Made With Love by Kat

Upcycling, recycling, repurposing - whatever you want to call it people are increasingly loath to throw things away. There's been a lovely thread on Folksy showcasing people's upcycled items and I thought I'd show you a few of my favourites: Patchy Pocket by Ellie's Treasures Measuring tape fancy bow brooch by Lilidrawspictures Wee Jock Scottie dog by SophieCat Upcycled map handbound notebook by Toggle Comic strip tags by Evie George Saucer candle holder by Loglike What are your favourites?

A while ago I did a lovely interview with the fab blog Milomade, which focuses on people who recycle in creative ways. You can (and should!) read it here .

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...

"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...

OK, so last year at the Edinburgh Festival I saw some really, really beautiful bracelets. They were made out of old vintage brooches, beads, pearls and various bits and bobs. They were also incredibly expensive. I thought to myself - how hard can it be? I bet I could do that. Then, like most ideas (at the time I also decided it would be a nice idea to write a stageplay, and the sketch show my friend Luke and I keep chatting about never seems to happen), it faded into the background. But there's a recession on, as we keep being told, and the idea of making pretty, unique jewellery as Christmas presents was very tempting. So a year and a half after the initial idea, I finally got hold of some vintage jewellery, dismantled some jewellery of my own, and fashioned a charm bracelet - I'll find a pic as soon as poss. Then I thought, I wonder if other people would like what I do? I wonder if other people are sick of paying bumped up prices just to have something that you can't buy ...