Weekly Handmade Christmas Pledge Update

I know that this is where I normally would update you on our progress with our Handmade Christmas Pledge but this week the Big News has finally arrived. The only person that I would allow to take over my weekly update is my little shorty (My son Dion). 
Dion has started his own store selling items made with handmade covered buttons. To start off Dion will be selling his creations in his shop on Madeit called Dion's Buttons. Dion has also setup a blog, so stop by for the latest updates new products, sales, and giveaways. 

Dion has some great button pins, hair buttons and craft buttons for Christmas. Great for any Christmas outfit. I really love the striped hair buttons, only wish that I was able to wear them this Christmas but they wont work with my short hair.

Dion also has covered button magnets, button pins that would be great for Christmas presents or stocking stuffers. The custom word magnets are a fantastic idea, something I have not seen anywhere.

Coming soon to Dion's Buttons are covered button earrings. Please stop by his shop and show him some love.

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Blog News..........

We will be back to the normal Weekly Handmade Christmas Pledge Update next week. Thanks for putting up with my gushing this week.

Giveaway is still running. During the week I announced that the prize for the giveaway will be two of my Christmas Owls. 

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Shop News................

The Christmas Owl is now loaded up to my Madeit Store and will be on the Etsy store this week.

I will be also listing some other decorations this week.

And the prize is .......

The prize for the our current giveaway is .......... 2 Christmas Owls.

These Christmas Owls will be available from my Madeit Shop from tomorrow for only $6.50 each. I will also have some other decorations from tomorrow.

So to be in the running to win two of these cute owls follow the instructions below before the 8th November.

 So if you already follow my blog leave a comment letting me know whats your favourite Christmas Tradition. If you are not a follower click on the button to follow the blog and then leave your comment.

I have really enjoyed reading everyone's responses so far.


Good luck everyone

Featured in Bondville

You may notice a little change to my blog. To my lovely surprise I received an email this afternoon letting me know that my wonderful Woven Felt Basket has been featured in Bondville Blog as part of a post on Madeit.
Thanks to Steph from Bondville for including me.

GIVEAWAY TIME

Hi All, its giveaway time again.

I would love to hear about your favourite Christmas tradition, whether they be new or really old. So if you already follow my blog leave a comment letting me know whats yours. If you are not a follower click on the button to follow the blog and then leave your comment.

I will be announcing the prize during the week.

So you have until the 8th of November to let me know your tradition. On the morning of the 9th of November a winner will be chosen randomly and announced here on the blog.

Good Luck.

Weekly Handmade Christmas Pledge Update

Its been a big week but first I want to give big shout out and thank you to Emma from Belafonte, in last weeks post I featured her "Girl with Bow" and to thank me Emma is going to give me the print. I love this print and I am totally blown away by her generosity. Stop by Belafonte on Madeit or Etsy store and see Emma's beautiful work.

I have made so many purchases this week that I had to make a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.
Earlier in the year I bought a beautiful little ACEO Mermaid print and ever since it has lived on my desk. Every so often I would go back to TheBrilliantMagpie and look over the beautiful prints. This week I added to my print and purchased another 3 prints from Amy for a Christmas present for myself.

                Sea Dreams                                                      Irina

I also purchased a print of a girl flying called Far From Shore which will be going into my bedroom when I have finished making it over.

Last week I shared with you all the wonderful work of RubyVictoria, I loved her gift tags so much that I ended up buying two packs (But don't worry there are still some available). I also found these funny and cute tags to add to our collection.

Do Not Open Until Christmas Tags by lowfidelity

I was also able to gather another gift for my son. My sons collection of belts is growing as much as his collection of hats at the moments. This belt will add a bit of fun to what ever he is wearing.

Fishbone - Black Canvas Belt by mymimi

Well this is it for this week, We have a trip planned to spotlight tomorrow and I need to work out my list of supplies that need/want (hehehehehe).

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Shop News............

Hopefully by midweek I will have my Christmas Decorations finished and loaded up to the stop. So stay tuned.

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Giveaway.............

I will be announcing our latest giveaway this week so look out for it.

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BIG NEWS COMING VERY SOON..........

YIPPEE

So happy, I just got of the phone from booking our holiday. After New Years we are going to be spend a week in a cabin on Bribie Island. We have stayed there before and both times it was a wonderful week of going to the beach, playing cards, and watching the waves come in. I have to thank my son, he was given the choice of 2-3 nights on the Gold Coast or a week on Bribie and he picked Bribie.

This is the view across the road from our cottage.

This is like the cabin we will be staying in.

So those of you out there that are looking for a holiday, Bongaree Caravan Park is great and they class the last two weeks of the school holidays as mid-season which a lot of places don't do.

Weekly Handmade Christmas Pledge Update

This week I want to give a shout out the wonderful crafters over at Madeit. This great Australian site is wonderful for selling our handmade Aussie creations.

Bec from Little Wise Owl  has these really cute Christmas Apples, they are a wonderful way to decorate this Christmas and it make them even better I won one in a giveaway on the Little Wise Owl Blog.

I think prints are a great present to give, as long as you know the person well enough. Last year I got my Gran a ACEO print for $5.00USD and got a custom frame made for $16.00AUD. For such a small price I was able to give my Gran beautiful piece of art. This print is wonderful I love the way the hair wisps up and the simple beautiful lines.

Girl With Bow by Belafonte

We are starting to think about how we are going to wrap and label our presents. I came across these cute gift tags that I think would add a vintage feel to out packages.

letterpress Christmas santa tags pk 5 by RubyVictoria

This week we added to our present collection and I wanted to share one of them with you. My son Loves Origami, Dinosaur's, and making things. When I came upon these Dino's I knew that I just had to get him one. After buying one I went back and bought the rest of the Dino collection and the Japanese collection. Its going to give him lots to do over the holidays.

Kirigami T-Rex Skeleton, Make Yourself by popupcardmaking

Ok this is it for this week. Stop by Madeit and give it some love, since joining the team at Madeit and all the other crafters have been wonderful.

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Blog News.........

Welcome to the new look. I am really happy with the new layout and it will be staying this way until we change for Christmas.

We will also be running another giveaway shortly. So stay tuned.

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Shop News..........

We now have Personalized Soft Elephant Toys in both my Etsy and Madeit stores.

Also the Woven Felt Basket that was in my last weekly post in now available in both my Etsy and Madeit stores. In not too long they will be available in different sizes.

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BIG NEWS COMING VERY SOON

New Blog Layout

Well early this morning I decided to change the layout of my blog. I had always wanted a 3 column but hadn't found a good one when I first setup my blog.
So here it is. Because by the time I got this done it was the early morning some of the functions of my blog are not up and running again but will be by the end of the day.
I hope you all like it.

AND THE WINNER IS MILLYANDME

This morning I woke to find that I now have 25 followers of my blog. Yippee. Thanks to everyone who signed up to follow. Using a random list generator entered all followers names and had the list randomized. The name to come to the 1st place was the winner. As you can see from below the winner is millyandme. millyandme has won a $20 gift voucher and free postage.

 There will be another giveaway coming up, just in time for Christmas. So stay tuned.

Weekly Handmade Christmas Pledge Update

Well it hasn't been a very productive week on the creative front. A combination of things, son coming home, meetings and two nights working on my budget kind of stuffed it. So apologise for the really short post this week.

I did get the chance to work on the list of presents, there was a lot of names with blank spaces beside them. Now we might not have all the presents for all the people but we sure have a good idea of what we are going to get them.

This week the Mini decals I purchased from One Up arrived.

These are going to be great for my son to put on his laptop. As an extra we received the decal of the cassette tape which will be great little extra present for a cousin of mine.

Hopefully I will have more Christmas news to share with you all next week.

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Last weekend while I was out I got a canvas to stretch some beautiful fabric over that my Grandmother brought back from Japan for me. Its 90x90cm and I am really happy with the outcome. Now I just have to find the right hooks to hang it up in my bedroom.

I have a very small piece of this fabric left and I will be stretching it over small canvas for the shop.

 I have been working on this woven felt basket for a couple of weeks (on and off) now and yesterday I finally finished it. I'm actually thinking of making one for my Uncle and Aunt for Christmas.

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Blog News ........

So close to drawing our giveaway. Only 4 more followers. So if you haven't already clicked on the follow button get in now for your chance to win a $20 gift voucher and free delivery.

Also don't forget to add you favourite Christmas food to the list.

Yippee I won

Yesterday I retweeted a tweet from Madeit for the chance to win 1 of 5 Madeit Recipe Zines and this morning I woke to find I have won a copy. Yippee. I cant wait for it to arrive and start cooking.

A gift from Annette

One of my closest friends is leaving tomorrow for a 3 week trip to the US. During her time away her pet bird is going to be staying with us. To thank me in advance she bought me this Annabel Trends Tea Towel (Personally I think she should wait to see if it is still alive after 3 weeks living in our house). It's so beautiful I cant bare to think of my son drying the dishes on it, so I think that I will stretch it over a canvas to hang over my desk.

I hope Netta and Pete have a great trip.

Weekly Handmade Christmas Pledge Update

Well it has been a an enjoyable second week of the school holidays. My son is spending a long weekend down on my mums property, so I was hoping to get lots of projects finished. So far I haven't finished a thing and I am late working on my weekly post but it wasn't all in vain. I spend the day with my Gran going to the movies. While I was out I was able to pick up a large stretched canvas, which I hope to share with you after the weekend.

This week I wanted to talk about the size/cost of gifts. I know for myself its great to know that a friend has thought about me enough to add me to their list of people to give presents too. Even if the present is only a box of chocolates that person took the time to think of you and spend hard earned cash.
Now family is a little different but I think of it this way, I set myself a budget of the amount I would like to spend on that person/couple but if I find a present that is perfect for that person/couple (ie necklace for an aunt who likes chunky jewelery) for less it does not mean that I need to find other presents to make up that budgeted amount. Really doesn't matter how much you spend on someone as long as you have really thought about what the person likes.

I have a really close friend who I share a love of Coke with (I think the word is obsessive). I came across this cute coke cow magnet and knew it was perfect as a Christmas present for her. I will also be getting one of their cute little dog magnets for her, including postage it will only cost $8.50USD.

Recycled Coke Can Cow Magnet by FunkyRecycling 

In one of my earlier post I was able to show you all the Bath mitt and spa cloth that I made for a special person in our family, well to add to this special gift I got some beautiful soap, it smells divine and the fact that it arrived so quick was wonderful. Now all I have left for this present is to make a bath mat. 

Woodstock Handmade Soap by Celestial Scents

Every year we have both a star and an angel on the top of our Christmas tree. While I love the star,  but the angel was just a cheap one we got at the $2 shop. Cute but not special. I spotted this adorable angel and fell in love. So this week I bit the bullet so to speak and purchased the pattern and even thought I haven't crocheted anything like this I am going to give it my best shot.

Crochet Pattern- Paz the little angel amigurumi doll by Owlishly

Over the next week I hopefully I can find the time to work on some more presents for you all to see.

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Blog News.......

With all the talk of Christmas, my son and I have started thinking about what foods we want to have on the day. In the past we always went to family for Christmas day but last year we decided to spend the day at home and to only eat our favourite Christmas food. And I have to say it was so good that we are going to be doing the same thing again this year.

So you will find in the side bar a list of the foods we really want to have this year and under it you will find a comment box where you can tell us about your favourite Christmas foods. Some of your favourites might just make it onto our list to try out this year.

GIVEAWAY

Our giveaway is still running so if you havent already done so, click on the follow button on the sidebar.

I hope to bring you at least one extra post this week, in a couple of days so stop back again then.

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Last but not least I want to share a story with you.

Last Wednesday my son spend the night at my grandmothers, when he was dropped home my gran spotted 3 very adorable chicks sitting on a low branch in my font yard. After watching them for a while and taking a quite a few photos, we went inside and thought nothing more of them.

Just after dusk my son was taking the garbage down to the big and thought to check on the chicks and found that the mother and two of the chicks were gone. But they had left one of the chicks behind.  After calling my Gran, Uncle and Aunt we decided to put in a box with some shredded paper in the bottom and bring it inside.

After keeping it warm all night my son woke to find the mother and two chicks were back on the branch. So my son got the chick out and put it back on the branch. Much to our amazement the mother started feeding it and that night the it went with its mother and two other chicks.

(The chick in the middle is the chick that spent the night with us)