a Sydney side trip to the Donna Hay General Store

Greetings all,

On almost every trip to Sydney i detour to the Donna Hay General Store in Woollahra - where the beautiful people live, darling.  It's always so crisp & stylish, with beautiful products & clever merchandising.

 I always go upstairs first, indulge my senses with candles & body products, handmade eye candy & home decor.  Not to mention the stunning building which houses these fine products.  We now have 6 floor cushions, i'm a fan!!

 Then i stumble out the door with something from every shelf from the ground floor selection of cookbooks, bakeware, stationery, food & now . . . Royal Doulton china!!  I gushed like a giddy school girl about the milk glass range last week.

 Yes, Donna Hay, the clever stylist & cook (for Oprah's Sydney visit & MasterChef fame) has been in big business for 10 years.  I picked up a copy of the limited edition 10th anniversary magazine.

 I love this new cooling rack, it's replacing a 15 year old one which is bent & my squishy undercooked (on purpose) cookies fall through.  This large was less than $10.  I've already used it twice & want another one. 

 I can never resist her twines & cupcake wrappers, seriously, you'd find them in my fall-out-shelter as something i-have-to-take-with-me-if-the-world-ends.  I love her bags of chocolates & how cute are these paper bag lanterns??  I'll be using them in Summer, stay tuned!!  Look at the retro kitchen timer, now magnetised to the fridge, brilliant.

This could be dangerous, Donna's new Royal Doulton collection, baby steps, i'm starting with the measuring jug.  It feels so beautiful, pure luxury.  Love Posie
PS win a craft giveaway including Mollie Makes magazine!!

i'm grateful for 'thinking outside the square'

Greetings all,

I'm really grateful i can think 'outside the square'.  As a scientist, wife, mother, designer, really-bad-cook - all my different roles in my life so far, i've had to draw on creativity to get results, find answers, problem solving if you will.  I'm going to show off a simple example here . . . how oh how to display my new little paper bags??  Why not in a paper bag 'basket' which looks cool, stays on trend & shows off the durability of just how awesome my new paper bags are & other ways to use them. 

 I wouldn't use such a huge vintage dolly peg in real life but getting a smaller peg would have required walking to the next room.  Today has been very mellow - i took myself to see Water For Elephants.  Reese & Robert did not fail me??  It was beautifully shot, she was exquisite & he so handsome, i cried, it was magic, i loved this movie - not the theme or darkness, but the dream quality.   
Back to paper bags . . . why paper bags anyway??  Well i've been in this handmade craft game full time for over a decade.  Back then, to work from home with small children & an on line shop was almost unheard of, but i did it.  I get asked this question by journalists, customers & fellow small business owners all the time "what do you do when people copy or compete with you??"  As i have zero plans for world domination or keeping an eye on the opposition + those children are approaching teen-age, keeping me busier than ever . . . so how to stay ahead of the game??  Think outside the square, constantly like . . . adding fresh products & offering the best attitude, presentation & service.  Paper bags are something i just love + twine & stickers, it appears you love them too.

 Selling is so much more than just plonking your products on a table - it's visual merchandising with height & creative use of props.  At markets I hang hair clips on tree branches, offer knitting needles in spaghetti jars, fill tool boxes with buttons, display twine in crates, spread badges in vintage suitcases, pile fabric in huge French baskets, sell books from mini book cases & hang bloomers in picnic baskets.  It's makes a difference!!

 Inspiration is everywhere, from a pyjama catalogue to a glossy magazine.  Donna Hay always styles her food with gorgeous, simple accents & i'm a sucker for a timeless country look - baskets with a mix of metal, linen, wood & glass. 

 Some ladies/ sisters at the last Handmade Market who had a gorgeous stall display were Mookah - they rocked.  All the way from country Victoria, they didn't use travel as an excuse to not make their stall look amazing.  Thinking outside the square too - with ladders & planks, shelves, hanging racks & tables.  By the end of the market they had so little stock left, i noticed they kept spreading products to fill the gaps until some shelves were completely empty (like when every single ottoman/ floor cushion had sold out!!)

 I wasn't fast enough to grab an ottoman on the day, so went home to order one on line (my level of thinking outside the square when exhausted).  Better yet, my favourite fabric design was on sale & when it arrived today, they popped in some screen printed Moose samples, yes please!!  Thanks Leisa & Nicole.  Now to think outside the square on how to use these Moose prints, a cushion for my son is a no brainer starter?? 

 So if you love to think outside the square & fancy some of these paper bags in your hot little creative hands too, enter my giveaway at this post.

 The GIVEAWAY is gaining such momentum, i'm throwing in 5 runner up prizes, so hoping the random selector picks you for one of them!!

For more Grateful posts, check out Maxabella Loves - to think i met her only a week ago at Handmade Market - what a big week i've had indeedy.  Love Posie

things i'm loving 'girlie accessories'

Greetings all,

Yay, it's Friday, love it, i'm taking the day off from life.  That's right, i'm dropping the children at school, heading to the gym, then a movie with my free Nuffnang ticket for doing a survey, bliss, might even treat myself to lunch!!  Weekends are long (& unexciting) when my husband is away, the housework can wait, until Saturday morning.  Fridays are also time to go play with Paisley Jade & reveal what we're loving.
Well on top of all the crazy sales going on, i'm loving . . . girlie accessories.  I trotted off to Seed to visit my gal pal who works there & stock up on pretty things for my girls (read: anything i can get away with wearing aged 36, i will borrow).  For years i've used my daughters as an excuse to buy extra girlie accessories, even better when on sale.

 Flowers & butterflies, pinks & metallics, ahhhh.  That lovely silvery large butterfly is the second in our collection, such a hit as a brooch or in the hair, especially love the 2nd one was half price.  My eldest daughter is into 'shiney' hair pieces as that is her 'thing' & how she's 'known' at high school.  Happy to indulge, better than heavy eye make up i guess. 

 The little strawberry purse is from Kikki-K, 30% off sale & a great place to stock up on pens & stationery, i mean a girl's desk has to look as pretty as her hair, right??!!

 Love the fabric in this bow, i think it was $2.95 on sale, completely adorable.

Loving accessories, pretty things & stationery too . . . why not enter my paper packaging giveaway at the previous post.  Love your Friday people & have gorgeous weekends, love Posie

our creative space 'paper packaging passion' & GIVEAWAY

Greetings all,

Thanks for the enthusiasm about my new paper bags in the last post . . . or as my husband said "20 comments about paper bags, seriously??"  So to share the paper packaging passion with you, i'm offering up a giveaway.  Just a little one, but a goodie!!
EDIT: now a bigger giveaway with 5 runner up prizes, enjoy!!

How about some samples of the paper bags, twine & sticker sets i'm doing up for Shop Handmade & my market stall??  Do you fancy black, or the air mail collection??

 Personally i can't wait to throw the next children's party & send mummies off with a cookie in these 'frosting' bags, the party favour/ lolly bags will be amazingly cool too.

 The chevrons/ zig zags are super sweet too, but who can resist diagonal stripes or polka dots, not me that is for sure!!

 Anything cuter than a parcel sealed with baker's twine & a birdie sticker??

 I'll be taking these dozen Divine Twines into Shop tomorrow, in their cute crate.

So i've done up sets of large paper bags, the itty bitty paper bags, some with stickers, some with stickers & twine . . . it's lounge craft at it's best!! 
To enter the giveaway - just follow this blog & leave a comment here.  I'll throw together a big hamper of all the bags in all the sizes, lengths of each of the twines + some stickers too.  Open until Sunday 26th June at 9p.m., random selection, good luck!!  For the whole collection of styles & varieties, check out the previous post for some seriously giddy paper bag envy. 

Check out this week's Our Creative Spaces for more inspiration.  Love Posie
EDIT: i've switched in some new images & the main giveaway prize will be 15 bags, 12 stickers & 10 lengths of twine + now 5 runner up prizes of itty bitty bags too!!