Merry Christmas!!

Peeko is now closed for Christmas.  We will re-open on Monday 11 January 2010.

Any orders placed during this time will be dispatched on 11/01/10

Merry Christmas!!

Handmade - The Birmingham Arts & Crafts Market

 
Handmade is this Saturday 12 December!! 

There are 17 wonderfully talented local artists showcasing and selling their handmade treasures this weekend.  
I still need to make more stock, but should get there by Saturday, I hope ;)
I also need to decide what type of cakes I will make this time... hmm decisions, decisions...


Check out the COWblog for full details of stallholders & links to their websites  :)

Pretty Fingerless Gloves

I'm so excited about his week's crochet workshop at  C.O.W. I will be showing people how to make these pretty and practical fingerless gloves! 

It is a brand new pattern that I have just finished designing,  ( I designed 2 others before this one, but wasn't completely happy that they were the right patterns for the job) and I am really pleased with it.  :)


For now the only way to get your hands on a Peeko original pattern is to come along to one of my workshops, but that may change next year...


There are still some spaces in tomorrow's workshop, chech out the COWblog for booking details.  


Back to crocheting for me, I have lots to do before Handmade this weekend and I have a few commissions that I'm working on.  Busy busy this time of year.  :)

Handm@de Cambridge and the week to come :)

I was at Handm@de Cambridge yesterday and am thrilled at how it went.  :)
It was a really nice day, everyone was lovely, organisers, exhibitors and the public!  :)
My Necklac'd went down very well.  :)   It was refreshing to hear such lovely comments about my work and get such great feedback, it has spurred me on to create even more lovely crochet goodies.  :)

On a seperate note, I have a busy week ahead of me:  Workshops at C.O.W this week (crochet fingerless gloves on Thursday!!), then Handmade at the Custard Factory on Saturday.  I have to fit paperwork and making in too.  I should be okay though, I love what I'm doing!  :)

I think I may just be able to squeeze in some making before dinner... maybe some fingerless gloves in preparation for Thursday...  Then the Christmas decorations go up!  :)

Crochet wire work

Ooh, look at the pretty things that I have been making lately!!

I just LOVE working with wire!!   :)

Handmade - The Birmingham Arts & Crafts Market

What an interesting day we had on Saturday!  We had 14 very talented stall holders take part.
The Custard Factory were hosting a huge event on Saturday evening, which meant that the pool was enclosed in a marquee and surrounded by rigs and obstacles - not the most inviting shopping environment.  We had an interesting afternoon though, sharing the space with a wedding drinks reception.  Beautifully dressed guests had a unique opportunity to browse handmade creations while sipping champagne! 

Check out the COWblog for more images and details
Also take a look at Laura Cameron's and Kate Thornton's blogs

Handmade Market tomorrow!!

It's Handmade time again!  There will be a selection of wonderful handmade items at the C.O.W shop tomorrow for your perusal, not to mention a lovely selection of handmade cakes!  

See C.O.W for a list of the talented artists that will have have their work on show, just for you! 

I'm bringing a range of reel-to-reel tape creations that I have been working on this week.  

My Necklac'd range will premier too - Is it a scarf, is it a necklace - whatever it is, it won't blow off in the wind!  

Hope to see lots of you there!  :)

I have been a busy bee...

I haven't really had the chance to post anything lately. To see what I've been up to check out C.O.W.
But in a sentence, the last few weeks look something like this... very exciting and quite busy - organising, tidying, drop-in workshops, felting, pebbles, CAKES!!, homemade cream tea!, watermelon juice, bunting, piping set, trains, crochet, plarn, Artsfest, flyers, 655's, Handmade to come, paperwork, blurb writing, lychee juice (not sure if I like this one or not yet...), LOTS of coffee and hot chocolate, IKEA, cleaning, chocolate eclairs, planning, yetis... , red tights, BIG ROSETTES!!!, more pebbles, yet more felting, more cakes (hehe), zebra cow on my back, workshop bookings!, chocolate fudge cake...

I'm a tired, tired, happy C.O.W girl :D

Back to work...

After almost a week in good ol' Ireland, I'm now back and ready for work again.
On the agenda for this afternoon is plarn related shenanigans... I'm almost out of holiday mode and ready to get some work done. Lots to prepare for Handmade this Saturday - It's the last weekly market at C.O.W. but looking forward to it as ever. I'm thinking about which cakes to make too... mmm, but maybe I'll keep them as a surprise for now... :)

Hot Chocolate Mayhem

If I could give one piece of advice today, it would be this -

Don't drink hot chocolate while working!

Even the smallest bit of it in a cup creates the most chocolately mess! Luckily none of my stock was affected by the chocolate monsoon, but all of my paperwork now has a distinct brown colour and a pleasant chocolatey scent. Here's hoping the pages don't stick together.

Have a spill free afternoon. :)

look what just came in the post...

...my new business cards!!
I got them from Moo.com and I am so pleased with them. Once again I designed them myself, I went for the green package too. The paper is 100% recycled, it's also recyclable and bio-degradable! Even the recyclable holder is made from recycled pulp. I am very impressed! If like me you are suitably impressed and would like your own MOO business cards etc. - use this code - DDZUWQ - and get 15% off your first order. :)

Handmade 8th August, Custard Factory

I meant to get this post up at the beginning of the week, but oh well...
Saturday was great - most of us were outside and the fresh air was lovely! Some new people were there, including Harriet and her lovely screenprints and Isabel from Betty Who? with a gorgeous selection of dresses (one of which I tried on,check it out here, along with other pics from the day).
I brought my spinning wheel and spent the afternoon spinning plarn for Fran's market bag.
I made a tiny cupcake in the morning, with help from my fellow stall holders - thanks for the beads(sprinkles) Sarah, and for the thread to sew them in, Isabel.


It was snapped up immediately by Fran and placed amongst the edible mini cupcakes.

I'll be there again tomorrow, I'm bringing some edible cakes this week too. And I have made two rather special tiny crochet brooches this week that will be amongst the range also.

Do come along and support all things Handmade! Hope to see you there! :)

WEBSITE IS GO!

It's running - YEAY! Just need to add more products, but that's a job for another day, I need some sleep before the Handmade Market in Birmingham tomorrow. :)

C.O.W last Saturday...

What a great day!! Not many people braved the rain or the onslaught of photographers working on their portfolios, but I had a blast. I met some lovely people and had a really good day.

Here are some photos from the day...

My table (with a great light box!)

Cupcakes at the front, Francine and her mother's wonderful creations in the back

Lovely Lisa Olson with her beautiful collection, check out her blog

I'm looking forward to Saturday (8th August). Come along and have a look at what the Handmade Market has to offer... :)

Website Hitch

I'm having a little more trouble with the website than I envisaged... the site is mostly working but I can't seem to fix some little things like the shipping and things like that. I'll have to ask my website magician to do some magic on it. Hopefully it should be running tomorrow...

COW - August 1st

So I have officially booked a place at the Handmade Saturday Market at the Custard Factory on August 1st.

Here is the flyer:

It's all very exciting!! I can't wait!! I'm going to bring my drop spindle along for some plarn spinning demos. :)

Recently...

So I have left the 9 to 5 job (or rather 10 t0 6), in favour of a maker's life. I am re-jigging the website - with a lot of help - and getting everything ready for handmade fairs and markets. It's all quite exciting!
Unfortunately, I have been hit with a bad cold - so haven't been able to do as much as I had hoped, but I'm taking it easy today, hoping to get better as soon as possible. :)

Darwin - coral & crochet!

So I'm off to run workshops in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge tomorrow. It's on Darwin, coral and crochet.
I'm super excited to be able to go and run it, I really feel like I'm getting back to where I should be with craft and craft educating.
I will post photos when I get back, but until then you can find more information here.

Internet Malfunction

Don't you just hate it when you rely on something and then it breaks! I have had no internet access since my last post due to some unknown malfunction that either BT or Virgin may have fixed, or it may have just started to work again, as abruptly as it stopped in the first place. Needless to say I was slightly annoyed at the timing - having just spent a good portion of time getting the bones of my website into a reasonable condition. I had spent an afternoon setting up a mini studio and photographing items for the gallery and new exciting things for sale (with the help of Lightborne - Thank you!), but then had no way of putting these lovely things in webspace.
I plan on getting the majority up and going over the next couple of days...

One good thing did come out of being cut off from the virtual world, I have made a lot more this week. It was great to get back to being solely creative.
I am a maker!

website changes...

So I have spent the best part of the afternoon changing the shop area of my website around. It will have a whole new feel to it, once I have uploaded it!! It's almost there. Be patient dear people, it will materialise. :)

Crazy few months

If I have any regular visitors to Peeko, you might have noticed the lack of activity over the last few months. Things have been hectic, and I would love to say that it was Peeko keeping me occupied, but unfortunately not. My other job - the one that gives me a sustainable income - has taken over my life. There is just so much to think about and until very recently I was allowing it to take up almost every waking moment.
But not anymore...
I have realised that without my crafty side I start to go a little crazy. Being crafty, crocheting, spinning, and now beading gives me such a sense of achievement... (I'm starting to ramble a little...) There is nothing better than coming home from a hard day in the other job, and making something to help me relax.

So that is my new plan, I'm going to try to get back to making, and being happier. I aim to make something everyday, be it large or small, and all shall be balanced again... hopefully. :)