Show Your Mom Some Love

My cards have been selling pretty well lately at my stall, so I've been beavering away in the studio trying to get new stock made. My most recent batch was this vintage style set of Mother's Day cards. In case you didn't know it's on the 10th March, so you still have a bit of time yet before you have to go out and buy the Mammy a potted plant.

I think the bottom one is my favourite as it reminds me of all the hours I spent with my mum as a kid sewing. She started me on dresses for my Barbies with her scrap material, we moved onto things like bags, puppets and costumes as I got older. I was home a few months ago while I had a big sewing project to finish, it was really lovely to spend the day with her pinning and sewing, it brought back lots of fond memories. I'll definitely be sending her one with this image on it, I know she'll love it.

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Vintage Style Handmade Civil Partnership Cards

A while back I made some Civil Partnership cards, but to be really honest I wasn't happy with them, they weren't my normal style at all. Last week I went back to the drawing board and had a think about how I was going to do them. It would be near impossible to get appropriate embellishments so I knew I needed to make them myself. I've been making my own images for my cards for about a year now, and I've been using lots of vintage illustrations and photography. They match really well with the papers and distressed ink I use. After much Googling and Pinteresting I found vintage images of gay couples. I was hard to find the ones with the right tone, that were romantic but not too trashy for a wedding card. I must say I'm really delighted with them, I know it's really hard to get civil partnership cards, let alone unusual handmade ones. I've made about ten of them, as yet I haven't sold any so I'm starting to think I might be better off listing some online. A farmers market is not exactly the kind of place that people go looking for a gay wedding card!

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New Steampunk Inspired Cards

I'm having a card making week this week. After the Christmas I've been pretty much left with nothing and it's time to restock. There is nothing like new supplies to get the creative juices flowing, so I ordered a bunch of paper from Cork Art Supplies. I found myself drawn to  all their antique and Steampunk style paper, I got this beautiful library themed pad, this old letters one, and vintage emphemera one too.

I make all my cards as 5" x 7", I used to make other sizes but I found that people got a bit ratty about the prces being the same, so I thought it wasn't worth the hassle of weekly pointless arguments, it also makes things easier for me. Now When I get my pads of paper I guillotine them all into strips that are 5" wide, I get two of these per sheet with a little left over.

I then cover all of my blank cards with double sided tape. For about a year the €2 shop was selling this really cheap but a couple of months ago they stopped stocking it so I may need to readjust this part of my ssystem, as tape from the normal craft shop is prohibitively expensive. This is a pretty time consuming boring part of the process but it saves me loads of time down the line.

I then use one of each of the strips(there are two of each pattern) to cover my blank cards. If I was to choose each sheet individually when making every card I would spend loads of time faffing about. Since they will all get used eventually anyway this system just makes it easier and saves time. I trim off the excess with a scalpel. This means I am left with a 5" x 5" cut off, and the second strip of 5" x 12", plus the 2" x 12" left over cut off. I use all of these pieces to decorate and layer my cards, because they are all pre-cut to 5" wide it makes the whole process much faster. This may seem like a bit of a souless way to make something creative but I look at it as my prepping stage. From this point onwards is the fun bit when I get to play with ribbon, paper punches, ink, stamps and stickers.

Here are a few I've made from this paper already, I better get back into the studio and make some more for the weekend at the market!

Ps: Funnily enough my friend Dave sent me this article on how Steampunk is set to be the big trend, just a few days after I made these cards. I had noticed this on Pinterest about 6 months ago and it appealed to my inner teenage goth. Then just yesterday I met a friend for tea who showed me a load of really beautiful new Steampunk jewellery that he had made. You can say you heard it here first, Steampunk is gonna be huge!

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What I'm Wearing: Check Shirtdress

This is a bit more casual and sloppy look than my normal outfit posts, but I was quite hungover and I just wanted to wear something really comfy. Also wearing the headscarf meant I didn't have to wash my hair, this made for a pretty good 'feeling delicate' outfit. I know it's not the most flattering shaped shirt in the world but I'm not always concerned with the idea that I should look like the slimmest version of myself at all times. There is a really great article that discusses this pressure to always look 'your best', often times at the expense of self expression or feeling comfortable. I like dressing the way I want, on some days that might be a waist hugging dress, other times it's my knee length Beno jumper with clompy boots, what's important to me is feeling happy in my own skin and having fun with my clothes.

I got the shirt for only €5 in a mad 'everything is a fiver' sale in The 'Design Outlet' on William street. They also had jeans for only €10 that I very nearly bought, but after reading this article on how to get great pair of jeans I didn't give into the temptation of the bargain. When I was really honest with myself I could see that they were nice on the ass and legs but the waist was way too low for my shape, I never would have been comfortable in them. 

Runners- fake converse from Pennies €8

Sunglasses- Pennies €3

Shirt- The design outlet €5

Belt-Pennies €3

Nail varnish-L'Oreal (602) free from my friend Casha 

Ring- from the Milk Market, it crazily only cost €1!!

Head Scarf- free, I made it from a scrap of fabric and I made the button clips myself

Earrings- free to me as I made them, but I normally charge €10  

Whole outfit only €20( or €30 if I was to buy the earrings from myself??!)

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Being Sick and Watching My So Called Life

My so Called Life-Rayanna by nicedaydesigns featuring a black denim skirt

I've been off the radar for a while as I got my four wisdom teeth out of Friday. I was a first for me as I was never in hospital and I had no idea what to expect. The nurses and doctors were really lovely, and helped put my nerves at ease. I was put under for the operation so I wasn't in any pain at all, thank God! I wasn't able to sleep off the anesthetic so I was pretty loopy by the time I was leaving in hospital. I was expecting to feel pretty awful for a few days, but I didn't foresee being bedridden for 5 days! The painkillers that they put me on made me really ill and incredibly weak. I just about managed to shuffle to and from the bathroom. On the Monday out of sheer disgust with myself I took a shower, but I nearly fainted from the heat and having to stand up so long. I really wasn't expecting to feel this bad at all! People warned me about the pain, which I haven't felt much of because I've been on planet la-la drugs. Today I'm feeling a lot better, and even made my own breakfast, but I haven't braved the outside world yet. I think tomorrow might involve a very slow walk to the end of the street to go to the shops; thrilling!


All I've been eating is soup, mashed potato, jelly, scrambled eggs, and Yop. In between drug induced slumber I have been hallucinating about food, everything chewy, crunchy and meaty. My first solid meal is going to be heaven!

The upside is that I've watched LOADS of tv(I was way too drugged to read). I borrowed the box set of My So Called Life and had a major nostalgia buzz. Myself and my sister were obsessed with this show, she wanted to be Angela chase, and I secretly wanted to be Rayanne the crazy alcoholic friend. We actually met Jared Leto (the heart throb of the show) on Grafton St. It's the only time I've ever been start struck, we were teens, he was from tv, and American(OMG!), it was pretty cool. Now looking back he was pretty nice to us, and stayed chatting for a few minutes. I made the above Polyvore as an Homage to Rayanne's pretty fantastic wardrobe.

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Handmade Father's Day Cards

I just made up a new batch of handmade Father's Day Cards. I had some left over from last year that I've had on the stall over the past coupe of weeks, but with the weekend that's in it I thought it was a good idea to make some more.

As usual they are for sale at the Limerick Milk Market, they are €4 each or 3 for €10. To see a full album of images please go here.

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What I'm Wearing: A Head Scarf

I saw this Pin last week on Pinterest of a girl wearing a 1950's style head scarf and decided I wanted to take the leap and try it. I've always thought they were adorable but wasn't sure if I could pull it off.  I think I managed it pretty well, I wore it with casual clothes sans make-up on my way down town to meet a friend for coffee. But I think it would also look great with a little make-up and some red lippy and eyeliner.

Ages ago I watched this fantastic hair tutorial on Youtube(which I quite obviously didn't do) but part of it was advice on how to tie a head scarf. She recommended that you use two clips at the side to hold it in place. I used matching red button hair clips, how predictable am I? As my hair is quite fine I used a couple of slide to boost the front of my hair just a little bit so it didn't look too flat. I also pulled out a few scraggly bits at the ears to messy it up a bit. The scarf itself was just a bit of scrap fabric I had lying about the place.

By the way the glasses are from Pennies, what a find! They were only a few quid, and they are the cutest shade of duck egg blue.

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What I'm wearing: A Vintage Dress

I've been rather sick with a horrid stomach bug for about a week, so cabin fever led me to do things like tidy the house, scrub my bathroom, dye my hair and paint my nails...it's amazing what boredom will lead a person to!

I've had this dress for over a year and I've never worn it, part of me loved it, but the other half thought it was a bizarre hybrid of something my mother wore in the 80's and a Star Trek(natives from a peaceful and earthy planet)dress. But I tried it on again recently and realised that the side that loved it won out and and that I would wear it soon. So this is it's first airing!

Dress: In a bag of vintage dresses that I got for free from a friend of a friend...for free!

Belt: Came free with this blue top I got in A-Wear, it's awful with the top, but nice with this dress.

Boots: A charity shop €10

Wow that's an incredibly cheap outfit!

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