Phew! What a week!

Earlier on in the week I found out one of my loo roll dolls was in a storque article on etsy. http://www.etsy.com/storque/etc/keep-it-weird-excretions-and-secretions-5354/

Perhaps not exactly the classy association that the girls would like lol! Publicity is all good and my views flew up for the week. Thanks etsy!

Also one of my ribbon necklaces has been chosen for a treasury by www.thegoblet.etsy.com very cool! Here it is: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=70399

Andrews dad passed away at the beginning of the week and so the week has been full of funeral organizing, tea making and everything else that goes with that sort of thing. We’ve both been a pretty shattered and exhausted.

The big ball of odds and ends got a bit of a workout as there was some waiting around, here is the progress so far. I think it’s quite effective and slightly funky now I just need to recharge a bit and think what to do next.

And on a happier note spring is definitely here, our irises and fresias look lovely, the clocks have gone forward for daylight savings and our evenings are getting longer.

Hoarding Brightly

I’m a bit of a hoarder and Andrew is a bit of a collector, I’ll let you create your own mental image of what that means to the inside of the cottage :-)

After a year or so of full-on crocheting I seem to have horded the last meter or so of every yarn I’ve ever used. Those bits that will come in handy for something, sometime. We had a bit of a tidy up yesterday and voila; a plan!

This afternoon I sat and tied it all together to make into a big ball and I now have my crochet hook at the ready to make….. something….. I think I might do a circle and maybe then it can be fashioned into some kind of purse. As you can tell this plan is as clear as mud in my head!

Who knows – whatever it becomes it might be the next BIG thing :-)

I’ve also been attracted to some really bright and fun yarns lately. As a result there are some pretty funky new coasters in my etsy shop all green and orange with a splash of yellow.

I was also inspired to zoop up these brown and green granny squares with some lovely bright yellows and made it into a scarf which I’ve popped into my ArtFire shop.

Introducing Sam and three other happy things

One

On Sunday at the Arts and Craft market I met a fellow etsy seller. It was really cool. I read on the etsy forums about teams all meeting up and people in the same area getting together and I have been a little bit jealous. There seems so few of us in NZ that to actually meet someone else doing the same sort of thing gave me a real buzz. I doubt if it was such a highlight for her though :-)

Two

Today I made my 2nd sale on etsy. It's so exciting to send my things to other countries. That someone has seen something that I've made and want to buy it... I've been grinning all day!

Three

Andrew won a prize in the colouring competition. His fabric collage came 2nd. Hurray!

Sam

Introducing another etsy hooker team member www.samscrochet.etsy.com
Sam is having a special sale on the 24th September, plus there 20% her hats for September!


Sam also has some really fantastic bags which are very reasonably priced!

Rosette & Pizza

It was NZ Safety at Home week last week. As part of the entertainment/education at work there was a colouring competition for 5 different age groups. Yesterday we decided we needed rosettes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd winners to go with their (incredibly cool) prizes. The commercial ones were going to take 4 weeks to get to us, so I surfed the net and put up my hand. I had great fun, apart from a couple of stabs with the needle, oh and I'd forgotten just how hot the hot glue gun makes the glue :-)
Hopefully the kids will like them. And fingers crossed for Andrew's entry the adults prize is very fab!. He used fabric and made a collage. It's judging day tomorrow. I think his is the best one there, but I may be slightly biased lol!




I just put this in my Etsy shop with the description as "Red and green can never be seen, except upon a beauty queen" which was a saying I learnt from our mam, and it had another version, "Red and green can never be seen, except upon an Irish queen" I have no idea where they come from....

Andrew thinks it looks like tomatoes and capsicum, or maybe a pizza..... I wonder if that would make it a big seller ? ? ?
Maybe uniform for a pizza delivery firm ? ? ? :-)

Smell-o-vision

It would be so great to have smell-o-vision! Why, when it's been talked about for so long, has no-one actually invented it? Some of the Etsy sellers have great looking soaps and I'm sure it would help their businesses! And you would be able to smell how lovely the Jasmine is :-)

It grows all over the bamboo at the back of the orchard and up the drive, it doesn't seem to last long, and when it does it's so lovely. I think in some places it's a noxious weed which is such a shame, this morning I picked a big bunch for the cottage, it smells so beautiful.

Yesterday I popped into Spotlight in Hamilton and went a bit crazy in their yarn sale. One of the things I bought I made into this choker. When I was making it last night it reminded me so much of a dolls evening dress that I think my aunt made for my sister when we were really young. It was incredibly glamorous :-)

I though I might wear one of the chokers tomorrow at the Bethlehem Arts and Crafts market to attract buyers.

How are you finding the new look super-posh blog?

Kakarikis and a Posh Blog

I’ve been trying something different with all of the ribbon I’d bought to do my crochet art with. I’ve made about 6 of these now, I have a couple that I wear and others are in the shops. I love them, they make me feel very Victorian and elegant :-) plus they are very comfy to wear.

I’ve been on a health kick for the past few weeks, and with the change of season we’ve been taking advantage of the lighter mornings and been getting up at 6 and going for a walk. We walk up the hill to the back of the orchard and I like to stop and wash my face in the dew (hmm sounds a bit hippyish, but I’m sure I read somewhere it was good for your skin)

And even though it’s early the thing that puts a big smile on our faces is seeing the Kakarikis. They are parakeets and we call them the Berts.... just because lol.

They travel in pairs and we’ve been seeing about 8 of them in the mornings. They follow us up the road going from tree to tree just ahead of us. I’ve tried to take their photo they’re way to quick for me! They are very brightly coloured and shout their hellos as they are flying, it’s a great way to start the day!

I seem to learn something new everyday at the moment, anything from stuff you can do on Google to see if anyone is talking about you, to making the blog look fancier! So tonight I’m going to have a look here http://www.shabbyblogs.com/ and have a play. Be prepared next time you visit to go: “Wow! What a posh blog!” :-)

Team Mates and Dirty Dancing

I have to mark the sad occasion.


Patrick Swayze surely made every girl want to learn to dance, and I don't mean ballet (which is very cool!), I mean the whole hip grinding sexy stuff :-) Let's be honest, when Time of My Life plays on the radio, who doesn't re-enact the scene where baby goes across the bridge counting 1, 2 3, whether you're in your kitchen, lounge or walking down the road? I know I was doing it in the staff room at work today! :-)







And now to the team mates,

I'd like to introduce my next Etsy Hooker her blog is here:

http://bowenism.blogspot.com she's into her fitness at the moment :-)



and her etsy shop is here: http://www.Bowenism.etsy.com.



The couple of things I've chosen to show you are the dead cute happy doll, makes me smile :-)






And one of her felted bowls, (she has a few so it was a hard choice).




I've got a thing for felting at the moment, I'm amazed that things are made and then felted and still have some semblance of shape or usefulness. My felting experience being limited to old sweaters that someone has already knitted and I just want to cut up :-)