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!!

My Creative Space - Butterflies and Roses

Thank you to all of you who wished Eloise a speedy recovery from her tummy bug last week. She is a lot better this week (although there's an awful lot of talk about sore tummies when she doesn't want to do something!). Her kindy is having a Halloween dress up day today and being 4 and a girl, there was no way she was going dressed as something scarey. She is pretty obsessed with monarch butterflies at the moment so we came up with this costume last night for her.

 We bought the wings a while ago from our local toy shop. Aren't they beautiful? They are handpainted and definately the most worn thing in her dress up box. The black top is one of Maddy's printed t-shirts turned inside out with the label cut off and we borrowed some of her leggings too.

 The antennae (or Man-ten-aye as Eloise calls them) are made with pipe cleaners with buttons stitched at the ends. I didn't have any black pipe cleaners so I coloured white ones in with a black felt pen. Fold a long pipecleaner over double and twist it together to make it thicker and easier to stitch the buttons on (or just buy thick black pipe cleaners!) I twisted it on to a headband a few times to get it to stay in place and voila, one happy butterfly. She has butterfly face paint on this morning too but given how late we were when I finished it, there was no time for photographs. We had to run like crazy people to catch up with Maddy's walking school bus. Must have been quite a sight. Maddy running ahead with her huge backpack, Eloise dressed in full butterfly gear on her pink scooter and me huffing and puffing behind carrying my shoes, Eloise's shoes, her back pack and my sunglasses. Hmm. Not a pretty site! Must do something about that fitness!

 With the Christmas markets coming ever closer, I've been busy rebuilding my stocks. This week, I'm concentrating on my Tape Measure Rose brooches. The entire dining table has been taken over for brooch production purposes. Thank goodness for warm evenings so we can sit at the table outside to eat our meals!

If you haven't already, you really should pop over to Kirsty's blog and see what she has been up to and then sit back with a coffee and enjoy all the other wonderful Creative Spaces on display there.

ps I've got a giveaway on my Facebook page so pop over and join in if you fancy some Cotton Kiwi goodies.

Full of the joys of Spring

All this beautiful sunshine has got me feeling like Spring is in the air. I know it's wishful thinking,but it's inspiring me to create with lots of gorgeous colours.

It's the August Devonport Craft Market tomorrow (Sunday 1st August), 10am-2pm, 32 Clarence Street, Devonport, Auckland.

These two are definately full of the joys of Spring.

They are totally babysafe with double stitched seams and embroidered faces.

They're not just for babies though. Big girls would love them too!

I've got loads of new little girls' aprons to add to my stock of boys ones

And all my usual goodies.

Pop along if you can. It's going to be great fun.

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!

Sneaky Peak

The Devonport Craft Market is on tomorrow Today!, 10am-2pm at the

Devonport Community House, 32 Clarence Street.

Here's a sneaky peak of a few of the goodies I'll have for sale.

Why not come down and pay us a visit. My stall is the second on the left in the main hall.

Don't my girls look cute in the flower filled fairy skirts?

I made the hot air balloon tees for them yesterday.

Some hairbands for little girls.

Lots of Tape Measure Rose Brooches

And some very cute bunnies.

Hope to see you then!

My Creative Space - Tape Measure Roses

My Creative Space is turning these...

into these.

 I've just listed them all in my Felt shop (which was starting to look a little bare!).

and I have finished the korker hair accessories I started last week.

The tutorial for them is here.

I've also been rather brave and gone from this hair colour (which I've had since university)...

to this one...

My children have told me I look like I have old lady grandma hair and my other half didn't even notice. I like that I won't have to colour my hair so often and that it is closer to the colour of my daughters' hair. But then again... I'm not sure I can take much more of the "you have old lady grandma hair" taunts that the girls are finding so hilarious! Maybe I should go back to being platinum blonde. What do you think?

Pop along to Kootoyoo to see what everyone else has been up to.

Colour - My Creative Space

My Creative Space is full of colour.

The school holidays are in full force so we've been spending lots of time with beads and elastic making necklaces, rings, bracelets and hanging mobiles. I had 5 little girls of various ages at my house on Tuesday and it was a great way to keep them busy and it was something they could all do without too much help. I use hat elastic which is lovely and stretchy and easy to thread.

I've been doing lots of baking with the kids and generally making a big mess!

The fish came from the confectionary section of K Mart.

My youngest has really taken a leap in her dexterity skills this last term. Watching her thread her own beads and decorate her own cupcakes like the independant miss she is makes me realise how much she has grown and I have to confess that I've had  moments of wishing she was still this cheeky baby!

Then I wake up to myself and realise how great it is she is growing up (and sleeping through the night!)

It's The Devonport Craft Market this Sunday so in the moments between the school holiday madness,  I've been busy making stuff for my stall.

I've been making some of these:

and these

and a few of these (the apron, not the child!)

How about you? What's your Creative Space? Visit more great spaces over at Kootoyoo here.

Giveaway and poster

The poster I designed for the March 7th Devonport Craft Market is finally finished and has been uploaded onto the blog. I have absolutely no graphic design skills whatsoever but I can take a photograph, so I went for a collage approach. I'm quite pleased with it.

The fantail is embroidered onto a teatowel which I am going to give away to one of you lovely people along with one of my tape measure brooches. The teatowel isn't quite perfect as I originally embroidered the name of the market on the towel and then unpicked it because I didn't like it. If you look closely, you can see where it was but its still perfectly useable or you could turn it into something else.

.

If you want to go into the draw for the giveaway,all you have to do is to start following my blog (click on the "follow" button in the right hand column); if you aren't already a follower and leave a comment answering the following question:

"What is your favourite New Zealand native bird and why?"

I will pick the winner's name from a hat on Tuesday 2nd March.

Frantic

Last Sunday's Devonport Craft Market was so much better than we could have imagined. Sarah and I had several late nights prior to it to make sure it went smoothly. We had a fantastic day with around 1000 people through the doors and an awful lot of spending. With lots of other markets coming up fast, including the wonderful Crafternoon Tea this Saturday, the late nights are continuing as I rebuild my stock levels. I'll be launching a few new goodies at Crafternoon Tea on Saturday so look out for:

Baby tape measure brooches

And sweater bunnies (and bears).

I've been working on some kids t-shirts today too but you will have to wait a day or two to see photos of those.

In the meantime, here's the flyer for Crafternoon Tea in case you fancy popping along.

A great day for Tea

I had a lovely time at Auckland's newest craft market yesterday. Crafternoon Tea was a great success despite the hideous weather.

It was lovely to see some friends from The Devonport Craft Market selling there and to meet some amazing new sellers.

My particular favourite was the SofTings stall. Jennie Walker makes the most beautiful portrait dolls with handpainted faces as well as a whole bunch of other incredible goodies. Here are a couple of her dolls.

I've ordered one and one of her cushions. Can't wait to get them!

I met some wonderfully interesting people who came to buy too and was thrilled to see lots of my brooches go to new homes. This may have helped with that:

It was on the front page of the Herald Time Out. Several lovely people told me that they were what had brought them down to the market. A huge thrill!

I will be at Kraftbomb this coming Sunday so I will be making lots more before then.

Kraftbomb is on at the Grey Lynn Community Centre Sunday 25th October 11-2

Hope to see you there!

Something old, something new

I'm so excited about this Sunday's Devonport Craft Market. I've been a very busy girl (despite lots of school holiday adventures and the hideous lemon detox that I've been on this week.. ugh!)

Both girls were out yesterday so I was able to get quite a bit done. I've made some new things for tomorrow's stall:

Some new reusable sandwich wraps in scrummy new prints (excuse my model/young artist's felt tip stained fingers!):

Cute hairbands for the little (and big) girls in your life:

and of course my new Bright & Shiny Tape Measure Brooches:

With something new, comes something old. I found these gorgeously cute kiddy-sized teacups and saucers yesterday. I don't think the two cups belong to the saucers but that certainly doesn't detract from their scrumptiousness and I'm going to put them to work this weekend displaying giftcards and tags.

Finally, there's my brand spanking new brand and logo to show off. I've managed to make a fab banner for my stall using a white linen teatowel, t-shirt transfer paper and some number 8 wire but you will have to wait until tomorrow to see that.

Hope to see you there. Sunday 4th October, 10am-3pm, Devonport Community House, 32 Clarence Street. Bring your pennies!