Last market for 2011!

You can find these new designs in the city this Friday!

Holly hair clips and Christmas pudding brooches

Christmas pudding and tree ornaments

Assorted hair clips

I also just had to share a couple of holiday recipes to create if you have some spare time! :D

Cake pops! from Food Coma

Baked apples from A Beautiful Mess

Vanilla cupcakes with raspberry filling from A Beautiful Mess

Enjoy! x

Cookies n cream brownies? Yes please!

Oh my goodness! These look AMAZING! See the recipe here

Frosted Candy Bar cookie cups

I might have to make some of these beauties for Christmas this year! ohhh yum!

What will you be enjoying for Christmas lunch/dinner this year?

add it to your diary! :D

Yes! I am creating some awesome new brooches for this market - recycled laminate discs covered with a playing card and embellished with vintage buttons! There might also be some fun Christmas brooches/hairclips up for sale, come on down and check it all out. There will be fun crafty workshops to participate in too! Hope to see you there!

Facts and a fellow felter

I found this cute pic and wanted to include it on the blog.. So, here are some facts about me (and in no particular order):

1. I love fashion, but wish I was more adventurous with my style sometimes.

2. I love to talk about food, read about food, eat food, watch food being made.. basically anything to do with - FOOD!

3. I love coffee and a piccolo is my coffee of choice right now.

4. I have a (medium) addiction to exercise - specifically Crossfit!

5. I am sometimes referred to as the 'quiet one', and I wonder why this seems to frequently considered as a negative (or undesirable?) trait in people's books? On the flip side, I am very friendly to customers at my work or at markets and am able to be very bubbly and out-going from the word go...

5. I adore my boyfriend, Sam. And, as I hope you know (from the blog name!) our dogs, Cracky and Luca!

6. I am not a fan of bad spelling and punctuation - especially "your" when it should be "you're".

7. Maths is not my strong point in life!

8. I like watching TV shows about American Prisons and also weird documentaries about strange people, like mecaphiles (a person who has a romantic relationship with their car!)

9. I love having my hair brushed and scalp massaged.

10. I am a worrier..... but am trying to be a warrior! haha :P

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I found a fellow felter from Romania on Etsy!

HANAKO

The artist's name is Alina and she has a gorgeous range of brooches and head bands. So cute and so talented! I love the detail.

Find out more about her here:

www.hana-wordsinabox.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001399930203
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanaletters/

She has a tea pot head!!

My first treasury

Have a looky here!
I created my first treasury featuring many talented Etsy designers - like the ones below <3

"Cut"- This is me every couple of weeks... just ask Sam! haha

coffee ring - so sweet!

 

Blossom hair pins - gorgeous!

New music in my itunes library- KIMBRA! She is AMAZING!

Her music is the perfect mix of indie, soul and pop. I am listening to her at the moment as I type this post, hoping to drown out the bass that is booming next door at the neighbour's place! urgh.. headache!

You muct see her latest video for  "Cameo Lover"... so cool! Enjoy and have a great Sunday evening xx

little monster designs

Stay tuned to see these little ones in my Etsy Store and at the Young Designer's Market next Sunday, 2nd October 10-4pm on Little Stanley street, Southbank!

Lior and more!

Last night i had the pleasure of seeing the amazing singer/songwriter, Lior, perform at the Spiegeltent in King George Square! He was brilliant - smooth vocals, relaxed atmosphere, heartfelt songs and he had a cheeky and fun personality that set a great mood for the night. He also played with a string quartet, who were wonderful. The cellist and the double bass player really shone when Lior sang the cover of 'Nature Boy' by David Bowie. Another great moment was when he challenged himself to cover "Livin on a prayer" by Bon Jovi - which he did to the tune of Sesame Street! At the end of the night, he came out to meet the fans. I would have loved to say something to him, but I couldn't think of anything! Damn! :0S Star-struck, I think!

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I also had to share the gorgeous head pieces made by Melbourne designer, Kani. She is as cute as a button and her designs are so sweet! Now I just need to choose one.... hmmm..

hair wreath /apples in my hair/ woodland collection

Send me spring/ woodland collection

Christabella headband

Have a great week and let's hope that this early Summer weather doesn't hang around during 'spring'!

new designs and GBC in the weekend newspaper!

The new addiitions to the Good Boy Cracky line... Something a little dark but still with a fun and quirky side!

From left to right: Sylvester, Jerome, Sebastian and Gary

They will be appearing at the Young Designer's Market (little stanley street) on Sunday October 2nd 10-4pm

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And in some more news, Good Boy Cracky's featurette will finally be run in 'U' magazine in next weekend's Sunday Mail! This will be along side some other crafty peeps as the feature is on 'handmade'. Make sure you check it out!

a little break...

Well, I'm back after a small break... things have progressed work-wise with a job promotion and relocation! yay! I'm now working in St Lucia, so no more city sites for me for the mean time! I've started my new role and so far, so good! Sorting out this new role and finishing my last has taken up a bit of my time, which explains why I have been absent from ye olde blog! Last week, I was away in Byron Bay for Sam's sister's wedding - which was lovely! But I can home infected with the a chest flu thing (self diagnosed!) and have been fighting it all week... :( Boo to the spirng sickness?! How did I manage all of winter without getting sick and then spring some to launch an evil attack on me?! haha!
Anyhoo, I have a few items to share that are currently giving me joy.

First up is cucumber water and the "I go by Kate" blog. Cucumber water - such a nice idea to refresh a simple glass of water.. and a nice new flavour to start spring! yum! Katie's blog is super cute and she shares some lovely stories of her travels and things that are inspiring her right now. She is a very talented photographer and creates gorgeous moccasin shoes too!

I'm loving coconut water too right now! So hydrating and refreshing!!! ahhhh.. ;p It's the clear fluid found in young, green coconuts and is rich in electrolytes

New chocolate that everyone seems to be talking about this weekend - Concious Chocolate!

There are also other flavours available including mint, orange, raw cacao and goji and cocnut

Ingredients: cacao solids 50% min, cacao butter, agave nectar, cacao powder, coconut oil, wild carob, cinnamon, himalayan crystal salt, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, cashews & walnuts.

There's only natural ingredient added which means no added sugar and it's raw, organic and hand made!

That's from me now... I'm off to enjoy a Sunday lamb roast! yumyumyum!

A few fun links!

Hello all!

Here I have a few fun links to share with you!

Some beautiful fabric accessories from Homako

I am in LOVE with all the prints over here at The Black Apple. I want to decorate my house in all of them! hehe

The is incredible! It's from the talented designer at Max's World which you must have a little look at. I love this octopus... I'll have to put some dollars away for it as it's 275 pounds! But all that handmade care and time put in is worth every penny :P Check out some of the other fun creations below

Tony!

Happy Wednesday everyone! And happy EKKA holiday to QLD! yay!

Blog love for a Healthful Pursuit

In my blog reading frenzies, I've been uncovering all sorts of lovely blogs to read on a variety of topics. Out of recent finds, Healthful pursuit has been a favourite. It is filled with healthy recipes and entries from the creator, Leanne and her "passion for healthy treats, whole food eats, and balanced living".
Her recipes are an endless anthology of wholefood goodness and I an slowly making my way through a few of them! They are a great starting place to inspire your own cooking of you just need a bot of inspiration. I'm a big fan of the 5 min quinoa flake bake! (pictured below)

If you want another recipe for quinoa, Miss Morag's Morsels has recently blogged about this super food too!

 Happy tummy fruit salad

mmmm raw veggies!

I suppose I am drawn to this kind of blog as I feel that I am also working towards "balanced" living. It's so easy to get bogged down in things like work stresses and forget simple pleasures that give us joy, like making and eating a healthy and tasty meal! Or sitting in the sun for a few minutes or taking extra time to really enjoy a cup of tea.

I'd like to bring in yoga to my weekly routine to balance the high intensity activities that I do in Crossfit. I also try to limit take away to the weekends (a breakfast and a dinner!) Sometimes I fail at this and have to grab some yum soft tacos if I am working late! haha! They make some great tacos over at Tuckeria! It reminds of when I was in the Mission district in San Francisco in May :). What do you do to stay balanced?

It's going to be a foodie weekend for me.... starting this morning with AMAZING banana and coconut crepes from Grub st in Gaythorne. OMG I was in heaven! The crepes were made on rice flour which made them gluten free and Stix, the chef, also made them dairy free! The shredded coconut topping was elevated by the addition of lime zest and with the sweet, light maple syrup, it really made this dish sing! I forgot to get a photo as I was so keen to tuck in! oops! 

Stix is a very creative chef who really understands flavours and food combinations. He is also not afraid of putting something on the menu that's a little different - like nasi goreng for a breakfast special! Awesome! 

Tomorrow, I am going to the Merlo Coffee and Chocolate affair at Portside. I cannot wait to indulge and go chocolate crazy! I might regret this later in the day though! haha! :P

Now I'm off to create for Good Boy Cracky! I have to grab some supplies, then I'm finishing some phone covers and working on a new feature for the design range! oooooo!

Have a great weekend and I hope you eat some yummy food too!

Are you a fruit cake fancier?

I am. I think you either love it or you hate it! I am one of those people who look forward to wedding cakes as I know the chances of it being a fruit cake is pretty high! I also love those sultana cakes you got when you were a kid from the tuck shop. I think they were from Top Taste. Anyhow, I am a lover of the fruit cake so here is my tribute to it!*

*My inspiration for this post came from the morning tea at a BrisStyle Info session today on Marketing with guest speaker, Sarah Rossiter. She was very good and I came away with many notes of how I can improve my marketing and PR skills for Good Boy Cracky. Stay tuned for some great improvements! :)

And now... A TRIBUTE TO THE FRUIT CAKE!

First, here is a recipe for a yum boiled fruit cake sourced from the ABC website 
Made by a lovely lady from the Country Women's Association!

 Betty Brown from the South Australian Country Women's Association shared with us her recipe for boiled fruitcake.

250g margarine

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

3 cups of mixed fruit

1 tspn bi-carb soda

1/2 tspn cinnamon

1/2 tspn ginger

1/2 tspn mixed spice

2 beaten eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup self-raising flour

Place all ingredients except eggs and flours in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.

Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until margarine melts.

Allow mixture to cool slightly, slowly beat in beaten eggs.

Sift flours and stir in to the mixture.

Pour into lined tin and bake at 170 degrees Celcius for about one hour or until skewer comes out clean.

Remove from tin and and put into airtight container when cool.

And here is a news article of Percy from the Preston Leader who is a gorgeous old man and a whizz in the kitchen!

"His boiled fruit cake won a blue ribbon and a gold-ribbon championship award, with Mr Dunn the only Preston Garden Club member to have won the top prize over four consecutive years."

The recipe for his award winning fruit cake can be seen in the link above. Percy was taught how to cook by his wife, Hilda. Aww.... bless!

Happy fruit cake day to you, dear reader! :P

A French influence!

After a well deserved lie-in the morning, Sam and I ventured out for a coffee and a croissant - a favourite weekend ritual.  The coffee was from the lovely Merlo and the croissants were purchased from Chouquette - the BEST bakery in Brisbane! I swear they have the most delicious cakes and pastries outside France! 

I thought I'd then continue the French theme (seeing as it was Bastille Day this week too!)

I've been following the blog of a cool, French illustrator called Aurore Damant. I love the expressions she creates in her characters. They are so detailed and colourful! You can read an interview with her here

Interestingly, her drawings remind me a lot of my favourite cartoons and comics as a child - Ren and Stimpy! What do you think?

 (pic sourced from here)

(pic sourced from here)

And to wrap up the French theme, I discovered that the French Festival is on this weekend at South Bank! I think I am going to snuggle in at home with the dogs and watch movies cos it's cold and rainy today! I never get to do this, so I want to seize this opportunity! Wheeee! Tonight, I am going to see Happy Potter Part 2! yay yay yay!

Happy weekend to you! :D