Making Mondays: Christmas Pinecones

So many people asked me if these were for sale at the Christmas Bazaar!  Instead I told them how easy it was to make these...and of course I'm going to tell you too!

1. First collect some pinecones -collecting is such a fun activity with kids - we are lucky to have a tree next door that kindly drops pinecones on our steps - I like it (it drops the pinenuts too!) but my husband worries they are going to drop on Yashar's head!  Yashar had fun collecting up the pinecones...with no head injuries ;)

2.  Make sure the pinecones are nice and dry - we had ours indoors for a while.

3. Spray with white paint.  Make sure you do this in a well ventilated area (we did it outside).  That's it!  Perfect for a white Christmas.

Apart from the Bazaar I also used them in some photos for the Light Garden shop (I will add these little wrap packs in the next few days) and now I have them around the house for a little bit of early Christmas atmosphere.  I like how you can still see parts of the browny grey on the inner parts of the pinecone and the white shows up the beautiful and intricate natural patterns of the pinecone. Hmm...I think I'm getting inspired!

Christmas Bazaar

So many holidays going on at the moment.  A happy Thanksgiving to those in the States - and here in Turkey, tomorrow is Kurban Bayrami - The Sacrifice Feast.  I wrote a little about it here last year. Iyi Bayramlar! I hope everyone has a relaxing break.

Here are a couple of snaps from the IWI Christmas Bazaar early on in the day - I wish I had taken some more photos!  We had a great day, meeting new people, catching up with friends and of course it was a thrill to sell my work to such lovely and encouraging people!  A highlight was being approached to do some work with a gorgeous children's bookstore here in Istanbul!  I so hope that all works out!

I think in an earlier post I mentioned about how most of my preparation involved hunting around the house for things to spray white!  I was really happy with how it came together - room to improve, but not bad for a newbie I think :)

Totally unrelated, there is an interesting article from the New York Times about the Kurdish minority in Turkey - click here to have a read.  Just a couple of nights ago, we saw some Kurdish music on television and Senol mentioned how amazing it is, because only 4 or so years ago you would never have been able to see something like that here.  So some good progress happening here in Turkey. 

Blue Skies! (ahhh... figuratively speaking)

The Christmas Bazaar went really well!  I'll post about it very, very soon.  Thank you so much for all of your comments, encouragement and kind words in the lead up...they really made me so much less nervous.  It is so amazing to me that I can have my little stall at the bazaar here and be able to connect with all of you around the world about it.  Thank you! 

And some more good things happening with the Light Garden...

The lovely Erika, editor in chief from myshoppingconnection.com included the 'My Own Elephant' print in her '50 gifts under $50 dollars' gift guide.  The guide is full of memorable and unique gifts from small indie businesses, so I was so happy to be selected for the guide! I really like that you can just click directly from the guide through to the various sites...I'm thinking I've found my husband's christmas gift there (not telling though - he likes to read my posts here too!) You can view the guide by clicking here.

And my 'Peace on Earth Angel' also got selected for the front page of Etsy - woohoo!

IWI Christmas Bazaar

This Tuesday I will be having my first ever Light Garden stand and I have to say I'm kind of nervous...its the not knowing I think...having never been to this market before, not knowing how busy it will be, how people will respond, how exactly I will set everything up...but I'm ready for some fun too!  My preparations so far have been spraying a lot of things white!

The stand is at the IWI (International Women of Istanbul) Christmas Bazzar which is the IWI's biggest fund raising event of the year.  Apparently their raffle is great!  And there will be stalls representing countries all over the world with their own particular foods and Christmas gifts and decorations for sale.  I will definitely be making some time to dash around for a little Christmas shopping!

So if you are in Istanbul I would love to see you...come and say hello if you have a chance - IWI Christmas Bazaar, Hilton Hotel Convention Centre, this Tuesday from 12 - 4.

Quiet...and what follows

Last weekend I found myself in one of those rare moments - when Yashar and Senol were still asleep - where everything was quiet, so quiet that I could hear the click of the stove as I lit it to make tea, the crack of the egg, the clock ticking, little rain drops on the window.  It felt good. 

But I knew soon I would start to miss the noise.  I would start to walk past the bedroom door loudly, to start knocking the dishes together to make them stir.  And eventually I would hear little feet pattering up.  A hug.  And then me saying 'go wake baba up', 'say to baba - breakfast is ready'- three words that are sure to wake him from his usual coma like sleep...

...and then busy, busy, a sparking computer cable, a trip to buy a long overdue replacement (woohoo! Apart from the sparking cable, typing with a missing w, 4, $ and i does kinda make life difficult!) Then home to prepare for the Christmas bazaar next Tuesday (more on that soon) and then Senol asking me if I liked the new computer and me turning around, smiling widely, to say 'it's awesome lovey' while cutting some paper with a stanley knife (exacto knife)...hmm, I think you can see where this is going...

Yes, [cue violins] here I sit typing with bandaged finger after a quick trip to the hospital and a tetanus injection. Eeek!

Mmmm...

Limonata is especially popular in Istanbul and is by far my favourite Turkish drink.  I would even say it's my favourite drink full stop.  It is awesome.  Only the homemade type though (not the powdered version you can get which is urgh!). 

So I was ridiculously happy when this one arrived at the table at La Verde Vita in Gayrettepe.   It's the little things... home made and served in a jar.  Mmmm. I found a recipe online here.  No wonder I like it...all that sugar!  But my justification is that all that lemon must be good for colds!  I like mine served chilly and with fresh mint.

Making Mondays: Party Time!

We had such a good time at Yashar's little birthday party.  We squeezed 10 kids, 12 adults and a baby in our little apartment and some how managed to have a relaxed time and some good conversation!

I made a few little things - with Yashar's assistance of course!   The first was the mini colouring book above to go in the party bags for the kids to take home.  I think in the US they're called 'party favors' ??  I was pretty excited about how these turned out!

To Make:  There is a tutorial on Etsy.com here that shows how to make little books out of one sheet of A4 paper.  I used their template as a guide to where to place each little 'page of the book' and then used the gorgeous and free downloadable colouring pages from small magazine (click on 'small draw' in each issue for the download) for each page.  I used photoshop to set the whole thing up and to shrink the images to the right size.  I added a special message on the front and back for Yashar's little friends then printed them out and folded away!

I also printed out the names of each of Yashar's friends that were coming (using the very cool 'Monbijoux' font from Billy Argel) and Yashar had some fun painting over them with watercolours. The other names actually had more paint on them, but of course I forgot to take any photos before giving all the party bags out!

This was a simple banner I made by downloading the 'VTKS No Name' free font from dafont.com   I printed four letters to a page, cut them out and then blue tacked them to the wall.  Easy!  Hmm, just ignore the yellow walls...one day we will paint!

Thank you again for all the birthday wishes! You guys rule!

Don't miss this...

...the opening weekend of Bornova Bornova.  Winning five awards at the Antalya Film Festival (Turkey's equivalent of the Oscars), this film promises to be thought provoking and engaging.  

Bornova Bornova won "best film" in the main competition, best actor, best supporting actress, best editing and the film critics’ association "best national film" award.

You can find out more about the film here and read an article about the win here. 

The film opened here in theatres last night, so don't miss out!

Wow!

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes for little Yashar!  I read them all out to him and then he started singing happy birthday to himself - it was so funny!

Yesterday, thanks to this post from Ida, I was listening to some old 'Creative Thursday' podcasts while working on some originals for The Light Garden and she talked about the importance of support and surrounding yourself with people that can celebrate your successes with you.  When all your messages came in for Yashar it reminded me of her words.  It's so amazing to be able to connect with all these wonderful people from around the world through this blog.  So thank you!

Did you hear the New York Times 'Best Illustrated Books for 2009' is out.  Yesterday I quickly got online and (half for me, half for Yashar!) ordered All the World - written by Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrated by Marla Frazee.   Something about a windy scene always gets me!

A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis and The Snow Day by Komako Sakai both look gorgeous too!

Happy Birthday Yashar!

You amaze me every day.  You make me smile and laugh and love.  Thank you for being you.

With love from you Mama, who will always be there to hold on to your arm with a steel like grip to stop you falling in the water! ;)

Thanks Justine for these gorgeous photos!

Making Mondays: A present from Babaanne

I have been doing a little making here but first I wanted to show you the gorgeous little jumper that Babaanne (Grandma) knitted for Yashar for his birthday! (More on the birthday soon!)   She is an amazing knitter.  Most of the time she doesn't use patterns, just knits from memory or from looking at an example or photo.  She is so quick, knits most of the time without even looking at it and look at how beautiful those stitches are!  I wish I could knit half as well.

I noticed there is a similar pattern on ravelry.com called the 'Child's Placket-Neck Pullover' if you are interested in making it.  You can find the link to that pattern here (you might need to sign up to get it).

Thank you Babaanne!

PragyaK and Birches

I was lucky enough to have this delivered to my doorstep just recently!  I love it.  First of all, if you've been around here a while, you know I'm a sucker for birch trees.  Remember me going on about them here and they are also in this illustration (with different colours from the usual silvery whites this time).

And then that cute little bird adds a splash of colour.  The art is graphic, fresh and clean. Perfect!  It's from the very lovely Pragya. Thank you!!

You can find her shop here and her blog here.

Secrets of a Butterfly and Gift Certificates

'Secrets of a Butterfly' is a truly gorgeous blog.   Kat manages to find the most beautiful images.  Dream like, soft, ethereal, gorgeous.  She also finds the most beautiful things to buy ...I don't know how she does it!  And she just happens to be a wonderful, lovely and unique person.  And so I was truly honoured when she featured my cards and gift tags on Secrets of a Butterfly!  You can read the post here.

In other news, I just created these gift certificates/vouchers and am off to put them in the shop now.  They came about because I am a bit of a last minute shopper...I often get to the last day before someone's birthday and panic because I still can't decide which of so many lovely things I should get them!  

So these can be sent off via mail when you have some time but can't decide...or want to let the parents pick something to match in with the new nursery!  Or they can be sent via email (within 12 hours) for a last minute gift. 

Thank you also for all the lovely comments recently...I love reading each and every one of them!

Making Mondays: Mandarin Jam

Mandarins are in season here at the moment and I have fast discovered that I love them...before I had always thought of them as being in the territory of a primary school lunchbox, along with a vegemite sandwich and a cheese stick!

And now the weather has suddenly turned from warm sunny days to raining for three days straight and the kind of cold that makes you pull your woolly scarf up around your neck.  I feel the sudden urge to cook...a lot.

So after making a yummy minestrone (I posted the recipe last Spring here) to warm us up, I decided to make Mandarin Jam.  I found the recipe here on the blog 'The Traveler's Lunchbox'.  This blog is amazing.  The styling of the photos is gorgeous and, if the mandarin jam recipe is anything to go by, the recipes are delicious!  Really, is there a better combination?...travel...good food...perfect!