What Blogging means to me...

This post is homework.
Yes, really. I have been doing a brilliant e-course called "Blogging your way 2.0" by the outstandingly-talented-and-oh-so-lovely Holly Bekker, author of bestselling Interiors book Decorate and Decor8 blog.

{photo}

Sadly due to ill health, a wayward husband (it's all work, nothing more dramatic, but it takes him away from home sometimes) and a few minor disasters (that resulted in several visits to the local hospital's casualty department), I have been struggling failing to keep up!
However, what I have got from the course thus far has been fantastic and I hope to use the next 4 weeks (whilst the content is still available) to catch up and make the most of it!

• I have learned about the importance having a plan, a direction, my own (authentic) voice; and I have been encouraged to work hard, be consistent, to not be discouraged and not to rush to get to where I want to be. 
• Useful resources have been shared, for improving your blog, tips on monetizing and various other things I had dreamed of one day achieving but not known where to begin or who to go to for advice!
•  I have also discovered some lovely blogs and some very talented and interesting people!            
• ..... It's moved me on to the next road in my creative journey, it's time to leave the roadhouse, (to use a very Aussie analogy), where I have been metaphorically resting with a beer and a meat pie for far too long!! Watch this space, I am hoping to vastly { but slowly} improve my blog and to create a plan for my creative future...

Thank you Holly - I now have the courage to take the next step in my life, and now that my kids have both started school, there's no time like the present to begin...

{In summary I would definitely recommend this course!}

Anyway, this week's homework was to write a blog post not only about what I have gained from the course but also what blogging means to me. {The first part I have answered above, the second below!}

Well, for me blogging is really all about two things:
 1. Connecting with the world - the (now huge) little-pocket of creative types in the world to be more specific. I began because I missed having other creative people around me, especially for the bouncing around of ideas. Since I left my design job to have my kids, I didn't really have anyone creative in my life. Connecting with others firstly through my Etsy shop and then later my blog, actually helped me out of a long bout of depression. I have made some truly great friends through the online craft & design community. I also now have a few crafty / creative friends locally.

2. My blog is to me, a kind of journal. It's a place to record and share creative inspiration, and general eye-candy, and also to document some snippets of my life. It's even a place friends and family can visit to see what my 'expat' life Downunder is like, or to gain a greater insight into my character and my taste. I don't think they do, mind you! But they could!!

Me and my little peeps! (photo by Milk & Honey photography).

I have really enjoyed reading the homework posts of some of the other students too.

Take care,
love,
 Sally xox

one of those days?!... ah but wait it's a new kind...

caution: KIDS.

thus we can only go be right! right?

Hello.
It's been a while. sorry. It's been school holidays and I was sick for 3 weeks and... well that's all boring...
I'm here now!

I wanted to ask you if you have those kinds of days where it all seems wrong and hard and depressing and you keep saying to yourself or anyone who'll listen "I'm having 'ONE OF THOSE DAYS'!"?

I do. But luckily for me today is the opposite.
I am having a positive, sunny, funny happy day. Usually nothing remarkably bad has happened on the other kind of day and today nothing remarkably good has happened in fact.
So. What's the difference, I don't know? The side of the bed I got out of / the weather (in my case it may well be), anyhoo, I think it mostly comes down to attitude. My attitude.

Positivity and being able to laugh at yourself are key.
You see this morning we did the usual stressful rush to school, lots of shouting, followed by hearing the bell ring as we were almost approaching the gate. Phew, no late note at least, but not the best start to the day. For any of us. People notice it too, the lateness that is.

I had a quick coffee next with a couple of good mum-friends, another (quite handsome) dad-friend, walks by and asks 'were you late AGAIN today?'... hmm, looks like YES, people are noticing we are late. EVERY day!!
I paused to think of a witty answer for him but instead, in that precise moment, a realisation dawned on me that I have spent ALL my life thinking I am no good at anything much, but I realised, that in fact I am ACTUALLY REALLY VERY GOOD INDEED AT BEING LATE!
More things too, Procrastination is one of my star talents, (even more so than my tardiness), I'm pretty hot at poor-time-management too............... you get the idea!

I of course shared this insight, making said friends laugh and instantly my day shot uphill. I like to make people laugh. But I also like to be positive and be able to laugh at myself! (Hopefully my friends were laughing with me rather than at me, but hey at the end of the day a laugh is a laugh!).

Okay maybe I take self-deprecation too far, but I think what I ACTUALLY realised and finally accepted is I am way too hard on myself.

I feel like I let go a bit today and feel lighter.

I enjoyed my coffee. I went on to a great yoga class. Then I came home and had a glorious walk in the sun with  Instagram (my new obsession) as my quiet companion. I saw beauty in the ordinary. Beauty pretty much with every step.

I already keep up a grateful album on my Facebook, because I love how noticing and being grateful for simple pleasures makes like so much better. The laughing helps too.

Not all moments or days will be good, but I hope I can remember not to necessarily write the whole day off as bad next time I have "one of those days", I want to try to recapture some of the feeling of "one of these days"!! I will try to concentrate on finding the beautiful, the funny, the tasty etc
 I will try to think of the bad bits as just MOMENTS or incidents, and remind myself the day can turn around at any time.

My advice to you when you have one of those days (and to my negative-alter-ego) is try to do any or ALL of the following:

BE POSITIVE #   BE GRATEFUL #  LOOK FOR THE BEAUTY IN THE EVERYDAY #
BE KIND TO YOURSELF. #  TRY TO DO SOMETHING YOU LIKE #  DO SOMETHING USEFUL (crossing off your to-do list is uplifting right?!) #   AVOID PEOPLE WHO ARE BAD FOR YOU #  EXERCISE OR GO FOR A WALK#  GET ABSORBED IN SOMETHING YOU FIND FUN OR RELAXING (like reading or Instagram or Pinterest!)....
 {or swear and stamp your feet etc first and then do it!!! hehe :0)}
Failing all else - go buy chocolate or have a 'Nanna-Nap' if you can!
And remind yourself this feeling will not last for ever!!!

This post is illustrated with the photos I took on my walk in the sunshine just now.

Are you on Instagram? Do you like it?

Let me know your username if you like, I'll check you out! 

I'm Sali_chameleon

me trying out the idea of uber long legs!

Now it's time for some soup!
hope you are having a positive day,


Sally x

{footnote: this was yesterday's day. i am tardy in my posting. See, I'm good!!!}

Milk & Honey

Hello everyone!  Happy Australia Day!

If you are in Australia, how have you spent the day? We have been reading, playing (the boys), de-cluttering and having a good old Aussie BBQ!

... Anyway, I was thinking that today is a great opportunity to share with you, a celebration of our life here, (it's coming up to ten years since my husband and I immigrated)!
I love where I live, so when I won a fabulous photo shoot from the awesome photography studio Milk & Honey, {courtesy of Bondville}, I wanted to use it to have a visual reminder of our happy times here. I've enjoyed many an hour with my boys, at our various favourite local parks. Several of them have fabulous views, so I chose one that is quintessentially 'SYDNEY' with it's views of the city, the Harbour Bridge, Anzac Bridge and myriad passing boats, (including the lovely old Sydney Ferries). We've had many a picnic at this particular park!

Matthew took our photos, the boys thoroughly enjoyed the shoot and I felt relaxed and at ease too, even though I usually hate having my photo taken!
He even rewarded them with the hugest, stripiest lollipops they had ever seen, which were apparently also the yummiest too!!

I was thrilled with the results, and so were my husband, and my family in the UK, whom I surprised with prints as Christmas gifts. My favourite was the triple matted story of three prints which was part of my generous prize. I also bought hubs a fantastic little bound book full of images, which meant being able to take home 18 of the fab shots!

  I'd love to share some of the wonderful pics with you here.

ahhh, I do love my boys so!!


Steph, over at Bondville has also just shared some of the pics - you can see her post here.

I thoroughly recommend Milk & Honey - so if you'd like to see more of Anni and Matthew's fabulous photography, you can visit them on Facebook or at their website or their blog.

Thanks to Steph, Matthew and Anni, {three lovely, lovely people!}

Happy Australia day to all!

Love & hugs,
Sally xox

Customer Appreciation ~ Kelsey's Button Bouquet

Hi there! ...

Today I'd love to show you something one of my clever customers made.

Her name is Kelsey and this is the fab button bouquet she made for her wedding. Her and her partner (now hubby) Aaron, eloped on 'Cinco De Mayo'  and then threw a wedding for family and friends afterwards. 
"Double wedding-time!" says Kelsey - sounds fun to me! 

The flowers are made from birchwood shavings, by a  Philippine Etsy seller, (unfortunately the shop no longer exists).

Kelsey says:

"We paid for our own wedding so our budget was teensy and while flowers are awesome, they're too expensive for what we were planning. I found the idea for a button bouquet on Off Beat Bride. I changed the technique a little but it's basically the same idea. All you need is buttons of various sizes and colors, floral wire or a small gauge jewelry wire, pliers, floral tape and wire cutters. And patience, haha!" .....

Kelsey continues:

"I highly recommend to anyone to take on some crafts when planning their wedding because 

a) it keeps you sane! 

b) it saves you money! "

One of the button packs Kelsey bought from me - beautiful vintage 'Butterscotch' buttons

{image and buttons by Jambo Chameleon}

Thanks so much for sharing Kelsey!


I love it when my customers send me photos of things they make from their

 Jambo Chameleon purchases!

Bye for now!

Love,

Sally xox

Etsy Meet-Up ~ paint-a-plate-fun!!

Last week I went to an Sydney Etsy Team meet-up at a really cool studio called Eagle Soup!

There were about 30 crafty types there and thanks to Kirsteene Phelan we were armed with ceramic drawing pens, all we had to do was bring a plate (or other ceramic receptacle of our choosing!!)

Kit the team leader and Katy had made lots of treats for us, including delicious heart-shaped vegie quiches, a gingerbread house and gingerbread folk. Yum!

Katy (left) and Kit

my plate part way through (I'll post a finished pic later - put my plates in a "safe" place & can't find them admidst the Crimbo chaos!!)

me - doing what I love best ~ being a crafty pixie!!

There were some great designs from talented folk looksee:

It was lots of fun :)

There were even goodie bags when we left!

love,
Sally xox

Creative Christmas Gift Wrapping

Hello,
are you feeling festive yet?

This week, I was thrilled to be asked to make a video for Fairfax Media, as part of their DIY Christmas series, on Creative Gift Wrapping for Christmas.


You can watch it here!

Myself "on set" at the filming! The set was really the beautiful home of the lovely Cate Holst
(whom you can see with her gorgeous smile in the last photo!).
Cate also made a couple of wonderful videos - visit her blog post here for one of her featured recipes,
and her post about the videos here.

Anyhoo, my philosophy on gift wrapping is that it's great to try to be more creative and eco-friendly, by using simple supplies and what you have to hand rather than buying store bought 
specific Christmas wrapping paper, tags and those dreaded plastic bows!


Those bows along with most Christmas wrap are not recyclable and end up languishing in landfill.
Hopefully you may even save yourself a heap of money!

This gift looks stunning but cost me nothing to wrap - it was all from salvaged items!

Basically, the best way to go about this is to firstly gather supplies ~ make yourself a "Useful Box" for gift-wrapping, and card & tag making. I find one of those plastic tubs with lids is perfect, you know the kind you can store under your bed, (you may want to be even more more 'green' and use a cardboard box, by all means go with what suits you!).

some of my supplies, tools and handmade embellishments.

Examples of what you may want to put in your useful box are paper and ribbons salvaged from gifts you have received along with any interesting found papers, fun stuff like vintage Bingo cards and tools such as sticky tape, string, scissors, a hole punch and so on. 
{For a more comprehensive supplies list, as well as tips on wrapping awkward items, and embellishing your gifts to make them stand out from the norm, you can download an information booklet here}. 


What you can then do is surround yourself with your gifts and your useful box contents and let both inspire you. I like to put on some Christmas music, or just music that I like, and maybe have a little tipple or treat to get into the festive spirit! 
Just Remember:
* it doesn't have to perfect
* it doesn't have to take long
* just have fun and enjoy it 
* the recipient is sure to appreciate your efforts!! 


Below are some of the example-gifts I created for the Fairfax video! The first four are the same gift simply wrapped in brown paper but then embellished in four different ways. The last photo is of the same gift wrapped in fabric and topped with a brooch for super fun, modern and reusable gift wrap! 

By the way this fabulous brooch in the last pic, was made by my friend Janelle,
{if you'd like one, don't worry as once her shop is up and running I'll blog about it, with a link! }

Finally I'd like to mention (for the uninitiated!) that Etsy is a great place to buy supplies for your creative gift-wrapping, or for finding fabulous, unique handmade or vintage items to give as gifts.

 vintage buttons and vintage belt buckles available from my Etsy shop

Here are a few more great items I found on Etsy.

Christmas stickers from Joey Design

vintage French banner style labels by Petite Fabrique

Kraft and cream tags - great for you to embellish, from Percival Road

I hope I have inspired you to get creative this year!!


For the video, I was also asked to mention some tips for sustainable packing solutions should you need to post your gifts to friends and loved ones not so near.
This got edited out as we were pressed for time, but I will be blogging about that in the next couple of days, so please do stop by again soon for that post .


Feel free to share any of your own creative wrapping tips or ideas in the comments. I always love to hear from you!


Happy wrapping!!


Love,
Sally x0x