A few things...

1. I've been a bit slack at blogging recently haven't I? Oh well, life just gets in the way. I've just taken over the  uniform shop at school so have been concentrating on that the last few weeks. I think it's all under control now though so shouldn't take up much time.

2. I've just put my Madeit shop on "holiday mode". My Etsy shop is still open though. I've been having a bit of a break so haven't been promoting them at all which is the good thing about Etsy and Madeit, they just sit there and if you need a holiday you can take it.

3. The bougainvillaea has finally flowered. I'm not sure what I did but it hasn't had any colour on it for a couple of years so I'm glad I haven't killed it.

4. The maple tree (or whatever it is), on the other hand, hasn't got any leaves on it yet...what's with that? I'm really hoping it's OK because it's such a lovely tree. My MIL thinks it was late to drop it's leaves this year so maybe it's just running a bit behind schedule.

This is the neighbours one which ours usually looks like

This is the Elkhorn or Staghorn (can never remember) that we've been watching since it was the size of a fifty cent piece...so beautiful

5. I put a Kirb button on my sidebar (just under my profile), so you can check out my kudos and leave me some if you feel so inclined. There's a picture of me there as well. I'm sick of trying to hide my identity. Enjoy!

Hope your all having a nice Friday. What are you up to today? I'm going to try and get Forebear Friday back up and running next week in case anyone's wondering.

xxx

My Creative Space...

For a while now I've been thinking I need a nice Chicken Willow stamp to put on my packages and when I discovered that Chantal (my third cousin) does lino printing and can carve a good stamp I asked her to make me one.

Isn't it fantastic!! I went to my local scrapbooking shop this morning and got some nice dark brown ink for it.

I did three prints without re-inking it and I just got three different shades of brown. I like them all. So my day will be spent mucking around with this and maybe making some swing tags with it.

I can highly recommend Chantal's stamp carving abilities if you are in the market for one!

Check out all the other creativeness over at Kootoyoo.

Etsy

I've been thinking of starting an Etsy store for a little while now so on the weekend I got sorted and made some extra iPad sleeves and put them on my new Etsy shop. I couldn't believe it when a few hours later three of them had sold!! I was imagining they'd just sit there for a while and I'd have time to stock the shop up before I told anyone about it. I haven't had time to make any more so I just ended a few that were on my Madeit shop and put them onto my Etsy shop to bulk it up a bit. Anyway, I've added a link to the new shop over in my sidebar.

Now what I want to know is, those of you who sell on Etsy...what's the next step. What are these Street Teams. Is there any other way you get involved in Etsy? Any tips or tricks for a new user...it's all a bit overwhelming.

I have to say that I think madeit is much more user friendly but Etsy seems to have more 'accessories' to it which I haven't delved into yet.

One of my pincushions...

...was in the Monday must-haves email from Madeit, here's a screen shot.

Some of you might recognise that camera brooch as well from chunkychooky, how she makes them I have no idea, but they are so cute.

My Creative Space...

Since I opened my shop yesterday I need to photograph some more things I've been making.

These are iPad sleeves.

It was Shane's idea for the simple design. I made him that black one because he's not a crafty/patterny kind of guy so all black was his request.

No, we don't have an iPad yet, but Shane made me a pretend one out of wood (how sweet is that). It's to the exact measurements of a real one so I could make sure they fitted perfectly.

They're made from old clothes and fabric I found at op shops and lined with polar fleece.

So photography is what I'll be doing today (if the sun comes out a bit more). Go and check out all the other crafty people at Kootoyoo.

I did it!

I opened my madeit shop today!

I put a link in my sidebar over there, under the about me bit, you know, just in case you want to have a look or anything.

I've only listed these five pincushions so far, but I'll add more to it slowly.

PS...don't ask how long it took to get these pincushions to balance on top of each other.

Op shopping

I came out with this lot today, no more op shopping for me for a while I think. I'm going to use some of this fabric to make things for my shop (which isn't open yet).

Look what came this morning...

...my very first business cards!!

I looked around at a few places that kind people had suggested, but ended up getting them done at Dynamite Express Cards. I highly recommend them, it was very easy and a good price ($30 for 250, including postage) I ordered them on Tuesday, so not even a week to get to me and they're just what I pictured. I was a bit worried the brown would turn out a different shade than what I imagined, but it's perfect. If only someone had built a website where you could send kudos to businesses!

Now all I need is to make a business card holder. Might be todays creativeness.

My Creative Space...

My creative space this week is a bit more interesting than last weeks. Hopefully I'll be putting together some more zippered pouches...everything's ready so what can possibly stop me??

My pile of hexagons has been steadily growing so I might turn some of them into tiny pin cushions. I wasn't going to make these for my (not yet open) shop, but I've had a little bit of interest for them so I think I will. How do you figure out how much to sell something like this for? I mean, they take hardly any fabric so it's mostly labour cost I guess...they take about 3 or 4 hours each to make. Any suggestions?

Check out what lots of other crafty people are doing today at Kootoyoo (thanks Kirsty!)

A few things...

I have to show you what Ella had for breakfast on her birthday the other week. Porridge with 'birthday sprinkles'. A great example of how to easily turn healthy food into not so healthy!

I haven't been doing a whole heap of sewing lately because I've been trying to get my Made It shop and my Etsy shop ready for launch. Getting there, it gets a bit tedious doing all the policies and profile. Yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday so made these luggage tags and a passport holder for her. She goes overseas at least once a year so they should come in handy.

Today I sat down and thought about packaging for the stuff I'm going to sell. I made these swingy tags to attach. I have heaps of scrap booking paper so am putting it to good use and printing on the back of it then cutting it out and rounding off the corners...easy! I'll attach them with yarn out of my stash. Now I just need to get some sort of business card to put in with the order and I think I'm set.

And one last photo of what my sisters house is called...for all the Dr Who fans out there.