Crafty Gatherings: Let's Party

A crafty gathering of some of the things to make that I liked the most this week...

And now I realise there's a bit of a party theme going on with them all...I must be wishing for Summer!

Watercolour paper cups:  Stephanie Polli via Design*Sponge

Ombre Tablecloth:  Brittany (the house that Lars Built) via Jordan Ferney (Oh Happy Day!)

Fringey Monogram:   Michaela (Blissful Fetes) via Jordan Ferney (Oh Happy Day!)

Geometric Paper Garlands:  Weekday Carnival

an istanbul door and an istanbul notebook

This is a quick shot I took in Galata last week before my camera batteries ran out.  darn it.  The detailing on this door was gorgeous -you probably know by now what a sucker I am for a nice door!

I've been busy working on a few different projects and also a couple of new notebook designs.  This is a simple one that is almost finished - just needs the threads tied at the ends and then to be packaged up.  The weather apparently didn't get the memo about Spring starting -so still very grey for photo taking :(

And this is another design - which I have already taken down to Molka - I'll have to remember to take some photos of the actual notebook soon!

Yashar and I didn't have a 'Making Monday' for you this week...but have been doing plenty of making at our super cool weekly art classes at LOLA.    And I did receive an ingenious card from Yashar (with help from his Dad) for my birthday that involved a car with a window that opened to show a picture of Yashar and I - very cute!

So, to make up for it, tomorrow I'll be back with some making inspiration with a crafty gathering of some of best things to make from around the net.  See you then!

Emirgan Park Tulip Festival

Some friends of ours visited for the last few day and the weather was miserable!!  Where is Spring?!  We did manage to make it in between rain falls to Emirgan Park where the annual tulip festival has started.  My camera was out of batteries, but luckily our friends took plenty of photos!  Here are a few:

Making Mondays: My Own Elephant Applique

Well, we didn't quite get around to making anything this week...but luckily someone else did! 

A little while ago Mirna from Croatia ordered a 'My Own Elephant' name print from my shop for her son Gregor - which I remember well as she was such a lovely customer!  

She got inspired by the print to make this gorgeous pouch with an elephant appliqued on it and embroidered her son's name on it.  I was so happy to see it!!  What a super sweet idea - I love it!!  You can see more images of the pouch - and some other gorgeous things she has made over at her flickr here.  You should see the pouch she made for her other son Bartul - it is amazing!!!

Thank you so much Mirna for letting me share your beautiful work!

Photographs from Basar Bascumali

Recently we were in at our favourite local cafe, Molka in Yenikoy, at the same time as the wonderful architectural photographer Basar (pronounced Bash-ar) Bascumali...and of course Yashar managed to get himself in many of the photographs  :))   You should be able to click on the one above to make it a little larger - it's such a sweet shot!

These are some of the photos she kindly shared with me - I love them!!  You can also check out more of her wonderful photography at her blog http://archiwink.blogspot.com/

Her photographs of many buildings around Istanbul show a view that is much broader than the usual tourist shots (and there are also photographs from other cities too). 

Here's Yashar at his usual spot at Molka - hanging out at the bar drinking chocolate milk.

Molka is such a great space.  And I want to take the chairs and light fixture home with me!

Making Mondays: Sleepy Papier Mache Birds for Spring

You might remember a couple of weeks back that I mentioned plans of making papier mache birds.  Well, we did it!   These were so much fun for both Yashar and I.  Yashar especially loved the messiness and how tactile making these were. Apart from making the legs, drawing the eyes on, and supergluing the ribbon, Yashar made all of his little baby bird (the one with the red ribbon) himself.  I'm so proud of him  :)))   And I became a litlle mesmerised and relaxed making my 'mama' bird too! -It turned out to be a perfect activity for both 3 year olds and 30 year olds!  

This is how we did it:

1. First I made up some glue using this recipe for flour and water glue from http://www.papiermache.co.uk/

I put a small amount of the glue in a bowl and the rest in a jar to use later.

2.  We made each bird shape by scrunching up 2 squares of foil  - 1 smaller for the head, 1 bigger for the body and then taping them together using masking tape.

3.  Next we ripped up old paper brochures and bags into small strips.

4.  We covered the paper, piece by piece, with glue and put in on to the bird shape - to cover each piece with glue we sometimes dipped the paper into the glue and sometimes painted glue on to each side of the paper with a paintbrush.

5. We covered the birds with a couple of layers of paper at a time, leaving them to dry fully, and then adding another two layers and so on.

6.  To make the legs I used the wire from a champagne cork - half for each set of two legs  - as in the photo.  I taped them on after the first two layers of papier mache had dried and then papier mached around them in the following layers.

7.  After doing about 8 layers we left them to dry well and then painted them using acrylic paints.  After the paint dried I drew some simple sleepy eyelids and lashes on and stuck a little piece of ribbon around each of their necks - joining it with a little superglue.

It seems like Spring is as sleepy as these birds around here...can't wait until the weather warms up!

I'll be back later in the week with a post about our crazy 'long weekend' roadtrip we just got back from.

Small/Cool Contest and some other awesome things to check out this week

You can now vote for your favourites in Small/Cool 2011 - The 7th Annual Smallest Coolest Home contest on Apartment Therapy.  Selected entries are beginnning to be posted from now until May 1st.  This is my fave so far:

Evan's NY loft in LA (850 square feet)

Check out the Ready Made 100 - the 100 best projects of the year.

Super sweet sale at Aunty Ollie - when Yashar was smaller I was looking everywhere for a nice wide brimmed hat like this.

And check these out  :))  ...

Yashar's room was featured on Ohdeedoh.com - thank you Ohdeedoh!  Love you guys!!  The post was about the 'clouds' we made for Yashar's room a while back.  Funny to read the readers comments on it...  just about everyone seemed to be worried about dust!   hehehe! I had never even thought about it - although it hasn't been a problem so far so I guess we're ok!

And Design Mom gave my Matryoshka Gift Tags a little link love- yikes!!  It was so fun to have so many people check the tags out - check out her gorgeous and very popular blog - I'm loving all her posts on her family's move to France for the year!

Spring Planting

Spring has finally arrived and so we have brightened our apartment up with Spring flowers!  Every time I look at them I sigh - they are so pretty!  :)

And Yashar is so excited about them - he's continually telling me excitedly 'Look!  Mum! Our plants are growing!!'

Have a great weekend everyone!