A Collection of Thoughts

New Blogs to Follow

Home from Melbourne - a truly fab weekend - loved every single second and would move there in a heartbeat. But more on that in another post.

One of the lovely things about Nuffnang's Blogopolis Conference was the chance to meet new people and to connect with the ones you already "knew" in real life.

I was so thrilled to meet lots of people.

Here are a few favourites - new to me as in I just met them or  a "friend" on twitter who I finally got to meet that you may like to add to your list.

Magdalena - from Qld originally and moved to Melbourne - Ha I might just follow her - I loved melbourne have I mentioned that?

She has a wonderful blog and she makes softies from upcycled and recycled fabric :- Totally gorgeous.

 Blog / Cute Softies / Twitter

Violet Le Beaux who I noticed the second she walked through the door with her sweet as pink dipped ringlet hair. You can see her here

Her blog is filled with all sorts of kawaii cute with beautiful crafty tutorials and lots of fashion tips for kawaii girls. Talia is totally smitten. I didn't get the chance to say hello to Violet but now I'll quietly stalk her blog.

Blog/ Tutorials/Twitter

Candice De Ville - an amazing Mumma to two cute girls and total pin up girl. She has style and poise and is very glamorous. I loved listening to her thoughts during the final panel forum about blogging and ethics. Really resonated with me. Her blog is filled with retro images that you just have to see.

Blog/Daily Outfit/Twitter

 

The beautiful Katrina - who I have been following and twittering with for some time - was so good to meet her in real life.  Super busy mumma to be juggling lots of roles - I advised her to slow down and she ignored me -sighhh. She hangs out at windsor deli and blogs food craft and life.

 Blog/Shop/Twitter

last but not least the lovely Jody - who I only managed to speak a few words to at the pre conference drinks.  She didn't attend the conference and I didn't realise she wasn't going so I'm really sad I missed the chance to spend some time with her. She is a mummy blogger with yummy recipes and stories to share. She holds gratitude high - I love that.

Blog/ Twitter

More on the conference is still to come - many photos to download and sort through :)

Did you go ? Did you have fun ?? Are you a Gold Coast blogger or want to be? drop me a line we are going to organise a little meet up soon.

 

Readers Creations

Hands down the best part about blogging is the emails that you receive saying that someone has been inspired to get creating :)

Thank you to my lovely readers who have shared some of their projects this week.

First up with have Madeline who is simply amazing. Within 2 hours of the hip hip post  going up I had these photos back on my email.

Madeline with I think a little hand from Mumma Vanessa had whipped up her own heatpack softie.

and was snugged up in bed with it.

So cool! And I would share these photos with one of my daughters but she would be all over that trendy black nail polish like a shot which would in turn give her father a heart attack. LOL

 Then Madeline made the  heart chocolates into butterflies :)

 This is a really fun activity.

Today I received an email from Teryl who had a little bunch of crafty girls  over. She had told me that the button canvases were on her to make list - so I was thrilled to see that they had indeed been created. Check out this cute bunch of crafty girls!

Love that they have added their own little embellishments too of flowers and butterflies.

 Thank you Teryl and Vanessa for sharing :)

If you missed teapot - you can catch up here  or hip hip hooray is here and we are still accepting sponsors this month - a little later than usual as both Mel and I are heading off to Melbourne this weekend :) Do send me an email if you have been busy creating up a storm I love to see and share:)

 

 

 

Melbourne -drinks at 7.00pm

By 7.00pm tomorrow night I will have flown to Melbourne checked into this hotel

and with all things being equal will have a drink in hand at a pre conference drink function organised by Hello Blogger  Events :)

I am so excited to meet lots of bloggy/twitter friends and of course spend some time with Onecraftymumma :) I also get to meet the lovely Tammy in real life too - YAY

Fortunately the conference is just Saturday which is how I have been able to swing it with work.

Unfortunately ( there a story like this isn't there with a fortunately unfortunately  LOL)

I have also developed a middle ear infection and I'm dosed up on painkillers and antibiotics.

I tried to take today off work under drs orders but failed dismally by umm going into work and getting stuck never a good plan.

so instead I'll take tomorrow off hopefully kick the infection LOL I know so funny and then head to my lovely weekend.

Did I say excited? I am taking way too many clothes I'm sure but have no concept of cold living on the sunny Gold Coast or so Mel tells me.

I have my new cute business cards from Moo and Mel and I also designed some teapot ones so we will happily be handing those out too.

Week in my life is coming along well. In the past I have documented and made my pages each day but Im not this year - Just taking the photos- which reminds me need to find my charger. I'm super super tempted to just use my iphone and not worry about my big camera. But I'll probably regret that decision so I will take it.

I have three books to curl up with -  that's one of my  favourite things about traveling - "unguilty" reading.

I'm back sometime Sunday to meet friends for coffee at a fun new cafe we read about in  Palm Beach. 

The girls and Richard have a date with with wii tomorrow night - and then Saturday they have their school fete - we made 3 dozen cake pops last night for them to donate to the cake stall. The girls have all day ride passes and Richard will be manning the BBQ. They won;t even notice I am gone.

You can catch some of my adventures from tomorrow night - I'll be tweeting :) and I'm taking my ipad so plan on blogging if I can :)

Ok time to log off and focus on letting these drugs work their magic.

Thanks for visiting

 

 

 

 

Ears and Earrings

This morning I woke with a sore ear - its was just niggly and annoying but as the day progressed it kind of got crazy painful. I rang Richard to see if he could find me a Drs appointment at 4.30 and luckily I was fitted in. So I have a middle ear infection.

Not good and I'm not happy !

Considering I have 10,002 things to do at work tomorrow - and on Saturday I am in Melbourne for Nuffnang Blogopolis 2011 its not perfect timing.

On a happier note I did manage to sneak a picture while I was in the Drs surgery- perfect for my day in the life.

That is the only bright spot.

So I figured it was a good time to have a peek at Etsy and find some pretty earrings

I am loving all the flower ones at the moment and all these sweeties are under $10.

 

via www.etsy.com

via www.etsy.com

via www.etsy.com

via www.etsy.com

via www.etsy.com

Another good day with my camera documenting  week in my life. I'll share them tomorrow.

I'm treating myself to an early night and hoping that the antibiotics kick in super fast tonight - or at least the nurofen does:)

Hope you had a lovely documenting day :)

 

 

DIY Custom Envelopes

via www.puglypixel.com

I LOVE these little custom envelopes by pugly pixel- Katrina is so very creative. We use her frames and graphics all the time in teapot. Pop over to her blog to see her little DIY.

Week In the life -documenting

I always start this project and think eek this is such a bad week to do it... but you know every week can be construed as that.

It's not a bad week it's a great week because this is my life.  There is no go slow.

It's 11.00pm Tuesday night and I just downloaded two days of photos.

Monday I took my first photo at 6.30am - was at work by 7.00am and then didn't stop through my school day again until I left at 4.30pm

Today though I took pictures of my desk -it's very telling of the time I am at in the senior school year cycle.

We also had parent teacher interviews tonight times two-  for my two and also at my own school so I booked the girls ones for first thing in the afternoon and Richard then rushed me back to do my own.

Another 13 hour day :)

I have many more photos and many more bits to document but I really wanted to get started before it got away from me and I gave it up as too hard.

Here is a snapshot.

How's your documenting going? Do send me a link I'd love to see :) Did anyone buy Ali's templates this year I still think that's what I'd like to use- I'm definitely doing digital.

40 Hour Famine

This year the girls have come home from school asking to participate in the 40 hour famine. Working in a school I'm aware of this each year and often get asked to donate and help coordinate but I'm ashamed to say I have never actually completed the 40 hour famine myself. So this year I'll be fasting with the girls ( but not raising money ) I'll leave that up to my two dynamos.

They have both decided to give up food and they both want to give the 40 hours a go even though as primary students they are allowed to do 8 hours.

 Last week on parade we showed the following video.

It's quite poignant and worth the watch.

In this technological age the old way of door knocking has gone by the wayside and there is an option of setting up a donation page.

It would mean the world to us if some of my lovely readers would leave a word of encouragement over on their girls pages or even make a small donation. There isn't the option of paypal which is a shame but if you would like to use paypal to make a donation please email me and I'll make the payment by credit card on your behalf after I receive your contribution ( small amounts of $1 or $2 would be very much appreciated! ). They are both aiming to raise $40 each which will feed a family of four for a month. But really we'd just love to see some comments. They would think that was fabulous!

  Talia's Page is here and Sofia's page is here

 

 

 

Teapot Sponsors

 Are you trying to increase your readership or drive more sales to your etsy store?  Sponsorship with One Crafty Mumma and a Collection of thoughts maybe just what you need.

 Did you know our survey showed that of our readers

• 98% are female
• 85% have celebrated between 25 - 50 birthdays
• 78% have one or more children living at home
• 90% prefer to buy hand made
• 86% have bought items recommended by blogs
• 90% enjoy a cup of tea and chat with their crafty friends

We released our 4th edition of teapot last week and our readership has increased by 50% since the first issue. If you haven't read an issue please visit here.

Pop over HERE to secure your ad.  If you would like to receive our media kit with blog statistics and further information, drop us an email [email protected] - don't be shy, we'd love to have you on board.

 

 

Cute New Planner

via kirstyneale.typepad.com

I love a good cute stylish planner - I'm addicted to Kikki K and Typo and Smiggle to a lesser extent. When I lived in Japan I spent every sunday wandering through the stationery floor ( yes floor ) of the loft. Love it so much - so when this little gem popped up in my google reader I was excited.

Not much detail available yet but I'm excited to see what it evolves into. One of the artists here and the creators blog is here

Guest Blogger - Apple Pikelets

Here is a cute as behind scene shot of my little cook in action - pink uggies :)  Love them.

 Today Sofia is over at OneCraftyMumma as a guest blogger.