The Snail Emporium (8 July 2010)

Well, I guess it had to happen. I have opened a new shop on Folksy devoted to Snails, so I am delighted to unveil......The Snail Emporium!

I had a huge amount of fun designing the banner for this new shop - I used Serif PagePlus (my DTP programme that I downloaded free a couple of years ago) to draw the snail freehand - luckily, the program managed to convert my spiderly scrawl into something approximating my design. There then followed about an hour of colouring in on Paint. I've used a font called Farewell which I thought was suitably snail-like, and of course, there had to be a snail trail in there too!

Some may say that a shop entirely devoted to gastropods is just a bit too specialised. But no, says I. There's always a time in your life when you need a snail. A cute one. One that doesn't eat your lettuces. And so now you know where to find them :) They all have names and stories, and they all come with a signed certificate. Can't say fairer than that.

So if you know anyone who is in need of a cute snail, send them to The Snail Emporium. Plenty more Snails will be appearing soon - watch this space! And as always, if you have a particular request for a Snail, just get in touch - there are infinite mollusc options available :)

I'm a Featured Seller on Folksy! (22 June 2010)

Oh my word! I just found out that I'm a Featured Seller on Folksy! This is A Big Deal. Folksy have been running for quite a while now, and have featured four sellers every fortnight since they started, and these sellers appear on the front page of Folksy, and forever remain in the Featured Seller pages. They also pop up randomly in the right hand side bar when you land on the Buying and Selling tabs. There have been 144 Featured Sellers since Folksy began, and I feel very honoured that I've joined their ranks!

I only found out about it when I had a nosey round the forums and saw that Elki (the genius behind It Belongs To Turtle) had posted a lovely message about Turtle whom she'd commissioned me to make. (Elki has graciously agreed to help my campaign to have 'quernus' added to the dictionary, meaning to make something small and cute (esp. animals) even smaller and cuter. Petition your MP to make this happen.)

Another fellow Folksyan, DreadyDerry said that she'd spotted Turtle in the featured bits, and I wasn't quite sure what she meant. So I went and had a look at the Folksy front page, and there I was! To say that I am chuffed to bits is something of an understatement :) I remember when Lynsey of Swirlyarts was a Featured Seller on Folksy back in November last year (click here to read all about it), and I was SOOOO impressed and thought it would just be amazing to be a Featured Seller! And again when Pat Longmuir of PatsParaphernalia was a Featured Seller, I was envious of her for getting to those giddy heights!

So this really is a big thing for me - take a peek at my Folksy shop when you have a chance (I have recently added Wee Black Sheep and Roly Poly Rainbow Cats to the collection) - I'm off to have a celebratory glass of wine now :)

Craft Fair at The Treehouse Cafe - The Results

How chuffed am I?! I had a fantastic day at my first craft fair at The Treehouse Cafe in Bradford! An intimate affair, with five stallholders in total and a lovely cosy setting courtesy of The Treehouse Cafe. Great food, great company - what more could one ask for?

The craft fair was organised by Cat, aka MrsSewandSew (left picture), who had originally posted a thread on Folksy.com way back in July asking if anyone would be interested in having a stall at a craft fair in the Bradford area. And yesterday was the result, and hopefully the first of many!

Also at the Craft Fair were Pam (aka Pamdas/Buri Boo - bottom picture, and who makes beautifully delicate handcrafted cards and jewellery) and Tracy (aka RubySpiritDesigns - on the right, with her gorgeous selection of handmade jewellery), as well a number of children (Cat's, I think) and many family and friends supporting the day and the Cafe. I sold some of my wee creatures, as well as quite a few cards, and all in all, it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

I learned a lot from the day, and one of the key things is planning. Having done the trial run of the stall display a few days before (see 'Twas the night before...) really helped give me an idea of what worked beforehand, and I was also able to plan the packing of the display boxes and stock. The banner looked great, and I am SO glad I bought the length of black leatherette fabric for the table cover (wipe clean - very handy!) Amazingly enough, I didn't forget anything crucial (although it would have helped to have had some carbon paper for the duplicate receipt book), and I've got lots of ideas for the next weekend's craft fairs. I'm going to try my hand at some Pumpkin Cats in recognition of the forthcoming Halloween festivities. And Santa Cats will also be making an appearance soon!

Quernus Crafts now at Folksy.com!

Just to let you know I've opened up a store on Folksy.com, the UK equivalent of Etsy.com where handmade craft and art items are sold under one roof. I am in the process of 'stocking up' the store, so there are only a few things listed so far. But please spread the word and keep visiting for all the latest things I'm selling.

You can find my shop at http://www.folksy.com/shops/QuernusCrafts.

I am also working on my Etsy.com shop, so watch this space for updates on progress there.