Happy Birthday, 4 Year Old!

Last Sunday, my youngest baby reached a new milestone, turning four years old.  She was never little (being a nine pound baby!), but I still marvel at how big she's grown in the last four years.  In fact, she's grown so much that she is at least two thirds my height already (okay, I know that's not such a hard thing to achieve).  My cheeky monkey #2 has had a seemingly ongoing birthday celebration starting with a small party for close friends and family in Melbourne, graduating to a party in Singapore with our family there (that was our last day in Singapore) and ending with a popcorn celebration at kindergarten on Tuesday (phew)!

Snail Mail Received!

You may remember my post last month (see here) about the Creative Collective snail mail swap.  Since that last post, I have received two of my expected swap packages and I have to say that I really love the mail which has arrived so far!  To top things off, both of these packages arrived on the day of my dad's thanksgiving service, which was a nice distraction on such an emotional day for me.

This sweet notepad and notecard set arrived from Cat of beloverly, along with a hand written note in a pretty handmade card.  Apologies for the shocking photo quality, Melbourne weather has been pretty gloomy this past week.  Not unexpected, I guess, for the middle of winter!



This beautiful collection of goodies arrived from Charlotte of Charlotte Vallance.  This photo is just a sample of the lovely items she sent.  There was also a cute magnet of one of Charlotte's illustrations and a fun folding book.  And for those of you who wanted to see all of the items I sent to my swap recipients, check out Bridget Harvey's blog post, say "hi" to her and let her know I sent you.     :)

What's New - Jewellery and Doilies Galore

Before I get into today's post, I want to thank everyone for their support and well wishes during this time of my loss.  I still haven't gotten off the emotional rollercoaster which is usually part and parcel of losing a loved one, and I guess I won't for quite some time, so thank you for sticking with me and my erratic blog posts.

The Kitty Bunting

Okay, now for my promised jewellery and doilies galore.  Actually, "galore" may be a bit of an exaggeration, though if you ask my dear husband, he is probably a bit over the seemingly endless piles of doilies he keeps finding around the house, ha ha ha!  Well, some of those piles of doilies were finally turned into bunting and scarf creations for Domum Vindemia.

The Wilma Bunting

Some of my new buntings will feature only crochet doilies while others will continue to feature embroidered doilies and/or vintage embroidered napkins and placemats.  For those who like a bit of colour in their decor, I am also experimenting with coloured bias binding for my buntings, with pink, blue and grey coming soon!  For the smaller doilies, many are now being upcycled into funky doily scarves.  The first such of these scarves is already spoken for, but don't worry, there are more coming as soon as I can get the energy to play with my sewing machine.

The Thora Scarf

And although my Two Cheeky Monkeys jewellery stores are looking a little neglected, there are new creations waiting to be listed in those stores too.  I am quite excited about a new range of vintage glass jewel cocktail rings to complement my range of vintage glass jewel earrings, necklaces and bracelets.  I know it's taken me a while to get into making cocktail rings, partly because they look silly on my little hands and fingers, but mostly due to the fact that sourcing supplies for these rings is not easy!  I haven't decided whether to list my new jewellery pieces on my Etsy or Madeit stores, or both, so please let me know which is your preferred online shopping platform to help me get a better idea of your shopping preferences.     :)

The Marisol, Esmerelda and Undomiel Vintage Glass Cocktail Rings