Hen Hair

If you know me (at all really) I'm sure you know why I just had to share this project (link) with you! Gimpy smily faces + craft project + (potentially hard to kill) succulents! Ah! Check these dudes out:

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Oh my these are darling! The instructions look easy enough and although I've never actually mixed concrete before I doubt it would be that hard. The hard part of this project would be 1) to not make a million of these and bombard all of my friends with little planters and 2) not killing the plants in said planters.  Hen and chicks are nice hearty plants when you have them in the ground, but as soon as you move  them into a planter (like the ones I try to grow on my deck) their chance of survival goes down dramatically.  I even had a few in my living room as part of some succulent arrangements but they strangely ended up being covered in little bugs so I had to get rid of them. I'm not sure what it is about them that attracts those little flies but I prefer insects to stay outside thanks...

but seriously

I have always been pro-equal rights, but lately my feminism has turned up a notch with a line of feminist embroidery hoops I've been selling at the market. The best part? They stir up all sorts of positive feedback! I am a little unsure if there are that many amazing empowered women and men are in Kamloops or if the farmer's market just attracts those types of people. I'd like to go with the first and keep pushing for equality! Yeah! 

With that in mind - I really enjoyed this:

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Now that's what I call a fairy godmother! How about you? Do you feel enthused about anything to the point of being an advocate? 

hoop-tastic happenings

As I mentioned in my last post, my life seems to be all about prepping for the market these days! I finally got back up and running for the last Saturday in June and now after my second week I am totally in love! The Kamloops Farmer's Market is full of friendly and talented artisans (as well as loads of veg and food vendors) and brings in loads of people for a morning of local shopping! I was a little hesitant how my booth would do at the market as my past experience of selling in town wasn't very lucrative - but I was pleasantly surprised with some awesome customers who decided to shell out their hard earned cash on my plethora of geekery! Hooray! 

I've been trying to spread out my brand a bit and make a wider selection of goodies in different price ranges and one project I have fallen for is making embroidery hoop art. I made a few back in my Bastion Square Victoria market days but figured I could ramp it up a bit and do a wider range of hoops.  I really wanted to take great pictures of them to show you each one in detail - but as I said - I've been a busy girl - so instead I will just share the snap shots I took of hoops displayed at my craft booth.  Yay! Here we go!

Here's the basic set up of my hoop display. A few pegged onto a white rack I bought from Diaso and two baskets holding the rest to peruse. I tried to go for variety a bit (so not ALL anthropomorphized creatures) and really wanted something sassy out front (that didn't actually offend anyone).  This also gave me a perfect chance to start using up some of my vintage fabric stash too!  Take a peek:  

I put another white rack with some hoops on it on the other side of my table to get a little extra height in there and (as always) a bit of extra colour! One lady stopped by my booth and told me that, "Your booth is a hard one to walk past and ignore!" Yeah! That's exactly what I'm going for! Rope you in with colours and cuteness and hope you enjoy what you see! 

With all the compliments I got from my first market I decided to make a few more hoops for my second go - and did a similar set up again (with a few of the new hoops in there). Here is the end of the table: 

and the main hoop display (with an emphasis of feminism apparently):

I've now sold ten of these lovelies and am excited for them to go to their new homes! Best of all - I'm not feeling like I'm super ripping myself off by selling them for too little either - and priced them based on how long they took me to make (so small ones starting at $16 and going up to $38 for the big babies).  Yaaayyy! I'm on cloud nine with embroidery hoop excitement and even got around to listing four of the duplicate hoops I made in my etsy shop! Oh my! 

So now I'm hoping to hear from you. What are your thoughts on embroidery hoop art? Do you have any hanging in your house? Which ones do you like best? and (most importantly) any ideas of other hoops I should make? I'm trying to come up with cute or witty phrases to put on them but apparently my brain has been tapped out. What do you think? 

Too much

You know what happens when I try to take on too much? This. No blogging on my front.  I'm still desperately working on stock for the farmers market and after my first week of selling I have a better idea of what to stock up with! So - I will be back at it this Saturday - and hopefully next week will be a bit quieter (with more posts!)