Mmm...

The last few days have been sort of... horridly insane. The puppies got neutered and need to be monitored, Chris is (as of this morning) away at Circus Maximus camp, and most prominent of all these distractions is the fact that our hot water system has gone belly-up. What I thought was raining pouring off our roof on Thursday night was, in actuality, the contents of our solar tank.
Chris spent a good chunk of Friday on the phone to various solar HWS companies, receiving quotes and such. The verdict? We need to replace the whole darn system. The cost? $2,000 (better than the $3,060 we were originally quoted by a different company, but still... ouch.)

So today, with husband off at camp, and a little time to myself, I've decided to take it easy. The most strenuous thing I plan to do is bake a cake. I'm taking a day of Sega-playing, DVD-watching and Twilight-reading, and the only real interruption will be when I head to my parents' for a much-needed shower. What a joyful break :)
So, I'm banishing myself from the computer, the craft table, and taking an entirely selfish day to relax in whichever way I please.
Yay me!!

Such Funs!

Well, the big day is finally over. Penny, Kirstin and I had a stall together at the Hilton Harvest Festival (they were raising funds for a community garden project in Hilton). It was so much fun!
Here's the final set-up stages, just before 9am:

Penny is posing with my bunny there, and Kirstin's doing stuff in the background.
A close-up of the middle section, MY section:

I made us matching price-signs, which tied it together nicely. Our stall was totally the cutest, most colourful stall there. We received visits from my family, and friends Jacki, Bec, Bec's Mum, Kat, Cheryl, Lisa, Hayley and Amy (I hope I remembered everyone!) By the end of the day, we were all able to enjoy a decent number of sales. Penny even sold out... twice! She brought 50 cupcakes at the start of the day, and sold out within the hour... so went home and baked more. Batch #2 sold in under 5 minutes when she finally returned!

It was a great day of Freo-types, families, exotic foods, and cultural performances. Not so much craft, but that was OK. Plus, I got this sweet purse from Kirstin (Xstatic Designs):

I'm using it as a camera case.

So, my first time as a stall-holder was pretty successful, and definitely a ton of fun for all 3 of us.

End of de-brief :)

To Market, To Market...

I've been a bit scarce lately... Uni, work and sickness have been keeping me majorly busy! And on top of that, I've been trying to get ready for a craft fair/festival! But here I am to check in quickly before the big day... tomorrow!
I spent 9 big hours solely creating these cloud pins yesterday:


I came out with 32 of them by the end of the day... 4 of each colour. And I pretty much never want to make another one again!! ;)
My main joy these days is creating these flowery posie brooches. Lately I've been adding a petally edge to some of them, and I'm finding it so hard convincing myself to sell these! I've showed great restraint and only kept one... I'm just so nuts about the colours, and I'm sort of hoping that all my favourites are bought by people I know! Keeping them close... yep, I'm a sucker.
But anyway, here's my little tiered display of brooches, all ready for market tomorrow:

It doesn't look like much! But it'll hopefully be enough. Plus, I've also got all my stuffies that are coming along for the ride.

Hopefully we'll not get rained out of our venue (I've been told it's outdoors!) and I'll have some wonderful pictures to share.

Until then...

Seeya on the other side of my very first market!

A Secret Admirer...

I'm always intrigued when a secret admirer hearts my shop. Lately though, it seems I'm being inundated with secret admirers (or one secret admirer who loves lots of things in my shop!), as opposed to non-secretive users. Just this morning, I logged in to find 3 new hearts, all from secret admirers.
I wonder what makes someone decide to keep their favourites a secret?
That's my thought for the day ;)

Leaf-ing it to the last minute

I'm still procrastinating on my 2000 word essay, and in doing so I have come up with another new creation. Ooops.

Yesterday I was jotting down little ideas, and when the puppies woke me up at 7 this morning, I sat at my craft table and looked at my list. My eyes settled on "felt leaf coasters" and I set to work on the design. It wasn't long before I sat, looking, at these:

Pretty cute! But even cuter when they're actually in use:

There's 4 of them, and I made them with 2 layers of felt - green on top and brown underneath. They're hand-stitched (of course!) and actually a lot more vivid green than the pictures show :(

I want to do some heart-shaped coasters next. I just have to stop myself from doing that today. Or maybe as a reward after my first 1000 words or something. Ergh. I am so not designed to be a student.

In other news, I've become a little bit addicted to Mr Jeremy Larson's music of late. I wish he had more than 2 CDs. His 2nd one especially is just BEAUTIFUL. And he makes me want to be an indie music artist. I'm so easily influenced!

Forecast... Cloudy!

It may have been a sunny, 28 degree average week... but at the Buttonfactory table, clouds were abundant!

These are my new cloud pins! I had a lot of fun creating all these, and as you can see they come in 8 wonderful colours!!!

And seeing as clouds were on my mind so much, out came this new notecard set too! (the colours are so much brighter in real life, my bad photography makes me sad!) The set comes with 4 different designs, 2 of each design, for a total of 8 note cards in a pack! They're just printed on paper, as opposed to card. I'm still considering making the switch to a light-weight card though. Thoughts??

Also on the note-card front is another set (my personal favourite)... the fat bird note-card set!!

Aren't they cute?? I really enjoy the colours, and the fat-ness of the little birds. This set will be in the shop soon... I just have make sure I get my printing right with these, as so far I've failed a little...

Finally, some new brooches are filling my basket of creations (I actually have a basket filled with the stuff I make, I'm not just saying that in a figurative way...)

These are a little bit different... I'm really happy with the direction the posie brooches are heading these days :) A bit of tulle, a petal-istic scalloped edge, extra layers... the newest posie brooches are definitely developing more and more!

Sadly though, you won't be seeing these in the Etsy shop. I've got a craft fair at the end of the month, and I'm busily preparing. In fact, I guess I won't be listing many new products at all until after the craft fair :( But it'll be worth it. And what's left after the fair will of course go straight into the shop. So yay!

In other news, I'm 'working on an assignment' today. It's been the least productive day ever. Other than grocery shopping, laundry, and dish-washing, I'm ashamed to say I've done nothing. Not one word of my 2000 word essay. No craft. I've been procrastinating on the assignment by browsing the net. *Sigh*. What a waste!!