New Things

Hi everyone,

I have been busy sewing this week and have some new handmade goodness in the shop.  It is late and I do need some shut eye.... so only a short and sweet post.......



Floral Change Purse



tall oilcloth sponge bag with internal pockets

shoulder 'buttercup bag'

shoulder 'buttercup bag'


Happy Happy Day

Take Care

Kate

Oilcloth and an opening.......

So the day is finally here that I can show you photos of the showroom and let you know that as of Monday the 9th, we are open for business.  I will be open Mon - Fri 10am til 2pm.  I can also be open by appointment in the evenings and weekends.  Just drop me a line and we can arrange something.

The address is

Unit 3/301a Blenheim Road
Middleton
Christchurch

It is on the same side of Blenheim Road as The Warehouse and about 150m past, just after Hubbers.  Can be a little tricky to find as we are up the drive behind Speedy Signs.  Oh, so many directions but that should make it a little easier for you.  There is some parking by the workshop just park in the J B Mooar Builder spots (Mr Mooar won't mind!!). You can contact me if you have any questions about finding the place.

So that is all the necessary written bits.  Now for some pretty photos. Just before I show you those, remember  my bargain purchase from Trade Me of the Old Bar.  Well a bit of white paint, some red spotty fabric and fancy paper has really transformed it.  Here are the before pictures

I am sure you can spot the makeover in the showroom.  I still have a little bit of fluffing to do in the room....that is more about me being a little fussy of how things look!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The other great news is that I have my oilcloth.  Brilliant.  It looks devine sitting in the corner of the showroom.  I am itching to get sewing with it.  Just to remind you it is for sale at $45/m and is 137cm wide.  I have also listed it in the online store here.  You can see all of the five colours, red dotty, english rose in grey, powder blue deckchair stripe, retro floral in red, and taupe dotty.  Just gorgeous. 

On the home front.  We have had some fab weather in our fair city ( a bit of rain and cold too but we won't think about that.....) so the family has been in the garden.  Digging out the old and putting in the new.  The children were great helpers...in fact I think that I might have just got the job of taking the photos.  Although I did plant the lemon tree... very excited about my lemon tree.

Mr Mooar and I have just been to a friends wedding in Auckland.  It was rather special.  We were both pleased as punch to see our friend, the groom, so happy as he has had some tough times over the past 5 years.  I made a dress for the wedding.  The first dress I have ever made......Which did evoke some moments of 'what on earth was I thinking'.  But in the end I prevailed (as did my sanity and Mr Mooar's) and here is the end result...........

I have to say, I am quite proud of myself and Mr Mooar looks very handsome!

Just one more pic to show you.  Over Easter Mr Mooar and I were very busy tidying up and sorting the workshop....considering it was a tornado zone before it is looking so much better now.  Of course the children had to be there with us.  So to stop the boredom, Henry (with a bit of help from Liv)  decided to do a little bit of building craftmanship himself.  So he built his Dad a box with a lid (no photo sorry) and he built me this little car.......

Superb I say.  It has pride of place on the shop counter but it is not for sale.  A little good luck talisman.

So I look forward to seeing you all in the showroom/shop.  Tell all your friends too.

Happy Happy day
Kate

PS If you would like to come and see the showroom or purchase anything before the 9th, give me a call.  I will be in and out of there a bit so can arrange something with you.  Cheers

Coming Soon......

Hello,

Just a very quick post as I race out the door to get a mountain of jobs done.  I have ordered some oilcloth from the UK and it will soon be arriving..........

The colours available in the above picture as well as taupe dotty.  It is $45/m and is 137cm wide.  Just gorgeous and very popular.  I have added it to the online shop here.  If you would like to pre-order some please email me and let me know.  It should be here within the next 2 weeks.

Also new and here now is Divine Twine in 5 yummy colours......aqua, lemon, green apple, cherry and cotton candy.  This is perfect for craftting, scrapbooking, gift wrapping and so much more......

 It will be up for sale in the shop very soon as a full spool of 219m for $30 or smaller reels of 10m for $6.  I just need to get a few more photos taken.

On a different note.  Work on the showroom is going well.  Painting almost finished.  Next is the wood flooring to go down.  I am really hoping to be finished by the end of this week.  Famous last words!!!!!

Wallpaper is up in the bathroom at home.  Looks devine!!!  Photos soon I promise.

Cheers
Kate

Blog Parties

Good morning,

Part of the world of blogging is sharing what you do with other guys and gals out there in blogland.  So I put my little pinky in the water and 'shared' my drawer makeovers with these 2 blog parties this last week. 



There are so many talented people out there doing amazing things.  You should drop by and check some of them out.  ENJOY!!

Cheers

Kate.

Martinborough and some furniture re vamps

Good morning all,

The second Martinborough Fair seems such a world away now.  It was another good fair day, although a bit of a slow start due to rain.  My husband and I met some fantastic people and everyone was very supportive when they knew we were from Christchurch.  It was actually a little weird leaving the city and our children (with my sister in Blenheim) and a little emotional as well.  In the end it was good to have a wee break away, do some shopping in Wellington with my cousins (who are fab people by the way!) and just enjoy good food and a few beveridges.  But it is nice to be home again and have some sense of normailty.  The children have really enjoyed being back at school and all their activites.  We are very lucky on this side of town to be able to return to 'normal'

I decided before Martinborough that becasue the last 6 months had been so hectic with all that had gone on, that I would take a break from sewing and concentrate on a few things around the house.  so with that in mind and the pressure off, I set to work on a couple of sets of drawers.

The first was a queen anne style that I purchased for my daughter.  This turned out to be a bit of a mission.  I purchased some varnish remover and set to.  What I then got was a sticky sticky mess and not much varnish coming off.  So I washed it down with soapy soapy water and left it overnight.  Now it looks like this.......

Unfortunately it was still very sticky is some places and I could not sand it down as the sandpaper was getting stuck to the sticky mess.  Frustration was creeping in and I nearly gave up at this point.  I decided to put a coat of paint on and then try to sand it  (once it was dry of course!!!)  this did help a little and one very tired arm later I had managed to sand it down.  It did actually look very cool at this point and my daughter liked the heavy distressed look but we decided it might not look right in the bedroom.  So moving onwards and 2 coats of paint and some decoupaging later. Now it looks like this....it just needs some knobs........

Looking pretty amazing if I do say so myself.  My daughter love it.  Thank goodness.  I had to do some major distressing on it because of the sticky mess I had in the beginning but in the end it worked out.  YAY!


Next piece was a chest of drawers that my husband and I bought before we were married.

 It had been sitting in the garage for some time.  I got a bit of inspiration from Kristine at The Painted Hive one of my new favourite blogs.  This one was easier to get the varnish off but still a little sticky.  I then mixed up walnut and charcoal stain.  But when I put it on the first drawer I did not like it.  A bit too poo brown (can I say that!).  So I sanded it back!  I was not sure what to do stain wise and so I diluted what I had mixed up with some meths and then added a bit more charcoal stain.  I tried it on the back of the drawer until I got something I liked.  Trial and error were definitely visiting our house that day!!!  I wiped the stain on, left it for a while and then wiped off with a damp rag.  I did remember to use gloves thank goodness.  I then put on 3 coats of gloss polyurethane ( no mean feat in the back hall at night).
Now it looks like this........

don't you think that looks fab.  Such a great bedside table.  It has even made our bedroom less cluttered by giving us some more storage space.  Fantastic.

I have also been stripping the purple paint off the trim in our house.  this is a horrendous job as there are 2 coats of purple, one coat of peach and one of cream.  It is taking forever.  Here is a bit of progress. 

It is amazing how much brighter it looks already.  The bathroom ceiling has had one coat of paint and the wallpaper has arrived from the UK.  We have decided on flooring and are hoping to get it all finished by next week.  I can't wait to show it off.

My next job, which I have also started is getting my showroom up and running.  I have one coat on the walls and am heading back there now to put the next one on and sand my treasures I bought.  You can read about those here

Best I get my little self moving or I won't get a thing done today.
Bye for now


Cheers
Kate

How life changes in an instant

The harsh reality is that that instant will forever be etched in the minds of Cantabrians and that instant has tragically happened twice for our city.

On Sept 4th 2010 our lives were forever changed when we were awoken from our beds at 4.35am by a massive earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale.  It was frightening on a level that no one can really explain.  There was large amounts of damage to some areas, including our central city.  Buildings were demolished and homes were left inhabitable.  There was a little luck on our side in that no one died as a direct result of the earthquake.  For my family it meant the sudden and tragic death of a much loved grandmother and in the midst of dealing with upset children and so so many aftershocks, we buried her.

Life slowly moved on and the people of this province had returned to work, school and hopefully some sort of normality.  We kept telling ourselves that we were lucky, that it could have been so much worse.  The aftershocks slowly settled, although some caused more damage and frayed nerves again (Boxing Day comes to mind).

But as the re-building of not only homes and buildings but our lives took place, the unthinkable happened.  Another large quake.  This one not so strong, 6.3, but closer to the city and at half the depth.  This time, luck was not on the side of our city.  This one happened at lunch time and much more frightening than the first for so many people.  This one devastated our city, more homes are destroyed, buildings have completely collasped and lives have been lost.  More lives than we even know.  Many more are still missing.

What has touched us as a country is the amount of help pouring into this city from our international friends.  The amount of work that is been done by these people and our very own emergency personnel is absolutely outstanding.

As I sit in my home with the sun shining in and my children playing happily outside, I have much to be thankful for.  All friends and family working in the city managed to escape safely.  Although some were trapped for a time.  One friend was buried for 5 hours and others around her did not make it out.  Our home is not damaged, we have power and water.  I feel so removed from what is happening a few kilometres from my home.

Yet I crave some normality.  So I have thrown myself back into my work.  I feel quilty and it seems really selfish when all others want is their loved one home, but it is what I need right now.  What my children need.  My husband (builder bob) has been out helping friends and family with their chimneys etc.  What a good man.

There are many many people not so lucky as me. Not only from our fair city but from all over the world.  My thoughts and prayers go out to those people.  We are still carrying your hopes with us.

Our city will smile again.  We will rise again to be the beautiful city that we were.  It will take time and much more heartache but we will get there.

Keep safe everybody.

Kate xx

A holiday, a fair and a workshop

So a few exciting things to tell you about.  Because I am just about the worst blogger in the world, there has been a few happenings in my world.  I am not sure how others with these amazing creative talents can manage to make all the things they do, organise their families AND write a blog.  They are definitely super talented and super organised.  As I look around my house that looks like a tornado zone, I just don't know where to begin.  So I decided to leave it just now.... oh I know I will pay for it later.  At least I have managed to have a bit of a tidy up and put some washing on the line.  Some where between organised and chaos, that is where I roll.....

Let's go back a few weeks and start at the top of the list..... a holiday.  In other words, a much needed break for our family from the routine in a place we absolutely LOVE!  I have to admit though that the journey did not start well with us leaving a few things behind and having to turn back twice!!  Thankfully neither time we were very far down the road.  So on the road at 6.30am instead of 5am..  Are you stark raving mad I hear you say.  But our destination is 6.5 hours away and leaving early not only means the kids sleep in the car for the first few hours but we miss most of the traffic.  Not this year though....bummer.  Keeping our stops brief meant we kept ahead of it a bit and by 2.30pm we were in the heat setting up the tent.

Unfortunately the weather was a bit hit and miss in the first week.  A bit of rain did not stop the kids from having some fun................

Overall we had great weather and a little bit of this.................

and this.......................

and this.................

Oh it is so hard to come back home again.  But one must as the work awaits to be done for the Martinborough Fair.  Which brings me to the next item on the list.  Martinborough is a gorgeous wee town 1 hours drive over the hill from Wellington.  A bit if a trek for me.  But well worth it.  The fair is held on the first Sat in Feb and March and so I make the trip twice.  My sister comes with me in Feb and my husband in March.  It is a very long hard days work.  The fair is held around the town square and there are 400 stalls.  Shoppers start arriving by 7am!!!!!  This equates to a very early start and we are down at the stall site by 5am setting up and yes it is dark.  At 5pm the day is done we are packed up and heading back here........

for a well earned beveridge and to put the feet up.  I am a happy camper as most of the stock has gone and everybody has loved my stall and my products.  A friend asks if I feel proud.  My husband and sister are extremely proud and I am relieved

I have to tell you that even though I have done a few fairs now, I still get very nervous in the morning and can never eat and have to try very hard not to snap at my marvellous band of helpers.  Not because they are doing anything wrong but just because I get myself in a bit of a stew.  I over worry that the stall doesn't look right and that no one will buy anything.  I really should not worry so much.

So home to order more fabrics.....yummy.  It is getting very hard to choose.  Make a heap more stock and  to sort out making a reading folder/book bag that I promised a few ladies.  I also have some change purses I want to get done, men's sponge bags and more cushions.   Oh no it is that time factor thing again and the mess in the workshop, oh the mess!!


Which brings me to the lucky last item on the list.  The workshop.  What a god send it is being able to have all my work out of our little house.  Unfortunately we have been so busy that we have not managed to get it fully organised yet so it is a bit chaotic but functional.  It is heaven I have to say, even in the mess it is in.

So after the March Martinborough fair, I will be getting a little showroom ready.  A bit of painting here and there, a bit of flooring put down and these treasures I purchased on trade me (which I am going to paint and put new fabric on) to jazz it up a bit. 

It is only a small space but I am really hoping to have it looking great and a place for people to come and see my wares.  Watch this space


There it is.  A rather long post.  I hope I did not bore you all to tears.  I must get better and writing more often says the worst blogger in the world.

Bye for now.  See you after Martinborough.

Cheers

Kate