Kraftbomb tomorrow!

It's that time again — time for awesome craft, rad people, the most amazing cupcakes and Fred's Lemonade... it can only be Kraftbomb!

See you there lovelies xx

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My Creative Space....

I've seen on a few of the blogs that I follow — Cotton Kiwi and A Little Vintage — these posts each week and thought that I would give it a go every now and then.

Here is a shot of a custom wholesale order with an exclusive range of fabrics that I'm working on for a lovely lady. These are the mice I have made and they are all about to get their tails attached! How gorgeous are those fabrics?! I wish I could make oodles of things out of them for my markets and shop, but I can't, just so beautiful and bright...

Check out Kootoyoo for how to join in on the fun...

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A little extra prettiness....

You know those internet tangents you sometimes go on? When you click to a link from a blog you love to read, and you find yourself learning something new that you wouldn't have even dreamed of normally only to find yourself on one of your newest, favourite blogs? Let me explain myself a little bit better....

I was reading on Bronwyns blog High Fashion Mountain (Bron is also the brains and beauty behind R.W Scissors — awesome blog, you should read it if you don't already) about her foray into the You Tube world of hairstyle tutorials. Well, I made the mistake of clicking to watch one.... 4 hours later that night, and I had come across two lovely ladies channels; LisaFreemontSt and ElegantlyAmused that do the most amazing tutorials on Pin Up hairstyles, 1940's techniques and the odd make up tutorial. I was hooked and of course had to try it for myself....

One of the lovely ladies, Casey, that I had come across also has her own blog, full of vintage goodies and general sweetness Casey's Elegant Musings. It's so good that I am slowly working my way back through her entire blog, just so that I don't miss anything! Here are a few of my favourite posts so far:
Wedding Wonderment (her wedding was featured on the Martha Stewart Weddings blog!)
How To Refashion a Cardigan she does the most amazing job at turning old things into new wonders
1920's Chemise Inspired Top gorgeous tutorial that I'm going to try sometime soon

And of course she has the most lovely photo's on Flickr of her outfits, inspiration and hairstyles....

Discovering all this stuff was just what I needed, I've been in a hair rut for ages. I've been growing out my fringe for the last year and I was so tempted to cut it back — but now I can save all that hard work and try out some more of these styles (and possibly frighten the boyfriend...). I of course had a go at Pin Curls, the curls themselves were great, I just couldn't get moulding them quite right — something I am sure will come with plenty of practice...

My first ever Pin Curl set, excuse the fuzz

Another lovely place I discovered through Casey's blog was Colette Patterns — she creates vintage inspired sewing patterns, I have bought for myself this lovely skirt pattern. I can see myself making plenty of them to wear all year round as it's a similar style to my favourite Summer skirt. I've bought a bunch of patterns lately so I'll do a proper post with all my lovely garments when they are made.

*sigh* back to work I go, I hope you enjoy this loveliness as much as I do...

Jess xx

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New Newsy Newsletter!

Those of you who signed up at my markets ages ago (try, about 8 months ago.... sorry!) and new followers of my blog will be glad to hear that I have finally gotten my act together and found the time to do a proper, lovely newsletter!

It will be full to the brim with highlights from the months, news from Bam Bam HQ, information on new products, first to hear about up-coming sales and seasonal specials — not to mention giveaways just for the lovely subscribers of my mailing list. You could even win a prize just for signing up!

Sign up using the form to the left, in time for the newsletter going out later today (or tomorrow if I run out of time) and you could be into win one of two prizes worth $25.00 each and full of utter cuteness.

Talk soon!
xx

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Congratulations to.....

Kelly Robson! You are the (very lucky) winner of my blog competition and has scored herself this cute-as-a-button Hoppity Hoppity Bunny necklace. On it's way to you soon. Enjoy!

Thank you to everyone that took the time to enter, it was super hard to make a decision! I'll have to do another one soon.

xx

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Crafternoon Tea market is tomorrow!

Yep, Crafternoon Tea market tomorrow! I'm going to be there, along with Skipapple, Mermaids Purse, Songbird Designs, Exter Creative and A Little Vintage to name a few.

Holy Trinity Methodist Church
Corner Sandringham & New North Roads (Bond St end)

From 10am til 3pm

See you there!

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Don't forget...

about the giveaway that I'm having! Closes on Friday, so if you would like to enter see this post.

This little guy could be all yours...

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New, pretty things....

I went shopping the other day for some new fabric — unfortunately it was all fabric that won't be seen in my shop, but in a lovely new store that is opening. It was for the wholesale order that I have been working on and they asked for the fabric I use to be exclusive so I needed to find some — I have such a hard job, really, I do...

Of course I loved every second of it — until I reminded myself that all these beautiful fabrics wouldn't be able to be seen in my own shop. So to cheer myself up I did buy myself some fabric too, just a little bit. Along with a whole lot of gorgeous new paper for my labels to be printed on. Mmm, eye candy....

New Fabric: the birdie and the green are only a little bit for playing with

New paper for all my product labels, love the green one on the top!

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I {heart} Frankie Magazine (and a giveaway!)

Anyone who knows me will know how much I love Frankie Magazine. I have nearly every issue from the beginning, I never throw one away and I keep them guarded from others' sticky fingers (mainly my daughters and my boyfriends...). I love to pour over them for inspiration and a regular dose of loveliness.

You can imagine my elation when I saw Bam Bam Creative on the Frankie Blog! Right there, smack up the top and in pride of place on the page. I honestly, nearly cried with joy.

Thank you Frankie!

As a special celebration I'm going to do a give-away!

This cutie could be yours!

If you would like to win your very own Hoppity Hoppity Bunny Necklace, please leave a comment below telling me your favourite item from my shop and why, along with your details (so I can contact you if you win!). If you would like another entry, just become a fan on facebook and let me know you have done so.

Winner will be drawn in about a week or so, I'm not going to be mean about it with a deadline. Don't live in NZ or Australia? All good, you can still enter xx

AND for super awesomeness, this is my 100th post!

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Weekend in Wellington and Craft2.0

Well, I'm back from Wellington. So much build up and now it's all over! I was getting ready for bed last night, thinking to myself that I was standing here brushing my teeth only yesterday — but it felt like it had been 3 days since I was home! This is why....

Leaving Day...
4.45am rolls around and my alarm is politely telling me to get up (about as politely as a screaming 3 year old would...) I had hardly any sleep the night before from being so excited about Craft2.0, but Kylie (of Skipapple) and I are on our way to Wellington.

We arrive to the most AMAZING day — not a cloud in the sky and it feels like it was about 24 degrees, so much for Wellington being an icebox! We dump our bags at the backpackers that we were staying at and head out to breakfast (my second breakfast of the day), we found a cool little cafe called Midnight Espresso on Cuba St and I had the BEST ever bagel. We hung out for a bit before heading down to the waterfront.

Me being a tourist

Chatty time with crafty people...
I had arranged to catch up with fellow crafty type, Illustrator Sarah McNeil for tea and cakes. We met up outside the Art Gallery — which is an awesome building, currently covered in polka-dots — before taking a walk up Cuba St on our way to Martha's Pantry for some serious cuteness. Martha's Pantry is featured in the current World Sweet World and is full of frilly aprons, cute tea cosies, pretty plates and the most amazing selection of cakes and biscuits.

Wellington City Art Gallery, covered in spots like Bottomly Potts

Tea and cakes at Martha's Pantry

After we'd finished pretending to be ladies, Sarah kindly took me around and showed me all her favourite shops and some interesting places around Wellington. There was this little cafe on the corner of Cuba St that was inside awesome little retro caravans. We visited the best bookshop full of books about craft and fashion, I could have spent hours in there! And of course we had a lookie in Madame Fancy Pants and all the curiosities. Lunchtime rolled around and it was time for Sarah to get back to work and I had to meet up with Kylie for lunch.

Caravan cafe goodness at the top of Cuba St.

The rest of the day consisted of lunch over looking the Wellington harbour in the sun and feeling very, very tired! We finally got to check in, and after a quick pit stop I got together a few things to take up and show the lovely Claire from Madame Fancy Pants, which of course she loved!

Beer and Sun — a winning combination

Later that night after setting up our tables at the market, we went out for a yummy Indian dinner and a trip to the Bats Theatre to see the worst play in the universe. So bad, I'm not even going to type it's name. Exhausted, we dragged ourselves home to get ready for the market the next day.

Market Day....
After I think the worst nights sleep I think I have ever had (went to sleep at 3.30am only to have my alarm clock go off at 7.30am....) we got up and ready to head to The New Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt for Craft2.0, Heleen (of Ruby In The Dust) and her sister kindly gave us a lift.

Me setting up for a day of market goodness.

My table in all it's glory

The market itself was pretty slow (compared to what I had been told it's like in the past) the numbers were rather low and the craft cash was down for a few hours, which really didn't help. I personally didn't do amazingly considering my costs for this market had been so high, but it was nice to say hello to everyone and of course meet with lovely retailers about my wares. Fingers crossed for those!

Hometime....
The market finished, we packed up and jumped on the shuttle bus to the airport. To be honest, I couldn't get home fast enough. I was feeling a little discouraged after the market, utterly exhausted and just wanted to get home and relax. The flight only took about 40 minutes and before I knew it I was home with a lovely boyfriend and a cold beer waiting. Couldn't ask for more really!

Amazing view of Wellington Harbour from the plane.

All in all it was a lot of fun and I'm looking into coming down again for another one at some point. Wellington put on amazing weather and a definite highlight was hanging out with Sarah and meeting retailers.

See you all at the next market! In the meantime, check out more photo's from our trip here on flickr.

Jess xx

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Craft2.0 is just around the corner....

And I have so much to do!! A couple of weeks ago I had a to-do list the length of my arm, now, it's more up to my elbow. Even still, every time I have completed something I think of something else that I have to do.

I was at Kraftbomb on Sunday just gone — it was the first one of the year and was really busy for a February market. It was great, I had loads of great comments about all my packaging and plenty of my things found new homes. A really good start to Kraftbomb in 2010!

If you're going to be in Wellington this weekend, do come and check out Craft2.0, it's going to be awesome with plenty on unique and high quality crafters offering some great wares. There is a little crafters profile of me on the blog too if you fancy checking that out.

Better get back to it, this wall art isn't going to make itself....

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