Craft 2.0 - April 2011

Hard to believe that was now almost a month ago! 

Another amazing fair with wonderful stallholders, a fantastic, amazing, organising mastermind (Sue) and, very importantly, the fair-goers. 

I had a great spot and here's a photo of my table and helper (looking very serious):

All in all it was a blast once again and I'm excited to say that Supurlative will be back again at the next fair - July 2nd.  Hope to see you there!

When you have an hour for lunch ......

What do you do?  Well, you could sit and knit (yep, done that!) or shop (yep done that too!)  You can go and visit friends in their toy store or wander off to the library BUT my most favorite thing to do is to go down to the Hospice shop every now and then and sort through their vintage knitting patterns.  This is just one visit's bounty:

I'm so looking forward to knitting that red top on the pattern there.  I'm thinking a lovely hand-dyed merino will do the pattern complete justice.  I just have to finish off all those orders that came in last week first, then my scarf that I'm half way through, B's vest so she can actually wear it this winter (thank goodness that growth spurt stopped), a few more bits and pieces for Craft 2.0 and then, just maybe, I'll be able to start!

The Quake

Just a quick post to say thanks to all for the lovely emails and messages I've received in regards to the earthquake in Christchurch.

My family and I are fine - we live in Wellington which is on the other island - but our beautiful city of Christchurch is not.  It's a complete tragedy and competely heartbreaking.

I've had people ask how to help.  Well here in NZ we have several ways:

• Phone 0900 33 200 to make an automatic $20 donation
• FreeTXT ‘QUAKE’ to 555 to donate $5 or FreeTXT ‘QUAKE’ to 333 to donate $3 from any Vodafone mobile
• Donate online at redcross.org.nz
• Donate to the The Salvation Army appeal could call 0800 53 00 00 or do it online at www.salvationarmy.org.nz
• Donate in person at any branch of NZ Post, Kiwibank, ANZ, National Bank, ASB, TSB and BNZ across New Zealand.
• Mail a cheque (made payable to New Zealand Red Cross) to: Canterbury Earthquake Appeal, Freepost 232690, PO Box 12-140, Thorndon, Wellington 6144.

For those overseas:

• ASB (one of our NZ banks) has opened an account to receive donations for the New Zealand Red Cross 2011 Earthquake appeal. If you would like to donate, you can do so at any ASB branch or via online banking:
  ASB Christchurch Earthquake Support Fund: 12-3205-0146808-00
  To make donations from an overseas account, please use the same account number listed above with the SWIFT Code ASBBNZ2A. ASB will waive all incoming IMT fees in NZ from overseas payments made to the Christchurch Earthquake Support donation account.

For knitters especially there are several wonderful groups and people doing things:

• Tash from the lovely knitsch is donating 20% of all proceeds from on-line and in-store purchases of her hand-dyed sock yarn (and I can personally recommend it - in fact this post was supposed to be all about the opening of her store, but I'm sure she won't be upset that I'm going to wait a couple of days to report on that!)
• a new group has been formed on Ravely to help out:  http://www.ravelry.com/groups/kys-new-zealand-disaster-relief
• a charity auction is here:  http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/fresh-from-the-cauldron/1541890/1-25 for yarn that is very hard to get hold of!
• If you want a little piece of NZ to knit - grannyg is donating 100% of all purchases of her tiki mittens pattern:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tiki-mittens

These are just a few I've found and if I find more I will edit and post here under the list.  If those options don't suit and you would still like to make a donation I'm happy to organise it for you - we personally donated through our bank ANZ so I would be happy to send you a paypal 'invoice' for the amount you'd like to donate and would then pass it on to the bank - and send you a receipt to show that I have done so.

Words do not adequately express our deep sadness for all those in Christchurch who have had to endure this.

And the tiredness hits ....

One week of working full time and today I feel like I've hit a brick wall.

All is going well though - so far so good in the new job, lots to learn but it's interesting and exciting and I'm really enjoying it.

This week did fly by but I was very organised (surprisingly so actually!)  In fact, apart from the gym, which I've caught up on over the weekend, I basically did everything I normally do during a part-time week so I feel quite good about it.

Today we're resting and preparing for next week.  More interesting posts will be coming soon - promise!! 

xx

Goodbye 2010 and um, arrr, actually goodbye January 2011 as well......

Last year I seriously felt like my catch phrase was 'where has the time gone' and now, what do you know, we're in February already and I'm still wondering where the time has gone!

Life has had a somewhat hectic feel to it over the last few years.  Friends told us it would happen 'you think you're busy now with primary aged kids, wait till they're teenagers' and I'm ashamed to say I thought it was rubbish.  I'm eating my words.  They don't taste that nice actually.

So take those teenagers that aren't yet independant so need a taxi to be on their beck and call, need pushing with their study, constant attitude adjustments and general life lessons, add working, the house, the garden and the other pressures of life and somewhere in there you start to realise why you're so busy and find that time flies.

How to improve it so you get some time back??  Not sure, I haven't yet figured it out, however I'm pretty sure starting full time work when you've been part time probably isn't it LOL and yes, that's what I'm doing next week.

Here's to a 2011 that I suspect will be 2012 before I blink!

My idea of Bliss....

Is a day off together (Friday of course!), lunch at a cafe (Chocolate Dayz to be precise - nom, nom, nom!!) and a wander down Petone where I happened to chance across these:

and then getting home to find my yarn from Red Riding Hood Yarns, I'm overloading on the yumminess!!

Can't you just see the little dress knitted up in the reddy pink?

Craft 2.0 and Whoops!

Firstly the whoops - I was on a friends blog last night who has my blog on her front page and under it said '4 weeks' that means since the last post.  Ugh, I can't believe it was that long ago I posted so whoops!!

In the lead up to Craft 2.0 I do tend to go into this little bubble world where all I concentrate on is stock, what I still have to make and thoughts about how I'm going to display things this year.  Most other things tend to just go on the back burner!

I have to say that I was a lot more relaxed this time round.  I didn't want to overstock as I thought that being October and coming into Spring/Summer over here, knitwear probably wouldn't be on the top of everyone's list.  So I did do a few cotton and cotton/bamboo items - sunhats and Mary-Janes and I did a few vests which are good as they add a little warmth without being a full on jersey.

I have to say I was surprised - It still went very well (yay!) and what I sold isn't what I thought would.  For a start I sold 2 jersey's, (that was very surprising), and quite a few merino hats.  The Mary-Janes however sold out, I wasn't too surprised by that as I think they're great.

I can't say enough how much I love Craft 2.0.  Not only as I sell there but I always stock up on gifts and whatnot.  I love the fact that I'm buying handmade, I love that it's different and not everyone will have one and I love the fact that I'm supporting another cottage industry.  I know these items are made with love and that I love love love meeting all the stallholders and the ones at craft 2 are simply the best - they share ideas freely and there really isn't that feeling of 'you're the competition'.

I haven't applied for the December fair - for a start knitwear in December I really do think won't be wanted - and it's a bit close to Christmas for us, Christmas being such a hectic busy affair round here - but if you can get along it's on the 18th December and it's well worth it for gifts.

Here's a photo of my stall before we opened (yes I did handknit and the applique the bunting - it got SO many remarks I'm considering selling it as custom orders).  I kept it quite simple this time round.  I think my favorite items were the mice, so cute!!