Made With Love by Kat

On December 1 st at 8pm (just after the Strictly Come Dancing results show ends) I’m going to be running my first Facebook e-Market. “What’s an e-Market?” you may well ask. In short, it’s a really simple way to buy stuff from the cosiness of your sofa. I will be uploading a special album of photos to the wall of my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/madewithlovebykat . Each photo will have details about the piece along with the price. The first person to comment gets to buy the piece – you can pay by Paypal. I will post all the items out the very next day (Monday 2 nd ) so they will arrive in plenty of time for Christmas. It's the perfect solution for those people who want to buy quirky handmade gifts but can't face the crush and madness of a city-centre Christmas market. And there's free postage and packing, so the price you see is the price you pay! If you want to get involved (and of course you do!) then the best thing to do is to like my Facebook page and join ...

Well, as promised, I managed to take some pictures of my stall from Saturday’s event – in between basking in the sun and drinking bitter shandies (it’s the weather’s fault, it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time). I’m really pleased with how my stall looked – I think having the “Gatsby on a picnic” theme in my head definitely helped, even though that theme wasn’t necessarily obvious to the casual observer. I really liked using the bottles to display bracelets – that’s an idea to keep. The necklaces hung on the lid of the picnic basket didn’t get a huge amount of attention, but I think maybe that’s because they were below eye level due to the table not being quite big enough. I made a few nice sales though, and lots of people took cards, so I’d better restock my shop pronto! A happy customer: Follow

So I’m doing my first craft fair in about a year on Saturday. I’ve never done particularly well at them in the past – jewellery parties have been more popular – but for the first time in three and a half years I let my Folksy shop run down to empty (it’s slightly restocked now, although there are lots of new pieces that need photographing) as I’ve been so busy and so it was a good excuse to give myself a kick start. Plus, it’s free to have a table and it’s at a pub (the Dog and Partridge, in Bolton), so it should be a good day out! In addition to my big green board, I shall be utilising the little jewellery busts I had delivered a while ago (shame they’re so small really – I thought they were bigger when I ordered them, but I’ll find a way to work around it!) along with a couple of picnic baskets I have. I’ve been putting together a board on Pinterest, as I seem to do for everything nowadays, click here if you’d like to see it . As it’s (hopefully) going to be a sunny day, I’m...

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...

I've been hard at work for the last few days making things to go off to the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester as part of their Fairytale Christmas sale in their craft shop. I've gone a little bit out on a limb as I've been using some fabulous but not-at-all-cheap stones, along with some really beautiful handpicked pieces of vintage jewellery to rework. I've also wired everything together using 14 carat goldfill wire - much nicer than gold plated which I hate and never use. When I saw my bill when I'd finished filling my trolley on the semi precious beads website I nearly had a heart attack - I hope you all think it's worth it! As ever these are all one of a kind designs, and won't be available in my Folksy shop unless someone specially requests them before Monday. If there is a piece here you've fallen in love with and you want me to set up a listing for you email me at made_with_love@rocketmail.com Speaking of Christmas, I will also be at the Christm...

Budget? What budget? Here's how to make your craft stall (see my last post) for less than a fiver*. To make the display board You will need: Foam filled board, available from most craft shops. Although for some reason we just had some at home under the bed. Vintage style fabric - I bought mine for 70p out of the offcuts bin at Nortex Mill on Chorley Old Road in Bolton A tinfoil roll middle (the bit that looks like a giant loo roll) A heavy recipe book stand, preferable iron. These are actually quite expensive, but if you can't borrow one you can justify it to yourself because it'll look lovely in your kitchen. A roll of gaffer tape Glue or double sided sticky tape Feathers and paper butterflies to decorate - make your own or cheat by buying them from a craft shop, look in the "make your own cards section" To make: Cut the foam filled board into the desired shape. I rounded off the corners, but a big rectangle will be easiest. Place it on top of your fabric (iron t...

Well the craft market at the Midsummer Festival this weekend didn't go brilliantly for me thanks to the rain, but lots of people did take business cards so hopefully they will go home and order online from the cosiness of their houses. But look how pretty my stall looked! And all made on a budget of about 50p, proving that you don't need to spend a fortune on display things: Of course, the highlight for me was lovely Thomas, the Clydesdale horse who had his shoes remade (they were huge! ) and gave small children rides up and down Churchgate. He was adorable.

Two days ago my boyfriend and I were doing very late night shopping in Tesco (much more fun than shopping at the usual hour) when he turned to me with a very serious look on his face. "Kat," he said. "Did you replace the batteries in my clock and set it to the right time?" I'll admit I was a little bit thrown, having absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Turns out that the clock in his kitchen that hasn't worked for at least a month now is not only ticking away merrily, but has mysteriously been set to the correct time. Well it wasn't me. I think he's got a personal poltergeist. We also saw a tin of Japanese braised eel, which I was so pleased by I took a picture of it. I'll post it later, along with photos of what I made last night for my craft stall... bunting's brilliant. Incidentally today's my birthday. Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me.

I'm feeling quite giddy today. First off I've dicovered two new blogs that I absolutely adore. The first is the adventured of Widget the sock bunny, chronicled daily at Widget's Year - Diary of a Sock Bunny But what's this - no updates for the past few days?! C'mon Widget, I NEED to know what you've been up to! Incidentally you can buy Widget and his pals from The Warren @ Folksy The second discovery is the Domestic Sluttery blog. As a soon-to-be homeowner, I like their style when they say: "Domestic Sluttery is a new way of life. Written by women who cook, decorate and design (usually with a glass of wine close to hand) without giving up our lives. "We want to make your home your own, without doing very much at all." Hell yeah - pretty house, minimum effort? Sounds good to me! I'm also very excited because I'm going to see the stage show of Quadrophenia with my adorable boyfriend tonight, it's my birthday on Thursday and the Churchga...

Three weeks since my last post! It's not laziness I promise - like a real grownup I've been househunting! I've found the most gorgeous little place in Horwich and hopefully I'll be in within a few weeks. However, like most people, I'm scraping around for pennies so I'm looking for thrify hints and tips on how to decorate my house and garden - recycling ideas, dirt cheap suppliers in the North West, that sort of thing. C'mon people, don't let me down, put your ideas in the comment box below... On a different note, it's only a few weeks now until Bolton's Midsummer Market on June 2oth and 21st, so anyone who will be passing the Bolton area should pop down to Churchgate, have a chat and maybe even treat yourselves. I'll give a 10% discount to anyone who mentions that they read this blog x