From the Archives...

When I created this website, I wanted a fresh start. A new platform (a blog post is coming about that), a new name, a new look. However, when I was putting the last finishing touches on the current site, I felt a pang of sadness. I was more of a dabbling blogger for the few years I was active, but I still had created content that took some effort, and it was sad to throw it away. So, I decided to import all of my old content into this website as kind of an Archive. 

A bit of history

Initially I created a blog on blogger called "Blue Anchor Crafts". In between my history degree and starting my Medical Office Assistant training, I knitted like mad, creating 50+ dolls and selling them to family, friends and acquaintances. I attended a craft fair and sold
a few of my wares. (Last year a donated quite a few of the dolls I had made to a children's charity for christmas.)

Blue Anchor was also my first foray into graphic design and web design. The blog
contained simple graphics, I used Picnik (now Picmonkey) to edit my photos, and
used image mapping to make my links (definitely not responsive!!). It makes me cringe
a little now, but it's the same as looking back at an old sketch book. You need to try to make mistakes and learn. 

Design Disaster Management 

So, I've tried to clean up some of the content - deleting the worst of the cringe-worthy DIY designed collages etc. There are remaining photos that are a little over-filtered. I seemed to have a love of coloured rounded borders that mystifies me all these years later. (I couldn't help it - I cropped those out where I could!) The photos imported a bit smaller than I'd like, but I think it's worth keeping the posts around, even if they're not perfect. 

A lot of the posts from that time are Tuesday Treasures - curated, usually themed lists of goods from Etsy sellers, prefaced with a brief update. It's been kind of fun to read back over the posts as I've been cleaning them up, seeing which year had a cold rainy summer, or remembering my life in the midst of MOA training and how overwhelming that was. Being a bit of a perfectionist, it's healthy for me to include where I've come from, not just where I'm going. I'm sure as my skills evolve, I will always feel slightly contemptuous to what I've created. I'm going to consciously guard against this. 

Anyways, that's the history of the archives on this blog. I hope to keep creating fresh content! 

B is for Beginnings and Blogging

Well, here we are. It’s been quite a journey, even though this blog has barely started. I decided to start blogging a few years ago on a craft blog, sharing knitted dolls that I made. As time passed, I realized that knitting 24/7 wasn’t good for me (or my wrists) so I decided to take a small step back from the “crafting scene” and back to my roots— drawing.

I also finished a Web Development and Digital Media course and started a job as a Graphic Designer. I needed to create a space where I could share what I’m working on, with enough space to grow into whatever these hobbies become. Okay, maybe not hobbies, but until they’re successful and developed, I cringe at calling them business ventures.

I’ve tried attacking this “business” problem from all angles over the last year. I’m going to use this space to document my journey. The internet is disproportionally full of successful entrepreneurs, but there’s not a lot of content on HOW these people got to where they are. I have no illusions that Teacups & Spectacles will morph into a huge successful stationery company… or sell thousands of knitting patterns, but I’d like to see where it will take me. I tend to be a non-risk taker in general (I’m definitely not the girl you’d see sky diving or living on the wild side– minus the tattoos, but they’re pretty) so it’ll be good for me to take the chance.

So, this blog will be a record of this exciting and aggravating time in my life. It will follow ups, downs and in-betweens.  I’ll share whatever knowledge I gain from trying to get into the illustration/stationery biz,  as well as the exciting world of Web Design and if knitting patterns really sell. It’s exciting to start fresh- new name, new space, new ventures. Thanks for joining me!

Let's see some spectacles

Etsy Love - Vintage and Handmade Admiration

I'm a little bit Etsy obsessed, so to make me feel better about perusing the site when I probably should be exercising (shhh), I'll share collections of vintage and handmade items from the site from time to time. Click on the pictures to go to the listing (I'll list them below as well) If you're in love - hopefully you'll make it in time to snap it up!

As you probably can tell, I'm a vintage style glasses admirer. I remember buying my first pair of "out there" frames a few years ago. A brand new pair of pink translucent cat's eyes glasses from Clearly Contacts. I remember thinking they were almost too crazy for work! Bold eyewear is definitely more acceptable (encouraged?) now, which is super fun. I've enjoyed some of my less expensive pairs from Clearly Contacts (seriously - if you don't know, a pair of glasses can be $40.00 with lenses!! It's not as much of a commitment when they're so cheap, which was always the terrifying part when you're shelling out hundreds of dollars for frames at the optometrist.) I've added some sweet 1960's frames (like the guys on Mad Men wear) and a pair of tortoise shell cats eyes to my collection - which probably total to one pair from a shop. 

I've always wanted a pair of vintage glasses. I purchased an inexpensive pair off Etsy a few years back, but they were almost child sized and severely cats eyed (almost vertical!) so I can't help but laughing whenever I try them on. One day I'm going to purchase a real pair of flattering vintage frames. The quality of things back then were fantastic, and the glasses were definitely more intricate and ornate. I enjoy the history behind wearing something from the midcentury era... something someone actually did or could have worn. 

Where to find

• Pink: http://etsy.me/1QR5SbH 
• Blue: http://etsy.me/1FCi04p 
• Brown: http://etsy.me/1e4z11r 
• Gold: http://etsy.me/1RxHkzt

Challenges & Breakthroughs

Sorry things have been rather quiet around here lately. I've been working on the behind the scenes things and things are slowly coming together. It's always easy to plan and dream and brainstorm, but not always as easy to implement these notions. Let's start with the positives..

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The breakthroughs: 

1) I have come up with a way to colourize my drawings to look as good as they can look. While this might seem trivial, it was devastating to create a lovely pencil crayon illustration, that when scanned looked like a bad wax crayon drawing with grey outlines. Now I draw my images in pencil, ink with a fine tipped pen, create a vector outline in Illustrator and colour in Photoshop. It's actually less work than it sounds, and I'm left with clean lines, beautiful textures, and truer colours. I'm very happy about this development. 

2) I've narrowed down the type of paper I like for the cards, and it is quite textured. I normally would have thought the texture would look too old fashioned and take away from the images, but it really sets things off. I'm looking for a bit thicker of a paper, I think. Nice sturdy cards appeal to me. 

3) I've completed Illustrator and Photoshop in school and am thrilled with what in able to do. I was working with a super old version of Corel photo paint... Like 1998... And it's so nice to be able to navigate its programs effectively. 

4) I'm edging closer to HTML and website building and can finally put my plans into action. I've sketched out menus, landing pages, shop layouts etc. and I'm so excited to actually make things work. I did my first HTML class on Tuesday, and I'm super excited to get started!

Stay tuned for the challenges!

Thanks for reading,

-Karen

Ta-Da!

So, here's the new name! I came up with it lying in on a lawn chair on the deck of my parents house. I had written down lists of words and ideas (mostly dreadful) after realizing my current name was too limiting for what I was doing. Reading the "Handmade Marketplace" by Kari Chapin made me see the light...I had pigeonholed myself. Sometimes I just want to share what I'm working on without having to decide if it "matches" where I'm posting it.  After checking idea after idea (it's actually surprising there is anything original left with almost one billion blogs out there in the world, really.) I came up with

Teacups and Spectacles

... and it just seemed perfect.

I didn't want something too specific: (for example: Dearest Doodles must be used for only illustrations... which is much too limiting). I wanted something general that applies to me... no matter what I end up doing.

Teacups and Spectacles is a little bit old lady, which suits me perfectly. I have a china cabinet that I'm proud of, my furniture has doilies on it, I enjoy spelunking in thrift stores for retro household items... oh, and I knit. My favourite days are rainy ones, when I can curl up in a nice zig-zag afghan, drink a nice cup of Murchie's Tea, and draw or knit. It's my creative time, where I can be a little bit of a hermit and get lost in what I'm doing.

I'll have a gallery up and will share a lot of the drawings I've come up with lately. Instead of just referring to the dolls as "my dolls" or "teacups and spectacles dolls" (which is a bit of a mouthful, I'm going to call them Tea-Time Dolls, and will be posting them as they're finished. It matches, I can put that on the tags, and it'll make sense at a craft fair. With my wrist injury (can it be an injury if there was no trauma?) I'll be focusing more on the illustrations for now... as it's my left wrist that's the unhappy one (thank goodness!)

Anyways, that's the new exciting changes around here. I've just simplified the layout with the right colours for now, and will eventually work on a bit more design. 

Thanks for your support!

-Karen