The First Handbag :)

I plan on continuing to expand my range, to give myself a new challenge and to always have something fresh to offer my customers. I'd been hunting around for inspiration recently and decided that handbags will be my first addition to my collection. I sketched out a few rough plans for one style of bag and proceeded to cut. I know now why they always say measure twice, cut once. After a few hiccups, and a couple of miscuts later I have made my first prototype.

I've picked out the colour combinations for another 4 'Sweetpea Bags', and will be launching them for sale for the first time at Crafternoon Tea on the 12th December. These are super cute and I can't wait to make more.

Am working on another new product to add to the range this weekend too, so will put a blog up once the prototype is complete!

xx

Mairuru - An inspiring blog

Recently I happened upon a lovely blog called Mairuru which is written by a Japanese girl named Mai. I am absolutely hooked. It is clear that English is not her first language, but that is one of the things I love most about the blog — the style in which she writes. I find her blogs fascinating and once I start reading I find it difficult to stop.

She is a very unique crafter that literally hand sews everything. Her patience must be amazing, as the detail and work that goes into each item she makes is impeccable.

I'd love to post some pictures of her creations, but wouldn't want to do that without her permission so you'll need to check out her blog. She also sells on Etsy, so you can check out some of her items on there.

As well as blogging about her crafts and love of craft, she also blogs about her day — often including what she has cooked that day. She looks like a fantastic cook and reading about her yummy Japanese lunches that she makes always makes me hungry. I also particularly love the photos of her neighbourhood and the beautiful local dog she passes most days in her travels, Bo-chan.

Her blog includes many tutorials for the neat things she makes and I could honestly sit and read it all day. People like Mai inspire me.

Definitely a blog to check out!

Crafternoon Tea is Tomorrow

And although I won't be attending this one, I highly recommend you pop along to do some chrissy shopping. There is going to be loads of talented crafty peeps there selling their wares, and you are sure to find the perfect gift for just about everyone. My pal Jess is debuting her absolutely gorgeous new cushions and I am sure there will be lots more new goodies available from plenty of stall holders.

As it says in the poster above, it's at the Trinity Methodist Church Hall in Kingsland from 10am to 2pm. So go grab a coffee or brunch at one of the Kingsland Cafe's and then mosey on down to the Crafternoon Tea.

It's sure to be fabulous.

Cupcakes and a Cute Magazine

I popped along to the launch party for Extra Curricular last night — and it was FABULOUS. I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy so I made sure that was the first thing I did. It was lucky that I did, because I managed to score myself the very first copy off the printer. That's gotta be worth something one day.

Check it out - Print Run 1 of 500!!!

There was a fabulous turn out, with plenty of fellow crafty peeps coming along. The lovely Olivia was there, as was Anna,  Heleen, Luisa and I also spotted Rachel and Jamie there too. Of course, I knew that Heleen would be there, due to her now being famous and all ;) Here is a snap of her great article in the mag...

The lovely Heleen... in a magazine!

Now I am trying my best not to devour the magazine and read it cover to cover straight away, as I tend to do with great mags like this. I plan to savour the articles and read them over at least a couple of days ;)

I cannot wait for the next issue to come out... even though I know it'll be a while off yet. Well done to Ellie for producing such a quality magazine that is full of interesting articles and inspiration. I particularly love the beautiful way it was finished... especially the cute round corners on the pages!

I'll be treasuring my copy for years to come x

Extra Curricular Launch Party

I'll be heading along to the Launch Party for the fabulous new magazine especially crafted for crafty peeps, Extra Curricular (See what I did there?!). The magazine is put together by the talented Ellie of Miss Ellie May. I am extra excited about finally being able to get my hot little hands on a copy. They are on sale on the night for $12 a pop, and you'll be one of the very first people in NZ to own it. Doesn't the cover just make you want one?

The launch party is being held at DOC on K' Rd at 7pm tomorrow night (Thursday 19th Nov) so if you haven't already made plans it'd be great to see you there.

(Rumour has it there will be cupcakes there too...)

xxx

Pendant Assembly Line

What a crazily busy weekend it was! On Friday night I was up late, making sure I was all set for the Love Handmade market on Saturday morning. I honestly can't remember the last time I was up before 7.30am on a weekend! But although it was an early start, I am really impressed with the amount of people that came through the doors throughout the morning. Although it wasn't super busy, for a first market it was a fairly successful day. Not to mention it was a fabulous location... nice and sunny, room to move and very comfy chairs ;) Fingers crossed I get to sit up in the same spot next time! I also got to chat to lots of lovely crafters that were there such as Podgy Panda, Books by Rachel, Ferrit and my girl Jess. Of course there was loads more people there so big apologies to anyone I didn't mention — everyones crafts looked fabulous and it was hard to restrain myself from dipping into my sales money!

Here is mine and Jess' tables all setup first thing in the morning. My pendant display worked a treat!

Jess looking all sweet at her stall. Who could say no to that face?

I couldn't resist purchasing a couple of cute Gingerbread men though, for Jess and I from Gretel's Gingerbread and I have to shamefully admit that it was indeed my breakfast! (But what a tasty breakfast it was!) I am really looking forward to the next Love Handmade market which will be at the same lovely location and at a even more lovely time of 10am-1pm. It'll be on Saturday 19th December, so mark that in your diaries!

Late Saturday evening I got a surprise message from Sarah from the Devonport Craft Market saying that there was one last little spot left at the markets if I was still keen. So I quickly nabbed it and re-packed all my market stuff into it's box ready for the next morning.

The Christmas Spectacular was exactly that... very spectacular! I had a fabulous day at the markets and although it tends to quieten down for the last 2 hours, it was a busy day overall with about 450-500 people through the doors. The first hour saw 110 people come through and by lunchtime there was nearly 300 shoppers that had come through! Not a bad effort for a market on a weekend that was in addition to it's regular weekend! The Sarah's did a fab job promoting the market and I loved the big banner outside. It definitely made us easier for shoppers to find, and a lot harder for them to resist a gander! I was also stoked with my little calendar — I've already gone through and marked it with the application close dates too.

I was far too busy on Sunday to get any pics, but again there was lots of talented people at the market. Unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to pop around and see everyone this time, so will have to make sure I make time, next market.

After a successful weekend of sales, my stock has depleted so it'll be a busy couple of weeks ahead of me preparing for Crafternoon Tea and Love Handmade in December. I have already prepped and started assembling over 160 pendants — how good am I? hehe. I also have some plans for some new products to launch then... so time permitting, there will be some new goodies on offer in December.

Will keep you posted x

Pendant Market Display

As I mentioned in my last blog, I purchased supplies to make myself a display for my pendants to sit on at the markets. Well today was such a glorious day outside, I decided the get all my materials and head out side in the sunshine for some sawing and sanding.

 Supplies for my pendant display

Now I am in no way a green thumb, but I do really appreciate gardens. The place that I recently moved into has no shortage of gardens and flowers and whilst it may not be my particular taste in garden style, there is undoubtedly a lot of pretty colours and flowers amongst it. This was bits of my scenery whilst I was at work creating a display.

Some of the pretty flowers in my garden

So after taking some snaps of some pretty flowers, I got to business and cut, sanded and assembled my display. I am pretty stoked with how it looks, and it works really well so it was a successful venture :)

  

Left: My finished display

Right: A couple of Pendant cards positioned, to make sure it fits nicely!

I am still in two minds about whether or not I will cover it in Brown Paper, as I had originally planned. I quite like the natural wood look, but I think natural brown kraft paper stuck on with Mod Podge might look quite cool too. What do you think?

Anyway, I am looking forward to testing it out at Love Handmade on Saturday morning. Hope you are all coming along to say hello and check out all the talented peeps at the market :) Will be fab to see you there x

My Market Travel Case

I had a right pain in the butt of a time trying to get all my pendants to stay upright in a box and not get all messed up everytime I picked it up last week, so my weekend endeavour was to create a carry case for all my market stock. I had an idea in my head on how I thought it should work, so it was off to the Stationery place, the Warehouse and Mitre 10 for supplies.

Supplies

I picked up a pretty pink patterned box for the Warehouse for about $20 to use as the case, and purchased some heavy black corrugated plastic for the dividers. I carefully measured it all out and began cutting.

 Cutting and Measuring... it's getting there!

It took me WAY longer than I anticipated, and there was a couple of minor design glitches along the way (the long dividers started to bow with the more dividers I added) but all in all I am very stoked with how it turned out!

The finished case :)

It fits all of my current pendants, as you can see, and has plenty of room for all the news ones I am busy making! My final touch was to put a dividing piece of plastic along the top, so that I could sit all the rest of my other stock, such as headbands and coffee cup sleeves on the top.

When I was out getting materials to make this carry case, it also dawned on me that my current market display needed some refining, so I also picked up some bits to make a pendant display. It's nothing super fancy, but it'll make it all a bit easier! Will be making that this week so will post another blog about that once it's done!

K x

My First Skipapple Market

I decided to do this as a separate post, as there is a few piccies and let's be honest — it deserves it's own post!

After weeks of planning, creating and preparations I finally attended my first ever market under my label, Skipapple! The morning started wonderfully with goodies selling left, right and centre, but unfortunately it got pretty quiet after lunch. Perhaps it was due to the fact the Auckland Marathon was on? Nevertheless I had a good day.

Goodies at my stall

 

Top: A snap of the market from my table... it was a bit quiet as you can see.

Middle: The lovely Jess and her stall

Bottom: My sweetheart of a stall neighbour, Olivia, and a shopper admiring her creations.

My lovely boyfriend came along to bring me some lunch and took this pic of me at my stall

Lucy from Felt and Mel from Black Swan Designs were there, so it was great to meet them and put faces to names/brands. Luisa from Crafternoon Tea also popped along and introduced herself so it was great to get to meet her too. I love finally being able to meet all these wonderful people in person... chatting on Twitter and Facebook just isn't the same!

So all in all I had a GREAT day and I cannot wait to get along to the Love Handmade market on the 14th of this month. I also have my fingers crossed for the November Crafternoon Tea market and the December Devonport Craft market too!

Chat to you all soon xx

Long Weekend and a long short week!

I have been busting to write a blog for over a week now, since the long weekend, but I have been so busy getting ready for the markets that I literally haven't had time! So this will be an overview of the last week and a half.

My long weekend was absolutely delightful. I went away with my partner and his family for a relaxing few days in the Coromandel. It was really nice being away from internet, computers and phones for a change. I am technology fiend (and a slight workaholic) and usually feel really lost without it, but it's nice every once in a while to be forced to actually relax. We stayed in a lovely bach just north of Whitianga, and the weather was divine.

The sunset on the drive there and the lovely beach we were staying on

We were lucky enough to be there on the day of the market, and there was some great stalls there. One that I particularly loved was a very talented crafter that made things out of cutlery. There was jewellery, modified cutlery and little critters. They were absolutely delightful and I just had to get a picture to show you all.

Some clever creations by a gentleman named Martin Jakowitsch

I also scored myself some gorgeous fabric that I will be turning into some new designs very soon :)

Stunning satin and some lovely 100% cotton

Once I was back in Auckland, it was back to the grindstone getting ready for my first market — the Devonport Craft Market. Because it was my first market, as you can imagine, there was LOADS of preparation that needed to be done. I had to organise everything from packaging, to displays to my float. Not to mention I needed to make sure I had enough stock! In the end it all came together and I was ready for the market (at 1.30am the morning of the market!?!)

 

A sneak peak on what was for sale... and my packaging

xx