Christmas Time

I have packed away all my crafting supplies and I now plan to have a months holiday from sewing, and

spend some quality time with Mr and Master O.

I thought I would share with you some imagines of Christmas around our house.

 

Have a wonderful Christmas.

This Moment

 {this moment} - A Sunday ritual. A few photo's- no words - capturing amoment from
the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause,
savor and remember.

Auckland Arts and Crafts Fair

I had a wonderful time at the Auckland Arts and Crafts Fair.

I meet some amazing crafters briefly in the 10 to 15 minutes I had before the start of the fair.

I also meet some lovely customers.

I walked out of the show on a real high.

Here are a couple of pictures of my stand.

 

 

I have two markets left and all my Mushroom Pixies, Bags, Rabbits, Whales, Dogs, 

Hedgehogs 

have been sold. 

So I must squeeze in some more sewing this week. 

Thank you to Jess and Kylie that organised the Auckland Arts and Craft Fair.

It was a great day.

This Moment

 

{this moment} - A Sunday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from
the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause,
savor and remember.

Right Now

I have at last count made 110 of these pixies.

(I still have 40 to go)

They have been way more popular than I ever imagined.

I even had a special order to make one in Cream and Black for a lady in Wellington 

whose house is all Cream and Black.

The Cream and Black are not colours I would have thought to use but she turned out really cute.

I have them in all colours and styles already to take to the

Auckland Arts and Crafts Fair on Saturday.

On the 1st of December NZ Handmade kindly published a conversation with me

you can see it here

This Moment

{this moment} - A Sunday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from
the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause,
savor and remember.

Right Now

Right Now my backyard is like an out door work room. 

I am washing wool stuffing to get rid of the Lanolin smell and dying felt for new creations.

I am very thankful for the lovely sunny weather.

I am all sold out of Elephants and Mushroom Pixies so I have been working on these two things.

I am going to be at the Auckland Arts and Crafts Fair on the 10th of December in the Aotea Centre along with some other amazing Crafters.

They kindly published a lovely interview with me here:

This Moment

  {this moment} - A Sunday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from
the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause,
savor and remember.

Kraftbomb

 

I am off to Kraftbomb this weekend with my new collection of Misteltoe Pixies

Handmade Christmas Tree

Several years ago now I went to a talk about what traditions you would like to put in place for your family at Christmas.

Chances are both you and your partner had different family traditions growing up.

Mr O and I talked about this and one of the traditions we started was the 

Handmade Christmas Tree.

I made 24 Advent bags, each bag is numbered 1 to 24 and they live in a basket
on our side board.

In each bag is a handmade Christmas decoration. 

I made them all myself  the first year which was a big mission. 

So after the first year I opened up my criterion and I bought handmade
decorations off of other crafters as well as making my own. 

One of my favourite Crafters is Helmi Thompson from Woodlands Enchanted:

www.woodlandsenchanted.co.nz

Every morning on the 24 days leading up to Christmas Master O opens the 

correct numbered Advent bag and gets a new decoration to go on the tree.

We often don't get our tree till around the 10th of December so the new decorations sit around the basket waiting for the tree to arrive.

Master O loves this tradition.

Last year we stayed with friends for a week in December while our floors were 

being sanded and polished.

I took the basket with Advent bags with me to my friends house and every morning 

I had 3 little boys come ask me can we open a bag now and see what decoration we get today.

I love this tradition it is so much better than Advent Calenders full of chocolate.

Maybe you to would like to start doing this too.

This Moment

This weeks this Moment has a few words. 

Master O turned nine this week. 

We had to postpone his party for a few weeks due to the Measles outbreak. 

Now that he is older he no longer wants a themed party.

I did so love the themed parties.

The "Peter Pan" party was one of my favourites.

We had a big roll of  Butchers paper and all the children got to lye on the paper 

and we drew around them.

They then got to decorate their shadow and take it home with them.

It was so much fun.

Home Schooling

On Monday evening last week I got a phone call from Master O's school to say that one of the children in his class had the English Measles and that all children not immunised must stay home for 10 days.

(Out of a class of 26 only 9 children are going to school at the moment). 

At first I was of the opinion that this could not have come at a busier time. 

But now I think it is a blessing. 

Master O needs a bit of help with his Maths so every day we do some Maths together. 

We sit side by side at the sewing table and I truly believe that sewing is giving me patience as my little man sits there and works through his sums. 

We do 30 minutes and then take a break for a an hour or so then do 30 minutes more and slowly 

Maths is starting to make sense and sewing is coming along.

This last week I made Flower Pixies using Vintage Lace.

They have little bells on the end of there hats that jiggle.

I am almost sold out of Hot water Bottle Covers, and I had several people asking if I did more 

Adult covers so I did a new range of Hottie Covers.

Plus I made up a few of my more popular designs

here are a few

Well I must go Maths and sewing await......................

This Moment

{this moment} - A Sunday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from
the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause,
savor and remember.

Life

I had a huge weekend with Market Stalls and Guy Fawkes celebrations.

I had such fun on my stall and I met some lovely people.

With the two Market Stalls that I had I sold 3/4 of my stock. 

Which was wonderful. 

But now I am wigged out as I have so many markets booked between now and Christmas 

so I must sew like crazy. 

But as my friend pointed out this is a good problem to have.

I missed doing this Moment on Sunday but here is Master O with a wonderful candle and candle holder that he made at the Michael Park School Fair. 

I just love the colours.

Recently I went to the bank to set up a business account. 

I had a lovely young man Andrew run through everything with me. 

On his computer he had written a quote.

"In making your life don't forget to Live it " 

Budha.

What a wonderful quote and so true. 

I think I need to be mindful of this in the coming weeks with all  my 

sewing and markets and family life.

With all this sewing to do I decided to spend yesterday working on something new.

I have just got a great book from the Library called " Stash Happy" by Amanda Carestia that has a cute Whale pattern in it. 

Here are my Whales:

Underbelly

I will not be loading many things to sell on line over the next few weeks as I will be concentration on my up and coming markets. 

Should you see something you would like to buy on my blog please do email me on  oconalex@gmail.com

To Market we go...............

I have spent the week working around my part time job, household chores and life 

sewing for the up and coming Markets this weekend.

I have had friends call in for tea and a chat while I sew or they have even 

bought their own sewing and joined me. 

It is a really great way of catching up and feeling and being productive at the same time.

Here are some imagines from the work room:

These little Mushroom Pixies decided to join the Mistletoe Pixies this week.