Time Out & Christmas Fairs Ahoy!

AHH! My Christmas market preparations have reached critical mass.
I'm afraid for the next couple of weeks my blogging antics will be even more thin on the ground than usual. No more Folksy Friday for a bit - sorry.
Next weekend is a BIG weekend for me with two major Christmas fairs which i'm getting stuff together for:

1. On Sat 3rd Dec from 11am - 4pm, i will be at the Designers Marketplace. Its a well established and well attended event and is my first time at the one in Middlesborough. I've heard great things about it so i'm very excited. I've even planned my stall layout - for me thats super organised!!
   
   
2. The on Sun 4th Dec from 11am - 4pm, you can find me at Made In Newcastle's Christmas Fair at the Royal Station Hotel in Newcastle city centre. The other MiN collective members (special thanks to Judith) and myself have been working really hard to get this ready for a while.
   It should be a great day and i'll try & post a couple of pics from the 2 events.

If any of you my lovely followers are around these areas on this day, i would LOVE, LOVE LOVE it if you pop bye and say hello. Stop by & mention that you're a blog follower i'll give you a little freebie to say thanks :)
So its bye from me for a while.

Folksy Friday – Pick Me Up

I don’t know about you, but this time of year often makes me feel pretty low. The pre-Christmas rush preparing for markets and the festive onslaught, the short days, dark skies and the winter cold make me feel like I want to get away from it all. From mid-October I’m willing for Christmas, just so I can have a holiday and see my folks.
I get the impression that i’m not the only one who feels like this. These last couple of years with the recession and all, have been pretty tough I think for a lot of us who run/try to run small businesses, so there is quite a lot of pressure during the festive season to do as much as possible to make up for it being slow the rest of the year. I imagine a lot of us are stressed and tired and could certainly do with a pick me up.
For this Folksy Friday i’ve picked items that just looking at them makes me smile and gives me a warm feeling. I hope this selection picks you up a little too:

1. Things to make you smile -

Yay this Sweet Suzy plushie is soooo cute:



As is this happy little chap from picture of Grace:



2. A couple of things to make you laugh -

Tee hee i love this:



A Konnie Kapow special, no beating round the bush, ha!:



3. Some things to help you relax -
Perfect for a nice hot bath. Mmmmm:



A chocolate treat without the calories, yum:



4. Maybe you need some motivation -

Gorgeous bookmarks for inspiration:



3. Not feeling any better how about a hug?



5. When all else fails:



Ahh i feel better already, thanks Folksy. Thats a great new look you have by the way!

Etsy Photo Critique

A few weeks ago I joined the Etsy Success team on the Etsy community in the hope to get some useful tips on how to help grow my shop. Yesterday when looking on the team's forum i noticed they were asking for volunteers to have the photos in their shops critiqued as part of an online live lab. The idea is to help people create better photos to increase their chances of getting featured in blogs and the such like.

So i volunteered thinking there was no way mine would get picked. Then i got an email saying thanks for volunteering and they'd picked my shop as one of the ones to use.
Woo Hoo!! I was over the moon.

At 9.30ish yesterday night i watched the live labs and pathetically i know, when mine came on i turned into a 6 year old at Christmas. I don't think anyone has ever been so pleased to have someone point out their flaws. It was really constructive and useful. I've learnt about a new function on my camera, got some really good tips on improving my photos and noticed something about my shop which was not apparent before.

You can watch the recorded lab by visiting this link http://www.etsy.com/community/online-labs then from the video library at the bottom of page selecting 'Etsy Success' and 'Michelle Photography'. In case you're interested (i'm sure you don't give a monkeys) my shop comes in at about 22 seconds ;o)

I think the Etsy success team are still looking for volunteers, so who knows you could get your Etsy shop photos critiqued too. Definitely a team worth joining.

Festive Freebies!

The season of giving is almost upon us and in the spirit of sharing i've created some free festive digital downloads. I've created 3 super cute, kawaii style gift tags and a simple & elegant, modern style, A6 sized Christmas card.
You can print these, email them, use them for your site etc. Pretty much do whatever you wish to do with them, except selling them on please.
This is the 1st time i've every created any digital downloads of my own and i enjoyed it so much i may even put some more freebies your way! So you better follow the blog & keep check or you could miss out ;) Haha sneaked that little plug in there.

Printing instructions for card:
The card design is the full length of a landscape, A5 size sheet. So when you print either copy the image and print 2 cards length-ways on an A4 sheet, or print 1 card length-ways on an A5 sized sheet. The idea is that when folded you'll have an A6 card with an image on front that continues around to back of card. I have also rounded off the edges of card so you can cut round the printed card and have nice rounded edges.

To download the images - click the link(s) below, zoom in to its full size, then right click & save target or save image - its all yours.





Free download-able Christmas gift tags here.

Free download-able Christmas card here.

Folksy Friday - Sleepy Time

Today its a short and hopefully sweet post featuring a selection of items themed on creatures that hibernate. This time of year makes me want to hibernate too so I'm quite envious of these little critters. Just think, they'll all be snug as a bug in a rug right now and won't wake up until Spring. That's the kind of holiday I want.

1. Hedgehog
First up is this rather brilliant mini world, featuring our spikey friend:



2. Dormouse
This adorable print of a cuddly curled up dormouse perfectly depicts their hibernating state. I love the little feet!



3. Froggies!
Representing the frogs is this beautiful badge from Inspired Naturally:



And this sweet organic cotton baby t-shirt:



4. Bats
I choose this simple but lovely, hand stitched, longeared bat card



and i couldn't resist this cheerful little chap from the fabulously named 'Gosh Darn It'.



5. Butterflies (did you know some fully fledged butterfiles hibernate?)
Wowser look at thats gone into this! A beautiful bargain me thinks:



6. Ssssnakes
This Rainbow Serpent illustration by Studio Two caught my eye, i think it will catch your's too:



and 1 more for luck - these fun little Adam and Eve door hangers. Watch out Adam!:



Actually that post turned out to be not quite as short as I intended. Probably because I found it almost impossible to select only 1 item for each creature. Still, i hope it was sweet though.
Don't forget to check your bonfire piles before you light them this weekend for sleeping hedgehogs.
Byeeeee!!!