Creatures

Look carefully, this fox is made from a map! How very very cool :D Find more creatures at laferrera on Etsy :)

This weekend my sister will be visiting!! Yay! I miss her a lot and really look forward to hanging out with her. This does mean my sewing plans are put on hold, though to be honest it's not moving very much atm hehe. I'm still hoping to create something in time for winter. Something cosy, cute and warm.

Simplicity

The beautiful clean work by Bookhouathome. Would proudly carry this bag around :D

Colourful Koi

These are amazing. I'm trying to figure out how this is even possible with a single sheet of flat paper... Check out more amazing origami at MABONAORIGAMI

For a good cause

Two things have been on my mind a lot lately, tsunami and baking. Totally different things, but together... we can start something and that is what we did. I was inspired by how well our food was received at work after our bake off, and that night I was motivated by the stories coming from tsunami ravaged Japan. The next day I decided it was high time to hold a bake sale at work.

I gathered a group of 6 bakers and we each baked a couple of our favourite things. Over the weekend my friend Kate once again invited Carla and I over to make our goodies in her well stocked kitchen :) Gosh was it a busy day! From 11am till 7pm we were baking non stop. We made cake pops, hedgehogs, lemon slice, savory cookies and chocolate cupcakes. I left at 7pm, went home and kept going, had to finish off icing the cupcakes and baking the rest of the cookies. Finished at midnight.

Today, the big day... well, how about I tell this part in pictures :)









We made $630.20 all in one happy, tasty and sharing day. All for the people of Japan. My colleagues are just the most generous people :) So so happy, and definitely worth it! Japan, this is all for you.

PS: the last photo is of the 5 bakers we managed to gather for a photo. We are missing Carla, the cake pop queen, and also the wife of our HR person.

Edibles

Cutest little cupcake toppers made by Andiespecialitysweets on etsy.

In other news, my friends and I had out little bakeoff. To be honest we probably should do another one to fund raise for the Japanese Tsunami. But anyway, we had a lot of fun baking 3 different types of cookies (chocolate chip/m&ms, peanut butter and jalapenos and cheddar cookies), a cheesecake and Bakerella cake balls. Sooo many goodies. We got so tired by the end of it all. Anyway here are some photos.

Jalapenos and Cheddar cookies found on Design*sponge. They were a huge hit! A few who tried them on saturday kept asking me today if there were any left.

My friend's Peanut Butter Cookie. I ate half already...

And the cake balls made by following Bakerella's famous recipe :D Though maybe not exactly, ours wasnt red velvet cake.

Dear Japan

we are thinking of you. Such devastation with an 8.9 earthquake + tsunami... it very very hard to not feel the pain and be horrified by the imagery. Please, stay safe and hold on.

With such terrible news, I thought I'd post a relatively beautiful image/item I found on Snapcrafty. To me, what the world now needs the most is hope. We need to hold on to hope and fight to stay positive, remember the beauty of the planet and keep going with our lives. We are being tested and so we must be strong.

Relief fund for those affected, at Redcross

If you have facebook take some time to read about the touching, humbling and charitable side of Japan and of human nature. These were taken off twitter where Japanese people are posting events they witness post tsunami. It brings a tear to my eye reading how kind and amazingly calm these people are. Japan, you have shown the world the most beautiful side of humanity.

Cuuute!

ooh! How cute is this?? Find at Mariska on Etsy

Save

I was looking at my spending the other day and realized that with my happy new lifestyle of socializing and going out, I spend a lot on lots of little random things. Ah yes, you know the usual 'yeah, why not have a coffee' or 'hm... this might be useful'. Not that I've spent lots on big stuff, just little things like coffee and cake, fancy brand food, drinks at the bar, clothes... things that you grab on a whim. So, with my sister possibly coming to visit, I have decided to rein it in for a month (or two) and be conscious of what I actually need. Save it for something big! like a trip somewhere.

Hanging out with friends and going places wont be put on hold though. No way! To me that is worth it, but say I went to catch up with friends after work, I wont be ordering dinner with drinks. I'll just get a drink and go home for dinner. Or if we go somewhere on a weekend trip, I wont buy a bottle of organic fancy olive oil just because I've visited and I'm inspired haha (this I have done on my trip to Waiheke).

Lets see if this works.

ps: the coffee above is a success moment this week. We have a cafe style coffee machine at work and so a friend and I have been trying to teach ourselves how to do the 'coffee pictures' you see at cafes. After weeks and weeks of trying I finally did one! (my friend got it ages ago haha, he's trying to do a phoenix he saw someone do). Mine was almost an accidental success, I wasnt really trying and it worked. Truth be told I couldn't replicate it the next day, I did do an apple shaped one though....

Rainy Afternoon

Today is Saturday and it's raining outside.

I'm snuggled up next to a window
all comfy
with some sewing
tea
and watching a cooking show called Poh's Kitchen.

So good!

A few nights ago, I spent some time drawing fairies. You should have seen my boyfriend's face when I said 'I was drawing fairies while watching tv' (he gave me a are-you-really-27 look haha). Anyway, I have since transferred it to some calico and begun embroidering today. I am hoping to create something to help me with my goal to stay warm this winter.

Back to it. Yay :)

Oh, and next week a few friends and I are going to have a cookie bake off! I will be making our favourite chocolate chip cookies since a few colleagues have been hounding me for some for a few days now. But I just remembered about a savory cookie recipe I saw on Design*Sponge. Jalapeno and cheddar cookie! After all those sweet cookies (we'll be making peanut butter and 2 types of chocolate chip cookies), I reckon we might need something savory to balance things out :)

Mmm... yummy felted wool.

ThreeSheepStudio Dyed and felted wool.

Now, what could I do with these?? :D