all you need is love....

This is a video that I caught a snippet of on Sunrise this morning and then had to go find it to see it in full.

This is the blurb from the Channel 7 website:

"On December 7th, 2009 at 1:30pm GMT Starbucks invited musicians from all over the world to sing together at the same time to raise awareness for AIDS in Africa. In that one breathtaking moment, musicians from 156 countries played "All You Need is Love" together.
Watch now, as musicians from all around the world come together and share a song. Join in by lending your own voice to http://StarbucksLoveProject.com.
Watch streaming video from countries around the world and then join in by singing All You Need is Love yourself. For each video submitted, Starbucks will make a contribution to the Global Fund to help fight against AIDS in Africa."

Check out the YouTube video here. What a beautiful, brilliant idea! Have to admit I got a little teary and goosebumpy!!

Spread the word....

one After Dinner Mint coming right up....!

The winner of my soapy giveaway is............... Deb, from Two Cheeky Monkeys!!!

Congrats Deb! Check out her great Etsy site here (my favourite is her 'Something Blue' - blue rose and filigree headband).

I have to admit I chickened out and did the 'pull a name from a hat' trick - too hard to pick otherswise!!

Thankyou everyone who took part - all really wonderful stories to share.

I hope this has inspired a few others as much as it has me!

Deb, I will be in touch with soon to organise the delivery of your very own After Dinner Mint soap!

Enjoy!

What Inspires YOU?

Maybe I am being inspired by the time of year, or maybe it's the great response to my last post.... I'm not sure. But I have decided to do my very first giveaway!

Up for grabs is one of the very first 'after dinner mint' soaps that I mentioned last time. With a scrummy chocolate outside and a fresh spearmint centre - these 100 gram bars are sure to be a joy to use in the shower!

This is what I am after...

I want to know what has inspired you recently.

For me it has been the new soaping book I bought - lots of new ideas and things to try. You know how you can get stuck in a bit of a rut and the thrill can kind of fade? Well for me, I am excited about soaping again and can't wait to try out new shapes, colours and forms.

So tell me what gets your blood firing and adrenalin pumping? What keeps you awake at night dreaming of 'what could be'?

Pop your story in the comments, be sure to give me a way to contact you and you are in to win!!

After Dinner Mint anyone?

This is my first attempt at a dual layered soap - that is, joining separate pieces of soap into one bar.

I am calling it the 'after dinner mint' bar - it has organic spearmint oil in the light green centre and serioulsy yummy chocolate for the outside.

Smellin' good people....!

This is a full sized bar with a 'bite' taken out that I thought people could use as a guest soap or for a hand basin.

I got the idea from the new soaping book I just bought and there are heaps more I want to try! What fun!!

I think next time I might try a vanilla centre with the chocolate outside or even say a clear, red 'jelly' centre with a light brown cinnamon outside - JELLY DONUT!!!! Woohooo!!

New soap mould - Batik Dome

Just a quick one to let everyone know I'm still kicking..... Christmas.... crazy time.....

Had a great weekend at the Civic Homespun Markets, with really good sales for my last market of the year and even better company in the form of Isis, Raewyn and Gayle.

It's a bit of a fun time for me at the moment as I received a new soap mould and this great soap book called Soapy Love! It has given me some great ideas and I can't wait to start trying some of them out! Check out the authors website here.

The new mould is a batik style pattern in a dome shape, which I think will make it a good bar to hold onto whilst sudsing in the shower. A workmate ordered some of my Vanilla, Pomegranate and Black Currant soaps and so I whipped these up yesterday.I am liking the idea of a solid coloured bar, with perhaps a light dusting of say, gold mica, in the grooves of the pattern for a really rich looking bar of soap. Hmm... so many options..... what fun!

Homespun

Just a quick blog to let everyone know I am doing one last market for the year. I'll be at the Civic Homespun Market this Saturday 12th from 10am till 3pm.

I'll be lucky enough to share a double stall with Isis (with her awesome journals) and a few friends, so we should have an interesting range of goods to offer.

If anyone else is like me and hasn't started on their Christmas shopping, with 2 weeks to go..... This is a great opportunity to pick up some very groovy, very different and very appreciated pressies!
Hope to see you there!
Pilgrim Hall, Paterson Street (opposite Myer Carpark), Launceston.

More from Niche

Too many great stalls to do justice to them all! This is just another snapshot of the weekend.

Apologies to all the amazing stallholders I have left out!

Life as a Bird Florist - I watched these beautiful flowers and arrangements walk out the door every day!

The Ruby Pear stall

Rebecca Roth - beautiful resin jewellery - gorgeous colours and style

Hungry Kitty - scrummy cakes, biscuits and more that kept all us other stallholders alive for the weekend! Contact Naomi here.

Susie of Black Eyed Susie

Isis, with trusty offsider Raewyn, and her brilliant recycled journals - we were side by side for the weekend (awesome company!) - also met her lovely partner Damian.

Find Your Niche

Just a quick post to pop some photos from the weekend's Niche Market. Three days of glorious handmade and design heaven.... sigh....
It was great to see some faces from the previous Niche Market and lots of new goodies as well. To all those who came along, a big thanks! Weather was a bit of a challenge, but heaps of folks braved the elements in order to bag a designer bargain and get a jump start on Christmas Shopping!

My little corner of Niche...

The always lovely Sophie from That Vintage

3 Blind Mice - 'upcycled' candles - just beautiful

Vee (The Purple Finch) and Kate (3 Blind Mice)

Sam & Maya from Hideyo - amazing origami artworks and bamboo clothing - contact them here

More soon......

Hi Ho Hi Ho.. it's off to Niche we go.....

With a last minute scramble to get stocked for Niche, I have found these great Bath Bombs through my work (we are a clinic and a beauty supplies wholesaler).

I was kind of looking for anything to help me bulk out the table and I use these myself and really like them.

I know that my usual MO is to have made everything myself, but desperate times and all that. Plus having sussed out their ingredients, it's nothing I wouldn't have put in myself. So I am happy with that.

I will have four 'flavours' to sell: Tropical Guava, Hawaiian Lei, Green Tea and Lemon Verbena.

They are all YUM! and last for ages if you break them up.

So now I am as set as I'm going to be and I am trying to just relax and look forward to meeting heaps of new people and getting to hang with ridiculously talented and clever folks for 3 days!

10 till 4, Inveresk Art Space..... see you there!

Holy Stock Levels Batman!!!

It's two days till Niche and I find myself the only remaining half of a duo. Natalie, who was sharing the stall with me, can no longer join me for the 3 day market and I am now frantically trying to create enough stock for the other half of the stall!
No fault of her own, poor girl has had a multitude of problems hit her all at once. Such is life....
So here I was coasting into the market thinking I had everything set and done a week in advance, but I was up a 6 this morning making more candles and a few batches of soap.
I won't have a huge range of soap to offer this time around (no ingredients) but have done up three of my fav's instead: Vanilla, Pomegranate & Black Currant; Spearmint & Rosemary and Moroccan Rhassoul.
I figure whatever I have will just have to be enough and if I sell out I will just take orders!
Wish me luck!

The Great Soap Giveaway....

Just a quick entry to let everyone know about a great giveaway that Erin from Inner Earth Soaps is currently doing.
If you are anything like me, a gorgeous handmade bar of soap is one of life's true pleasures and Erin is giving away a surprise package of soap once a month for 3 months to one lucky person!

Just click here for more info and best of luck!

ONLINE Baby!!

I am so stoked right now!

The very lovely (and very kind) Tameeka of Civic Homespun Market fame has let me join the online shop she runs through the market website.

I only sent her the information and pictures last night and she has already put the pages up for me!

I even have my own little "candles and soaps" section! How cool is that?!

At this stage I will make any orders as they come in. I'm still small enough to not really have the space (or moola) to have lots of stock on shelves.

Plus I have no idea what people might look at buying, so it works out better for me this way for now.

Check out red bamboo's first online store here!

Thanks Tameeka!!

reasonable absences......

Ok... so I haven't blogged for awhile....

This is the reason why!

These are some of the candles, melts, tea lights and lip balms I've been furiously making over the past few weeks for Niche, with more curing as I am taking this picture.

This 3 day designer market hits Launceston from the 27th - 29th November (10 till 4) and looks to be a huge event. Lots of familiar faces from the last Niche market, near Mothers Day, earlier this year, but some very tempting new folks as well!

After such a great response to my candles at the last market and in the time between, I decided very early on to concentrate on that side of things this time around and bring aboard Natalie from Gypsy Hill (more info soon), to fill the other half of the stall with her beautiful soaps.

That way it has saved me both the cost on ingredients and some serious production time! Plus we can spot each other for loo breaks over the weekend!

These are some new mosaic containers that I managed to get from my suppliers at a good price as they are a discontinued line - but I thought they would make a great 'Yuletide Collection' being red and green. I picture them in the centre pieces of folks Christmas dinners and so have filled them with fragrances such as: Tangerine, Applejack (red apple and cinnamon), Vanilla and Rhubarb. Hope folks like them.

Tell one...tell all... come along and see what great talented and craftie people we have down in Tassie!

Nifty New Niceties for Niche....

Am finally getting around to working through my production list for the upcoming Niche markets at the end of the month (eek!).

These are the new lip balm tins I mentioned a while back - I am really loving the little vintage tins and had fun making up new blends for lip 'shmackin' goodness too!

They all contain ingredients like Coconut Oil, Beeswax and Vitamin E, plus I add Organic Honey for extra softness and just a hint of sweetness!

I've done up four blends for the market:

Mandarin Mimosa (with gold Mica)

Spearmint & Lime

Vanilla & Red Grape Extract

Rose (with gold Mica)

This is one of my soy tea lights that I am testing for burn time and fragrance throw - this one's Cinnamon Sugar - yum!
The aroma is filling my kitchen and making me hungry......
Today I've made up Vanilla, White Tea & Ginger, Vintage Rose and Jasmine tealights - they are setting as we speak.

More touring...

This is becoming a bit of a tradition with anyone coming to visit with us down here - a trip to Penguin on the north coast and a photo with the big penguin (complete with halloween pumpkin on his head!?).

Aren't my folks cute?

Today we hit the Deloraine Craft Fair - it's HUGE! A bit tricky for us to get around to everything but we managed to see maybe half of what was on offer. Looking forward to next year - may even organise a stall for red bamboo.... hmmm.

I got to chat to Maya from Hideyo and she said the four days had been very busy and successful - they sold out of their beautiful origami flowers each day and spent the night and next day making more! Wé'll see them again at Niche in November.

We also managed to stumble apon the Pearns Steam World annual 'Steam Up' weekend. A rather (surprisingly for me) interesting family business centered around the preservation and restoration of old engines and machinery.

As you can see, plenty of rides for the 'kiddies'.....

Back to work tomorrow for hubby and me, then we'll be plotting the next trip....

It's been a little while....

It's been a little while since I blogged....

The folks are here for a holiday (their first to Tassie) and so our time has been well spent playing proud tour guide.

We have managed to cover some miles since they arrived and with the beautiful weather we have been having down here, it's been nice to get to know all of these wonderful places again and see it through their fresh eyes as well.

Unfortunately my Dad cannot walk as far as he used to, but fortunately, there are plenty of great places to drive to.

One of the places we've been to is Beaconsfield. Most will know of this town because of the Anzac Day 2006 Beaconsfield Mine Disaster. We went through the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre and were really impressed with both the size of the place and the effort that has gone into it all. Worth a look if you are in the area. What the two men went through is documented really well and I definitely have more of a sense of their survival in extreme circumstances. Scary stuff...

The Centre is also on the sight of the original mine in the area and so you get to walk through ruins of the old pump house - I think it contrasts nicely with the current operating mine.

This abandoned shed lies just back from the main street in the town. Hubby and I had seen it on a previous visit and were pleased to get back again so we could photograph it.
These Californian Poppies are in the garden at a Lavender Farm in Rowella - what brilliant colour! Tassie is putting on her best face for my folks visit - I am totally grateful!
Another driving trip today through the North West of Tassie and tomorrow we are hitting the Deloraine Craft Fair - apparently the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere! Yay!

Tealight Packs

These are my little Tealights, all grown up and packaged, ready to go out on their own into the world!
I've chosen to put them into packs of 4 for a couple of reasons...

1. They fit neatly into plastic bags I already had - so I didn't have to buy another 5000 bags in a different size from my packaging supplier!

2. The durn things cost me almost $2 each to make and so to make them into a 6 pack, I felt, would have priced them out of the market.

3. Cause I could! No seriously, I kind of like the smaller packs - I think they will make great stocking fillers.

All of this is gearing me towards the upcoming Niche Markets at the end of November. This time around it's a 3 day markets and so trying to 'guestimate' what to make and how much has been a challenge.

I think I have finally got a list of products to make up and am just double checking I now have enough stock to make it all!

And with Christmas looming, I don't think I am the only one who is feeling like we need to get a wiggle on and start getting organised.

How does these things come around so quickly.

On a completely different note.... did anyone see Spicks and Specks last night (21st Oct)? They had a young Australian singer on there named Megan Washington. Such an amazing voice!! Check her out on youTube here and here....

Tempting Tealights

I love getting to make new things and this time around I have finally gotten to do something I have been wanting to do for some time now.... Soy Tealights!

I've just finished my first few batches of tealights and am really stoked with how they are turning out. I got some awesome new fragrances last week too and so have had a really wonderful morning in the kitchen!

I wanted to give people another option rather than just burning the 'Made in China' paraffin tealights that (granted) you can buy so cheaply everywhere. Plus I think they look nicer too!

Also, the new fragrances I now have in stock are:

Mango Mango: a straight mango fragrance that works well by itself or mixed with other fruit scents.

Raspberries & Violets: sweet and alluring - summer Raspberries combined with the light floral of Violets for the perfect summertime fragrance.

Coconut Citrus Sorbet: a bright, Summery fragrance with the refreshing notes of lemon, zesty lime, creamy coconut milk and sweet vanilla bean. It's the perfect combination of sweet and citrus that that will make you dream of summer days!

Sandalwood: This fragrance will add a woody, lush and sensual note to any blend. It blends well with Citrus notes, but smells great alone too.

Asian Amber: A calming yet potent blend of earthy amber and exotic asian herbs. Strong enough to grab attention without being overwhelming.

Mandarin Mimosa: begins with crisp dew fruit, mandarin, oranges, tangerines and sweet berries. The heart combines a medley of pineapple, mimosa blossoms, peaches, plums, fruity jasmine and soft lavender. The base is a beautiful lily and vanilla. I know this sounds like a lot of aroma's, but it works so well!

Green Tea & Lemongrass: this bright and natural smelling citrus fragrance is a complex blend of sharp lemongrass balanced with the rounded notes of green tea. Fresh and uplifting.

Himalayan Bamboo: a complex union of bamboo foliage and rich green florals. The subtle character of this fragrance is calming rather than overwhelming, good for where a room filling, not house filling fragrance is desired.

At the moment I am loving the Himalayan Bamboo and Asian Amber, but the Coconut Citrus Sorbet is coming in a very close third!

(I have to stop buying more and more fragrances.... it's becoming an obession!!)

miss me much?

This is one of our cats, Joseph, shot late yesterday afternoon after we got back from a few days away in Hobart.

Either he missed me and was trying to immerse himself in my handbag so we couldn't leave again without him or.....

.....he's a great accessoriser!!!

I guess black really does go with everything!

Holidaying in Hobart

We have just gotten back from a quick weekend away in Hobart (the other city in Tasmania). Arriving home it struck me as a little surreal to be driving home after being there, instead of flying back to Brisbane!

Drew managed to find the loveliest Bed & Breakfast for us to stay in. Wayne and Lynn Parkes are two incredibly welcoming and gracious hosts and Clydesdale Manor was a beautiful building that immediately felt warm and comfortable. Whether in the lovely garden or the warm and cosy sitting room in front of the fire sipping port. Such a hard life......

After arriving Friday we hit the Salamanca markets first thing Saturday morning. This is one of the largest markets I've been to and while there are definitely some great stalls, there was also a lot of the 'usual fare'. But, I do think I have been spoiled by being part of some amazing handmade design markets, so imported goods don't excite me that much anymore.

After the markets we went driving and found the Wooden Boat Centre at Franklin. This shed sitting on the side of the Franklin River plays host to an information centre, but they also run wooden boat building courses (an 18 month diploma and shorter 7 weeks course where you build a wooden dingy!). Very interesting to see and good to hear that crafts such as this are being kept alive by a passionate few.

Today was a mosey back to Lonnie with a stopover at Stefano Lubiana wines in Granton - about 20 minutes from Hobart. We were a bit taken with a few of their wines and a good few dollars later staggered out with a cartonful!

We also stopped off in New Norfolk at The Drill Hall Emporium. This amazing store is full of the wonders and wares of yesteryear! Everything in the store was very well displayed and in great condition. A bit pricey for us 'non-Antiquers' but well worth a wander if anyone is in the area.

All in all, a very lovely weekend - possibly the last free one before Christmas!!

Soap Arrival!

I am so stoked!!! What a great 'parcel' day!
Two orders arrived (always fun to unpack) plus my soaps from Bunny Bubbles Designs!

These were a prize from the SAFE challenge of BonBons n Booze a few weeks ago. These lovely little chappies have come all the way from the US - thanks Terry!

Looking forward to my bath tonight!!