What I am pinning - decor that hangs

Have a look at these beautiful decorations that hang delicately to adorn your special space. All found of course on Pinterest.

1. How lovely is the paper bunting, it almost look like text book, or pages from a novel. 

2. These look so soft and pretty. Being placed in front of a mirror is so effective, there looks to be so many more of them.

3. The paper tress, they look like so much fun. Imagine those at birthday parties, even created in Christmas colours. 

4. The birds are perfect. Whoever made those is beyond talented.

5. These little cones so cure are't they? Perfect for parties & wouldn't they make perfect lolly bags for leaving guests?

All references for images can be found via my decorations board. There is a link to each selection.

Christmas Stocking Giveaway

With Christmas so close I thought I would be lovely to have a giveaway. I love doing this at this time of year, it's such an exciting time the build up, the decorations, the food, & I have to admit I love a pressie.

I have also been really busy here working away in my dedicated working space, some call it HQ, but me it's my own small & busy space. I am printing cushions, stockings, more cushions, and even more stockings. This year I offered stockings in a newer larger size which has been a real success, & will be returning next year. They are  approximately 28x38xm, big enough to make a statement & certainly large enough to pop some small gifts from Santa in there. I have even offered free post worldwide.

So here is the giveaway, 2 large Christmas stockings, any design & of course personalising.

All you have to do is be a follower of my blog. If you already are let me know, & if you're new say hi & let me know. Also I'd love to know your most favourite thing about Christmas & I will pick a winner. I love creative answers, or things to make me giggle.

I will announce the winner next Thursday 22nd November so you will definitely have your stockings in time to hang for Christmas. This competition is open world wide.



Have fun & good luck.

Bugger of a week..I really mean it!!

Ever just had one of those weeks that truly disrupt your routine & balance? I had one of those just recently & have just come up for air. Crazy thing was, it had nothing to do with the kids, it was my work it involved, & my couriers were to blame!!!

It all started just over a week ago when routinely I posted three orders.
The first to one of my consultants who sell in my Quirk and Quaint business.
The second other was a wholesale order.
The third was for my lovely machinist who makes my products.

My first order was worth a significant value & lucky me, this parcel was in a van that had been robbed. Mind you I wasn't advised this until my consultant started asking where it was, & I started tracking it. Yes I know it was bad luck, & trust me such an inconvenience. All the customers had to be called to advise them what had happened, & I was hoping they were happy enough for them to wait for it to be replaced. Thankfully they were, & being a handmade business I don't have a warehouse where I can repack orders quickly, they all had to be made again. Then I have had to submit invoices for insurance purposes. So damn time consuming.

The second and third were lost together. The driver who does my pick up run suddenly resigned & was yet to be replaced. Again, I wasn't told so when my 2 parcels had been sitting there all day & not collected, I called & was soon advised of this. Not impressed with the delayed updated, but anyway they were collected & I thought all was good. They had an external collector pick them up & when they still had not arrived 4 days later, again panic struck. The wholesale order was only 2 cushions, so that didn't freak me out at all too much, it was just an inconvenience again. However the order going to my machinist had A LOT of work in there to be sew, & it's value & time was worth a lot also. Personalised products take time to prepare & organise, & this parcel took me just over 2 days to do so. When I tracked it & called the courier company several times, & there was no record of it, I FREAKED out & felt ill!!! I was finally advised it was lost, which didn't make me feel any better.  Eventually it was found, the external courier didn't put the right ticket on it to resend it back to the correct depot for dispatch. A week later it arrived. I am so lucky that Aileen who sews for me, was so helpful & managed to have it all sew for me almost on time, as well as the current weeks work. If it was for her I would have been stuffed, I really mean that.

I just wanted to scream & blame everyone, be an angry hippo, but that was just my helplessness coming out in me, as there was literally nothing I could do. I will admit to crying, & felt so much better when Charlotte heard me & I got lots of cuddles, which was so beautiful.

The catchup has been horrendous as I had to repack a lost orders, as well as current ones, I literally packed all day last Thursday & Friday. Trying to do it around kids is so challenging at the best of times, so I had to bribe them a lot, let some extra iPad time happen, & I threw in a few movies & I got it done. I am sort of up to date, but still behind as I had my normal "to do" list for that week, but I just had to not worry about it. Mind you it's still waiting for me. It was just an absolute nightmare week.

For someone who works for themselves, especially handmade, with kids at home, it wasn't even the money I was worried about in the end, but more the time & hours that are involved. Fingers crossed never again.

This week is a new week, & I won't let it scar me (I hope), time to move forward, reward myself for doing what I though was impossible & have a great week this week.

What I am pinning - colour inpiration, home decor

Here are some of the gorgeous images I have been pinning away. You can find in my home inspiration board. I am so drawn to all of the colours.

The frames are amazing.

I love yellow desk, it's so happy & cheerful.

Words can't describe those chairs, breath taking.

The wire vases so simple colourful & they look so delicate.

The dip dyed sheer curtains... perfectly coordinated with the mint coloured chair. So fresh & summery.

image source 1 - pinterest via http://www.etsy.com/listing/69279275/spring-fling-collection-10-pieces

image source 2 - pintetest via - http://seilamuitascoisas.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-07-16T07%3A52%3A

image source 3 - pinterest via - http://charlottelovey.blogspot.nl/2012/09/pastel-neon-91-magazine.html

image source 4 - pinterest via - http://night-onthe-run.tumblr.com/post/19129864969?scmmusicplayer=adrianshum

image source 5 - pinterest via http://www.designocd.com/page/3/

New product coming soon

Most people world wide are watching the very famous Melbourne Cup today, an event that literally stops this nation, and one that happen about 35 minutes from my house. It's also a public holiday & which means hubby is home.

I am not into horse racing, & not really fussed with who wins either. Is that shameful of me?? Instead I am taking this opportunity to work on a new line of products I have been busting to get starting. I have shipped hubby off to take the kids to see their cousins, & I am working hard trying to get this together as I would like to be selling it at a market I am exhibiting at this coming Sunday.

No hints at this stage as to what it is, just a new way of hanging my artwork is all I will say.

I hope you're having a great holiday today if you're living in Australia.

DIY Project - Revamping old cork boards to hang kids artwork

I am not a huge DIYer, I am a total fan, I am an absolute wanna be DIYer & have a long list of tasks I eventually would like to have a go at. I popped some time aside last weekend to have a go at something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I have had some large cork boards and thought they would be great to use to hand the kids artwork. Having a 4yr old and 2yr old you can imagine a fair bit of artwork comes through this house.

This is what I completed (above), & below is my step my step (below), on how I got there. Be warned, this is basic stuff for the professional DIYer, but for me an accomplishment that I actual started & completed something.

Step 1 - My cork boards, 2 of them which will be one for each of the kids.

Step 2 - I covered the board with some junk mail to protect the cork from the paint. Mind you, I should have used masking tape, but didn't have any, so improvisation was a necessity. 

Step 3 - Colour selections of red & green. A lot of basic bold primary colours are used in the kids playroom, catering for both boys & girls tastes.

Step 4 - I painted a coat of white paint first to make sure the colours looked bright & bold. This was just in case the colour of the wood altered the colours of the final result. Oh I am also using Hudson's Spider Man gumboots as paperweights!!

Step 5 - Paint on the colour. I did one nice thick layer of each colour as it was a warm day & new it would only take a couple of hours to dry completely.

Step 6 -  I mentioned these boards were old. As you can see they are a bit bowed around the frame, so hubby bought some hanging wire for me, which was attached with a staple gun on each side & pulled tight to bring the shape back together. Also it was now ready for hanging. 

Step 7 - Hang them. I always use command hanging strips so if I make a boo boo it can be fixed.

I hung them up above the kids couch, & popped the number wall decals in between them, just to create some space & add some interested. I think by the looks on their faces they like them.

Lastly the most important component.....their artwork. Hudson's board is the green board & Charlotte's is the red board.

As I said it was a very simple task which didn't coast me a cent really except the hanging wire. I used the kids water based poster paints, to pain them & that's it. There is definitely a lot of satisfaction for me doing this, as I think about things I want to complete all the time but never get around to doing it.

Now that I have accomplished this, it has got me thinking what I can do next?????

OMG 1st Nov...Christmas is coming

Pinch punch first day of the month. I simply can not believe it's the 1st of November  which means one thing for me....Christmas is coming. Since having the kids Christmas has taken on a how new level of excitement. I love seeing everything through their eyes, amazement, beauty and innocence.

I just couldn't help myself today I needed a break from some work & fluffed around on Pinterest for a while pinning some loveliness to my Christmas board.

I found all of these images shown here on a gorgeous board called Christmas  - Shabby Chic. I loved everything, & was oohing and ahhhhing the whole time. There is something amazing about vintage style Christmas decorations. They look so soft, whimsical, pretty and delicate.

So much too look forward to, I can't wait.

I love pinterest & love looking at everything, while you're there you can find me here.  I'd love to see your boards too.