Vintage Finds and Christmas Drama

As it is December, on Tuesday I started to put up Christmas decorations, starting with changing my tablecloth to a Christmassy red one and stringing up tinsel around the house. My husband, being the romantic and sweet man that he is had brought me home a bunch of ten red roses the night before. Then, this weekend I'll be singing a song with my mum, and had laid the sheet music out on the table to practice...

...leads to a very dramatic looking table doesn't it? Pretty, but an oh so dramatic Christmas scene. And what would Christmas be without drama, it always seems to show up at some point.

Anyway, on to the main point of this post. A couple of weeks ago my aunty/shop lady challenged me to go on a hunt for vintage items to start contributing items other than my quilled creations to our little shop. I did so last week, and would you believe the items sold?? Being the goose that I am I neglected to actually take photos of the items before they went to the shop :s

So, given that it seems I have an eye for this vintage finding thing, yesterday I went off and did it again.

The vase full of flowers is not for sale obviously, I just thought my dramatic table was a good backdrop for the photos.

These candlesticks were actually bought in the first vintage hunt that I did, but they were in need of a good cleaning so they didn't make it to the shop last week. I also added some lovely long pink candles and tied two tiny white roses around each of the candlesticks to make them more delicate and girly.

This tiny teacup is so sweet, I'm guessing it once belonged to a children's teaset, and perhaps a teddy bear drank imaginary tea from it. It was in bad shaped but I gave it the cleaning of a lifetime and it came up just lovely.

I love etched glass, and this bowl with its little flowers was too pretty to pass up.

No one can have too many tiny vases in my opinion, and I can see this sitting on someone's windowsill with a few wild flowers sitting in it. I added the little rose to the bottom for decoration.

This little nun thinks its all such a scandal! I realise that being a religious figurine it may take just the right buyer to find her a home, but the look on her face made me giggle and I just couldn't resist her.

This little china vase is charming, and almost matches the next item...

A little china trinket box! The detail engraved on the edging is beautiful. I can see this and the vase on someone's nightstand, holding little flowers and the owner's earrings or something.

Now, while I love all of these items and look forward to seeing how they go in the shop, I must not forget my quilled items in this post. I've been meaning to post about my quilled snowflakes for over a week, and while there's little to say there is plenty to see.

They've been very popular and today I'll be busy making more. I put glitter along the edges on both sides of them, so that they sparkle in your tree. They're lots of fun to make and I think I may keep one for my tree too, they're just so pretty.

I realise that living in Australia its quite ironic to be selling snowflakes at Christmas, given I've never seen snow I am very aware. I just love the design and the look of them, they are beautiful and are good for those Christmases where you wish it wasn't 37c degrees and would much rather be rugged up by a fireplace for the day.

I think that they deserve their place on anyone's tree just for how pretty they are, and somewhere in the world it is snowing on Christmas, we can't just represent our country when we celebrate Christmas, it is a world event, so snowflakes belong on trees anywhere I say.

That's for all the stick-in-the-muds who scoff at wintery items at Christmas time. Hmmmppphhh.

I guess I did have something to say about them afterall.

Okay, I'm off to quill, have a lovely lead up to Christmas my loyal readers.

xnata

It's Been so Quiet...

It's been ages since I've posted anything on here!

I guess I've got some explaining to do...

Well, amongst the usual madness that is life, for the last few weeks I've been finishing off a semester at uni which has kept me so busy I have barely quilled at all. But on Friday I had my last exam for the semester so I can finally breath and get back to quilling! Yay!

Oh, but there is one other thing that's kept me busy...


You see ladies, I....AM PREGNANT!

Yes! I'm due in May, and we are over-joyed about our little one. The whole family is very excited, it's going to be a big new adventure for us all, with there being four first-time grandparents, one first-time aunty and three first-time uncles!

I'm lucky, so far this has been a very healthy pregnancy. Morning sickness was involved for most of the days of my first trimester, but now it seems like it is easing up quite nicely. I have to eat every two hours or I turn white and feel all faint, but that's managable with an emergency musli bar in my bag at all times. And I am bigger, my tummy isn't quite at that round pregnant belly yet, so I guess you couldn't say I'm showing yet, but it's certainly bigger than it has ever been in my whole life; none of my pants fit anymore!

My big craving isn't a weird food combination like many women get, but I do get the craving every day, and if I don't eat it everything else I eat makes me feel a bit sick, so I've learned to just do as my body tells me. And the craving is bananas!

Due to this craving, we've been joking that I may be having a monkey (teehee), so when I was wandering through the markets this morning I saw this and COULD NOT leave it there...

 

It'll be a long time before someone is filling this out, but come on, how CUTE is it?!! Its the very first thing I've bought for the baby, so I think as soon as our little one has outgrown it I'll be framing it and hanging it on the wall as a special little memento. But not before I've taken fifty photos of our little one wearing it of course. 

We have officially decided that we won't be finding out the gender until the baby is here, so until then we are referring to him/her as Little Buddy, or LB. Those of you who know me and Matt personally will know that this is because Matt and I often call each other buddy :)

Everyone's having fun guessing if its a boy or a girl, but so far the guesses are pretty evenly divided. I don't care quite frankly. I just love it either way.

So there you go. Is that a sufficient excuse? Oh well, if it isn't I'll be busy making lots of quilled goodies this week and I'll post lots of photos to make it up to you.

Meanwhile, doesn't our cottage look stunningly beautiful right now?

The new paint job is a major improvement.

And inside its just heavenly.

:)

xNata & LB!

Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside

...Oh I do like to be beside the sea!

Tomorrow in our shop the theme table will be visiting the seaside!

Just imagine a table full of pretty seahorse cushions and bags and all sorts of other ocean themed items that would just love to go home with someone new!

These two cards of my creation will be there:

my whale is still with us, I don't know why, if I saw that for sale I'd snap it up - I'm going to get a memory box/photo box and make another whale to live inside it, maybe he's just too nice to be only a card, I'm not sure.

And my seahorse will be there keeping the whale company!

Lilly Cottage & Friends

in Coutts Cottage

at the Petrie Markets

Sundays from 8am to 2pm!

Look forward to seeing you!

xnata

So Much More

If Paris themed cards aren't what you are looking for, I have much more to offer.

Baby bootie cards

Wedding dress cards - great for giving with wedding or engagement gifts

Thank you cards

And even some Dad related cards for those buying last minute Father's Day gifts.

There is more, but I'll let you come and find them for yourselves :)

If we don't see you down at Coutt's Cottage this Sunday, I hope you have a nice day with the fathers in your family, and Happy Father's Day to all daddies from me.

I love my Daddy,

xnata.

Ooh La La!

At Lilly Cottage & Friends we've got a special theme table on which we display our precious items in a different theme every week.

This week our theme is French, so I've been working on some Ooh La La items!

The Eiffel Tower with a pinky paper to compliment

A French Poodle

A tribute to the romantic city

Cute, oui?



I've always loved French, I learned it a bit in primary school and learning to speak it fluently is on my life 'to-do' list. I'll take lessons one day (when I have time), but for now I practice by learning french songs, which is lots of fun. I know quite a few now, and I'm actually starting to be able to tell you what the words mean, so that's a step in the right direction I say.

So, if you love gay Paree, come and spend a spring day at the Petrie markets with us!

C'est si bon,

xnata

Shop Treasures: Through the Eyes of a Little Girl

While we were setting up our shop, a little girl kept my husband on his toes :D

Rosey's youngest girl, the adorable, inexhaustable Claudia.

Before we went home from the day I gave her a little lesson in photography; here is our shop through her eyes.

Pretty good, don't you think?

I say there's another artist in the family :)

xnata

Moving In Day!

Today I joined my shop friends at Coutts Cottage to move our goodies in to one of the two rooms we will have! We'll be open this Sunday, the 29th, but we are saving our Grand Opening Day for when the place has had a coat of paint on the outside and hopefully we'll have our second room too.

Now I'm not going to go showing you the whole glorious thing at once, if you want to see it you'll have to come down this Sunday or wait for our Grand opening, but here's a sneak peek for my loyal blog followers:

Out the front there are pretty pink flowers...

So many treasures lie beyond that window...

Like these goodies, made by my two market buddies!

My cards are there of course, in a new display case that I decorated :D

But really there is just so much more to it than this, you really should come and see the rest for yourself.

Although shortly I'll be posting a few pictures of our stuff from someone else's point of view...

looking forward to Sunday the 29th!

We'll be open from 8am-2pm folks!

xnata

A Big Announcement

Hello my devoted blog followers, I am back from Cairns!

More on that in my next post though. I have something else to tell you about.

You know that poster I made and showed you in the last post? I kind of don't need it anymore.

You see, I won't be having a market stall anymore.


Rosey and Linda and I are making a move, into Couts Cottage at the Petrie Markets!

That's right, we're moving up in the world and our goods will be available for purchase every Sunday! My cards will be there every week! I'll be there some Sundays, we'll be working out the finer details soon.

I wish I had a picture of my own to mark this momentous post, but I don't, if you click on Linda's link above you'll see the beautifully magical place at which my cards will be from the 29th of August on. They'll be there every week people, every week. Very exciting, and I'll continue to detail this exciting new chapter of Renata Clarke Designs right here on this blog so stay tuned.

Happy dance time!

xnata

New Poster

Just thought I'd make a quick post to show you the new poster I've made for our market stall. I've done this on two pieces of about A1 sized paper (so really big paper), and apart from the flowers and clouds this was all traced, so don't give me too much credit there. As I said I've made two of them so that we'll have one for either side of the blackboard we use at our market stall, and I coloured it all in with these cool pastel sharpies I bought ages ago and until now hadn't actually used. Now its just a matter of having them laminated and then they'll be all ready to go!

Looking at it makes me smile, I hope it does the same for everyone :)

xnata

Seahorses and Hot Air Balloons

MARKETS THIS SUNDAY!!!

Petrie Markets Sunday 8th of August

8am-2pm

That's right, its the second Sunday of the month this Sunday, so my market buddy and I will be at the Petrie Markets from 8am-2pm. I'm very busy with uni and various other life stuff at the moment so I apologise for my slack posting both last week and I'm guessing in the week that is ahead of me.

I'll be heading off to Cairns for five days on Thursday of next week, a much needed break from everything, but I promise to take pictures and have a wonderful time. But before that I'll be doing a test for one of my uni courses, cleaning this house and packing everything we need, and of course, going to the markets.

I've made thirteen cards for this market, and I won't show you all of them but here are some of the treasures to be bought by willing customers:

A happy birthday cupcake, of which I have another in purple and green.

A seahorse to keep the whale card company because it is still with us at the moment.

Some green trees for a change, because Autumn isn't the only season.

and a hot air balloon to float away in.

I've also made some flowery cards, some dragonflies and some butterflies. All good fun and pretty.

So if you like what you see there's more where that came from, I'll see you this Sunday!

xnata

Markets In the Wet

Today's market featured a guest that can be nice sometimes but spoils outdoor events, rain.

As we arrived it was dry (picture above was taken exactly 2 minutes before the rain began) and not too cold and we thought it would be a good day, but alas it began to spit and continued to spit on and off all morning. This of course meant that the crowds were smaller than usual, and most of those there were hurrying along under umbrellas and only stopping to go into actual buildings or to buy food.

However, while I did have my lowest number of customers ever, one wonderful woman saved the day for me by buying...SEVEN of my cards. Wow. I hope she enjoys them. Thanks to her it was another profitable market adventure, and I must get cracking on making lots more before I have the next market, which I believe would be the 8th of August. I do have two assignments coming up that month but I'll balance them out as best as I can and see how we go.

Before this market day I managed to make eleven cards, which was good, and six of them are baby bootie cards, only one of which actually sold today, but oh well, I've got them for next time I guess.

These are the baby bootie cards, in 'its a boy' and 'its a girl' varieties, I also have ones that just say 'congratulations' and are in non-gender specific colours for those who are giving them at baby showers or perhaps to a grandparent rather than the parents.

This cute little flamingo has gone off to a new home already.

This bunch of roses has also already been bought...

...As has this tree.

It wasn't a brilliant day seeing as the rain came and the sun never showed, but it was still a pretty good day seeing as both me and my market buddy made profits. So we'll be back on the 8th with rings on our fingers and bells on our toes. But the rain is not invited and will be very unwelcome if it shows up. Rain rain go away, Please don't come on market day!

Whatever craft you do, go do some!

xnata