Summer Camp Update

Now that I have McCheek's Academy, where I teach mostly ceramics I really seem to have less time to do things like blog and upload photos to flickr, so I thought I would do a little post about my kids summer camps this year - as more of a reminder for me as much as anything else, even though it is so after the fact!

This year the title was Crafty Boot Camp and the kids came for a two week period, every morning and they made lots of clay projects in the first week and the second week was all a

bout finishing off the ceramics and working on designing and printing t shirts, see below.

They also learnt to do some simple origami boxes and first made their own stamps to print a pattern on the paper for the origami box.

They made books and bound them by sewing them together and they were allowed to choose their own topic on what to write or draw in the book, two of the girls decided to write both of their books about ' Miss Carole's Camp' all unprompted by me.

- Much to my pleasure I must say, this is the first page of one of them...

I also taught cross stitch for the first time, and wasn't even sure that I would remember it at all, but my training from the Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner school way back when did me proud, thanks to Mrs Sharman. We did a simple project which we ended up framing and they turned out really well.

New Book of my Photos

I have to say I really am pretty obsessed with

taking photos, and since I got my Iphone

I rarely use my dslr.

There are so many good photos apps that

I use, but I do have trouble editing

( like anything in my life)

so its hard for me to decide which app

to use or which photo to share, or save.

I did manage to edit this lot of photos

to put in this book that I recently made

for my Mum's birthday,

and it is available on

Blurb to buy too!!

Days of My Life 2nd Edition by Carole F Smith | Make Your Own Book

Part Two of My Loot from Renegade Craft Fair

I'm so glad I decided to get one of these bracelets, it was a hard choice to decide on the colour, so many to choose from but in the end pink won, I did try for the red with studs but wasn't to be. The girl from Thief and Bandit not only makes these but she also hand prints the material she uses, I was rather impressed by that.

My new wrap around skirt, I could live in wrap around skirts, this one is made from linen and handprinted too, from a crafty chick based in Austin - Craft Chi. Its brighter than the original one I wanted but i like it alot and it feels rather comfy to wear.

Talking of new skirts, the day I was leaving for Austin I got a text from Bronwyn of Freddie Barrett Designs to say she'd made me two new skirts, I'm extra happy with them and got to wear them at Renegade. Will get some photos of those soon.

I have to say that this painting of this cheeky bird has to be my favourite thing I got.

I ended up trading this for a Bird Nerd mug .

I had already bought cards from the Mincing Mockingbird so knew his work already and love the expressions on all the birds he paints. His listing descriptions on Etsy are great too.

Finally we got these coasters for Raya for looking after the cat menagerie, they had been printed during the Fair with a very nice small letterpress printer, but I don't know who made them? Woops.

The card below got me as I love shoes and trainers and the message inside is great, which I only discovered once I got home! But can't tell you what it is, check out Vrooooom to find out.

Showing off my 'loot' from Renegade Craft Fair

Part of being at Renegade Craft Fair for me is selling and displaying my work and the rest is meeting people whose work I already know , buying from other makers and swopping work.

So this post is all about what loot I came back to Houston with.

First ,Sean bought me this tote bag made by FifiDuVie,which struck me with its simplicity and its just the sentiment I like

I picked this magnet from Pommes Frites booth by dipping my hand in to the stack and I think , no, I know I want to go to Sydney, so this is the start and I now have my magnet to remind me. Kristen made lots of fantastic stuff and her booth was beautiful too.

16 Sparrows made this packet of airmail stickers, and stamp gift tags and a free pencil too, thrown in the bag for good measure

I traded this chihuahua necklace( which you can hardly see in my photo) fromVerameat and Vera got a Bird Nerd mug and some mini owls, she also had lots of other rings that I wanted but most of them were too small for my big crafty fingers

I met Chris from Corky Saint Clair,and couldn't believe he came all the way to Renegade from Melbourne. This is one of his 'birdy' white perspex necklaces

........more loot showings tomorrow

Renegade Craft Fair

I'm getting all prepped to go to the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend in Austin, been doing masses of work, frantically, and firing the kiln non stop, I even got up at 6am this morning for an early firing which is pretty unheard of for me, maybe I should do that more often as I've got loads done already.

Still got lots to do, but getting there and getting excited to see what else is there, and meet more like minded folks

I got more 70's vintage molds and decals and have cast new pieces and finished them off in the 'McCheek' way, even got the gold lustre out too, its real gold don't you know?

Tiki cup sets in orange and red and turquoise

Owl cookie jar and its little mates

......and of course we know that McCheek loves cats

Parcels come and go and come back again

I had a funny thing happen last week, the milk jug that I sent on 17th October to Australia came back in the same box, unopened all wrapped up and in one piece, it had travelled to the other side of the world on a three month trip, shame it didn't get to see the sights of australia ( just like me)

It had been bought by a sweet woman in australia who, three weeks after buying it, contacted me and asked if I knew where it was, in the end I sent her another similar milk jug and it got there in good time.

I've never had a parcel go missing before, and I didn't think much more about it, until last week, when I checked over the address and realised I had forgotten to write the street name and number - woops, Carole, doh, :)

So sorry Lisa, for me being such a divvy!

Little Milk jug , back safely from its travels

At the end of last week, I realised I needed to get a valentine card for Sean, so I looked up Bread + Butter and found the one I wanted, I sent a little pleading note to them to see if they could get it to me in time for Monday 14th, I got a sweet note back saying she had taken it to the post office that night, and .... it arrived in time, on the right day, in a brown hard back envelope with lots of stamps (my favourite) on it. Sean was very pleased and said it was beautiful ! - I love their word pressed cards.

(the picture has T Bones paw in the corner- incase you were wondering)

The other parcel I got last week was from Anja Mulder, she takes the most amazing still life photographs and had some made into postcards, I had ordered some and they arrived beautifully packaged all the way from Holland

this is her photo below packing them up

Part two of 365 Photo Project

I'm posting the second half of the year of my 365 Project and we're now into the second

week of January 2011 and I feel like I'm missing something from my life, because it had really become a good habit to remember to take 'that photo' every day .

I havn't yet made the commitment to even start the project late, not that it really needs to be started at any particular time, as I'm not sure I want to do that exact project again, perhaps something different, like a photo of myself every day (could be cringey) or make something every day like Noah Scalin tells us about, which is very inspiring , but extremely daunting too, and I'm tempted, but if I'm brutally honest, I'm scared of the commitment for that one too.

I'm extremely indecisive this week, so maybe next week I'll take the plunge and go for another 365 'something'.

Does anyone have any suggestions they can throw my way?

A photo a day for a whole year - Part One

Well I finally finished my year of taking one photograph each day - my 365 Project.

It wasn't just about taking a photo a day, but making it a meaningful photo every day, something that would remind me of that day when I looked back at it and something

to record a feeling or event that happened.

Some days it was really easy and some days it was hard to be inspired, overall it was a really enjoyable project, and I only cheated ( forgot to take a photo on a particular day, and added one from a different day ) a few times through out the 365 days. I like most of the photos but not all of them were something I would have posted if it hadn't been for the project.

I started the year just using my Nikon D50 , but I got my iphone in late january which helped to give me some good 'vintagey' looking shots with the many apps that I've become obsessed with.

I am posting the first five 36 grouped photos and will post the rest in my next blog post.

I was going to explain some of them , but I have trouble editing my thoughts and feelings, so I'll leave that to you .

All the titles are in my flickr set of the project.