The Night Market

So the next major event for all things handmade is The Night Market, a Christmas shopping event on Thursday 3 December from 6pm till 10pm, for those who like something different. Featuring some of the best and brightest of the Christchurch craft community, The Night Market is a treasure trove of beautiful handmade products, including jewellery, accessories, candles, books and all manner of gorgeous Christmas decorations and gift ideas. Head along after work or make a night of it! This fantastic event is being put together by Lucy of Felt.

So come join me and the other fantabulous Christchurch designers and crafters and pick up something fabulously different for Christmas this year.

Are you Stash reHash-ing it?

I am - as a stall holder and no doubt as a shopper.

Sorting through my fabrics in preparation for tomorrows market, I have come to realise that sometimes, when it comes to fabric, I get carried away. Yes I know. Hard to believe, but truly that happens. There are things in my stash that I have no idea how they got there. So some of that will be (hopefully) finding a new home with a happy creator tomorrow.

Anyway. Come join us at the Scottish Society Hall. Cnr Edgeware and Caledonian Rds Edgeware. From 11am to 2pm. Tomorrow. Sunday 8th November


Check out the Stash reHash blog for an idea of the super cool stuff that will be there.

Bolt of Cloth

So, um, you know how I love fabric.

Well the other day I was hooning (yes hooning) through town. Driving down Madras St towards my next destination, when I glanced across the road and screeched to a halt. A NEW FABRIC SHOP!!! With a real cool name - Bolt of Cloth. So after I safely found a place to park and dragged Master 1 out of the car I sped across the road to investigate. Lots of colour. Lots of gorgeous bolts of cloth lined up against the wall. Lots of big space. Lots of big cutting table. Whirring machines down the end of the building. My idea of heaven.

Heaven gets better when you walk inside. They have great designer fabrics that I haven't seen in Christchurch before.

One of the first things I saw when I walked in was a bolt of this!

I did a double take coz I recognised it as a Lara Cameron fabric from Ink & Spindle. And on my twice yearly trips back to Geelong for the last year I have been wanting to visit Ink & Spindle to purchase some of their gorgeous fabrics and never gotten there (joys of small children) and always regretted it. And now it doesn't matter coz here they are here in Christchurch. Excellent.

Then I also found some oh so beautiful oil cloth. I think the designer is called Naomi Ito from Japan - or so I was told.

It is the most devine Oil Cloth ever. I left telling the lovely lady who I think was called Susan that I was going away to figure out what to make with the oil cloth before I come back to buy some.

Well I have figured it out. Recently I purchased a new notebook. And it needs a new home and I bought a lovely pattern for a laptop bag from Nicole Mallalieu Design and have been mulling over which fabric I would use to make it. And now I know.

Yay for Bolt of Cloth!

A must visit for all Christchurch fabric lovers.

Crafty Business and Me

Oh I nearly forgot to say.....

You know Crafty Business - the one stop blog spot to get all your crafty business questions answered - run by the lovely Lucy of Felt and the lovely Millie of Miss Millie.

It is always marked on my calendar as a must attend event. A great night to network and catch up with other Fab Christchurch crafters and an opportunity to find out things about business that you might have been wondering or worrying about.

Anyhow - I am the speaker on Monday night at October's Crafty Business. I am talking about the Money Stuff. I will try to put it all in the plainest English for all you non-finance gurus.

I will be speaking about keeping accounts, structuring your business, gst and other things you may not necessarily have extensive knowledge about. If there is something that has particularly been bugging you please leave a comment on the Crafty Business Money Stuff Blogpost and I will endeavour to cover that off on Monday night too.

So see you there at Churchills in Sydenham on Monday from 7pm.....

PS - The crafty business money stuff blogpost also tells you about why I am qualified to speak about Money Stuff - In case you were wondering.

Anything better??

I am eating some of this and I seriously don't think there is anything better!!

Have you heard about......

This is a fab new event for Christchurch. Set for Sunday November 8th from 11 - 2.

See www.stash-rehash.blogspot.com for more information.

This will be a fantastic place for you to forage for that elusive piece of just right fabric you have been trying to find forever.

Entry is free for buyers and stall holders are agreed upon on a first come first paid basis. So if you want to make some room in your stash for some other delicious goodies contact the lovely Deidre at stashrehash@clear.net.nz. But if you are just looking for a little piece of gorgeousness rock up and join in the fun at 11am on the 8th of Nov.

So right - I am off to assess. To see if I can part with some of the severely oversized stash. I bet you I can....

So sometimes life tries to thwart you.

Welcome to : -
*** One son taken to the doctor with conjunctivitis. Only to be told he has a raging ear infection - one that is nearly bursting. One that I didn't even know about.
*** One mum who has to defer work (aka... relief from children) for the week to stay home and look after son with conjunctivitis and raging ear infection - suddenly hit with flu symptoms and resultantly feeling like death warmed up.
*** One 3 year old daughter who is JEALOUS yes JEALOUS because her brother is sick and is getting medicine and special attention.
*** Meals deteriorating into combinations of begging said conjunctivitis ear infection son to eat anything, just a little bit of something, just anything at all - resulting in point blank refusal and of frustratingly reassuring said 3 yr old daughter that no she wasn't sick and yes she could eat her dinner like normal and no her sore leg didn't need cream and actually wasn't sore and didn't BLOODY make her sick.

Urgh! and to top it all off I was due to fly to Auckland on Friday for a much anticipated weekend away with a friend. So mid week saw me fending off all the above issues and struggling to keep the house ticking along whilst at the same time swilling copious amounts of echinecea and nurofen in a desperate attempt to stave off the full blown flu so that I could still make my trip to Auckland.

Did it work? YES YES YES.

I made it to Auckland to catch up with my friend. I had a fabulous break. Fully recharged my - me as my own person batteries. Seriously enjoyed not worrying about washing, meals, taking masses of stuff with me everywhere, walking by myself, hearing myself think, talking about things other than crayon colours or toilet manners, having to only say things ONCE, having wine before 7pm, having a pedicure, going shopping, out for dinner, out for brunch.

Before the onset of the mini-flu, conjunctivitis and the ear infection I embarked on making myself a new travel bag realising that I only had back packing days - day pack for carry-on, short trip luggage. I was fortunate enough to get a heap of vintage(?) upholstery fabrics recently, so I transformed some of them into this....

What do you think... I love it.