Taking Time

One morning last week I rushed home after

my morning therapy session with kids to do some sewing for

the Auckland Art and Craft Fair.

I jumped out of my car and saw my neighbour cleaning his gutters.

He asked me how I was and I said "BUSY".

We talked for a while about how busy we both were and where had the year gone.

I came inside and sat down to sew.

Sometimes whilst sewing I listen to TED talks.

Mr O had recommend I listen to a talk by

Carl Honore called "In Praise of Slowness"

This talk really hit a chord with me.

That night I went out with a few girlfriends and over dinner I told my

friends about the talk.

One of my girlfriends said that her husband had decided lately to not say

that he was BUSY when people asked him as he felt he was wearing BUSY-NESS

like a Badge of Honour which he felt was not right.

If you can make the time do listen to the talk it is really funny and thought provoking

In Praise of Slowness

After listening to it my sister in law said she was going to start

listening to her inner turtle!

So I have been sewing for:

I have been loving blues and greens this week.

So here's a peak at some of the goodies I will be taking to the fair with me.

Hopefully if you live in Auckland I will see you there.

Do say  "Hi"  if you get the chance, I would love to meet the people that take the time to read my blog.

Alex O

New Space

I am nice and warm in my new studio space.

Which has lots of wonderful natural light.

I have my French Pear candle burning and I am listening to 

Spotify.

I must confess I love Spotify, I get to hear lots of artists that I would

probably never hear.

I just listened to the new album by

 Passenger

"All the Little Lights"

Here is a little peak at one corner.

Where has the time gone...................

I must apologise

I planned to try and blog more and I am blogging less.

We have had a mad few weeks.

Mr O and I were gifted a lovely weekend away to
Waiheke Island
to stay at the beautiful

"Te Whau Lodge"

It was a wonderful relaxing weekend.

The following weekend was a long weekend and we

went away again with six other families.
To this lovely property owned by the Danish Society called
"Valhalla"  I thought it would be madness 15 children and 10 adults.

It proved to be a most relaxing and enjoyable weekend.
I should mention here that this year one of my aims is to do the following:

 

We drank mulled wine in front of the fire whilst nibbling on freshly caught fish.
We had long walks, listened to each others great stories,
while children laughed and ran around us.
We had some delicious shared meals.
We had a wonderful time and the weather shined upon us.
I came home feeling a great sense of companionship and lifted higher within myself.
Thank you lovely friends.

So in amongst going away I have moved my studio space which was no small mission.
I was ruthless and got rid of a number of things that I was never likely to use.
It is a wonderful feeling de-cluttering.
Now I have a bigger space and hopefully I am more productive.

I have set the next two weeks aside to work on my creations for the
Auckland Art and Craft Fair on the 29th of June.
Here is a link to the interview they did about me on there blog,
plus more information about the fair.

Once it stops raining and the light is better I will share a few photos with you
of my new space and my new creations as well.

Warm Inside

We are experiencing our first cold snap for the year.

It is truly chilly.

 I rush home each day to my nice warm studio space.

Its at this time of year that I so love that I work with recycled blankets and felt.

The Cream Hydrangea range is coming along nicely.

Here are a few more pictures for you to see.

I have been using this wonderful cotton thread that I buy from the lovely Helene at
Happy Go Knitty
It is shades of blue and green and I feel it helps to give depth
to the Hydrangea.

Here is a picture of some of Helene's lovely threads that I use.

New Range in progress:

 On Monday I started working on a new range.

The "Cream Hydrangea Range"

This idea has been floating around in my head for a while.

A friend of mine lives out in the country and she has the most beautiful
cream hydrangea plant in her garden.

In the summer time you can see these lovely flowers throughout her house.

They are so fresh and peaceful.

Next will be cushions.

What colour cushion would you like to see a Cream Hydrangea on ?

So far I have done little shades of green dots in the middle of the petals.

My friend in the country said her flowers have blue dots in the middle

so I might try that next.

Yesterday I got another new stockist.

You can now find my wares at:

Next Door Gallery

in Birkenhead Point.

They even have one of my Cream Hydrangea Purses. 

 

Right Now : I Love What I Do

Yesterday morning I woke up and it was pouring with rain.

I groaned inside as I had a market on and the thought of

loading and unloading everything in the rain was not a pleasant thought.

Then I thought of all the people I would see, the friends I have made,

the customers both new and old and my heart was filled with joy because
I love what I do.

You may remember that in September last year I took voluntary redundancy

from working for a company that I had worked for, for 19 years.

I was feeling a little lost to start with and I thought I would take my time

before I found a new part time job.

My plan was that I would focus on my craft and do all the things I had been
meaning to do but never had time to.

Then in the New Year I would look for a new job.

A week later Master O's school sent home a newsletter and at the bottom of the page the 

special needs coordinator at Master O's school had posted an advert for someone to work 

with two boys every school day from 8.30am to 9am.

When I saw this advert I thought I can do this whatever it is!

I had a little free time.

I also thought it would be nice to give back to others.

I had no idea if it paid or not.

I had a meeting with the special needs teacher only to find out that I would be
working with the school and a Developmental Optometrist helping
these two young boys do eye training exercises .

Master O struggles at times with fine and gross motor skills.

Three years ago I took Master O to see a Developmental Optometrist.
Mr O and I ended up doing  eye exercises every day with Master O for months to train him to track
with his eyes and not his head.

(Master O is now one of the top readers in his class)

Well when everyone found out that I already had some experience with Developmental Optometry
I went from having two students to having seven students and working two hours a day

in paid employment.

So 3 weeks after taking redundancy I had a new job.

Its a job that I absolutely love, it is so fulfilling and rewarding for both myself and the kids.
 It is also so very different from my last 19 years of working in many different
roles in the travel industry.

The eye training has been so successful that we are now

 the pilot school for trying this out with children in New Zealand.

We now have 4 trainers and over 20 students on the programme.

You can learn more about Developmental Optometry here
 

 So now I have a great part time job and time to do the things I wanted to with my craft business.

I have set up a wholesale list and approached stores about selling my wares.

Many years ago I was a Business Development manager winning business
for the travel company I worked for.

Now I am trying to win over suppliers for my business.

Its much more personal when its your own product that you are trying to promote.

There are times when I have thought life would be easier if I went back to travel and

just made my sewing a hobby not a business.

Being the creator, the marketer, the book keeper etc can be full on.

I have a new motto this year that is on the blackboard in my kitchen.

It reads:

It would be easy to go back to travel and I may one day as it is another passion of mine.

But today my passion is my little craft business that is growing daily

thanks to my new suppliers and my lovely customers.

So I do get out of bed on rainy days with joy in my heart.

Because I love what I am doing right now.
As it was the sun came out and I did not get rained on at all!

 

Flowers everywhere

I had a lovely week away with Master O and his best friend Miss B.

As I could not take my sewing machine with me I did quiet a bit of

hand sewing.

I have some beautiful new Fairy Sprite Crowns that will

make it into my online shop later this week.

Plus I worked on some new Hydrangea purses for a store order.

Here is a sneak peak of a few: