with my little selection of handmade articles. Once the costumers had kitted up and started walking about I felt much more at ease since a lot of them are friends I'd met at the events I'd volunteered at. For a lot of them this was the first time they had seen what I do for a living - including The Dork Knight! He was even kind enough to pose with one of my minion hats on!

I always try and support local artists and businesses to spread the word on events and talents etc. As soon as The Dork Knight revealed that he had a promotional T-shirt made up I bought one straight away (if nothing else I really like the name, it makes me chuckle every time). Unfortunately when he dropped it round on Sunday he caught me hungover and still in my pj's - I was absolutely mortified! So if you read this dude then I'm very sorry! On the bright side though it got me straight in the mood to make something Batman inspired and started on a logo blanket. After around 3 hours working on it though it became pretty obvious that it's going to take a lot longer than I originally anticipated so there's a good chance I won't be making anymore to sell once it's finished. Onto plan B - a Batman inspired super hero!

The pattern I ended up buying was from Polkadot Squirrel. I got a bit distracted and got a few more of hers while I was browsing yesterday. I also went completely off topic and spent the remainder of the day making other items which I'll tell you about another time! I quite enjoyed working on him today however, I'm still undecided whether or not he'll make it into my product list. I've had some great feedback from friends on Facebook but he takes longer than I'd normally like to spend on an amigurumi figure so would work out more expensive than I'm sure anyone would be willing to spend on him. I might try re-making him a different size to see if that makes much difference... Anyway, until next time, Jxx

National pig day

So today is national pig day! Also St David's day (but that's too traditional for us). According to holiday insights this is the day to be thankful for domesticated pigs. I personally don't own a pig but do find them very cute, Miss Piggy and Babe being my favorites. Oh, and Wilbur and Spider-pig from The Simpsons... Maybe there's more famous pigs than I thought... Anyway!

I spent the day trying out a nifty little pattern from Craftseller Magazine on a crochet pig holder and I'm quite in love with the result! I'm going to make a whole rainbow range tomorrow and hopefully photograph them and get them in my shops in Monday!

Isn't she a cutie! She even has a curly tail! I'll edit the post with more links etc on Monday but for now have a fab weekend and catch you soon :-) Jxx 

*UPDATE* 

I decided against making a rainbow of pigs until I tried the holder on a take away mug so went out and bought one last night! Thankfully I now have something to fit the pattern to so as soon as I have a few ready I'll get them online in the shops :-) If you have any particular colour combinations you would like to see then please feel free to get in touch! Until then, Jxx

Buying handmade

Hey guys! As some of you know from my last post I was having a lot of issues with my sleep so the last month has been a blur of fixing my sleeping pattern and work! It's absolutely flown by and I can't believe I've left another massive gap between posts, for this I am very sorry! On a better note though some quite exciting things have happened too! I've booked into some fantastic events (that I'll tell you about nearer the time), I've found some patterns that I'm really looking forward to working on this year and I've completed an NVQ in business growth!

The course I attended was 'Going For Growth' held by 'Enterprise Made Simple'. I don't want to go too much into that now but it was an amazing week and gave me so much confidence in my business and personal life. It also made me see a lot of things that I need to change in order to succeed better. My main issue I need to overcome is underselling myself - which leads me to this great story that a friend shared on Facebook. *DISCLAIMER* LCGCreations didn't write this so if by any chance the owner of the image has an issue with this I will remove the post :-)

 So with this in mind I'm going to be making a lot of changes over the next few weeks to my pricing etc. I have about 100 different things to tell you about too but for now I'll leave it there! Hope you're all well, until next time, Jxx

Trivia day

Hello! I'm putting this out there now, I'm absolutely pants when it comes to trivia and general knowledge so don't have anything to comment on this holiday with!

I've spent most of the day on Etsy shopping for new patterns so I have plenty of new products to tell you about hopefully in the upcoming days! :-)

I've literally just had my crochet stuff returned to me so haven't had a chance to make anything but I'm going to make up for it now and get some hats done! Hopefully my blog will get more interesting from now on! Jxx

Festival of sleep day

Hey guys! So today was the festival of sleep day, apparently its a day of cat naps and sleep etc... Other holidays today are 'Fruitcake toss day' and 'Humiliation day'. My original plan was to opt with the fruitcake thing but we didn't have one this year so I was going to tidy up my craft room. I didn't actually wake up until 3pm though so opted for the sleep holiday and spent the rest of the day chilling out on the sofa and looking up new patterns I can buy for upcoming projects!

My crochet tool box is currently sat at a friends house so I haven't managed to make anything to show off today. I should be getting it back tomorrow though so until then here's a photo of my cat (I was getting bored of just posting text only pages). Until tomorrow, Jxx

Run it up the flagpole and see if anyne salutes day

Hello there! Apologies for the late post again, I managed to completely 180 my sleeping pattern over Christmas and New Year so my days are still a bit muddled! I shall be working to correct this ASAP!

According to holiday insights today is a day for being creative and testing new ideas. I haven't really managed anything creative but I have been working on a new idea over the last few days which I'll be talking over with a friend next week at our weekly 'get crafty and sort our businesses out' coffee meeting. Until then I shall leave you with a sneak peak idea that I'm considering.

A lot of people question why I don't make fairies when my business name is 'White Fairy'. With this in mind I tracked down an adorable Tinkabell pattern from rabbizdesign on Etsy and a few other fairy patterns. My main thought is to colour co-ordinate a range of fairy products and release a new one for each season. For example, bring out a pale blue range of fairies for the next few months then on the spring equinox release everything in yellow or green for Spring. That's a very poor explanation and hopefully I'll be able to update it and add a preview photo once I'm feeling more human! Until then, hope you're well, Jxx

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to old friends and new! I cannot believe it's been over a year since my last post, I had really high hopes and great intentions for the year but 2013 seemed to carry an unlucky curse. The deaths of family and friends caused my depression to creep back up and at one point I was back seeing a counselor. We finally managed to move house during the summer but shortly after I ended up in hospital with breathing issues. After months of tests and quite a cocktail of medications I was diagnosed with asthma. Its been quite a roller-coaster trying to manage it alongside my anxiety but it's definitely a relief to know what's wrong with me. Safe to say that while all this was going on my business took quite a knock. I managed to do enough to keep it going but there's still a long way to go to get to where I want to be!

I decided that 2014 is going to be a year of positivity and greatness! With that in mind I've spent the last few days planning out new products and trying to put together a brief plan around the major seasons. While doing research into national holidays I came across a fantastic website, holiday insights, which is full of random holidays. My plan for the year is to use this website to try and make my blog posts slightly more interesting and hopefully by this time next year I'll be in the habit of blogging and won't have to rely on it so much!

Traditionally the new year is meant to bring in resolutions but no-one ever sticks to them! I have two aims for the year, lose 5 1/2 stone and open my own retail unit. If I stay positive both of these are achievable but we'll see how it goes! Fingers crossed! Jxx