Saturday, July 31, 2010

The Bunny has found a home!

Congratulations to Megg from Artnomadix (who makes super colorful beanies and tie dye clothing, check her out!) on winning this cute hand carved timber bunny brooch in the latest giveaway!! Megg was entry number 8, which was selected by random.org's random number generator.  I hope Megg enjoys her new little forest friend!

Thank you to everyone for entering. As a little thank you to those who entered, you can now get 20% off your next purchase! Just let me know at checkout!


Oh and Stay tuned for the next giveaway! :) xoxo Bri

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Lemon Delicious

Lemon is such a delicious and versatile fruit.  You can use it in sweets and in savouries. I always keep a lemon in the kitchen because you can use it in so many recipes. On the weekend, I was lucky enough to recieve a huge bag of lemons from a friend who has a lemon tree so of course, I'm making lots of lemon treats such as the lemon slice below. With a piece of it in my hand as I'm writing this, I thought I'd follow on with this lemon theme and find some gorgeous handmade lemony lovelies on madeit.


Clockwise from Left:

And to top it all off, heres a yummy recipe from taste.com.au for the tart of all tarts... lemon tart!

Ingredients (serves 6)

185g Marie or Nice biscuits, processed to fine crumbs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
90g butter, melted
pure icing sugar, to serve

Lemon curd
3 lemons
4 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
125g butter, chopped

Method

Lightly grease a 2cm-deep, 24cm (base) loose-based round flan pan. Combine biscuit crumbs, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter in a bowl. Press into base and sides of prepaed pan. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Make lemon curd: Finely grate rind of 1 lemon. Juice all lemons. Whisk eggs and sugar together in a heatproof bowl until well combined. Add lemon rind and 2/3 cup lemon juice, whisking constantly until well combined. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not allow base to touch water). Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 20 to 25 minutes or until thick and custard-like. Do not allow to boil. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.

Pour lemon curd into chilled tart case. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Recipe and Photograph from taste.com.au

Friday, July 16, 2010

I hate vacuuming, but I love DUSTing - Part 3

In my third installment of featuring one of the lovely members of the DUST team (down under street team), I was lucky enough to interview the gorgeous Jess, of Full Spiral Designs who makes stunningly beautiful eco-friendly jewellery that I just adore, and I'm sure you will to. Jess uses recycled metals and natural stones in creating unique wire wrapped and forest inspired spirally designs. Jewellery for (R)evolution!


What is Full Spiral Designs?

Imagine finding jewels in the forest, and you've got the earthy elegance of Full Spiral Designs. The pieces are designed to bring the magic of the forest into everyday urban life.

What is the story behind Full Spiral Designs? How did it all start?

Full Spiral Designs started with an overwhelmed postgraduate student who needed a creative outlet! This picture of a gemstone and wire creation just popped into my head one day, so I went to Spotlight and bought some cheap craft wire and plastic beads, did some googling and got started. I still have the first wonky wrapped link that I made all those years ago, to remind me of how far I've come.

I am mostly self-taught; I learned a lot from reading books and following tutorials (Eni Oken is a big hero of mine and I have tried most of her tutorials) but at some point I let most of that go and decided to follow my own style instincts. Now I try to keep learning and improving my technique, but I try not to look at other peoples' jewellery too much and rather draw my inspiration from nature and other art forms.


If you could describe your style in one word, what would it be?

Organic

You use a lot of different gemstones in your designs, what is your favourite?

Right now my favourite gemstone is Turquoise, but ask me again in 5 minutes and that might change! I adore the various shades of aqua and green in turquoise and the natural inclusions. I love how it's earthy and sophisticated at the same time. I love how it looks brilliant with any metal.

I am also loving Rutilated Quartz now...I love those little zig-zaggy black inclusions against a white background. I also love any kind of jade, amazonite, peridot and green tourmaline. I guess overall my preference is for earthy and cool colours, but I do love a pop of bright purple amethyst or orange carnelian here and there.


Where does your inspiration come from?

First and foremost, my inspiration comes from nature. That's why I like to work mostly with natural materials - a kind of partnership in creation between me and the greater creative powers. But living in a technologically advanced society, I can't help but be influenced by the 1 and 0 aliens! So I do feel that there's a sense of contemporary confusion about my pieces, a bit of dichotomy between the natural and the manmade, the organic and the technological. It's all connected, of course!

As a creative business person and blogger, I'm deeply inspired by the myriad other creatives out there who are following their dreams in fantastic yet practical ways. I try to read as much as I can to learn from all my mentors. I think the most important factor is a strong vision and belief in what I seek to attain - and patience as I work to manifest it!


Do you have any new designs you’d like to share?

Why funny you should ask! I'll be launching my newest line very soon - a collection of upper arm bands, anklets and bangles for summer - which I'm very excited about! I've leaked a few photos around the blogosphere so I'm happy to share a sneak peak with your readers.


And what a gorgeous sneak peak it is! I absolutely love these arm bands, I can definetely see Jess's forest inspiration, they are so elvish and would definetley not look out of place on the arm of a forest pixie :)
You can find more about Jess and her gorgeous pieces on her webpage, at her etsy store, facebook page and her blog. You can also follow her on twitter.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

It's Giveaway Time!

It's been a little while since I had a giveaway so I thought it was about time I give you all the chance to win again! I'm also currently 19 'likers' away from 400 on my facebook page too, so it would be awesome to crack 400 at the same time! Can you help me do it??


For this giveaway, you could score this adorable Handcarved Timber Forest Friend Bunny Brooch .. All you have to do to enter is visit either my etsy or madeit stores, and comment below with your favourite item!

For additional entries (submit each as a separate comment below);
-  become a fan of my facebook page;
-  follow me on twitter & tweet this contest;
-  follow this blog;
-  purchase something from my etsy or madeit stores.

Please make sure you include your email address so I can get in touch with you, should you be the lucky winner!
The winner will be randomly selected using random.org and announced 31 July, so make sure you get your entries in before then!

Good Luck & Thanks for your Support :)