Gee How Quaint

It's quiet time for Gee How Quaint

As 2011 kicks in to full swing, or rather, as I go running into it at a frighting pace, I have had to make some changes to what's been going down at GHQ HQ.

If you've tried visiting the website, you will have found that it no longer exists.  This isn't entirely a sad thing.  It's a changed thing.  Gee How Quaint tea cup tea shirts can still be purchased through my Notonthehighstreet page, but they are running out very fast.

Although I have enjoyed quite a lot of success with my little venture, I feel that I have to move on.  It was fun while is lasted, but it just isn't ticking those boxes for me any more.  A new project has been born and my mind is ever more focused on trying to establish myself as an artist, and not a maker of knicker bags.

I just want to thank every one for supporting Gee How Quaint, whether it be through purchases or getting the word out.  I am thankful for the press coverage we received and for the great opportunities that cropped up.

To keep up to date on the current project, please visit The Connecting Thread - a personal psychogeography.

 

The Flagephant

These little friends are now residing on my husband's bedside table. Thank you to everyone that has helped to make this possible. Happy 2011!

26 Dec 2010

So. Here we are in that lull between one big party and the next. It's a nowhere place, this in-between time. The boredom is somewhat welcome after being thrown mercilessly into the Christmas Spirit.
This down time does cause a person to reflect. You want to change things. But what? And why? You want to plan something big and momentous for the upcoming year, as if you won't feel tired and dragged down by the tedium of the everyday.

As I think of the year ahead, I am freaking out. I am so excited about the project of creating all those artworks and seeing my big plans come in to being. But what actually freaks me out more is thinking what to do next. What will I be doing this time next year? I've got so many big plans and ideas, well, big ideas really. It's a bit dangerous to start planning at this stage.

Maybe what I shall focus on are all those great and fun things I've done in 2010 and how I will continue to do them in 2011. What is good for the soul? Knitting and soldering with friends, Samba drumming, and general goofing around with my family.

How did you support Handmade this year?

 

This Christmas, I set myself the target of buying as many of my gifts as I could from people I know.  The next option was to buy handmade and of course, to find these little treasures at markets and indie shops.  Here is my list of the fab offerings from creative makers and artists, complete with Twitter names and links to follow and admire their work:

Tea cup and saucer candle made my Victoria McDonald at Victoria McDonald Art

A Venice Calendar for my Auntie - @Starrybluesky Starrybluesky etsy shop

A Venice Brooch for another Auntie - @Starrybluesky (same as before)

Lovely blue bag for a secret santa pressie made by Little Sister Lucy

'The Three Year Old Did This' tote - @HannahZakari www.hannahzakari.com

A gorgeous little Thank You card - @crafthconcept Living with Craft

Groovy little necklate  made by @plasticbat

'Poffle and the Broken Heart' made by @King-Carmen of www.carmenland.com

Christmas cards printed by @KateMcLelland and @paper-robot

A small print made by Kate Wilson @HannahZakari (same as before)

I did make a gift of a tenement for a friend's birthday - www.cassandraharrison.co.uk

 How about you?  What were some of the gems that you found?  Please list a favourite or two and give us the link.

Future Self #Reverb10

December 21 – Future Self. Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?)

In five years time I would be *grumbles an age that you didn't quite hear which seems a bit old but am sure when I get there it won't seem too bad*.

The art tour will be well behind me. I hope to have built up to something fun and exciting and boundary pushing again.  Our family may have jumped from 2 to 5, including the little white dog that knocked me down in the snow yesterday.  My current house is quiet and fairly well-ordered.  My future house will be a hub of activity and busy.  So, I will tell my future self to TRY to not be so damn perfect at everything because you will fail, fail, fail.  So what if there are piles of laundry to do and floors to hoover and dishes to clean.  Just go out and have your fun with Chrissy and Jo or Tilly and Sammy or Danny and Chris.  Go and build snowmen.  Go sledging.  Have your fun and run through the snow.  Because this is the kind of life you have been imagining for years, so you better go out and enjoy it.

How about my former self of 10 years ago?  Well, you've found me at one  of my lowest points, unfortunately.  What would I tell myself?  Don't be ashamed for having found yourself at a women's abuse shelter.  You didn't know it was going to end like this.  It could have happened to anyone.  You've made some mistakes and things will only get better from here.

So good luck, Cass.  You're life is going to be brilliant!

 

Trying and Healing #Reverb10

What is Reverb?  This is Reverb.

December 18 – Try  What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it?

I would like to try...to make a huge throw.  I have bundles galore of  yarn taking up space in my garage (giving warm comfort to zillions of spiders, no doubt).  I have seen a friend of mine, Helena, put together the most exquisite throw by putting together corcheted squares.  I would like to do the same.  Thank you for this inspiration, Helena.

December 19 – Healing  What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

This is quite an interesting question.  As someone who used to pray for healing, this does venture onto the path of my Belief System.  But I'm not going to 'go there' with this post and instead will write about my dog.  I think that pets have amazing 'healing' abilities.  They are ever so loyal and look at you with adoration (as you place the biscuit on the palm of you hand). Josey has sat beside me during some very sad moments.  She just knows.  Maybe she doens't understand, but she knows when I need to sit next to her and hug her.  She's also great for running and playing and hopping around with in the snow.  She makes me laugh. And I think that is quite a healing gift in itself.

Feel free to comment on your own experiences.

Lesson Learned #Reverb10

December 17 – Lesson Learned   What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? And how will you apply that lesson going forward?

Good question.  I have actually had to sit back and think about this for a couple of minutes.  Usually I can fire off answers to these prompts quite quickly. 

I learned that I can dream pretty damn big.  This is down to the art tour I have been planning since 2009.  (To read more about that, visit Heritage Art Tour Blog). The full extent of what I had been planning didn't really hit me until this year, when I started contacting all the venues and firming up dates.  I was met with a lot of 'uh, this isn't how things are usually done' and 'what gallery are you with that is doing this again?' and brick walls and bad days and good days and stumbling blocks and bull dozers to plow through those blocks.  I had no idea what I was scheming until only just a few months ago.  With the shelves of books and paperwork I have accumulated in the past 16 months, the beast of a project is getting restless and wants to get out. 

I think I also learned that I am not content unless I am planning my next big step.  Looking forward in a good way, not in a stressed out way.  I do live in the moment of the day, working as I do, imaging what the end result it going to be. 

How will I apply this lesson?  Hm.  Maybe I need to just learn to accept it.

What about you?  What have you learned about yourself in 2010?

 

My dirty little secret (and other unlikely things in my possession)

Look at it.  Loooooook into the tiny painted on eyes of the cherub.  Be hypnotized by it's saccharin cuteness and incomprensible ability to keep you staring, although you know that the right thing to do would be to look away.

This is my husband's most hated possession of mine.  Every time we move and he sees me put it into a box he begs for me to put it into the bin instead.  He's done this sort of begging 6 times now and still, yes still, the cherub/kitty/music box survives.  Why?  Why you ask, well I shall tell you.

My step dad is a very interesting, wonderful character indeed.  He has tattoos galore, sometimes sports the long hair, is a former biker, former railroad worker and has even jumped from a train to avoid serious injury or possible death.  He gave this cherub/kitty music box to me one Christmas not so long ago.  I love to think of this man, in all of his rough exterior glory finding this little angel, carrying it to the check out desk and telling the nice lady behind the till that this is for his daugther in the UK.  It is because of that image in my head, that I will never part from this very unlikely possession.

To be honest, everything on my Glue It To My Husband's Bedside Table list is something that I dearly love.  (Thus the reason for the water soluble glue). 

The Flagephant was a gift from my mother.  I know she must have felt like her Christmasses had all arrived at once when she found this gem.  When I was younger, I collected elephants.  I think she remembered this and well, to find one decoupaged to within an inch of its life in an American flag, how perfect could a gift be! I didn't grow up with my Mom.  I visited her a couple of months every summer, so really, any attempt to try to figure me out and what I like, I greatly applaud. 

As for the Hay Heart, I received this from a good friend of mine in Switzerland.  The knitted duck is from the guerilla knitting event from last year's Maker Fair in Newcastle and the small painted elephant is from a recent trip to Turkey.

Do you have anything in your posssession that would make people think 'Wait...What?!  You own that?'

 

5 Minutes #Reverb10

December 15 – 5 Minutes Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.

My God.  How depressing.  Okay.  I'm going to skip the alarm bit as I don't feel like I have even that much time to think today. 

What would I most like to remember?  I would like to remember how incredibly helpful my family and new acquaintances have been with the art tour.  I have been in contact with my Grandfather's cousins, people I have never met.  The notes, photos and additional information have been instrumental in the life of this massive art tour project.  The kindness of people can almost bring me to having quite a strong emotion, one of great gratitude that nearly makes me have a little tear in my eye.  I would also want to remember receiving my Roberts Radio as a gift from my husband.  That was ace because of what he said it represented.  He said that it was to show me how much he supports me working from home, creating my little artworks.  We have had our disagreements in the past regarding my jobs (sometimes various, sometimes lacking).   And the shock of seeing a photograph of my Dad with a full grey beard. 

What would you like to remember from 2010?

 

*Update - as of right now, we are only 3 comments away from Hay Heart being tacked down.

Appreciation #Reverb10

December 14 – Appreciate What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

My friends.  The old ones and the new ones.  I wouldn't call them 'things' and when I say 'old' I don't mean that they are feeble and infirm.  Again, this has to do with all the moving around that I do.  I was devasated to be leaving my friends in Newcastle, but I have been very lucky to make wonderful new friends in Edinburgh.  I have been very lucky to land where I've landed as my friends have made trips up to visit. Which is super rad as I can then share my local knowledge, which there isn't much of in my head yet, but I will work on acquiring more.

What do you appreciate? Please feel free to comment.  You know.  For the cause.