'Christmas In July' came early with the ABCD goodie bags!!!

Ditty, Bec & Sophie

some of the girls including the fabulous Anni (in swanky red boots on the left)

arrivals adding their treats to the goodie bags!

 I mentioned in my last post, that I was about to attend the Sydney, ABCD Winter meet-up. Well, it's now been and gone, {in fact it's over a week ago already - oh WHERE oh where does the time go??!}.

...The first one for Sydney, (which I went along to), was late last year.
I was so nervous and not sure I could actually BE brave enough to go out to a pub on my own to meet strangers - no matter how much we were deemed to have in common!
It was such a lovely experience though, that this time I didn't need any 'Rescue Remedy', or "I WILL be brave!!"type mantras!!

It was a really lovely evening and I enjoyed chatting with some lovely, talented and creative ladies (and briefly to a very nice artist called Geoffrey, who loves to imbue his paintings with positive energy!).

I especially enjoyed chatting to Steph, Ditty, Bec, Roberta and Anni, and as always was thrilled to see Anastasia, whom I now count amongst my good friends, having met her through the Australian Etsy team DUST. {They all have great blogs / businesses, so do go ahead & check out the links to see for yourself}.

Anastasia and me!! :)

We were invited to bring along something for a goodie bag to help others remember us. I opted in, as it's a lovely idea. Now, I have to be honest here, one of the highlights was getting to bring home said goodie bag - bursting at the seams with lovely, fabbo things to remember the others by by!!

photo by Lisa of The Red Thread of some of her bag contents.
{my contribution is top right!}

In Australia, because Christmas is HOT, and doesn't feel like Christmas 'should' (that's kind of how I feel anyway, having grown up in the Northern hemisphere!), we sometimes kind of celebrate "Christmas in July"!
Hence my title to this post! I don't think we'll be making snowmen, cooking roast turkey, singing carols and pulling crackers, but my son's school is having a fete, and there wil be a temporary ice rink in the local park. Of course I am digressing now....

.... back to the goodies.
Take a peep here at the lovely loot I came home with!!

Please forgive me if I don't caption and link to the giver of each item, I'll NEVER get this post published if I do that.... instead for more details & pics of who gave what see Steph's post here.

THANK YOU to all the girls, and especially to Steph and Lisa for organising / hosting.
Three cheers to them, HIP HIP HOORAY!!!
                                   HIP HIP HOORAY!!!
                                   HIP HIP HOORAY!!!

Lovely ladies Lisa (left) and Steph (right).

What a great night!


Take care Lovlies, I'm off to watch a little TV with hubby before bed,


Sally x 0 x

It's that time again... the ABCD (Winter) meet-up is coming soon...VERY soon!

This Thursday the SYDNEY ABCD meet-up will take place...........

ABCD (Artists + Bloggers + Crafters + Designers) which was co-founded by Steph Bond  from Bondville and Kim Wallace from Udessi, hold quarterly meetups as a chance for art, design and craft bloggers to get out from behind their computers and meet face-to-face at a casual get-together. 
Steph says "The meet-ups have no set structure, and are designed to be an informal gathering at a bar or cafe on a Thursday evening. ABCD Meetups have resulted in new friendships and some great design collaborations!"

If you want to come along to any meet-ups, you simply need to RSVP before the event date, and are given a name badge at the meet-up. Attendees are also given the opportunity to share something with the other participants in an ABCD goodie bag. This a more effective, and more funway to help others remember you! 


Last time I made some paper embellishments, and put them in a bag, with a postcard, my card and a sweetie! :)

As I said above, the next ABCD Meetup will be in Sydney, THIS Thursday { 30th June }, hosted by Steph Bond Hutkin from Bondville and Lisa Tilse from the red thread. 

I'm looking forward to having a catch-up with creative people, some I met last time, and some new faces - it doesn't happen for me very often these days. I miss it. (In fact with two small kids, and my family 12,000 miles or so away, I don't even get out that much at all!!!)


I'll let you know how it goes, and give you a peek in the goodie bag!!


In the meantime, I'd better decide what I shall be contributing to the goodie bags! hmmm......??!


Sally xox

Last week's Sydney ABCD meet-up!

I am later in posting about this event, than I would have liked. Oh well, small boys must come first...
(at least SOMETIMES anyhow!!).

What:  ABCD Sydney Meet-up     When:  Thursday 28th October

 The ABCD (Artists + Bloggers + Crafters + Designers) Meetups are a chance for art, design and craft bloggers to get out from behind their computers and meet face-to-face at a casual quarterly get-together.

"The meet-ups have no set structure, and are designed to be an informal gathering at a bar or cafe on a Thursday evening."

True to their promise organisers/ hosts Steph Bond  and Lisa Tilse gave us a fun, casual gathering (in a swanky room, in a bar). Which luckily for me was in my very suburb!! Yes, I know, so lucky!! : )
                                                                           
Thank you Lisa & Steph, and also Kim of Udessi for co-organising. You all did a great job!

We were invited to bring something along (well, around 30 somethings!!) for the goodie bags, so I made up extra of the Spring embellishments I had made for the Creative Collective project, and made up little mini goodie bags, with one of these in , a postcard, a sticker and a lolly.

 The goodie bags were a lovely treat and were filled with all sorts of creative yumminess such as a little apple pin cushion, hand-made cards and tags and a teeny-weeny cute knitted tea-cup! Oh, plus more lollies. Yum!

My favourites were the Screenprinted fabric bookmark by Michelle from Me We and the little Apple pincushion by Dandi, but everything was fabulous. Thanks muchly to all who contributed to the goodie bags - I loved mine! ♥

for more details of the goodie bag contents (and better photos) see Steph's post here !

This is ME with the lovely Anastasia

Of course the best bit was meeting some of the lovely creative ladies who were there, every one of them beautiful AND talented! My only regret was that I didn't get to meet EVERY single one of them!

I had an awesome time chatting to the likes of these awesome gals: Amanda, Anastasia, Lisa, Steph, Sarah and Jessica...

In the (prettily put) words of Steph -

it was "LOVELY TO MEET YOU"!

                        ♥

Do you live in Sydney??

... I do. If you do too, maybe you'd like to come along to the ABCD meet-up.
I am going. I am looking forward to meeting lots of lovely creative types (and having a couple of hours off from 'Tiddlypeep' duty to boot!!)






Photo: this gorgeous banner is by BabysBunting on Etsy

   The details:
"The ABCD (Artists + Bloggers + Crafters + Designers) Meetup is a chance for art, design and craft bloggers to get out from behind their computers and meet face-to-face at a casual quarterly get-together. The meet-ups have no set structure, and are designed to be an informal gathering at a bar or cafe on a Thursday evening."

The Sydney meetup is     hosted by Steph Bond (Bondville) and Lisa Tilse (The Red Thread )

Participants simply need to RSVP before the event date, and are given a name badge at the meet-up, as well as the opportunity to share something with the other attendees in the ABCD goodie bags - a great way to be a little creative and help others remember you. Previous goodies have included mini lavender sachets, origami birds, product samples, cards, etc.

The important bits:



WHEN: Thursday October 28, 2010
TIME: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
WHERE: 3 Weeds Hotel 197 Evans Street, Rozelle

To RSVP or see more info go here

Hope to see you there!

Sally x