Day #1: Eel Pie Island

This time last week I was just getting home from my trip to London! My mother, sister and I went for a summer adventure and spent a little over a week exploring with an old friend of my mother's from grade school who lives there now. The following posts are going to be quite a bit about the things we did there...

In Twickenham, set in the middle of the River Thames is Eel Pie Island. The private island is accessible exclusively by footbridge and is only opened to non-residents on a few rare occasions. The island used to be home to the Eel Pie Island Hotel, which was once famous for performances from many infamous groups such as the Rolling Stones, The Who and David Bowie. The hotel mysteriously burned down in 1967, after which the island became known for being the largest hippie commune in the United Kingdom.

Now Eel Pie Island is mostly home to artists and their eccentric studios. The week we were in London happened to coincide with one of the island’s rare ‘Open Studios’ day and our gracious host took us down along the Thames to see this strange place. 

Read more about our Eel Pie Island adventure after the jump...

Let's Shop Some Independent Artists

Recently I have adopted a new shopping vice. Before it was mostly books. I buy books like women are stereotypically supposed to buy shoes. But really, can I complain? There are worse vices, worse expenditures. I could be buying porcelain baby dolls...or drugs. My new vice is also really quite harmless but super addictive...art.

Not in the framed landscapes, silent auction sort of way. But thanks to Etsy and craft fairs I can get doses of little pieces of affordable art (or crafts). Some recent additions include:

Laura Berger's Feel Better Now Zine, $10

Image from Laura's Etsy

 And boy, did it ever work. I was having a pretty rotten week last week. The USB port on my tablet was broken (solution acquired though!) and my seltzer machine, light of my beverage life, was on the fritz. All my accessories were failing and I was cranky. Then I opened my mail box and found my package containing this adorable zine. How can you stay upset with images such as these:

 

 You can visit Laura's Etsy shop here: www.etsy.com/shop/laurageorge

Okay, so that one was kinda cheating, it's still a book but the next one isn't, promise:

Owl Rattle from Free Ramblin' Folk, $18

Massachusetts College of Art and Design hosts a spring sale every year offering a variety of work from students and alumni with a percentage of  proceeds going the artists and the rest to student scholarships. In all my years as a student, alumni and staff member I have never purchased anything from the sale, till I saw these fine fellows by Fashion alum, Katie Cavacco. I didn't actually realize it was a rattle until I picked it up to bring to the cash register, but I still don't think I would actually let a child sully his wise facade constructed of upcycled felted wool sweaters. He will be the guardian of my books. 

See more in Katie's Etsy shop, here: www.etsy.com/shop/FreeRamblinFolk

Tiny Homemade Shelves

Recently pictures have been popping up all over the internet of those curio cases or old letterpress trays people use store cute quirky little things in, like skeleton keys and old toys and shells. These things are like 'I Spy' on your wall. And I thought, "Hey, I have cute quirky stuff that needs somewhere to go!" But I do not have an old letterpress tray or the know-how to build things out of wood, so I turned to my dear old friend, book board. Who needs wood when you can just draw wood grain?

Now originally, my overwhelming ambition said "Alice, you're going to build a box like 1ft by 2ft. It's gonna be huge, you'll fit all your things in that box." Then I started to do math...

 

Then I started to draw the wood grain...

And then my box ended up being 4 3/4 by 6 inches! Victory!

I rationalize that I can just build a series of them, all catered to the different things I put in them.

 Contained in this box are: a letterpress block 'A' I got on Portobello Road, an old pocket watch found at a flea market, a Totoro my mother felted for me for Christmas (she might be more crafty than me!), an unusual take on the runcible spoon (layman's terms - a spork) and a doughnut Christmas ornament made by my coworker, Jocelyn Gomes, who unfortunately has no website I can direct you to, which is shame because she is fabulous.

Repurposed Christmas Gifts

Around Christmastime we all realize there are lots of people we would like to get gifts for but can't really afford to do so. This year I decided to make something quick and easy to give to the people I couldn't afford gifts for. So I made ornaments and nice little boxes for them to go in.

 

The boxes were made out of (very seasonably appropriate) Trader Joe's bags wrapped around card stock to make them more durable. 

Inside were ornaments made of old Christmas cards and 

homemade paste paper.

Yay! Instagifts!