Giddee Up!!

There is alot of focus on horses and the races here in Melbourne at the moment due to the Spring Racing carnival being in full flight and tommorrow is the big day. I am working tommorrow which will be oh so fun, but as I keep telling myself think of the money.

While I was shooting some photo's for one of my new brooches I decided to venture around the house and take some photo's so here are a couple I chose to show you fine people.




First one up is of my little baby Zena. She is quite unwell at the moment with an ear infection and we have to put drops in her ears twice a day which she absolutely hates and so she is now licking away her fur around her ears because she hates it so much, thankfully only one day left with the drops.



This is our little vegie garden up against our pool fence. We haven't been able to grow much because of our water restrictions but we have had quite alot of rain so it looks pretty healthy. At the moment we have silverbeet,chives,italian parsley,oregano and mint but we hope to add some tomato plants soon.



Last but definitely not least is a new little brooch I have just added to my etsy store. I thought it was quite fitting for the Melbourne Cup tommorrow, maybe I may win some money on one of my horse choices I will let you know, have a great day everyone.

Magazines & Zines galore.

Okay ever since I was a teenager I have loved perusing the magazine aisle at the supermarket and leafing through all of the wonderful and bright images, I never really looked at the text added to the photo's I know that is the point but I am a visual person so pictures appealed to me more at that stage in my life. Anyway as I grew older I realised that there are alot of really trashy magazines that aren't even worth reading anyway until I found these lovely gems amongst the evergrowing forest of magazine land. Here are a few of my all time favourite magazines and zines that you should peruse if you like.

Magazines:

Frankie Magazine
I have only discovered this brilliant magazine over the last year or to and now I am a subscriber definitely worth every penny. It has great articles on everything I adore including art,music,craft and real life stories and it also features a great pull out poster pretty cool in my book.

Peppermint Magazine
This eco magazine is in a league of its own, its a new little baby on the market but it sure packs a punch. Its from New Zealand and features articles on indie artists and designers, movies, books and plenty of eco fashion to go around.


Zines:

Mixtape Zine
A great little local crafty zine full of crafty goodness including book and cd reviews, great articles on crafty women and heaps more.


CROQ Zine
Has great DIY articles about craft and lifestyle check it out!


Online Magazines:

N.E.E.T Magazine
This is one of my all time favourite online publications it takes a while to load but it is worth the wait. Its choc full of indie designers,artists, illustrators you name it it has it.

So if you have a little time I suggest you go and have a look at these magazines and zines because there is plenty to choose from and if anyone has a recommendation please feel free to drop by and leave a comment.

Do what you love....

I found this brilliant article written by Keri Smith called " How to make a living doing what you love," it was fabulous. If you have always imagined that there is something missing in your life or you have a serious hobby or a passion for something then this article might be able to bring you hope that anything is possible, the first step is to believe it can happen and it can. Here is the link so you can read and share it with your friends.

How to make a living doing what you love by Keri Smith


Here are some helpful Etsy stores that create zines and guides with helpful business info:

Pikaland

The Buzz

Survey Competition Winners.

Thankyou soo much to everyone who completed my store survey it gave me a lot to think about,especially how I can improve my store so as I promised here are the two winners of the goodie bags.


"Congratulations goes to":

Jessica Eaton

Nicole McNeil

Thankyou again to everyone who completed the survey, I will have more giveaways shortly so keep posted!

Store survey & giveway details:

I have been trying to find a way to improve my etsy store and get a greater understanding of what customers want and I think I may have found a helpful tool. This was mentioned in a post in the Etsy forums about using a free survey tool to get a greater grasp of your target audience, its called surveymonkey

So I created my own little survey, so if you aren't to busy and would like to help a fellow etsy seller out please take a seat have a coffee and answer these eight simple questions. Just a quick note once the survey is finished I will be randomly picking two survey participants to win a little goodie bag to say thankyou.

Click Here to take survey

Thankyou guys!

*Survey goodie bag giveaway winners will be announced on Saturday 17th October here!

Rainy Day Love.

It is a lovely rainy day here in Melbourne and it is absolutely freezing in my little study where I type this so I will be brief, but I just wanted to say a big thankyou to Whitney from Miss Serendipitist blog for writing a lovely review about my etsy store. The blog is great full of fantastic indie designers, book reviews and heaps more so go and say hi to Whitney I'm sure she would appreciate the support.

Memories are made of this.

Well continuing on from my last post the Lemon Meringue Pie was a disaster and a half. It was really easy to prepare which maybe should have been my first notion that it wasn't going to be successful and you know I was definitely right on the money.

The meringue looked gorgeous and tasted divine but the lemon custard in the centre didn't set one little bit. So when you scooped into the pie it was like a lake of lemon mush.

So after my cooking disaster I decided to tackle another project and this one happened to work out really well. I decided to make a little piece using a memory box and some little cut out butterflies. The final result is pictured above.

If you want to create one yourself or for a gift here is the materials you will need:

* A Memory Box ( I used a 7" by 5" inch box but you can choose whatever size you desire)

* A selection of decorative papers for the butterflies and background

* Acrylic craft paints

* Scissors

* Hot glue gun

I found a "butterly stencil," by looking on google, there are plenty available and I just adjusted to the size I wanted. I also added a crackle effect to the paintwork on the box using a "Crackle Medium," which you can find at most craft stores, its very easy to use just follow the instructions on the bottle. Just paint one coat of your chosen acrylic paint on the surface of your project, then let it dry completely. Once dried apply a layer of the crackle medium and once this to has dried add a layer of a contrasting paint to the top and the crackling will start to appear as it dries.

I chose to use white paint on the bottom and teal blue on the top, I think its pretty nifty. The butterflies were adhered to the white paper background with hot glue, I also added a vintage empherera heart and the words "Dare to dream." If you have any questions about the process let me know, otherwise I say give it a go.