Ta da! 36 hair clips done.

I am currently without my good camera so please excuse the quality of the photographs. I have finally finished a round of hair clips. They are the first lot that I have made since last year! They are 'non-slip', great for babies' hair, all backed with felt. I made an effort not to put too many buttons on, so that I am not stressing about the littlies choking on them.

I have packaged them onto card leftover from the cereal boxes and glued old atlas pages on top. I printed a little blurb for the back with contact details etc.

Anyways, they are all for sale at the Red Lantern Night Market coming up this Saturday night.

How much would you pay for one of these?

Scrappy hair clips are back.

I'm just in the middle of making a round of the scrappy hair clips that were so successful last year. There's not going to be many, so be quick if you want to grab one!

At the Red Lantern Markets in the Hunter Street Mall, Newcastle. I'll be there on the 20th November.

Encircled will be appearing at the Red Lantern Markets

My little brand 'encircled' will be making an appearance at the Red Lantern Markets in the Newcastle Hunter Street Mall this coming Saturday night, 20th November, 4 till 10pm. I will be having a selection of girls dresses, pencil cases, coin purses and hair clips all made from upcycled fabrics and many items hand screen printed.

The initial Red Lantern Market will feature rickshaw rides, a body-painting exhibition, street performance, Earthen Rhythms African Drumming, ‘Efendi Jaenudin’ Indonesian Music Ensemble and a fire-twirling exhibition.

Additionally, ‘Livesites’ will collaborate with the Night Market and produce an evening of ‘Dancing in the Streets’, at the David Jones end of the mall’.

Stay up to date with the happenings of the market on their blog: http://redlanternnightmarket.blogspot.com/

I think I can feel another useless collection coming on.

I have been seeing these gorgeous floral flour sifters at some of our second hand markets. I have been avoiding buying them, because seriously, why do I need another flour sifter? Well this time we were at the Wickham markets and I just couldn't help myself. So here I now have the most delightful flour sifter to add to my utterly useless dust collecting collection of "stuff". But I can tell you that I am in love with it :)

Trains, Art Galleries & Op Shops. Oh my.

Yesterday we made the train journey out to Maitland to visit their fantastic art gallery. They put on some brilliant kids holiday programs. The theme for the pipsqueak littlies yesterday was to create some play food to coincide with one of the current exhibitions 'Lunch with the Trades'.

We made some sandwiches with cardboard bread filled with shredded coloured paper. A soft drink of red cellophane with a bendy straw (no ADD symptoms to deal with here!), Styrofoam cupcakes, stickered lollypops and cutout cookies. Junior Masterchef, eat your heart out!

I think I had more fun creating the food more than miss 2.5 did. The Maitland Art Gallery is well worth a visit. It has free entry & a fabulous gift shop. Some of the kids programs cost a little bit of money, but are cheaper if you are a member.

After all the fun and food, we took the kids to the play ground next door and wore them out. They crashed out in their prams and my friend and I managed to briefly raid some of the awesome op shops that Maitland has to offer. I think I could spend an entire day trawling the op shops of Maitland.

Not sure where Maitland Art Gallery is? Here's a map.

Some quiet days at home.

Yesterday afternoon was spent in the backyard digging for worms. We have transferred some earth worms over to one of our veggie patches that was just waiting for some wrigglies. E loved watching them burrow into the soil, but was not so keen of the squirming feeling in her hands. She now has a very small corner of the garden to dig holes and plant twigs in so that DP doesn't have a meltdown everytime a seedling gets squashed. :P

This morning we baked a carrot cake. A healthy one of course... It has carrots, it must be healthy? E and I were fighting over who got to lick the icing out of the bowl. Don't you just wish you were a kid again? Remember the magic of being able to lick the beaters after Mum had whipped up something yummy.

Upcycled Ladybirds in the making.

Upcycled Ladybirds in the making., originally uploaded by [mummalu].

These are currently being made by me. They are little ladybird purses with a zip through the middle. The dots have been screenprinted onto the fabric of old shirts. The little eyes have been sewn on using a free machine embroidery method. I can't wait to see them finished.

What do you call them: ladybirds, ladybugs or ladybeetles?