In Print: Fluffy Pompoms and My Childhood Collections

Two of my projects have ended up in very different places recently...

First, my sky pompom gift-wrapping packs made an appearance in this month's issue of Glamour magazine (December 2016).

There are my pompoms, sitting atop some gorgeous Liberty gift wrap which happens to be my very favourite Liberty print (what a lovely coincidence, huh?).

If you want to add some pompom goodness to your own parcels, I've still got a couple of packs in stock in my Etsy shop - remember to use the discount code HURRAH50 to get 50% off any/all items purchased from my shop until the end of November.

And second - for something completely different - two of my photos have been included in What Can You Collect?, a fab little book from the Superkids Reading Program.

Look! There's my shell collection...

... and there's my eraser collection!

I cannot tell you how delighted I am that photos of my childhood collections are featured in a book for kids about the joys of collecting stuff. My heart, it bursts with happiness.

You Never Know What a Blog Post Will Lead To...

It's just two weeks until Blogtacular - an awesome-looking conference for creative bloggers. I treated myself to a ticket last year and have been looking forward to it ever since (especially after it was announced that Grace Bonney will be the keynote speaker!)

With the conference looming I've been thinking a lot about blogging: why I do it, what I enjoy most about it, where I see my blog heading in the coming months, and so on. Despite an attack of imposter syndrome and occasional patches of blogger's block I've loved my 8+ years of blogging and all the inspiration, connections, friendships and unexpected opportunities that have come along with it.

One very unexpected thing that happened this month was that I did some decluttering, blogged about my childhood eraser collection... and ended up having the collection featured in Mollie Makes!

It is thrilling (if slightly surreal) to have one of my childhood collections in print in one of my favourite crafty magazines - especially as I originally wrote the blog post thinking "this is a bit of a random thing to be blogging about, I wonder if anyone will be remotely interested in this???"

I'm delighted that so many people will get to bask in the glory of my collection (haha) and I hope it sparks lots of nostalgic conversations about the things they all collected as kids.

It just goes to show that you never know what will happen when you press "publish" on a new blog post!

My eraser collection is featured in the current issue of Mollie Makes (#54). Click here for a preview and for stockist info.

80s Child: My Eraser Collection!

My Less 365 project might be finished, but I'm still working on decluttering my space - slowly sifting the beloved, much-used "wheat" of my possessions from the no-longer-loved, no-longer-needed "chaff".

While working on my Less 365 project, I "decluttered" my childhood badge collection: taking a photo of the whole collection as a memento, then keeping just a few favourites with special sentimental meaning. I had totally intended to do this for some of my other childhood collections but not got round to it (oops). 

So, when I found myself at a loose end the other day what did I do? Took photos of my novelty eraser collection, of course!

I haven't counted them, but there are quite a few erasers in the collection!

I think most of them date from the late 80s to the early 90s, basically while I was in primary school and spending my pocket money on cute nonsense like this. I vividly remember buying some of these erasers while on a summer holiday at Butlins, some were obviously bought on school trips and family outings to museums and theme parks (several of which I'd totally forgotten I'd ever visited) and others were gifts from my mother, tucked into the pockets of our Advent Trees.

I especially love the comb and the windmill (it has plastic blades that spin!)...

 

... the smiley-face-in-a-box that I won playing croquet at a friend's birthday party and the treble clef I got when I was taking piano lessons...

 

... the retro telephone and those cute kittens...

 

... the interlocked rabbit and baby rabbit...

 

... and the rainbow clothes peg. So much cuteness!

I'm going to keep just a few of these that tug at my heartstrings - any suggestions for what I should do with the rest? I'd hate for them to just get thrown away, but I suspect that's exactly what might happen if I donated them to a charity shop.

UPDATE: the erasers have found a new home with a collector, hurrah! I donated the money raised to a children's charity - it seemed appropriate given that these gave me so much happiness in my own childhood :)

P.S. for more 80s kid nostalgia, here's a blog post about my sticker album!