Iggy Pig

Although I have lots of crochet needles I have no wool.
So on my last visit to mum's I grabbed a load of different coloured balls of wool.
My mum has a superb collection of wool she has gathered over the years from charity shops and wool shops and old jumpers. She keeps them in a colour coordinated stack of plastic containers in her room, they almost touch the ceiling. She also gave me a Kennington bookshop canvas bag she got free from the bookshop, I was quite pleased to be taking a bit of South London back with me to Bristol.
I find coach travel a tad stressy, so I was feeling a little wound up. I spied an old lady knitting in the next waiting bay so inspired and to distract me I pulled out my crochet and began making.
I had him at work with me the next day and Sarah at work (hello Sarah!) christened him Iggy Pig and here he is:

Drawing in the garden with Dad

When I can I like to go and visit at my mum's in Brixton. I have takin to doing a drawing journal with my Dad. He had a stroke many years ago and needs constant care but is still very mobile and very cheerful. I had been reading a book about journalling and he found it and was in love with all the drawings so we got one of his sketchbooks and began journalling. It's good for his memory and good for his hand eye co-ordination.

Mum and Dad have a beautiful garden cultivated over the last 30 odd years, when they first moved in it was all rubble but now it's a little oasis in the middle of London.

So me and Dad and Rosie the cat, sat in the garden and drew.

Unfortunately I don't have any of his drawings to add but I'll get some to show you.
Here's a few of mine.

Hannahmade Birthday cards

April is a big month for birthdays and seeing as I love collaging I decided to have a crack at making my own.
Happy Birthday toYou All!
Here's a selection:

Pigeons for my sister, a London bird.

My sister likes pigeons. Perhaps it's because pigeons are the symbol of the Londoner. My sister is a keen practising Londoner, check out her blog, she is 'the crazy mural lady'.
My sister once had a pigeon, nest on her window ledge on her 15th floor balcony in Hackney. The egg hatched she called the baby Pigeon 'Pidgy'.


Did you know Pigeons actually derived from domestic pigeons that have returned to the wild The Domestic pigeons were originally bred from the wild rock pigeons which normally live on the sea-cliffs and mountains in Asia. Our beloved pigeons find the ledges on city buildings a great substitute for sea cliffs, and so they have settled into city life , catching the tube in the morning, hustling for seats at lunch time, chatting up the lady pigeons in the parks.

Pigeon Brooch

Watch your sandwiches though, they will mug you for them as soon as poop on you, you have been warned.



anyways so I made my sister a Pigeon brooch.

Larger Pigeon Patch and Design

Don's Cafe, Hackney

I have bombarded my wonderful friend Amber with handmade trinkets for years now, each birthday each Christmas. This year I tried to come up with something different. I stumbled upon this little wooden box in a charity shop and had a brain wave. I sanded the top and painted with gouache a little 'greasy spoon' cafe in Hackney that has since disappeared, I thought Ams would like the sentiment, and I sealed the top with varnish.

Happy Mother's Day

My Mother's Day Gift.
 Mumsy always wants something I've made, even if it's for someone else she wants it, she's my biggest fan. So for Mum's Day I made her a little brooch from felt and embroidery thread, with a stitched on brooch back. This reminds me of all the handmade cards I made at Primary School for Mother's Day, always daffodils.

She was very pleased and wore it all day :)

Softie Robot for Lil'Joe

As you can see a few posts down another couple of my good friends Katie and Steve brought a new little person into the world, Joe.
Katie is a wonderful jewellery designers who I have known for many years. We were both part of the same group of girls from school who have all gone into the arts one way or another, from designers to art journalists, we all keep in touch. Katie met Steve, a sculptor, on her degree and to cut a long story short, they got married and had a gorgeous baby boy.

On a visit when she was still with bump, I was stitching a soft toy together and she asked if I would make her little baby a toy out of her old soft top. I decided a robot would go down very well, and I got to it. It took me ages because it turned out much larger than expected, but it's a very cute happy robot and hopefully lil'Joe will enjoy it for years to come.

Pimms and Pincushions

Being a keen craft follower I am constantly inspired by other peoples work and their inspirations too.

I have seen a trend for teacup pincushions. I think they look really cool but a bit big for my little flat and tiny workspace.

The other weekend I was helping out at Art4Space fundraiser spring fete. In which I was kindly joined by my friends Lee and Katie who gave me a hand running it, and we had some lovely pimms at the end of the shift and sat in the tree house.We were running a workshop for kids, planting up pots and making seed bombs/earth dumplings with them to take home. There was live music and lots of other stalls with cakes and crafts.

One of the other workshops was upcycling, very inspiring, and there was also some bric-a-brac, with a little bit of digging around I found some little dolls tea cups, not miniature but small, and decided to make mini pincushions.

Martha's First Birthday

Couple of my friends have little people now. I usually post a congrats but I often make a special present too.

My friends Kate and Tim's little daughter Martha turned 1 last month. Tim asked if she could have gifts that were handmade for Martha to keep forever. Taking up the challenge I began to sketch, initially I was going to create a blanket but I was itching to do some appliqué. Tim and I are both green fingered and use to have a shared allotment in Maidstone, so I figured a nature based theme might go down well and seeing as I enjoy cartooning I would combine the two. I thought it came out quite well, and it was good fun to make.

Updatedly Doo: Inspirational Distraction

I have discovered Google reader on my phone and am utterly addicted to checking the arts and craft blogs I follow everyday.
The wealth of inspiration and beauty is thoroughly joyous and gets me motivated to create everyday, if i'm not sketching I am making, I photograph it then stick it on my flickr and invariably give it away.
I have been updating my flickr site with my new creations and also have been gathering support and encouragement from comments by showing my art in lots of groups on flickr, this is my current other favourite internet hobby. It's great because they often recommend others, which I add to my list to follow on my blog.

I get excited when I see a new blog post from Poppytalk, I love Handmade & Cats, Feeling Stitchy, Fog and Swell, Plush Parade, Strumpet's Crumpet, Jenn of all Trades to name but a few.
Then I go see if they have an etsy account and add to favourite and /or buy a treat or two, I have a fab little area in my room of creative bits and pieces I have gathered over the years, i'll take a picture and show you sometime.

So the following posts are an update of what I been making :)
Hope you like :)