Made With Love by Kat

I'm not sure how many of you know this, but I administer a Flickr group for people to share their pictures and to give me a constant source of material for this blog. I haven't written about it for a while, but as I was uploading some of yesterday's photo experiments I saw so many lovely things that I wanted to share. Aileen Clarke visited the Blair Castle vintage fair and took this photo. She also blogged about it for Folksy's Frankly magazine, here . Incy Wincy Stitches posted this gorgeous picture of handmade owl hand hotties. I hope she'll be adding them to her shop soon!  Amidesigns contributed this fab bracelet. She has loads of items that woudl look amazing with your Christmas day outfit - check out her Etsy shop .  I LOVE this patchwork bag by Kerry Wilkinson's Pennydog Accessories line. It's called a conversation bag and it certainly would start one, mostly along the lines of "I love your bag". She sells an ec...

Few things add glamour to an outfit like a great pair of statement earrings – Prada restarted the trend with their rose and diamante beauties... ...and net-a-porter are currently featuring this gorgeous pair by Marni: Yep, utterly stunning, but at £255 way beyond most people’s pre-Christmas purse strings, as are many (but not all!) of the selection chosen back in October by Elle magazine, which you can see by clicking here .  Luckily there is a host of independent designers out there who have created statement jewels that are far friendlier to your budget: These filigree and aqua jewel beauties are just $27 (£17.27) from Lazy Owl Boutique on Etsy. These  rhinestone and rose earrings have more than a touch of Prada about them, and would grace any Hollywood starlets ears. $57.99 (£37.10) from Queen Me Jewellery on Etsy. Add some cocktail hour glamour with these Swarovski crystal drops , $64 (£40.94) from Eldor Tina Jewellery on...

I love fairytales. In fact, I love fairytales so much that I studied an entire module on them as part of my English degree - Romance, Ballad and Fairytale. And when I'm designing new pieces often themes and ideas from those stories come through. There could be complex cultural reasons for this, to do with storytelling traditions and deep-seated human needs, but mostly I think it's the mixture of princesses and magic that does it for me. When I was little I used to play at being Cinderella - and a scene in the Disney film that I particularly loved was when all the woodland creatures were making her dress for her: So when I was making some new necklaces with adorable tiny bird charms, something subliminal must have triggered my own desire to go to the ball. Look what I made! They're for sale now in my Etsy shop

The first item from my new collection is onsale in my Etsy shop now! . I'm making as fast as I can, after all the first collection went to Liverpool. Sneak preview pics here:

Review: Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson (Piatkus Books: Fourth Edition), £10.99 Jay Levinson is a marketing hero. His guerrilla marketing books and website have become a must-read for any small business owner hoping to boost sales. The latest edition of his classic guide is no different - the new section on e-marketing is particularly useful for anyone with a budget of zero pennies. The book is broken up into easy to understand sections, provides practical tips, and avoids that irritating "motivational" talk that mars so many business books. Whether you intend to read it cover-to-cover or just use it to dip in when you're boosting a particular area of your marketing strategy, the new edition of Guerrilla Marketing will maintain Levinson's reputation for some time to come. Unfortunately, it means my to do list is significantly longer... - Make signs for bulletin boards - Opt-in offers for mailing list - Find stuff for newsletter - Consider writing e-zine -D...

Thanks for the lovely comments on Facebook guys (you know who you are). It's heartwarming to see blokes with such good taste in jewellery. My Etsy shop is now up and running! You can buy the "Autumn" necklace I posted a picture of yesterday, here . All the prices on there are in dollars, which I know is confusing if you're in the UK. The exchange rate today is 1.5 dollars to the pound, so $35 is £22.78. You can buy the "Sparkle" necklace here . Anyhow, a couple more wee pics I think, sorry if they're a bit fuzzy... Coming later: Press releases - a journalist's view

So it's only day two, and already I'm panicking. The stuff on Etsy looks so posh. I'm deliberately trying to keep costs down because I think people should be able to buy lovely, unusual things for less than eighty quid, but will the customers think the same? To add insult to injury, I'm so poor I can't even set up my Etsy seller account until tomorrow. Time to learn some patience I suppose, damn being part of the MTV generation. Anyway, in the meantime I'm going to set about drafting a press release for the local media - hopefully they'll be interested in writing something about this little project. Confession time - I do have a head start, being a journalist myself. But will that mean I manage to get any coverage? Must stop biting my nails. On the plus side, it's only two and a half days 'til I go to the Christmas market in Manchester...

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" Here are a couple of the first necklaces I've made. I've gone for a "patchwork" effect on the chains, something which I intend to make a feature of all the forthcoming collections one way or another. A glance through the marvellous website Etsy suggests that romantic names for each design are smiled upon, so I've named these Sparkle (for obvious reasons) and Autumn (as an homage to the Keats poem). I'm going to be setting up my Etsy shop sometime later today, and adding to it as I get the proper photographs through. According to the marketing advice helpfully provided by Etsy's Storque magazine I need to get people interested in this blog - this is where you come in. It's a simple swap - link to me from your blog and I'll put a link to you on mine. And as a bit of an incentive to go a bit furtehr I'll offer a special 10% discount to anyone who gives me a good-sized mention through a blog, ne...