New cups!! New cups!!

I have been busily Op-and market shopping over the last two days and I found some little treasures that I would like to share. Firstly, I picked up these two gorgeous little japanese cups yesterday.


And today I went to the Camberwell market which proves to be better every time I go there, it's great! Check it out if you are in the area, it's a great market for all sorts of Vintage finds. If you are good at batering you can get some real bargains. If you are not good at it, like me, you still get good stuff.

First I found this pretty little cup which is made by Villeroy&Boch. I feel specially attached to it already, just because of where it's made. Villeroy& Boch is a German company that does beautiful, exclusive China and other household things that are being sold worldwide.
My grandparents lived very close to where they manufacture and also knew the owners personally. Needless to say that every single piece of china in their house was made by Villeroy&Boch. And even though the design has changed quite a bit over the years (I used to eat from plates featuring detailed farming scenery in bright red and blue) I still feel a little rush of joy and sentimentality when I spy the well-known print on the bottom of a tea cup. This is my little piece of V&B for today



Also found this classy looking English cup. Like it! So nice and stylish and Vintage :-)

Found two of these flowery English tea cups.. They will make great candles.

And look what I also picked up: Saucers that match the two japanese cups I found yesterday. How lucky! They look so nice together.

That were my most exciting finds for now, I might finish here and sit outside to enjoy the sun for a bit. I've been so busy doing bits and pieces on my little cup buiness since I have gotten back from holiday that have hardly done anything else. Well apart from the usual, working, household and so on. I might have some Vanilla icecream now, mhmmm, sounds like a good idea :-)

photos from the Great Barrier Reef

I also promied earlier to post some photos from our recent trip to the Great Barrier Reef, truly great indeed!

Lots of little fish and someone snorkeling in the background

Reef formations and yellow fish

More yellow fish

And this is me, going shark-hunting with a pink noodle!

My first attempts to make paper

I had a little go at making paper today for the first time. It was all very earthy and back-to-basics and all that stuff. That's at least how it felt like when I was digging my hands into a bucket full of grey paper mesh to shuffle it onto a frame that I made by myself from old tights and a wire hanger.

Here you can see my "work station" (aka bench in front of our house) with the two very homemade frames at the front. I used the green bucket to mix the paper and water before I transported it to the big tupperware container. From there I somehow shoved it onto the frames.
Don't you love tupperware!? I'm so amazed that they do tupperware parties in Australia too, I have always thought that was such a german thing! Not that I have ever been to one...

anyway, back to paper:





I took the next picture just now, the paper has dried and actually doesn't look too bad. It's not quite as dark grey anymore. When I took the first picture the whole thing looked just like felt!

It's still very thick but I don't think it is too bad for my first attempt.. more to come soon!

Happy New Year!

Hey, I'm back!

I wish all of you a very happy 2009!!! May at least some of your dreams come true, and may the New Years Resolutions last for a bit longer than the first two weeks of the new year...:-) I know how it's like!

I have just come back from a fantastic holiday in Tropical Northern Queensland. Aahhh, such nice weather! I like the tropics, just right for me!

We got up to some exciting things too! The highlight certainly was a snorkeling trip at the Great Barier Reef!! It was just amazing, all the different colours, beautiful fish.. I think I even saw a reef shark for a few seconds.. well, it was a very big, grey fish, I assume it was a shark.. Luckily reef sharks are harmless, or are supposed to be at least :-)

If I knew where my husband keeps the disc with photos we took at the reef I could post some but it looks like I might have to wait for him to come home. :-)

What are you plans for the new year? I have quite a few: Ready? Here we go:

1. Develop more products for my shop
2. Start selling on markets
3. Open another shop where I can charge in Australian dollars
4. Post regularly on my blog (this time I REALLY want to try :-) )
5. Get a regular income out of my shop (That would be awesome)

just to name a few...

Have a look at these two nice cups I'll be listing shortly in my Etsy store

christmas sales..

The christmas shopping is fully going now, started a bit late but now I've had a few sales over the last few days. I like it :-) Thanks to all my customers who have bought from me so far, I consider myself very lucky to have such nice and appreciative customers!
Check out my "Dragonheart" tea cup, above. I have just listed it in my Etsy store . It's a gorgeous, golden cup, but the saucer almost tops it, both look quite Vintage to me. Hope they will find a good home:-)

What strange weather it was in Melbourne today! So much storm and rain, I can't believe we are officially having summer.. It's Luke's birthday tomorrow, I hope we will get some sunshine.

I'm off to bed,
nightie night.

discount for Aussies

The recent downfall of the Australian dollar is quite shocking, I wonder what that is heading to.. But on the other hand, if I keep worrying about it it probably won't help my store either. I hope that people keep on being interested in buying handmade, one off, and/or recycled pieces.

But since the only currency I can list in on Etsy is US$ it makes it a bit hard to offer fair prices to my Australian customers. And so far, most of my customers have been from Australia.

To make it a bit easier I'm offering a discount of at least 25% in my Etsy store for all Australians.

Just choose "other" as payment method and I will send you a paypal invoice with the discounted amount. Or my bank details, if you prefer to pay by bank transfer.

Happy christmas shopping!

Great Ocean Road

Sadly, my Mum and sister had to leave yesterday but boy did we use the time well! They got to see quite a bit of Australia. We did a trip along the Great Ocean Road and were very lucky, we got to see so many animals. Check out the photos:

First we saw an Echidna, just beside a car park where we had lunch. Apparently you hardly ever get to see them in the wild. And there it was, digging in the ground for ants, ignoring us. We got some great photos.

Then we discovered these wild kangaroos that were just hanging out in someones front garden. Crazy!

And last but not least we saw a few koalas sitting in trees by the road. This one was so close to us, we could have picked it up if we had wanted to. It was a lucky day.