Friday, April 30, 2010

Owls

I'm into owls in a big way lately. You may have noticed this influence in my jewellery.. with items such as these popping up in my etsy store:


And with my baby now less than a month away (eek!!), today I've been busy blowing the cobwebs off my mum's old sewing machine and getting right into making some home made toys for the baby using old scrap bits of material I had and some assorted ribbon and oddly enough, they're... well... owls!

I made a really rough pattern and used calico and other cotton prints for the body/wings, adhesive felt for the eyes and adhesive courdroy for the beak (I cut up an old iron-on patch!), and sewed in little bits of ribbon folded in half like tags. On this one I used a larger peice of ribbon on top so it can hang from a plastic ring and attach to a pram etc.




Given I probably haven't used a sewing machine since the days of making clothes for my cabbage patch kid & barbies, they are no where near perfect (don't look too close!) but I don't think baby is going to mind!

Monday, April 26, 2010

and the winner is......

Congratulations to Kellie Christie for winning this handmade crystal white rose cabochon ring in the giveaway! Well done and a huge thank you to all that entered!


Using Random.org List Randomizer I entered all the names from the entry comment (giving a bonus entry to those who were or had become followers of this blog). The list was then randomised and the name that appeared at the top was the winner!!



Congrats again to Kellie - Please contact me ASAP at petaliferous@optusnet.com.au to claim your prize! (if I haven't heard from the winner within 24hrs, I will re-select another random winner)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

A Botanists' Delight

I just listed some brand new 'Poison Ivy' earrings which are a little different to my normal stuff, and I managed to score a treasury slot so I thought I'd include them and make it a botany theme. Please make sure you check it out to give it heaps of views... http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=127373


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

DUST Team Craft Swap

This month I participated in one of the DUST team's monthly Craft Swaps. If you don't know what a Craft Swap is, basically all members who wish to participate in a swap,  register their name, and then the lovely Julie-Ann from DUST (and JulieAnnsJewels) partners each of us up. We then contact eachother and make eachother a surprise to send, and of course - we get one in return! This was my first Craft Swap experience so I was very excited, and needless to say I am very pleased with the result :)

My partner was the lovely Kirsten from KLBaileyART. Kirsten does gorgeous water color paintings in a myriad of dreamy pastel colors and also converts some of her work into wearable art. I really love her stuff so I was extremely happy when my parcel from her arrived in the mail.. and this is what I got: (I was totally spoilt)! A gorgeous original watercolor painting featuring a silhouette tree & bird with gorgeous pastel background, and the same picture made into a wearable glass pendant! Also a card and two postcards of prints of her lovely paintings.

Thank you so much Kirsten!! I adore them!

In our coverstaions Kirsten had told me she liked blues, pinks and purples, liked my rose cabochon styles and also some of my polymer clay bracelets. Therefore I came up with this special package for her... containing a hot pink rose cabochon necklace, purple rose cabochon ring, blue/black/silver swirl bracelet and 3 little mauve courdroy bags I whipped up on the sewing machine. I hope she likes them!

So basically my first craft swap was great, and I'll definetly do more in the future. It's so enjoyable interactacting with other artisans, making a special item for them and recieving something special in return - It's a great way to support your fellow etsian's, and afterall who doesn't love getting a surprise in the mail!!

Check out Kirsten's blog feature about the Craft Swap too at http://www.klbaileyart.com/2010/04/20/more-swappy-goodness/

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Another day, another treasury....

Since posting a few treasuries, I've been in four more treasuries this week, that's 6 all up just since the weekend. Something is definetely in the air with treasuries lately!! Thank you to Gaby from hopelesslydevoted,  Emma from noogal, Kavitha from poetry jewelry and Rhonda from glimmeringgems for inclusion in these four new gorgeous collations....


Monday, April 19, 2010

Giveaway Time!

Entries Close at 2pm (EST) 26 April

I've decided to run a little giveaway here on my blog (rather than facebook). I'm gonna be giving away this handmade crystal white rose cabochon ring to the lucky winner...


 All you have to do to be in the running is:

1.  Become a facebook fan (leave your facebook name in comment), and;
2.  Make a comment below this post, telling me which is your favourite item on my etsy store & why

Also, for an extra entry (optional)... become a follower of this blog (please just mention your avatar/ID name in the comment)!

One lucky entrant will be randomly drawn and announced on this blog and my facebook fanpage on 26th April (so you have 1 week to get your entries in!). If you are the winner, please contact me with your details within 24 hours to claim your prize or another winner will be drawn. Thank you and Good Luck!

Miniature n' Cute

With my impending 'bump' due to come into the world in roughly 5 weeks, I've been getting a lot of cute pressies! I am fortunate enough to have all these super cute items ready for my bump to enjoy...


Clockwise from left:
  • Cheeky Monster Baby Bib by Little Odd Forest - A friend of mine gave me this adorable bib (and matching shoes) for my baby shower. I think its the cutest thing ever!!
  • Owl Moneybox from Smiggle - I saw this in my local smiggle store and couldn't resist buying it for the nursery. It looks cute enough as an ornament, but when the bump gets older they can use it as a moneybox too!
  • Zanzibar Cot Quilt by Kids Line - my parents gave me this cot set for my baby shower. Its so adorable, and fits in perfectly with my nursery jungle theme.
  • Hobo Nappy Bag in Pansy print by Oi Oi - Nappy bags are incredibly expensive so I couldn't resist this funky looking one when it was reduced to a mere $59.00 at Baby Bunting. Much better than the original price of $130!
  • The original Raggy Tag Blanket by Raggy Tag - My sister in law is living in the UK currently and sent this gorgeous raggy tag blanket for my baby shower. Mine is a different print but they didn't show that one online. An ingenius idea, since babies inevitably always find the tags on toys much more enjoyable to suck!
  • Mothercare (a UK baby store) has just opened up in Australia and I was lucky enough to find these cute sunshades for the car window in one of their new stores.
  • Cheeky Monster Mary Janes by Little Odd Forest - got these from the same lovely lady as I did the bib above. I am IN LOVE with these shoes and can't wait to pop them on my baby's feet!
  • D'Lish Snap-In-One reusable modern cloth nappy from itti bitti - We bought 30 of these bad boys (in all different colors) so we can avoid completely the need for disposable nappies when our bump arrives. Gone are the days of the terry toweling nappy, modern cloth nappies are so ingenius, easy to use and look adorable!! With snap in liners, you can even re-use the same nappy before washing. Just whip out the soiled liner and put in a new one!
  • Gazzle Giraffe Rattle Toy from Gumnut Toys - a dear friend of mine brought this down with her for my "bump" when she last visited Melbourne. It's so cute and will no doubt be a favourite thing for bump to play with.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

All Treasured Out

You can tell when DUSTers are sitting around waiting for the treasury list to expire and for a spot to open up when in a matter of minutes I was featured in two gorgeous color-themed DUST treasuries!

Firstly a pink treasury "Passionate about Pink" which I put together... make sure you check it out here  http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=126564 and support all the lovely Aussie sellers I've included.

Secondly a purple themed treasury entitled "Purple Parrots" by lafemmejewels ...check it out here http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=126555 Thank you for the inclusion!!

Autumn in Australia

The Lovely Christina from Billymac put together this stunning treasury featuring all-australian etsy sellers with an Autumn theme in browns, oranges, and reds, and she included my timber bird branch earrings :) Like that wasn't enough, the treasury then got featured on the front page of etsy (Well done Christina!) and thank you for including me. It will now be my mission to get another treasury and feature you back! (I've been waiting for ages, but fingers crossed I'll get on soon).

So here is the original gorgeous treasury by Christina...
and here's how it appeared on the FP (etsy must have slightly altered it)....

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Bowlicious

I love waking up to an email saying my item has been included in a treasury, and that's exactly what happened this morning. RachellesJewelryBox kindly included my new black and silver bow ring in this cute bow-themed treasury. Make sure you check it out and give it lots of hits :) ... http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=95462

Monday, April 12, 2010

I love my mail box

Well it was a good mail day for me today, hence why I love my mail box (not that the parcels I recieved actually fitted in the mail box -the Australia Post lady brought them to the front door) ... I don't think I will ever lose that child-like excitement of recieving and opening parcels!

The first one I opened was my birthday present. I'd put the money I recieved for my Birthday towards a GHD Hair Straightener, that I bought from Ebay. I knew it was going to be coming one day this week but was still beyond excited when it turned up at the front door. And I CANNOT wait to use it. I don't know how many of you use straighteners, but GHD's are meant to be the bees knees in the straighening world, and when you have curly hair like me, you need the best. So now that I have this beautiful baby in my hot little hands, no more $40 priceline straighteners for my hair!! It's so gorgeous too... sparkly, black, silver... When I opened the package, I was breathtaken.

Here's why....




And so like its not enough to recieve one big parcel on a boring cold Monday, I got another one! The second one being a big bag of goodies I won from Kids In Australia. It was filled with loads of loads of discount vouchers, special offers, $ gift vouchers, a bright green girls' tutu, box of baby toiletries and some cute button hair clips.



Believe it or not I'm also expecting a few more things in the mail too, I won a prize a few weeks back on Sunday Night Giveaway from hekoky creations, and also some custom hairclips from byconnie's facebook page. Petaliferous also donated a prize to Sunday Night Giveaway last night, Congratulations to the lucky winner, Amber, who scored this cute retro bottle top badge.


I am also partnered with the lovely Kirsten from KLBaileyART for the DUST Craft Swap... I've got her surprise ready to post, hopefully tomorrow - and once I know she's recieved it I'll share some pics of that on here too....

Wow....so much excitement and mail-love, I think its time for a hot chocolate and an ogle over my goodies...

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

I hate vacuuming but I love DUSTing

I thought I'd put together a bit of a feature of some cool items available on etsy from my fellow Australian DUST members. DUST is the Down Under Street Team for etsy sellers and is a really cool & supportive group of people who have really helped my transition into etsy selling. You can check out the members of DUST at http://www.dustteam.com/ or do a product search on etsy with the keyword "dust team" to see all their goodies!!

Anyway here are a few of my current favourites. Hopefully I'll do a post like this every couple of weeks and overtime  feature heaps of cool stores.

Billymac Clothing:
The Billymac store is full of gorgeous designer t-shirts for your littlies featuring cute and original images such as this adorable 'kiddie warhol' pop art print:

Inner Earth Soaps:
This scrumptious store is full of bathing goodies, that look good enough to eat! I could just take a bite out of this divine handmade Vanilla Buttercream soap. All inner earth soaps are full of natural goodness and therefore are kind to your skin and the environment.


Poetry Jewelry:
Gorgeous gems and precious metals are intermingled in these gorgeous adornments by poetry jewelry. I just love these etheral Isabelle earrings with pale green praisolite and gold.

I feel dreamy and peaceful after looking at all of the gorgeous artwork at this store. Watercolor paintings and wearable art featuring beautiful pastel colors, silhouettes and swirls such as this divine 'Brave' original watercolor by one very talented artisan.


There are so many talented designers, crafters, and etsy artisans out there - please check out their stores and help support local handmade :)

Autumn Leaves

What an honor it is to be included in this fab new treasury by savage kitten. All items are from australian sellers too, so show your support! It features beautiful bright colors to lift any dreary autumm day! Click on the link to give it some views! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=124317

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Love in Bloom

It's my birthday today so it was even more special to wake up to a message from heatherkingdesigns who has included my hot pink rose necklace in this gorgeous new treasury! Stunning. I love the combination of yellow and hot pink - thank you!! Make sure you check it out at http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=93728

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Aqua Treasury

Well it was a nice surprise to wake up to an email from StoreyShop telling me I'd been included in this gorgeous aqua treasury they had curated. I love it so much since Aqua is my favourite color! My Emerald Green Rose Cabochon ring was the lucky inclusion. Make sure you check it out to give it lots of click love at http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=123234


Whats even better is this treasury then went on to be featured as a front page on etsy. 200+  views on my ring later ... Always a good thing! Thanks again to StoreyShop for creating such a beautiful collection!