Set those Butterfly Rocket* fireworks alight, this is my 30th post in 30 days! I have successfully completed the Nablopomo challenge for November! To celebrate I am going to giveaway one of my ‘Cut.Paste’ zines. To enter, leave a comment below. I will leave the comments open for 7 days (I will happily post it internationally).

Now this could be rather embarrassing as I have only had several comments in thirty days (Mum you’re in with a shot LOL!). The comments thing doesn’t really bug me as I do receive lovely emails, verbal validation and the site stats reveal a little of what’s going on. I really do blog mostly for my own enjoyment and to share the things I love hoping that someone out there loves them too!

The zine is small, but like the blog full of goodies that I adore including 6 removable mini postcards and a tiny ‘Clown Fairy’ print….

…and three Butterflyrocket badges! I really do love my badgemaker. Love it!

So go ahead, leave a comment below and you might get it by Christmas!

*a butterfly rocket really is a fire cracker!
** The Cut.Paste edition is a variation of a zine I made in this swap conducted a while ago by Nikki-shell. So if you have one of these already it is pretty similar, but a tiny bit different and it was sold during an exhibition earlier in the year.

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COMMENTS CLOSED!
I’ll get Eloise to draw the winner out of a ‘hat’ tomorrow. Thanks for the lovely comments ladies! I have more posts coming very soon, I’ve been a bit caught up with December festivities over the past few days and have a huge week ahead with a certain little birthday girl turning 5 next Sunday!

I’ve decided it’s time to start blogging again. Not that I meant to go away….life just sort of took over! I have lots of plans I want to gradually kick off in here and I am really excited and inspired. I’ll be honest and say that life with two little ones took a lot more adjusting to than I ever imagined, but things are definitely good and getting better! It’s been a long year with little sleep, loads of sling wearing, cuddling and baby rocking….oh and chicken pox too!

Sneak Peek: 16 zines set to wing their way around the globe for Nikki-Shell’s ‘Handmade Zine Swap’. Just a couple of tiny additions to make before I pop them in the post. I thoroughly enjoyed making these. They’re the first real crafty thing I have done all year. Apologies for being a couple of weeks behind, I seriously underestimated how much time I would need to put together my vision!!! Hopefully the recipients will enjoy the results. I’ll give a little zine review when more land in my mailbox.

Caitlin will be 9 months next week! She’s adorable and she sparkles when she smiles. She’s busy exploring the world around her, crawling and cruising anything she can stand at!

Eloise will be 4 in December. I can’t believe how fast she is growing up! She had her first ballet concert in August (and do you want to know how many times we have watched that DVD???). I am loving her take on life, her impromptu performances and her lively conversation. She is great company and always makes me laugh. We’re having many adventures!!

Lets see what happens from here…

Friday night was the great Blogetogethertwo organised again by the lovely Nichola and Justine and held at Amite (thanks Jenny!). I had my packages wrapped and ready just in time. It was a fantastic evening with good company — 12 crafty blogging gals. Conversation flowed freely and it was quite a relaxed atmosphere (after the anxiety of sharing gifts subsided that is!). I can’t wait to do it again. It would be fantastic to meet up on a more regular basis. So nice to talk in ‘real life’ with people who understand the blogging community (or even know it exists!) and so inspiring to see what everyone is working on.

Below is a peek at the bounty! I will cheat again and add a link to Nichola’s Flickr set. Have a look to see more details of each gorgeous gift. Such an amazing array of talent and variety of gifts. It was so much fun!

Please check out their blogs: One Girl Designwrks (gorgeous soft cosy woolen mittens and one of her beautiful cards that I have been eyeing off on Etsy!); Melly and Me (stunning lino print cards and lovely cat softie who has mysteriously vanished from my studio already! Hmmm!); Assemblage (Beautiful Gocco printed cards. Very inspiring Kirsten…the first I had seen in ‘real life’ and I am yet to try mine!!); Jelly Baby Blog (Scrummy hand felted journal cover with gorgeous stitching on the inside covers.); Acoustich (super soft beautiful hot water bottle cover with matching yellow bottle! I love it!); One Red Robin (Stunning scarf and cute baby Chibi pattern!); Theoretic Gal (Lovely soft stitched journal cover. Armani offcuts so I am told!); Michelle Giacobello (Lovely pin cushion complete with beautiful little pins made from clever shrinky stuff!); Little Mysteries (sweet little owl made with beautiful vintage fabric); Nikki-Shell (Amazing keyring. Beautiful combination of textures and colours.); 62Cherry (Gorgeous needlebook and matching giftcard). PHEW! How lucky am I?

My gift was a ‘Winter Journal’ made using various paper stocks. I also added a few envelopes, filing cards and shipping tags to the mix, inspired by my lovely friends at Journaux (Anne and Coralee are you reading this?!). Every few pages included some winter inspired imagery. I am really enjoying my image collecting addiction at the moment and wanted some way of incorporating it into my gift. I get really passionate about collecting to a theme so I had fun gathering wintery images — vintage photos and illustrations, old postcards, ephemera and line art. I especially loved the front cover image of the 1920s ski girls. Somehow it seemed just perfect for our Blog meet.

I sourced most of the paper at Pedigree Paper, the K.W.Doggett retail showroom in Preston where I was seduced by rows of shimmery ‘winter wonderland’ appropriate papers. This place is amazing. I love it. In the same way a sewer loves fabric shops this is a paper hoarders dream. Shelf after shelf of delicious top quality paper and card stock. Great value pick-n-mix boxes, $5 offcut bags and piles of matching envelopes.

I also made a set of three pin back buttons with my new badge maker machine! I used shimmery paper stock in subtle pastel pink, blue and white. This is sooooo addictive and fun. I think it’s my childhood dream realised!!

Note: I am chasing a rather nasty deadline this week and I owe a few emails from the past few days…hang in there I will reply…I am procrastinating because I want to answer your emails properly!

It has been just over a week since I met up with some clever crafty blogging gals at the blog meet organised expertly by the lovely Justine and Nichola. I have been itching to write about it but unfortunately I have been chasing my tail for the past fortnight with a hideously boring job (apologies Jay but I know you agree!!) that is lasting FOREVER and sucking away every spare minute of my time.

I was so apprehensive leading up to the event, but very pleased with myself that I managed to finish off my 15 gifts (magazine tote bags) without having to pull the usual ‘all nighter’ at the end. Meeting people face to face from ‘blogland’ for the first time was a very overwhelming and unusual experience, especially when it involved so many crafty gals whose work you’ve admired and blogs you’ve read from afar for quite some time. We had a great afternoon swapping pressies, giving our purses a workout at Amitie and feasting on homemade goodies. It was just impossible in the two hours to chat to everybody properly and so much I wanted to say to people and didn’t (why does that always happen?). It was a pleasure to be involved so thank you everyone!!

And, just look at all the gorgeous goodies above — all those rich colours and amazing prints — lovingly handcrafted purses, bookmarks, cards, soaps, needle roll, mini canvas, delicious cookies and nougat (long gone!!), headband (love the stripes!), needle books, face cloth and more! Mmmmmm

Justine has posted more pics (including links to everyones blogs) —> here

I’m way too busy to blog. Why? Because I am making fifteen gifts to swap with fifteen arty crafty blogging gals I have never met. With just over a week until the great ‘blogetogether’ I am getting more and more anxious. Actually I am feeling a little dizzy about it!

The pressure is mounting as previews of what’s in store are leaked – including here, here, here, here, here and here. Oh my!! My little gift involves a bit of sewing. Sewing *gasp*…I have not sewn anything in years. What was I thinking? Many of these bloggers are quite proficient sewers (obviously!). Nothing like jumping in the deep end. It took me a while to even figure out how to thread the darn machine! So please lovely kind hearted bloggers don’t look TOO closely!! No exposed seams, no zippers and no buttons…phew. Honestly though, I am really enjoying it!

Also sent off this week was my mini swap package. Poor little Finn and Violet will get to sample some of my novice sewing…but I think they’ll enjoy their goodies enough not to notice the crooked seams! I will post pictures when they receive their parcel! This was so much fun to put together.

And to finish up, a little February thrifting…

Earthy floral screen printed linen, chunky vintage buttons, old tin kitchen canister with red lid and cherry decal, as new Oilily woollen jumper for Eloise ($2.99!!) and a stack of sheet music with enchanting titles like ‘Dance of the Dewdrops’ and ‘Fairy Whispers’.

I just realised I missed my first ‘blogiversary’ too. I may not be the most prolific/consistent poster but I am pretty chuffed I have kept my two blogs up for over 12 months!!