Amanda’s Musings

I have been meaning to finish this hat for a while now. I thought the colour would suit Kezi’s complexion and I think I’m right, she looks very cute in it. I’m not a very good knitter. I don’t use patterns very often and most of the time I just guess. I don’t really venture past hats and scarves either! I just like the idea of making things for her and last winter she had quite a line up of fluffy hats. I’ve tightened the band a bit now so that it sits better against her forehead and on the whole I think it looks ok.

Today I decided that Kez and I would make some biscuits so I looked up a basic recipe online (all my cookbooks are packed) and started to get out the ingredients. Our only disaster this time was when Kez decided to help herself to an egg and it landed on the floor (to which she proclaimed that it was a yucky egg).

I had decided to make the sort of bickies that you use shape cutters with only to remember that the cutters were all packed too. Instead (and I hope this isn’t regarded as gross) I used Kezi’s playdough shapes after washing them in boiling water and dish soap. This caused a bit of a wobbly chuck from Kezi as she thought she was getting to play with playdough and hadn’t quite made the connection between the biscuit dough we’d made and the shapes. Anyway, all went well, we have a nice array of interesting looking bickies to give to her Poppa and Granny tomorrow, even if it did take me around 45 minutes just to cut them out (because someone kept on trying to eat all the dough and squishing the shapes as I cut them).

Here’s some photos of our little cooking adventure this morning:

I think these are meant to be turtles…..hmmmm.

I thought it was high time that I highlighted some of the sellers that I’ve come to know and admire. Most of these are people I’ve met via wahmania or Etsy.

Firstly, take a peek at Kate’s gorgeous shop over at Two Little Banshees. She’s a fellow Western Australian and her toys and bags are just gorgeous. Congratulations Kate on the recent birth of Eva. Her blog is here. Here’s an example of her work:

Next there’s Suki over at tamptation.etsy.com. I’ve mentioned Suki before as she is the one who hand carved the stamps for my patches, pincushions and brooches. She has a pretty style and you can read more on her blog which is here. Here’s an example of her work:

Next, please take a look at a fellow WA Mum, Dara’s Shop over at DaraArt. Her blog is here. She sells unique abstract artwork which is work taking a peek at. Here’s an example:

I have recently started getting to know Emma over at Emmaroseart. Her creations are just beautiful, hand sewn bags, cushions, quilts and much more which I would describe as shabby chick. I recently purchased from her and would recommend her as a seller. Her blog is here. Here’s an example of her pretty creations:

So, take a look at each of these sellers. All are very different to each other and I can recommend each one as trustworthy and reliable. Happy shopping!

I have recently had another custom order which is almost completed, this time I was asked to make little beads with sheep in them. What fun! Having a lot of the little sheep cane left over, I decided to make some sheep buttons which will go for sale in my shop as soon as I photograph them properly. For now however, here’s a sneek peek.

Oh, and PS. I have already had enough sales in May to buy 5, yes 5 bikes for the Pastors in Ghana! Isn’t that amazing. God is the only one directing the sales as I have never had this many in such a short time. I have not been promoting myself any differently to usual so I know its not me! Thank you Lord.

I have also been busily hand stitching more embroidered brooches to sell, in fact I sold the one I featured in my earlier post already! Here’s the one I have already listed in my shop:

Yesterday I had our camera set up on a little tripod and got out our camera remote for some photos of Kez and I creating a mess together. I left it set up (but turned off) and it wasn’t long before Keziah noticed and grabbed the remote. I turned the camera on to see what she would do and showed her which button to push and these photos are the result. Priceless I think!!

and the photos I was taking originally look something like this, I’ve got my polymer clay things out and she’s playing with plastecine:

Kira and Ilysa run a great site called Polymer Clay Productions (link on my sidebar) and I discovered this afternoon that they featured me on there last week. Here’s the screen capture of the feature:

I have been a busy little beaver lately, trying to keep my store stocks at a steady number. The Lord has been blessing me with a lot of sales lately and so I’ve had to keep up the pace by creating new items to list. The exciting news is that I have sold as much in this first week of May as I did in the months of March and April combined! So far there have been enough sales to buy 4 whole bikes for the Pastors in Ghana! I’m quite excited about this as it looks like my target of 10 bikes will be reached by the end of June.

I thought I’d share some of the more recent pieces of work that have mostly been added to my stores. Thanks to those who have bought from me recently, I’m really encouraged!

You can buy this here.

You can buy this here and here.

You can buy these stitch markers here and here.

You can buy this here.

You can buy this here

I quite enjoy the challenge of doing custom work and have done a few very different things this year so far. These include tropical earrings, a purple frog and cupcakes/mushrooms hair clips. I have a current custom order for little sheep beads that I’ll be starting on tonight (should be fun!).

Doing custom work can be a little scary at times. All sorts of questions pop into your head such as ‘what colour is the buyer really thinking of?’, ‘is this the exact size/shape/style they were thinking of?’ and more. So far I’ve not had any complaints which is a relief! I thought I’d share some of the more recent custom work:

Ahhh, being 2 and a half is such fun! Kezi decided that today was a good day for dress ups (what day isn’t?) and so she walked around all morning dressed in her outfit from Papua New Guinea that her Nanna sent her a while ago. Of course no outfit is complete without a hat and shoes!

After this I decided to do some more cooking with her (yes, even after the last disaster). We almost had disaster #2 in a week when I discovered that Kezi knows how to unscrew the milk lid and poured herself a nice cup of it to drink! It took a few minutes but she soon discovered what happens when you blow into your milk -viola! Bubbles!! What fun! Oh and the cake we made turned out fabulous this time (last pic).

After doing my survey a week or so ago I have put one of the suggestions into practice by creating a fabric brooch with my felt hand stitched designs. This is probably a bit large at 2.5″ x 3.5″ to wear on your shirt but it would make a really lovely bag embellishment. I’m going to be making a nice little pile of these to sell and listing these in my shops very soon. Here’s the first one: