in the mail

Letter and postcard from old housemates in Germany and France, a Japanese book and cars print fabric, and some salt and pepper shakers from the U.S. for my collection (donkeys! and bears!)



I love my mail man.

etsy craft party 2011

via bristyle

Last night I went to an etsy craft party, and met lots of lovely and super-creative people. I was too busy having fun and drinking tea to remember to take photos (I had fun and took lots last year). So this banner will have to do. Just imagine photos of lots of people. And lamingtons and cookies in the shape of cats, and biscuits in a little suitcase. Yes.

I met Jess who edits the gorgeous *bespoke* zine and designs jewellery too; Kate from dashrobin designs who is very funny and teaches crochet; Bronwen who is an ecologist by day and makes Whizzbangle resin bangles by night; Dominique from Esbert's Collection who draws and makes (the.cutest.crochet.bears); Lesley from sweet as spice, who is lovely and has the bestest business card ever; Majella had an awesome hat and is a vintage lover/styler/writer; Teneale makes dolls with a wicked personality (I especially love Mr T); and also Vicky from Incube8r, Helen from Bristyle, and Lisa who ran the whole shebang at Salt House. Phew.

I had a lovely time and it was so nice to meet some new crafty friends in my new city. I hope I didn't talk too much. I do that sometimes.

(OH! edit: you can see some photos here)


(ps. Darn blogger keeps refuses to keep me logged in unless I am on my dashboard, so I cannot follow any new blogs. Or edit my pages. Or leave comments properly. Has this happened to anyone else? It is a little bit annoying. Actually quite a bit.)

share the love! and gift voucher giveaway

do you have a photo of you and your Pepper Stitches? I am looking for photos of you, or your loved one or kidlet with a Pepper Stitches plushie, toy or cushion for my online 'share the love!' album.

Email pepperstitches@yahoo.com with your pic and I will be super happy, plus you'll enter the draw for a $30 Pepper Stitches gift voucher to any of my online stores!

Hooray!

(ps. be sure to 'like' the Pepper Stitches facebook page and I will tag your photo too)

25 things to do with a glass jar

via

1. make it into a home for a pet snail

2. make a lovely terrarium and keep it on your kitchen shelf

3. keep the sun with you all day (and night) with a sun jar

4. crochet a cover for your jar from your favourite colours

5. make it into a cloche to protect a new seedling in the vege patch

6. keep it on your dresser for your spare change. after a week donate it to a homeless shelter

7. make iced tea in your jar, and take it on a picnic

8. make a time capsule with your family and friends

9. make infused vodka for the weekend

10. make a jar pincushion to hold your sewing pins

11. pick some flowers and make a painted jar vase

12. make an educational matching game (or this one) and play

13. use it to make salad dressing, and store it in the fridge

14.every day write something you are thankful for and put it in the jar

15. use wire to make a handle and turn it into a tealight candle holder

16. pick some rose petals and make a potpourri air freshener

17. make some sand art in your jar and use it as a paperweight or bookend

18. pop it in the kitchen cupboard and use it as an extra drinking glass

19. pretend it's christmas and make a snowglobe

20. fill it with biscuit ingredients and give it to a friend

21. cover it in fabric and use it to hold your pens

22. stock up at the markets and make some jam, or pickles, or chutney or relish

23. use lots of little jars to make this awesome spice rack

24. use it to hold your crafty bits and pieces

25. revert to childhood and make a papier mache volcano experiment

what else could you do with a glass jar?

my week in pictures

Not so long ago I was taking pictures of walls and graffiti, and now it's all farm animals and green (and those cute kidlets).

The rain, though I love rain, is relentless. But the ducks are happy.

Hope your week was awesome!

Hooray! Christmas!

via

I hope everyone is busy with friends and family and eating too much. I know I am. Hope your Christmas/Holidays are just awesome, see you soon!

etsy craft party @ notebook

The etsy party on Friday was just super. We came, we chatted, we made. We each recieved a sweet goody bag. We ate heaps of deliciousness. We laughed.

.

There were brown owl friends who are always funny and lovely and encouraging too; and I met other crafty peeps like Michelle (who made me laugh heaps!)and Alex (who is super creative and holds crafternoons! and made that retro crafty holder in the photo up there) and Britt (who makes adorable mug cosies, (I want this one)) and Jackyln and Amanda (who is releasing a line of beautiful stationary) and Anastasia and other people too and hope to see them all soon.

.

I made a brooch (see that linen one with the yellow button?) and learnt how to stitch hexagonal paper pieces (thank you Amy) and had a lovely time. Plus I won one of the awesome door prizes! A pack of this fabric donated by the ever-super Badskirt! Woot!

.

Etsy ought to have more birthdays. Heaps of thanks to Corrie from Retromummy who organised the whole shebang.

.

Aceness.

brown owls @ the pub

On Wednesday night (I know it's Saturday. I um forgot I had photos to post) we had a lovely Brown Owls gathering, knitting and embroidering and chatting away, meeting new owls and owls from different places, and learning new things. Beer was had, wedges were shared and the turnout was so big we took over an entire section of the pub. (Please excuse the photos which are dark and blurry, due to blown lighting we were sitting in 'mood lighting', which made for a bit of squinty eyes, a few missed stitches and not-so-good photos.)

.

.

We chatted about having a meeting at the premises of ArtSparks, an art & sewing school for kids that has facilities including big tables and a bank of sewing machines! We chatted about work and babies and projects and admired one another's handiwork. I learnt about circular knitting needles and that yarns are made from twisted together strands called plies, which is why the more plies in a wool the thicker. Ah-huh. Also wool comes in skeins, not just floss. Also how to pronounce skeins (like 'veins' not 'vines'). I started a white soft scarf (because I still can only knit in straight lines). Plus I arranged to adopt Amy's market umbrella for my upcoming markets. It's all coming together..

.

.

Much fun for Brown Owls! Yay!

beach weekend

This weekend my friend and I set off for the beach. (Photos courtesy of Sue II. It's sooo good to be able to take photos again, I realise now how much I love to document my experiences this way. During the week I decided to buy a camera post-haste, even if I.can't.really afford.it.)


We decided thast we needed to get away and feel some sand between our toes, so we caught the train South on Friday afternoon, for two nights in a bungalow by the beach.


The brochure failed to mention that we would be metres away from a cemetery. We decided it was life-affirming.


In the morning a team of arborists cut down 3 trees behind our bungalor with chainsaws. Then put them through a giant chipper. We were up anyway.


Still, we lazed in our bunks and drank cups of tea inbetween running to the amenities block between light rain.


It cleared up and we wandered down for a swim and cooked a Breakfast of Champions.


with a great view.

Walking to the local town I picked flowers and found a sweet craft store and awesome organic store too.

We read the weekend paper in a cafe,

found a little thai massage place, and indulged (AWESOME).

On the way back, I looked in the cemetery. I find them fascinating, I really do,

and found this cemetery bunny.

Then it was back to the beach

before a delicious dinner.

In the morning we saw a one-legged seagull

and made french toast with leftover bread, with fruit and yoghurt. Then it was packing time to catch the train home again.

I hope your weekend was lovely too!

ps. with Sue II ready to go, I'll post soon about crafty-goings-on!

festival love

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Peats Ridge Festival 2009

Awesome.