Kreativ blogger award for me!

Lovely Verity from joiedetea has given me a kreativ blogger award! Thanks so much, Verity, I really feel honoured! The requirements of the award are to list my seven most favourite things.

1. My husband Luke is my most favourite person in the world ever

2. My family and friends, in Germany, Australia and all over the world. Cos' where would we be without all the important people in our life, right?

3. Nature! I love being outside, surrounded by nature. So inspiring!

Image by CountryDreaming.Etsy.com

4. All things Vintage, especially tea cups of course!

5. Travelling. The world is so big and exciting and it always calls out...

Image by SoZeSoZe.etsy.com

6. Books. I love to read a good book!

Necklace by NewPrehistory.etsy.com

7. Food. I live to eat good food;-)

Felt pattern by umecrafts.etsy.com

Now it's my turn to pass the award to seven other people. Hmm, I have to admit that I have been pretty slack when it comes to reading blogs. I just never get around to read as many as I would like which makes it difficult to choose seven people. I choose four people with wonderful blogs. Three of them are my most faithful readers

-Fran, who makes great dresses and has a crazy, quirky and unique blog.

-Anna, who makes the cutest jewellery and has a wondeful blog, full of beautiful photos and colours.

-Shannon, who is a great sewer with a very good eye for colours and patterns and a fabulous blog full of nice sewing projects, other artists work, food...:-)

-Tasha, who not only makes beautiful jewellery but also has a great blog where she inteviews other artists, amongst many other interesting and pretty blogposts.

I'm looking forward to reading your posts, girls!

My own christmas-in-July gifts

I decided to treat myself to a few Etsy-goodies lately. It IS called christmas in July after all! First I discovered lovely Verity and her Etsy shop joiedetea. She sells some great tea blends, I couldn't resist and got myself some organic Vanilla-Rooibos tea. The tea tastes great, soo much better than what I normally have to get from the supermarket! It arrived very nicely wrapped and with instructions on how to use it. Fantastic service:-)

I have a soft spot for loose tea, it reminds me of the big tea shops in Germany my mother would take me to. My parents both love tea and we would often go to buy more. I remember the big shelves in the shops, filled with biiig tea containers from floor to ceiling. Fun :-)

Then I spotted a 24-hour sale at meringueshop, and again I could not resist (dangerous, maybe I should ban myself from logging into paypal, or so)

I had bought a wristlet as a gift before and really wanted one for myself. I opted for a champagne-coloured one, beautiful and sophisticated colour that goes with everything. My parcel arrived, and I had gotten an extra wristlet! How great is that? I love surprises like that:-)

Grand Opening!

My new Etsy shop is open since last friday and I will keep putting my new felt jewelry up. I offer free shipping for the first five customers and I'm thinking about another offer.. stay tuned!

Meanwhile you can enjoy browsing through my felt rose chokers. I'm also working on some new designs, I want to introduce some cute little brooches that I can sell relatively cheap. I will ppst photos very soon!

Almost ready to launch!

This is how my kitchen looks like at the moment:

I have been working on a wholesale order for a lovely Lady in Brisbane who is opening her shop on August 8th. (I have just realised that I don't know how her shop will be called! I will catch up on that straight away)

I do love my tea cup candles . Do you get that with your work that you look at it too much, and you don't really see why it's special anymore? I am so used to making the candles that it has just become an everyday thing. But lately I have been getting those aha-moments(Do you call them like that in English??) I will look at my candles and think "Yeah, these do look really cool. I'm awesome". Clearly a sudden attack of utter modesty!

I have been a busy bee today, just finished taking the first batch of pictures for my new Etsy shop. Tomorrow will be the Grand Opening, free shipping for the first five customers and popcorn for everyone (Well, you have to imagine the popcorn but the thought is there).

Would you like to take a sneak peak at some of the new chokers? I think they do look pretty good, even if I do say so myself. (modesty as we speak!)

Gone with the fairies..

Next time I'll snatch up a treasury on Etsy I'll dedicate it to all things fairy. I like the idea of another little world out there, with tiny people living in flowers and trees that wear dresses made of flower petals. For afternoon tea they could visit their friends that live in a giant tea cup and eat strawberries that are as big as their heads.. Welcome to my vivid imagination!

Have a look at some of my favourites

Jewellery box by jimjenkins

Teapot by Lawatson

Necklace by Plumevine

Hair piece by Whichgoose

I'm revealing...my new stuff!!

Hello everyone, I am very excited! I know I have been talking a lot about my new designs lately and I bet you have all been thinking "What is that girl up to"?!?

Well, after lots of trying and glueing and sewing and cutting and swearing I am finally ready to reveal the first pieces I am planning to offer in my new Etsy store soon. I am a bit nervous, what will you say.. will you like it?? Let me know you thoughts. Any ideas on what else I could do? Anything I should be doing differently? Love it? Out with it! I wanna know what you think. Here we go:

I am using eco-fi-felt for all these designs. That is a type of felt that is made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. Clever, huh? Some of the lace is new, some is upcycled from a certain pair of pyjamas The little beads are also upcycled from an op-shop find necklace. For now I have been focusing on the rose chokers but I am also working on butterfly brooches...necklaces etc.

What do you think?

Shop op til you drop!

I hit the local Op-shops in Sydney last Saturday. I am very happy to report that I discovered Newtown as my new Op-shopping mecca. I was out hunting for lace to use in my new felt and lace jewellery(ideas) and boy, I was lucky. Check out my finds

I found this beautiful pink and blue lace

which are actually two sets of pyjamas!

I'm not sure who would want to wear lacy pyjamas, they must scratch terribly! But the lace is gorgeoues. I also found this little piece of lace which is soo pretty! The photos don't really do it justice, it shimmers really nicely in the sun!

This is my backyard in the afternoon sun, with blue and pink lace on the washing line. I know, the grass needs mowing. Any volunteers? ;-)

I also found this cosy jumper, it will keep me toasty on these cold winter evenings.

A very succesful Op-shopping trip. What were your best op shop/thrifty/any other finds lately?

I want a new outfit!

I love browsing Etsy, can never get enough of it! I just looove this dress, I'm obsessed with it! Shannon from Rabbitandtheduck featured it on her blog a little while ago, that's how I discovered it. So nice!

Dress by Janebonbon

What necklace would you put with it? They are all so gorgeous!

By Itspamdemonium

By StarOfTheEast

By Calexandra

Get a happy!!

Something to make you laugh today.. I'm still laughing! Check out this website: engrish.com. It is a huge collection of photos taken around the world of very unique use of the English language. Have fun!

feel the felt!

I have been looking at a lot of different felt designs on Etsy lately to see what is already out there. I have come across some beautiful, crazy and amazing pieces. I thought I'd share some of them with you

Isn't that Tangerine tree fabulous? Like a little piece of the mediterranean life.. *sigh*

by Intres

I love this little felt statue, she has such a nice feel about her, how she is floating along, together with the three bluebirds. I wonder where they are off to..

by Feltathome

This necklace is so gorgeous, don't you love how it goes perfectly well with the black dress?

by ElenaMakesThings


Last but not least these adorable baby boots from Pedrosprout. They are just soo cute!

A step back, and two steps forward..a new Etsy shop!

Lately I have been thinking about where I want to move to with my business. I do love making the tea cup candles and I'm not planning to give that up. But they are a product that I can't really promote outside of Australia as they are expensive to ship overseas, they usually are one of a kind, and it is a bit of a game of luck to find new tea-cup supplies when I need them. I have also been wanting to do something else which is more creative for a while.

Now I have been playing around with felt for the last few months and I love working with it! I have been focusing on making mobiles, and I have been trying a lot of different techniques, designs etc. Even though I still like the idea of mobiles, I didnt really seem to get anywhere with that either. The last bits just weren't falling into place, no matter what I tried, if ya know what I mean.

image by: http://www.pasadenacarealestatehomes.com/

Now I have decided to take a step back, leave the mobiles for now and try something different. I came across the idea of combining felt and lace, and suddenly there was a whole new world, what an epiphany! Hehe:-)

I made some nice little butterflies, still with the idea of turning them into mobiles. Once the first one was done I just knew they had to be brooches. I have never planned to go into accessories or jewellery but it looks like that's where I'm heading to at the moment. I think I'll see where the working with felt takes me to. It seems to have a bit of a mind on it's own.. I have all these ideas for brooches, hairclips, chokers, oh Dear! Here are some of my first attempts of the felt and lace mix.

And while I have really started to design new pieces this time I have also decided to open another Etsy shop for my felt design.

After lots of brainstorming with Luke I have decided on a name. Aaahh, the most difficult thing! How would I ever decide on a name for a child, it takes me ages to decide on a brand name!

I wanted something a bit playful, and very beautiful. Something that goes with TwilightSpells, as that will still be my main business name. Something that sounds like the ocean and the beach, like a big garden full of tropical flowers, like a place full of magic, a bit mysterious and exciting.

Gee, I don't think the easy way, do I!!?? For a while "Twilight Sailing" was my favourite. But can you imagine how many companies out there offer sailing trips in twilight?!? Far too many, and I am not having my business name confused with a bunch of middle aged upper-class people in stripey clothes!

But, I did decide in the end *drum roll please* my new Etsy shop will be called FarAwayTales

There is nothing in the shop yet, I might get round to writing the Shop Announcement tonight.

How do you like my new name? I hope you aren't disappointed after all my huffing and puffing over what the name shall incorporate:-)

Here another brooch with a red butterfly that I made this afternoon. You have to excuse the bad quality of the photo. By the time this one was finished daylight had almost disappeared

Thanks for bearing with me through this long post, I hope I haven't bored you;-)

Erotisch Victorian Beauty

I made this treasury on Etsy last week. It has expired by now, but I'm very proud of it :-) I've been wanting to make a treasury about some of the beautiful and sexy, victorian items on Etsy for a while. Something different.

Everyone I put in seemed to really like it which is great. It IS a bit daring , after all. ;-)

Manly market

Yesterday I did my first market, at the Manly Arts and Crafts market. I got the a stall offered spontaneously at the start of the week and spent all week frantically making candles, trying to organise paper bags, making price tags etc.

The market wasn't the biggest success in terms of selling but lots of people passed through, admired my candles and picked up business cards. I did cause an unexpected reaction in two elderly Ladies who were shrieking in shock when they spotted my candles "Oh, this is terrible! You have ruined these nice cups! I would NEVER do that to my Royal Doultons!"

Not that I am selling anything from Royal Doulton anyway, certainly a very strange and very passionate response to my products ;-)

I am looking for a market that features purely handmade products, or at least with the focus on handmade. A lot of markets in Sydney seem to be more general and allow handmade and pre-manufactured products alike. I have heard about the Kirribilli market and am going to check it out next weekend. It sounds pretty good.