Black Friday to Cyber Monday SALE on Etsy!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends! The Kooky Tea Party Etsy Store is offering 20% off ALL items for the weekend - including Cyber Monday. So far, the sale has been going really well with lots of people taking advantage of the 20% off bargains and the offer of only paying shipping on ONE item - the rest are posted for FREE! It's a great opportunity to stock up for Xmas!

Speaking of Xmas - I still haven't managed to get much Xmas shopping done at all! Fortunately, I now have my Mum & my Mother-In-Law here to go shopping with me. I can't wait! I love shopping at Christmas time. As long as I'm not rushed. I also can't wait to get Ari's photo with Santa this year. Last year she was only 8 weeks old and while it was her first Xmas, I felt she was a little bit young for a photo with Santa. This year I'm definately getting one though - whether she's howling or not! (What a mean mother!)

It's sweltering hot here in Brisbane. HOT HOT HOT. I feel sticky as I'm typing this. Why don't I have air conditioning? We even hopped in the car this afternoon to hunt down Mr. Whippy. We could hear him in the distance, and eventually we found him! We ordered our ice-creams, (I got a choc-dipped soft serve with nuts on top)...and I got Mum a chocolate nut sundae to take home. Well! By the time we got to the car (about 3 metres away) our ice-creams were melting and by the time we got home I had ice-cream down both arms and Mum's sundae was now a milkshake. Disaster!

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend =)

Early Starts....

For the fourth morning in a row I am awake before 6am! Thanks to Ariella...I'm not sure what this new routine is about, but my body clock is certainly not used to it. She used to sleep past 8am most mornings...

Anyway, I guess I am grateful because it means I can get an early start on jewellery orders and such. Yesterday I got the chance to list a heap of earrings in the new Kooky Tea Party MadeIt Store. MadeIt is an Australian website that it much like Etsy - all handmade items - and it's fantastic! Some time today I will continue to list more items in there.

My Byron Bay weekend is now off due to Schoolies. I forgot that NSW Schoolies week starts a week later than QLD, and therefore accommodation is very expensive that weekend, and there will be a million 17 year olds running a muck down there! Best not to be a toolie and leave the partying up to them I think. =)

Last night I started reading Pro Hart's biography, written by his son David Hart. It's opened my eyes up to the dedication he had to his art and I've found it to be very inspiring so far. I'll keep you posted...

To Do List

We're half way through November already! I feel like the end of this year is just slipping through my fingers. Wait 2009! Wait! There's a few more things I want to get in before this year is through...

1) Get Kooky Tea Party off to a cracking start...

This is already underway with a few website visits and lots of sales already through the Etsy store! I hope to open a Kooky Tea Party eBay Store later on this week...

2) Visit Byron Bay.

This will be happening the weekend after next, when we drive down to meet Nanna Neeny on her way to Bris! I have yet to organise accommodation for it.

3) See "New Moon" - the 2nd installment in the "Twilight" saga.

Yes, I know, it's a bit sad isn't it? I couldn't help but get in on the hype and I've read all 4 books *cringe*. Even if it's not a great movie, I have 2 words that sum up a reason to see it - Robert Pattinson.


4) Organise Christmas Day.
I have yet to figure out what we are doing on Dec 25th and I haven't even started my Christmas shopping yet...

Free Postage For Xmas!

Here is a voucher exclusively for anyone who follows my Blog, Twitter or Website. Free postage ANYWHERE in the World until Christmas (25/12/09).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sunday Arvo Jibber Jabber

It's 12:55pm Sunday and I've had a fabulous weekend so far. Yesterday was L-A-Z-Y! We sat around and watched countless episodes of "Mythbusters" and I slept on and off (thanks to some medication I'm taking at the moment which makes me VERY tired!). Then last night I had dinner at Montezumas with 3 of my bestest friends, followed by dessert at Pancake Manor in the City with Wade, Ari, Craig (a collegue of Wade's) and Lis! I felt like a bad mother with my 1 year old awake at 10pm scoffing ice-cream, maple syrup & strawberries into her mouth and all over herself! But hey - it was a one off and she had slept a lot through the day also...

This afternoon I'm expecting to catch up on some Kooky Tea Party orders.

What have you been up to this weekend?



P.S. I bought Bon Jovi's new album "The Circle" and I'm really impressed! Loving it.

KOOKY TEA PARTY!

Well. Things have been super busy lately! Very exciting though....

I've been selling both my art and jewellery online for years under the "Art By Jaz" name. It's worked well that way, because I was mainly selling my artwork and a little bit of jewellery here and there which I also consider as my "art" in a way, so they sold easily in the same shop together side by side.

I have been incredibly fortunate to have so many wonderful customers over the past couple of years, and my jewellery seems to be taking off more than ever, so I feel it's time to create an entirely seperate identity for my jewels!

Hence...Kooky Tea Party!

Oh the names I went through to come up with this! I'll explain the entire process in a later post...

So far I've only opened an Etsy store for Kooky Tea Party. My 'old' Etsy store will continue to sell whatever jewellery is in there until the listings expire, and from there on that store will be dedicated to selling my artwork only. I'm still in the process of creating my market stall too! I'm hoping to get to the markets some time before Xmas! Time is running out! I can't believe we're in November already! eeeek!

Thank you SO much to all of my fantastic customers who have made it possible for me to continue to expand my jewellery empire! Much love to you all,

Weekend Project: Baroque Style Side Table

This morning Wade, Ari & I got up nice and early and went to the Chandler Markets. We haven't been there for ages, so it was nice to see how many new stall holders and people were there! While we were there we bought: breakfast (coffee & sausage & egg rolls), lady finger bananas, mangoes, and a side table! We managed to bargain the guy down on the side table from $35 to $20! Well it did have some scratches and pre-loved dints in it!

So on the way home we stopped in at Bunnings and picked up a can of high gloss black paint, and when we got home we took to work on the side table. Here's what went down:

1) Here's what we began with:

2) Quickly sanded it down...


3) Here I am very hesitantly spraying the first coat! Haha...can you tell I haven't done this much before? I would be a crap graffiti artist!


4) The first layer - a thin coat...followed by more thin coats...

5) VOILA! New black side table!

Making Earring Cards

I've started thinking about how I'd like to do up my market stall. The other day I came across these fantastic BIG (15cm x 15cm!) yellow mugs at an op shop for $1 each, and I thought they would fit really well with my theme. I thought I could fill them up with rice and display my rings in them maybe?

I could go out and buy a whole heap of display stands and things, but from looking at other successful market stalls, I've realised there are so many other ways to display your jewellery with items that I've already got at home! For instance, yesterday I came across a box of unused business cards, and I thought instead of throwing them out I could make them into earring cards. Here's what I did:

1) Found some old business cards that I no longer use...

2) Found some scrapbooking paper I had lying around...

3) I traced the size of the card onto the back of the scrapbooking paper (I could fit 4 cards on these particular sheets). Then cut them out.

4) I coated the side of the business card I no longer wanted to be seen with craft glue (PVA).

5) I glued the scrapbooking paper to the front of the business card.

6) Poked a couple of holes through the card (you can use either side now - the design side or the blank white side) and VOILA!

Earring Cards!

I will take these with me to my market stall!

Party Fun Today!

Wow. What a day! This morning we had Ari's 1st Birthday party in the park. I would say it was a success! She looked beautiful in her 'Abby Cadabby' costume, and the rotunda was filled with loads of 'Abby Cadabby' themed food & decorations! Thank you so much to everyone who came. It was a very memorable morning. I still want to take some photos over the weekend before I sort them all out. I assure you the minute I'm done I'll post them here on my blog.

I've got some new stud earrings in my online stores this week, and there's a lot more to come over the next couple of weeks...here's a little peek...

My absolute favourites at the moment (if I had to pick only one) would be the Black Octopus Earrings. I just adore them!!

Lately I've had a real urge to set up a market stall. I'm picturing a little stand at the local craft markets, overflowing with art and jewels (mainly jewels at this point). There are lots of beautiful ideas for market stalls on flickr. Just something I'm going to work towards over the next month or so. I think it would be good to get in before Christmas. What are your thoughts?

Home Sweet Home

It's 5pm, and miraculously, Ari has fallen asleep on my shoulder. So I've popped her down on the couch (amongst all the mess and boxes), while I get 45mins (hopefully!) to myself before picking Wade up from the station. I have to apologise for not being online for a few days. Things have been crazy busy around here with moving and everything. Today I spent most of the day unpacking boxes of miscellaneous rubbish and sorting stuff out. It's really refreshing to have a clean slate to work with when it comes to putting together a home, but it's also tough because I've got boxes and boxes of things that i just HAVE to hold on to, but don't want to display. I'm starting to get very good at working with a small space! I think it's also important not to make it look cluttered. I still want breathing/walking room in the house. Oh, and did I mention I also want it to look FABULOUS?

Tonight Wade will be putting our PC together and setting up our new internet connection. Loads of downloading space and a faster connection speed - wooo hoo! So the rest of the working week will be focussed on filling orders that have come in during the move, and then hopefully setting up a little space where I can paint and create my jewellery. For the moment, it's going to be anywhere I can set up shop (preferrably where little fingers can't reach!) until I get my little studio space put in. There's a laundry type area next to my kitchen, and my plan over the next few months is to rip it out, and put in a workbench along with overhead cupboards to store supplies. It's not exactly ideal to be running my business from such a small space, but it does allow me to be at home with Ari, which is just an absolute blessing in this day and age. A lot of mums are financially forced to head back to a workplace while putting their babies in childcare; and I am so thankful that I have the choice to stay at home. I admire working mums for their ability to have both a job outside of the home, and take care of their household also. I think every woman who has children and manages their life around them in a successful way deserves a medal. It's not easy to balance work, romance, babies & health all at once. I certainly don't achieve that balance every day. I think if you can achieve the balance most of the time you're doing extremely well!

On that note, I better tidy up the mess I've made while unpacking today. I'm not making dinner tonight. Pizzas are $5.50 on Tuesdays, and I just can't justify taking out the saucepans tonight...