Christmas fair number one: Tonight at The Besom, London SW11.

Sorry to meantion the 'c' word a little bit early but tonight is my first Christmas fair of the season. Ho ho ho. Last year I participated in my one and first Christmas fair, this year I am doing eight. (What one earth have I done??????) But as the song says, it is the season to be jolly and it shall be ace.
So if you are at a loose end this evening around the Clapham Junction area do pop along for some festive treats. 

The Besom Chrstmas fair.
2 CROSLAND PLACE TAYBRIDGE ROAD LONDON SW11 5PJ, 
Tonight 6-9pm and tomorrow 10-4pm... See you there.
Here are a few of my wares on offer:

Battersea:

I will stock the full collection of City Celebration prints, framed and unframed, personalised or unpersonalised. My 'postcards from' illustrations with a couple of new additions to the family, such as the above produced especially for tonight. Framed and signed Battersea Power Station print. £25.

Personalised House Illustration. 

And another newbie on offer, Personalised house illustrations, framed and signed, £40. 

Shopping List:

Dry-wipe shopping list with dry-wipe pen. £8. A classier update to last years biggest seller. 

Crafty Kwak's.

And of course a few Crafty Kwak's bits for the little ones. Colour-in Cards, holds a 6x4 photo, ideal activity for children of all ages to create personalised cards for all occasions. 5 cards with envelopes and a pack of festive sparkles. £4.

Pompoms.

And I had to include a few decorations. Hands up I may have gone a little pompom crazy. I love pompoms. The little lady also shares my love of pompoms. She calls them pong-pongs which has an entirely different meaning altogether in our house (but I wont go there). In keeping with the whole personalised theme... Personalised felt, wool and jingly jangly bell gift tags.

More Pompoms.

And a few matching pompom, personalised jingly jangly baubles. All of these items can be personalsied  with sayings, names and initials.

Even more Pompoms.

These twig star decorations are about 30cm height, which clearly the photos do not show. Lots of pompoms, bells and a punched 'twinkle twinkle little star' tag. They will look fabulous in any home. Price undecided (I had better crack on with that).

Close up.

I made a whole bunch of them, they were fun.

This is only a few of the bits I shall be selling, so if you like what you see and you are in the hood, come along tonight for some festive shopping and mince pies. Its going to be amazing. See you there.

I made this... Market stall products.

My first market is now done and dusted and I survived, whoop. I worked like a crazy girl this past couple of months but it was all very much worthwhile, I pretty much didn't sleep last week, not a wink on Thursday so the actual market day is bit of a blur but I had a super time, sold lots, met lots of new people and had a blast. So the following will be a bit of a photo dump, displaying the wares I carefully created for the event. I have also created a Christmas market folder upon my website, if you wish to see then please click here and should anyone be interested in any of my goods, then give me a shout at queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk. I am so pleased I did this as now I can and have started the cogs rolling to set up an on line shop, hoorah.

So the following were displayed alongside a VAST assortment of my personalised prints and artwork, all framed. I took A LOT of frames with me that day.

Framed cuckoo clock:

Illustrated Swiss stylee cuckoo clock. A blog may follow on how I made this beauty, I am rather loving it. 

DIY Colour-in play library kit:

Role play kit for your little librarian, ready to be fully decorated/ personalised and comes complete with actual librarian date stamp and ink pad PLUS proper librarian edge of your nose reading glasses. Amazing. I wanted to be a librarian when I was little, can you tell?

Illustrated London street sign:

Any street you fancy name it. 

...Here's two I did earlier.

Southfields illustration:

The days biggest seller. A very detailed print produced in collaboration with him indoors, my Mr King Kwak. It is a print of the locale, and the first in a series we have, a blog on which will follow soon.

Photo illustration:

This is a King Kwak special, turn your photos into illustrated artwork. That is me with the bunny ears, looking hot.

Dry wipe shopping list:

Another hit of the day, I sold out of these. Framed print complete with a dry wipe pen. Image available in blue, beige, grey and navy.

Tiara pocket mirrors:

Another good seller, I actually clapped when these arrived in the post.

Christmas colour-in temporary tattoos:

The week before the market I discovered a new world of printing papers, including temporary tattoo paper. This is the first I sampled and I imagine there will be a lot of fun coming up with the other papery discoveries. Oh and the tattoos can be coloured with make up and face paints.

Colour-in activity sheets:

Following on with the colour-in theme I made these sheets for the kiddos to do over the Christmas holidays. To the left a foldable personalised angel for on top of the tree and a mat for Santa's pie/ Rudolph's carrot. To the right a Christmas dinner set, four place settings to pop on top of your plates (before the food) and four napkin rings. I even packaged up and sold packs of Christmas sparkles to decorate such wares.

Garlands:

A bit of festive cheer, I am rather fond of the fairy light one.

Gift tags:

A bit more festiveness. I imagined these as dual purpose, tags or decorations. I think the robins upon a Christmas tree would look rather lovely, may do it myself actually and post pics at a later date.

A few more tags:

A slightly classier gift tag, would also look nice with cream paper wrap/ DIY decorated wallpaper lining paper.

Giant mistletoe:

Pucker up. Double sided hanging illustrated mistletoe.

Cake toppers:

Large banner topper for your Christmas cake and holly toppers for your cupcakes.

Individual prints:

And a whole host of illustrations were framed or sold at full size and postcard size ready for framing.

Market stall:

Shocking photos of the stall I realise, these were very quickly taken with my phone just as the market opened and people came in. Rubbish light but hope you get the idea.

And that's that. So what do you think? I hope you like it all and as I said before if you are interested in any of my goods please do drop me an email at queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk. Right I had better get cracking I now have a 5 years olds royal themed birthday party to organise.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Illustration: Personalised Ballerina Print.

Here is an illustration I originally drew for my daughter the ballerina. She takes ballet lessons, each week she returns and I ask her what she has learnt and each week it is the same thing... smiley feet. Very cute, but it has been a year and a half. So in a bid to encourage her ballerina ambition here is a little print I made for her bedroom, she loves it. Have I mentioned my frame obsession before? There are an awful lot of frames in our house, hundreds, and above is a mere snippet from one of the little ladies bedroom walls.

Casually hanging around:

On a side note I have been a little absent from here this past week as I have in fact been building my website. A proper website, I had a little informal lesson a week or so ago and now I am almost there. This print will be upon it and will be available to be fully personalised. I hope to add a link to my website very soon.

Personalised Print:

Last Christmas the little lady was in a ballet show, in a proper theatre on a real life stage and everything. She was so not happy about it when we first arrived, to be fair none of the under fours seemed to be best pleased, but the teachers told us she will soon love it, and sure enough she did. It was an amazing day for her and us, and here is a little photo of before she went on stage not looking too impressed. 

My daughter the ballerina:

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Life: London Transport Moquette Cushions.

Last Friday King Kwak and myself had a very rare/ possible first day alone together and decided to go for a wander around London town. Now I have no photos of this as I forgot the camera and my phone had no battery but in brief we had a little mooch around Spitalfields Market, was lovely, though not enough second hand/ vintage/ junk stalls for my liking. We did stumble upon the shop Elemental  which was amazing, and we both found ourselves muttering if only we could win the lottery (possibly need to be in it to win it but details, schmetails). We next wandered around Covent Garden and found ourselves in the Transport Museum. Now this is a bit odd as my little chap, the choo choo fanatic was not with us but lucky really as they had some surprising things and we spent rather a while admiring their home items and found ourselves smitten with these two beauties.

Cushioned:

Now I am not one to normally get excited by a cushion I admit plus they are a bit pricier than I would like, but my thinking is if the moquette fabric can withstand trillions of bums and who knows what else per year, then surely they are going to withstand my two little, rather prone to spillages babies for a good few years, or may I say possibly forever? Well lets hope. Plus they are prettily patterned and brightly coloured, win win.

Up close:

The blue moquette is from the Victoria Line, off the newer released trains and the orange check is from the district line 1978. The colours don't necessarily match our kitchen, where they now live, but the trains had meaning to us so that is what we went for, and I do rather like both. If you are looking for a hard wearing cushion, like myself and would like to purchase similar, then head over here. The rectangular one does not seem to be on the website, but there are a lot in the shop.

Yum:

To finish the day we stopped by Chinatown for a spot of lunch and picked up a takeaway to take home for dinner... Crispy Pork, King Kwaks absolute most favourite Chinese food. He was a happy, happy boy.

So do you think these cushions are going to withstand the two babies? And to any other crispy pork fans out there... why oh why do local Chinese takeaways not sell it?

DIY Tutorial: Crate on castor's toy storage.

Crates on castor's, nothing new, I realise that but we needed something for the little chaps growing (scarily out of control) choo choo collection, as he calls it, and a cardboard box just wasn't cutting the mustard as they say but a nice little castored crate would do the job just nicely. I will keep the following simple, as well it is simple and very quick. I realise the internet is full of similar projects but on the off chance there is someone who may think this kind of thing is harder than it is, then hopefully this may be of some help. If not, ignore the writing, you can look at the pictures and check out my boys toy vehicle collection instead.

So first things first, you need to get a crate, you can buy crates on eBay, I believe on average for about £28. This is a rip off, I think they are utilising the crates being everywhere trend and personally I would never pay this, they are probably very nice crates and have been restored exceptionally but to me that is a lot of money for an old crate. My crate is an oldish pear crate courtesy of my dads loft, not an option for you lot, but you can ask in local fruit shops and wine merchants. King Kwak payed £10 for three huge crates, from a small, slightly manky looking hard wear store up by Kings Cross recently, so I suggest looking around before paying lots on eBay. Next you need castor's, mine cost £6.99 from eBay. Again I looked around, but this seems to be the best deal. If you were not fussy on colour, then you will be able to pick castor's up cheap as chips. For this project I have gone for the non braked variety.

Mark Holes, drill holes:

First give your crate a slight sand and remove any splinters. Next flip the box over, place the castor's where you wish them to be, quite near the edge and evenly spaced is advised. With a pen, mark each screw hole, once done pop castor's to one side and drill through each pen mark.

Two minute interval:

Enjoy a little break whilst the little chap comes to inspect your work and drives his little choo choo over the box.

Screw:

You will need appropriate sized nuts and bolts, ours are courtesy of Homebase. Switch the drill to a screw driver, and screw in each bolt.

Nuts and bolts:

Once each bolt is in place, flip the box back over and fasten each nut. We have gone for pretty short bolts so they don't stick up too much. As the base of our crate is slated I added a piece of leftover MDF to the bottom, to stop little toys falling out all over the place. I used MDF as I had that to hand, but I am sure a piece of thick cardboard box would equally do the trick.

Boys toys:

And that is it. Once finished the little chaps toy collection was added and he was good to go.

Playtime:

The box is pretty durable and should last some time, outgrowing his choo choo obsession and into any following collections, and he is very happy to push it around and play wherever he chooses to play. It is also often used as a little cart with his sister pushing him around inside it.

Handles?:

Now I did consider putting handles on the shorter sides. First I was going for a single piece of rope pull, but thought it might not be too safe for the babies, then next I wanted something like this. I soon realised it didn't really need it right now but maybe it will be more suitable later for its next contents.

Cost: Crate: free, castor's: £6.99, nuts and bolts: £1.99. Total: £8.98

Supplies: Crate, castor's, nuts and bolts, drill with drill bit and screw bit, pen and sand paper.

Time taken: 15 minutes, with no baby naps as baby clearly wide awake.

So I hope you like it, again excuse the simpleness of it. So do you have any alternative small toy storage ideas? Particularly those for little choo choo's, and if anyone has any further tips for picking up cheap crates/ wooden boxes they would like to share, I am sure it would be most appreciated.

DIY: Indoor/ outdoor A-frame play tent.

Last summer whilst on a trip at my folks in lovely Devon, I discovered this blog post: A-frame tent and I was absolutely smitten, I had to make this pronto. I looked over to my dad, asked him if he had any 2x1"ish batons, he did, so I told him to get his drill out and off we started, that soon. It wasn't quite that quick to make in total as I needed to gather supplies but all in all I think the two of us finished the whole tent over two morning nap times. My dad cut and drilled the posts and I sewed the fabric and sanded the wood.
For Kwak Palace this tent is ideal, the frame is light and easy to erect/ dismantle and it stores perfectly under the little ladies bed. I did look for the vintage sheet/ crochet blanket combo but the devon charity shops did not prove lucky that day, so I bought lengths of net curtain and green fabric instead. I have since been informed the green fabric is in fact the fabric used to cover snooker tables. I went with green as there is a lot of green in my house, I do like green, snot green a particular favourite, so it is versatile in all rooms really, if the tent fits that is.
I added the red figure of 8 loops to provide a little more support on our wooden floors and I got carried away one day and made a load of wool tassel's to funk it up.

Strike a pose:

The little lady enjoying her tent in the summer, perfect for picnics in the garden with her dollies.

Tassel detail:

My sewing machine technique can only be described as 'wonky', but I am learning.

Casually hanging about:

Perfect for the bedroom, she uses it as a den to play in and also to occasionally sleep in at night.

I can see you:

The transparency is what instantly appealed to me, as if she chooses to sleep in it, I can easily see she is OK, when I pop my head in the door at night. (She is actually asleep in it right now as I type).

Living room:

And as you have seen previously, it was the main act for a spot of autumn glamping fun.

Cost: The batons were free c/o my dad, as was the sewing machine and cotton. Net curtain £2.00, 3x broom handles: 89p each, green fabric £4 per metre, I bought 70cm. Total: £7.47. I already owned all supplies for the tassel's and loops.

Supplies: 2x 2x1" batons, net curtain, snooker table fabric, sewing machine with white cotton, scissors, pen, drill, saw and sand paper. Figure 8 loops: webbing and cotton thread, Tassel's: wool and embroidery thread.

Time taken: 2x morning nap times= 4 hours, not including shopping for supplies.

So have you seen abeautifulmess.com? if not do look. It is one of the first blogs I discovered, and the very first where I had to sit and look through every single post from present to the beginning, it took me days but was well worth it, these girls are amazing. The only downside is they have an absolutely amazing collection of Lotta clogs which I am super green eyed jealous about.