Sawing, sanding and a broken camera

Okay, so although the title suggest my broken camera was something to do with my own doing, that is not the case at all ;) Last week was a crazily busy week preparing for the Crafternoon Tea market (as I am sure it was for many people) and thinking that I had all the time in the world to prepare, I decided one of my first projects would be a couple more displays for my pendants. My first was another smaller version of my earlier created display and the other was the snazzy creation pictured below. Such a cheap but rather effective display (if I don't say so myself). I wanted to add more depth to my market display and make it more visually interesting so I decided to create a display for the pendants without them being on individual cards.

I had some left over board from my first display so decided to put it to good use. I purchased some wood for the legs, a couple of hinges and then a stack of self tapping eyelet thingamajigs (yes, that's their technical name) and got to work. I actually cut this board using a stanley knife as although it takes longer, I find it gives a much cleaner cut than using a saw. Plus it means a LOT less sanding once you've cut it. My main aim when creating displays (apart from them displaying the product well of course) is to make them easily portable which is why I put the legs on hinges and the crossbar bits with hooks so they can unhook and fold flat. I am really happy with how it turned out, and it not only saved me a lot of room on my table, it looked pretty effective too. AND it only cost me about $9 in materials. It was wins all round really ;)

My snazzy new pendant display

So as you can tell, no cameras were harmed in the making of this display. However my camera did leave us last week, on the day that I planned to photograph all my completed pendants, and a day before the Crafternoon Tea — typical. I was more angry than sad about it dying, as I wasn't overly attached to my 18 month old Fujifilm (NEVER buy a Fujifilm, they are rubbish!). It was only a cheapy at the time so I shouldn't really be surprised that it just stopped working one day, but still... it was rather inconvenient! On the bright side however, I managed to use my FlyBuys points to score myself a really snazzy compact Olympus in a sexy Pearl White colour. She's such a little gem and I'm looking forward to using her!

Anyway, Crafternoon Tea on Saturday was a fabulous market and I really loved the Mt Eden Normal Primary School hall. It had a lovely vibe to it and felt very welcoming. Although it was a fairly quiet day I think Luisa and Trent did a fabulous job advertising it as best they could — Kudos! I had a wonderful day chatting with my fellow crafty peeps such as the lovely Jess and Bronwyn and to top it all off it was a successful market for me. I am really looking forward to the next one in January, back at it's regular Kingsland location.

My table with my new displays at Crafternoon Tea

I've cut 3 more bags ready to sew for this weekends Love Handmade market, and I have cut out 6 *new product alert* 'Obi style Belts' which I will be launching this Saturday — exciting stuff! I'm also getting ready to snap (with my sexy new camera) all of my pendants and start uploading them to my Felt shop over the next week.

Chat soon 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

Never moving house again

I'm finally all moved into my new place, and just today finished all my unpacking. I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and say that I never want to do that again. Mind you, I do love new houses... I just don't like the moving process. It always takes way longer than you anticipate.

It has been an eventful last week with a bit of beading, a bit of sewing, a lot of packing and a lot of cleaning. A couple of weeks ago my now ex-flatmate commissioned me to make some watches for her family and friends as gifts for Christmas. It was quite fun playing with beads again for a change. I think of how many hours I used to spend a day creating jewellery, and how now I am surrounded by an endless choice of beads and I barely make anything. I've made a promise to myself that I will make one new piece of jewellery a week for the rest of the year — and I will post a pic each week :)

One of the watches with its little black organza gift bag

There has been one little guy who has been absolutely loving that we have moved into a new house, with so much more room and a lovely garden to explore. Buddha has spent hours entertaining himself with empty boxes that are lying around the new house. It's hilarious to watch him jumping in and out and throwing himself around inside them! He also has loved the fab window sills that he can lie on to soak up some rays.

My new business cards arrived this week aswell, which is very exciting! Looking forward to being able to hand them out at the Devonport Craft Markets on Sunday Nov 1st.

My snazzy new business cards

Had a bit of an urge to crank up my sewing machine this evening and make a couple of new little bits for my new place. I had nowhere to put my plastic bags so I made a little bag holder to hang in the cupboard. I also altered a couple of tea towels that I picked up from Briscoes on the weekend for 50c (Bargain!) and made them into handtowels with buttons tabs to attach them to the cupboard handles.

So after a busy week and little sleep, I now feel ready to get crafty again. I have bought myself a table to use as my sewing desk, that I pick up on Thursday night and once I have that all setup my office/craft room will be complete. Can't wait!

K x

Views, Displays and Pendants!

Good Morning all :) What a lovely, but windy, day it is today. I can hear the ferns and trees that are close to the house, scratching against the walls. It sounds eerie at night time but I quite like the sound during the day. Look at the gorgeous view I am able to look at everyday from one of my office windows.

I am pretty lucky where I am currently living, it's so lovely and peaceful out here. I have to move in a couple of months though, unfortunately, and I just hope that I can get somewhere that is just as nice :) I thought I should try and take some more pictures before we have to move, for memories sake.

This morning when I got up I managed to take a semi-decent pic of my jewellery display. The sun doesn't hit my side of the house early in the day, so it's still not the best photo, but it'll give you an idea as to what it looks like.

As you can see, the display is pretty chockablock with earrings, so a larger one is definitely needed! But nevertheless, I will soon be offering these for sale. Not sure whether or not they will be made to order, or if I'll make a heap up yet or not... but you too, will soon be able to get your hands on one of these beauties ;) hehe

I'm heading out for the afternoon, so my pendants should all be dry and ready for their second coat tomorrow. Getting excited about having them all finished :) For some odd reason though, on a couple of them, the paper has cracked underneath. It looks quite cool, but I'll need to work out why that's happening so it doesn't do it in the future!

Here they are, drying on my desk. I seriously need a bigger desk!

The chores aren't doing themselves this weekend (no matter how hard I wish!) so it's off to do that for a couple of hours before heading out to enjoy the fresh air. Enjoy your Sunday x

Goodies to make Goodies!

Well I am back from my shopping trip with lots of new supplies :) It's actually quite an exhausting experience... but I love every minute of it! Here is a little sneak peak at some of the goodies I purchased this afternoon.

Yes, that is indeed a staple gun in the picture! It's (possibly) to help me make my jewellery display. I've measured, cut and sanded my pieces of wood (all by hand!) ready to go and am now trying to work out the logistics of actually assembling it! hehe. I have no doubt that it will be absolutely fabulous when I am finished though ;)

I have also spent a bit of time today working on my collection of wooden pendants. They are coming along really nicely, I am very pleased. The round ones are proving a slight challenge, so I am thinking of investing in a paper punch to aid in making them! I will post some pictures once they are nearer to completion.

Phew, what a busy week it has been. I doubt it will be a restful weekend, as I have so many new goodies that I will want to keep creating! It is going to be a GREAT weekend :)