In the works...

Yeeee!  I am pretty excited about the new cards!  We picked them up from the printers on Saturday and they did an amazing job!   So now we have lots of scenes around the house like this

and this

and this

Even, though I get these professionally printed there is still lots of work to be done...cutting ribbon, threading ribbon, putting everything in their little packages, photographing etc!   All of which means a very quick post today and then back to work :)

Hope you are all having a great start to the week.  I hope to be back soon with some nice photosgraphs and even a little Halloween making! 

Things are getting more colourful around here...

Wow, where did the week go?  On Wednesday I took photos of some of my gift tags, mini gift cards and Christmas cards for the shop.  I wanted to mix some bright items in with the cards, which are quite delicate and soft in colour.  Here are a few of the photos...

I don't have much in the way of props here.  When we moved to Turkey about 2 and a half years ago, we only brought 3 suitcases of with us - mostly filled with things for Yashar - who at the time was about 4 months old.  And since then we have tried not to buy too much.  Both for the budget and the thought of whether we would bring it back to Australia with us once we eventually move back.  So when I take the photos I just try to use some of the few things we have around the house...  No stylists dream I'm sure!  But I had fun with it and I like how the photos look festive and vibrant compared to the previous ones.

These are a couple of the Christmas postcards.   The frame is one I bought from Chakra quite a while ago (it was part of a father's day present for Senol)

I think you would be amazed at the amount of time that it takes to bring a little range of cards in to being!  Just taking the photos, editing them, and uploading them seems to take me days!  I'm planning to write a little more about the process from start to finish of creating a set of cards next week, once I get the new cards back...if you're interested...

Have a great weekend!

Verity

Making Mondays: Some fun things to make with Baba

Hello!  How was your weekend?   We had a sweet time - busy on Saturday and then a quiet day on Sunday because Yashar was unwell :(    It meant some time for indoor activities though which was fun - you can really see how the light has changed here in the photos - such a grey and rainy Autumn here.

I know that my husband Senol has been wanting to spend some more time doing things with Yashar, so on the weekend I prepared a couple of little fun things for them to do together.   Firstly - remember the woodpecker from Made By Joel that I posted about last week?   We made it and it was a hit!

You can find the instructions and the template to print out on Made by Joel here.  It was really easy!   It is basically a cool little bird that pecks its way down a rubber band. - you can see the blur in action here.

While Yashar was sleeping I printed out the template and Senol cut it out.  (the cutting out would have been too hard for Yashar - who is almost 3- but older children could easily do the cutting out too.)  Then Senol and Yashar made the rest of it together following the instructions over at Made by Joel.    Once it was made - it only took about 5 minutes) then Senol taught Yashar how to make it work - by holding the rubber band stretched out and letting the woodpecker peck its way down.  It took a little while for Yashar to get the hang of it but once he did he was loving it!    The photo above is my favourite....

But this photo is hilarious!  Hehehe!

I had also prepared this spinning top for them to do...but somehow Yashar and I ended up making it together instead.   We made the spinning top using the instructions from the Science Toy Maker site (found via Made by Joel) here.  This was another easy and fun project. 

This is what we did:

1.  While Yashar was sleeping I printed out the template from the Science toymaker site.  I had printed on some card so I could cut those ones out and then I cut out some extras from a box.  We ended up having 8 circles I think.    It is really just some circles about 15cm in diameter with a marker in the middle - so you may be able to save paper and not print out the pattern.  The site recommended using a milk carton for the circles which I think would work well.

2.  Then I pressed a small hole in the middle of each circle with a ball point pen (this makes it easier to push the ink pen through with out the tip getting damaged).   After that I took a ink pen and pushed it through the centre of the the circle. 

3. On one of the circles I drew three evenly spaced lines from the centre to the edge divide the sections like a pizza.

4.  When Yashar woke up I put out some paints for him so that he could paint the 'pizza' sections in different colours.  You can see it in the photo above - I think he did such a fantastic job!    

5. Once it had dried we put the circles on the pen and started spinning.  At first we had trouble getting it to spin much - but then we added a couple of more circles and tried it with a different pen and it worked much better.  So if you have any trouble I would suggest trying a few different pens and adding more circles.

Yashar had a lot of fun painting the circle and like watching the top spin - although I think he found the actual spinning a little frustrating.  It is probably suited to a child a little older than him I think. 

The Cookie Experiments

It's getting to that time of year again...the jewel like pomegranates are coming into season...which we love!  We mostly just eat them straight up, but now and then I put some in a salad ..and of course a fresh pomegranate juice is so yummy (and so much better than the juice you buy at the supermarket!)  What do you make with pomegranates?

We are lucky that Yashar is a pomegranate fiend!  And he likes to get quite dramatic about it - closing his eyes and sometimes even throwing his head back in delight - hehehe!


It has also been the weather for baking.  Is there a better combination than this??

I don't think so!  We have been experimenting a little with cookie recipes (ok a lot - you should see the amount of cookies we've been eating!)  Do you have a favourite cookie recipe?  We would love to try it - I hope you'll share.

This is the most recent recipe we have come up with - which I really like - for a lot of reasons - one being that we don't get the electric mixer out - Yashar just keeps mixing with a big wooden spoon the whole time.  They are also very quick to make and I love the little hint of honey through them.

75grams butter (softened)
3/4 of a cup of sugar
vanilla essence
1 dessert spoon of honey
1 egg
1 cup of wholemeal flour
2 cups of oats

a few dessert spoons of chocolate chips

Mash the butter with the sugar with a wooden spoon.  Add the vanilla essence, the honey and egg and keep stirring.  Add the flour and continue to mix, then add the oats and chocolate chips and mix.    The mixture should be very thick and sticky.  Yashar finds it very hard to resist eating the mixture at this stage :)

Put cherry tomato size balls of dough on a greased tray, squash them down a little and bake for about 10 minutes or until golden (oven at 180 degrees celsius).  Leave to cool.  Makes about 24 small cookies...which in our house lasts less than 24 hours!

Have a great weekend!

Crafty Gatherings

Crafty Gatherings: The (almost) weekly post where the most awesome things to make like to gather, hang out and generally stand around looking cool.

The weather has turned...which means no more daily trips to the park and lots more time spent inside!  Yashar and I have started 'toddlerart' classes at LOLA - (which are wonderful by the way! such a lovely space and a fantastic way to spend time together!)  And I have been thinking about more things to make that Yashar would like and things we could make together.  Here are some recent discoveries:

Tooth Fairy Bunnies - eeee!  these are gorgeous! found on inchmark here and using the bunny template from Kata Golda's book Hand-Stitched Felt

Great Butter Cookie recipe - also from inchmark...so many lovely things there! - I know Yashar will love these - he is always asking me if we can decorate some biscuits :)

And some from one of my favourite places to find beautifully designed things to make with and for kids - Made by Joel

The Paper Owl Mobile and the Woodpecker

A few photos

Phew!  I'm back - I think (fingers crossed) our internet connection is now fixed!  So, how are you all?  What have you been up to?

I have been working on some new card and gift tag designs for the shop - including a few Christmas items.  Yeee!  I am really excited about these!  There is a peek of one of them down at the bottom of this post.  And now I just have to pick the paper I want for them this evening and then off they go to the printers!  I'm looking forward to getting them back and sharing them with you!

These are a couple of photos I snapped while stuck in traffic recently.  The sky was amazing!  It was at dusk and just about to start pouring.  Fishing is a very popular pass time here - especially along the banks of the Bosphorous.  And they are dedicated too!  I often see people still fishing in the cold and rain. It's getting in to fish season here - tonight we are off to get some delicious and very fresh 'Hamsi' for dinner.  You can see photos of our local waterside fish stall here.  Hamsi are a very small fish that we eat lightly floured and fried - and Yashar loves them too - which  I am very happy with since they are so good for you!

And of course I'm a sucker for a pretty old doorway!  Actually there are loads of very interesting and much prettier doorways - but of course I always miss out on photographing them...next time!

This little elephant can't wait to meet you ;)

A little late Sunday night post

Eek!  I feel like I have been out of touch for so long!  Really its only been a few days but...  I have been busy busy, and our internet decided to stop working 99% of the time...so when it has been miraculously been turning on for a few minutes here and there I have rushed to try to answer emails and basically catch up!  To everyone that I owe emails to...I promise I will be up to date soon - sorry :(  I 'm not ignoring you!  I appreciate your lovely comments and emails so much.

These are some little things I quickly wanted to let you know about last week...and here it finally is, in a late night Sunday post...

One thing is that while my dear Mum came to visit a few months ago we went ribbon shopping!  And so I have now added this new pack of Little Fairy gift tags to the shop, with lovely satin ribbon in three colours - a lovely fairy floss pink, a silvery lavender and a deep crimson.  They come in packs of six and have my little fairy illustration on them, with a magic wand ready to grant little girls wishes! (and that's a little teddy bear she has in her other hand -I think it's a little hard to see in these photos...) 

I have also brought back the toadstool gift tags.   This time with a lovely bright red satin ribbon.  I think the new ribbon really brightens the tags up so nicely - yay!  Coincidentally - you can also spy these toadstool tags over at Portakal Agaci - where Hatice put them on each guest's plate.  Each guest wrote their wishes for her very cute little baby on the back - a little treasure for him in the years to come.  I thought that was such a sweet idea! And I was so so happy to see my tags used for it! 

I'm working on some exciting projects at the moment...including new cards and gift tags designs that will be going to the printers tomorrow (fingers crossed!) and some other special things that I can't wait to share with you...under wraps at the moment....but soon all will be revealed  ;)

I hope you are all having a lovely end to the weekend!

New Blankets!

Sevim, my dear mother in law, has made some more blankets.  That woman amazes me!  If you missed seeing some of the earlier ones she made, you can find them here, here and here.  They are made with love and a smile as she talks and jokes with family and neighbours.  My husband, Senol, definitely got some of his cheekiness from her!  (Senol's father was apparently pretty cheeky too!)

I am in love with this one - a colour combination that I never would have thought of but that really grabs me!

And this one is so so pretty. 

I am off to put them in the shop now - if the last few blankets are anything to go by, they won't be there for long!  

(edit:  All done!  I have just finished putting them in the shop now - you can find them here)

Making Mondays: Cooking Afternoons

This Sunday it rained off and on, so Yashar and I got busy in the kitchen!  We started with these chocolate and cranberry cookies from the beautiful beautiful book Apples for Jam
- I love that book!   Then we left them to cool as the last few rays of afternoon sun poked through the clouds.

I would feel wrong about putting the recipe here - but I definitely recommend buying the book!  Or you could use any simple chocolate chip cookie recipe - like the one I found online here - and add some dried cranberries.

Then Yashar chopped away - alternating between deep concentration and delight - to help make a creamy mushroom sauce with pieces of sucuk though it to go on some pasta - delicious!

Speaking of delicous food...I was lucky enough to eat at this gorgeous table last week.   I had offered to bring some last minute presents that Hatice had ordered to her house and when she offered to have my husband, Yashar and I over for tea, of course I jumped at the chance.   I didn't know just how lovely it was going to be though - Hatice's food blog definitely deserves to be as popular as it is!  The spiced apple cake you can see in the middle was so so delicious!  And it was wonderful to spend time talking with Hatice - and Yashar had such fun with playing with her daughter that he is still talking about it!

I have mentioned Hatice's wonderful food blog here before -'Portakal Agaci'.  The site is full of wonderful recipes - just use google translate if you need to.   I was also lucky that Hatice wrote some very kind words about my work.    A warm welcome to all the new visitors  - I am so glad to have you here  :)

Stay tuned this week - we have been busy and I have lots to show you...including some beautiful new crochet blankets Sevim has made and some new goodies for the shop.

Verity
xo

New Limited Edition Print: On the Way to the Village

A lovely customer recently requested a large print of the 'On the Way to the Village' illustration in cream and a lovely stormy blue.  I was so happy with how it turned out that I decided to make a (very) limited edition print run for the Light Garden shop.  (I'm off to put it in the shop now so you should be able to see it there soon).  The large print was the first of 5, with two more large ones and two medium sized prints and that's it! - I wanted to keep it special, so I won't be printing any more with this combination of colours.

I loved how in the larger print I was able to see the smaller details that I had forgotten I had drawn - like the little rabbits and the teeny tiny cat, the wood grain in a few of the shutters and some little butterflies around one of the trees.

Here it is with the 'I heart milk' illustration, which holds an extra special place in my heart.

And this is one of the photos of the smaller size.

And who is this cutie looking rather serious in his new Aunty Ollie 'Daddy Hoodie'?

 
Have a great weekend everyone!