I don’t know about you but it is stupidly hot here. It takes about two hours to cool down after every 15 minutes of activity so I am not getting much done. Clearly, being in close proximity to a hot laptop is not the sort of fun I’ve been looking for, but that does mean I’ve been playing around with some new toys.

Hopefully I will have more to show you soon but here’s a little peek at one project - drawing on mugs! I have mugs available on Zazzle but they are kinda spendy so I’m trying to create some cheaper ones, and they’ll be hand-drawn to boot! I still need to go through the oven baking and dishwasher testing parts and that is not going to happen while this heatwave is on. More pics soon though! And if you’re interested, I got the pens from www.porcelainpaint.co.uk which is not the prettiest of sites but they give brilliant service.

I can also finally show you this Jammie Dodger pincushion I made. It was a special request and turned out pretty cute I think! I will probably add this to the shop soon as a custom order.

Okay, I need to go fan myself some more now. Monthly update coming soon once my brain un-melts enough for me to remember what books I read.

Yay! New products have arrived for me to add to the shop. My favourite is this happy orange leafy card.

But then the vintage flowers cards have also come out beautifully.

And I’ve been printing up Cakeify and Friends notebooks with my new stamps.

More to come soon as well!

It’s not laziness, honest, but a response to a request I get all the time - can I make a PDF version of the Tokyo Shopping Guide? Well, apparently I can, so you can now buy one in the shop, download it and print it yourself!

It’s great for last minute travelers who only discover the guide just before they jet off to Tokyo, don’t have time to wait for the postman and would prefer not to print out a pile of web pages. I’ve streamlined it for printing so it’s got all the same shopping information as the pre-printed version but none of the extras and only includes images of the shops and their logos to save you some ink. It also includes a special discount voucher in case you want to order the real thing, or the Ten Days in Tokyo zine on your return.

The main reason I haven’t done this sooner is that I knew eventually someone mean would get a hold of it and print copies or resell it for their own gain. But with this cut-down version, you’re not getting anything that isn’t available in the online version - it’s just edited and laid out better for quick printing.

One question I do have though - the PDF is laid out for A4 paper but I know Letter size is very popular in the US. Would a Letter-sized version be a good idea or, indeed, any other international paper size? Please let me know in the comments!

Say hello to my new friend! I got my new tiny Mac last weekend and we’ve been having fun getting all my files moved over and email set up and trying to remember all my logins. It really is amazing to be back online properly and to be able to tackle online tasks without worrying the connection is going to disappear half way through. So expect more blogging, more Flickring and more new work.

I have tons of ideas for new stuff to make and there’s lots of new stationery in the post, but in the meantime, I’ve added some mousemat designs to Zazzle. If you need to cute up your desk then this is certainly the answer!

I have my dad visiting this week so I won’t be at any of the Glasgow Craft Mafia markets but that’s no excuse not to be there yourself. As always, you can find the best local handmade sellers at the Buff Club on Saturday and Mono on Sunday, and all the details are here.

And in other amazing Mafia news, the awesome Kim just finished a huge feltidermy horse’s head from our logo! We are all flabbergasted at how perfect it is and I can’t wait to see it in real life. Even better, we’re currently running a competition on the GCM blog to name the horse, so go make a suggestion and you could win some cool prizes.

DaWanda is probably my favourite of all the marketplace sites I sell on so I’m extra-glad about their new offer. All this week, if you buy from a shop for the first time, you’ll get 15% off your order!

Obviously, you can choose something from my shop, but you might be surprised how many of your favourite Etsy sellers are on DaWanda too, not to mention lots of Europeans who don’t sell elsewhere. Go have a look!

As an extra bonus, every order I get from DaWanda this week will get a free Cakeify postcard.

In other news, I am a bit sunburnt and my purse is a lot fuller after a lovely Saturday doing Bungo in the Back Lanes. We basically set up in the back garden of  GCM member Rosie and then sat around in the sunshine selling stuff. Lovely!

I won’t be doing any more markets until August so that gives me some time to play with new product ideas and build up my stock. I have lots of ideas too so watch this space.

Sorry I’ve been gone so long - my laptop has become obsessed with both the wireless router and electricity and can’t be parted from either for more than 5 minutes without conking out. As you can imagine, it’s been a joyful few weeks but I have now given up and purchased a new smaller friend for it which can do all the fun internet things while my larger grumpy laptop stays put for graphics work. I’m off to fetch it this very afternoon so expect business to return to normal at the weekend.

Some other news:

- I was playing around with some hand-stamped felt at the market last weekend and made some random prototypes. These keyrings came out pretty cute so there’s an orange and a pear in the shop right now.

- I’ve just received a huge stack of blank notebooks and muslin bags so expect some new fun stuff very soon.

- I’ll be at Bungo in the Back Lanes this Saturday, a fun day of stalls and stuff in the back lanes of Strathbungo, Glasgow. I’ve never done a market in the Southside so this is your chance people! We’re having a little Glasgow Craft Mafia area in the garden of Rosie’s Retro Styling’s house so come along and have a browse. Girl Industries and Pumpkinsputnik will also be there, yay. Here’s a map - you’ll find us in Moray Place.

- And finally, Monsieur Le Bun is giving away even more awesome prizes on Super Cute Kawaii so go enter! Pick of the bunch are a notebook from me and a robot sampler by Miso Funky. You’ve only got about 24 hours left to enter so get on it!

I can’t promise you sun or ice cream tomorrow at DCT’s Summer Craft Fair but you never know! At worst, there will be two floors of local handmade goodies, tea and cakes and ME. Do come, because I need the money! I’ve been making lots of fun little treats especially for this, including hand stamped cards and cute keyrings plus a sneak peek at an exciting collaboration between me and jiji~punch. With the state of my internet, who knows when these might be available online!

I did manage to get these Cutie Fruity Friends notebooks in the shop - they’re hand stamped with my new stampers and then coloured with watercolour pencils. I like how slim these notebooks are - since there are approximately 500 notebooks I want at any given moment, it’s all the better if I can use them up quickly and justify a new one. If you fancy one, they’re available right now.

I’ve been getting to grips with my new stamps and the first fruits are now in the shop - little notebooks with my characters. These are double fun to make as I get to colour them in with watercolour pencils. Bread Slice and Orange are available now and lots more will be added in the coming weeks, once I get a red ink pad.

I also tried out my button stamps to make new thank you cards to go out with orders. Every time I make a batch of cards I think there’s no way I’ll get through them and then all too soon, they all disappear. So an extra big THANK YOU to everyone who makes a purchase from my shops - I still get far too overexcited when I get a sale.

And finally, don’t forget the brooch sale ends tomorrow. Hop to it!

Hey, remember this image I posted last week? I doubt it since no-one was intrigued enough to take a guess. Well, the real thing has arrived now and is even better than I hoped.

I got a whole sheet of rubber stamps made with pretty much all my designs! If you check back at the artwork image, you should be impressed by quite how well I used up the available space. I got them from Asspocket Productions on Etsy who I heartily recommend for all your stamping requirements.

And here is my first print, which turned out great, other than me realising I don’t have any red ink. Since then I have stamped most of the designs on various things, some of which I will show you very soon. I have so many ideas of fun things to do with them. Yay!

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.