eek!

I think my last picture heavy post may have killed my blog. I can't seem to view my own blog any more? Anyone else having problems?

***Edit - a new post seems to have fixed the problem. Phew. Perhaps that was all it needed - you know, like the classic IT fix 'turn it off, and turn it on again'. ***

Happy Halloween by the way :o)

Obidos and Lisbon

Whilst I was in Portugal, we went to a old town called Obidos (pronounced obby-dosh I think) - a walled citadel with a castle right at the top. All the houses were really olde rendered stone, the pavements were stone cobbles. I took lots of pictures - mainly colour palette inspiration:
Also took a few pictures of some street art in Lisbon:

Today's post is brought to you by the letter T

T is for Treasury. Woohoo! a second etsy treasury in a week, thanks for picking me Emma. (Emma, you have become my advertising and PR agent! ) As a result of this, 22 new people hearted me today, which is really niceT is for Tag - as In, I've been tagged, also by Emma (my new agent)
I need to tell you 7 things about me, so here goes:

1. Blue is my favourite colour, although if you looked in my wardrobe you won't find much in the way of blue clothes. You would however find lots of pinks (usually fuschia pink).

2. My favourite thing to eat in the entire world is tomatoes. I will never be bored of these.

3. I have had an idea for a children's book in my head for the last few years. I know the story - I just need to write it and get my act together to illustrate it.

4. My real name is not Monda, although these days I refer to myself as Monda more often than my real name. The name Monda comes from my childhood nickname.

5. I really enjoy going to bed - I love sleeping, duvets, pyjamas and being cosy. Despite my love of bed, I am more of a morning person as opposed to an evening person/night owl.

6. I can't look at a wool jumper in a shop, or even on a person without thinking of it as something I could felt and make into something else. I am totally obsessed!

7. I am allergic to lots of things - pollen, smoke, dust, perfume, deodorant, pets (my lovely cats!), and wool jumper dust (when I cut them up). Never a day goes by that I don't sneeze. Despite all this, I do wear deodorant and perfume, I do stroke my cats until my eyes are red and sore, and I love cutting up felted wool jumpers! (I definitely don't smoke though - yuk!)

rules ...link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog; share 7 facts about yourself on your blog; tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs; let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog...

I am now tagging Jodie, Lu, Lauren, Lucy, Famapa, Lara and Jo

T is also for Travel. I've just got back from a rather nice 4 day break in Portugal. It was warm and sunny each day we were there, very much unlike the UK it seems. I took lots of pictures of my travels, some of which I will share later this week. This is just a small flavour of my break:I have a big stack of emails waiting to be responded to, so please bear with me if you have emailed me and not had a response as yet - hopefully I will manage to catch up in the next couple of days.

random

Thanks to the lovely Emma, for letting me know that one of my little chicks has made it into an etsy treasury, Most exciting! and its a lovely treasury to be included in too:The title of this post is a bit, well random, but that's because I have a few random things to share.
A potato with eyes! I had to take this picture - this potato was destined not to become mashed potato:I also really liked this when I saw it. Bird prints in the sand. It has given me some ideas for an embroidery at some point in the future (when I have less craft fair pressure).

what is it?

A coral reef perhaps?
nope, it's a flock of upside down bird decorations!

what is it worth?

In the current financial climate, you can't help but think about what your work is worth. Ultimately, I suppose it is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I cost my work based on cost of materials used and time taken (and my hourly rate is really only calculated at minimum wage - because if it was priced any higher then I'm pretty sure I wouldn't sell anything at all). I do also look at similar products on the market just to check that I am in the right kind of price bracket but this is when things become very difficult, because you want to price your products to sell without under valuing your self, but they shouldn't be so highly priced that no one will buy them.

Take this card for instance. I enjoyed making it. All in all it took me an hour - give or take a few minutes. I made it as a commission and sold it for £5.

£5 is quite a lot for a card - it is of course handmade - paper cut, hand stamped and machine stitched. Minimum wage is £5.73 per hour (for workers over 22), so the cost of the card does not cover minimum wage, let alone the cost of the materials - which would be minimal I'm sure, but the real value of this card should really be more like £6.50.
I wonder how easy it would be to make a living if I did this (crafting not card making) full time?

My ultimate goal would be to start slowly - working part time in order to pay my bills each month, until such a point comes where I could work for myself full time and have enough to pay my bills and live comfortably. It seems so ridiculous to even be thinking about this at the moment. I heard today that inflation is at an all time high of 5.2% this year, which is much higher than the national average annual pay rise - a meagre 3%.

Apologies for this gloomy sounding post - just spilling the contents of my head really.

On a much lighter and fluffier note - here are some birds I am currently sewing up:

Origin - The London Craft Fair

It was only a couple of days ago that I realised that it was that time of year again, so despite having a massive to do list, yesterday I went into the big smoke to Origin at Somerset House.
I always enjoy Origin (used to be Chelsea Craft Fair) - there are some really inspirational makers and crafts people exhibiting each year. This year, I particularly liked the work of Lucy Adamson (no website):Jane Moore: and Hanne Rysgaard:I did actually buy some of Lucy's and Hanne's work but will save the pics for another day as I didn't manage to get any decent pics today.
Origin is on for a further week (although with different exhibitors in week 2) if you fancy a visit. Somerset house is a really lovely location too - especially when the sun is shining as it was yesterday.

I did manage to get a couple of pics of some new stockings I have made however - I've had the purple sparkly jumper for some time and hadn't really found anything good to do with it, until nowThe green and pink one kind of reminds me of rhubarbIt's late, but I have a stack of bird decorations on my desk calling my name...

stocking up!

pardon the pun.
It's so hard to get decent photo's when there is no natural light, but I managed to snap this one when I got home from work today - it still needs some trimmings, but it's almost there.
I must mention at this point that this stocking is from a Betz White pattern - just before you go thinking that I'm really clever.
Just for comedy value, I tried it on for size - you'll be pleased to know that it was way too big for my foot - Mr Monda thought I was attempting to make an Inuit fancy dress costume :o)
I have 2 more stocking wips waiting for me on my desk which I would like to finish up before the weekend, so more pics to come...

trees and towers

Don't fall off your seats people - I am indeed blogging on a Monday. My recent form of weekend blogging may well just be behind me - I'm coming to the end of my manically busy period at work and I may just have a bit of energy left on week nights for making - which is a relief because i have a to do list as long as Mr Monda's arm - which is much longer than my arm, but really it could be as long as both our arms put together!

The lighting was shocking yesterday, but I did manage to get a snap of some of the tree's that I madeI've also made a start on some of these - pictures tomorrow perhaps if I can get them finished up tonight.

On a slightly different note, if you were in Vienna this weekend (unlike me) then you may well have seen this:A world record breaking LEGO tower - all 29.48 metres of it. Cool indeed (click on the pics for more detail)

multi-tasking

Today I have been multi-tasking. I have way too much going on in my head - and the best way for me to cope with this is obviously to do a little bit of everything all at the same time.

Here are a couple of jumper monsters which I have made for a commission (pre stuffing) - they are already on their way to their new home The spotty monster was commissioned as a baby gift for a friend - I'm not sure whether it is for the parents or the baby - but had to make sure it was baby friendly - so no buttons and nothing that can be chewed off. I was asked for an Indian theme as the baby was made in India! I decided to go for colours that reminded me of Indian spices - and a tag on the reverse - just so there is no confusionI've also been drawing up some Christmas card designs for gocco-ing and have drawn up a few Christmas themed hanging accessory designs tooThe first of which has already been made into this treeI have also been thinking about my upcoming fairs, and how I might display my items for sale. This 'tree' was purchased this week. It even revolves - how swanky!I'm now preparing a load of hanging Christmas tree accessories for hand sewing this evening whilst watching 'strictly' - oh yes - it is that time of year again. I love watching this - it makes me get goosebumps when someone has danced a really good dance. In another life, I like to think that I might have been a dancer.