Out and about - in my garden

grevillea

another grevillea

um, another grevillea

yep - it's a grevillea

netting to keep the wallaby away

Wolemi Pine

 bleeding heart

As part of blogtoberfest I'm having a giveaway.
To have the chance of scoring a pair of planettreaures earrings leave a comment.
Then I'll draw the winner next Tuesday.
Easy-peasy : )

Winning and giving

A few weeks ago I won something!
A custom brooch by the lovely Miriam over on Create Hope Inspire,

I got to chose the word on my brooch - tough decision, but having just come back from some travels I decided that I'd like to explore the world some more. And then she made this brooch especially for me!
Now that is special/

Who doesn't love a freebie?
I love that every Friday Kelly over at 74 Lime Lane has a friday freebies feature, where she selects a great swag of free printables from around the webs.

She is a fabulous photographer and has so generously made some of her photos available for bloggers etc to use.

There are more images that Kelly is sharing here.
Isn't that great?

The lovey Sissy Sparrows on their One Story Down site have some digital downloads too. Here.

On the subject of free stuff, did you know that a number of blogtoberfest participants are having special giveaways.
Go and check them out here.

Remember I'm having a giveaway too.
To have the chance of scoring a pair of planettreaures earrings leave a comment.
Then I'll draw the winner next Tuesday.

Happy Anniversary to the Beatles

 It's 50 years since The Beatles released their very first record - a single, as you did back then.

Ok, so I know I'm showing my age here, but I grew up with The Beatles.
They were the soundtrack to my youth.
I used to know every word of every Beatles song - sad, eh?

Who is your favorite Beatle?
I was a Paul girl back then.....but not now.

Fave Beatles song?
That's a toughie!

And I Love Her?
Eleanor Rigby?
I'll follow the Sun?
Michelle
Yesterday?


Fave album?

Rubber Soul - yeah!

But then within 8 years after that first single it was all over - The Beatles split up in 1970.

So here it is - sing along if you like.

The Beatles were the most significant musical influence of the 20th century.
Discuss.

If you would like to leave a comment you will go into the draw to win a pair of planettreasures earrings, drawn Tuesday 9th October.

Solving problems - My creative space

I had a problem to solve.
I wanted to string a triple strand of beads.
I wanted to join it to some chain, so that the beads were just at the front.
I wanted the beads strands to lie nicely and not be all jumbly-umply.

I didn't have quite the right things that would have made this easy - like a 3 to 1 connector.
Or I could have used a big cone if I'd had one, but then they would have been jumbly-umply.

I had these 3 strand thingys (small bar with 3 holes)
I had some big rings that I'd recently bought to make some big hoop earrings with.

Laying the beads out on a bead board like this helps to get the drape of the strands right (my bead board has seen much better days - even before I gave it a home)

How I attached the strands to the rings.

Then I just added the chain with jump rings.

 This all took me far too much time! So I decided not to waste it and so  I made 2 more but in different colourways. (Which I haven't photographed yet)

I have a big 2 day festival at the weekend so I'm in bulk production mode!
If you are in the area pop into Leura Fair in the beautiful Blue Mountains just west of Sydney.
So then I strung up some lava stone necklace as well.

I'm taking part in My Creative Space over on Village Voices - come and join us!

If you would like to leave a comment you will go into the draw to win a pair of planettreasures earrings, drawn Tuesday 9th October.

On the street in India - wordless Wednesday

This week I'm joining in with Wordless Wednesday over on My Little Drummer Boys blog.

If you would like to leave a comment you will go into the draw to win a pair of planettreasure earrings, drawn Tuesday 9th October.

Why blog? and a giveaway

Why blog?
Wow! I really opened a can of worms in my head when I asked myself that question.

Because I can?
Because it's there?
Because everybody else is?

I lead me on to think about the many billions of blogs out there. Most of the blogs I am familiar with are to do with crafting, art or creating stuff.
But there are all sorts - travel blogs, foodie blogs, political blogs, financial blogs etc etc and many more, I'm sure that I have no idea about.

There are more blogs out there than we will ever need!

So why me? And why you?

I guess I started blogging as an extension of my on-line business.
Over on etsy (where I have 3 shops now!) we're told that you can't just load you items in your shop and expect them to sell - oh, no - you have to promote yourself.

"Have a blog", they said - those gurus of the etsy forums.

Let people see the person behind the goods, let them get to know you - "connect with your customers".

And so we all rushed over to blogger or wordpress or wherever and blogged our hearts out.
But was anybody reading our blogs?
Why would anybody read our blogs?
We networked and read other people's blogs and we commented like crazy!
We joined memes.
We joined blog rings and jumped through hoops!

Why do we continue to blog in this world of 140 character grabs, flickr photos, facebook friends, and tumblr (plus no doubt many more I have no concept of!)?

Here's what I have gathered.

1. Blogging can be the centrepiece of all your on-line marketing and your social media activities.

2. You can explain more about yourself and your creative processes. you can post works in progress and get those appetites whetted.

3. You can share.
You can share tutorials, display ideas, successes and failures.

4. The posts you write are enduring. Facebook and twitter scroll through pretty quickly and if you want to find something again is pretty much impossible.
You can refer back to blog posts or refer others to them.

5. You can use photos to tell your story - a picture tells a thousand words so they say.
" Ok, you say you can have photos on facebook too". But on your blog you can post several pictures, you can have a coherent storyline - or not, depending on what your post is about.

6. You can hold giveaways or competitions.

7. You can link to all your other activites - you on-line shop, your fabebook, your twitter, your flickr etc. They can all be in your sidebar or wherever you want to have them.

Do you blog?
Why do you blog?
What do you blog about?

Oh, and my giveaway!
Please leave a comment of you'd like to be in the draw for a beautiful pair of planettreasures earrings.
The winner will be drawn next Tuesday 9th October.

 thanks for reading : )

Welcome to blogtoberfest!

Hi and welcome to blogtoberfest!
This is when a whole lot of bloggers will endeavour to blog every day in October.

I took part in this last year and it was fun, challenging and inspiring.
At the moment there are nearly 168 participants. If you would lie to join in or just check out some really cool blogs pop on over to our fabulous hosts blog, I Saw You Dancing.

The gorgeous Curly Pops is hosting the giveaway page for blogtoberfest. Not too many participants at the moment but I'm sure thing will pick up as the month goes on. Have a look - here!


Back here you will find a few stories about me and my life and craft(s).

 On Wednesdays I'll continue the photo essays on my trip to India in July.

Thursdays are traditionally My Creative Space days.

Other things I have planned include some how to's, tutorials and spotlight on some of my artist and designer friends.

I'll include places I've been, and anything that generally rock my socks!

If you are a blogger why don't you challenge yourself and join us in blogtoberfest? Go on!
I'll see you there.