MACRO Monday - Roasted Garlic

This purple garlic was roasted for some delicious tomato soup I made - a la Donna Hay! It requires a whole head of garlic roasted with about 12 vine ripened tomatoes. It is soooooo yummy!! Soooo simple :-) My favourite part is squeezing out the soft garlic into the food processor :-) mmmm gooey garlic. I hope you had a great weekend.

Another use for crocheted circles

I quite like this little headband, I found I have so many big circles from my doily's that I need to use them up somehow...

Friday Favourites - Travel

These stunning photos of Prague were taken by my dear friend Merryn on her babymoon (pre-baby holiday) a couple of years back. I love the sky and it makes me want to jump on a plane and go there!!! I did my first trip overseas when I was just 19yrs old. I had been working for 3 years and no-one else could afford to go with me or get the time off so I decided I would still go. A pretty brave decision, now I look back on it. I did catch the bug though and travelled alot over the next 10 years. The travel has slowed somewhat.... and our last o/s trip was NZ which hardly counts ;-p I would love to go to Europe with Gordon one day.... Happy weekend everyone x

Customer appreciation photos

I love seeing what my handmade stuff actually looks like on the little heads that receive my goodies. These are my cousin's gorgeous girls 3yrs and 10months. It is the same linen headband on soft elastic.

Stitches and Craft show

With my free tickets in hand, I went on my merry way to the Stitches and Craft show with my Mama, Auntie, and cousins! We had a great day - my favourite part was of course the Incubator! Please excuse my mobile phone photos - everyone thought the other person was bringing the good camera ;)

• Crochet Cool display - Luisa De Santi - very cool
• Yana & Gret
  
• Me (far right)with the lovely girls from Ink & Spindle (boy I look tired - this was only at 10am) - they are as delightful in real life as you would think
  

The highlight was meeting some of the bloggers that I follow and seeing their stuff in person. I was sooooo self controlled in buying! Very proud of myself! I did get some Ink & Spindle fabric and a Kristen Doran small bundle. I am a new fan of Kristen's work, she has some gorgeous prints and was really lovely to chat with. It's a shame we couldn't take photos of the stands to share but Kristen has some on her blog Cheeky beaks. I was awake for 2 hours on Sat night dreaming up my stall layout for Handmade! Not that I haven't thought about it 100 times, must have been all that visual stimulation....

MACRO Monday - Bluebell

Isn't this a divine little specimen. I took the weekend before last at Commonwealth park in Canberra, where they are busy growing bulbs for Floriade. I'm not sure if it was wild or not but very very cute.

Friday favourites - Butterfly Chandelier

This gorgeous, uplifting butterfly chandelier from Lladro is worth a mint (just under $100,000k) but it sure is pretty!!! Found on a charming blog called Something Old - Something New and came to me via Marketgirl, I had to share it with you!

What a funny old week it has been, we had Mummy melt-downs, sml child melt-downs, great days, sucky days and a house guest who got the fright of her life when met in the hallway at 3am one morning by my hubby, wielding his hockey stick! Since the Mothers Day incident - all house guests are warned quite seriously to turn the light on when making any trips to the restroom or kitchen! Fortunately is was Gordon's cousin and she spoke up rather quickly... I lay away for some time, giggling every time I thought about it! Could have been disastrous... have a great and SAFE weekend.

A Little Red Ribbon shop opening!

My cousin Gret has opened a delightful Etsy store called, A Little Red Ribbon. Make her feel welcome and go for a wee browse and maybe pick up something special. I am not just saying this because we are related but I LOVE her stuff and I think we all have our eyes on this blue bird beauty.

Re-purposed Doily Ring

Trial ring - it's a keeper... just wondering if I should keep the doily soft or stiffen it?! I'm not all that into pearls but they seem to go with crocheting so well! It will be nice to have a few non-hair things at my stall!

I won tickets to Stitches and Craft!!

I almost forgot to share, I won tickets to the Stitches and Craft show yesterday which is lovely because I am going with Gretel, Yana, my Mum and Auntie this Sat!! Thanks Handmade Market Blog!

Etsy Treasury - Calm Beauty featuring Grace Designs

It's always a thrill to be included in a treasury and this one made my day! And a lovely treasury it is, by Gillian at eclecticmoi.etsy.com

Thank you!

New headbands for the markets

I think these will look really sweet on some lovely little heads! They look a little like African Violet flowers? What do you think? These are for the Handmade Markets - only 4 weeks to go people!! eeeee

Macro Monday - Gingerbread biscuits

Gingerbread Cookies

• 2 cups SR Flour
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon .....mix all these together in a mixing bowl
• 50g butter
• 3 tablespoons Golden Syrup
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar ....melt together in a saucepan, stirring until butter is melted.

1. Then add 3 tablespoon cream to the butter mix and stir into dry ingredients until a good consistency dough is formed. Add more cream if needed.
2. Roll out on a floured surface and cut to the shapes you like. Roll together the scraps of dough and cut out shapes again. You can do this many times until all dough is used as it rolls out very well.
3. Bake 10mins at 180*C...makes about 30 gingerbread men. Turn trays half way through cooking to cook evenly. They don't spread much so you can put close together on the baking tray
   

Last week before Anya got sick we made Gingerbread biscuits - it was so much fun! Thanks Gwennyth for the recipe. I let Anya roll out the dough but every time I turned my back the dough would disappear, her chubby cheeks chewing as fast as she could to eat it all before she was busted, it was hilarious. She actually didn't enjoy the baked biscuits as much for some reason but we sure did! We had lots of leg-less gingerbread men. The perfectionist in me sat on my hands and let her cut out her shapes - it was well worth the constraint on my behalf to see her have such fun :-) I might try chocolate ones next time without the spices and add almond meal or something!?

Friday favourites - Vintage sewing books

I picked this book up at the last Lifeline book fair (next one in Canberra: 25-27 September 2009) and had forgotten about it until I poked through my linen cupboard yesterday morning. I haven't even had a good look through yet! It was published in London in 1964 and has some really great advice on cutting/tailoring patterns in it. Even though it's circa '64 many of the patterns can be adapted to today's fashion. It is a follow up to Natalie Bray's Dress Pattern Designing book. I have never really drafted my own pattern - the most daring I got was inserting a train into a formal outfit for a Hollywood themed work Christmas party. I am itching to do some sewing of my own though! Have a great weekend.

Handmade market production line....

Some of my lux line for the markets - I seriously can't make too much of the one thing, I get bored..... and some of the layered flowers are made from pre-loved left over fabrics, so once they are gone... that's it! They look so edible all together. Only 4.5 weeks to go!!!!

Handmade Linen headband

This is how my sister in law, Kate wears her linen headband I made her! It's not just for the kiddies!! Another friend shares hers with her 5 yr old daughter! Cool that they suit all ages! Kate sold another three headbands for me by wearing hers to school! Nice work sister, I should pay you in handmade flower commission!

MACRO Monday - Jonquils

Happy Monday everyone... How was your weekend? Mine was a little uneventful but that's ok! I did do the usual market prep... oh my goodness - I had better sell stock! Oh and my darling daughter has been a pain in the butt with eating dinner for months now (she's 22 months) but on Sat night she grabbed my bowl of pasta leftovers and hooked in! I nearly fell off my seat - what a lovely change... then she ate... I kid you not... 7 pancakes!!!!!!!!!! It was the highlight of my weekend!!! Yes it was :-) Jonquils from my mama's garden.

Handmade organza flower rings

What do you think?! This is my first little prototype - not sure about using organza and the little piece of red felt doesn't show up quite so drastically in real life.. the colours blend better but I'll try and hide it on the next one. Just playing around on a suggestion to do rings... only 5 weeks to go till Handmade market! eeeek!

Something pretty to look at for the weekend....

My Nanna lent me this gorgeous brooch for a Vintage themed party I went to last weekend! I of course put it on a headband ;p and wore it as a hair piece! The brooch has clip earrings that pop out too - how cool.

Friday favourites - Nett magazine

Not very sexy but jam packed full of useful, relevant articles and tips! Nett magazine is a really easy and beneficial read. It is all about taking your business further online. Great for first time business owners and small businesses particularly... Great advice online also with past articles and info on technology, marketing, communications, finance and people to name a few. I'm not sure if there are many others out there like it but I find these sorts of magazines very helpful to small fish like myself.

Peridot is the colour of August...

So in celebration I made a few green things on the weekend for my Etsy store with my left over bridesmaid fabric - love that colour.... I am in love with my new friend Satine (Moulin Rouge) or Celeste, I can't decide what to call her - it has to sound French either way. My lovely friends Jet and Christine bought her for me to use at the markets - it was the loveliest surprise, I shed a tear :-) I loved using her for this photo shoot... she will be a regular feature around here!

Theming for Events

Sometimes I like dreaming up the theming for events more than I like executing them! I do love doing all the prop research etc too, especially if it's an interesting theme! Every party, 'do' has to have a theme!!! Whether it's an engagement party, birthday, wedding, baby shower, kids party! There are soooo many resources out there at your fingertips.

The best and first thing to do when you have settled on a theme is to grab your notebook and write down every related thing that comes to mind when you think of your theme, i.e:

"Bling, Bling Blowout" conjures up a few things like:

• BLING - aka sparkly jewellery etc....
  
• Diamantes
• Money
• Platinum
• Silver
• Gold
• Champagne
• Luxury
• Opulence
• Overboard
• White

Then you would take elements of your list and turn them into theming for decorations, food & beverages, what to wear, invites, music and most importantly the mood! The first few minutes of somebody arriving to your partay can really set the tone to the evening - so make a great impression - it doesn't have to cost the earth, get creative.

Colour is a lovely theme and it's easy. The lovely wedding blog Snippet & Ink creates these beautiful mood boards, you can really get inspired by - not just for weddings. I love home magazines too for inspiration - for colours, materials and props. Go to your local library and borrow a few back issues, you'd be surprised at what you find!

Happy party planning! Oh and the bling theme was from a Christmas Party I attended when I did a short stint working at The Prop House in Brisvegas! Cool huh!

Photo source: Snippet & Ink

MACRO Monday - Lavender

"Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green".... actually I think lavender is a soft shade of mauve but I didn't write the old English folk song! I was rather happy with this shot of Mum's lavender that I took last week. I could spend hours pottering around in the garden with my camera. Mum's garden has a lot more variety to capture than mine! We spent half of last week in Sydney, it was lovely to see friends and family. Anya burst into tears when we got home and pulled into our driveway - she just wanted to be at Mardi & Papa's! awwww