12 Days of Christmas Giveaway - Day two

"Hello! I’m Nic (Nicole), and I’m a textile designer with my own little label called Yardage Design which has been around since 2009. When I’m not designing, screen printing or sewing, I am a mum to an (almost) 6 year old and wife to an engineer. I hand print a small range of home wares (mainly tea towels and market bags at the moment, with plans to expand) and fabric, with my own designs. I print on natural fibers like linen, cotton and hemp, and, at the moment, I am a bit obsessed with neon pink!"

I already have two of Nic's gorgeous tea towels wrapped up under the tree, as they make lovely gifts. (I have one put aside to frame and hang in the kitchen after we have renovated too!)

For the opportunity to win a neon pink 'Stash Market Bag and a Freckle Print Tea towel (in neon and grey,) both hand printed by Nic, leave a comment below. The giveaway is open internationally and will be drawn tomorrow morning.

You can find out more about Nic and Yardage Design, or purchase your own bit of handprinted loveliness, by clicking over to her shop, blog and facebook pages.

Let's support our local talented designers and screen printers this Christmas!

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And the winner of the second giveaway, care of random.org, is comment 37!

Imogen Eve - Love, love, love a little neon pink.

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway - Day one

Behind the Red Tree Designs label is Northern New South Wales based creative Margeaux. Her work includes unique handmade bags and purses which combine discarded, reclaimed and vintage materials.

"I’m most proud when I’m able to create something lovely and functional from materials destined for the scrap heap including; gorgeous upholstery fabric or leather scraps salvaged from my local upholsterer, pristine zippers and leather handles rescued from tattered, broken handbags found in the depths of an op shop, or old, unwanted curtains -in beautiful, earthy colours.

I’ve been ‘re-fashioning’ fabric finds since discovering op shops as a child and have been upcycling ever since. I can’t bring myself to buy anything made with new materials since discovering the huge amount of perfectly usable resources that are just thrown out. I’d rescue them all if I could...alas.  Upcycled bags (and some compulsive op-shopping) will have to do for now." 

For the opportunity to win your choice of Margeaux's beautiful Doiley Clutches leave a comment below telling us which clutch you would choose. The giveaway is open internationally and will be drawn tomorrow morning.

You can find out more about Margeaux and Red Tree Designs, or purchase your own sweetly stitched items, by clicking over to her shop, blog and facebook pages.

Let's support our local talented crafters this Christmas!

-

And the winner of the first giveaway, care of random.org, is comment number 9! 

Clare - This is a lovely giveaway! I love the sage green clutch :) (and the red one..!)

x

12 Days of Christmas Giveaways!

The positive response I received to my pledge to have a hand made Christmas encouraged me to find a way to make it easier for others to join in. To trade in the aisles of major shopping centers, in favor of the aisles of craft markets or online marketplaces. To invest their shopping money into the community of makers around us, rather than off shore corporations. To buy beautiful, hand crafted and meaningful gifts, as opposed to mass produced plastic with a short life expectancy. It can be difficult to change our habits. It is faster to wander through a major store that has 'everything' than it is to browse though the many independent little stores, looking for the right thing. So, I have been hatching a plan to celebrate and advertise Australian makers here on the blog and make our job as consumers easier too. 

I have sought out twelve of my favourite makers, each of whom are offering one or two of their beautiful handmade items in a giveaway. One giveaway a day for the first twelve days of December! Each giveaway will be drawn the following day, giving everyone one day to enter. Twelve winners in total. (If you miss out on winning a giveaway but fall in love with an item, you will have time to purchase and receive it before Christmas.) 

My aim is to encourage those wanting to add a little or a lot of handmade to their Christmas, while supporting some of my favourite crafters at the same time, by introducing you to them. So join me by celebrating the first twelve days of Christmas with a giveaway a day, beginning with Red Tree Designs on the first of December. Please feel free to share the 12 Days of Giveaways on your blog, facebook, twitter etc.

(I want to be completely transparent and let you know that there is no financial gain in this for me. I am not being paid in products either. I was so encouraged by the sense of community I felt with the ornament swap, that I thought this was another way to extend the networks in our community. The cost to the makers is the giveaway item/s and postage to the winner only.) 

A huge thank you to the twelve wonderful makers who have offered their wares for this 12 days of Christmas celebration, and a huge thank you to everyone reading. 

Wishing you the best of luck!

In these parts

1. New in the garden - rockmelon, rosella, marigold, dahlia and peppermint

2. Necklace orders wrapped and ready to go, complete with new mini cards from Moo

3. Off the needles, In Threes, complete with thrifted wooden buttons

4. Kitty cat feet poking out from under the curtain (sheet) in our bedroom

5. Tomatoes fresh from the garden and waiting to be preserved

6. Another beautiful sunflower

9 months old

Our blue eyed baby girl is nine months old today. Emerson has been out as long as she was in, as they say. I'm not sure if those beautiful blue eyes are here to stay or not. Cohen's turned brown like mine, but Em may take after her Dada. Little by little she is on the move. Her preferred method is a bit of bottom shuffling, sometimes she pushes herself backwards while on her tummy. She seems to think about crawling at times, rocking on all fours, but she just loves to sit this girl of ours.

At nine months of age Emerson is quite good at communicating her wants, as well as her dissatisfaction.  She squeals loudly when you take tiny forbidden objects away from her! Emerson's idea of sleeping through the night is having only two feeds. Her fascination with the cat continues. She is perfectly happy now to sit on a blanket while we work and play in the yard. Meanwhile she tries to consume as much grass as possible. She is happiest in the sling when out and about and peeks over my shoulder at people. It's gorgeous seeing everyone from young children to elderly couples smiling and waving at her, or playing peek a boo. Her second favourite place is the bath. Her chubby legs hardly rest once they start splashing in the water. She never seems to tire of it and looks amazed each time, as if it were the first bath she'd ever had. Food is more and more important to her, and though they say 'food is fun until they're one,' to Emerson it is serious business. Happily she will eat just about anything. Given how fussy Cohen is about food, I can only hope this lasts!

Oh my dear Emerson, I could swear that you just get cuter and cuter. I really couldn't imagine life without the two of you now.

Swap Link Progress

There are only four days left to finish up your ornaments and get them in the post! How is everyone going?

I love clicking around and seeing the wonderful ornaments that have been made so far. There is so much talent and creativity in this blogging community of ours. I have also discovered some lovely new blogs in the process. Thank you to all those who have linked up so far or sent me an email to say their ornaments have been posted. If you haven't started your ornament yet there is still time! I would hate for anyone to miss out. Difficulties do arise though, so please email me if your ornaments won't be in the post by the 1st of December.

Some of the beautiful ornaments that may be on their way to your letter box.
Makers blogs from left to right - Paravent, Typically Red, Yardage Design,
Creative Chaos NZ, Zaranne Handmade, Pumpkin Sunrise,
Imogen Eve, Petticoats and Peplums, Tales from Swallow Barn

Seeds for the pantry

Seeds are one of the many rewards of gardening, and I find quite often that they are simply beautiful. These coriander seeds will stored for future planting and eating. They smell while I picked them was beautiful. I could perhaps have left them to dry a little longer before harvesting them, but I was excited, I had two occupied children, and I have learnt to strike while the iron is hot. They are drying spread out on a baking tray instead.

I've long had in mind a pantry full of seeds, herbal teas, dried mixed herbs and spices collected from the garden. With each season that passes this is slowly becoming a reality.

I'm looking forward to making this Moroccan-style spice rub.

Do you harvest seeds and herbs from the garden for your pantry?

Do you cook with coriander seeds?

Do you have any recipe suggestions?