Happy Birthday Geeky Cat!

Wow so Geeky Cat is now a year old it's gone so fast I can hardly believe it. I'd just like to thank everybody whose liked my Facebook page, brought something through Etsy or from a craft fair/expo or just simple told me they love what I'm doing.

and as an extra thank you...

I'm looking forward to my Christmas fair coming up in November and hope to continue making geeky things into the new year!

Thanks again to everyone who has been with me this last year.

The MCM Expo 2013

I'd spent months planning for the MCM Expo making stock, working out what to take, finishing off my DnD dice, working on stall layout and it went by in the blink of an eye...

The DnD Dice were definitely the most popular and I sold more of the sew on patches then I thought I would. I didn't expect the dice to be so popular so next year I will be making them to sell straight away.

One of the highlights for me was meeting Mark Meer he was so nice and spent a good five minutes talking with everyone who wanted something signed. I got him to sign one of my pillow cases which is going to be framed and hung on the wall. In fact if there is ever a fire in my house it will be one of the things I grab if I get a chance.

 



It was an absolutely amazing weekend I met lots of lovely people but would like to say a special thanks to the two sets of stall holders either side of me.

Dot Deck -  who were selling Pokemon merchandise but also had a Mario stall and an Adventure Time stall.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dotdeckcouk/296610427039676
and
Shogun Toys - who sell action figures, plush toys and cosplay items.
http://shoguntoys.co.uk/

These guys were so friendly and helpful and made the whole experience a lot less daunting.

I'd also like to say THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by the stall to either say hi or to have a look at my work and hope you enjoyed the convention as much as I did. :)

I really want to do the Expo again next year I wonder if I start making D20s now I might have enough by then.....

Don't forget to check out the other geeky crafts that were at the Expo!
http://www.geekinsider.com/2013/06/03/the-geeky-crafts-of-mcm-london/

Geekery Finished!

It's taken a long time (as I've been doing lots of other things in between) but here are the finished DnD plush dice. They are made from felt and hand embroidered together and then stuffed with polyester filling.

They are available to buy individually or as a group on my store so just click the link below and take a look!.

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/150621161/dnd-plush-dice-full-set?ref=shop_home_feat

The arrival of Tibbs

Me and my boyfriend have lived together for 9 months now and we have felt that something was missing from the house. We are both animal lovers and we had talked about getting a pet.
So a couple of weeks ago we went down to the Leicester Animal Aid and had a look at the animals they had. I could have taken each and every animal home with me but I don't think our little house could take that.
We weren't sure whether to go for a dog or a cat but after talking to someone who worked there, we realised that our work commitments would be unsuitable for a dog. Even though we both work from home a fair amount a dog required more time socially then we could give it.
So a cat it was and after much deliberation we choose Ottis.
We changed his name to Tibbs as our neighbour has a dog named Ottis and didn't want to seem like we were copying them. Also if we ever had to call Ottis outside in the street we didn't want to accidentally call over a dog and possibly a cat as well.

 

We have only had him a week and he has already face planted into the closed french doors whilst trying to stalk a pigeon. However despite that he seems happy here and we are happy to have him.

  

If you are looking to get a pet I'd highly recommend rescuing an animal. The staff at the Leicester Animal Aid were fantastic they let us take our time looking at the animals and interact with the cats so you got a feel for them.

Unfortunately there were dogs there as young as 4 months old, whose owners had just given them up because they couldn't handle them anymore. Luckily for the dogs and cats they are now in a place were they get walked every day, feed, groomed and played with but nothing is better then a permanent loving home. 

 

Getting any animal shouldn't be dived into without thinking about your commitments and the animals needs but if you have enough time and space to give an animal a home why not give one a second chance...  http://www.leicesteranimalaid.org.uk/

Knitting....hmmm

When I was about 7 my Grandma taught me to knit well I say knit it was more twirl so yarn around some needles. She cast on and off for me and all I could do was knit stitch. I'd manage a bit, drop stitches and get annoyed when it didn't magically turn into a cardigan after 5 rows.
So one of my New Year Resolutions this year was to learn to knit and as its now March (nearly the end of it infact, where has the month gone?) I thought I'd share with you what I've accomplished so far.

My parents brought me a learn to knit kit for Christmas. It was supposed to be for a Honeycomb cushion but after several failed attempts at doing it (the pattern involved purling which I've never done and holding stitches at the back or front of the work on a cable needle) I decided to start with something simple and just knitted 40 rows of knit stitch. It didn't come out to badly at least it doesn't resemble Swiss cheese like it did when I was 7.
So with knit stitch successfully mastered (well I say mastered I mean not too many dropped stitches) I moved onto purling. Now purling is apparently like knit stitch just in reverse. I will admit I struggled with purling. Even after consulting an online video I still couldn't manage it. So I took a few weeks off knitting and focused on other things, like the craft fair I had the other week and when I went back to it something just clicked and I could suddenly purl. I must of had the wrong technique before but now I can purl I defiantly won't forget!
Has anyone else struggled with learning purling? Or is it just me?


 

Knit and Purl and no holes!

With my new found confidence I decided to attempt a pillow case so created the front of the pillow using knit and purl to create ridges. I just knitted three rows then purled three. It is pretty basic and the ridges on the pillow ended up wonky once the stuffing was inside but still I'm rather pleased with it. I don't think I'll be selling any knitted items on Etsy anytime soon, but it was rather relaxing once I got into to swing.
What was the first thing you knitted that you were pleased with?





Geekery in progress

Guess what I'm making...

If you know what they are then congratulations you are officially a geek. I'll post more pictures once they are finished.

The First Craft Fair

So in February this year I attended my first Craft Fair as a seller. I had booked up the Venue in a nearby town in December 2012 and was very excited if not a bit apprehensive.
I spent the next couple of months building up my stock and scouring the web for answers to the craft fair related question I had.
How much stock to take? How much money to have in a float? How to set out my stall? to name just a few.
I worked hard for those two months concentrating on bags and pillows in pretty (more grown up) designs as I knew the audience at the craft fair wouldn't be the Anime loving type.
I got myself a sign made to hang at the front of the stall and had business cards a plenty. Every page I read told me how important good signage and advertisement of your company was so I took that on board. I even considered getting myself a Geeky Cat T-Shirt made to wear to look even more professional but didn't actually get the time as I had a list as long as my arm of things still to do as I approached the final week before the fair.
One thing I did do that I think worked well was my price tags. I didn't want just plain white one but didn't have time to produce some like the wonderful ones I had seen whilst browsing blogs.
I decided to buy some ready made plain white tags and brand one side with the Geeky Cat text. I done it by printing out the text onto labels, you know the type that are meant for sticking to envelopes or parcels, and cutting them down to size and sticking them to one side of the tag and then writing the price on the other side.

So with price tags and advertisement sorted, short of me wearing a mascot style suit of Geeky Cat, I moved on to the stall layout.
I am grateful my boyfriends house has a fairly large kitchen where I could set up the pasting table I had purchased to act as a temporary stall. Unfortunately he came home half way through me sorting the layout to find the kitchen looking like this.



 

 I found it easy enough to add height to my stall a few baskets turned over with wicker baskets on top. I put a few of the smaller pillows and cases in them and they looked really nice but I wasn't sure how to display my bags. I'd read that most people stuff them or hang them from hooks on a backing board or over the front of the stall. I didn't have enough room on the table to stuff them and stand them up so I decided to go the hanging route and in the end Argos came to the rescue. I brought a towel rail with free moving arms to place on the end of my table. It worked really well for holding my bags and could be used to hang other items to.

 

So the morning of the craft fair came and me and my boyfriend packed up the car and headed off to the craft fair in good spirits. It was a nice sunny Saturday and I was looking forward to seeing how my items measured up to the other stall holders.

We arrived and set up the stall complete with sign and sat back to await the customers unfortunately it was not the roaring success I had hoped for...

In a 6 hour day we had about 100 customers through the door and the majority of those were friends and family of other stall holders. There was an hour patch where there were no customers at all however I have learnt a few lessons from this fair.

• Location is important: I choose a nearby town thinking it would be busy on a Saturday and people would wander in whilst doing there usual shopping. This didn't seem to be the case as the town I choose wasn't overly big and so not as busy also the venue itself was only small there was about 15 stalls I had assumed there would be a fair few more. Perhaps a dedicated craft show that people have to pay entry for would bring more customers. Lesson: Choose a bigger town/venue or a dedicated craft show where people are there because they want to be there. 
• Don't get disheartened by lack of sales: Even though everyone at the craft fair was suffering from lack of sales its hard not to think "whats wrong with my items". I came out of the fair and said to my boyfriend "well that was disappointing" and felt quite disheartened for a few days after. Lesson: Use a lack of sales to fine tune your products, see where you can improve your item quality and make sure your selling things appropriate for the audience.  
• Make friends with the stall holder next to you: On the stall net to me I had a lady called Vicky she also made pillows but hers where screen printed and a lot simpler in design but really nice. During the quiet moments in the show we chatted about all sorts of things and took each others business cards. Then a few days later she emailed me about a craft fair she is organising and wanted to know if I'd be interested in having a stall. Lesson: Get to know other crafters, they are the best way to get into more shows and you also build up a support network of like minded people. Most will be happy to let you in on a few tricks of the trade, like there technique for screen printing or where they got there business cards from. Remember if you don't ask you don't get.

 
So that was my first experience of a craft fair. It may not have gone as well as I had hoped but I haven't been put off as I have another booked for this coming weekend. I wonder if there's time to get that Geeky Cat T-Shirt made...