The big snuggle up

Winter has finally caught up on us, after an amazing autumn. Nights have steadily been getting cooler but the sun has warmed our days like nothing else. I was still walking around the garden wearing only a tee shirt a couple of days ago (and I hate being cold), how great is that? Meanwhile in the northern hemisphere I hear summer is not looking to good so far. My mum lives in Nice and last time we skyped she was wearing a wooly. Another friend sent me photos of a storm that left the "promenade des Anglais" (literally "the English's walkway") looking not so French Riviera. He said it would prove wrong anyone who claimed the Mediterranean wasn't a sea!

Anyway, with colder days I am not so motivated to spend my few free hours in the evening sewing in a cold room, so my shop hasn't been updated for a while and I haven't produced much apart from custom orders. I have been lacking the  motivation and the combination of cold weather and shorter days makes the weeks fly by with not much to show for. I also have been working on my first patchwork project ever.
We decided to make woolen blanket curtains to try and keep the heat in (cheaper than investing in double glazing) and I didn't want them to look ugly. I've got eight panels to make (for 4 windows) and the first ones are looking great. I have just run out of blankets though and it's getting harder to find some now.
Having never made curtains before, I felt a bit daunted by getting the measurements wrong and how much supplies I'd need but luckily I found a great tutorial in on of the World Sweet World magazine I have at home. Sadly there are no more coming issues of this little gem, but the great thing is they kept the website and blog running and they recently posted that same tutorial. how very timely and nice of them.

MAKE YOUR OWN: notepad

I try as much as I can to be a conscious shopper, and wherever possible recycle, upcycled or re-use. But what to do with Tetrapak cartons??? I usually make our own nut milk but the past few months we have been unable to get some from our supplier, so we've been buying rice and oat milk every now and again.
I've been trying to figure out what to do with them, since they're not recyclable nor biodegradable, then Josh complained that he always looses his notes (scribbled on random pieces of paper). There was the idea I've been looking for: upcycled the milk cartons into notepad covers. And at the same time my pile of scrap paper will go down s well. double bingo!
I'd already seen a tutorial in World Sweet World magazine, but decided I'd come up with my own design. You can never have enough notepads, so if you've got a few tetrapak cartons lying around, it's time to get crafty!

- Level: easy
- Time: 30mn
- Material: tetrapak carton (clean!), a piece of string, scrap paper (A4 is easier)
- Tools: paper cutter or scissors, ruler and craft knife,  double hole puncher

1- Cut the A4 scrap paper in 4.
2- Cut the tetrapak carton so that it's a bit wider than the cut paper. I chose to also have a flap closing over the front. Decide which way it will open and what design you want then fold the carton around the cut paper to shape it before cutting.
3- put holes through the top of the carton with the double hole puncher, then do the same with the paper.
4- thread the string through the front of the tetrapak, then thread through the blank side of the paper. once all the paper is threaded, thread through the back of the tetrapak. Turn it around and tie it at the back.

Post markets

Back home, we had a great time at Womad and Tahi did really well on the drive too. We stopped halfway at our friends' farm. They have 3 kids, 4 chooks, 5 dogs and lots of sheep and cattle, so there's always something going on. Tahi gets to play with lots of different toys and we get to catch up around a lovely dinner and a few glasses of wine (and bottles of beer for the gents).
Womad was a good festival, with great musicians from all over the world playing at the Brooklands park in  New Plymouth, right in the middle of town. Pretty cool. The place was buzzing with people of all ages, walking from one stage to another, having a nibble in the food area, browsing the Arts and Crafts stalls and having a great time. My two favorite bands were Babylon circus , an awesome french band (you should have seen how they got the crowds moving... and New Zealand crowds are hard to move!) and Nortec , a very cool mexican electro band.

Our stall was in a quieter area called the "sustainable area", where they had a stage called "Taste the world" (various artists performing a cooking show, great place to be!), Gyuto monks performing meditation, making a Mandala and cooking, and some stalls selling sustainable goods or charities like "Save the children". The whole thing was a bit out of the way, in the Kunming gardens, so it was a lot quieter and a lot of festival goers probably never even ventured there. Not so good when you're trying to sell goods, but great when you've got kids roaming around!
Business wise, I didn't sell as much as I was expecting, probably 1/4 of my stock, and since the first 2 days were cold and rainy, the yoga pants didn't do as well as at Splore. But I made enough to cover for our expenses and make a bit of extra. I also got lots of great feedback, so in all I think it was definitely worth it.

Waiting for me back home was a great little magazine called World Sweet World , in which my first tutorial was published: how to make a wallet with fused plastic. I was pretty excited to see it printed! Unfortunately, this was the last issue , but they are keeping the blog running, so I'm looking forward to suggesting more crafty ideas. Along with posting some here as well of course.














I have just finished a custom order: a cute mid season dress for a 3 year old lucky girl. I made 2 and am pretty happy with both!

On my bottomless list of to-do things, another couple of custom orders, reviewing my patterns, taking pictures of all the new stock to put it on Etsy and Felt, organizing a local craft market, making art for art's sake, looking after Tahi and of course making more stuff! I have just received some beautiful merino fabric and some organic fabrics too, which I'm looking forward to turning into some cute kids' clothes!