Handmade is made better

Today I met up with my former work colleague/now real life friend (don't you just love it when that happens) Anna in East London for what she called Craftaday.

Yep, definitely in East London!

First up we headed to Spitalfields market for the designers makers market.

Anna is starting up her own business designing fabric and making it into fab things like cushions (check out her blog to see some of her ace designs), so she was scoping out the market to see if it was something she might like to sell at in future.

I was in full on magpie mode - everything caught my eye! There were quite a few stalls selling vintage cups and saucers, so I know where to go in future when I finally get round to making teacup candles. I did buy some lace trim from Bits & Bobs though - two lots of normal lace trim which I think will be good for embellishing pockets, and two bits of elasticated lace, for when I learn how to make knickers!

Excuse the yellowness - complete lack of natural light
when I remembered to take this pic!

My favourite though were these wooden necklaces from Anna Wiscombe. I'll definitely be buying one of these soon.

Then we made our way towards Brick Lane for the Renegade craft fair. 

It was massive! Loads of stalls with a good mixture of things on sale. I bought a few things, but since some of them were christmas presents (organised, I know - I shocked myself!), all I'll share so far are these prints from the lovely Sean Mort.

I've wanted an illustrated/screenprinted band print for a while, but while prevalent in America there seems to be less of them around in the UK. It's been a long hard search I can tell you.

I also bought this print (which he designed especially for Renegade). It seemed rude not to!

Sean's prints are just stunning and simple, and really reasonably priced. I fear this may be the start of an expensive habit!

Some of my other favourite stalls: 

• Ham - I was *this* close to buying a rabbit on a trampoline tea towel
• Lovely pigeon - for jewellry and paper products (and free lolly whistles)
• Joy Nevada - for cute animal tee shirts for little one
• The always brilliant miso funky - I was incredibly tempted by the 'What would delia do' kit
• Birds in hats - name says it all really!
• Oh, hello friend - for all that lovely stationery, like a sewing machine shaped tape dispenser or washi tape, that you really really want but really really don't need. 

This poster (from Bob Motown, I think) really summed up the day for me. What I saw today might not be cheaper than the high street, but then again you probably wouldn't get these things on the high street. The creativity and enthusiasm shown by the designer/makers is infective, and frankly, knowing how much time I spend on things I make, I was more than prepared to pay the extra for their time and effort.

Like it says, ...