My notebooks' little journey to France

I'm stopping in from the depths of sickness :(  to share something I'm so excited about!  (And a big sorry to everyone that I owe emails to - I will get to them as soon as I feel better - I promise! - there are some really lovely ones there and I want to take the time to respond to them properly)  

Just before going away I was contacted by the very lovely Emeline from Yume Store.  And as soon as I had a look at Yume Store I was beyond happy!  Her online shop is exquisite!  So many items I would love to have in there!    And look at the pop up shop she had in Paris - isn't it beautiful!

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to find someone that shares the same aesthetic and appreciates the work I'm doing. It's definitely very satisfying.  The order of notebooks has just arrived in France and is available at Yume Store here (in French) and here (in English).

And look at all these other yummy things you can find there! 

Ok, I hope I'll be back soon rested and recovered...

(All images are from the Yume Store site and blog)

Crafty Gatherings: Scandinavian Winter

Yikes!  Where did the week go?!  Actually I know - Yashar and I are sick...again!  It's been a nasty winter of sickness for us this year :(  Makes me want to curl up on the couch, under a blanket and make these:

Hmm...ok, some of these may be a little hard to make while curled up under a blanket ...

Scandinavian Inspired Wooden Heart -Kate Pruitt - Design*Sponge
Clara by Karin Vestergaard Mathiesen - this one made by Alicia Paulson - Posie Gets Cozy

Felt Hot Pads - Molly's Sketchbook - The Purl Bee
Big Herringbone Cowl - The Purl Bee

Have a great weekend!

Back to it!

I hope you had a wonderful week!  I had a great time away snowboarding in Austria!  Unfortunately not many photos as I definitely didn't want to risk taking my big camera snowboarding with me.    We stayed with a couple of friends at a fantastic apartment just between Zell am See and Kaprun.  I had forgotten just how much I love snowboarding!  We spent most of the week up at Kitzsteinhorn Glacier - so amazingly beautiful!

I had a nice surprise during the week I was away - the Ikea expedit shelves I painted for Yashar's room were featured on ohdeedoh.com   Thank you ohdeedoh! And a very warm welcome to all the new visitors and sorry I haven't been able to get back to your questions - ok - tick - I just went and did that now. 

And now I'm back to catching up on everything around here...including spending some time with Yashar...did I mention that we had left him at grandma's for the week while we went to Austria...eek!  Of course we were a little stressed about doing that and of course he was totally fine!  And yes, I did wake up during the night while I was there thinking 'what have I done!  How could I leave him for the week?!'  Our strategy, after I talked to some other mums was to leave a small present for grandma to pull out from us each morning (stickers, pencils etc) and we made sure to emphasise that we would be back soon.  It seemed to work well  :)

Valentine's Day is almost here!

Just a quick post because I thought you might be doing some Valentine's Day making at the moment.   In case you want a little inspiration - these are the cute valentine's day 'love' boats we made for Yashar's friends last year.

And this is the Valentine's day card making we did for this year using the personalized printables I have in the shop.

Some more super sweet valentine's day ideas:

 here and here at poppytalk,

and here at made by joel.

Exciting News: What I've Secretly Been Working Away On

Firstly - I am off on a snowboarding holiday tomorrow for a week - yay!  I'm thinking I won't be able to post, but we'll see.   Now to the exciting news - late last year I was secretly working away on something...and I'm so happy I can finally share it with you!   Yes, this is a wedding invitation...but no, I'm not getting married...coz that would be kinda weird since I've already been married for almost 10 years!! 

I have been designing invitations for the very cute site Shichijiro!  The designs at Shichijiro are cute modern and original and I'm so happy to be designing for them!  They customize the invitation and announcements and print on premium heavy recycled card stock - yay for eco friendly!

In case you are wondering where the name of the site comes from - this is the explanation from the site:

Shichijiro is a little night-shift worker. He sits in front of his computer with his eyes half closed. His name means seven-two-boy in Japanese; it is a really good name since he is a wall street trader. They trade stocks, futures, whatever in Tokyo and European stock markets. That is why they have to work nightshifts. We don't trade stocks, but we do stare at computers until deep into the night.

Isn't that baby so sweet?!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Making Mondays: Hat Obsession

Ok, this is starting to get ridiculous!  I have finished the Pasha hat, I'm half way through the Jane hat, 90% done on a thorpe, finished a hat for Senol and have started another for me!  Yes, I am addicted.

This is the finished Pasha hat.  I like it a lot - nice and loose and comfy - but I'm not so in to how it bunches/waves at the back where the decreases are - so am thinking to undo that part and try to make the decreases a little smoother looking. 

This is me...I have this strange habit of pulling weird faces as soon as I feel the camera on me - which means I often look at the photos later and think - that doesn't look like me at all!  This is funny given the amount of photo taking I subject the rest of my family to...a lot!!!

Speaking of which - here's Senol in the hat I knitted for him - I really like how this one turned out - simple and roomy  - so I'm knitting another version of it for me at the moment (I knew I needed to do this as soon as I realised I was wearing his one around the house the whole time!).  I just made this one up as I went - so if anyone would like the pattern - let me know and I can post it soon....

Do you have a favourite knitted hat?

New Stockist - The Laurel Tree

It was so wonderful to read the open and heart felt responses to my last post.  Thank you!

Today I'm excited to introduce a new stockist!  The Laurel Tree  is a new gift shop in the Mission Village area in Omaha  in the US.  It's so fun to think that my prints are in a special little shop so far away!  The Laurel Tree is stocking a number of my prints, along with many other unique handmade items.  So if you are in the area, why not check it out?! I see they are doing some renovations at the moment-so I'm looking forward to seeing the results.   I'm so happy that they are also able to send the prints of mine that they stock to US customers that need their print quicker than the time it ususally takes to send prints from here to the US - great for making sure you get gifts in time etc!

I'm so happy to be working with such lovely people! 

PS They also have a facebook page here.

An indulgent trip down motherhood lane...and a little on change and identity

I realised - as I went to show a friend some photos of Yashar on the blog recently - that I am well overdue to put some more photos of Yashar on here!    This is him at our new local cafe (which is fantastic by the way - if you live in the area it is definitely worth checking out - great coffee and the owner is very much into providing delicious food with good quality ingredients - Molka in Yenikoy).

One of the questions I like to ask other mothers that I meet, is whether they think it gets easier to look after their child as they grow up.  The responses I get are very mixed!  I'm always surprised that so many people swear that it is either just as hard or that it's getting harder.  

In my own experience, I'm  finding it much easier to look after Yashar these days.  I think that this is for a mix of reasons, not all to do with Yashar!  When I first had Yashar it was a huge time of change for me - I moved from working full time as a lawyer in Melbourne to being at home full time and when he was only 3 or 4 months old, moving to Istanbul.  I was struggling with finding my direction and a new sense of my own identity. 

As much as I loved being here and found it such an amazing and inspiring place to be, I did find it quite an adjustment.  I knew only a very small amount of Turkish, I wasn't used to the cultural differences, didn't know the area and didn't have any help with Yashar for the most part as my husband's family lived quite a distance away ...too far for dropping in for a few hours to give me a little break - as much as they would have liked to.  And then there was the sleepless nights, the crying... the usual exhaustion of caring for a baby I guess!

Now Yashar has grown in to this amazing little boy - smart and gentle, and by 3 year old boy standards, very well behaved!  Life has changed for the better.   He brings happiness and pure joy to my life everyday.  From simple things, like a totally unfiltered pure grin, and the squeal he gives seeing a cat on the street, or that he just decides to make me a 'present' by wrapping up one of his toys and presenting it to me.

Wow...I had just meant to write a couple of sentences!...Thank you for indulging me.  I'd love to hear what your think and about your experiences...does it get harder or easier?  What does your child or children do that brings pure happiness to your life?  When have you gone through times of big change in your life... what did you do to cope and how did it work out!?