Zine Fayre

Last weekend was the second annual Bradford Zine Fayre, organised by some of my favourite people in the lovely city of Bradford, Jen Fox, Katie Jennings and Joel White. It was a fatastic fun day (and night) and I was lucky enough to have a stall at the fayre and made a lovely new zine to celebrate:

I sold a few and bought a few from the Jeez Louise distro stall that was next to me, and a lovely screen printed bag from helen memo who you can find here

http://www.hellomemo.com/

All in all it was a fabbydoo sort of day, there is a video of the event made by Jen here

http://northern.indymedia.org/videos/799

and the zines I had left at the end of the day I've listed in my folksy shop here

http://www.folksy.com/items/609177-Craft-Zine-Issue-1?shop=yes

Springtimes

I'm having a lovely time preparing for the spring this week, me amd the twins have started to weed the garden and dig over the beds. We went to Wilko's yesterday and chose our seeds. I'm also planning a spring craft fair at the Treehouse Cafe on Sat 13th March, just in time for mothers day. At work this week we've been putting together the new window display, it's mostly blue florals with a vintagey colonial india sort of feel to it, I've copied some pictures of the fabrics we're using, it's very refreshing.
In other news, Claptrap 6 was unleashed a couple of wee ks ago and I've been enjoying having it to read on the bus, it really just gets better every month, I'm looking forward to coming up with something to contribute to the next issue, it's available to view online here.

Fablious February Giveaway!

For the whole month of February I will be giving away a free gift with every item bought from my Folksy Shop! Lucky shoppers can choose between a buttony mobile phone charm, a pair of button fridge magnets or a recycled 35mm film canister keyring. All you have to do is buy one of my lovely creations and then send a message to my Folksy inbox saying which gift you prefer.

Re-claimed Caftiness

This last couple of weeks I've aquired some exciting things to make into new things: two old wool jumpers to felt, a bag of the little plastic tubs that camera film comes in, a bag of the metal canisters that camera film comes in (empty), a bag of vintage 1960's fabric scraps from a factory in Yorkshire that no longer exists, 2 x 2009 callenders and a jar of buttons.

I've already made some cut and paste style buisness cards from one of the callenders and some old bits of maps and Christmas cards, some badges from the other callender, and a couple of hair bows from the fabric samples but I will keep you regularly updated on what I think of to do with the rest and upload lots of photos too!

Vegan Gingerbread People Recipe

You will need:
350g plain flour
100g sugar
1tsp baking powder
3-4tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
100g vegan margarine
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/3 cup boiling water

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees c/gas mark 5
Sieve the flour baking powder ginger and cinnamon into a large bowl and rub in the marg until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, stir in the sugar.
fill a decent sized tea mug about 1/3 of the way up with hot water from the kettle and add to it the molasses and golden syrup, give it a quick stir until it's all melted a bit and then add to the dry ingredients and bind together.
Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and knead it for a minute or two, when it's firm enough roll it out and cut it into all kinds of nice festive shapes, gingerbread men, stars, christmas trees, or just whatever shaped cutters you have lying around, if you want you can press currents in before you bake them for eyes and things do it now, or if you're feeling less health concious you can decorate them with melted dark chocolate or icing and sweeties when they come out of the oven.
Pop your biscuits onto some big baking trays and into the oven for about 10 mins, or until the edges are just starting to change colour. Cool on a wire rack, decorate and enjoy!

Craft Fair Mania

Some pictures of a stall I shared with my lovely friends Katie and Carmel at the Impressions Gallery in Bradford, It was a lovely day!