Plates

We're reading this book at bedtime at the moment.

It makes me very happy when we get to this page.

I can think of somebody else this page would appeal to.

The Totally-Crazy-Once-In-A-Lifetime-Help-Yourself-To-Anything* Giveaway!

I know. Bonkers eh? But that's the deal, anyone can enter, just visit my Folksy shop, decide what you'd like, post a comment below (sorry, no anony-mouses though) telling me what it is and one lucky winner will receive the item of their choice! If it's something I have in stock I'll post it asap, and if not, I'll make it for you (you'll receive it in about 7 days for UK peeps, longer for overseas peeps).

For further chances to win, add yourself to the rest of the very agreeable followers over to your right there. If you want to blog or tweet a link (include @TheRoundWindow in your tweet so I see it) to the giveaway, that would also be another entry - just let me know in your comment. I'll draw the winning name out the hat next week.


The reason I'm doing this? I'm being featured over on the brand spanking new and gorgeous UK-based website Craftsville, who will be bringing you the best in independent art, craft, design and creativity. The lovely Michelle and Helen will be giving you a guided tour around my (newly de-cobwebbed) workshop.


*Anything?
Yes, Anything.
Anything?
Yes, Anything.
ANYTHING?
Er, yes.

No More i-Phone Envy + Giveaway trailer.

Because the main reason I've been hankering after one is I want to play with that Hipstamatic App. But now, thanks to a bit of detective work and the help of My Girl Thursday, I've found Picnik. Soooooo much fun. All sorts of effects, including Cross Process (above), Lomo, Sepia...the list goes on. This was a pretty flippin brilliant photo of the Nellster to start with, but all the better for a bit of tweaking.

Must go, I want to play with it some more. Oh, and do stop by tomorrow. I'll be doing a Giveaway.

Ho Hum

Just drumming my fingers, waiting for balls to get rolling, whips to get cracking and shows to get on the road - there are a couple of interesting jobs in the pipeline that are yet to get the go-ahead.

In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to this Friday's episode of Mastercrafts (9.00pm BBC2) which will follow 4 apprentices trying their hand at stained glass. The mentor who will be training them is an artist called Sophie Lister Hussain, whose work embraces a wide variety of styles and practices and is technically superb. She also shares a studio with my ex-collegue and good friend Delia (http://www.apollostainedglass.co.uk/), so I was a little green with envy that she would be rubbing shoulders with the lovely Monty Don for a few days.

I've yet to catch up on the previous episodes of this show (green woodcraft, thatching and blacksmithing) but by all accounts they make really interesting viewing.

Other newsworthy items...I won a giveaway! This beautiful paper mechanical animal set from Oh My Cavalier! (via Pikaland).


Julianna's work is inspired by ephemera, folklore and sharp-toothed mammals. This hesitant little badger just about breaks my heart.

All photos from Oh My Cavalier

Oh and I should also like to point you in the direction of It Belongs To Turtle by way of thanks to the Turtle for his kind words about my glass. A very charming Turtle he is too.

The week so far...

World domination edges ever closer to Through The Round Window! Not one, but two mentions in the Blogosphere. First came this nice little nod from I Love Handmade followed closely by this beautiful photo on Peonies & Polaroids. That totally made my day. She is so ludicrously talented, stylish, funny, eloquent, generally-all-round-sorted and (here comes the really painful bit) only 24.

And stuff has been selling! My Items You've Sold page at Folksy is looking pretty impressive!

Random people are e-mailing me just to say they like my work! Isn't that nice of them!

Anyway, I'll stop now. Next week will probably be really quiet and I'll wonder what the hell I'm actually doing all over again. But for now I shall head towards the weekend in a little bubble of contentment.

Oh, and I've listed a couple more birds in the shop. I was pleased with the way this picture turned out.

I am supposed to be going to bed...

...but I thought it more important I showed you these rather excellent knitted beards by Wife of Brian.



Blog
Folksy shop
Etsy shop

Why thank you...

...Beth Foster (you know, her from The Linen Cat) not only for your patronage, and the very kind words on your blog, but also for giving me an award! I'd like to pretend I'm far too cool to care about such things, but well, I'm not, and I do.

Here are some of the gorgeous soft toys and lavender bags she makes...she has such a good eye for a snazzy fabric...





Go on, you know you want to visit her shop...

Finishing up and heading off...

My workshop is literally bursting at the seams with the huge pile of finished windows waiting to be fitted. I think there's about 17 panels in there all in all - barely room for myself now! I'm just trying to arrange fitting half of them tomorrow, then once that's out the way, I'm in holiday mode. This weekend I'm up to London (for a hen night - but a very tasteful one - no L plates of bridal veils) then on Wednesday we are off to Rhodes for a week (first family holiday since, erm, er, ever!)

So this is constantly plyaing in my head at the moment!


On a completely unrelated subject, I'm very excited about this. I'm a big fan of the kooky crazy quirky world of Sarah Neuburger so I'm really delighted about her collaboration with Chronicle Books to create these little funsters:




Available now from you know where...

Isn't She Lovely*

Look what I got today!!!!! My giveaway win from Debs at the unfailingly excellent Kickcan and Conkers. I think this has to be one of the nicest parcels I have ever received. Beautifully wrapped (although not for long when the little hands got to it) and more gorgeousness than I could have possibly imagined. The snap game, puzzle and book are divine, and Debs even sneaked in a beautiful little Polish story book and a card of one of Mark Hearld's ace linocuts (which I have somehow omitted to photograph - bad blogger).








Isla found her favourite thing in there too....

If you've not seen Deb's eyewateringly good blog, you must go immediately...your life will be the better for it.

*alright, alright, so I've used the L word...hey if it's good enough for Stevie Wonder...

Hands up who likes to look at pretty fabric, vintage fabric, modern fabric, oh just any kind of fabric?

Yes, I thought so. Me too. How did I not know about True Up before?

I was researching mid-century farm imagery for a small panel I'm doing (a partner for Cockerel #3 - they were so pleased with it they want to order another...a cow this time). Here's just some of the bounty I found via True Up...

from janssendesigns



from sewing geek


sorry can't find provenance of this

No cows alas, but I couldn't sleep last night for dazzling patterns dancing through my head.

Nice people making nice things.

I was very excited to "meet" a fellow glass blogger recently. Her name is Elaine Prunty and her blog is called Jaboopee (I must find out what that means...). Not only does she live in lovely Dublin in what looks like an extremely cool and bohemian gaff...

She owns a wicked selection of vintage dolls...


...and makes fabulous crocheted lampshades...

...she also makes really great contemporary stained glass and mosaics. And look at what she's just finished making and installing in the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland

It's made in glass mosaic, but I love the way she's really captured the sketchy energy of a child's drawing.

As for me, the pressure of various jobs is starting to ease and I'm now off to get stuck into a another small cockerel panel (like the one on my profile) which was commissioned recently. Will do a few pics of work in progress soon!

Topsy Turvy

We are lucky enough to have a wonderful secondhand bookshop next door to our house. Due to the fact that I am usually accompanied by 2 small rampaging girls, I don't get to spend nearly as much time in there as I'd like, but quite regularly Mike comes back with a little gem he has unearthed. Yesterday he brought home a fantastic book about fairy tales - origins of, illustrations from, original versions...well, you get the idea. I could spend half the night scanning in pages for your perusal, but alas, I have birthday party invitations to design and print off, so I'll just show you this (let's face it, rather haggard) Cinderella:







But hang on, look! Spin her around and there, as if by magic, is her (let's face it, very wizened) Fairy Godmother!



Quirky. Very quirksome.

Ooooh, ooh, one other thing, I just had to show you this most gorgeous print that I saw on the brilliant Loobylu's blog, by artist Vera Brosgol. Hmph, I want to spend an afternoon sitting in a tent knitting wearing stripey socks...

And the winner is....

Yes yes, I know you can choose your winners using this site, but it doesn't make for a very interesting blog entry, so I dusted off the Fez for the occassion and roped in my glamorous assistant.







OK, this time in focus...


So there you have it! Congratulations to Peonies & Polaroids. I've posted on your blog to let you know the good news. And what a lovely blog it is too...I have been admiring some heart-fluttering photos of your recent camping trip. The bird will be (quite literally - ha, and indeed, ha) winging it's way to you asap!