Getting ready to swap.

Swap-Away is this weekend! Jee-whizz that has come around so quickly. Alex, Jess and I have been working away on our end of things and we really hope its a super successful day for all. We took a whole bunch of flyers to Kraftbomb yesterday and had a lot of interest so we hope the Leys Institute is packed out come this Saturday.

We are still working away at sending out the packs to those who have sent us through their entry fee this past week. We really hope you all enjoy them and thank you for all the kind words from those who have already recieved them.

I best go shopping for some scrumptious cupcake ingredients.



And I finally picked up my pants! (excuse my gumby look)

Hungry Creek.

Alex and I have been attending a jewellery class, at Hungry Creek, every Thursday evening for the past little while. Finally I have something to show for it, and one more brooch in the works. I've really enjoyed the class and learnt a lot of techniques that I hope to put into practise on my own designs in the future.

In the meantime I made my own slighty more crappy version of Ash Hilton's pear ring and a set of tiki earrings, using the tiki from 20c coins similar to Jane Vile's work. I own one of Jane's Endevour brooches and I love it so much I thought I'd give it a go and I'm pretty pleased with my efforts!


Ash Hilton's pear.



My pear.


My tiki stud earrings.

Hope to see you at Kraftbomb this Sunday- 11-2!

Swapsies.

We are just about ready to post off the first set of Swap-Away packs, for the clothing exchange some friends and I are hosting on the 6th of December. If you'd like to join in the fun, visit the blog here and sign up on the mailing list. We'll be in touch! For now, just a sneaky peek.

Thank you.

I just got an email from the lovely Sarah, behind the great Bobby Robin blog, she is writing a Arts Insider column for NZ girl and featured Kraftbomb along with other craft fairs around NZ. She also included a link to our blog and wee picture of our little owls (thank you!)

The article is here, if you'd like a read. Miss Deb and her sock monkeys are featured too, as well as the wonderful Cardboard box zine! Thanks Sarah and NZ Girl! We feel spesh.

Mystery Train.

Some friends and I spent most of Saturday at the Grey Lynn Festival. It was a brilliant day- lots of sun burnt people (not me thank goodness!), nice easy listening music and good goood food. The Hungarian Twister had to be my favourite of the day- a bready twist covered in cinnamon and smoking hot, and the Vietnamese summer rolls were just as tasty, the name fitted them to a tee.

When browsing the stalls we came across Binkie. I've seen some Binkie tees once before in Smith & Caugheys, but in the kids section and remember trying to fit into one did cross my mine, but on Saturday they had adult sizes galore and I wanted just about all of them. My absolute favourite being the skull below. These tees are from their AW08 Mystery Train collection.

Loving Lyell.

I came across Lyell by Emma Fletcher, on another blog just recently (which, I have forgotten!) and I love these images (and garments) in her past collections. Floral, scalloped, highwaisted and homely as hell.

Bowms life.

"I sat in this airport for six hours. I was coming home from the mountains and still coughing up blood from the altitude sickness. The cab driver hit a prairie dog on the way. The airport had two gates. A girl next to me had crayola marker all over her face, she said she was going home because of a missing persons report, she gave me a belt that weirded me out so much I had to throw it away. I have never seen taxidermy in an airport. I guess I haven't seen very many airports."

Bowms notes on her flickr photo.

Wool and Water.

Last night while trawlling flickr for some paper doll inspiration (more on that later) I came across Wool and Water. Amy Earles is the talent behind it and her designs are so incredibly beautiful,- see for yourself.



She sells her paper doll sets through her Etsy store, as well as her own original postcards and paintings. And you can follow her work through her blog. The doll couple directly below were commissioned for a anniversary gift. Sigh- I can't think of a more perfectly delightful gift.

In a rut.

When your not feeling the nicest- surround yourself with sweet and smile-making things.


Frankie Magazine, Bow headband $2 from the $2 shop!, pretty plastic floral yellow ring $3 from my favourite stall at the Bayswater Craft Market.

And ride your bike. Breathless smiles all round. x

The markets.

It was a long and enjoyable weekend for me. Full of friends, family and craft fairs. The Bayswater School fair on Saturday was fantastic and everyone responded really well to our things- there was an incredible face painter and wrap and juice lady who was so lovely and came round to the stalls and took orders so I managed to survive the 5 hour fair. Unfortunately I forgot my camera!

The Clevedon Craft Market was not such a success for us, selling barely anything. I'm not quite sure the clevedonites really 'got it'. But I had a fantastic time anyhow, meeting some other absolutely lovely stall holders and a couple that told me all about their travels in South America and gave me some handy travel tips. There was a delicious temporary cafe at the fair, my scone below was $1.80! Only in Clevedon. Thanks Mike (the organiser) I really enjoyed myself!

The many photos of a bored stall girl.

Bloggers date.

A bunch of Polish style-blog friends recently got to together and had their own mini bloggers photo shoot. Seems a little odd but why not! From what I can gather it was a great experience and I love the pictures Aife and Vilk got, looks like fun.

Here are the links to the bloggers involved.

Aife

Charlize

Cudak

Cynamonka

Joanna

Magia

Morven

Ryfka

Sandra

Styledigger

Phew!

Think-make-think.

think-make-think by Clifton Burt found on todays Jen Bekman Project 20x20 mailer.

To market.

It's almost Kraftbomb time again, and our place has just been secured. The 30th this time. Hope to see you there!



In the mean time we are trying our luck at two other craft markets this weekend. The Bayswater Art and Craft Fair, at Bayswater Primary School 1-6pm this Saturday (right down the road from my house!) and the Clevedon Art and Craft Market, this Sunday, 9-2pm. It's at the Clevedon Community Centre, the north end of Main Street.

If your near by come say hi!

Etsy finds this perfect dress.

See Etsy finds this morning? If money wasn't tight I'd be rocking this radical bib dress from Nod to Mod. I can't believe it hasn't been snapped up already, perhaps it's only me.

If you're not signed up to Etsy Finds I highly recommend it. Although most of the items are usually sold out by the time you get to them, it helps to find some of the many brilliant stores. Buy handmade this christmas! It's worth every penny. You can sign up to the emails here.

Jody's photos.

I have just come across Jody Rogac's photography and am loving it. I know it sounds strange but her shots make me think of 'living', even her fashion photography seems unstaged to me and all her shots oddly make me wish I'd been there at the time. I've had a hard time picking favourites to add here, I've ended up with a quite a few.

Jody has worked for Rolling Stone, i-D Magazine and Jonathan and Olivia as well as becoming a member of Young Photographers United in 2007, just a year after graduating. Talent. And she blogs!

Bliss!

All photography by Jody Rogac.