Pinned from Etsy

I have been feeding my Pinterest habit today with delights found on Etsy. I thought I'd share a few of these with those of you who may have yet to discover the visual feast that is Pinterest [warning: it can prove addictive]

handmade brooch by Blue Terracotta

white love bird garden ornament by Merritt Hyde*

meg satchel in cerise Harris Tweed by Catherine Aitken

vintage tin from kaftasarafan

the hare that can stare gocco print by Jane Ormes

*I bought a couple of Merritt Hyde items for Christmas last year - a dragonfly for my mum and a fabulous Christmas decoration for George (I try to buy him a new decoration every year) - they were a big hit.

Sx

PS if anyone fancies joining pinterest, I am able to invite friends!

New Shops!!!

Hello there! and how goes the Summer for you? We're having lots of rain but also lots of fun and fresh air - which is so very welcome!

the view from the old railway line out of Carleton-in-Craven

It's pretty tricky to find time to get on with work during school holidays, mainly due to a lack of time - going for walks and picnics is way more fun (who's spent too much time with a 7 yr old?? like dude!) than sitting at a pc uploading photos for listings; and going to parks and the seaside gobbles up any painting or sewing time that may have been eeked out of a day.

Fountains Abbey

However, I have put my DBD (Ditsy Bird Designs) hat (beak? hahaha) on this week and got plenty done! George has been an absolute star on this matter too - happily entertaining himself with his new loves - Phineas & Ferb on the box whilst Fimo-ing. Happy creative days all round actually, and made more so by the torrential rain we had at the beginning of the week...it was very conducive to hunkering down indoors & 'getting on'.

bright cards from Ditsy Bird Draws

I am pleased to say that I have ticked off at least one of my Summer goals: Separate my Etsy Ditsy Bird shop into three...
1. for paintings
2. for cards and other stationery type thingies
3. for all things stitched

handpainted & stitched handbag - destined to adorn glossy tresses in the near future

So I now have three Etsy stores:
Ditsy Bird ( the original has been kept for my canvases coz, well, that's where it all started)
Ditsy Bird Draws (for my cards)
Ditsy Bird Sews (well, that one's a bit Ronseal really ;) )

heavily beaded Peacock Eye brooch AND hair clip...oh yeah!

It's been a welcome break from the endless butty making and packing up raincoats AND sunscreen...coz you just never know do you!?!?

there were so many of these on our railway walk

Each shop has been shown a little love too, including new canvas designs for Ditsy Bird

Little Brown Bear

Moth

a Wol in a Wooly

So there it is - a big fat TICK for the "sort out Etsy shop - too crammed!!!" to do :)

How's your Summer to do list fairing? Is it a little like mine where I'm having to add things not originally on it, just so I may tick them off? ;)

Hope you are having fun, whatever the weather and whatever you are up to

x

Inspired by a child...

My son, George, was watching the telly a while back, when he suddenly stopped playing, turned to the TV and declared "I care!".

An advert about a child having to do things an adult would normally be responsible for, and having no childhood to speak of, was being documented with the catch phrase "who cares if...".

Well the advert worked and George was sucked in and has since been desperate to help...and not just children! He would like to donate to the Dog's Trust, sponsor a child and adopt a tiger, to name but a few of his 'giving' wishes.

George then started coming up with ideas of how he could help...drawing pictures to sell like Mummy, giving up his pocket money and so on.

When George's step mum was pregnant, he drew two bears...Cuddle Me! teddy and Hug Me! bear - I took the deisgns, traced them onto canvases and painted them...Cuddle Me! in pinks and Hug Me! in blues.That way, whichever 'flavour' the baby turned out to be, it's big brother could give it a painting designed by him :).

On the most recent occasion of a charity conversation with George, we came up with a plan:

1) I would list both Cuddle Me! and Hug Me! on my webshops on Etsy, Coriandr and Folksy, and would donate the profits of any sale of these two designs to the NSPCC.

2) for Christmas 2010, George would design a Christmas card and then we'd make a chunk of them and they too would get listed to sell.

Well, it's a little too early to be thinking about Christmas 2010 (!) so we've tackled the first idea...and here they are - both bears are now for sale in my little web shops

Thanks for reading and here's to George and his plans!

x

Promotion!

Blimey, this promotion lark is quite hard work - obviously not in a manual, calloused hands kind of way, just in a staring at the screen and now slightly dazed way!
So...I've created a fan page on my Facebook account, set up a shop with Coriandr and added all my news designs to my Etsy store...phew! And I've already got one interested party thanks to the FB fan page. Good work!
Ooo and I'm on the home page of Coriandr with my new listings - very exciting!
Cuppa time, me thinks...
x