Weekly Challenge and Chat Thread 2008, part 2

[Gingermonkey]

Ooops - we've filled the thread, best start a new one, eh?!

blimey! What was she charging?

from $65-$125 each

that's how the real pros do it - the ashleyGs and the blackapples too - they build the consumer lust anticipation on their blogs, websites whatever and announce dates and times a couple of times over, then all hell breaks loose as the public scramble over themselves to score one of the sought after objects once the selling begins. Works well if you have built a good following. Having a following even before you open is a very good start LK, and sounds like you are doing all the right homework...I think you will do really well on etsy, it'll be madness if you don't

I just looked at littlebirds stuff, all tagged with only "art" - she doesn't need to worry about being found on etsy as people are there waiting for her stuff

have you checked out her blog? when you see the items in context there they look so much more interesting that the bland etsy postings...

I have to admit LK, I am getting abit jealous of your charity shop finds.
We have some lovely charity shops here but I can never seem to find anything.

Dior, your jewellery is coming on wonderfully. All your patience for beading is paying off, it looks brilliant.

Meridian, I love the top carnelian bracelet. I did a similar one last week with 6mm beads.

So far I have done;
Hanging hearts for my friends dd
3 new dolls and another in the making
A felt crayon/pen holder
A 2 string green pearl necklace.

I want to blog it all but we still havent got a new laptop yet so I cant upload the photos.
Its so annoying.

Whats more annoying is that we've lost all our photos on the old laptop
All ds1 and 2's baby photos, just all our memories from the last 20 months. Gone.
I could cry when I think about it but I have to keep telling myself that the kids are here safe and sound and photos aren't so important, but they mean so much.

Message withdrawn

oh nbg
surely some geeky computer type can retrieve them?

Blimey, Just looked at Littlebirds blog and Etsy shop .... Has she got a cult following or what to sell out within minutes of listing ? (Bows in awe)

I'm not up on whose in and whose out in terms of designers.

Lovely designs but I have to say, on a par with lots of other work going on too so very, very clever to build up the anticipation.

(Oops, that's not meant to sound like sour grapes, on the contrary.

And AshleyG has sold over 6,000 items
Now that's successful !

I'll just slink off now and start another bunny me thinks .....

Nbg - Oh, that sucks. Poor you.
LK - Hope DH had a good day

NBG that's awful! maybe you could look into getting them retrieved by some data retreival company? we are just having to do this at work for a server that went down - there are companies out there that specialise in it, don't know how expensive it is though

NBG - we had a similar thing happen, we lost a lot of data for DH's work - he used this company

I can't remember the cost, but whatever it was it was worth it, there was hours and hours of work in there, photos are such a shame to lose. JBR
xxx

NBG - my DH's laptop broke with everything on it - and needed a new hard drive, but everything was still there on it, somewhere. A man did it, and it wasn't expensive - about £50 to fix it and everything, so don't be too upset!!!!

LK - Wow. Still not fortunes when you take into account how much people charge at poncey 'art' shops.

nbg- poor you.. I hope that you take it somewhere to have somonesee if they can recover your pictures... Matt had a wedding awhile ago where the memoery card currupted and they lost all the pictures on the wedding.. it was awful the couple were really nice too... they send the card to 2 diffrent companies but it coudn't be recovered.. so in the end they had to borrow everyones happy snaps from the couples family and make an album with what they had and a studio sitting...

I have jsut had alook at the little birds shop and blog.. there are some nice thing on the blog but I didn't particulalry like the items jsut sold in the shop... they were overpriced and a bit creepy in a "The Birds" kinda way. honest I'm not jelous and creepy can be good ( I have a goth streak.. its just a bit overridden by my geekiness) .. well doen to her but I don't want to be really famous or anything I just want to be able to keep crafting... and have fun... its all in the marketing I guess..

i can't find this littlebird stuff [sob] can someone do a link please

i've got an old cardigan of dd's it's a fery fine /close knit - 85%cotton,13%nylon,2%elastane - would it felt? It's a lovely dusky aubergine colour and too good to throw out but it's zipper has broken

vintage- littlebirds etsy shop blog and older blog

i think things must be at least 80% wool to felt.. but i'm not sure.. i'm no good at that

vintage, has to be wool not cotton to felt, the ones i did yesterday were 100% pure wool, and 87% wool, wouldn't work with cotton as it doesn't shrink. had to wash them both twice but i think they are felted enough. i'm going to make one of those felted bags from betz white's blog for my mum for her birthday, but in different colours, beige, red, green instead of pink.

thanks meri i'm not sure if i like the toys or not!

thanks lk - i'm sure it can be recycled somehow.
right i'm off to the recycling centre to get rid of the mountain of cardboard and general junk that's clogging up my house - i have the urge to de-clutter

i really like littlebirds work, been a fan of her stuff since i started blogging, i think they are more sculptural than toys, hence the price tag.

would have loved to have bought one last night, maybe next time...

lk- I like the stuff on her older blog.. ie the mushrooms and stuff.. dont really get the twigs though... and some of the stuff that is on the blog looked cuter than the stuff that sold... perhaps I jsut don't like birds? can't wait to see what you do with your felting...

vintage- I have a great urge to declutter too.. mainly DS's cess pit of a room.. the loft ladder man is comming in two weeks to install a loft ladder so then I can attack the attic and shift stuff about...then more room for craft stuff

we haven't got an attic - well we have but it's bedroom hence the pigsty which is my spareroom workroom!

lk as everything was sold out i didn't see the prices on littlebirds etsy shop - is it very dear?

blog giveaway alert

I'm really getting into this Etsy thing, I only discovered it through you guys - tillyboo pointed me in the right direction! I could spend a fortune on there, but it is tricky to find things. Look - lots of ppl don't get how some shops sell out and others aren't noticed...

Talking of decluttering and lofts, I have just pushed about 10 boxes to the foot of our stairs for DH to put in the loft when he gets home, he'll be so pleased!!!

whoo!!!! Thanks LK! Also...would you like to borrow betz's book? I know it's cheeky, but you could then copy remember the things you wanted to make in the future? I'll post it to you if you do

I have had a flurry of emails today - 2 pirate bunny orders, someone wants the blonde doll from my blog, a baby friendly (as in button free) doll, and can I make a hobby horse for mollycupcakes (I said I'll try, but I can't promise it'll end up ok). I've never been so busy - isn't it fab?

Thanks for the giveaway LK.
I've left a comment whilst getting the munchies

The pictures are offcially gone forever
One of the pins has snapped off the hard drive therefore it wont load up.
Dh bought an external interface thingymajig. It worked on an old hard drive but not this one.

Luckily we found a disc with pictures on up till early last year, so we have ds1's baby pictures but none of Ethan.
So all in all we've lost a years worth of photos.
I'm trying not to think about it too much because it just upsets me.

Dh is trying to cheer me up by going to town and buying a Wii. Lovely but still not photos!