Misery Loves Co.

So I have been building a weird wooden contraption for my market stall, i dont know if it will work, but its worth a shot as i feel my display is distinctly lacking its kind of like an easel but with a completely flat panel that i will put hooks and nails in, so far I have painted it black and army green... it looks pretty crap and basic at the moment but I got planz!

I made one of my mexican crosses, picture to follow, and I have 4 more painted up tp sew but they are proving tricky, My elvis doll has somehow become elizabeth bennet from pride and prejudice and I got an order of skull beads in the post, still waiting for about 40 more.

I got all the flowers and beads and other things I ordered and I am going to have myself a bead orgy and make some pretty earrings :)

i also ordered a couple of books from amazon and got them, very pleased with the mexican one, but the twinkie one I wasnt so impressed with as it wasnt what I was after

this book is mainly full of scarves, so if youre after one of those this is the book for you (dont click to look inside.. i got that picture from amazon)



mainly fimo skeleton creations, but there are some fab designs and ideas in this book that are easily adapatable to other projects :)

Ok back to the business of my other business which is my writing. yesterday for all intents and purposes we finally finished writing episode 15... and then remembered a couple of bits we needed to slot in there, but all in all... its done, over, kaput.

15 months ago when my writing partner approached me and suggested we try write something together I would never have believed it would ever get to this point, which is to say a complete first draft. especially when you consider the things we had to teach ourselves along the way, not least of all was how to criticise and take criticism from each other, sure we have our moments... but all in all, I can't imagine not working with JJ now.

we spent the first 3 months just trying to sort out characters and concepts and how to write dialogue! dialogue is such a nightmare, trying to get to a point where it actually looks like its coming from a person and not a page, personally i think the key is to relax, and be slightly schizophrenic. so for over a year now I have been meeting with JJ for at least 30 hours a week, sometimes more (way more) with the odd family interruption in between. Bearing in mind that she lives in Australia and I live in the UK... also we have never met, or even spoken on the phone. So 15 months is one hell of a commitment.

Now comes the fun part.... please note the sarcasm. Trying to sell our masterpeice is going to be yet another long hard slog, I do have faith in it, and its something I would really watch... and something I dont think has really been done, I mean its been done, everything has, but not OUR way.

I have joined various screenwriting forums and social networking sites trying to gain some insight into how to sell a screenplay and i can tell you, its about as clear as mud. So we are going the route of politely emailing a bunch of production companies asking if we can send them either a synposis or our pilot episode, so far we emailed about 30... and they all said no. So armed with my copy of the writers handbook we will be writing off to a bunch more, then when they have all rejected us too, its back to the drawing board.

Heres the funny part... I quite like the rejection, its safe, it means nothing changes, it means I gave it my best shot and never mind it didnt pan out. It means I get to carry on living in my little bubble of Katness. But what if someone says yes, I mean its not completely implausable our screenplay is really quite good, and once we have edited it whose to say it wont be snapped up immediately? terrifying!

OK and something else, I'm sick of going through writers blogs and seeing things like, once youve written a screenplay, put it away its probably crap anyway, theres NO way you got it right the first time - dont listen to those people (admittedly this is my 4th screenplay) but who is to say my first one wasnt great (me). If you believe in yourself then the only thing you can do is keep going, find time to write and commit to a project. NOTHING beats that feeling of seeing something through, and even rejection cant take that away from you!

OK so there is a naked elvis Ragdoll on my sofa, he would be staring at me if i had given him any eyes yet. I should really make him some clothes ....and hair, how undignified for the King!

I sold my Medieval princess at the weekend, and still she had no knickers!

So the little mice in my brain have been working overtime to distract the crap out of me. I managed to teach myself how to crochet granny squares though... me and crocheting just dont mix, I can turn my hand to anything crafty but I look at a crochet pattern and I am instantly baffled.

So I find myself really drawn to Folk art and Mexican art at the moment anything bright and Garish, it just looks so pretty to me, so then I got this bright Idea to make Fabric folk art crosses, I still dont know how they are going to work but, I am still going to give it a go... I am so full of good intention.

So the other Ideas I have are to make bunting of course, and a wooden sign for my stall, and i have about 6 granny blankets to crochet now.

On top of that is my "other" project, i say other but its my main project really. A friend and I have been writing a screenplay for a gritty edgy romantic sexy Tv drama, we have got about 12 pages left to write, before we can go back over and edit the whole thing. She is about to give birth so we really are up against it. We have written fifteen episodes at 60 pages each. I think I may need a pseudonym though as I am not sure if I want people to realise how filthy I am!!!

anyway this was a boring blog i dont know why I decided to write one today ... avoiding elvises non existent eyes I think

Well i could lie and say i had forgotten my password, but the truth is that I have been so preoccupied with making crap that I just havent had the inclination to write anything for a while, but now I have some updates on what I have been doing.

Since the last time we spoke I did numerous craft fairs with my good friend DOLLY JONES, they were a bit of a bust really. When I did well she didn't and vice versa and all in all we hardly ever did more than cover the cost of our stalls. The main issues with the fairs we did i think were that they were either in places that were only accessable by car or that there were just no people turning up.

The thing about craft fairs, especially in certain areas is that you have to be resillient and prepared for people to ask you how you made something, where you buy all your materials or even to pretend they are taking pictures of their kids in front of your stuff so they can copy it later on when they get home, this aspect is infuriating. Anyway after the demoralising experience of craft fairs in thanet we decided to call it a day.

Still! The artist in me cant let go that easy and I carried on collecting interesting bits of fabric, beads, other pretty things and eventually I started making again after a period of apathy.

Recently the turner centre opened in Margate, and to coincide with the opening a sunday Bazaar has been opened in Margate's Old town. I made enquiries and got a stall there, I cant do every sunday but I certainly try my best to get there when I can. Its nice to be part of something fresh and new, and even if it isnt a big money spinner at the moment, the potential is so glaringly obvious to me, I figure sticking it out now is an investment to say the least.

I wont tell you what my opinion of Margate has been up to this point but lets say I have come full circle and now I am totally in love with the place, particularly the Old Town area which is just Oozing charm with all the little retro kitsch shops and cafe's and bars. It's also nice to meet like minded people who are addicted to creating things. I cant say enough nice things about it... seriously. OK so maybe I havent even covered my stall on a couple of occasions, but actually its nice just hanging out there, and lots of people are taking my business cards and Ive had a lot of positive feedback. I am fully aware that this is a completely new venture and it will take time for people to become accustomed to it being a regular thing, but I am sure that by this time next year people will be fighting for a spot.

so anyway yadda yadda yadda, got bored with making the jewellery, theres just too much of it around and most of it is better than mine lol. So now Im back to making cushions, and also I finally started making my misery dolls, which was the dream all along. God I just cant be arsed with them haha, once I have made the blank doll and it gets to the dressing stage I am so into it, but its just that blank soulless doll, it really requires a lot of motivation on my part to make them. but hooray I sold one last week, my first one, in fact the first one I made out of the three I have on offer at the moment.

anyway Im going to upload some photos and then you can see what I have been up to :)



I made this using Alexander henry fabric with red polka dots and vintage green velvet and lace trim



I have so many scraps of pretty fabric left over and i was going to make bunting with it and then I decided that ... no one really buys bunting so I would use it to line pretty purses with. This one I painted a design on medium weight calico with acrylic paints and then finished iff with a laundry pen and added some sparkles, Im pretty pleased with it really



I wasnt sure what would go with this fabric really as its got very unusual colours in it, but then i fiound that pretty olive green polka dot and thought it needed livening up a bit with some pink pom poms, now I think its in my top 3 favourite cushions, alexander henry fabric again :)



I bought this cath kidston fabric about a year ago, and it was too small to do anything with turns out I had just enough to make 6 purses :)



How much do i love this fabric? ****LOADS, wow, when i saw it i was foaming at the mouth. funnily enough it seems to be men that really love this cushion



i do love alexander henry pin up designs, i think this is the aloha fabric, but dont quote me on that



This is one of my union jack cushions.. I like it :p



Misery loves Pin-up ... yeah shes got boobs! most of my others dont but she looked better with! her skirt is lined with green satin and shes got flowery bloomers on as well as black velvet shoes. sadly she is no longer with me :p but she went to a good home and I'm so pleased shes with a little girl who will appreciate her. Now I just need a better camera



Misery loves the gold rush. I love this dolly so much and im glad shes still with me, I bought the material for her dress over a year ago, its silk with black broiderie anglaise underneath it, she has lacy french knickers on and a pretty lace and silk hat on. Loosely based on Alma Garret from the show Deadwood, who just had the most amazing costimes ever and shes even got a bustle at the back.



she also has black velvet boots on . i love her!



Misery Loves Medieval times! my lovely medieval princess, she has a crown on now but i havent taken a picture of her with it, but alas i have yet to make her any knickers, my husband assured me they probably didnt wear knickers back then. black velvet boots too. I really need to take better pictures, maybe time to invest in a decent camera.




more of my hand painted purses, cherries mmmm



I had lots of scraps of dogtooth but it looked a bit dull on its own, so I added some red felt hearts, these were the first ones to sell!



i made my son a case for his kindle and had loads of this skull fabric left, again I liked feminising it a little bit



who doesnt love the mexican day of the dead! i decided to hand paint some pretty skull son canvas and make them into purses too, trying to get the detail small enough was the hard part but all in all I am happy with how they turned out!



more skulls!



even more skulls!



its ok im not gonna say it



another cushion I made with retro advertisments printed on fabric, i dont know the designer of this one



I get most of my fabrics through hours of trawling on ebay at FQ's this one was rather pretty i thought.

anyway I have things to do! talk to you in another year ha ha

This is my first attempt at Blogging, i literally have absolutely no idea what i am doing so bear with me on this one. I am crafty and I love making things with my hands, I have always been this way inclined and it is something I cannot escape despite my best efforts to do something boring and unimaginitve with my life I find the magpie in me takes over whenever I see something pretty or shiny (and usually expensive) and my brain switches into "I can make that" mode, so I do, then I move onto the next shiny pretty mysterious objects whose secrets I need to master, and I do, then I move on again and so on and so forth. A while back I broke a necklace that was made of the prettiest beads so I kept those beads in a jar in case I ever got round to making myself a replacement necklace, which of course, I never did. But I was clearing out my cupboard and I found my jar of beads amongst the debris of the last few years of "ooh i'll save that for later" and I decided to try and make myself some earrings with the beads, a week later I had made almost 40 pairs of earrings and thats where the story begins really for me. I became obsessed (possibly an understatement) with beads and making "stuff" with beads. I started watching crafty bead videos on youtube and all the little synapses in my brain switched into overdrive and all of a sudden I am making jewellery, all the time, I get up at 6:30 just to try out something new, I cant wait to make all the things in my brain, and for a change, I am actually doing it. The beauty of this craft for me is that there are endless colour combinations, patterns, designs for me to embrace, new things for me to learn and master, new ideas for me to cultivate and nurture. So these past few weeks I have been making keyring/bag charms almost non stop, my neck hurts, my back hurts my shoulders hurt but still i cant stop making them, and I love them all, and if I could hang them all from my bag i would, but I cant, because im pretty sure it would not only look weird, but I might do myself some damage with them! I am almost relentless in my lack of commitment to things so its nice to finally find something that i cant wait to get stuck into every day, and if I get bored of one design all I have to do is hold out a little while until i can move onto the next design. I am now at the stage (after only a couple of months) where I have a buttload of things that I need to get rid of so that I have room for all the wonderful new things I want to make. So I am planning on doing some craft fairs and the like in order to finance my bead addiction...everyone needs a vice!

I think my craft addiction began when i was around 4 years old and my Great Grandma Ivy May taught me how to knit, I knitted a short, tight, holy maroon scarf, it was essentially hideous, but it is still probably my earliest memory. My nan was also a champion knitter, she could knock out a suit overnight, in fact she did a couple of times for any one of her nine kids. My mum also used to make me dresses when i was little and i had a few lovely orange and brown numbers, every little girls favourite colours! pair that with my lovely basin cut and you can only begin to imagine how popular i was! Knitting is probably one of my favourite pass times, but alas, its time consuming and attention seeking so we are not the best pairing. I have knitted several hundred sleeves, and yet have only finished about 10 items, I have no concentration and serious commitment issues :p