Hello, back!

What a lovely break we had. We now have tan toes and refreshed souls. We (well I) scored the cutest pouch from this lovely lady at the Christmas Kraftbomb fair, stashed it with knitting essentials, raided the local shops for baby cashmerino and knitted our (well my) way through the sunny East coast of the North NZ Island. The booties are cuties, from this fabulously fun pattern. I knitted so much -plenty more pics later. As far as new year resolutions, dare I write it, I'd like to post on our blog a bit more regularly, perhaps twice or thrice a week, but we'll see how we go, 2009 is going to be a big one with a new little one... Ah, must add a photo of the very first pinafore of the new year, more about it in here.


I wish you all a lovely lovely 2009 and btw : thanks so for your comments and feedback in 2008. Through the Christmas craze/break anemone had it's second birthday - we must celebrate this in the coming weeks. I'm making a few 'gift-baskets' to send to some dear blog-friends - but we'll have little give-aways for all.
-Lies x

goodbye for 2008

Now its time to say goodbye, to all our company A-N-E (see you real soon!) -M-O-N-E (why? because we like you!) C-R-A-F-T.

This will be our last post for the year, we are shutting down everything until mid January (like proper kiwis do) so that we can enjoy the holidays with our friends and family. I am leaving you with a few random pictures from the last few markets we have done and some misc news.

loan sharks by paper fish!

paper skulls that are individually decorated by hand! sorry vendor, I'll get your name next time :)

Little Golden Books notebooks by ruby in the dust.

Illustrated characters by Xander (note 80s wresters at top) who also makes Sparkle Friends for What Now.

Some new toys made by yours truly.

The latest issue of world sweet world has some great stuff in it including how to make a couch from an old door, how to knit with plastic bags, and my little card and envelope tutorial.

You can get this at several locations in Auckland including, iko iko, oiu boutique (in st kevs), and the eco store in freemans bay. Here is their website for more info.

also I am working on getting our games up on the side bar so that everyone can play again without having to hunt through our archives. This is why I had to repost them below. I'm halfway there, but just need Luke for technical assistance in order to get the wabbit breeder up.

Well, its been a good year, thanks very much for following along! Have happy holidays everyone!

-k

Just practising, silly

Above some more dresses for here.

Quickly huddled on the door : some skirts for here (a new vending point).

A peek through a rather fun curtainblind I sewed from a fabric gift from the lovely Bronwyn. Quite refreshing to look at a perforated world at times. I recommend. This weekend I'll be doing this again, sadly Kimberlee has to work during the fair, but Bronwyn will be her interim.

A tiny garden with a daughter, sunlit, on a sunny day.

Daughter on a rainy day, what else to do but curl up in your cosy leopard-cat hut and nibble some banana-chips... The occasional 'mum, more' was mumbled. So I am mum now. No longer mama. Just mum. Like furniture. Food. Mum. Pretty handy, a mum. Makes me feel like I've been around for centuries, the shiny newness of being mama has worn off. But then again it gives me deep, ample yet simple satisfaction, I am now part of the indispensable parts and particles that make her day her day. Yesterday while we were walking to Lieveke's day care centre, all of a sudden she announced dramatically 'mum, I'm gonna miss you sooooho'. Taken aback by this sudden and unusual display of reluctance to go to creche I replied 'oh sweet it's not that bad and we're not even there yet...' Lieveke halted her little trot and clarified tsjirpily: 'I know mum, I was just practising, silly.'

Thanks all for your sweet responses to the new dresses/the jumping model, you're part of the day too X
-Lies

fashion guru yoshi says....

and also "join the clothes swap movement!"


if you are a Kiwi with a flickr account, have your pick from other people's wardrobes and also add some clothes in too, because its all about giving.

go HERE to join group.

hope you are having a good week!
-k

ps. why we have been so quiet:
are you going to be there? we are!

kraftbomb: the full report

THIS WAY TO KRAFTBOMB

Kraftbomb was wonderful and far exceeded our expectations in many respects. The organisers Karla and City, were totally on top of all the details, the promo was so successful that the only problem was lack of space. So many people turned up that we are definitely looking forward to the larger venue for Nov.

Hi Lies!

Me and my gear are missing from this picture because I arrived late. I am trying to balance my new part time job into my other part time jobs, it's kinda challenging but it will get sorted. I did make it there just before it officially started.

We couldn't have ordered a prettier day. Just outside the main hall was the musician and an area for kids and families to hang out. This was especially helpful when the crowds got overwhelming, I felt like dashing out and having some playground time at a few points during the day.

So many people! we were back in the corner to the left and I can't even see us through the crowd.

oh the bright happy stalls! There were many of the usual suspects from craftwerk but also some new sellers. here of course is toggle, an old favourite.

vandalised vintage

nut and bee with playful illustration on stationary, stickers, badges, and magnets.

Jelly Bones, with their jewelry which looks edible but is not. I got one of the scrabble necklace this time.the darling Lilly's Make Believe. I really MUST make it a priority to get one of Olivia's owl necklaces, they always sell so fast!

wool is the new cool, which I still can't get over! I mean, see those tampons? yes those are knitted tampons.

geek freaks! and karla (the organiser) from the neck down.

Ran with Scissors looking nifty with their black and red theme. I picked up some of the braille tags and am now awaiting the perfect occasion to use them.

And this beautiful set up belongs to Cheek Pinchy. Kirsten's cards and collage blocks sold like hot cakes and I can see why!

the raffle consisted of homemade with love donations from all the stalls, we put in a little wabbit and a quilted bib. The lucky winner was a female from Mt. Eden and all the raffle money is now going towards promotion for the next kraftbomb. which is Sunday September 28th, 1-4 pm at the Greylynn community centre.

so now that you can see how wonderful it was, why don't you stop by?

ALL PHOTOS ARE COMPLIMENTS OF CITY & KARLA and can be viewed at their flickr page. thanks guys!

when you want to find us, we're always around

Anemone crafts is spreading out a bit more, and I am happy to see the growth. Having our things in OUI shop this year has been one of those steps out, and this week we walked a little further, all the way to south Auckland.

Our gear is now in Pakuranga's Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts. No, we are not getting all high brow on you, we're just in the shop alongside other NZ designers and crafters, such as jelly bones and antifashion league. What an honour! So if you are there, look out for our bags, pinnies, little wabbits, and collage cards and more.

Another new place you can find us is KRAFTBOMB. We are looking forward to this brand spanking new fair which will run at the end of this month! I will be talking more about this so consider this just your first dose. For more details they are here.

And we just got confirmation that we will be at the next craftwerk (a week thursday!) so we are busy busy busy and happy happy happy. Lies posted their flier earlier, but this other one is worth seeing too .

With all this craft action coming up, I have been in the studio working and discovering new ways of getting R.S.I.
One way to cause repetitive stress injury is to try tracing, cutting, and folding 50 envelopes in one afternoon power session. But its all worth is when I look at this pretty stack of completed envelopes. Imagine all these old pages from books would have just been thrown out! but now they have a second life. hmmm its craft poetry, I tells ya.

Here also are some cards I have made:





This set of cards uses images from my favourite outsider artist Henry Darger. Maybe this is causing you long time readers to roll your eyes for I have gushed about my love for Darger in the past probably more than once. But if this is news to you and you want to see more go here. and if you want to know more, go here.


Another arist I am charmed with is Yeondoo Jung who stages photographs based on childrens drawings, I had seen his work a while back but Helen of stripy socks reminded me again the other day, thanks. He has a whole series of these called Wonderland and some are simply magical. so check him out here.

I think its important to do 'just for fun' projects as well and in that spirit I made these peasant tops for my 2 and a half year old niece. My brother is finally getting to see her more regularily so I wanted Ella to have a some fun clothes to wear at his house. They are not pink and are not endorsed by cartoon celebrities -yeah a break from what she usually wears at her other house. (*for the record I am not against pink or totally against cartoon clothes, kids love that stuff, you just need a bit of variety, right?)

Thanks to lies for letting me borrow her custom pattern and also to little lieveke who kindly let me try them on her and said, "I think ella will like it" what a sweet muffin!

I leave you with this battered business card I found in my stash, it was printed by an artist friend of mine a few years back, and is, at my best guess, an ironic gesture. But a very beautiful one. The back is blank aside from her name, kate newby.

bye!
-k