etsy craft party

last week I packed my bags and set off to Southampton for the day to join in with an Etsy Craft Party being organised down there by the wonderful Rachel from Oh No Rachio and Harriet of Harriet Gray Illustration fame. it's the first time I've ever been to any sort of online get together thing, and I was a bit nervous as I'm not that great at meeting new people. I needn't have worried - everyone was incredibly lovely, and I had the best day!

below are a few shots, although not as many as I thought I'd have! I got so absorbed in stitching and chatting and stuffing my face with cake that I completely forgot to use my camera!

(almost) everyone having a chinwag at the start of the party

 the first thing we did was get stuck into our goodie bags which were beyond anything I'd dared to hope for - every bag was full to the brim of the most gorgeous handmade bits and bobs donated by a whole host of crafty people

 shameless bit of self-promotion here but these are the treats I contributed to the goodie bags - a vintage postcard with vintage buttons sewn on, plus either a cat or a pug brooch, all packaged up with some twine and a vintage cigarette card (I get WAY too into wrapping stuff up in case you couldn't tell)

one of the most exciting elements of the party (although, let's face it, the whole thing was pretty darn exciting) was the prize draw. everyone was guaranteed a prize (which was awesome because I'm one of those people that NEVER wins anything) but it was exciting to see who would win what! 

I was insanely happy with my prize, which was an original illustration by my bestie Emma Carlisle! (I won the top right one, although secretly I wanted the 'couples' one to gift to Jonathan haha!

Rachel's flat was filled with the most beautiful decorations - when I have a place of my own I'm going to make party decorations a permanent fixture

obviously the thing I have the most photos of is the food - I'm such a pig! but when it's as photo-worthy as this it's hard not to get a bit snap happy! I ate SO much that day (mostly cake and macaroons)

and of course it wouldn't be a craft party without some crafting, right? our craft project was embroidering and embellishing these plain pennant flags (made by Harriet, that girl is too talented!) with motivational quotes to inspire us. I sat for ages thinking of something good to put on mine, but in the end played it simple (as always, ha) and just embroidered 'TRY'. because that is all we can ever really do.

I wish we all lived next door to each other so we could do this every week! for more photos of the day go check out Rachel's blog post (you should check it out anyway as it's such a gorgeous blog filled with incredible photos.)