TIME FLIES....

Eeeeek! Where does the time go?!!! I have finally finished writing my reports, they've been given the nod by the powers that be and it feels like a huge weight has been taken off my shoulders.... only to be replaced with the organisation of the Christmas market! Which I actually love doing, so it's not so bad! The November Crafternoon-Tea has been and gone and even though it was quieter than the first one, I still think it was a great a success! We had loads of new vendors and it was great to meet so many new and talented people.
Preparations for the Christmas market are well under way, we're advertising in World Sweet World, doing a massive flyer drop in local areas (help out by dropping flyers in your area!), advertising in all local newspapers and school newsletters, the Grey Lynn festival is on this weekend and I'll be there handing out flyers, plus a massive email flyer going out to as many people as possible. If you can think of any other way to get the word out, let me know!!!
I'm hoping to get a lot more things made before the next market, but time seems to escape from me! This weekend is the Grey Lynn festival, then on Sunday my cousin and his girlfriend are arriving from London and I'm picking them up from the airport. Next Wednesday I'm off to see Anika Moa at the Monte Cristo Rooms which should be awesome, then my brother arrives from London, Trent and I will do a mock lay-up of the school hall for the market, applications close, flyer drops need to be made, it's CRAZY! You can see why they call it the silly season!
Luisa :-)

Where the wild things are...

Things have been super, crazy busy at the moment what with organising the next two Crafternoon-Tea's, making stock to sell at the next two Crafternoon-Tea's, writing school reports, updating blogs and so on! But I love it! I popped around to the Devonport Craft Market on the weekend, which was fantastic, seemed really busy and I loved the massive new sign outside, can't miss that! As usual, I wore out a few of my new creations to see what kind of response they would get and whether or not I should make more. Well Olivia from lilysmakebelieve loved my Max, from Where the Wild Things Are, brooch so much, that I just had to give it to her. Olivia then proceeded to take Max on his own little Wild Adventure, check it out on her blog! Here's a sampling of some of the other items I made, I've already taken an order for 3 of the Facebook badges! Yay!

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO!

Wow! I've been crazy busy lately, trying to make new and different pieces while at the same time trying to make simple stuff to build up my stock before the market. Which brings me to the market! Organising both the November and December markets is frantic, but I love it! I've got so many new ideas for marketing and promoting Crafternoon-Tea, that it's distracting me from the other important things I'm supposed to be doing!
On top of all of that, I've just been sent my list for the Christmas ornament swap organised by twentycentmixture. I have 6 people in my group, including me and the wonderful Kylie from Skipapple. Now I just have to decide what to make! I'm always worried that people won't like what they get! Here's some of what I've been working on recently:

A tree decoration for a tree!

A leaf necklace! This took so much longer than I anticipated, it's completely hand-sewn and looks quite funky on. If I did another one, I might make the end leaves come in a bit more so it sits slightly differently.



A snowflake christmas tree decoration. I quite like this one, I might try making them in different colours, background and thread.

My interesting attempt at a Pohutukawa flower! Not quite sure about this one yet!
Holly! I love this, it's a brooch and slightly oversized to make a statement. I might wear it to work tomorrow.
This tree will probably end up being a brooch too. There's something quite appealing about this guy, I'm going to try and make a smaller one to be a necklace maybe?
Back to the kiwfruit! I made several little kiwis and thought I'd use one as part of a hairclip. Kinda cute! I'm definitely going to make more of these, not just kiwifruit!

Kiwi-fruit earrings!

That's it so far!
Luisa :-)

MORE CRAFTINESS!

Over the weekend I popped into the Devonport Craft Market to say hi and have a look around. I met some of the new vendors for Crafternoon-Tea such as Kylie from Skipapple and of course I couldn't resist purchasing one of wonderful necklaces, she had such an amazing range that it took me 10 minutes to choose! Here's what I bought:



Wandering around I met Mel from Black Swan Designs, her creations are truly amazing and I'm gutted that she doesn't live here in Auckland, having made the trip up from Christchurch. However, you can buy her stuff online and I've already convinced two of the ladies from work to buy some of her necklaces! The one I bought is pictured below. Mel has promised to try to come back and visit Crafternoon-tea next year, YAY! Next to her was Lucy from Felt, another wonderful lady with such a clever idea, she'll also be back next year and is a valued supporter of Crafternoon-Tea, you can find a whole host of New Zealand's crafty people selling their goods on her website, check it out!

All this craftiness has motivated me, so here's a sampling of what I've been up to lately: felt and hand embroidered hair clips, super cute and really easy to make, I'll be creating a whole lot more of these for the next market!
MONSTERS! I drew one and it just took off into a little family, I think I'll make a few more. I love this little guy the best because he just looks so worried!
This guy just looks like he's having a good time! The monsters are all brooches by the way!
Looking a bit crazy here, could be why the other guy looks so worried!
This guy is the first one that I made, so I have a bit of a soft spot for him.
Here's the whole gang just hanging out!
KIWIFRUIT! The large kiwi is a brooch and the little kiwi is a ring. I had such a positive response to these when I wore them out on the weekend, that I've made a whole fruit salad's worth for the next market. I'm also attempting to make some earrings too.
Here's the brooch.
So I'm currently crafting like mad trying to build up stock before the next market, but I keep getting distracted with school reports and organising the coming Crafternoon-tea and Christmas Crafternoon-Tea. All very exciting! I'm thinking about making some christmas ornaments, but might leave those til after the November market. There's just not enough hours in the day!

Luisa :-)