This made my day!

I recently sent off a custom order of my Back to Nature buttons to the lovely Elizabeth in Canada, and she just posted this appreciation photo on Etsy! Such a cute cardigan! It looks like Elizabeth is planning to open her own Etsy shop riizuknits soon, which I'm sure will contain lots more lovely hand knitted items. Thanks Elizabeth!  

Why oh why blogger?

For some reason Blogger keeps chopping off my images. I hope they resolve this problem quickly, it's making the rabbit and the duck a bit grumpy!

UPDATE: So after much reading of the Blogger message groups, I have learnt how to go in and manually change the size of my images. Not the best solution but I'm happy with that for now! 

A crafty clean up

As promised...what does a girl do when she decides to clean out her many boxes of stationery and other random items she's been collecting since she was in primary school?

Why, she makes craft mix packs of course! Each pack contains an assortment of plain and patterned coloured card and paper, stickers, ribbon, wool, a full size postcard, plus some other little bits and pieces like the mini wooden peg. I'll see how these go at the Sister's Market before making up too many, although I have more than enough supply here to go into full-scale production!  

A little message

I step away from the computer for 2 minutes this morning and this is what I come back to. My boyfriend playing around with his new iPhone and this message scrolling past in pink neon lights - "Do your tax return. And the dishes". He did finish the message with "I love you sweetie" so I guess he's forgiven.

My second favourite type of pantry

At our house we have a pair of shiny red school locker style cabinets (as seen here) that we use as our kitchen pantry. I absolutely love them. Particularly when I know I am going to open them and find chocolate inside. But today I've discovered a different pair of pantries that come a close second to the chocolate filled type - the Craft Pantry and the Supply Pantry. These are two of the cutest Etsy shops I've seen! These are my 2 favourite products:

I love these Christmas gift tags. And the baker's twine - I never knew that a simple string could make a girl so happy. 

Tomorrow I will share the result of some of my recent spring cleaning. It seems I collect a LOT of stationery and other crafty bits and pieces. Understandable I suppose given my addiction to these things. But it's time to clear some space. I might be needing it for a roll of baker's twine after all...

Tis' the season

Working in retail, I am constantly reminded that Christmas is hurtling towards us at a rapid pace! Did you know there are less than 10 weeks until Christmas? Eek! I have set myself the goal of a fully handmade Christmas this year, and really need to get organised if I am going to have all my gifts completed in time. 

I have come across some cute Christmas ideas in the past couple of days:

Beautiful gift wrapping pack from Simple Song Designs.

Lolly bags from Poppies for Grace.

Greeting card from Little Paper Planes.

I think this weekend will be a good time to write my Christmas list...although there is also that nagging voice in my head that keeps telling me my tax return needs to be done. Hm decisions, decisions...  

An experiment of sorts

Of all the steps involved in creating a new product for my Etsy shop, I would have to say that photography is the trickiest part for me. The right lighting, the right angle, getting the colours right - one of these elements always seem to elude me! I've been experimenting with using a darker background for my journal shots - what do you think? 

PS This new scooter journal with the singing birds is now available in my shop!  

The art of getting sidetracked

Tonight I gave myself a small project:

Step 1: Sort through internet favourites

Step 2: Delete any that I do not need anymore

I forgot about Step 1a - spend hours browsing long forgotten websites. These images are from Coton, an online Japanese shop. Even though the site is written entirely in Japanese and I cannot understand any of it, I just love the beautiful photographs. 

I could use a lovely big leather bag like this one.

I love the simplicity of this outfit.

How cute is this coin purse?

I love this yellow dress!

-sigh-

If only my finances would accommodate all the things I lust after!

What's your favourite zoo animal?

Giraffes are pretty cool, and so are lions - but my favourite animal to see at the zoo has always been penguins. When I saw this great penguin fabric recently I knew I had to have it!

Penguin journal:

...and penguin buttons:

Available in my Etsy shop now! 

I Heart...

Some of my favourite finds on Etsy this week:

1. linen dress by pamela tang
2. print your own stationery set by little brown pen
3. poppy purse by jewelweeds
4. linen tote by yorktown road
5. scrabble cushions by pillowhappy
6. i heart lists notepad by simple song designs

The Rabbit & the Duck get crafty

I was lucky today to have an entire day off with no errands to run or housework to do (well there was probably some housework to do but nothing that needed tending to urgently!) so I took advantage of it by sewing up some new notebooks. I also fitted in a bit of cooking, some magazine reading in the sun, and quite a lot of relaxing while listening to my fave music (should I admit to having a love of 80's and disco tunes?).

So here is the result of my productivity today - some new french cloud journals and a couple of black scooter journals. I love the newspaper print fabric I found for the pockets of the scooter journal - I only bought a small amount as I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I think I'll be going back to Amitie to purchase some more. For these journals I decided to try out a new elastic cord to hold everything in place, which turned out really well. Perfect for writing on the go! 

These journals are going to be available at the Sisters Market in early February, but if you can't wait until then just shoot me an email and we'll talk! 

It was Miss Scarlett, in the park, with the dagger

Some of you may recall my recent trip to Canberra and the unsettling events that took place while I was there. Well, I have an update! Last night my boyfriend and I caught up with some friends at a wedding, and while chatting about our trip we realised we had all been in Canberra on that same night. I quizzed them about what they knew and it turns out the 'suspicious death' was a young guy in his twenties - and that it was his girlfriend who did it. Such a sad story.

Sneak Attack

image originally uploaded by surferkia

The other night while browsing through Etsy and catching up on all the goss in the forums, I stumbled across a post about 'sneak attacks' that a group called The Handmade Movement is doing. Intrigued, I clicked on the link to their website to find out more.

A 'sneak attack' works like this: Everyday at an appointed time, an Etsy shop with few or no sales is announced on the Handmade Movement site. Everyone who wants to participate in the attack then visits the shop to buy an item from it. What a great idea! The shop involved has no idea they are going to be targeted until they get surprised by all the sudden buyers.

And what does the above photo have to do with surprise attacks on Etsy shops? Nothing really, I just really liked this pic (and it came up while searching for images tagged with 'sneak' on Flickr)!

Today I...

image originally uploaded by peter j thompson

...posted off my first Etsy order! A scooter journal is currently making its way up to Sydney to Paper Lion. Paper Lion shares my love of all things paper and stationery and makes lovely handbound books and photo albums - check out her Etsy shop here. I particularly love this notebook which is covered with US roadmaps - it reminded me that I have some lovely canvas featuring a map of London that I had planned to turn into some travel journals. So much fabric and so many ideas! I just need a bit more time to get everything done!    

I also found out today that I will have a stall at the February Sisters' Market - even more of a reason to get sewing!   

Beep! Beep!

I popped over to Fabricworm the other day to discover she had mentioned my scooter fabric spending spree in her blog! After inviting her readers to check out my shop and my blog to see what crafty things I was working on with her fabric, I thought I had better get moving and post some pics of my new journals. So here they are! I will pop a couple in my Etsy shop later this evening - I'm off to a Tupperware party now! 

Etsy Treasury Feature!

A big thank you to Teneale from wicked child designs for featuring my orange botanical journal in her spring sale themed Etsy Treasury. I'm quite chuffed!

I do love a sale!

During the month of October, the EtsyDUST team (Down Under Street Team) is having a Spring Bloom sale! 

To celebrate, I am taking $10 off my Botanical themed journals. There are 2 colours available in my shop - orange or brown. Very floral and very spring! I can just imagine sitting under a nice shady tree writing notes and ideas in these journals. 

And while you're over at Etsy, be sure to check out some of the other gorgeous items that fellow DUSTers have on sale for the month!

Happy Spring Shopping!