Give away: The Big Green Book of Craft

Give away:The Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts!

Want to win this book? Head on over to Green Renters (our other business) to find out how! It's painless, I promise :)

Things I like today

I really need a duffle coat


I'm a huge fan of mulled wine and I'm keen to give this recipe a try as it's a bit different from my norm with the addition of apple juice...


Loving the bookwheel. No idea how the books stay put!




Some amazing stitching here, as mentioned by Drewzel


I wonder what's put in these desserts? Hmmm

My creative space

Last night I bought a plain white long sleeve t shirt and decorated it with a picture I've been admiring for a while from an old 1960's Reader's Digest...great for winter!



I also dyed my hair red. Apologies for the My Space kinda photo, I was trying to hide all the mess in the background....You can see more Creative spaces here

Things I like today

Cute


How good does this cake look?


Make your own pouf!


Gorgeous shoes!

Things i like today

Ahh I'm loving the cooler weather (at last!) and this photo encapsulates this feeling perfectly.
by flypeterfly on flickr via here

Speaking of cooler weather, it's definitely soup weather! You can find some yummy recipes here



I would love one of these softies! So cute!







Awesome Candy shoes advertising from the 1960's via Flickr

You can see more wonderful things here as hosted by the lovely Pip!

An Ethical Dilemma

I've been chipping away here at Polka Dot Rabbit. I've been working on a series of embroideries of Morrissey/Smiths song lyrics more for my amusement than anything else but maybe I'll put them up for sale at some stage. Also planning my upcycled ceramics which I hope to launch in a couple of weeks.



Craft wise my biggest dilemma is my hand embroidered gloves. They've been my most popular selling item ever, online and in shops, markets etc but they don't match the rest of my recycled items ethos. When I started Polka Dot Rabbit I wanted to run a business based as much a possible on recycling and upcycling with a green ethic as far as possible.

You can't get recycled acrylic gloves and to knit gloves I'd need to charge about $50 a pair minimum to factor in labour and materials and it's a ridiculous slog for such a small return. It's also not really reusing by simply knitting unless you use donated wool and such. I don't support wool felting due to the intensive use of water and heat to created felted materials and a lot of places won't stock wool because it's not vegan.

Haven't been able to find any acrylic gloves not made in China within my price range. I've found one stockist in America but they are reluctant to ship to Australia and I'd have to raise my prices to cover costs. I want to be able to market my craft as upcycling and enviro friendly and gloves made in China doesn't do that. Not sure what to do about this to be honest. Any ideas? The only one I can think of at the moment is to have a seperate line of gloves under a subset business but it doesn't really please me....

Things I like today

Bit too twee for me, but I know a lot of people would love this cross stitch pattern!

These Daniel Dolz prints would look awesome in a bathroom!

I'm now the very happy owner of this skirt in blue!

I've been drooling over this blouse from Anthropologie. I visited one of their stores in New York last year and I've been excited to see that they are now shipping to Australia. Unfortunately the stuff is stuff quite overpriced and in real life the quality didn't seem to be all that brilliant (most of it if made in India, I found the bedding to be particularly poor quality IRL). The $40US shipping fee doesn't impress me either. Perhaps I'll try find a comparative pattern and make my own?

Want to see things other people like? Pop on to Pip's 5 things post!

Things I like today

Since it's easter I feel I can indulge in my love of bunnies with impunity...


I went to Annie's company needlepoint in New York last year, and they had the most wonderful bunny tapestry prints! Way out of prince range alas! (Luckily there's software which enables you to design your own prints).



I was given a set of these cards as a gift last easter




Bunny hoodie!

I don't like where this is going...
From on of my favourite blogs when I need a laugh!

Did you know that you can donate veggies for the bunnies at the Australian Animal Protection Society? They'll be gratefully recieved and happily consumed!
Happy Easter everyone! xxx

Things I like today

How I love these hankies....




Baby Elephant's First Swim! from Zoos Victoria on Vimeo. Photo is by Martin Terlechi.



Cute fruit stickers to decorate your beloved's fruit. Err that sounds a bit wrong...



Gorgeous succulent planter tutorial

Things I like today

How could this not make anyone smile?


So cute it hurts...


Stripes and owl, you can't go wrong really


Gorgeous retro cups

My Saturday

I caught up with my mum today for coffee and cake at Mr Tulk, one of my favourite quiet little city cafes. The State Library has a nice little exhibition on at the moment about the history of shopping in Melbourne called Shop 'til You Drop and here's a few of the images featured on the State Library Website:










We then went along to the Northside Maker's Market in Northcote. It's one of my favourite markets to have a stall at but I enjoyed not having the pressure of a stall (or making things for a stall) and was content to wander around looking at all the amazing goodies people had made. It wasn't all that busy which I was sorry to hear, as I know how much effort people put into making their wares, promoting the event, setting up their stalls and staffing them all day. I still think there's just too many markets in Melbourne as I've mentioned before with many people making identical products. There's so many wonderfully creative people in Melbourne and I wish their talents were appreciated a bit more.

I was primarily looking for children's stuff as friends have had twins recently who we will see tomorrow at their other daughter's 3rd birthday! Very exciting!

But I did manage to get these lovely gifts for myself from Becky at Pivotal Xpressions.
A gorgeous crochet printed pencil and a business card holder. As I've just got business cards printed, it was a very welcome purchase.





I bought some knitted goodies from Twisted Stitches (can't seem to find them online). For the twins, I got a knitted softie cat and the booties. The bunny is for Tara for her birthday. I can't remember who made the adorable duckie brooch alas!


I then went and visited Curious Oyster, one of my lovely stockists who have moved to Thornbury recently. It's gorgeous shop and I am proud to have Polka Dot Rabbit stocked there. I bough this lip balm for a friend of mine :)


Afterwards, I went for lunch and a few drinks with a friend, had a browse in some bookstores and got the bus home. All in all, a great day!

Things I like today

I think I prefer books, but love the sentiment!


I think this Lisa Hanawalt comic is quite scary

Cute cushion!

Amazing soft sculpture by Abigail Brown