Friday Friends - Australian Makers - NILLY + BOOTH

Happy Friday lovely Maddabling readers, what did your week hold? Only nice things I hope. Maddabling is trialling a new Sunday Blogpost filled with reading goodness, I hope that you are enjoying this new addition. This week it is my great pleasure to introduce you a new Friday Friend, fantastic Australian maker and the sweetest lady, meet Sharn from NILLY + BOOTH! 

I connected recently with Sharn and NILLY + BOOTH through a facebook giveaway and can tell you from personal experience...........oh my! 

These goodies are so YUM! I had to remind myself that soap IS NOT edible. This is the cute package I received in the mail as a lucky giveaway winner.

And contained inside, a sensational Basil & Lime Lip Balm for totally kissable lips and a divine Soy Chai Soap that actually makes me believe I am sipping on a Soy Chai Latte each time I smell it. The scents are fabulous and so pure! 

I am keen to try one of the NILLY + BOOTH Organic Body Butters next, a perfect treat for dry winter skin.... or at any time of the year really! 

Readers, I now invite you to take some you time and to embark on a delicious Organic Adventure with NILLY + BOOTH. Have a lovely weekend everyone x 

AN ORGANIC ADVENTURE WITH NILLY + BOOTH 
Hi everyone my name is Sharn and I am the creator and maker of all things NILLY+BOOTH.  

By day/night/weekend I am Restaurant Supervisor at a beautiful golf resort down on the Mornington Peninsula (Victoria) and in my free time I love to create luxurious organic soaps and skincare. I was once a ‘professional’ student working towards my PhD in psychology, however, one existential crisis later and a desire to do what makes me happy, the organic handmade apothecary called NILLY+BOOTH was born.

I began my journey into all-natural soap and skincare almost 2 years ago now when I wanted to overhaul my chemical laden, synthetic, and down right not-good-for-your-skin beauty care products.  I began reading blogs and articles on anything and everything about natural skin care and that is how my obsession started.  The more I read the more I wanted to learn and experiment with my own homemade treatments and remedies. Then one day I discovered the beauty of handmade soap and its wonderfully soothing and moisturising abilities. 

I had always been into crafts when I was younger so making beautiful artisan soap was a creative outlet that just seemed to call to me.  So after nearly a year and a half of experimenting and becoming, again, completely obsessed, I decided to start to sell my soap to others to share the wonder and luxury of using handmade soap. NILLY+BOOTH was created for this purpose and along with my organic soaps I also have organic lip balms and organic body butters available.  

I have so many ideas and future plans to create a full line of not only body products but also facial and hair care as well. My brain is bursting with many exciting experiments I can not wait to have them available for everyone else to enjoy.  I absolutely love making and creating organic products and that people love using them too!

It is my goal for NILLY+BOOTH to be completely handmade and to use only organic and natural ingredients that can be found in nature, nothing synthetic, no preservatives, no unnecessary fillers or additives, no animal testing, and only recycled, recyclable or reusable packaging. 

I get asked a lot where the name NILLY+BOOTH comes from.  The name represents a combination of my surname and my mother’s maiden name, shortened, tweaked and turned into NILLY+BOOTH. I wanted a name that represented my family, a name that every time I saw reminded me of how beautiful and supportive they are.  Even if my experiments sometimes made them think I was a little kooky!

Dear readers, do you want to see more? Here is how you can connect with NILLY + BOOTH.

Become a fan on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/NillyAndBooth

and a follower on instagram here: http://instagram.com/nillyandbooth

Smitten - Thursday Thoughts

This weeks blog post is inspired by a little online boutique called High Tea Vintage, located in Tasmania, Australia. 

They do a particularly gorgeous range of "Smitten" tunic tops and dresses. 

I hope you enjoy this weeks "Smitten" blog post x 

smitten : Handmade cast sterling silver necklace from Sweet4Clover

Royal Blue Ladies "Smitten" Tunic Top Original HTV from highteavintage

Hello My Name Is Smitten. Handmade Love Card from CraftGoblin

SMITTEN sterling silver gemstone cluster dangle earrings from sparklegarden

SMITTEN Retro Lingerie Inspired Bottom With Lace and Bow from MySugarDoll

Mother's Day, Storm Clouds and Lovely Things

Happy Sunday lovely readers. Maddabling is trialling a new Sunday Blog Post, to go along with the regular Wednesday Wishes and Friday Friends posts that you are all used to seeing. The Sunday Blog Post will contain bits and pieces, also a recipe to share (one that is tried and tested by me). I would love your feedback, comments very welcome. 

Mother's Day

I want to send Extra Special wishes to all the mums, stepmums, mother figures out there for Mother's Day. My thoughts today are with a couple of very special ladies whose mothers are no longer here for them. My thoughts are also with those among us who endure the Mother's Day Hype and don't have a fantastic relationship with their mother's ♥ 

Storm Clouds 

Our part of the world had a little wild weather this week, I stopped on the roadside to take this photo of the storm cloud sweeping in over the harbour. The colour hasn't been edited - I was in awe of the cloud formations! This was taken just before the wind started and the rain bucketed down, no wonder the seagulls came ashore to take shelter.

Lovely Things 

This week I want to share with you two lovely things. Starting with an organic handmade apothecary that makes luxurious organic soaps and skincare - NIILY + BOOTH. Sharn from NILLY + BOOTH recently hosted a giveaway, and Maddabling must have had some good karma due methinks! A sweet little package arrived in the mail with some Soy Chai Soap and Basil + Lime Lip Balm - omg I have to remind myself that these are not for eating, the smell is delicious! Why not check out NILLY + BOOTH for yourself here: http://www.facebook.com/NillyAndBooth

To continue on with Lovely Things - what do you do with left over Pumpkin? We were fortunate to be given a delicious homegrown butternut pumpkin, I decided to search out a pumpkin scone recipe to test my cooking skills. I made some delicious Buttermilk Pumpkin Scones - here is the recipe, should you want to try making them for yourself. It's quite easy, I haven't ever made scones from scratch before. 

I served these warm with Thickened Cream and Peach + Vanilla Bean Jam.

Buttermilk Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients
2 cups self-raising flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
60g butter, chilled, chopped
1/2 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup mashed cooled pumpkin
Extra buttermilk, for brushing

Method 
1. Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Position oven rack in the top half of oven.
2. Sift flour, nutmeg, sugar and salt into a bowl. Add butter. Using fingertips, rub butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Make a well in centre of mixture. Add buttermilk and mashed pumpkin. Using a flat-bladed knife, stir until a sticky dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until just smooth.
4. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, gently roll dough out until 2cm thick. Using a 6cm round cutter, cut out scones. Press leftover dough together. Repeat to make 12 scones.
5. Place scones, just touching, on prepared tray. Brush with buttermilk. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden and hollow when tapped on top. Serve with jam and cream.

source:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/22652/basic+buttermilk+scones
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/22657/pumpkin+scones

That wraps up the Mother's Day, Storm Clouds and Lovely Things Sunday Blog Post. Have a great week everyone x

Friday Friends, WA Artists - Paul Deej

Happy Friday Maddabling Readers, I hope your weeks have been a good ones.

This week it is my absolute pleasure to introduce to you all the super talented Paul Deej, the WA artist and designer  from Toasted Designs and the Syllabolix collective. 

When I first started to browse through Paul's amazing artwork, a few things grabbed seriously grabbed my attention. I am a bit of a shoe girl so it should be no surprise that I love these painted boots...awesomeness....

and I have a fascination with owls at the moment too - absolutely smitten with this painting...... 

And when I saw this mural, it rekindled teenage memories of a trip to Melbourne where I first saw "real" street art; brightly coloured murals painted in the city, don't you think this mural is just sublime!

Readers, I am now passing on the blogging baton to Paul - to give you all of The Dirt on Paul Deej. I hope you enjoy reading Paul's story as much as I did. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and don't forget to do something fun! 

P.S. please remember that Paul has given his permission for these images to be used in this blog post. Please respect his work and do not copy, use, reproduce these images, in full or in part without Paul's express permission. 

The  Dirt  on  Paul  Deej

My name is Paul Deej, artist and designer from Toasted Designs and the collective known as Syllabolix. I paint album covers, canvases, murals, pretty much anything I can get my hands on.

I started out at a very young age drawing dinosaurs, and then moved on to comics where I would obsessively copy the artwork. I started with Footrot Flats and ones like that, as I got older moving on to Judge Dredd, 2000AD and eventually Marvel. I always wanted to be a comic book artist, and I read that a lot of artists had a background in graphic design, so I went to TAFE and got my advanced diploma in that. 

My good mates are musicians in the hip hop scene, and from that I started doing quick little gig posters for them which led on to painting album covers which really got me interested in painting for a living. To begin with I was a digital artist, I would sketch then scan it in and paint it digitally as I hated the mess of mixing paint and cleaning up. 10 odd years later I have switched, and most of my artwork now is done traditionally on canvas or paper. I still love to paint digitally though for certain jobs as I like the style it gives my work.

Other than painting in Photoshop, I primarily work in acrylics. I use brushes but also love using paint markers, the Molotow One4All markers specifically. When painting a canvas I will use a mix of aerosol, acrylics and markers to create the finished piece. I also love painting murals with all spray cans as it is a great medium to use and gives amazing results.

I would say I am inspired by beauty first and foremost, a lover of the female form, and I am trying to capture the 'perfect' image of beauty in my artwork. On the other side of this is my fascination of the opposite, of the evil and unappealing. I love movies, horror movies in particular, and I am very influenced by these as well as novels and comic books. 

I also find competition to be very inspiring, even in a small city like Perth the talent level is amazingly high and it would be easy to get disillusioned by it all, but I see it as a challenge. I love checking out other peoples work and it drives me to be a better and more creative artist. I have many extremely talented and driven friends that are always motivating me with their own success and creativity as musicians and artists. And of course my wife and my kids.

I do a lot of commissioned work, so when I get time to paint for myself or work on an exhibition, I mainly paint girls. I love to paint from the heart and not think about it or analyse it, do no planning, and just grab a black canvas and see what happens. 

At the moment my favourite piece I have done was from my recent exhibition, a painting of a young 'steampunk' style girl called 'Telex'. That one just seemed to work from the start, I love the look in her eye. 

Some of my other favourite pieces I have done are the album art I did for the band Downsyde called 'All City', and the album art for 'Monster House' that I did for my friend Hunter.

My plans for the future are to keen evolving my work and my style. My main goals for the moment are getting as much quality artwork out there as quick as possible. I plan on switching to oil paints to give that a try, and I would love to paint more walls. Bigger the better.

Dear readers, do you want to own a piece of Paul's artwork or explore it his creations some more ? Here is how you can connect: 

Become a follower on facebook here: 

www.facebook.com/deejo1

and check out his websites here: 

www.eldeejo.com

www.toasteddesigns.com

http://society6.com/PaulDeej/

Things with Wings - Wednesday Wishes

sometimes, just sometimes, don't you wish you could spread your wings and just fly away?

today's Wednesday Wishes inspiration is simply Things with Wings. 

Enjoy xo 

The Owl Warriors 'mate' from thecatintheshoe

Ginger / Winged Grey and Gold Horse Articulated Decoration

 Hinged Beasts Series from benconservato

Porcelain Blue Lavender Dragonfly Teacup+Saucer from FaithAdamsCeramics

 

Stunning Blade Wing Statement Necklace 24K Gold Plated, Real Luna Moth Wings from HaremRoyal

Steampunk Icarus Wings - Handmade, Backmounted, 

Pulley Driven Wings MKII from steampunk22

Good Fortune, Soulfood Soup, Saturday Outing and Handmade Goodness

Happy Sunday readers. I have so much I want to share with you today. A summary would be Good Fortune, Soulfood Soup, a Saturday Outing and Handmade Goodness. Do I have you intrigued? Read on :)

Good Fortune

I recently put my haiku writing skills to work in a gorgeous 1000 Likers Giveaway hosted by Fruzsi Kenez of Peach Patrol. Fruzsi asked: "If you write a little poem/haiku/rhyme about someone in the picture your like counts for TRIPLE!" I got my creative thinking cap on, I love the challenge of a haiku. 

"Haiku poems date from 9th century Japan to the present day. Haiku is more than a type of poem; it is a way of looking at the physical world and seeing something deeper, like the very nature of existence. A haiku poem consists of three lines, with the first and last line having 5 moras, and the middle line having 7. A mora is a sound unit, much like a syllable, but is not identical to it. Since the moras do not translate well into English, it has been adapted and syllables are used as moras."

source : http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-haiku-poems.html 

I looked at the strange friends in the picture, and my focus was drawn to Lulu, I Keep My Antlers Warm. I read Lulu's story and wrote this haiku: 

Nimble fingers knit

a kaleidoscope of warmth

happy Lulu smiles.

Fruzsi loved it! "Congratulations Samara, your prose brought a big smile to my face and completely encapsulated the energy of I Keep My Antlers Warm." 

I received this gorgeous package in the mail from Fruzsi and feel so very blessed! Thank you so very much Fruzsi - readers, don't forget to stop by her facebook page to say hello!  

Speaking of good fortune, I recently featured sweet Debbie of The Smile Emporium who sent me a lovely thank you gift - aren't these peacock earrings and hair pins beautiful? Thank you so much Debbie, they certainly brought a smile to my face :) You should also stop by Debbie's facebook page to say hello!

Soulfood Soup

Coming into the cooler weather, I find it's time to dig out the cookbooks or enlist online searches for soup recipes. I made this one on Friday night, simply delicious! 

French Onion Soup 

(source: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/12576/french+onion+soup) 

Ingredients

80g butter

4 large brown onions, sliced crossways into rings

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tsp plain flour

1.5L (6 cups) beef stock

125ml (1/2 cup) dry red wine

1 bouquet garni sachet 

Salt + freshly ground black pepper

1 30cm baguette (French stick), cut crossways into 12 slices

55g (1 cup) finely shredded gruyere cheese

Method:

Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic, and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until the onions are soft and light golden. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until flour bubbles and comes away from the side of the pan. Add the stock, wine and bouquet garni. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until soup thickens slightly. Remove bouquet garni. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Preheat grill on high. Place baguette slices on a baking tray. Place under preheated grill (about 5cm away from the heat source) and cook for 2 minutes each side or until light golden. Remove from grill and sprinkle each slice evenly with the cheese. Place under grill and cook for a further 2 minutes or until the cheese melts.

To serve, ladle soup into serving bowls and top with the baguette 

Saturday Outing and Handmade Goodness

There is a fab little facebook page called Stuff To Do In Albany. This page is full of information about what is going on in Albany town. I found two things to combine into a wonderful Saturday Art inspired outing with my dear friend Del of DEL-icious Designz.  

Firstly we visited the amazing free exhibition at the Albany Museum - Line of Sight by Broome photographer Peter Strain. The exhibition is definitely worth a look and runs from Sat 4 May 2013 – Sun 23 Jun 2013, 10:00am – 4:30pm. "Line of Sight is an exhibition of photography and nature pictures by Broome photographer Peter Strain. It features extraordinary close-up photography of tiny creatures from Australia’s rugged and remote Kimberley region, from Broome to Darwin" Here is a peek at what we saw.

In case you are wondering what that big glass thing in the background is, I can tell you that it is the "Eclipse Island Optic consisting of three glass lenses, each three metres high. The optic rotates silently on its bed of mercury and lights up the building." source:http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/albany/whats-on

I found a short history lesson for you dear readers, through some selected text, on the Eclipse Island Lighthouse. "Eclipse Island Lighthouse was built in 1926 on Eclipse Island off the south coast of Western Australia. It was built as a cylindrical tower made of concrete. Initially it was a manned station using kerosene as lantern fuel in combination with a first order Fresnel lens. In 1976 the lantern was completely removed though and the optic was put on display at the Western Australian Museum. Today the light is emitted from atop a mast on the lighthouse's concrete trunk. The characteristic is a group of three flashes every twelve seconds from a focal plane at 117 metres (384 ft) above sea level."  

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_Island_Lighthouse

We then meandered on to the Vancouver Arts Centre for the Annual Mother's Day Market. Maddabling and DEL-icious Designz were both visitors rather than stall holders this year. There was a lot to see, and we were inadvertently snapped by Stuff To Do In Albany, while we browsing the fine handcrafted Italian Glass Bead creations on display at the Nazzy Beads stall. It's kind of amusing that we were in the photo as we had earlier joked about Photo Bombing you see! We also had the pleasure of watching Naomi of Nazzy Beads creating glassy goodness right there at her stall. If you want to see for yourself, you can find more on the Nazzy Beads Facebook Page. 

photo courtesy of http://www.facebook.com/StuffToDoInAlbany

We stopped by the This Paper Cut Life stall and had a chat with Sue Codee. Maddabling couldn't help but buy herself a new brooch, the "Levelling Brooch" to be precise. Isn't it just divine? You can find more of This Paper Cut Life by Sue Codee on her facebook page.  

It was really good to catch up with several of the regular stall holders for a chat, the special folk who become friends (you know who you are ladies) as they do in a small creative community and I hope each one had a very successful market. So readers, that wraps up the Good Fortune, Soulfood Soup, Saturday Outing and Handmade Goodness blog post. See you all on Wednesday for a new Wednesday Wishes x