Great Gatsby Hair Piece in Monaco Blue: Etsy Front Page

This really was a lovely treasury, 'Under the Milky Way Tonight' which got featured on the front page of Etsy yesterday!  Hoorah, I wondered what the sudden influx of people viewing and favoring my blue hair piece was!  I purposefully photograph my pieces on a plain white or light grey background for such reasons, that and I like the uncluttered look.  Lets hope if 27 people love it, one person will actually buy it!

Handmade Paper Beads: Ethical Shopping

These gorgeous handmade paper beads came beautifully packaged in a hand sewn bag all the way from Africa!  I learnt about No.41 through Ashley Ann recently and decided I would love to support these beautiful ladies in Africa trying to make a better life for themselves.

No.41 employ 21 women from the Noel orphanage in Gisenyi, Rawanda along with 11 local women.  Some of these ladies are single mothers, all have beautiful smiles and a touching story.  Read more about the ladies here and what else No.41 has achieved, including feeding 870 students every day as part of a school lunch program, since March 2012.  Love, love, love it.

My beads smell of paint so I will be airing them for a bit then I can't wait to wear them.  The fabric bag reminds me of a skirt my Mum wore in Africa, a lovely batik inspired print.  You can simply donate to No.41's awesome project or go shopping for some gorgeous beads, aprons or bags. 

Family Recipe: Annie's Orange Cake

This orange cake is simple and delicious.  It is a recipe from my great-grandmother Annie that I didn't get to meet.  I was extremely fortunate to know and love three great-grandmothers, the last one passed when I was 20yrs old.  My mum has been doing family history and found out Annie was a Milliner!  How cool is that - oh how I wished I had one Millinery tool of hers.  Anyway, to the cake...


Ingredients

• 125g butter, softened
• 125g sugar
• 125g self raising flour
• 2 eggs
• Juice and finely grated rind of one orange

Method
Beat butter and sugar till light and creamy, add eggs, then flour, juice and rind.
Bake in a loaf tin for 40 minutes in a moderate oven 180 deg c.

NB: I made mine with 1 cup of dextrose instead of sugar as I am lowering our families sugar intake.
 

Children's Handmade Hair Accessories: Canberra, Australia

Some new hair pins and clips for little heads or even for the grown up heads. Made from cotton, embellished with beads. I have been trying to come up with cheaper options for my children's range as I know I have a lot of Mothers in my customer demographic but the truth is if I do, I am simply giving my product away and there is no business sense in that.

Each flower is hand-cut, fabric-stiffened to hold its shape, hand tooled with traditional millinery techniques then sewn together, beaded and then attached to hardware, (clips etc..) So, think of these as special occasion hair pieces unless your budget knows no limits, then get shopping!!! So pretty no?

How to Wear Hair Accessories: Single Flower Bloom

So you have bought a beautiful hair blossom, now, how do you wear it?  In the photo below you can see I have tucked my ivory silk blossom into the lowest curve of the hairstyle where the braid is ending at the base of the head. 

For a 'plucked straight from the garden look', I like singular flowers pins positioned on the lower half of your head and always off to one side.


Slide the bobby pin into the thickest and lowest part of your braid so it is sturdy.  If you are wearing a pony tail try slipping the hair pin through your elastic band and you are good to go!  Shop more hair clips.

Photos Credit: Love Maegan on Flickr

New Designer Find: Rabbit Trap Timber

Kicking myself that I didn't bring one of these gorgeous boards home from the Handmade Markets last weekend, good news is they will be back later in the year!  Perfect for serving up party nibbles and Jaimie Oliver 15 minute meals :-)

Rabbit Trap Timber make stunning farmhouse / industrial style furniture out of recycled timber, including hardwood from Sydney wharves, cattle yards and old warehouses.  Everything they make is handmade and very, very cool! 

If I'm not mistaken the skins are deer skins from Norway.  Loads more photos on Rabbit Trap's Facebook page.  For the locals, Shop Handmade is now stocking Rabbit trap goodies.

Life As We Know It: June 1-8 on Instagram

Some shots from our life over the past week or so!  I joined in on the photo a day challenge with Fat Mum Slim for a bit of fun, I am guilty for leaving it to the last minute almost every day - which completely compromises my photos with bad light and an old phone!! ha ha  These are some photo a day pics along with 'life' at the Grace household.

Clockwise from top left image:

1. Spider Chrysanthemum
2. Delicious dessert at The Artisan, (I am paying for my sugar blow out) 
3. Wheelybug 
4. Fig and Cardamon diffuser sticks (trying to rid the smell of paint) 

1. Our wedding photo
2. Josiah
3. 'On my desk' lots of inspired reading and some coconutty granola
4. A moment

You can find me on Instagram as RosalindGraceDesigns.

Real Weddings: 1920 Vintage-Themed Wedding

One of the nicest things you can do for your vendors after your wedding is send them photos of your wedding including your products or services (even if they aren't the official snaps, like these).  My vintage inspired feather head piece went all the way to Brazil for this beautiful bride, Taissa - doesn't she look gorgeous!!  We swapped the headband for a comb.

Taissa and her handsome groom Flavio had a 1920 vintage-themed wedding and will be appearing on Chuva de Arroz, which roughly translates as Rice Rain, (use google translate and enter Portuguese as the language), a TV program featuring real weddings, it goes to air June, 19th, Brazilian GNT. 

I love this last guard of honour photo - looks like a lot of fun, I can't wait to see the footage.  Thank you so much Taissa for sending me some photos and letting me know about your exciting TV feature.  All the best for your married life. 

Useful Tips on Taking Product Photography

This cool photo set up by The Little Dog, was featured on Etsy's blog.  You can see the consistency it gives her product shots in her Etsy store.

This is a killer idea from Mint Design blog that I wish I had thought of!  Lovely linen which gives a fabulous texture to use as photo backgrounds.  The fabric is stapled to either canvas, wood blocks, foam core, whatever you have on hand.

Some great photography tutorials and this article about home studio on Clickin Moms.  I'll be spending a bit more time on here in the future, it was awesome.

   

I spotted this fab idea on Decor8 from Australian food blogger, Two Loves using painted flooring boards.  A great way to get your perfect colour and a cool texture!  

There are lots of Youtube tutorials too!  Prophotolife was recommended to me on Quora.  I have only watched one of his video's on product photography, it was excellent.  I'm off to search how better tips for photograping white on white!  Pinterest has a plethora of images for this topic but trying to find the direct link or image credit can still be a problem.  Hope these above links are inspiration enough for now.