Four handmade kiddo clothing labels

Before Ayana was born we spent a small fortune on all organic, natural coloured (we didn't know the gender yet) newborn clothing.  I couldn't stand the idea of dressing our precious little bundle in chemical seeped, sweat shop clothing from The Baby Factory.  Then we realised how fast these small humans grow!  It felt like she needed new clothes every two weeks and that was getting pretty expensive!  So I made the most of sales and hunted out what ever cotton clothes I could.  The problem is that it didn't feel good and started weighing on my conscious.  Not only did I feel like I could never explain to Ayana why it is alright for people in slave labour conditions to work 18 hours a day to make the clothing we wear, but I also realised how many amazingly talented locals are struggling to make ends meet with their own lovingly hand crafting clothes.  As it turns out it doesn't cost a  whole lot more to buy locally, it just requires a bit of forethought because you have to do you're homework and track them down!  Here are a few that I have discovered over the past year.  Tell me these aren't so much cuter than all that store bought crap...

OlI E LUI

I discovered this little label when I stumbled upon their stall at the Wellington markets.  I barely had a baby bump yet but really couldn't resist... over a year later and she was finally big enough to actually be able to wear them!  From memory they are made by a sweet mama from Gisborne.

IDLE WILD

These handmade kiddo clothes are the creation of two very talented ladies from Wellington.  All the fabrics have been hand dyed and printed with non toxic colours and are so stinking cute that I'm really wishing they would make some in adult sizes! I only discovered them very recently but something tells me they're going to be a favourite!

OLLIE

Oh where would we be without Facebook?  Somebody suggested I check them out because they were having a sale on these cute pinafores. Sadly there were none left in Ayana's size but I fell in love with them all the same.  I think I'm going to start making these sweet little bibs a 'baby present' staple, seeing as how everybody around us seem to be breeding at the moment!

1 ME

Ooo how cute is this shop?  There's really nothing here I don't want but those capes are really something else!  I love how everything is re-purposed  and made from vintage or old fabrics.

xx

P.S If you haven't checked out FELT then you should.  So many great New Zealand handmade sellers.

DIY wedding: Flower crowns

I'm not a romantic at heart, I can't take romance seriously at all.  But every now and then I surprise myself.  Of course I made daisy chains out in the garden when I was young and wore them proudly until they wilted into my hair.  Although I never particularly admitted it as an adult, I always secretly yearned to wear a crown of wild flowers again like some kind of fairy queen.  So when Nic finally talked me into having a big wedding (I wanted to run off and elope) I knew this would be my chance!  I found some great wire covered in neutral ribbon the other day and decided to start experimenting.  Using fresh flowers requires some trial and error.  Not all flowers can withstand the heat, or last long once they have been cut and are without water.  I discovered that some of the most hardy (and beautiful) ones were growing in the field right beside our house.  If you ask me, a bunch of beautiful flowering weeds look much more romantic than some stuffy, expensive roses.  Anyway so operation flower crown is underway.  I would love for all the girls (and boys if they like) to be able to sit down together before the wedding and each make ourselves a beautiful crown to wear.  I read somewhere recently that you can even make them the day before and then pop them in the freezer... I'm currently putting this to the test!
So with no money in the budget for a professional hair stylist to come and make us over, these blooming beauties will have to do the trick.
xx

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DIY wedding: porcelain cups

We're spoiled, we're incredibly spoiled. We happen to have an extremely talented potter in the family who provides us with all the crockery we could ever need.  Each piece is thrown by hand and then fired in the big wood kiln outside from morning until night.  The end result is an abundance of unique plates, cups, bowls, oven dishes and personal tea bowls (which everybody is very protective of). 
So when we got to thinking about what 100 wedding guests were going to drink from, Elena suggested a cup for everybody.  Not only does it seem like the most perfect gift for everybody to take home, but it also saves us an awful lot in party hire gear.  Let me tell you, the moment those hire places hear the word 'wedding' they're already rubbing their palms together in glee.  At 55 cents a fork, you can imagine that it adds up!
Anyway so the first thing we had to do was figure out which glazes and slips we wanted.  There is something so exciting about submerging your cup in a seemingly plain bucket of muck, splashing it with an equally dull looking mud... and then waiting in great anticipation for it to come out of the kiln.  You never quite know how it's going to turn out, and you'll never get exactly the same look twice.
Over the last few days Elena has been a slave to the wheel and is knocking out beautiful porcelain cups so that they'll be ready in time.  I of course get the fun part which is to splash them all with glaze and give them their final touch!
So here's hoping everybody loves them as much as we do.  I can't wait to drink my cocktails out of a cup.

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My poor girl has a mad teething fever at the moment, but somehow still manages to crack a smile and joke around.

A DIY wedding

This morning Nic informed me that we have four weekends left until our wedding... FOUR WEEKENDS!  Okay deep breath, we can pull this off.  We have to be able to pull this off!  Throwing a wedding for a hundred guests on a budget of just $3000 is proving to be both exciting (because we have to think outside of the box) and nerve wrecking (because we have to think outside of the box!).  It requires pulling together all the contacts, outstanding favours, incredibly talented friends and guilt tripped family members that we can think of.  It requires thinking ahead (not so good at this one) and deciding what needs to be planted in the garden so that it's ready for harvesting in time, it requires trawling the internet for homemade decoration ideas, talking to the folk at our Sunday market to make sure things are locally sourced and in season, and because I'm a Virgo it requires a big scrapbook for ideas and organising!  We have a ton of friends and family arriving in the days leading up to the wedding so we're all going to knuckle down, get the set up done and have a ton of fun as we go.  Phew so with that said and done I'm off to write some urgent emails and make some coloured ribbons for the alter.
* My amazing friend Brooke drew our portrait invites. You can check out her work at Wolf Whistle Studio.

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This little monkey is crawling, walking and teething all at the same time right now.  It's safe to say that we're all very sleep deprived in this house at the moment!

Some of my favourite blogger mama's took part in this 52 week project last year as I watched on in envy.  It seemed like such a beautiful way to document and watch how fast these little ones grow.  So here goes, week one!

Hello 2014

Phew this crazy year is almost over!  Wow I'm not sure I even have words to describe 2013.  It was incredible, beautiful, exhausting, emotional, rewarding... basically any emotion that you can think of, I probably felt it!  I really dedicated the entire year to my sweet little daughter and thought of not much else.  We had our ups and downs as we adjusted to being a little family of three, but looking back now I really wouldn't change it for the world.  Having said that I'm ready for the next step now (very ready in fact) and a long list of goals for 2014. 
FAMILY
- Make family adventures a real focus this year.
- Make more time for Nic and I (Ooo some actually dates would be fun!)
- Remember what it was like to be a kid! Play make believe, build blanket forts, look for garden fairies, roll in the grass, eat desert for dinner.
- Generally just be grateful for this amazing little family of mine.

WORK
- Start writing and getting published again!!
- Figure out my career path (and how to juggle that with family time)
- Seriously start blogging again

PERSONAL
- Stress less and lighten up
- Let the small things go (like water off a ducks back :))
- Be tidier, clean up after myself
- Put more effort into my personal appearance again
- Again, just be grateful for my beautiful family and this bloody great life I have!
- Start exercising again

Yup I think that just about does it.  All fairly achievable goals I think.  I love looking back at the end of the year and seeing how far (or not) I've come.  A friend told me another trick today that I definitely want to try.  You write all the things you want to let go of from the previous year onto separate strips of paper and then throw them into the fire individually.  No point in dragging the previous years baggage into the new year!
xx