Christmas and the "cottage industry"

If I didn't have a daughter who loves unpacking the christmas decorations, I don't know if I would have the "courage" to have a tree. Christmas is incredibly important to my small business (I have just discovered that in english it could be qualified as "cottage industry", and it does suits it so well, as i live and work in a cottage where you couldn't swing a cat, but it is a lovely place).Unfortunately, I miss the cheer of the xmas season, no time to bake and invite friends, clean the house and give it a xmas feel. The xmas market where I sell most of the fairies in december is open until the 27th, hence no rest, no time...The cottage industry is not a business type, it feels like a way of life, with its good sides and the independence it gives, but its downsides too.
The feeling of having to forget the dust in the corners because i have to devote all my time to making fairies...To be a crafter making a living, i don't think there is another way...

From Country living christmas fair 2007

I swapped the grey for a very deep moss green...Plenty things to show and tell from my two weeks in London but just no time now, bills letters and about hundred mails to answer to (i didn't have a wifi connection at my London accomodation!).

From chaos to tidyness?

Actually that just might be from tydiness to a chaos of fairies.You can still visit me on the stand at the London Olympia until sunday.And next week at the business design center in Islington at the Country living fair.

The stressed out fairy...

I am getting ready for my London fortnight with the spirit of xmas fair exhibition and The Country Living Fair , and i confess that i am really stressed out, trying to tie loose ends and not forgetting anything. London is a lovely city, but i know it is quite a difficult one regarding parking and all transports.

I will be on my stand (if I am not wandering around and doing my own christmas shopping: temptations ahead !) and as usual i will be with my paint brush writing anything you would like me to write on fairylike xmas baubles.

So if you want to celebrate a new baby, or your other half, i will be delighted to customize a bauble for you.

I will be on stand D139 (in the central alley near the champagne bar) at the Spirit of Xmas fair and D2A ( straight left after the main entrance) at the Country Living fair.Impatient to be there!

If imagination doesn't run out, time does and i feel behind with christmas stock just as I always do at this time of the year, I need a second pair of hands...Regarding this bauble inspiration , i think i spend too much time daydreaming in the new Cath Kidston catalogue...

Once upon a time

My wolf is not really frightening...

Inspiration

I have been asked quite often where my inspiration came from, for this fairy it was page 63 of the US magazine "Romantic Home" issue of july 2007.Show me a beautifull picture and a fairy will pop up in my head, this one is a work in progress: she doesn't have her skirt yet.

Inspirational blog

Here is the kind of things i am working on, still on christmas stock...
This baubles inspiration came after having a look of the "style me pretty" blog, which is about wedding styling, and although i am not personally concerned by the matter I love looking at the pictures, it is amazing the contrentation of "prettiness"!The inspiration board are beautiful, another example of the delightful creativity going on in the blogging world.
This baubles inspiration came from the picture of a cake.

Sweet sight

This is a corner of my studio, i am addicted to polka dots and jingle bells.

Mixed seasons

It is the middle of summer and i am in full christmas mode!i tend to do baubles with summery colours though.

the headache of stand setting

I need to hurry up now to sort out my stand for the christmas fairs, and start making the list of what i will need.It might seem a bit early but actually it is not, i will soon have to send the stand design to the exhibitions organizers, and i still have my doubts.

I am not a stylist and i don't know where to start, and i have so many restrictions to think about...First i don't have a lorry so I can't take a big amount of furniture to set it as nicely I would like to, and the stands are very small especially the Country Living fair one (2 meters by 1.5m !).

I have quite a little collection of french plaster frames, and i think the fairies will sit nicely in them, but i still haven't found a idea to present the baubles nicely.

Another of my problems is: where to hide the stock that i will need to keep on stand on busy days...?bearing in mind the square footage...

If you have an idea, please let me know, i am running out of inspiration...

my little fairy's room

I haven't been much on the computer lately hence the blog lacks some attention. I had to transform this mess in the first picture into the "tidy" second one.I am in the middle of home improvements and I am happy to feel that soon my tiny cottage will go back to normal (an improved version of what it was) , a few more days and I will get my bathroom back, brand new ! I am very happy with the cath kidston wallpaper, I looked for polka dots for ages and found it in the Cath Kidston shop on kings road in London. After all this mess I will be glad to go back to the fairy making I am already starting on the christmas stock and will post pictures of the baubles soon.

the daffodil fairy

We have a very cold windy weather, april was much better than june turns out to be...so the daffodil fairy is making a come back!

Leisure time...

Because making fairies is work and feels like always the same routine, I decided to have fun with violets today...but i don't have a green dress or a lilac one...will need something to wear with it!

Another shop !

I have set up last week a mini shop on etsy and was sending my french customers who wanted fairies there, but i always tend to forget that most french don't understand a word of english and they came back to me a bit grumpy that they didn't know how to use the site.

But European crafters, we have now our little competitor called DAwanda of the big Etsy, in english, german , and french...Just like Europe it is friendly but a bit confusing. Your products can feature in the homepage but will only appear in the country section of the language you have registered them, and you may have them in all the countries you wish but you have to do the translation yourself...hum hum, not sure i can still count up to ten in german...
The people who have set up this site are quite friendly and need as much feedback as they can get, the site being just about a month old.So contrary to etsy it is free to regiter items, for now until they get successfull, and they just take a comission on the sales.

You can click on the picture to go to my "european" shop and visit dawanda to maybe set a shop of your own;)

mother and daughter

My mother is a painter and she started to paint fairies on canevas with my fairy.Ironically i haven't got a clue about drawing !

Fairies for adoption

Today i took time to sort out a little shop on Etsy, and this little strawberry fairy is for sale. It took me longer than i thought, but it is all done now ! I had thought about it for a while, but the problem we have here in France is the shipping cost.

I went to the post office several times to ask about pricing of shiping they never have a clear answer.The national post service offers no great service i am afraid, and the cost are very high ! The smallest parcel to send in France can't cost under 5.10 euros, and i am receiving sometimes fabrics from USA and i just pay 4$ for shipping ! As for international shipping they have no clear readable price policy...In 2008 our national post office will have to share the market with private companies, i hope it will force them to review their service !

A little mouse

Inspiration comes by chance, i ususally find something lovely and try to incorporate it with the fairies, it can be a fabric, a ribbon or a little charm. I found little mouse charms and wanted to put them on fairy skirts, but had to make the relevant fairy for a mouse! So here's fairy cat !
Thank you for all your lovely comments, I will get around the website with an e-shop soon and will post about it as soon as it is sorted out. But i have to confess i am better at clay than at IT.

The petit beurre fairy

When i was a little girl, the after school snack was a "petit beurre" (a biscuit) and a piece of black chocolate. Just the colours that will go with the new dots ribbons that i found there.

I am living in the countryside, and sourcing the kind of ribbons and fabrics i look for has become so easy with internet, when i think about the number of times i looked for the "good" size gros grain, in the right shade. Internet shopping has made my life so much easier, and very inspiring too !

Fairy sighting

With the first roses in my garden...

And fairies will appear there too in November, managed to get through the vetting process of the "Spirit of Christmas" fair by House and Garden magazine. I have to confess i am slightly nervous about it, i am a tiny company...Just a crafter working on my own, and i am wondering if i am not going to feel lost in the middle of all the "big " ones. When i did the "christmas country living fair" in London 3 years ago, I realised we were just a handfull making christmas decoration entirely by hands, and it can be daunting to try to compete with the mass product imported stuff. When i sign the contract for stand space, i am always wondering what should i put in "postion in the company": owner? director? self employed person?
Or shall i say "doing all from paper work to cleaning"...I am not complaining though, all the decisions meetings are between myself and I !

Big thinking for small spaces...

I tidied up my work space lately, i work in the attic in a very small space (which i like anyway). I don't need much room for the "fairy factory", but i have accumulated craft supplies over the years and they sometimes do need reorganizing. I try to make use of every inch in my attic.

And sometimes at exhibitions too:I have applied to the Country Living Christmas fair this year with the fairies and christmas baubles, and i will really have to think about how to arrange my space , it is the smallest stall i ever had (2 meters by 1.5!) and i am trying to think about how to optimize it...browsing the net for new ideas.Haven't quite yet found the "this is it" moment...

The macaron fairy

There is a trend in decoration for "cute" food : in France we have very little "fairy cakes", slowly i see some recipes and pictures of them appear on french blogs, but we are crazy for "macarons". They are now everywhere, they used to be something that you could only find in very refined patisseries, such as the master of macaron, Ladurée (which did extremely beautifull cakes for the "Marie Antoinette" movie) . Nowadays macarons are sold in my local supermarket !

The Easter bunny fairy

I got inspired by the season and i got beautifull easter ribbons i was looking to do something with.

The cherry fairies:mother and daughter

This is the first "fairy hug" i do , and this one will not be for sale. For once i accepted to leave this fairies with my daughter, and i realised that she is very much entitled to it, as she doesn't even have one in her bedroom and she is four !
I have my nose on them everyday, i simply forgot we didn't have a single one in the house except my studio...

Love polka dots

I went to the country living fair in London on friday and was able to find beautifull ribbons from Caroline Zoob , i am impatient to find a use for them in the fairies.I saw many beautifull stands and love all the britishness of it, very different from french crafts !

I also went to the "ideal home show" i had never been before and found it smaller than i expected it to be. But i still managed to find beautifull fabrics that are very different from what we find in the average fabric store in France...polka dots and english rose : i love this combination!

Talking to flowers

A new fairy in the garden...looks cheerfull, just like me...ah! spring !

Fairy making or gardening ?

Beautifull sun today, and this is one of the down side of working from home, i would rather be in the garden than locked up doing fairies ! I adore my job and i cherish the freedom it gives me, but i have been "behind " since i started this job. There is always one type of fairies missing from the stock, a new idea that i have to try and not enough hours in the day to do it!

I never get bored, i don't have the time to...wish i could go gardening but I have an exhibition coming up at the end of the week. I may stick a picture of my garden in my workshop !

The english rose fairy

I received new fabrics from www.shabbyfabrics.com and couldn't help starting straight away on new flower fairies. I haven't taken out the fairies with skirts to exhibitions yet...i hope they will behave and find new families promptly.

Sweet planet

A new planet in fairy galaxy : a very sweet one...

Spring yellow

Fairies ready to go out, in the garden...

Corner of my home

A little corner of my studio inhabited by fairies...one corner where the mess doesn't show !

I am invaded by fabric and laces, ribbons and buttons...i tidy it up a bit every day, but i mess it up abit every day too...

Liberty fairy

I was abit stuck last week , not inspired at all...and then just watching at liberty fabrics and inspiration came back.So here they are my new friends with their delicate skirts !

Pixie brooches

I have been running around in London all week end looking for polka dots fabrics to make new brooches...And except oilcloth, couldn't track any ! And after a look in "le quartier st Pierre" in Monmartre in Paris,( where i was told that it was too early in the season to find polka dots fabric in the shop: "it is not spring yet"), I ended up using bits and pieces i had left over...

If any of you know where i could find spring colors fabric with polka dots(in the UK or France), please help my ignorance!

Baby fairy planet

A little fairy planet to welcome a new born baby...Looking for new inspiration for new born...if only i knew how to sew properly !

Strawberry mad !

This are the strawberry planets where you eat only jam and charlotte!
I am working a lot around the strawberry theme!

This is the strawberry fairy, she has mini strawberries hanging from her skirt and a little gold strawberry charm...

Put socks on little fairy !

I was starting to get on with my spring fairies, having already some flowers coming out in the garden, forgetting that we were only in january...and not in march !

But winter is coming : although i have a very nice fire (which takes ages to start in the morning, but that is cottage life!) I get cold feet !

Bye Bye spring fairies, where are my warm socks ?

Fairies and Tea

"Please don't eat me or you will break a tooth ! "

This are the only fairy cakes i am able to bake, unfortunately they are for decoration purpose only, even if they appear to be full of sugar!

The charlotte fairy

This is my version of the charlotte fairy; tomorrow i will introduce you to the fairy cakes, the only ones i can bake are unfortunately not edible!