Catching up on Life

I know, I know I am a naughty blogger. I spend so much time enjoying everyone else's blogs and completely neglect the build up of my own. Things in Wallflags world have been interesting. A lot of head prep is going on as I look around the cyber world and try to find my own path. I am hoping to get some good graphics on the go that reflect the style I love and where I want the world of Wallflags to go. I also got to work with a lovely customer who was having a camping themed party (what a great idea) and so I designed a little flag set for her. I really love working on custom designs (most of the time!!) I find it really pushes the design element in my work and I am always so amazed at the effects and shapes that can be achieved with such a basic printing process. I am mulling the Christmas time over right now and have booked myself into just two craft fairs this year - which I will need to get working towards very soon. At the moment I am taking stock of WallFlags future and where we could go - although I loved doing the markets this summer I think I have come to realise that online would work a lot better with my lifestyle at the mo as a stay at home mum. The markets were really fun - but it did mean that we didn't get to spend any time all together as a family because my husband would have to work the Sunday. I really missed this time together and family is too important to put on hold like that - so I am putting good vibes into the universe that the path will become clear for me of how WallFlags future should look.

The beauty of framing!!

I have been into framing this season! It started with 2 prints my husband and I had bought nearly 10 years ago that we had been constantly saying we would frame one day only to move them from pillar to post - never getting to display or enjoy them. I still am not getting good enough photos so sadly they have not been included in the pictures above, but we finally got them professionally framed and they look great. Now taking pride of place in our lounge - we get to enjoy them every day and they are motivating us to make the rest of the room look lovely in order to best display them. Now it is a little costly to have things professionally framed - but so worth it if you can splash out a bit! However what I have also started to enjoy doing is buying gorgeous prints from etsy and displaying them in very inexpensive, but rather cool looking plain white frames. You can have a fabulous piece of artwork - beautifully framed for around just $35. The artwork above is from 2 very gifted artists at Ferntree Studio and Penny Wishes on etsy. The owls really add a great finishing touch to my wee boys room and the flower/bold red prints are going to look stunning in my kitchen once I get round to painting it red/yellow! Etsy is the way to go for me and imagine buying some of these for friends for Christmas - unique designs for under $50!!

Tractor Inspiration

So this weekend has been a long weekend for us Canadian folks and today was Labor Day - the last day of summer and boy was it!! It absolutely peed it down today - it was grey, windy and rainy. Trousers had to be found and squeezed back into and boots dug out. I had forgotten how much work the winter can be with muddy paws and tiny footprints finding their way into the house and the woodstove needing to be stoked up soon. The only good thing abt the weather today was that my wee boy must have thought it was still night-time this morning because he slept in until 11:30 am (unheard of) and when he woke up and came downstairs the first thing he did was turn on the light in his playroom and say "It's still dark - is it night-time Mummy?"...honey I know what you mean. At the moment when the boy is asked how old he is he will reply "I'm a teenager"..I have no idea why he says this, but hey if it means we get more lie ins in the morning I'm all for it!

So the weekend has been a bit of a holiday for us here in the little blue house. We cosied up today - but yesterday was sunny and bright and we went for a little drive up Island to look at some new walks and lakes around Qualicum Beach - called Horne Lake and Spider Lake. They were both just beautiful - great for dog and boy and just made me yearn for that cheap, rustic cabin by the lake - that just doesn't exist - certainly not this side of Canada. Anyway I love getting away for a drive on the coast here - it really does awaken the senses and get me tingly abt possible new designs. I had to ask hubby to pull over when I saw this cool looking tractor by the side of one of the log roads. It is definitely going to be an inspiration for a farm themed flag me thinks - so watch this space.

All Sold Out!!

I would like to introduce you to the work of my dear friend Anita from Adoornments (www.adoornments@etsy.ca). We have been sharing a stall, every Saturday, this year at the wonderful Moss St market located in Fairfield, Victoria BC. She has been such an inspiration, support and general pack horse / coffee - popsicle fetcher for me during this first WallFlags season at the market and it has been such fun to share the start of this journey with a friend. Now Anita has been knitting her little heart out this summer (or should I say knitting her socks off) to try and keep up with the demand for her funky socks and fingerless gloves. With demand so high when the temperatures are soaring - who knows what stampede will occur for her when the weather really does spur a need! Her knitting is fabulous (this is the lady who knitted a Mona Lisa sweater within a week - enough said!!) her European style of knitting has been catching the attention of all the die hard knitters out there on Vancouver Island - as she tucks her big, pointy needles under her arm and happily clacks away during the day. So it is a relief for us that we are taking a break next Saturday from the market to let Anita replenish what stocks she can during a 2 week period (you would be surprised how much she can achieve) because this week she sold out of all her knitting and was only left with an empty right foot! You can also check out Adoornments gorgeous new line of jewellery on etsy where she is inspired by her beautiful cable knits and her finds on Vancouver Island through the medium of precious metal clay.

Showcases on Etsy

I signed myself up for my first showcase on etsy which aired yesterday under "children". After a day at the market it was kinda fun (read btwn the lines as addictive as hell!) It was kinda nice not to have to rise at 5am, attempt to look vaguely acceptable, drive for miles, lug stuff, stay in one spot for hours, be tempted by food vendors and then reverse all the above. You could however sit in your PJ's ...pop into your "stall" frequently with some apparent obsessiveness and ride the waves of emotion for a whole day of "showcase". My hubby kept taking the piss out of me all day saying "SHOWCASE" in an overly theatrical fashion ..."Oh are you ready for your ..SHOWCASE...."...Is that the outfit you are wearing for your "SHOWCASE" ..you get the picture. However he did dance round the room with me when I made my first ..yep say it together everyone "SHOWCASE" sale ..and was respectful enough to ask me all about "hearts" and "views" at various intervals during the day. I should warn you though..SHOWCASES are highly addictive and should come with some sort of warning. I was on a buzz all day and was seriously on a come down today. I have been pretty moody and toddler seemed to sense this and pushed my buttons all day. "Mummy can I play with THIS..wielding some highly dangerous pointy thing.....NO ...then I shall play with THIS...some other highly dangerous object that came out of nowhere". He even drove his car up the steps and into the house - how he managed this I have no idea. When I asked him what sort of toy this was? He would reply it is an inside toy....I would remind him "it is an outside toy Jack".....it is an inside toy mummy....again you get the picture! Ciders opened at 4pm for me today and God Bless "The Night Garden".

Showcase Cold Turkey is no fun...I made one sale which was great and it drove nearly 100 people to my shop so it was definitely worth the $7....hmmmm I wonder when the next one should be..just one more hit man..one more hit!

All Packed up for Market

So tomorrow is market day down at Moss St and I am getting all packed up and ready to go. Today has been a daycare day and I cannot believe how fast it goes. I get quite a lot done, but always hope to have achieved more. Today I had a Cazza photoshoot in the house to try and get some more flags into the store (check them out in my etsy store) - I am amazed at how long these take and my pictures still look pretty crappy - but they are fun to stage and I am getting more and more creative with the sets. I then made 2 little tote bags to take to the market tomorrow - these have been on my permanent list of to dos for a long time - so it was lovely to finally see them in the flesh.

Other news - not sure really - the summer is so busy with stuff. Great stuff - but I do feel like the season is whooshing by. Hubby and I are not getting a lot of time to hang out together as one of us is usually on the run somewhere and I think we need to make the time to see eachother and actually "talk" - somedays it feels like we are barking a bit at eachother "I've got to do this.."can you do that ..bark, bark ..woof..woof". Yesterday I came back from watching "Eat, Pray, Love" with a girlfriend (was much better than I had thought it would be)...only to come home to a load of washing up, laundry to do, laundry to fold, dog puke in 3 separate places and then a crying child".....the zen of the film and a box of smarties waned pretty quickly.

Dog puke was due to my dumb dog eating a whole pack of butter off the counter - seriously - what?!?!?!

Where on earth am I going with this?? I guess sometimes there is such overwhelming guilt at my spending time and money on wallflags, etsy and the market. It takes me away from my wee one, my home responsibilities and really limits the time I get to play with hubby. Deep down I know that I really need this to keep on the straight line - this is so good for my soul and as a friend once said "don't sabotage it now." Anytime I hear that nasty inner voice..you know the one..I have to say to myself out loud "don't sabotage"..because you just do not know where things will lead .... and this is making me happy.

So have a great weekend everyone - wish me luck at Moss St and do come and see us if you are ever in the neighbourhood!! I have to go pick up my little one now - let the games begin!!

The Animals came in two by two

This little fella is a very popular guy. He sells everytime I bring him along to a market so I haven't even had time to take his picture yet for my store. Today I had a great friend visiting myself and the boy and she bought a lot of the new flags that I printed yesterday including this little fella. I hope I can get round to printing more for the store this week - but I wanted you to see him sooner as he is such a handsome fellow and a hit with the ladies! I think I should get a Noah's Arc flag soon I have an elephant and a giraffe - what else went on the arc?

Other news is slim today on the work front as I was being a mumma for the day for the busy boy!

New Beetle Car Design

I had so much fun designing this flag for one of my friends today! IT is going to be all mixed colours and I think some are definitely going to hit my store soon as I can't stop printing them. Ahhh the rush of block printing.

Eat, Pray, Love

Well today was a productive day in my La La Land studio! I am having a bit of a love fest with my house this summer - we moved here nearly 5 years ago and even on the first viewing with my husband I wrote on the info pages "I love it!". Now it is by no means perfect, finished or dreamy to most - but it is maybe for those very reasons that I love it so much. It is so "us" and it has actually brought us nothing but happiness and watched our family grow from the cat we adopted who lived here before us ..to the puppy..to the bambino! This is the first place my husband and I ever made our roots after such a whirlwind time together. We have finally made a home and when you are in the right place I think it just all seems to happen so easily. A year ago I thought I wasn't enjoying my home...we had some suspect junkie renters move in next door and bit by bit they really changed the atmosphere of our neighbourhood and my love of this house. We had been hunting and hunting for another place, but every viewing I would go on I would see something that didn't fit - find fault in some way and just keep coming home and going - but we have so much here. Soooo finally the renters left (yippee) in June this year - my feelings of relief were not immediate - but bit by bit my frantic house hunting has dwindled and I have begun to feel all that LOVE back for my sweet little home! So here is a picture of some words that are painted in my kitchen - still there from the previous owner - Love, Dream Laugh, Dance!! We are again and we are so happy to have our home back.

My first etsy sale and my first blog win!!

Wow what an exciting weekend this is turning out to be. I made my first sale yesterday on etsy and was just so excited! I want to put a big thank you out to my new etsy customer and now I am learning abt the next stage - sending your product. Am wondering how best to package, send and pop in lots of happy thoughts - hoping that the customer is really happy with their new flag!!

My next news today was that I won a book that I have absolutely adored reading. It is by a very talented new author called Michele Young-Stone and the book is called "The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors". I just really enjoyed reading this story, the characters are so well constructed - you care abt them all - and you miss them when you have finished reading - wondering how they are "getting on". It was just a joy and great escape for me - now it is hard to start anything else. So when I found out today that I had won a free copy I was over the moon because my copy had come from the library and the book is a real keeper!

Well this was a quick post to say "yippee" - I am now off to enjoy the summer evening with hubby - if 2 yr old will let us!

Have a great holiday weekend BC readers XX

Rockets, Trucks and Cars Oh my!!

A delightfully talented clayworks artist, teacher and neighbour who can be found at www.tarafirmastudios.com - was kind enough to loan me the use of her children's playhouse for a little photoshoot of my kids oriented wallflags and what a playhouse it is! All by the hands of her man - who designed and built this wonderful structure!! I had to give credit to her children to - who put me to shame by having a spotlessly clean and inviting home, compared to my current struggling domestic environment. I simply cannot be bothered with household chores when the weather is this lovely..umm or when it is cold...slightly damp or lets face it somewhere in between.

I am still playing the photos for my etsy store, but have definitely found that outside light is best so far (lord help me in the grey days of the year). I was really pleased with what I achieved today photos wise, however productivity dwindled once the items were all posted as I meandered my way through the etsy stores when I should have been doing any number of other things! Shopping is indeed good business networking and product research - hmmmmmmm! Hopping onto my store every 2 mins to see if I had any more views was also pretty sad of me..I am not a cool esty customer at all and when I get a hearts me .. I gush over and thank them because I cannot believe that someone has not only found me, but LIKED the stuff I do...play it cool Caz, play it cool!

Etsy Begins!!

So I have been meaning to join etsy for the last five years, but life got in the way and this week I have finally listed some of my new wallflags. Oh my goodness I have so much to learn!! I have no idea really what I am doing!! On top of that my photos look terrible! I love my wallflags and they look so great in the flesh - but they look so amateur in the photographs and I could cry - but decided to go for it anyway and to grow, grow, grow in my internet saviness! It took me hours and hours to take the photos - work out postage - work out downloads and then when I pressed finish there the wallflags were in all their non - glory and then I looked at other sellers and their products look soooooooo beautiful!! Ahhhh lessons to be learnt.