Lovely things for christmas!

LOOK! These are the wonderful arm warmers and hat that Freyalyn made me for my birthday trade! She dyed the wool herself, as well as designing and knitting them, and they just exceeded my expectations. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but the wool is wonderfully soft too. I am SO pleased with them, they are just exactly what I wanted. Freyalyn sells her wool in her Etsy shop here.

And it's Christmas sale time! I have a stand at Christmart, in Chagford Jubilee hall this weekend, along with many other wonderful artists (you will find Terri Windling, Rima Staines, Virginia Lee, David Wyatt here, as well as many others). It's a chance to buy some work direct from the artist, and do some Christmas shopping! For those of you who live too far away, I having a special Christmas sale in my Etsy shop to coincide with it. 20% off everything there until the end of the weekend. To get this, just enter the code CHRISTMAS2010 at the checkout, and your discount will automatically be taken off.

I've been busy framing tiny studies , and I loved my daughter's owls so much that I have sewn a batch more, with lavender in their tummies. If these don't sell I shall hang them on my Christmas tree this year. In fact, it's tempting not to sell them for that very reason - an owl tree would be a lovely thing!

Birthdays, Bees and a spot of Bartering

I celebrated my birthday last weekend. It coincided with Chagford Carnival, and I so I spent the evening wearing a giant bee, and trying to negotiate it's 5 metre wingspan through the narrow village streets. Luckily I had lots of small helpers to lift wings over obstacles! It was a fun, if tiring way to spend the day, and I sorely needed a glass of wine or two by the end.

But the birthday gave me an idea. I'm not sure if it is a brainwave, or actually a rather daft idea - maybe you can tell me? I spent ages dreaming of what to spend my little bit of birthday money on, what lovely treat I would like for myself. In the end, I had to pay the garage bill with it, but it left me yearning for lovely things for myself. So, I thought about trading. I'm all for a bit of bartering, and I know that often people don't like to ask, in case others are offended. Often I have to say 'no', because I need the money so badly, but I thought that just in celebration of my birthday, I would offer to trade with anyone that wants to. I'm happy to trade anything in my shop, prints or originals, or even to do commissioned work, if there is something specific you would like. In return, show me what treasures you have to offer! I may not be able to say yes to everything - sadly, my wall space is very full, so there isn't room for many more pictures, though I can always make exceptions. I could of course be very specific about my birthday wish list (jewellery, particularly a hare pendant, some knitted arm warmers, good books, more music................) but actually, I'm interested to see what wonderful things other people create.
So what do you think? Would anyone be up for a bit of bartering? Drop me an email through my profile page HERE if you want to trade :)