Loving sash headband combinations

I'm very happy with how this next design in my Floral Range turned out. And made even more beautiful by the lovely talent photography of Kris McCann.

Wear it as a sash or wear it as a headband in boho or traditional style! For this first trio, I've used my dusty rose pink, natural and fern green 100% cotton luxuriously soft threads. I love this colour combination.

Shop now at my Etsy or Made It stores.

Pretty new floral designs

I'm very happy with how my new floral design has turned out. The new thread colours look fabulous. It has been so much fun dressing up each flower. There are buttons, silver and my favourite material next to threads, Swarovski! So pretty. This simple photo was taken with my Canon Ixus under overcast daylight. Then a little adjustment of the levels in Photoshop for a slight clean up of colour clarity. LOVE! I'm having a Market Night on my facebook page on Wed 29th June to celebrate and share my happiness. There will be special packs available at exclusive prices. I hope you will be able to join me. There are a few items available to order now and through to Thursday 30th June 12 noon, Australian WST.

Happy new thread colours

How happy are these colours. Some are restocked favourites while most are new to my range. I can't wait to start working with them.

Ugly Fabric Craft-a-thon

I'm participating in Handmade Cooperative's Ugly Fabric Craft-a-thon. This challenge involves taking a supplied piece of 40 x 80 cm ugly fabric - a vintage floral of reds, blue and white - and turning it into something appealing that's suitable for use with kids. Here's a pic of the fabric - it's actually uglier in person!! Here's a sneak peak of the 3 creations I made to answer this challenge: Read Handmade Cooperative's post tomorrow to see all the creations made by all the participants. I can't wait to see how the other's have interpreted this fabric!

Happy Travels

I post my creations to all corners of our wonderful world. Snail mail is quite a rarity these days. Most of the letters we receive in our letterboxes seem to be bills or advertising. So, I like to have some fun and prettify my envelopes as a happy surprise for my customers! From little thank you comments or a happy doodle. Sometimes I even include a surprise gift inside! Look at these vibrant postage stamps I just bought! They're Australia Post 'Come to the Show' stamps (released March 2010). I'll be using these on my next parcels, wherever in the world they may be heading to. Don't they just make you smile?!

Loving my new threads

Diving into my new threads, here's just a few of the many possibilities in new colour combinations. Aren't they pretty!

I can't wait to further these with embellishments... crystals, beads and ribbons!! My kind of indulgence.

Stop by my online shops at Made It and Etsy to check out my final creations. x

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I customized my facebook fan page profile pic to reflect today!

And how cute is this group of items Etsy has put together for their home page today, I especially love the adooorable baby wearing the 'Luck of the Irish' hat and bow set by sweetpeatoadtots

Have a great day everyone!

"Eat Pray Love" here I go...

Well, ever since this book came out in 2006, I've been hearing about it everywhere I go. Many of my friends have read it and recommend it and some have it at the top of their To Read lists as I did.

A visit to Borders with a dear friend recently, she bought the book and was determined to read it and suggest I should too before the movie comes out (August 2010!). I'm a super movie buff you see, but I always must read the book before I see the movie as I just thoroughly enjoy picturing the characters and scenes for myself before Hollywood gets their chance to imprint my mind with their version. I enjoyed Amy Tan's 'The Joy Luck Club' this way, as well as in 2008 Audrey Niffenegger's brilliant briiiiiiiiiliant 'The Time Traveler's Wife' before that movie came out last year.

You see, in my opinion and due to obvious time restrictions, however great a movie can interpret the book, a movie can only capture so much of the original story (perhaps one day, a brilliant book that I love can be made in it's full length via a movie epic, parts 1, 2 and 3 and... you get the picture). So, while I love love movies (thank you film makers everywhere!) I also like to have my cake and eat it too by way of absorbing into a great story told via the good old in your hand smell of paper books (thank you brilliant authors everywhere!).

Ok, back to the book on hand... here I go... chapter 1... "I wish Giovanni would kiss me." I love it already!

Look at all these pretty new colours I now have!! That light in the photo is from the beam of my smile :D

I have many ideas for these new threads. Watch this space to see what I'll create. You can now send me your custom orders - pick any colour combination you like or let me create something special just for you.

Pretty flower head band

I made this today for a friend's little girl. I hope she will like it. This is a surprise present especially for her.

Chokladbollar

This is how they do chocolate balls in Sweden, yum!

Our pitstop at Wayne's Coffee (Scandinavia's leading café chain) on Kungsgatan - caffe frappe anyone?

Tagged and ready to post

So colourful! 15 little birds tagged and ready to fly (post) to their new homes. If you'd like one, see here.

köttbullar

Being in Stockholm and often hearing the locals rave about them, we just had to try it for ourselves - köttbullar (Swedish meatballs) topped with lingon berry jam at the Ikea restaurant. Very tasty. Almost AUD 60 cents per meatball. It's worth it. You can also buy meatballs, such as those by SCAN, at the supermarkets. It is a staple food like bread, eggs and milk.

My first Etsy feature

I saw a whole lot of new hearts to my Etsy shop today, wondering why, I went to craft cult's heart-o-matic, perhaps I was in a treasury.

How exciting to find out my Emerald and Jet Trinity earrings had been selected by marymary to be in this weekends' Etsy Deals Guift Guide, and on page 1 too! Thank you!

Vanilla sugar cookies - yum!

Pulling out what I had in my fridge and pantry... and taking inspiration from this Easy Sugar Cookies recipe this is what I used (without measuring utensils):

11 tablespoons of plain flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons of white sugar
block of butter, about 3cm x 5cm x 2cm (1 1/5 x 2 x 4/5 inches)
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F).

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth, I use a tablespoon to squash the butter against the sugar, squash squash squash until both are well blended together so you can't see one for the other. Then over this, crack the egg and mix all together.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar. Into this put a few tablespoons of the butter/sugar/egg mixture, and mix. Gradually adding and blending all together.

Flour your tabletop or surface and roll out your dough to about 6mm (1/4 inch). Sprinkled a generous amount of vanilla sugar onto the top of your dough and pat down.

Slice up the dough to your desired cookie size (or use cookie cutters).

Line a baking tray with baking sheets (alternatively you can grease your tray, I like the convenience and cleanliness of baking sheets). Place your cut cookies on top of the baking sheets.

Bake for about 10mins, or until golden brown if you prefer.

Let the hot cookies stand on a wire rack to cool for at least 2 minutes. You must resist, it will be worth it.

These are sweet, soft and crumbly. Very very delicious.

Tweet Tweet

I started making these little amigurumi birds for fun and to hang around our house for that extra dash of colour. I received lots of positive comments from friends and family, 'so cute!' they would say.

Then, on twitter I stumbled upon this competition hosted by moonfruit (a site where you can build your own website for free). I customized a bird to replicate moonfruit's mascot. And, wouldn't you know it, I won a creative prize - an iPod Touch, 2nd generation too!

And another hooray, I received an order for 15 today - mixed colours!

I'm happy others enjoy my lil tweets as much as I enjoy making them. Let me know if you would like one too :) They are also available in my shop.

Beautiful morning walk

It was a beautiful sunny day for our morning walk today. Here's an example of the stunning architecture in Stockholm - at the corner of Hantverkargatan & Scheelegatan (Kungsholmstorg) in Kungsholmen. Just a 5 minute walk from our city apartment.

What I did with Swarovski cubed crystals

Into my Etsy shop today, I listed this old favourite design of mine. I feature 4mm (1/7 inch) cubed Swarovski crystals on the ends of various lengths of silver plated chain, to create a waterfall that is feminine and modern.

I think the single light rose cube adds just the right touch of colour to the jet blacks. What do you think?

mairuru's easy cookie recipe

I love cookies and biscuits, not to mention cakes!! so I was very happy to find this recipe on mairuru's blog - the title got me first.

I don't have a weigh, so mairuru kindly translated the measurements into tablespoons - thanks mairuru!!

Oh, and I don't have a decorating tube to make the lovely patterned cookies, so I improvised with shaping the dough with 2 teaspoons.

I halved the recipe, just as a first try. I kept 2 plain, and added a little something to each of the rest - 1 mocca, 2 jam drops, 2 raisin, 1 dried coconut and a dried papaya.

Here they are prepared and ready to bake.

20mins later, wha la...

Very tasty little treats.

Happy 1st Birthday

This moment last year, I met my little boy. It changed my life forever. I have been filled with so much love and cuddles from him. Hubby is a fantastic daddy, giving little one days filled with giggles. Happy 1st Birthday my darling. I love you so much.