Just popping in to let you know that a selection of my cards, badges and stationery is now available from lovely online indie boutiqe Hannah Zakari. Run by Rachael here in Glasgow, it stocks an amazing bunch of designers including Ashley G, BoyGirlParty, Gemma Correll, Meomi and The Small Object – what company to be in!

So pop on over to www.hannahzakari.co.uk and get your Christmas shopping started.

Also, do check out the new cross stitch kits and bags by Miso Funky – I did the design work on these and they’ve turned out amazing.

Look what I got! I’ve been plotting these purses with the lovely Sarey Poppins for a while now and just got the first one – isn’t it cute? I have tried making coin purses before with varying degrees of success and it’s been much more enjoyable leaving this lot to the expert. There’s another design on its way too and then I’ll get them all in the shop! You should check out Sarah’s Etsy shop too – there’s lots of pretty things.

Things are, once again, busy round here with nothing much to show yet. I did take a wee break to watch the fireworks last night since our front room has a great view on to Glasgow Green where the main display is. I even got some good photos – check my Flickr for more.

I had to get my old friend the Random Number Generator to give me a hand, as too many people I know entered! And then it didn’t pick any of them anyway.

So congratulations to Andrew B who gets a Jammie Dodger notepad to write manly thoughts in and to the green gal who gets a Vintage Flowers notepad and can join me in flipping pages and looking important. I’ll be emailing you shortly for your addresses.

Thanks everyone else for entering – your design suggestions have been written in my notepad so you might just see some of those turning up soon. In the meantime, both notepads are available in the shop for a bargainous £4.50.

I’ve had a couple of press enquiries about my brooches recently so I figured I better make some more in the hope of a deluge of orders. But I like these so much I’m going to be sad to see them go. The buttons are all handmade by me using my stash of cute Japanese fabrics and it’s pretty impossible to pick a favourite.

I’d probably have to go for the little houses.

Or maybe the birds in a tree.

You can see them all here – which is your favourite?

DON’T FORGET – my giveaway ends TODAY at 12pm GMT. Win yourself a notebook!

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.

I’ve just done a long-needed redesign of the homepage. It’s always been a problem for me as it has to do so many things – a visitor could be a customer, or a shop/gallery owner or a journalist so how best to appeal to everyone and get them to the right information?

Hopefully, this is a decent solution – there’s more focus on the products, pointing people to either the shop or my image gallery and then the lower part has all the info and blog news plus highlighting the various social networking/marketplaces I’m involved with. Hope you like it!

While we’re on the design theme, you might want to check out my portfolio site. I’ve finished a few jobs recently including a lovely site for fellow Mafioso pumpkinsputnik and these little icons for Folksy. Lots more to come soon too – you wouldn’t believe how many half-finished projects I am involved in just now. Some websites really do take ages to launch.

I got one of these lovelies in the post a few weeks ago from Jen aka hellojenuine. Not only has she managed to be the first (and so far only) one of us to get a zine out but it’s full of her lovely illustrations and with a gocco printed cover to boot.

She’s also just opened up shop on Etsy where I was delighted to make the first purchase of these awesome Nice Advice postcards. Unfortunately, not only are they so awesome I am never sending them to anyone but they’re so prettily packaged I haven’t been able to bring myself to even open them yet. I should though, so I can put a couple in my ever changing desk frame.

Anyway, I heartily recommend you pop over to her Etsy shop and get yourself something too.

The other good news is that I have just about finished ONE of my zines, so hopefully I’ll get that out before the end of the year. So, only four more and load of patterns to do by January…

I’ll also sneak in a little reminder to – Alice of Peapods, Elise of Argyle Whale
and Kim of Madness of Many – I would still love you all to make a zine.

(All photos by Jen!)

Anyway, here is the prize!

I am giving away one of each of my new notepads. I’ve been using mine for a week or so now and it’s my absolute favourite notebook ever. The paper is lovely and smooth to write on and I get to flip the pages in an ‘I’m a busy person, checking all my important notes’ way.

So, TWO winners will get a notepad of their choice plus a calendar magnet and a set of postcards featuring my designs.

All you have to do is leave a comment saying which of the two notepad designs you prefer and which of my other characters or designs you would like to see on a notepad (check the shop for ideas). You’ve got until midday on Wednesday 4th November so get to it!

PS. Calendar magnets, I hear you say? Yes, 2010 calendar magnets have just been added to the shop – they’ll brighten up your fridge and they make fun little gifts too!

If you’re around Glasgow this Sunday, make sure to pop by Mono for this month’s Handmade Haven market. I’ll be there with all my new stock amongst the usual excellent range of independent designers. I also hear a rumour there will be free cake and chocolate on offer so really, what more reason do you need?

As expected, half the packages I have been waiting for all arrived in the same 48 hours meaning I am swamped in boxes and packaging and EXCITING NEW THINGS.

I am slowly getting them photographed and listed but here’s a few to get you started:

New cards! I feel like I have been waiting for these Happy Birthday cards for about six weeks, and that’s because I have been. Who knows where the original order is but I was kindly sent out a replacement by express mail and here they are. If anyone you know has a birthday coming up then I’m sure a happy Cakeify with confetti is just what they want.

I am also delighted with my new Jammie Dodger cards, at the top. I had this idea on a train, scribbled it in my notebook and designed and ordered it the next day. I haven’t even shown you my Christmas cards yet and I’m already doing Valentines :)

And two redesigns. The original Prettify sticky notes never came out right so I tweaked them a bit and they’re so much nicer. And, yes, that is a brand new full colour Cakeify and Friends badge set. There wasn’t anything wrong with the old set but I thought an update would be nice. You can still get the old design but I will probably be discontinuing them once I run out. You have been warned!

More to come, so keep an eye on the shop. Giveaway coming soon too!

Also, there’s a special sale on over at DaWanda. If you’ve never bought from my shop before, now’s the time as you’ll get a 15% discount on your order – go have a browse!