It's Market time again!

I'll be at The Devonport Craft Market tomorrow (Sunday 3rd April) from 10am-3pm.

It's at 32 Clarence Street Devonport.

You can't miss it. Head for the supermarket and you'll see the enormous sign my lovely and long-suffering other half puts up for us every month.

 I've been making stuff.

 Lots of stuff.

 And my t-shirts are on sale.

 I've gone a bit crazy with the flower filled fairy skirt making.

 And I've managed to make a few more of these Tape Measure Rose Brooches (once I regained control of the kitchen table from the kids).

 And I've got some very cute softies that I don't really want to sell but I'm worried that people will think I'm a little strange if I keep making softies and keeping them for myself so you should come and save me from being locked up. Please.

I've particularly got lots of Easter type bunnies like these ones. They are very cute and totally baby safe (double stitched seams and hand embroidered faces.

Hope to see some of you tomorrow. Not to early (don't forget the clocks go back an hour tonight so you get an extra hour in bed... woohoo!!

A baby's smile

There's nothing quite like a baby's smile to brighten your week. One of my lovely customers sent me this photo of her daughter wearing a Cotton Kiwi onesie. A gorgeous smile to brighten a horrible week.

Isn't she gorgeous? I love to see my t-shirts and onesies in action so do send photos through if you get the chance. I will always ask your permission before I post them on my blog.

I had a little time over the weekend to make some more onesies for an order (and to restock my market stall).

On another note, if you are a kiwi and have access to Trade Me, there are some great auctions of handmade goodies going on to raise money for Christchurch. Check out Handmade for Christchurch. Cotton Kiwi has donated two brooches and a fairy skirt to the auctions so head along and bid if you can.

For the Boys

The boys are seriously outnumbered in our house. Our washing line is filled with a great deal of pink and Mr Cotton Kiwi insisted on a male kitten when we got Kipper to try and even things out a little. It comes as no surprise then, that I have to work extra hard to come up with ideas for t-shirts and toys for boys.



Luckily, I have two young nephews who are willing recepients of my t-shirts and friends with boys to try ideas out on.

This apron is for sale in the Felt Like Helping Out shop which is closing this weekend.

It contains loads of crafty goodies which have been donated to raise money for Canterbury

 to help them rebuild after the devastating earthquake and aftershocks.

It was such a thrill at the last market I went to, to have a repeat customer for one of my robot t-shirts. I found out that the t-shirt had been a young man's favourite, but he had grown out of it. I was really happy to make him one in a bigger size.

He had a big brother too, who wasn't particularly sure if an appliqued t-shirt would be his thing (who can blame an 8 year old for that?). I mentioned a skateboarder and he quickly changed his mind. The skateboarder isn't part of my regular line as they are really tricky to do, but I'm definately happy to do one offs.

Finally, here's another gorgeous young man wearing one of my neck tie t-shirts. This is the nephew of Aimee from Lilypad Designs. She very kindly sent me this photo of him wearing it. I love to see Cotton Kiwi t-shirts in action!

On a completely different note, I am very very close to reaching the 200 'liker' mark on my Facebook page. Once I reach 200, I will be announcing a giveaway so if you haven't already, pop along and join me to be in to win!

My Creative Space - Absolutely no help whatsoever.

Madeleine is learning about life long ago at school this term. Apparently, children in the olden days were given jobs to do by their parents to make life easier for the family (what happened? Why did we lose touch with the good old days?!).

A finished Robot t-shirt for this Sunday's market

It's market day this Sunday for the Devonport Craft Market which means life gets a little busy around here.

Shark tee

There's the stocking up of the stall for a start.

Babushka onesie

And the organising of the market too.

I snuck in a little knitting. Some fingerless gloves for the Mister.

And for some reason, my family expects me to still clean the house, shop and cook meals. I decided this morning that I would try some of the old fashioned methods of getting the small people in the house to do their bit. Eloise was very pleased to help. Offered to do the cooking AND the washing up (rainwater soup and plastic pizza anyone?)

Unfortunately, even that proved too much and she was very soon caught slacking on the job.

I blame the sunshine. It did occur to me to find a long extension lead and park the sewing machine on the deck. In the end I decided that procrastination was the order of the day, grabbed my sunglasses and joined the small person for a spot of rainwater soup.

There are some truly wonderful Creative Spaces over on Kirsty's blog. I'm quite sure none of them are procrastinators so hop along and admire.

For sisters

One of my wonderful school friends, Melanie, had a baby girl the other day. The new baby's name is Olivia. Isn't that gorgeous? She makes Melanie's other daughter, Chloe, a big sister, which, as many of you will know, is a very important job. I sent them a parcel full of bunnies today. Sisters looks so cute in matching outfits.

My own oldest girl was told off this morning by her little sister for being too bossy. "Mummy said not to boss your little sister around!". 
"Yeah?" was the indignant response from Miss Bossy. "Well that was yesterday."

Don't worry, she's cuddling her, not strangling her!

Who thinks I've got my work cut out for me with that one? Too smart for her own good sometimes!!

Baby Wallabies

I finally got around to restocking some appliqued t-shirts and onesies yesterday. I got two orders for appliqued baby onesies on Thursday too, which was lovely. Friday is (usually) my child free sewing day but Maddy was home from school yesterday with a cough, so she came with me to buy the onesies to applique.

This is my new favourite fabric combination for the baby elephants.

Maddy was very helpful in the shop, although we did have a little negotiation over exactly which onesies we needed. I have no idea where she gets the strong minded nature from ;o) .

This is unfortunately the last of this toadstool fabric :o(

If any of you have seen it anywhere, do let me know.

Maddy was helpful again in the car, taking all of the tags off so the onesies would be ready to do the pre-shrink wash when we get home. 

This is fabric and a design that Sarah M of Songbird Designs gave to me when she stopped making t-shirts.

We were nearly home when Maddy suddenly started asking about wallabies and when were we going to see some. It took me several minutes and lots of questioning before I clicked that she had heard me talk about the onesies and thought I had said wallabies. Very cute! Poor love was a little disappointed when I cleared that one up. I think we might have to plan a trip to Auckland zoo soon to make up for it!

Hope you are managing to keep dry on this horrible wet day. My girls are having a great game with the dolls house. I might have to go and join in in a minute!

Super Model

My Felt shop is running low on stock at the moment so I thought I had better do something about it.

I wanted to list some kids' clothes so I asked Eloise if she would mind doing some modelling for me yesterday. Ever the helpful child, she said "Sure Mum."

A few seconds passed and she said "What's modelling?"

You have know idea how much I love that my nearly 4 year old has no idea what modelling is! She was still in agreement when I told her what it was so we got set up and started snapping away.

She was absolutely amazing and let me take loads of photos.

She was even happy modelling the boys t-shirts. I was gobsmacked at that one. Normally you can't get anything boy related anywhere near my daughter.

She is firmly a girly girl. I think you will agree she did an amazing job and I didn't have to bribe her once!

Princess and the Pea

I have to say that I'm still feeling pretty rubbish. This flu has really got to me and I feel like I'm underwater. My nose could be used to guide ships away from trecherous rocks and I have even gone off wine! No rest for the wicked though. It's Devonport Craft Market day tomorrow so Sarah (who is also under the weather poor love) and I, have been down at the venue this afternoon setting up ready for the massive influx of talent tomorrow. If you get a chance, do come along. Every Devonport Craft Market is a good one but we've got some particularly wonderful goodies on display tomorrow and it's well worth a trip if you haven't made plans already. Check out this absolutely stunning poster that Cat of Cat Taylor Designs did for us.

We have a different poster designer each month and the only thing we ask of them is that they include a native bird in the design and make it black and white. I love seeing all the different designs our stallholders come up with but I have to say, this one is definately my favourite.

We had a pretty quiet day at home today. Richard took Eloise off to the hardware store to buy some wood and Maddy stayed at home with me. We decided to make a princess and the pea cushion. She did all the arranging of the pieces and I ironed it and stitched it all together. The princess still needs a pea (green bead) and a face so I'll be taking it along with me to the market tomorrow to finish off. Didn't we do a good job?

Of course, I didn't manage to take the picture until after dark so you can't see the details like the lace on the sheet and the embroidery anglaise nightie being worn by the princess but once she is all finished, I'll take a better photo for you.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

High Flyer

Some of you will remember that my Mum managed to fracture both her feet falling down a step at the end of April. You may also remember that I mentioned that having both her feet out of action didn't do much to stop her doing exactly what she always did, including pruning the shrubs and water blasting the deck from her wheelchair a couple of days after her accident. It's been two and a bit months since she hurt herself and she is still in a moonboot for one of her feet. I'd like to show you what she gets up to in this incapacitated state.

She is one high flying Nanna. At least she agreed to strap herself in!

I have another high flyer to show you too. This is a trapeze artist cushion I finished today. She is part of a new range of appliqued cushions I am going to be making to sell at markets and online. Do you like her?

Cotton Kiwi Facebook giveaway

Thank you to everyone who popped over to my Facebook page yesterday to help take me to (and over!) the 100 fan/liker mark. I'm having a giveaway to say thank you to the facebookers so if you haven't already, pop over to my page and 'like' Cotton Kiwi, then leave a comment telling me what it is you like about Cotton Kiwi goodies to enter.

The prize includes one of each of these in the winners choice of colours/designs. The competition is open internationally and will close on Friday 16th July.

 1 Tape Measure Rose Brooch in your choice of colour

1 Teacup Teatowel in your choice of colours

 1 Applique kids t-shirt in your choice of size/design/colour

(I have lots of older kids' designs too)

This is only open to entries via my facebook page.

Once I reach 100 followers on my blog, I'll have a similar giveaway here. So pop on over and join my page if you haven't already and enter!

Cold

It's cold, I'm cold and I have a cold. Stink.

I thought I was so smart taking my vitamin C religously everyday but it seems like one of those evil little viruses have got past my stoic immune system and I'm sick. I was fighting it off all weekend which meant we had a quiet one.

We had a visit from friends on Saturday. There was a very small person so we got the blocks out.

All four girls, from oldest down to youngest were totally engrossed in their game.

They built this fabulous town and drove cars through it. Even the baby joined in. Wonderful!

There was some crafting.

I got this birthday gift finished for one of Maddy's friends and I made myself a gorgeous top.

I will post a pic of my top when I don't resemble Rudolph. 

I have a to do list to finish this week as long as my arm but it's going to have to

wait while I ditch this cold. Bed and lemsip for me I think!

Hope you are keeping well.

Sarah x