Crafting is one of my favourite activities. It is creative, calming and nothing beats the feeling of finishing something with your own hands.
When I was invited to join a few blogger friends for an evening of festive crafting, it would’ve been crazy to say no. It was just what the doctor ordered: crafts, friends, bubbly and mince pies!
Recently I participated in my first market ever, with my artwork. I recently started spending more time creating art as a therapy and found that I was starting to run out of room for all the pieces. As I had good feedback from friends and Instagram followers, I applied to participate in the Satanic Flea Market back in October. I was very happy to find that I ended up being accepted and would have a small stall at the Xmas market.
I had a great time – friends came over to visit, chatted with a few people, had great feedback on my pieces and met some incredible artists. And of course, sold a couple of pieces.
I didn’t take my camera with me as I had enough materials to carry but I took a few pictures with my phone. Not the best but it’s good enough to have an idea and celebrate my very first market!
As you can see, I had a few reworked pages on display. Sometimes people think these are digitally made but they are handpainted using Posca markers. I am planning on eventually making prints, though. Also, the frames have been hand glittered by me. I found it to be quite a soothing activity.
A picture of my first customer and the piece she bought. It was actually one of my favourite items. Also, some pictures of a few people who stopped by my table. I learned afterwards that the girl with pink hair is actually Girli, a British pop artist. She was super nice and put my sticker on her skateboard straight away. The bottom right photo is the world’s youngest Psychic TV fan – a 7 year old cutie who was wearing one of the best battle jackets I saw on the day.
I was also very lucky and some of my pieces caught the eye of a few Instagram followers, who were kind enough to buy the pieces pictured above. They all went to the US, so there is a little bit of me on the other side of the ocean now!
I really enjoyed the experience, even though I didn’t sell too much. I have learned that in this sort of market it is also good to have a few cheaper items such as patches and badges as a lot of people look for inexpensive items to give away as gifts. I had a lot of fun and this was the most important result I needed.
According to a top A&E doctor quoted in the Guardian, the home is a minefield for accidents, that eventually end up at the Accidents & Emergencies department of UK hospitals. One of the problems is when homeowners try to save a few pounds (which is fair enough), but do so without proper planning and taking all the necessary precautions.
This reminds me of an episode that happened recently in our home: my housemate and I headed to IKEA to get shelves for our respective rooms. We were so happy as this would help sort out all the junk we both have in our rooms. Living in London a lot of times involve living in a houseshare and we have to keep all our belongings in our own rooms… which can be a tough exercise in organisational skills, especially if on top of clothes and shoes (of which I have a few) one also has a pile of books and art materials. So, we bought our shelves and even got ourselves a little drill and a box of screws, planning on doing a bit of DIY over the next few days. All was set and intentions were great but we didn’t manage to finish the job. Why? We didn’t think it through properly – the drill head included with the IKEA drill was too thin for the girth of screws the shelves required. Not only that, when I tried drilling (I know how to use power tools), after a few centimetres, the drill was hitting stone. The little drill was no match for the stone walls… We ended up abandoning the project and asking the handyman to come in and do the job… Fortunately, no one got hurt, and for now, we have a few holes drilled in the wall, which I am sure is something the landlord will not appreciate. Next time, better planning will be necessary.
So, we bought our shelves and even got ourselves a little drill and a box of screws, planning on doing a bit of DIY over the next few days. All was set and intentions were great but we didn’t manage to finish the job. Why? We didn’t think it through properly – the drill head included with the IKEA drill was too thin for the girth of screws the shelves required. Not only that, when I tried drilling (I know how to use power tools), after a few centimetres, the drill was hitting stone. The little drill was no match for the stone walls… We ended up abandoning the project and asking the handyman to come in and do the job… Fortunately, no one got hurt, and for now, we have a few holes drilled in the wall, which I am sure is something the landlord will not appreciate. Next time, better planning will be necessary.
These are only two episodes that happened to me in recent years. Unfortunately, there can be many other potential activities that can cause serious injury. For more details on this, check out the infography after the jump.
PS: How do you like my illustration? I am enjoying reworking magazine pages a bit too much!
With December approaching, whether you like it or not, Christmas starts appearing everywhere, mostly in the shape of decorations and occasionally, songs playing in shops. It’s about this time that we all start worrying about doing the Christmas shopping. We’re all very busy and the las thing we want to do is to spend our precious free time in queues and that is why there has been an increase in online spending every year for UK families.
However, there have been concerns over the ethics of some of the big online retailers and their practices. Fortunately, there are online retailers whose main concern is to be environmentally friendly, socially responsible and a rewarding place to work. Such is the case of Uncommon Goods, a place where you can shop knowing that you’re in good hands.
What is Inktober?
It’s a drawing challenge, lasting the whole month of October, where you create an artwork every day. There is a list of prompts to use and the only rule is that you must use ink. This is but only one of the drawing challenges running on Instagram over the month of October. It was the first time I’ve ever done anything like it and I enjoyed it a lot! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to always publish a doodle on its set day but I managed to complete the challenge and do all 31 doodles.
If you fancy seeing all the bits I did, click to go after the jump!
Hello the Mushroom is a blogger turned urban artist. Check out Instagram at @hellothemushroom for frequent updates on artistic endeavours and adventures!
