» General Ramblings…

Yarn covered earphones

birdface — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:55:11 +0000

My friend Holes showed me this ace thing that she had seen over on Pinterest. Yarn wrapped earphones. Genius.

Not only does this little project make your earphones look way awesome, but it also stops the little blighters from getting all knotted up – HURRAH!
It’s like a revolution in not-driving-precariously-whilst-untangling-small-wires all the time. You just tie the yarn in a series of knots around the wires like you’re doing a hair braid. I used some self-patterning sock yarn for these and they took approximately 2 episodes of Madmen to complete. Brills.

Before:

After:

Art Los Angeles Contemporary 2012

birdface — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:23:39 +0000

I will have work up on show at the Art Los Angeles Contemporary art fair all of this weekend. The fair starts on Thursday 19th with an opening reception from 7-9pm. The show will then be open from 11am – 7pm every day until closing at 6pm on Sunday 22nd.

As with all these outrageously exciting art whatnots, I will not be in attendance in favour of the old grind at home – bah! In my mind it is going to be pretty much exactly like an episode of Beverley Hills 90210. I Googled it – they’re only 20 minutes up the road and everything!
It’s probably just as well that I’m not going. I wouldn’t have anything to wear anyway…

Willow Christmas Wreath tutorial

birdface — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:55:27 +0000

Here is a clever thing that my sister-in-law (outdoorsy type) showed me. Making wreaths is a quick and easy little craft which is EXCELLENT for making cheap-as-chips little crimbo presents – WOO-HOO!!

Here is an example that I made out of willow for my Mother-In-Law, who is what I would like to describe as a “wreath fan” if ever there was one.

Here’s a little tutorial for good measure too

These examples have been made out of dog wood:

Lovely.

Jet’s Advent calendar in Simply Knitting magazine!

birdface — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:31:27 +0000

The pattern for Jet’s advent calendar that I made last year (as can be seen here) has been featured in the ‘Festive Gifts’ supplement of November 2011′s Simply Knitting magazine!

BRILLO!

I felt like a minor knitting celebrity when I went to the wool shop over the weekend – but then I was a bit bummed to see that they didn’t actually have the magazine up on the shelves (probably all sold out, eh?). I am sure they sussed me out as being a rubbish amateur anyway when I ended up having to ask a variety of obvious yarn based questions - damnit!

Check out the photography on the magazine compared to the pics I took originally here. I guess they liked the style, but didn’t want to have to pay me for the photos – It took me ages to notice they weren’t the same ones!
(weird!)

Visit London – Licensing Awards 2011 finalist!

birdface — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:24:45 +0000

Look lively people – this may have happened almost a whole month ago, but I was lording it up in the sunshine on my holidays then, so I didn’t know anything about it…
Turns out that the Visit London range that I worked on for Half Moon Bay last year was a finalist in this year’s Licensing Awards – how marvellous!! The products I worked on included giftware, stationery and apparel for the “Official London Merchandise”.
The brand was included in the Best Licensed Giftware category. It didn’t actually win the award, but that is a technicality – pipped to the post by ‘Nerdy’ Hello Kitty (how very dare she!).

You can see the full range of product here.

Cube Gallery, Marylebone, London Town

birdface — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:00:04 +0000

The Cube Gallery in Bristol (who are my saviours when it comes to the artsy fartsy world) are opening a new gallery in London’s lovely Marylebone as of this weekend. I’ve got some work up to show in there alongside pieces by: Peter Monaghan, Katie Allen, Rachael Nee and various other clever beans.

The new Cube Gallery can be found here. How Marvellous!

Woodland Nursery design details

birdface — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:55:49 +0000

I did write a post about Jet’s nursery a while ago, here. Those pics all look a bit sparse nowadays as they were taken before the smalls had even arrived. I guess we didn’t even know if she was going to be a girl or a boy then, so things were kept pretty neutral on purpose. I’m not so much of a girly girl myself, so the pink frilliness has been kept to a minimum whilst that sort of thing is still under my control!
I’ve been meaning to do a little update with some of my favourite details around the room – so here we are with a bit of extra info:

Cot: Stokke, stripe rug: Ikea

Wall stickers: cut from baize from the hardware shop, birdhouse: Asda – £4!

Ceramic tile: Rob Ryan on Etsy

Painting from the marvellous Nick Sharratt!

Fabric and wood mobile handmade from pattern here.

Alphabet print by yours truly .

The Smalls in situ. Grass rug with mushrooms: Vertbaudet (squee!) Log cushions: Deena Neimat (you gotta love those cushions!)

Daddy in situ and the egg chair I recovered with patchwork (NEVER AGAIN!).

Laser cut wedding invitations ♡

birdface — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:48:05 +0000

Here are some invitation designs I did for some friends of ours. I was pleased with how they turned out – I love having a play with laser cutting and it appears to be fast becoming my default wedding invitation style. I find it’s a good way of having a super-posh looking invite without it costing the earth. The only printing on here is on the inserts, so I just had to source the plain card in the right colour to send to the cutters. The inserts were done at a local print shop and I bought the self-adhesive gems from eBay. I think the whole lot came at about £175 for 100 invites and good quality envelopes (excluding design time and hand-finishing) – not a bad price for such a personal and unique invitation, eh?

It’s going to be an autumn wedding. The bridesmaids and the groomsmen’s ties are going to be in blue and they are planning to have lots of pumpkins around for decoration, so the colours should work well I think. Lovely.

Make Your Own Monster: felt kit

birdface — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:21:56 +0000

Here are some pics from a project I worked on a little while back for a make your own monster kit. I worked out the contents for the pack and how everything would fit together along with the instructions sheet. The packaging was set up by another designer from my initial designs – RAWR!

Cocktail umbrella wreath tutorial

birdface — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:10:22 +0000

Mmmmmm Pinterest…

I have been spending what is probably far more time than is healthy drooling over this site for the last few weeks. It was my friend Carolyn’s birthday last weekend and I had seen on her account that she liked these cocktail umbrella wreaths. Thinking I was the queen of genius, I proceeded to make said cocktail umbrella wreath as a gift for her. I rocked up to her party brandishing an enormous box with the wreath in it and gave it to her. Only then did I discover that she had already blummin’ made one to decorate her house for the party!
BAH! My wreath giving high promptly crashed down in flames.

Should I have asked if she had made herself one already?
Is this new Pinterest etiquette that I am not aware of?
AND…
Surely this situation begs the question (*Carrie Bradshaw voice*) – How many cocktail umbrella wreaths is enough?

I am hoping the answer to that is “At least two”!
Here’s a little tutorial for how I made it: