Yikes! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last posted something! I’ve been pouring all my days into preparing for my latest market, and it didn’t leave much time for anything else… between the knitting, stitching and coming up with some new ideas to freshen up my display, I’ve been somewhat reclusive these last few weeks!
But the madness is over, and now that I’ve taken a couple of days to catch my breath, tidy up the stray balls of wool and (GASP!) start my Christmas shopping, it’s really high time I sat down and shared all my news.
First of all, for any of you who haven’t stumbled upon the Beasties’ Facebook page yet, I’m proud to introduce my new Santa Beasties – freshly arrived from Lapland!
We’ve been experiencing some pretty polar-type weather here lately ourselves, so I’ve also been wrapping up some of my new Beasties in cosy hats and scarves…
…And I couldn’t resist making a Christmas Fairy Beastie to sit at the top of my Christmas tree!
But the surprise hit of the day was my new range of cuddly toy beans!
I got the idea for these from my friends Stephen and Yayoi. Before they picked out a name for their baby girl, they called her “Mame-chan”, which means “little bean” in Japanese. I thought it would be fun to make a little toy edamame (soy) bean from some lime green fleece fabric I had in my stash, and I actually sold a couple of “Mame-chans” at my pop-up shop back in May! For this market, I decided to add a couple more characters – a sassy pink Jellybean and a Chilli (or, more correctly, chilly) Bean with a woolly beanie hat and a big chilled-out smile. And the kids loved them! I’ll definitely be making more of these… I’ve already got a few ideas for some more beany friends!
While I was getting my team of Beasties and Beans ready to go, I started thinking about my display. A while back, a friend of mine suggested I make a banner to help make my stall more visible. I liked the idea, but hadn’t a clue what to put on the banner. Then finally, inspiration struck…
… and after an afternoon of literally watching paint dry in the freeeeeeezing underground car park of Beastie Towers, I came up with this!
I’m still trying to convince Boyfriend that this masterpiece of monster art deserves a place on our living room wall…
Aaaaand finally, something else I’ve wanted to do for a while is to try my hand at making some Beastie t-shirts. What better opportunity than the flurry of activity/panic that comes with preparing for an upcoming market? Since my mum had very kindly agreed to help me on the day, and had said, “Yes, I’ll wear anything!” I went ahead and created these…
And here I am modelling mine on market day! This won’t be the last time I wear this shirt… I kinda love it!
Thanks for stopping by… more Beastie adventures coming soon (I promise)!
