have yourself a merry little Christmas

The pressies have been wrapped, the oven has been running red hot all afternoon and the place is tidy (well, relatively tidy!). I think we are just about ready for Christmas!

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and a very happy and safe New Year. I am looking forward to lots of rest and relaxation.

Below, some flower pressie toppers made out of cupcake cases!

laughs & lovely purses

We are off to see Rhys Darby tonight. He plays my favourite character from Flight of the Conchords, Murray. I have never seen a stand up show of his before so hope it is a laugh!

I have also been busy sorting out bits and pieces for Kraftbomb tomorrow. I am taking along these little chocolate coloured felt purrsies I have hand stitched. They come in 3 thread colours - lilac, seafoam and pink. And inside them you will find a small assortment of hand cut vintage stickers. I have a limited number of these to sell!




Enjoy your Saturday night and see you all tomorrow! x

in need of last minute gifts?

My sis and I will be at Kraftbomb this Sunday.

Buy handmade this Christmas and save yourself from the insanity at the mall!

And come and say hi!

the happenings of late...

I have been a busy Bee lately! Sorry no pictures this post as they would all be a blur!

So much has been going on! Work parties, making stuff for Kraftbomb, dinner outings, birthdays ... plus all the usual stuff; work, cooking, cleaning, tidying... And did I mention Christmas?! Oy.

Speaking of birthdays, I turned 27 the other day. I can't believe it! Other people don't believe it. I still look like I am 17. However, turning a year older meant I was entitled to receive my share of birthday presents, and who doesn't like presents? This year I was very spoilt. My favourite pressie was my iPod touch from hubby, which is very handy. I check my emails and the weather before I get up in the morning :-) Helps to decide what to wear. Oh, and I can check on my favourite blogs, which grow in number every day.

And Christmas. Oh Christmas, how you have crept up on us so fast. The tree is up and most of the shopping is done. We watched Elf last night too to get in the Christmas spirit. If you havn't seen it I recommend you do. If only just for Zooey Deschanel. I am such a big Zooey fan. I will have to do a Zooey post one day because I am that much obsessed!

Anyway, time to hit the hay.
Sweet dreams!
x

craft inc.

I am very excited that I have my own copy of Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco on the way. I purchased this for my sister last Christmas from Amazon.com. When I returned to the site to buy myself a copy it was sold out and wasn't in stock for months. I decided to check back today and found it in stock, but with the poor exchange rate it was going to cost over NZ$50 with shipping! Luckily I did my research and found it on GoodBooks NZ. I had purchased a book from them before but did not think they would have it. Anyway, it was NZ $32.38 inclusive of shipping. And 100% of the retail profits go to Oxfam. Great!

December will be our third Kraftbomb so hope it gives me some crafty business nous!

Check out the GoodBooks NZ website here.

goodbye november, hello december

We had a wonderful time again at Kraftbomb yesterday. The weather was absolutely beautiful! Saw so many female shoppers in lovely sundresses on the day... I was very jealous and dying in my jeans! What was I thinking?!

Thanks to all who came along and said hi. It is always nice to meet new people!

I picked up a copy of the Cardboard Box zine, issue #2 which I read before bed last night. And I also picked up a beauty on my way out the door. A little vintage Trifari enamel anchor brooch, a steal at $2 from the jumble sale in the foyer. I googled the name and apparently it is by a well known costume jewellery designer from the 30's-60's!

Well... I am off to do the big tidy up. My workspace is a mess! If you are a vendor at Kraftbomb you will know what I mean.

Enjoy your week and welcome to December! x

niella and the stall

anchor brooch

busy bee...

I had just had two Etsy purchases arrive in the post. Yay! They will be excellent Christmas gifts.

Kraftbomb is this Sunday. I have been busily making things.

Here are a few of my handmade Owlies which would look great on a Christmas tree. I have already received an order for four from a friend so hope you will like them :-)

a sweet find...

A month or two back I went across the road to the Mt Eden Antiques Fair. Boy was that fun! I picked up this little '70s recipe folder. Now the little girl illustration has a name, the seller told me it and I wrote it down somewhere, but for the life of me I cannot remember...

Recipes for Candy! A little pouch to pop your recipe cut outs in.

The previous owner left their recipe for fruit puffs. How thoughtful...
Looks like it could have been from an Edmonds packet or something.

november Kraftbomb!

Come one, come all to the next Kraftbomb! My sister and I will be there, sharing a little halfie (lots of vendors and not enough tables! My my it is becoming popular!)

And please do come and say hi, I am very friendly. Heehee.

Enjoy your weekend!

fuse beads

I visted the toy store yesterday (for my nieces and nephew) and ended up leaving with a toy for myself!

So I wasted much of a sunny Sunday afternoon with these..


I don't think I had these as a kid. It's super fun, you just place your plastic beads on your peg board, cover it with a piece of baking paper, iron it and hey presto!

Probably not an environmental friendly toy, but fun none the less.

Obama wins... and I make muffins

Wow! What a day in politics.

I decided to celebrate this moment in political history by doing some baking. How exciting am I! Plus, I was bored and the rain was messing with our TV reception.

I decided these would be my aptly named Obama Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. They are actually just called Chocolate Banana Muffins, from an Alison Holst book but that's just plain boring.

If you have a few bananas in your kitchen that are beyond lunchbox quality why don't you give it a go.

2 cups SR flour (or I used 2 cups of plain + 2 tsp baking powder)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 chocolate chips (you could use more if you are nuts about chocolate)
1/2 tsp salt
100g butter
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup of mashed bananas

1 - In a large bowl, stir together the flour, caster sugar, chocolate chips and salt.
2 - In another bowl, melt the butter, then add milk, egg and vanilla. Beat well.
3 - Mash bananas and stir into liquid mixture, mixing well to combine. Tip into bowl with dry mixture.
4 - Fold everything together carefully until flour is dampened. Don't over mix.
5 - Spray muffin pans with non stick spray. Spoon mixture into pan.
6 - Bake at 220 c for 12-15 minutes, until muffins spring back when pressed in the centre.
7 - Enjoy! And try not to eat the whole lot in one go. Very tempting...

Jim Houser...

I love how he uses text with images, his choice of colour palettes and how he can draw a perfect cowboy hat.

His art is my desktop wallpaper, I own his book and I would love to own an actual artwork one day.

Oh, but to dream.





Pics from jonathanlevinegallery.com

my very first Kraftbomb

My sister Nie and I had a lot of fun at our first Kraftbomb yesterday. The morning rain was a bit of a pain but it brightened up around noon and it turned out to be a glorious day. I sold a couple of manila bird cards, gift tags and felt owls, but not as much as I had hoped. All good experience though!

Met some really nice people and I knew a few of the other vendors so that was nice. I found that time passed quite quickly and I didn't get a chance to see what everyone else was selling! Overall, an excellent day and well worth the time and effort.

And... on returning home I received a very nice surprise. Gemmy, a gorgeous owl by Becky, who was selling her amazing art at Kraftbomb. Adorable!

october is...

...is orange and red and brown.

See the leaves all tumble down!
Rake them up into piles so high
You can jump in them, and flop, and lie.
Now the farmer harvests his hay.
The barn is filled, And every day is growing shorter.
We have to wait the whole long month for spooky Halloweén.
What are you going to be? A ghost? A witch?
Or a queen?

from Merry Months of The Year,
Patricia Scarry.

I'm not into Halloween myself but thought I'd share these cute illustrations from a Richard Scarry book!

Another cute thing... Pumpkin Owls! I saw this on a Martha Stewart podcast and thought this was a nifty idea. I am unsure of where you could get perfect pumpkins like these in NZ though! You can download the free podcast from the iTunes store.

sunny days

Today has been so lovely and warm. I can't wait for summer!

On sunny days I like to take my Holga out. If you have no idea what a Holga is, it is a medium format camera. It looks and feels like it could be a toy, but it produces these fantastic, sometimes slightly blurred, dreamy shots. With every click you never know what you will get! I love digital cameras but for me there is a certain charm using a manual film camera. Having to adjust and wind from frame to frame just makes me more aware of what I am actually doing - and capturing. I remember my Mum having an old camera with a flash you attached that looked like little icetrays!

If you want to learn more, click here. But, beware. You may become addicted!

Anyway, here are a few of my favourite pics I have taken with my Holga. I don't take the little gem out as much as I should, but I will endeavour to this summer.

I would love to own every single camera of the lomographic family. I think a Diana might be next... x

october Kraftbomb!

I will be there! Will you?

Hope to meet lots of other crafty people and buy a few Christmas presents. Or presents for myself!

martha + me

I've been at home today feeling not so great. It's pouring down with rain outside so I am having a lovely time sitting in bed surfing the web.

I found myself looking on Martha Stewart where I came across these pretty pictures of Minhee + Truman Cho's school themed wedding. The pair have a design company called paper + cup which I stumbled across some months back and quickly saved to my favourites. I love the "report card" style stationery, which all slots into a little manila folder. Great idea!

I love weddings and how they can reflect the personalities and quirks of each couple. I am hoping as my friends and I get older I will be invited to a whole lot more of them!

And that last pic is for a special someone who is obsessed with paper bags. Heh. x

All pics courtesy of Martha Stewart.com.
You can view the whole set of Minhee + Truman's pics here.

spending pennies

I purchased a few things on TradeMe tonight (sssh!) which I am very excited about. They are for an upcoming craft project so I cannot divulge yet! Cannot wait until they arrive in the mail.

This got me thinking of other great little finds and knick knacks I have come to acquire.... from TradeMe, from thrift stores, from markets and antiquey places.

~ Mr + Mrs Owl S & P Shakers ~

~ An Antique Shop Find ~

These two lovelies will do for now as I have many more to share later.

beginnings...

After much nagging from my sister, I am now the proud little owner of my very first blog.
At first I thought it was a brilliant idea but was somewhat doubtful. Do I have time to make a blog? How do I start a blog? What would I write in this blog? Who would read what I wrote? More importantly, who would WANT to read what I wrote?
Such questions plagued my simple brain. But, after days and months of contemplation and 99% procrastination I decided, meh, I'll create one. Everyone else is having fun blogging so why can't I?

So here I begin... x