Birds Yard and Life's Big Canvas

 
Birds Yard is a lovely building in the centre of Leeds which is worth a visit if you are passing by. Inside there are lots of different smaller independent shops run by different people. Chloe is one of these people.
 
I "met" Chloe a good few years ago when I use to blog elsewhere. However only met her in "real life" this year when she was looking for new craftspeople for her shop, Life's Big Canvas, which is located in Birds Yard.

It was quite surreal really. I got a text from Chloe when I was on holiday in Dover saying that she was in the shop that weekend so we decided to potter by home through the week and make our way to Leeds on the Saturday to say hello with a few pieces of my work to see if they were suitable. I only came home with a few of them. The rest stayed in the shop!

I was greeted with a huge hug and the atmosphere in the shop was so friendly. And not just to me. Everyone who popped in whilst I was there was greeted with a friendly smile and a hello.

This week I sold my first two items there which made me beam! I've just finished parcelling up replacements to send to the shop which I finished off today.

Apologies for the Crummy photo!

So if you are passing through Leeds, do pop in. As well as Chloe's independent jewellery shop, there is a cute retro tea room, screen printed t-shirts, a hairdressers, vintage clothes and loads more. And all under one roof too. Perfect for this grim weather we are having at the moment. You don't even have to leave the building to visit the next shop.

Goals for the week

1. More £4 bracelets
2. Chill out! (I have a week off work)
3. Visit the shop
4. Finish reading a book
5. Sort the living room out
6. Make progress on the secret masterplan
7. List at least one item on ebay

Hmm... Not exactly what I had planned for my week off but not too bad. I didn't get any reading done at all really apart from a couple of pages of the Big Issue that I bought on Thursday.

However, I did get a bit of the living room done, bought a new mattress and got it delivered, went to the opticians for an eye test, did the shopping and finished a commission piece.

Commission Piece

And G took the old mattress to the dump today which is great.

Craft fair this afternoon. *fingers crossed*

Goals for next week

1. Survive the day job. It's going to be so busy!
2. Book at least one stall for next year
3. Carry on the secret masterplan
4. Send more bracelets to Life's Big Canvas
5. Christmas presents!
6. Post bookmooch books
7. Make Amethyst necklace

Pretty Thread and Sparkly Nails

I played with pretty hand dyed thread today and it made me very happy after a trip to the opticians went wrong. I accidentally told them their selection of glasses was poop. I didn't mean to but it slipped out. I just wanted to check that they had written my prescription down right but it all went wrong. I hope I didn't upset them too much. I feel so guilty.

So pretty hand dyed thread made me very happy.

And I also decided painting my nails sparkly would be fun too!

Craft fair tomorrow at Sherwood United Reform Church. I hope they appreciate the sparkly nail varnish :)

Commission Progress

I received a commission at the weekend to make a necklace without a clasp.

A necklace like this one, but using turquoise colour scheme.

New beads for my latest commission piece arrived! Perfect colour matches to fit in with the recycled beads I am using too. Woohoo!

Goals for the Week

1. Make some brooches (3rd week on list)
2. Make new bracelet display board
3. Make new brooch display board
4. Make £4 bracelets
5. Tidy Kitchen
6. Cook!
7. List amethyst Necklace on Etsy

Ooh!  Not bad. And to be honest the kitchen has been worse.

I wasn't able to list the amethyst necklace on Etsy as I sold it last week so need to make another amethyst necklace before I can list it *laughs*

As you can probably tell from the list I have another craft fair this weekend. Tomorrow in Aslockton, Nottingham. I've never been to the venue before and my sense of direction is diabolical. Thankfully G is coming with me again.

We manage to get the new display stands made this evening whilst being zombies from work. Lets hope they work out well tomorrow.

And speaking of Zombies. We're off to look a plot of land on Sunday if all goes well.It's just a whim but I noticed it was up for auction and within commuting distance. No derelict house on the plot, but it looks really good for defending our house when the zombie apocalypse comes. I can't be alone thinking that planning for zombies is a good thing. Anyone else been watching Doomsday Preppers. I love it!

And for next week

1. More £4 bracelets
2. Chill out! (I have a week off work)
3. Visit the shop
4. Finish reading a book
5. Sort the living room out
6. Make progress on the secret masterplan
7. List at least one item on ebay

Running Late

I'm not blogging as much as I have been as it's a bit busy around here, and I'm not sleeping well either.

Craft fair season is upon us with Christmas just around the corner so I'm busy most weekend and holding down the full time job too. And we're going all out for making the house visitor friendly for new years too. We needed a deadline to get it done and it seems to be working.

I also need to apologise for being behind on reading all of your blogs too. There are still there in my google reader around 400 posts to go but I'm on holiday from work next week so I'll have lots of lovely reading to do whilst I'm off work :)

Anyway!

I noticed a lovely blog hop and signed up for it.

Memories and Thanks blog hop is taking place over at Lori Anderson's blog. Go check it out :)

Goals for the week

1. Find a geocache (2nd week on list)
2. Make Amethyst bracelet and necklace (2nd week on list)
3. Get up to date with swapbot swaps (2nd week on list)
4. Make some brooches (2nd week on list)
5. Make the alien bracelet
6. Tidy Bedroom
7. Put tax disc in car

Well that all went tits up didn't it?

This week went totally to pot! I spent a lot of time dealing with swapbot swaps, posting out sales, and posting out bookmooch books. I hardly got any of my list done at all! Plus work had been manically busy and I went out 2 evenings this week and have a craft fair today!

(Lowdham Community Centre, Nottingham, England, 10 til 3 for anyone local. if you see me, please say hello :) )

Lets try again with a new list.

1. Make some brooches (3rd week on list)
2. Make new bracelet display board
3. Make new brooch display board
4. Make £4 bracelets
5. Tidy Kitchen
6. Cook!
7. List amethyst Necklace on Etsy

How did your week go?

Customer Service Tips

Something very interesting happened at Whitby. I got both ends of the customer service spectrum.

One lady was lovely. She said hello and smiled when we approached her stall. Not pushy but friendly. There were too many people around for me to feel comfortable to have a  proper browse of her stall so I took a card so I could have a look at her items online when I hadn't got to worry about people pushing into us.

Then we went into a different room where I was looking at some really nice bracelets. They had the most gorgeous gemstones with silver and a bit of crystal. Quite pricey, but the gems were the greatest quality and one of the bracelet was purple. Bonus!

And then the stall holder spoke to me.

"They are all silver and gemstones. The crystal is Swarovski. No plastic crap."

'Scuse me?

I felt my blood start to boil and answered, "I think you ought to check what jewellery the person you are taking to is wearing before you say that." and gestured to my gorgeous bag charm which I take everywhere with me.

No way I was going to buy off such a  rude lady. She lost herself a sale.

And I went back to the friendly lady and bought a necklace even though I don't really need a necklace because  I wanted her to know that she was great. And the necklace I have is lovely and it turns out we have a friend in common and sell our jewellery in the same shop in Leeds! Life's Big Canvas in Birds Yard

Seaching for a Property

I think I've moved past being addicted to looking for our ideal property to buy and into a different realm altogether.

We've been looking on an off for a while now. We're been to two auctions. The first one we were outbid by miles. The second not as much but it would have been a lot of work to get the house suitable for lving in. It had a tree growing through the roof and one growing through the window. And I don't just mean the gap where the glass should have been!

Any time we go anywhere now, if we see a for sale sign on somewhere that looks like it might be suitable, then I'm on the computer as soon as I get in to see if it's within our price range. This happenend again last night.

We went to Whitby for the day to the Goth weekend. I bought some great shoes.

I already have a pair of these in a size 5 but I'm really a size 6 but I didn't want to get rid of them until I had found some in my real size. And now I have. Woohoo! I'll be putting my size 5s on ebay asap to free up some more room.

Anyway... There was a lovely derelict pub in what G likes to call "the arse end of nowhere". That's my favourite location for properties. If you can see another house in the estate agents photo then it's automatically crossed off the list. If it has grass down the centre of the road it gets bous points. One of the houses we went to auction to bid on didn't even have a road. it was just 1km of field.

(I may be lying when I say "we went to auction to bid". I went to the first auction but I don't do adrenalin. I hate it. So now G goes on his own and I hit zombies on facebook and wait for a text to let me know the news)

So where was I? Ah.yes. The derelict pub was lovely. No windows but it did have a roof. "arse end of nowhere". In the middle of the moors to be honest. And also had a little cottage attached to it.

Then when we get home, it turns out it's "POA" Price on Application.

And as my usual saying goes, if it has no price on it, then I can't afford it :(

Swap Shop Blog Hop - Reveal Day!

Not many people took me up on the blog hop so we are a small but perfectly formed group this time.

People hopping are:-

Luan http://twinstarsuk.blogspot.co.uk/
Toltec Jewels http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/
Jo's Bunkem http://jobunkum.blogspot.co.uk/
Mischelle Fanucchi http://micheladasmusings.blogspot.co.uk/
and me! (You are here!)

Basically the rules were:-

"Write a blog entry with 5 items you would like to swap. This is a specific handmade swap shop blog hop. You can include things you have made that you would like to swap, or supplies to make handmade items"

And here's goes my items that are available to swap!

Heavy clay beads. About 1" across. Think they were Lura Ashley but can't be sure.

Swarovski flat back crystals. 24 in a pack.
1 pack 1.8mm.
1 pack 4mm.

Mini Handknitted stockings for the Christmas tree

Handknitted and Felted Angora pouch 15cm x 12cms

A bangle custom made for you. Your choice of colour and silver charm

Sorry it's not a huge hop but hope you find something you fancy. If so, jsut leave me a message in the comments.

I'm happy to ship worldwide, and am willing to trade for most things to be honest.  Handmade items, craft supplies, beads, broken jewellery, old buttons,yarn, the list goes on...

Goals for the Week

1. List a new item on Etsy
2. Find a geocache
3. Dye my roots (Third time on the list!)
4. Put new clasp on Fluorite bracelet (Third time on list!)
5. Make Amethyst bracelet and necklace
6. Get up to date with swapbot swaps
7. Make some brooches

First item done on list was listing a new item on etsy. I managed to list  a few and get up to 81 items in stock!

Skull Mobile Phone Charm

Recycled Button Necklace and Bracelet Set

4 parcels sent to swapbot members.
1 parcel sent to an ebay buyer

A couple of long term items completed from the list which is nice.

Next week!

1. Find a geocache (2nd week on list)
2. Make Amethyst bracelet and necklace (2nd week on list)
3. Get up to date with swapbot swaps (2nd week on list)
4. Make some brooches (2nd week on list)
5. Make the alien bracelet
6. Tidy Bedroom
7. Put tax disc in car