Spring and Smart Snappers

Spring has well and truly arrived in Christchurch. I work quite close to the Botanic Gardens, which is a great place for a leisurely stroll in my lunch break. The daffodils are just starting to come out, along with the fragrant daphne by the river. The magnolias are out as well, so I took some photos to use as inspiration in my next painting for my art class's upcoming exhibition.

I also entered my recycled cassette card purse into the smarten your snapper competition. I road tested it with my metro card, the local equivalent, and it did a great job! It's also fantastic for keeping all those extra cards you seem to acquire, like loyalty and membership cards. It makes a great business card holder too!

We have a winner!

After a successful response to my survey, I held my first prize draw. The winner of three mini-teardrops and a plate is Prue McStay aka Citrus Daisy. Thanks to everyone who participated.

The most popular fragrance was Vanilla, with a clear margin. Second equal were Frangipani and Orange, which puts Orange first on the list as the next fragrance I'll introduce to my mini-teardrops range. Third equal were Chocolate, Christmas Spice and Ylang Ylang. There's christmas sorted!

I have also just got a shiny new facebook fanpage. When I reach 100 fans I get my own url, so encourage your friends to become fans as well.

This week I have also been featured in the Felt newsletter (thanks Lucy!) My mini-teardrop candles are in the winter warmers with a touch of spring section. Stuck for gift ideas for fathers day? Why not get him something handmade, have a look at felt's Fathers Day showcase for some ideas.

Twice the cute

After re-learning the art of crochet, collecting my old stash of yarn from mums, and discovering a large selection of blue yarn within it, I knew exactly what to do. Find a pattern for some cute baby item, expand my repertoire, and make something for my friend Maria who is expecting twin boys. My crochet book only had one baby item in it – this very cute 'who' inspired hat! The stripy design made it perfect for using up my oddments of yarn. I made the light blue one first which was an exercise in what not to do. After I learnt from those mistakes, and produced a much less lumpy looking second one, I unpicked the first one and did it again. It looks a lot better second time around!