Monthly Updates
« Previous EntriesEnd of the month update: February
By Marceline | March 1, 2010
Despite being quite better now, I haven’t quite recovered myself completely. My sleep patterns are all wrong so I seem to have spent February stumbling around half-asleep still wearing my pyjamas. Oh well. I hope to be more awake in March.
Reading, Watching, Playing
How to Enter the World of Textile Design by Lizzy House
An e-book by ace fabric designer Lizzy House. It’s full of excellent information about the ins and outs of designing a fabric collection and getting yourself a contract. I’m not sure I could handle the pace of a proper textile designer but loads of good pointers for my Spoonflower dabblings. You can buy a copy here.
Answers on a Postcard zines by Girl Industries
With my patchy track record of zine making, I am well impressed with Katy’s plan for putting out a zine a month this year! Having interviewed a bunch of crafty folks (including me!) about all kinds of things, she’s pulling the answers out into a series of themed zines. It’s all very interesting, except when I discovered I’m the ONLY PERSON who likes working in silence. I can well believe it though, considering how much noise everyone surrounding me makes. I’ve got copies in my shop, if you’d like a read yourself (you should!)
Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft
Yes, I only just read this. I don’t really buy new books and this was the first time I’ve seen a paperback copy in a charity shop. Obviously John Peel was a major instigator in my love for music – we used to listen to his shows religiously and send off for records he played. He also once said I had “a lovely name” on air. Aww. Anyway, the whole book is hilarious, written exactly as he spoke and full of all kinds of amusing anecdotes. Sadly John only managed half the book before he died but his wife Sheila finishes it off in a similarly amusing and affecting way. Lovely stuff.
Nobody’s Girl by Sarra Manning / Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen
Two Young Adult (horrible name) writers who consistently write better novels than than 99.9% of adult books aimed at actual adult females. While covering the general YA teen themes of well, boys, they’re both smart, funny and dark enough to not be fluff while still being fun. UK Sarra’s latest is a love letter to Paris and holiday romances and the joys of exploring without guidebooks. US Sarah’s is a darker tale of insomnia, new babies and first impressions. When I say I’m inspired by teenage girl’s magazines it’s ones written by people like these guys (the long defunct Just Seventeen, Sassy and Elle Girl, sigh)
Ponyo
At last! I hate you Disney. While Ponyo has been out so long in Japan it’s on the TV schedules, the UK finally gets a cinema release. And they wonder why piracy is such a big issue these days. No option to see the original subtitled version but the dubbing was mostly fine (certainly nowhere in the league of Valley Girl Princess Mononoke). As with all the Ghibli movies, I was pretty much sucked in the whole time – there’s not a huge amount of plot but it’s all so cute with some glorious scenes like Ponyo running over the waves made by giant fish. I suppose it’s a cross between Totoro and How’s Moving Castle which is alright by me. Looking forward to the DVD.
Picross
Ahhh, how I missed you! Now replaying for the third time. Hope someone buys me 3D Picross for my birthday.
iPhone app of the month
Hipstamatic
As blogged here. Also the eBay app (thanks Alice for the tip) which helped me snag some new Rocket Dog shoes for £10!
Resolution update
- Two zines completed! That’s one resolution done anyway.
- I have a whole bunch of new patterns almost ready for swatch ordering on Spoonflower.
- Also, a resolution I forgot to post but have started on is clearing out my room. I have so much stuff. So I’ve given away a ton of books on Bookmooch this month.
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- Formspring! (I’m having lots of fun answering questions (ask me more!) and it’s so interesting to read other folks’ answers. Favourite people include Design*Sponge, Gemma Correll, Twinkie Chan, Lizzy House and Miso Funky.
- Recipe Look (illustrated recipes!)
- Loyal Army Daily (daily cartoons from the kawaii designer)
Things to look forward to in February
- My birthday! As mentioned above, I am kind of drowning in Stuff just now so if you are stuck for gift ideas, I suggest Spoonflower gift certificates so I can buy fabric, and of course my Amazon wish list. Or something I can eat.
- Getting my hair cut for the first time in two years. Yeah, that will be interesting.
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 45
Items sold on Etsy: 19
Items sold on Folksy: 12
Items sold on Dawanda: 17
And sales are up again, helped by Valentine’s Day.
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End of the month update: January
By Marceline | February 1, 2010
Ooh, it’s a whole new year. I’m going to continue doing these monthly updates but I have made lots of changes! First up, I am doing a drawing of either my most usual outfit of the month, or something awesome I wore. That was generally my problem doing What I Wore Today, that I pretty much wear the same things every week until the weather changes, unless I have something out of the ordinary to attend. Also, because I have barely bought any new clothes in the last 3 years.
I’ll also be updating on what I’m reading, watching, playing, faffing with and working on, how I’m getting on with my resolutions and what’s coming up next month. Plus a DIAGRAM of some sort. At worst, I will improve my Illustrator/Photoshop skills in creating stupid stuff, which is always useful when working with Monsieur Le Bun. Let’s go!
(BTW, I would love for other people to start doing this too, using whatever categories you like. Go on!)
Reading, Watching, Playing
A TV Guide to Life by Jeff Alexander
AKA M.Giant who writes the 24 recaps for Television Without Pity. Recaps which are often so funny I sometimes think I only watch 24 so I can read the recaps after. If 24 makes you snort with laughter far more often than an action/drama show with large helpings of torture and explosions is intended to then you should give them a read. Anyway, this book is a lighthearted look at what we can learn from TV shows, which is to say basically taking the piss out of all TV writers ever for their cliched plots, lame sets and enormous institutions run by 5 speaking parts. All good fun and worth your cash.
The Roads To Sata by Alan Booth
You may remember I read his other book a while back and Claire bought me this one for Christmas. Hurray! Thanks Claire! This was the earlier book where he walked the entire length of Japan. Of course, that makes it extremely interesting as you get to see the differences between the 3 main islands. On the downside, I now pretty much want to visit everywhere in Japan. As with the other book, it’s full of hilarious anecdotes of his adventures and the people he meets in the inns and bars and restaurants. Totally recommended.
Alias
I enjoyed S1 of Alias so much I decided to buy S2 since it’s all so cheap these days. And then I saw I could buy S3-5 in some crazy cheap Amazon deal so I did that too. Excellent choice me, as they all arrived just in time for my weeks of illness so at least I was entertained. I have to say, in retrospect, that S3-5 were a bit ropey for the most part, but that was less obvious when ill. It’s a timely reminder how terrible LOST could have been without the end date, and what might happen to Fringe if they aren’t careful. But still, Alias is definitely in my top ten TV shows ever.
24
Most of my LoveFilm DVDs this month have been 24 S7 which was remarkably less ridiculous than previous seasons, though clearly still hilarious. Actually it was totally ridiculous. I will never forget the scene where the head of FBI reasons it’s not possible Jack Bauer would have managed to get hold of a gun in the last 15 minutes which is correct, though Jack Bauer has actually now acquired a knife, a car, a laptop and a fancy phone and killed a man using a front-end loader and a portakabin. S8 here I come.
Cooking Mama 3
I need to write a big old review about this for diskant but suffice to say, it’s just like the first 2 games only better, mostly. A lot of tedious tasks are now easier, and a lot of the more boring ones are now insanely complicated. Um, thanks. As well as the normal cooking with Mama games, there’s now a bizarre minigame where you have to go fetch ingredients from the supermarket. I need to play it some more before I can adequately describe the madness. Most worrying though, is how many recipes involve catching food falling from the sky (and not BONES), and also making sure you choose the correct food stuff and not a BONE. Why Mama has such a large collection of bones in her kitchen is probably something we’re best not knowing.
iPhone app of the month
Bookworm
As in the Flash game where you have to finds words in a wordsearch stylee before the library burns down while a creepy worm watches your every move. I used to play this a fair bit back in ye olde times so it was fun to play it again and realise quite how many brain cells I have lost since then. It’s much better as an app though as you can save your game and stuff. I could have had a more interesting choice if I hadn’t written that Top 10 iPhone apps post the other day. Duh.
Resolution update
I could be forgiven for doing terribly at my resolutions so far but actually I am doing awesome. My only failure was booking to visit to the trade show at the SECC and then not being well enough to attend. Booo.
- I started a thread on Tripadvisor for ideas for Japan
- I have just about finished one of my zines I started months ago
- I’ve been working on pattern ideas (including the button print for shoes)
- My Folksy, Etsy and DaWanda shops are now almost exactly similar in product range
- I posted a guide to iPhone apps
- I did some gocco printing, even if it wasn’t entirely new. A start at least!
- As you will see below, I have been thinking A LOT about project #1 in my Big 5 projects. After many false starts, I think I have figured out the production so now I just need to decide exactly what I’m doing and do the design. It is going to take months though so don’t expect to hear anything soon.
Websites I’ve been enjoying
- Ruby Star Rising (awesome illustrations by Melody Miller)
- Mori Girl and Lessons in Cute (pretty pretty Japanese fashion blogs)
- It Will Stop Raining (lovely daily food photos)
Things to look forward to in February
- LOST S6 (Far. Too. Excited)
- My SHOES arriving
- Ponyo, the new Ghibli film, finally gets a UK release (I hate you Disney)
- New Errors album (already pre-ordered)
- Glasgow Film Festival (where I am booked to see the Mogwai live film and 1234 which features a cameo by my mates Sunnyvale!)
- my sister coming to visit
- getting JAPAN TRIP booked
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 36
Items sold on Etsy: 14
Items sold on Folksy: 27
Items sold on Dawanda: 8
Busier than December! Madness! But Awesome!
Diagram of the month
This is a cross section of MY BRAIN during the nights of the last few weeks where I have been unable to sleep until 3am. One day, I hope to feel sleepy again instead of just tired.
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End of the month update: December
By Marceline | January 11, 2010
I’m so late with this but I had a cold for most of December, then went up to my dad’s for Christmas where I recovered just enough to catch another, worse, cold. Waah. I don’t think the 5 hour train journey home from Inverness in an unheated train FULL OF SNOW helped either.
But I wanted to finish off the year and complete the set so here is a half-hearted update. I will probably continue these in 2010 too but with some different sections. iPhone app of the month definitely needs adding!
Books I enjoyed
The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan
Uhh, yeah, still on this.
Burn Collector #14 by Al Burian
Al Burian is my favourite zinester, hands down. If you haven’t read his previous Burn Collector books then get on that now. If you’ve ever been unemployed, played in a band, traveled around sleeping on people’s floors or lived in a ridiculous rented house or worked with mentalists, then you’ll love it. If you haven’t done any of those things then Al Burian will make living in a hellhole and working in a copy shop with imbeciles sound the the most awesome thing ever. This little mini book zine is mostly about the amazing world of public transport, yet another aspect of life I can empathise with. SRSLY AWESOME. Get it from Microcosm, home of cool independent publications (the other books should be on Amazon etc.).
Amazonia by James Marcus
Got this from Microcosm too as a) it was in the sale, b) I love Amazon and c) I love reading about inteweb startups. It’s not mind-blowing, but a nice look into the early days of Amazon and how it went from crazy geeks to corporate globalisation.
A Year in Japan by Kate T Williamson
Such a beautiful book. Kate Williamson is an illustrator who drew scenes from her year long stay in Kyoto. If you’ve been to Japan, it will make you very nostalgic but either way it’s a fascinating and lovely look into the patterns and traditions and quirks of Japan.
Good things I watched
Nothing again! Started on S7 of 24 and have been working my way through the entirety of Alias, but otherwise, bah.
Projects completed
I did a bunch of web stuff but I haven’t updated my portfolio site yet, duh,
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- Facebook Cull – Brilliant new blog by my good friend JGRAM who is culling 1 person from his FB friends every day and explaining why. I’m really enjoying this, as long as he doesn’t cull me.
Exciting things I purchased
- Not very much, due to being sick for most of December. Mostly iPhone apps and Alias box sets and two very warm fleecy jacket things. And a few Christmas presents, though not nearly as many as I intended.
Musical Rediscoveries
Nothing to report here either.
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 52
Items sold on Etsy: 4
Items sold on Folksy: 20
Items sold on Dawanda: 11
December was fun because I pretty much got at least one order every day, even Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Very pleased with Folksy this year but I am so close to being done with Etsy. Also, Folksy and DaWanda sent me presents in the post, and Shopify gave me another 5000 amazing new features. Not impressed, Etsy.
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End of the month update: November
By Marceline | December 2, 2009
Busy busy month! I feel like I barely stopped at all and I haven’t done my monthly accounts yet or anything. Mostly due to Christmas shopping on my shops and SCK, which has swallowed up entire days with packing and shipping, plus the beginning of my epic craft fair season. Halp! But at least I got a pirate bunny!
Books I enjoyed
Lords of Chaos/A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
I was going to take a break after these but I already got a hold of the next two! I’ll regret it though as there’s still two books yet to be published and I’ll forget everything that happened. Here’s hoping they don’t get dragged out for another ten years (a la George RR Martin)
Silverthorn/A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond E Feist
These were terrible and I really have no idea why I kept going, except maybe in the hope that they’d get better. Which they did in like, the last 3 chapters of the final book. Really, they could have just condensed book 2 into a couple of chapters and tacked that on the beginning of book 3. Waste of time!
Good things I watched
Nothing particularly good – LoveFilm, get your act together and stop sending me stuff from the bottom of my list! Srsly, the vouchers have been better than the films this month – free pizza!
Projects completed
- Kit designs for Miso Funky
- New brooches
And, again, several million things yet to be made public by the client. Wait and see!
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- Sashiko Started It (another Tokyo travel blog find – the best thing about doing my zine!)
- Girl-e Glasgow (Glasgow shopping blog)
- Destructoid (an actually good gaming news site – joy!)
Exciting things I purchased
- an iPhone! (though no-one has actually made me pay for anything yet)
- rather a lot of iPhone apps
- Loads of kawaii for the SCK shop from various places in London
- New slippers rom Muji (so comfy!)
- a plushy gall bladder from I Heart Guts for Claire to replace her real one :)
- cakeify.com (after someone got here searching for that!)
- surprises for Christmas gifts!
- and the adorable Pirate Bunny above, though technically I traded for him with Claire of Cute Plush. I wuv him.
Musical Rediscoveries
I haven’t really been listening to anything new this month – too busy for distractions!
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 21
Items sold on Etsy: 16
Items sold on Folksy: 23
Items sold on Dawanda: 15
Started off a bit slow but it’s getting busy now!
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End of the month update: October
By Marceline | November 3, 2009
Well, October was a very very busy month – I feel like I barely had a day off! Shop sales have been back up, all my freelance jobs that had been on hold all came back in the same week and I’ve had more press and other enquiries than the rest of the year put together. Not to mention, my secret project! I’ve handed over the files for that and samples are being made as we speak. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer until I can spill the beans.
However, all that excitement means I didn’t get to do a whole lot else this month.
Books I enjoyed
The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan
Still plugging away with these and actually really enjoying them. It’s funny that Tizzalicious is also reading these. I wonder which of us will finish the series first? I’m a book or so ahead just now but I have various prejudices against new books and hardback books which will probably slow me down.
Looking For The Lost by Alan Booth
A barter from one of my freelance clients – a surprise book from my Amazon wishlist is always more enjoyable than a few pounds in the PayPal account when it comes to little jobs. This was wonderful, combining my love of Japan with my love of cranky and amusing travel writers. He basically retraces the path of various historical characters and details the countryside, the ryokans he stays in and all the quirks of the people he meets along the way. Really want his other Japan book now.
Good things I watched
Alias
Continuing my JJ Abrams catch-up, I have now nearly finished Season 1 of Alias which completely passed me by at the time. Unsurprisingly, it is great stupid spy fun but really, JJ Abrams needs to stop recycling plot lines for new shows and films.
Projects completed
- Glasgow Craft Mafia Winter Flyer
- New home page
- pumpkinsputnik website
- Icons for Folksy
- Lots of new products
- Two batches of brooches (vintage buttons and new ones I’ll show you soon)
And several million things yet to be made public by the client. Wait and see!
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- Regretsy (like everyone else; hilarious)
- Katie Does Japan (beautiful pics from Katie’s Japan trip)
I actually deleted a ton of blogs from my RSS this month and reorganised my feeds. Instead of subject they are now organised into the type of reading required, eg. lots of text (keep for a boring Sunday), massive photos (avoid at peak time internets), quick reads etc. so it’s much easier to pick a folder and read through it. I still have a LOST folder though and one for my favourite blogs.
Exciting things I purchased
- The adorable Food Friends tray from Paperchase at the top of this post (see more at Super Cute Kawaii)
- Loads of kawaii for the SCK shop – we really cleared out that paypal account :)
- Lots of things that haven’t arrived yet (Muji slippers, Jay Ryan’s new book, a banner for my stall! etc.)
Musical Rediscoveries
As before, awesome stuff I have rediscovered in my epic iTunes Library Relistening project. Only about four days’ worth of music left now and I will really miss it when I’m finished. I really recommend doing this if you get stuck in a musical rut – so much good stuff I’d forgotten about.
- The Sundays
- Mario & Zelda Big Band (srsly amazing)
- Squarepusher
- Hirameka Hi-Fi
- Slowdive
- Fighting Red Adair
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 30
Items sold on Etsy: 13
Items sold on Folksy: 20
Items sold on Dawanda: 4
Much better sales this month – let’s hope it continues.
Topics: Monthly Updates | 2 Comments »
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End of the month update: September
By Marceline | October 3, 2009
September was definitely press month. A few of us in the Glasgow Craft Mafia met up with Enterprise Nation to be filmed for their documentary (that’s me in the middle) and then to their networking social event in the evening where me and Claire were called serial entrepreneurs about 100 times. After that, we were literally swamped with press enquiries, leading to my interview in The Scotsman and a few other articles too. Yay! It’s nice to get a bit of recognition as we do a ton of work organising GCM stuff. So, what else?
Books I enjoyed
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
What a swizz. I only realised about 3/4 through that this wasn’t actually the final part of the trilogy but now the third in a 4-book “cycle”. Huh. It was alright but I just really wanted to know how it ended and now I have to wait for another book.
Magician by Raymond Feist
Apparently, I will read any old fantasy book if it costs £1. This one is laughably stuck in Tolkien’s footsteps (as is Paolini, mind you) but at least the other world stuff has some interesting ideas. I got the next two off Bookmooch but I can’t say I’m dying to read them.
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Ahh, I do love Murakami. This is a slim book but one of my favourites nonetheless for the simplicity. It’s all very evocative of night-time Japan and just enough spooky weirdness to keep things intriguing.
Good things I watched
True Blood
Catherine gave me most of the the two seasons and was very keen that I like it, so I struggled on even though the first few episodes didn’t grab me at all, and the accents were driving me mental. But round about the 4th episode I started getting into it more and finished off the first season. It’s still completely ridiculous but good fun.
Projects completed
- Postcard club!
- Two Christmas card designs (one is in the shop)
- New banners on my website (come over and check it out RSS readers)
- Reprinted button bags and new recycled packaging
- Jammie Dodger mugs
- Coasters
- First batch of wedding notebooks dispatched
- Coding and design work for Waltzing Mouse Stamps
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- What I Wore Today…In Drawings (the blog of the Flickr group)
- The Coveted (new Scottish fashion magazine by the GCM’s Sarah)
- Enterprise Nation (lots of good business advice here)
- Hello Kitty Junkie (seriously obsessed but fun to see all the HK products)
Exciting things I purchased
- Loads of new products (hurry up!)
- Some lovely postcards from hellojenuine
- more washi for wedding notebooks
- a crazy bobble hat with a pink pompom
Musical Rediscoveries
As before, awesome stuff I have rediscovered in my epic iTunes Library Relistening project. I’m up to the 3.5 minute songs now.
- The Primitives
- Wolves! Of Greece
- Cap Pas Cap
- Sugababes (RIP)
- The Field Mice
- Denim and Diamonds
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 35
Items sold on Etsy: 9
Items sold on Folksy: 3
Items sold on Dawanda: 0
It felt like a terrible sales month but my Shopify sales actually tripled so not all that bad. I sold a lot of Tokyo zines this month. October is definitely my recommendation for the best time to visit too! Need to show DaWanda some love this month.
Topics: Monthly Updates | 1 Comment »
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End of the month update: August
By Marceline | September 4, 2009
My first drawing for Gemma Correll’s awesome new Flickr group – What I Wore Today, basically Wardrobe Remix for shy artists! This is a September pic but I have basically been wearing that Fat Rabbit Farm hoodie non-stop for the last 6 weeks. So, what else happened in August?
Books I enjoyed
Samaritan by Richard Price
Picked up for £1 in the WH Smith sale, hurrah. One of the writers on The Wire so you know it’s good stuff and he wrote Clockers, a few scenes of which turned up in The Wire too. I wasn’t disappointed.
Saved! bt William Hoffer / A Night To Remember by Walter Lloyd
Two books on passenger ship sinkings, how nice. I picked up the first in a charity shop in Oban for about 40p – there were a lot of books about ships and transport in Oban. It’s a real time description of the sinking of the Andrea Doria and, as you can probably tell by the title, almost everyone survived. I then mooched a copy of the Titanic book to compare the two. Both quite depressing and my limited experiences of open sea mean I am steering well clear of cruise ships, regardless of how much the technology has improved. I bet the cost cutting hasn’t.
The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill
Written by a guy who basically studies shoppers and can thus tell you why things aren’t selling, and how best to grab your shoppers’ attention at the right time. It’s almost entirely about retail shops but I still learned a few things to apply to my craft fair stalls. The internet section is frankly hilarious in its lack of foresight. The poor guy insists internet shopping will never be a big thing until they can work out a way to show bigger product images and think of some way people can order without having to email the store and wait for a response. Oh dear.
Good things I watched
Mission Impossible 3
No way was I expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. Good old JJ Abrams. He really is the best at highly entertaining nonsense.
The Sopranos
Yeah, I finally finished Season 1, only ten years after everyone else. It is fantastic but I kind of wish I had seen it before The Wire as I think I would have liked it even more. Does that make sense?
Projects completed
- a whole week of birthday crazy on SCK
- Glasgow Craft Mafia flyer
- Pattern designs for Spoonflower
- Live chat service added to shop
- Hello! handpainted cards
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- Quaint Living (Alice Peapods’ new site and lovely it is too)
- We Make Words (just lovely)
- A Home For All Seasons (Miss Crafty’s new home blog)
- FU Penguin (how on earth have I missed out on this for so long? And why is someone cursing at cute animals quite this funny?)
Exciting things I purchased
- Snow Leopard for my mac, thanks to Apple backdating upgrades to June computer purchases. £7.95 = yay!
- supplies for exciting new products
- more drawstring bags for Button Bags, including turquoise!
- more washi and notebooks than you can imagine, for a custom wedding order
- amazing surprise things for my sister’s birthday.
Musical Rediscoveries
As before, awesome stuff I have rediscovered in my epic iTunes Library Relistening project. I’m up to the 3.5 minute songs now.
- Margaret Berger
- Dubstar
- Kenickie
- Bertine Zetlitz
- The Kitchen
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 15
Items sold on Etsy: 6
Items sold on Folksy: 8
Items sold on Dawanda: 2
Bit slow this month so thank goodness for mydeco sale madness and craft fairs! Hopefully, we’ll be turning the corner into holiday shopping season very shortly.
Topics: Monthly Updates | 1 Comment »
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End of the month update: July
By Marceline | August 2, 2009
Hurray, I am back from my holidays! I had so much fun, I plan to bore you all with the details for the next week or so. In the meantime, you can check out all my photos on Flickr. I’ve still got more to add but the first half of the week is up. Will be picking a giveaway winner very soon too so hurry up if you want to enter!
And here’s what else I got up to.
Books I enjoyed
I started far too many books this month and now have about 4 books with a couple of chapters left to read. Tsk.
The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
Still enjoying this series. Still tons to go.
Good things I watched
Nothing! Unless you count the dozen videos from the LOST panel at Comic Con which were highly entertaining. Is it 2010 yet?
Projects completed
- New stuff in my Zazzle shop
- Cakeify mugs and lots of new stationery
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- My Milk Toof (very pleased to have been reminded of this adorably cute site)
- Woo Work (best crochet site ever, via SCK)
- My Folk Lover (such pretty artwork)
- Jempins (one of new co-workers makes cool stuff too, yay!)
- Bunny Farm (kawaii and bunnies!)
- I Heart Japan (cool new Japan blog)
- Shut Up Bands (hilarious, and why I bin 90% of my diskant mail)
Exciting things I purchased
- Lots of handmade chocolate from The Chocolate Shop in Oban
- Some Chocolate Lime biscuits from Oban.
- A pile of vintage pillowcases from a charity shop on Mull
- Six secondhand books from Oban and Mull (how the hell did that happen?!)
- Gardening Mama for my DS. Enjoying it A Lot.
- Cute Japanese zine from Talk To The Sun
- Lovely hand-knitted laptop cover from Black Eyed Sheep for my dad’s birthday
- Lots of new kawaii for the SCK shop
Musical Rediscoveries
As before, awesome stuff I have rediscovered in my epic iTunes Library Relistening project. I’m up to the 3 minute songs now.
- Brainiac
- Coping Saw
- I’m Being Good
- Gay Against You
- Urusei Yatsura
- The Bodines
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 12
Items sold on Etsy: 0
Items sold on Folksy: 14
Items sold on Dawanda: 5
I made my 100th sale on Folksy while I was away! Very pleased about that as I do love Folksy a lot and the addition of Anne to the team has done wonders in the last couple of weeks. Etsy + Summer = rubbish for me. I think it was around this time last year I nearly gave up on my Etsy shop. It better pick up soon. Everywhere else was fine, considering I was on holiday for a week.
Topics: Monthly Updates | 1 Comment »
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End of the month update: June
By Marceline | July 13, 2009
Oh dear, I have left this a bit late. Onward!
Books I enjoyed
Unsticky by Sarra Manning
I’ve been reading Sarra Manning’s writings since I was a teenager and she wrote for Just Seventeen. Her teen books are all great but this is her first adult novel. For some reason, I was expecting it to be fluffy chick-lit but it does manage to be a grown-up teen book with lots of snark and pop culture amongst the romantic ups and downs. Looking forward to the next one.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Been meaning to read this for a long time and finally got a copy from Bookmooch. As with a lot of best sellers, I enjoyed it but it felt a bit unfulfilling. Mostly because the love story ended up overshadowing the time travel stuff, which I was much more interested in. I wonder if the film will be any good, or indeed anywhere near as good as The Constant episode of LOST which balances the same subjects much better.
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
Only ten more to go, or something. o_O
Good things I watched
Fringe
As a LOST nerd, obviously I was interested to see this but have had to use nefarious means to see it, since no good US TV seems to ever get shown on normal UK telly any more. To begin with, it’s almost hilarious how many of JJ Abrams’ stock trademarks pop up, particularly the floating 3D place names and all the lens flare, but it turned out to be a pretty fun stupid sci-fi show, owing a lot to the X-Files. The Pacey/Denethor match-up is definitely the highlight for me, though it’s all pretty great if you turn about half your brain off. Must get hold of the last bunch of episodes.
Projects completed
- New card designs
- Tokyo Shopping Guide PDF
- Handstamped notebooks
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- Japan Discovered (a weekly Twitter Q&A chat about Japan)
- Etsy WTF (Cruel but hilarious)
- Hello Sandwich (sweet blog with a Japanese slant. I love the interviews)
- The Red Thread (lovely creative blog with lots of awesome Japan posts)
Exciting things I purchased
- NEW LAPTOP – woo!
- Porcelain pens!
- Some lovely discount fabric from IKEA
Musical Rediscoveries
A new section! Since I got my new laptop, I have been delighted by the fact that my iTunes play counts are now all reset to zero. I used to have an Unheard playlist for, uh, stuff I hadn’t ever listened to and now EVERYTHING is in there. So I am doing a relisten of my entire library, all 4424 tunes. I started alphabetically by song but now I’m doing by song length (short to long). Anyway, I am rediscovering all kinds of awesomeness which I am going to pass on to you. Check this stuff out, stat!
- Ellen Allien
- Printed Circuit
- Aoki Takamasa + Tujiko Noriko
- Reynolds
- Cat on Form
- Quickspace
- Smokers Die Younger
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 16
Items sold on Etsy: 9
Items sold on Folksy: 7
Items sold on Dawanda: 11
July has already been tons more interesting so next month’s update should be better. It’ll be late too though, as I’m off on my holidays at the end of the month.
Photo is of the cutest babygro you ever did see, which I got from H&M for the brand new baby Merulapie. Congrats to Catherine and Lee!
Topics: Monthly Updates | 1 Comment »
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End of the Month Update: May
By Marceline | June 2, 2009
May has been rather lovely in terms of weather and fun and productivity but not so much in terms of sales or Stuff Working. My wireless connection has been very dodgy this month so I’ve really missed sharing photos on Flickr and posting nonsense on Twitter. Hope to get it all fixed soon. I also started my new job, working 2 days a week (from home) for 5pm.co.uk which is going well. Here’s the breakdown:
Books I enjoyed
Drama City by George Pelecanos
Folks on Bookmooch are not very inclined to give up their copies of Pelecanos books, which is a shame as I would like to read more. Having written some key episodes of The Wire, his writing is obviously awesome. In fact, this pretty much reads like an episode of The Wire – lots of tension and humour.
Tokaido by Lucia Clair Robson
This has been sitting around for ages but I finally read it and enjoyed it a lot; it’s a retelling of the famous 47 ronin tale of old Japan. It has clearly been meticulously researched for realism so it’s a nice look into Japanese customs as well as an epic tale. I wonder if they made it into a film.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
A birthday gift from my sister, these are reminiscences of growing up in Iran during the war BUT told in the form of cartoons which mix up little daily incidents with big political incidents in a very readable way. I’ve seen people angrily complaining that this is either too flippant or too one sidedly political but you know, it’s a memoir from a child’s perspective, not an unbiased political history. I hope this is the sort of thing they encourage kids to read in school these days.
The White Lioness by Henning Mankell
See, this is why I love the internet. Now when someone mentions an author I like the sound of, I stick their name into Bookmooch and sooner or later someone will send me some of their work to read. It’s a lot easier than the olden days of carrying around a list to the library. Score 1 for the internet. So, these are detective novels but Swedish detective novels which makes things a bit different. Not staggeringly original but very enjoyable. The ending was a bit stupid though, like what films usually change the endings of books to, so as to make them more thrilling. Will mooch some more though.
Good things I watched
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Michael Cera films are a whole new genre now, aren’t they? Cute and fluffy with smart-ass dialogue and the sort of hip soundtrack and look that will make them look dated very quickly. Fun way to spend an evening though, and any film involving the crazy antics of people in stupid bands is guaranteed to kill me with nostalgia.
Star Trek
I have been to the cinema three times in the last three years and two of those were for JJ Abrams films. So sad. I’m no Trekkie but I have a certain fondness for the original series and spent many an hour watching TNG with one of my former flatmates. Anyway, I totally loved this – the casting is perfect with so many cute injokes to enjoy, and the alternate reality time travel reset is some kind of genius. The plot is total nonsense if you pay too much attention but it has big explosions and looks amazing so who cares. Now I kind of wish I lived in the alternate reality where JJ and Damon did the Star Wars prequels instead. Imagine.
Shanghai Kiss
I rent DVDs from LoveFilm and they have always been awesome at sending me stuff from the top of my list but for some reason they’ve gone a bit mental lately and have sent me random things from way down. I was initially a bit unhappy about this but it turned out good as this is now one of my new favourite films. It’s basically a Lost in Translation for China but with half an American high school movie thrown in and Miles from LOST. I love teenage high school movies, I love China and I love Ken Leung so hurrah. It’s actually adorable – you should see it.
Honey and Clover
Aaages ago I bought a couple of Japanese DVDs off ebay thinking they were films but which turned out to be the TV adaptations instead. This is a sweet but rather depressing tale of a bunch of art school students and their unrequited love hexagon. At least half the series is either characters gazing wistfully at each other or making lengthy monologues about how they need to stop moping and get a grip. the other half is them all eating amazing looking meals together and OTT manga style slapstick. There’s some totally awesome parts of this, mostly involving the boy-next-door hero who goes on a crazy cycling trip round Japan to find himself and then uses his experiences to help one of the girls recover from her terrible glass related hospitalisation that threatens to ruin her artistic genius. It’s all rather touching and (kind of a spoiler) no-one ends up with the one they love. Downer. I loved this actually, particularly the architecture boy’s collection of jumpers, but I’d probably advise you get the film instead as this has terrible subtitles. I was also delighted that a minor plot point involved the raffle system that Tom Nook used to do in the original Animal Crossing. Seems that Nintendo really got that perfect right down to the last detail.
Projects completed
- Vintage Flower Badge Sets
- The Cutie Fruity Friends
- Pillowcase Dress #3
- Lots and lots of designs for my Zazzle store
- Finding a part time job!
- Lots of other things I can’t show you yet
Interesting new blogs in my RSS
- Vinyl Destination – my good friend Simon writing about his ginormous record collection, record by record.
- Lovely Package – lovely packaging!
- Argyle Academy – cute illustration
Exciting things I purchased
- Lovely soap testers from Saffron Barr on Folksy
- Something very very exciting from Asspocket Productions which hasn’t arrived yet.
Most listened to artists, according to Last.fm
I haven’t been able to sync my iPod cos of internet nonsense, booo.
Online sales
Items sold on Shopify: 20
Items sold on Etsy: 8
Items sold on Folksy: 7
Items sold on Dawanda: 9
You can tell my internet wasn’t working properly this month, huh? Lots of reading and watching going on, and also lots of behind the scenes designing. I can’t wait to show you everything!
The photos are from last weekend’s Glasgow Craft Mafia market at Mono. I redid my stall setup a bit and it looks a lot better.
Topics: Monthly Updates | 3 Comments »
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