Surprise

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I've been busy organising a surprise party for my sister!
The party was last night and every one was very good and kept quite about it so she had no idea what was going on. When she walked through the door she was utterly shocked and walked straight back out. After a few seconds she came back in and had a good giggle about it.
The rain held off thankfully so we could all sit out in the yard in the warm evening. We had yummy finger food including some amazing spinach and ricotta pasties that mum made.

I got a great idea from another blog-(which I can't remember at the moment) to make my own cupcake stand for the Birthday Cake.
I started with 2 glass plates and a vase which I got from a second had store for $16

I then spray painted them white (My mother was horrified as the large plate was crystal!)


Stuck them all together and ta da.......... a beautiful and cheap cupcake stand!

I then had the task of making all the cupcakes. I love baking but I can't say that I'm the best baker. I usually under cook or over cook what ever it is I'm making. So this time I tried really hard to get it right. I made 3 batches of 12 and one of the three batches was perfect, the other two were a little underdone. Then there was the icing, I was hoping to get a colour that was almost black but I ended up with a purplish/grey colour. It wasn't what I had wanted but when I saw it I actually really liked it.

I'm really happy that I put in the time to make everything from scratch as I think they were really yummy and looked pretty good to - if I do say so myself!

The cupcake stand was just the right size and held 20.

Mojo Monday 123

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Here is my entry this week:



We had an option to do a round or square card this week. Unfortunately I don't quite have all the tools to create a round one so I made a square one.

I've used:
Paper - Chocolate Chip, Real Red and Very Vanilla
Stamp Set - Live like you mean it and a swirl
Other: Polka dot real red ribbon, red buttons, twine and paper flowers

I'm really pleased how this turned out and I know just the special person it is going to!

Here is the sketch for this week:


Thanks for visiting and don't forget to check out the Mojo Monday site to see what other fantastic creations have been made this week.

Vote for Poppy Letterpress!

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Poppy Letterpress is an amazing design and letterpress company in Canberra, Australia.


It's a small business that designs and prints beautiful wedding stationary.
If you have never seen letterpress work it is a must! The thick cotton paper with ink pressed
in any colour you can imagine. The process is very hands on as each individual piece of paper
is fed into the letterpress.

Poppy Letterpress can work with you and create your own personal design or you can choose
one of their beautiful templates.

Poppy Letterpress has been nominated for a Poppy award!
I think they are totally deserving of this award so pop on over to the voting page here.

Scroll down to Favorite Handmade Papergoods then vote for Poppy Letterpress!!!!!!

Another project

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I've given myself a huge challenge - Fix up an old bike!


I'll be using this bike to ride on the road/bikeways with and perhaps I'll start riding into work.
It will be perfect for Sunday rides with my sister in to southbank for breakfast.
(Can I say here how much I love living back in Brisbane so I can do this!!)


I picked up the bike from an elderly gentleman who was riding until recently. So that means all the parts are still working and aren't seized up. Some of the parts I'll reuse but others I'll replace.


I must admit I'm getting a lot of help from my partner (T) and his brother.

To start with we took everything off the bike so T could start grinding off all that surface rust and prep it for repainting.




While he was doing that I cleaned up a few parts.
I'm really excited about this project and I can't wait to see the finished result.

















I'll keep posting pictures so you can see how it is coming along.

Mojo Monday week 122

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Here is my entry for the Mojo Monday sketch.

My entry:I've used:
Paper - Sweet Always, Pink Pirouettte, Regal Rose & Whisper White
Stamp Set - Cause for celebration
Other: Oval Nestablilites, glitter, pink dew drops and a HUGE pink brad!!!

I love the cupcake stamp from this set and topped with glitter they look almost good enough to eat.


Here is the sketch for this week:

Congratulations

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A big congratulations to Adri17 who has won the double giveaway on The Creative Mix.
She has chosen from my store the little set of 3 note cards (as pictured).

In other news one of my wedding cards has been featured on this site.
Very exciting!!!!

This week I've been busy creating some Valentines day cards so check my store for some new items.

I've also got some other projects to tell you about too, so stay tuned!

Project

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Today I picked up this wonderful mirror (100 cm x 50 cm) that I won on ebay and while I was there the lovely lady also gave me this run down little desk.

I've got some plans for these two items - can you guess what I might be doing with them? OR how I will use them?
I'll post some pics when they are completed.

Have you got any projects like this on the go? If so I'd love to hear about them, so please leave a comment!

Shapes and Memories

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This month one of my card sets has been featured on Shapes and Memories parade!

Each item gets voted for by you and the one with the most votes wins for the month of January.

It would be awesome if you could pop over to the Shapes and Memories site and vote for my cute little card set.

I had no idea this was happening and I was very surprised when I received the email from them!

What a way to start of 2010! I can't believe that my cards have been noticed by others and would want them on their blogs. Hopefully things keep getting better for the rest of the year and my cards really take off. So far I still haven't had many sales on etsy, it's so hard to get noticed out there in the big world :(

Fingers crossed that things only go up from here!

Mojo Monday week 121

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I've been a fan of Mojo Monday for some time now. Mojo Monday is a weekly card sketch that you use as the basis for your card. You can then enter the card on their blog to go into the draw to be a weekly winner. There is a new sketch every Monday and you have until the following Sunday to enter.

I never thought I had enough creativity to make their sketches work OR had enough guts to enter in a competition - I hate the thought of being judged :(
BUT I'm now looking at it in a way to increase my creativity, see other peoples ideas and share my ideas with them!

Here is this weeks sketch
I must admit I've never had a sketch to work by, I always just start working and make what ever comes into my head. So I found this pretty difficult!
Here is what I came up with

Not to bad for a first go...........
What do you think???

The Creative Mixx - last chance

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There are only a few short hours left to get your entry in to The Creative Mixx for the double giveaway!!

So click here to register your vote - GOOD LUCK!

Mum's Birthday

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It was Mum's birthday yesterday and as part of her present from us we gave her a gift voucher to get a luxurious spa treatment at Pure Indulgence.

I made this cute little holder to put the gift voucher in. I also made a card with matching paper.

I've been mulling it over in my head and wondered if I should start selling these 'gift voucher holders' in my store.




I could make them in different sizes to also fit the little gift vouchers (the size of credit cards).

Perhaps make a set with a matching card....... oohhh so many ideas but I'm not sure if people would be interested in them?

I could easily do custom orders with colours that people wanted.

What do you think? Would you buy one??

Blog Chicks

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Ever heard of Blog Chicks?

Blog Chicks is an online community for Australian Women bloggers.
It is the home of the Top 100 Australian Women Bloggers list, which has been showcasing great Aussie women bloggers since October 2007.

I've just been added to the blog directory under 'crafty'
I think that this site is an excellent initiative to show off what wonderful and inspirational blogs Australian women have.
I am constantly amazed at how so many women run successful blogs, online shops ect and fit this all around caring for their families.

I hope one day I can make it to the top 100 list, but for now I'm excited to be included on their directory.
Thanks to the fab women of Blog Chicks!!


Do you know of any amazing blogs by Australian women (May be you are one of them?) - I'd love to see their site so leave a link in your comment.

Have u entered the comp yet?

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This is the first time I'm blogging from my iPhone! Yay!
So have you been over to the Creative Mix and nominated your favourite design?
You could be the winner of the double giveaway!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Double Giveaway

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You all need to head over to The Creative Mixx and check out the double giveaway that Necole is offering.

She has featured me (my first feature) and Amanda from Rainbow Wrangler to help celebrate her 100th follower! The theme is 'remembering the art of writing' and to be in the running to win you need to head over to my store and Amanda's, pick your favorite design, then leave a comment for Necole on her blog with your favorites! It couldn't be easier!!!!

I'm so excited that this is my first feature and I'm helping celebrate a fantastic achievement by Necole. I can't even imagine that I'd ever have 100 people following my blog, so I think Necole has done an amazing job.

So stop reading my blog and head over to her's - you've got to be in it to win it!

Good Luck!

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So since last year I have been creating more and more BUT I haven't been sewing, I've been sucked into the world of paper craft by my closest friend.

I'm absolutely loving it, so much so that I have too many cards that I have decided to start selling them. I'm not going to markets at the moment given the move to Brisbane and getting settled here so I've created an Etsy store.

What is Etsy I hear you say - well here is their mission statement

• Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice.
• Buy, Sell and Live Handmade.
  

Basically it is a website where you can sell and buy handmade goodies!!!!!

For those of you who know what Etsy is you will know how addictive it can be.

Here is a link to my store Spring Blossom Design

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!!!??!!!
Also if you have an Etsy store leave me a link so I can check you out.

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OMG I can't believe it has almost been a year since I last posted.
I've missed blogging so much but life has been so busy that I haven't had the time to post.

A lot has happened in the past year, the biggest being my partner and I have moved to Brisbane!!!
I grew up in Brisbane and I have always wanted to move back here to be closer to my family and also enjoy the fantastic lifestyle and weather here!
I'm really thankful to my partner who gave up a great job to move here with out one, I'm very happy to say he does have a job now and is loving it. It's hard not knowing when the next pay check is coming in but thank goodness he didn't have to wait too long.

I feel like that part of me that was empty is now full! Moving back home was one of the greatest decisions I have ever made :)
- Do you know what I mean?? I'd love to hear about big decisions that you made and are
now thankful for.

Now going back before Christmas I made these cute little packages of Shortbread for my colleagues at work, I'm not the best baker and I did burn my first lot of cookies - woopsie

I've got much more to share with you about what's new in my life, but for now I'll leave you waiting until next post (Which I promise will be much sooner than my last)