{ yippee }

Booked and paid - we're back to Japan in 2 months time!

Have you seen Jetstar's 2 for 1 special to Japan? A word of advice for Sydney-siders - even though their website only lists Osaka on the special from Sydney, select Sydney-Tokyo and they just add Sydney-Gold Coast to the selection, don't be put off if you want to go to Tokyo. Or do what we're doing, fly into Tokyo and out of Osaka (but you have to ring and do that over the phone).

Now, just have to work out where else beside Tokyo we'll spend our time.


(Mmm, Casual Frozen Food - just noticed what this vending machine says. Wish I'd tried it!)

{ PaperLion interview }

I've mentioned before that I'm part of BEST - Bookbinding Etsy Street Team. Hilke runs interviews with BEST members and this week it's my turn! Take a look here.

I even managed to get a picture of this little cutie included - clever!!

{ alice }

Just got back from seeing Alice In Wonderland. My advice ... run, don't walk to a screening immediately. It's such a visual feast and a movie that will need to be revisited time and again because you just couldn't possibly take it all in watching it only once.

Yay, so thrilled that it lived up to the huge expectations I'd placed on it!

{ alice is coming }

I can't wait until Wednesday - I'm going to see Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland after work!

In honour, I've spent the best part of this weekend working on my most detailed papercut to date. Here're some progress shots:


And the final table centrepiece:





The design is from a book I picked up on Saturday - Paper Cuts: 35 Inventive Projects by Taylor Hagerty. The 35 designs are by a number of talented artists and this Alice one is by Cynthia Ferguson. Cynthia has a wonderful blog that I follow and encourage you to also if you like the art of papercuts, her work is incredible.

There are a lot of other projects I'll be trying out from this book, but not until I get the feeling back in the fingers of my right hand!

{ something new }

I wanted to spend a large part of my recent holiday making new things. Some time back I bought a kit to make pocket memo holders from Paperama on Etsy. They looked like so much fun to make, and they were.

Here's what I made from the kit:


And that got me all inspired:




And then on to some with a fold over cover:



There are a couple of other new ideas I tried out during my holidays and I'll continue sharing those with you. The purpose wasn't to necessarily come up with new products to sell (although some will progress down this path), it was to really enjoy the chance of having completely free time to do as I pleased.

I know how rare it is to have time like this in our busy lives and I was very grateful for it - especially since my first week back at work has been 'hectic' to say the least!

Do you get/make time to relax and go with the flow creatively?

{ the 80's are back }

Went to a great exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum on the weekend - The 80's Are Back. Looking at the kids on the streets today, you might think they never left!

What memories it bought back! So much to see, but even better so much to do as well. Had a great time playing Donkey Kong, Pacman and Galaga on proper old arcade machines like they used to have in the fish and chip shops!

The biggest 'oh my' moment for me was when I rounded a corner to see a fully decorated bedroom circa the 80's - it looked just like my bedroom, even had the exact doona set. The only differences were my tape player was pink and instead of Dirty Dancing and Star Wars posters, my walls were full of Michael Jackson posters! [Little known fact - I used to be able to spell his name backwards as quickly as forward. No, I don't know why that was necessary either]


The exhibition runs for some time yet but don't put off a visit and miss out. If you're a kid of the 80's you'll have so much fun reliving your childhood/teenage years. If you're younger, go and check it out for a proper reference of 80's fashion!

Seems there's a bit of an understandable hiatus going on over at the Sunday Stash blog but I didn't realise that until after I took my photos etc so thought I would post anyway.

Took a trip to the sale at Quiltsmith sale last week and picked up the following:


The intention is for making more bookcloth for albums and possibly notebooks but I needed a project with a quick resolution for the bee fabric and couldn't wait out the full process so I decided on a little drawstring bag to placate myself:


I really love that fabric! Can't wait to see it on an album cover but as I'm back at work tomorrow that might be a ways off.