A wardrobe snippet.

My dear friend, Amy, sent me a big box of goodies for Christmas. So lovely of her.
In that big box was a million vintage dresses and things for Mollie, handmade bibs in vintage fabric, kids books, a Dear Colleen tote (I've got the skill to pay the bills!) annnnnd this beautiful dress.
It fits like a glove, is super dooper pretty and I pretty much love it. I plan to wear it on Christmas day.
Thanks twinny!

Dress - Gift from Amy
Cute baby - Allllll mine

(And it's too hot to wear much else!)

Goals and list update.

Quite a few months ago, Aesop started a savings chart.
He was determined to get his very own Ipod touch, so I suggested that perhaps we could go halvsies. We paid him for doing extra jobs (no money for his usual chores, trying to teach him that there are some jobs we just need to go as part of a household..) and didn't allow him to use money he already had, or birthday money etc. This would mean that he truly earned the gadget.

The clever boy reached his target last week, so as of Tuesday, he has been enjoying exploring his new technology. He has been writing lists of apps he wants and songs he'd like me to download (Gangnam Style? Seriously?). He is learning the limits of how much time he can spend on it each day (I need to learn those limits myself.. hmm..) and the benefits of sharing with Otto.

I won't lie, it was a mission to get him to the top of that chart. I couldn't believe how frustrating it was he turned down job after job, but still wanted to get money. The number of times I reminded him that 'it's not called work for nothing..!' But I'm pretty proud of him (and me!) sticking at in. Not sure I could have saved that much as a kid!

As for my own goals (that I started back in September), I'm not being quite as successful:

1. Make myself some undies.
2. Make soy ice cream. - Done! Semi successfully..
3. Buy a Diva/menstrual cup.
4. Go on a train.
5. See a roller derby game/match/bout.
6. Sew a 'Crepe' dress.
7. Host a games night.
8. Plant Ottos placenta.
9. Get rid of 1000 things (TradeMe/donate/rubbish)
10. Make 200 sales on Felt (88 to go!)
11. Do a market stall. - Done!
12. Visit a farm.
13. Visit Rainbow Springs or Paradise Valley.
14. Change our bedroom curtains.- Done!
15. Get a(nother) tattoo.
16. Take a road trip.- Done!
17. Go camping.
18. Take a photography course.
19. Plant a Summer garden. - Yup!
20. Complete Playcentre course 2.
21. Get a bra fitting.
22. Learn to crochet granny squares.
23. Have another blogger meet-up.
24. Find an exercise routine.
25. Sew something for each of my family members.
26. Make sushi and miso.
27. Buy some decent boots.
28. Be kind to myself.

Yikes, got a big job ahead of me next year!

Craft Country Part Two.

Phew! Got a bit distracted by the wee sale I had/am having over on my Facebook page. It has been crazy bananas over here, packing orders and sending invoices etc. I'm loving it though, and very so blessed to have so many people interested in what I'm doing! Think I might need to host a few more of these sales.

Anywho, the market was pretty much full of amazing crafters. I didn't get a chance to speak to everyone, or even photograph all the stalls I loved, but I did snap a few.

Directly across from me, was the lovely Michelle from Leaf. She makes very, very cute clothing, accessories and toys from natural materials (organic cotton. merino, leather..). I didn't manage a chance to nosy through her rack, but I did snaffle up a very smart, dusky pink sunhat for Mollie.

Emma from Emmamakes was pretty much the main motivation for me going to the market. It might be a little stalkerish, but Emma is one of my biggest craft heroes. This woman comes up with the most brilliant ideas, manages time like nobodies business and makes a CRAZY amount of stuff. I aim to be more like her!
Craftiness aside, Emma is also a very cool person. She has the most fabulous, dry, sense of humour. She says it like it is, and I like that in a person. Mhmm. Quite fond of Emma, can you tell?





Also very fond of Emma's kittens. We had ourselves a wee swap, and Mollie got to take home the cutest purple kitten. She's quite taken with it.

You might have already spotted her in the photo above, but another person I was really stoked to meet was Rebekah from Bliss in a teacup.
We've had a bit to do with each other online (as you do..) and it was so nice to have a wee chat in the flesh. Rebekah even came bearing soy sweetened condensed milk! Amazing!
I didn't get much of a chance to have a really good look around their stall, but I do have my eye on one of their fabulous wooden rings (and I think Abraham has his eye on one too..) might need to treat myself in the New Year.

Another stall I only looked at briefly, and didn't get a chance to buy from - Millicent Crow. These prints were even more amazing in the flesh than they look online. I've been oogling these on the net for awhile now, wish I had snapped up one of the prints of the chocolate box lady!

I was so, so pleased when I saw that Hikkepik was going to be at the market. Pleased, and incredibly nervous. Hikkepik is, without a doubt, my favourite childrens label. If I had my way, Mollie would be head to toe in Joke's amazing gears. My felt wishlist is always full of her items, and I'm so pleased that I'm starting to be able to purchase some of them.

(Picture taken from Hikkepik Felt shop as it doesn't do it justice on a hanger!)

Joke and I did a bit of a swap too - I got the most beautiful wool coat, that I've been eyeing up for ages. Oh it's so good, I can hardly wait until Mollie can fit it.

The other notable person I met, was Mike from Dusty&lulu.
Holy schmoley, what a cool business they are running. I discovered them when the seller list came out for the market, and promptly went and checked out their website - so good.
The brilliant idea I mentioned in my last post, belongs to them.

On their site, they  have a page called 'Swapsies'.
On it, as you might be able to imagine, you can swap your craftwork, for other craftwork that is offered up.
An artist, or crafter, submits a run of 3 or more of an item they have made, and you can submit your offer of a swap. If they accept - it's a done deal! How cool is that?
I have big plans in the New Year of getting my swap on. You should too!

Craft Country - Part One. (Image heavy!)

Early Friday morning, we hopped in the car. It was loaded with bedding, clothes, our youngest child - and the results of a few months of intensive crafting.

I had serious butterflies before we left, but they calmed a bit as we got on the road. Not much more I could do once we were on our way, aye?

We had quite a lovely time, cruising down the country. It's unusual for it to be just the three of us for such a long period of time, and even more unusual for Abraham and I to have such long stretches of time for conversations to happen. We listened to music, made fun of road signs, ate Burger Fuel (essential on any road trip!), disagreed with the TomTom (you want us to go WHERE? Into the middle of the forest? Uhh.. no?) and discussed which of the small towns we would most like to live in. 

(For your information, we decided that Cheltenham might be the one. FLASH houses, green pastures and a pub called 'The Chelty'!)

We arrived in Masterton just before tea time. We stayed with a good friend from school, and spent the evening eating pizza and chit chatting with her, before settling in to get some sleep before the big day.

I learned my first lesson of the day very early on: make sure you know how long it take to to set up your stall. Seriously, when you are sweating away, trying to get things hung and writing signs, 10 minutes before the doors open - then you didn't get yourself enough time.
Luckily, I juuuust made it in time to snap a few quick pictures and get behind my stall for the opening of the doors.

(My little helper/model)

?

Unfortunately, the opening of the doors did not mean a big rush of people. In fact, there wasn't really a big rush of people all day.. it was quite slow. Sales were made, but not an awful lot.

I'm not complaining though, not really. I got to meet a lot of lovely people, see some lovelies I'd met before, and buy/swap for some gorgeous things. (More about all of those things in part 2)
Abraham was so wonderful, entertaining Mollie, fetching me food - and manning the stall so I could wander round and natter with those lovelies, and purchase the goodies. I'm so thankful he agreed to come with me, it would have been no fun without him. That was lesson number two.
I also learned a lot about the workings of my stall, and display. And about which of my items seemed to gather the most interest (for this particular crowd, anyway. The demographic seemed to be a lot older than I was expecting..). I have some good ideas for next time, and that's always helpful.
(One thing that cracks me up about markets is the comments people makes, almost as if the seller isn't standing right in front of them. I got a lot of 'Ohh, I could just make that..' or 'Well, that's a bit pricey isn't it?'. But my favourite of all was an older lady, who uttered to her friend, in regards to my doily-adorned bags 'They'd be a lot nicer without the table cloth on them!' Haha!)

After a long day, we were quite knackered. One might think this would be a good time to relax, ready for the long trip the next day, right? Well, not us. We decided that, rather than draw out the tiredness, we would just hop straight in the car and head home that evening. We'd be exhausted, but we'd be home and have the whole Sunday to unpack etc. So that's what we did.

We made our way back up the country, chit chatting, making fun of road signs.. and stopping for Burger fuel, of course. We listened to music, and sung a few rounds of nursery rhymes to calm Mol, who had well and truly had enough of being strapped in. We got home just before midnight - 14 hours of travel in two days! BANANAS.

(I think, maybe, I might need to stick to markets a little closer to home. I just need to find a good one.)

Will write a post about the lovelies I saw, the things I came home with, and a very cool idea, tomorrow. In the meantime, I have photographing and listing to do - so much stock for the Felt shop! Holy!

Craft Country, here we come!

This is where I have been. Stuck behind a sewing machine!
The Craft Country market is this weekend, and I will be there. I'll be there with all this stuff, and more!
I have had so many moments in the past few weeks where I have thought I might pull out, where I decided that I must be mental thinking I could muster enough stuff for a stall - but I got there. Proud as punch.
(I still feel like I have both too much AND not enough at the same time though. How does that work?)
So yes, if you happen to be near Greytown this Saturday from 10-3, pop into the library and have a nosy! It would be wonderful to see you, and I pinky promise I won't even freak out if you introduce yourself as a reader of my blog!
Failing that, I'll hopefully get my Felt shop re-stocked and open again as soon after Christmas as possible.

Thanks to everyone who has offered me words of encouragement, and even more thanks to those who have helped me in other ways to get ready for this market. Turns out I'm not superwoman - trying to look after three young kids, run a household annnnnd sew fulltime just doesn't happen easily. I'm well looking forward to a wee, well deserved, break. I'm excited about how things are going though, I have a feeling next year will be a big year for Croutons. Eep!

A backyard barbeque.

A few of our goals this Summer include spending more time outdoors, and nourishing friendships with certain people we really enjoy. Hosting backyard bbqs are pretty much the perfect way to do both, so we're starting early!

Bunting, gazebo, flowers in a Agee jar, music, cute new blackboard table, smoochy couple shot - check.

Food - including sausages, meat patties, crash hot potatoes, roast pumpkin and chickpea salad, lamb chops, coleslaw, bread, green salad, chocolate ghana peppermint cupcakes and strawbery cloud cake.

The kids played touch, hung out in the tent and watched a Dvd. The brazier was roaring, the music was playing and I hear, while I was putting Mol to bed, there were even sparklers!
The company was perfect, the feijoa cider was delicious and all was lovely.

Such a brilliant evening. Here's to many more like it!

Dressed to, erm, thrift.

I have a terrible habit at the moment (probably more than one, but for the purpose of this blogpost, let's just say it's one..), and that habit is buying dresses that noone in my house fits.

The number of dresses I have bought recently that are too small for me, and too big for Mollie, is quite ridiculous. I mean, sure, Mollie with grow into hers but there is no guarantee she will let me dictate what she wears at three, four five.. and I miiiight lose weight and fit into mine, but that would involve a little effort on my part, and who has the energy for that?!
At this rate I could almost open some sort of online vintage store, but then again, if I had that much energy I might fit the dresses. Haha. Such a catch 22.
In the meantime, they sure are pretty to hang in the closet and daydream about wearing..

These are the dresses added to the collection this week:



One for me, a fifties silk frock that is so close to fitting it almost hurts.
Put down the cupcake, Rhiannon. Honestly!




And these two for Mollie aged maybe 4?



This one is for Mollie too, but how cute does it look on Iron man? I especially love it with the dino socks - such a fashionable superhero! Cutie-patootie!