February 10 on 10

I took these 10 photos while were were on a trip to Austin for Sean's birthday in january, we stayed at the Austin Motel and wandered around, drank coffee at our favourite coffee shops, Once Over and Jo's and ate some good food at Justine's and the Blue Dahlia

I like that the GIVE UP has a little 'no' added to the original graffiti 

These are all taken with my iPhone, I sometimes feel inhibited by using my big ol dslr, and I can do double exposures with the iPhone which I like.

 Be sure to check out the other photographers who are involved in this project.

Susan Simmons, Marfa - susansimmonsphotography.com

Lesley Brown, Marfa - lesleybrownimages.com

Mary Lou Saxon, Marfa - http://msaxonphoto.com/

Mindy Notley - http://mindynotleyphotography.blogspot.com/?view=classic  

Amber Hockeborne, Marfa - http://amberhockeborne.com/

Holly Everett, Marfa

10 Photos taken on one day and posted on the 10th of every month

I was asked earlier today if I would like to participate in this photography project where we take 10 photos on one day and then post them on the 10th of every month. I have already decided to do another 365 a photo a day, but this seems like a good project , because its different and also that other people are doing it too and that helps my accountability!

I will post links to the other people who are in this once I know who they are, as I only found out about this at around 3 today.

So here we go, a mix of nikon D50 and Iphone photos.

 Sean, my husband

my lucky kitten, Mighty

 Some sparkles left over from xmas

My pink bird and light in my studio

Xmas Amarylis

Lovely colours of leaves

Ceramics made in my Clay and Cabernet ceramics class, picked up today by Ana

Parcel of lush from my sister Rachel in Scotland

More lovely colours

Double exposure of a neighbourhood tree 

Liebster Awards

Quite some time ago Johnny from Feed The Piglet food blog nominated my blog for the Liebster award! If I could I would certainly award him the Liebster again, as I love his blog and his photos are beautiful and he posts lots of really mouthwatering recipes too.
I was rather chuffed and really not sure if I am deserving of this award as I rarely write my blog these days, I often have high intentions to write various different posts but have not done so for ages.
(so I'm going to make a deal with myself to try and write a post per week from now on...)
There is a description below of the Liebster awards:

*** The Liebster, which means ‘favorite’ in German, is a way to recognize your favorite blogs that have fewer than 200 followers. What a great and supportive way to get the word out about up and coming blogs!
When you receive the Liebster award, you are supposed to do the following:
Choose five up and coming blogs to give the Liebster award to. Blogs must have less than 200 followers.
Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
Post the award on your blog.
List the bloggers you gave the award to with links to their sites. Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know they’ve received the award.
Share five random facts about yourself.***


It was a hard choice and I'm not sure of how many followers each blog has but without further ado, here goes:


All the Luck in the World
I love the look of this blog and of course the name too, lot of lovely inspirations and images of what Jane makes and collects.
Anja Mulder
Such interesting and beautiful photos, I discovered Anja through flickr , I wish I took such good photos as I am continually inspired by them.
Cleverbunny

Katy has very recently taken off with her blog and is extremely crafty, lots of good ideas to make where she incorporates her love of thrifting and design. 

Kerrisa Maddocks 

Kerrisa's blog is a sweet compilation of lovely photographs of food and design and her creations, she also writes and does photographs for the DairyMaid Diary.

Kris Atomic

I've just recently discovered this blog through my friend Marisa and immediately liked it with good photos and her own illustrations and she also lives in Brighton, where I'd live if I was in the UK.

And now for five random facts about myself:

1. I love planes and look up into the sky every time I hear one. I had an obsession with concorde, it started when I lived in London and for fifteen years it would fly over my flat twice a day on its way to New York, I could lean out of my kitchen window and see it fly over then run through to my bedroom and lean out there and watch it curve. I can't tell you how many times I did this, and how happy it made me!

2. I have to admit to being a 'cat lady'. I have four cats, all lovely in their own way.

3. Cycling , taking photos and flowers make me happy.

4. I love soul music.

5. I like to eat sardines out of the tin.

Printing Ceramic Decals

We printed some ceramic decals today for my mugs and cups that I make.

I had made so many words using E's and R's that I'd run out of them in each alphabet we'd previously printed.

The process is really pretty intense and involves a lot of mixing stinky chemical bases and using masks to protect us from the smell.

Needless to say its not my favourite job, or Sean's but when I want to have specific fonts or images on my work then it's a necessary evil!

Once it's done I'm always relieved and happy!!

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