Nursery Decor

I had the pleasure of attending a baby shower yesterday for a dear friend and cousin. It got me thinking about how many friends and family members have had babies in the last twelve months. I stopped counting at TEN. 

I just adore babies! There is something so special about preparing for the birth of a new little person.

One of the first questions people tend to ask a pregnant woman is: "Do you know if it is a boy or a girl, or are you going to have a surprise?" I have had two surprises, mainly because my darling hubby really wanted it that way. Part of me was itching to know in order to prepare. We stuck to a green jungle theme for the nursery.

 A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a new customer who is pregnant with a baby girl. She asked me to embroider a drawing her five year old son did of his new sister, to hang on the nursery wall. She is decorating in pastel tones, with a collection of different sized embroidery hoop art pieces on one wall.

As you can see from the above drawing, her son chose bright, bold colours. However, we adjusted the embroidery colours to match the pastel colour scheme of the room.

After receiving the embroidery, the customer emailed me, telling me of her son's delight in seeing his drawing in stitched form, and commissioned me to do another embroidery for the nursery. What an honour! This time, I shall be stitching the Napoleon quote: Let her sleep for when she wakes she will move mountains. 

I can't wait to see the finished nursery wall!

 

My First BrisStyle indie Twilight Markets

Well, hello, friends! How fare thee, one and all?

Yes, I know it has been a while. I can't keep using the excuse that life has been crazy busy (even if it's true). 

I had the privilege of attending the BrisStyle indie Twilight Markets last night, for the first time as a stall holder. It was rad. I had a great time meeting people in person that I had only "met" online previously, seeing lots of new faces, chatting with heaps of lovely supporters of handmade AND seeing some lovely friends, including one I have not seen in a couple years (hi, Amy!). Maybe even some of you reading this post have come across this blog via my business card that you picked up last night. Welcome!

It's such a great atmosphere at these markets, I shall be going back, methinks!

Bloggiversary Giveaway!

Good morning, friends! Today is a special day. It's my nephew's birthday, AND it is the first anniversary of me starting this blog. HUZZAH!

To celebrate, I am offering one lucky reader $25 store credit to spend in my Etsy shop, as well as free shipping to anywhere in the world. 

(The giveaway excludes custom orders and made-to-order items.)

All you have to do to enter is COMMENT on this blog post below, telling me what you would buy if you won. Please make sure you include some way for me to contact you in the post, such as your email address. If you are having difficulties, email me at candykins.crafts@gmail.com for help.

Feel free to share info about the giveaway with your friends and family, new readers are most welcome :)

Giveaway is open for ONE WEEK, entries close on Sunday 19th August, at 12 noon Australian Eastern Standard time, and I will draw a winner that afternoon, with instructions on how to claim your prize.

UPDATE: Entries have closed, and the winner (chosen at random) is...SHERRY S. Congratulations, Sherry! I have emailed you with the details on how to claim your prize. Thank you to everyone who entered. 

Kids' Art Portfolios

I can be rather last-minute at times. Like this past Saturday, when guests were arriving for a family celebration and I was sitting at my sewing table, finishing off a present for one of my guests, while the apron I showed you in the last post was hanging on my dress form, waiting to be wrapped up for another of my guests. Oh dear. *Blushes with shame*

So I had the idea to make my niece who did these drawings an art portfolio. She loves drawing, and I figured it would be a great idea to have a little portable folio for her to take on car trips, or out to appointments, etc. I had the idea back before Christmas, and went so far as finding some tutorials on Pinterest, but just did not get to it. I remembered about it on Wednesday last week, while preparing for my daughter's birthday party. My niece's birthday is also in August, along with her mother's and brother's. *CRAZY MONTH*.

I used this tutorial from Jengerbread Creations blog, just adding a fold over flap with snap clip to hold it all together. For my niece's, I also appliqued a piece of linen on the front cover, on which I had embroidered one of her earliest drawings of a person. 

Due to my hurried, antisocial, last-minute rush to finish my niece's portfolio, I did not get any photos of it. Oops. I did, however, get (some rather poor) photos of the next one that I made for a little friend of my daughter's, who had her birthday party the next day!

I highly recommend the great tutorial from Jengerbread Creations.

*Confession time* My daughter's birthday came and went, and I still didn't get on and finish her Quiet Book cover, even after writing this post. Aaaaah!! Really, really must complete that this week!

Birthdays, Birthdays, and More Birthdays

Hi. Busy, busy, busy with birthdays and parties here, so I can't stay and chat. I just wanted to pop in and show you the latest apron I made (as a present for my dear sister). Don't you just adore this fabric? It is too lovely. Kind of regretting only buying one metre of it. But kind of not, because my fabric stash is already at bursting point. Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. I hope to pop in again soon...but have another birthday party to get through before I have time for this. Cheerio.