AEIOU link party May 2012

Greetings all,

Welcome to this month's AEIOU: a mid-month-link-party of self-belief, improvement, acceptance, love & learning!!  It's a get together to celebrate life's highlights.  Your AEIOU might go a little something like this . . . 

Awesome – something you baked/ created/ photographed/ a bargain you found

Exciting – share your news/ event/ holiday/ a gorgeous butterflies-in-tummy moment

Interesting – teach us information/ discovery/ facts/ a chance to show off your quirky side

Opportunity – embrace the unknown/ put yourself out there/ show off a new experience

Understanding – learning to appreciate/ forgive/ love/ unleash what helps you grow
. . . you might like to do a full AEIOU or just one or two particular themes . . .

To kick things off, here is my AEIOU list for May.  

Awesome - how stunning is simple Winter produce??  Such beautiful shapes, colours & super fresh taste, from Farmer's Market.  My children seek out the fruit with leaves attached -  more authentic.

 Exciting - thrilled to add a new recipe to my repertoire . . . the Ragu!!  It's a simple &  delicious belly warming Winter dinner.

 Interesting - as i flick through the pages of magazines like Peppermint, Mollie Makes & Frankie, i feel like i'm reading about my handcrafted industry from the outside.  It's very competitive & i'm comfortable that i've stepped down, after a successful decade consumed by sewing at home.  Lately i've bumped into many designers who are shocked i'm closing down my business, they say the most lovely things about my craftsmanship, passion, attitude & presence at markets.  Nice to know you're missed!!  But also very happy under my pom pom blanket on the freezing weekends, reading magazines rather than manning a stall.

 Opportunity - a school mum had to sell her farm & move closer to the city, which meant leaving, relocating & giving away many of her animals.  These friendly Silver Spangled Hamburgs found their way to our place.  They're very happy in the coop outside, but the cold snap has halted egg laying.  Baby chicks are still living indoors, under lights.    

 Understanding - i like technology served up to me on a platter, need to know only, just tell me how to send emails & blog, thank you.  I'm pretty pleased with how i'm getting around my first ever Mac computer & loving it's new location in the living area, with all the children's laptops (such is education these days) - research homework is very efficient.  The children love the mysterious black apple (where the in fared wireless gadgets connect) spooky.

Now it's your turn . . . do join in . . . links go live on the 15th of each month, this is a party to celebrate you!!  Love Posie  

gratuitous shots of fire fighters, for a good cause!!

Greetings all,

Last night's little SIDS&kids market was fun, the entertainment even better!!  These kind & generous fire fighters were paraded around in a fashion show in casual jeans, beach apparel (swim suit section), suits . . . then, what we'd all be waiting for - in their uniforms!!  As someone married to a sexy man in uniform, i get to giggle at this kind of scene every day (lucky me), but for the ladies in the crowd who were let loose on a Friday night with a few glasses of champagne under their belts, there was plenty of cheering, whistling & waving.  Yes, the poor blokes were pieces of meat, raising money for the neonatal ward at the Canberra Hospital.

 Here's Mr February signing my calendar.  As a sometimes ditsy blonde & naive girl who married her teenage sweetheart, it wasn't until i got home & my husband pointed out the double meaning of what he wrote . . . "Dear Jennie, Remember, get down low & go go go" to which i responded to the fire fighter at the time . . . "oh yes, my children know the home fire safety drill".  Now i can understand his puzzled face & how dumb i must have looked.  I just said to my handsome soldier, "clearly i only have eyes for you".

All for a good cause, raising money for SIDS&kids plus the local neonatal ward.  I happily bought raffle tickets all night & came home to kiss & cuddle all my 4 happy, healthy, sleeping babies (well 7 to 11 year olds), very lucky to have them.  We never needed neo natal treatment for any of them & raised them in the Northern Territory where they have the lowest SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) figures in Australia. 
On an aside, have you ever been rescued by a fire fighter??  I have, well my eldest daughter was, when she was 18 months old!!  Back in the year 2000 i was feeding our puppy dinner & the door closed behind me.  Trying to get an toddler to flick a dead lock with frantic hand signals, isn't easy!!  Long story short, me in a tank top & pyjama pants, no bra, had 8 burly fire fighters arrive & slowly remove our front door to reunite mother & daughter.  Knowing my absent husband would never believe the story, i had them all stop & pose for photos holding our daughter (more gratuitous shots of fire fighters).  The next day i took a few cases of beer to the Station (Stuart Park NT if you were wondering) to say thank you & lucky me, didn't get the idiot bill which they charge some people - the pricey call out fee for dumb scenarios.  Have safe weekends everyone, love Posie

don't diss the little local market events

Greetings all,
So you might do big markets which are proven, tried & tested success, but don't diss the little local market events too.  They are usually inexpensive to have a stall or it's a free stall + donation to a raffle.  You have nothing to lose, other than time & energy to set up & stand by your stall. The atmosphere is fun & festive, take your children along, you'll meet new people from your local community who can discover you & they're normally short events. 

This is the MOCCA (Manuka Child Care) Spring Fair i did on Saturday, i know, a market just hours before my handsome soldier flew in??!!  It was a good distraction.  I just set up a very small, easy stall with an umbrella & took lots of my on line shop products which i can't take to genuine handmade only markets. 

My little rule is that you should have $ sales of 10 x your stall fee as a starting point.  I took my 2 youngest as i knew they'd love the petting zoo but boy, with a cake stall, hot chocolate, zoo, games, activities, face painting, BBQ - i ended up spending over $60 + a Dumpling Dynasty Bunny Kit to keep someone happy, NOT something i normally do at any maket but this was a fundraiser & i was a bit giddy with the excitment of my husband coming home that afternoon. 

A little sneaky - when you're not sure of your allocated space or position at a market & don't want to take extra tables . . . using large baskets are a handy 'next to stall' cheaters way to spread your wares.  These giant baskets are the largest of 2 sets of 4 baskets at $50 each set, from Lincraft in August.  Perfect for my fabric sale, otherwise, they look amazing filled with small cushions or eventually in my dream home filled with logs for a fire - i'm a tax deductible planner & a dreamer you see!! 

The always lovely Tania McCartney did a book reading too, my 3rd daughter took some shots - there are also 25 images of the petting zoo, i contained her enthusiasm to just one on the blog!! 

So if you can fit in the little events too - do them!!  Thanks Jenny at MOCCA who organised this event, it was delightul.  They are also a fantastic way to do PR for your website, Shop, other larger markets you do where you'll set up a larger (proper) set up. 
While you're reading this i'm on the road doing hand sewing on our way to Nanna's funeral in Sydney.  I hope the 'delay' post worked, sounded simple enough to use.  Have lovely weekends everyone.  Love Posie