DUSTy Divas - Friday Friends - Forget Me Not Paperware

Happy Friday lovely Maddabling blog readers, it suddenly dawned on me this morning that it is only four sleeps until Christmas Day! So much to do, so little time....... tis the season........
This week it is my great pleasure to introduce to you the wonderful DUSTy Diva,and this weeks Friday Friend - meet Kirsten - the name behind Forget Me Not Paperware. 

I "met" Kirsten through the wonderful DUST team a few years back now. Her lovely shop ensures that at Forget Me Not Paperware you will find stationery that won't cost you the earth. Here are a few favourite things that I have uncovered while snooping through the Forget Me Not photo albums :) How amazing are these unique timber box stationery sets, just perfect for those who are true stationery addicts....

This super cute notepaper will encourage your creativity, you can write on them, doodle on them or simply make them into pretty paper planes ................

Also loving these Pocket Notebooks in adorable Woodland Print...

and for those who like to DIY - how practical are these perfect Art card Sets? 

I invite you dear readers, to take a little time out of your hectic daily schedule to read the "Forget Me Not Paperware" First Edition. Enjoy xo


"Forget Me Not Paperware" First Edition  

Many {many!} years ago my first job was as a paper girl… pulling a yellow paper trolley through the local shopping area selling newspapers to the shopkeepers after school. If I was very good at it I would have called out “Papers! Papers! Get your papers here!”. But I was terribly shy, and barely peeped, so this was not the most successful venture for me. Luckily, I am not quite as shy anymore and I think I’ve gotten much better at the paper thing!

I spend my days making all manner of paper based pieces, from journals, jotters and notepads through to art cards, notelets and stationery sets.

Everything I create has an ethos to it that considers the environmental impact. This means I work with eco elements, Australian made papers and seek “best way” environmentally to produce my ranges.

 

Incidentally I make very girly things! I blame this on living in a houseful of boys (my husband and 2 sons aged 13 and 10) as well as my little tomboy tree climbing daughter (aged 8). 

I love what I do, with all my heart. I love the freedom, I love the process, I love the community I am part of... All of it! As with any artistic practice there is the ever challenging balance between fulfilling your creative needs and drawing a regular reliable income. But making and creating is in my blood - and as a wise woman with twice my years experience once told me when discussing career options “It’s simple. Do what makes you happy”

Want to see more ? Here are some links for you to browse!

Buy lovely things from the Etsy Store here: 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/paperbyforgetmenot

Become a fan on Facebook here: 

http://www.facebook.com/forgetmenotpaperware

and catch sweet tweets on Twitter here: 

https://twitter.com/_papergirl

Little Festive Luxuries - Wednesday Wishes

It is easy to feel a little overwhelmed with all the hustle and bustle, responsibilities and pressures of the festive season, here are a few Little Festive Luxuries to make it a little bit easier. I hope you love these picks xo

12 Days of Crumble Bathing Whip 

Buttered Pumpkin, Lemon, Orange, Rum + Spices 

Whipped Soap by viceandvelvet

Linen Table Runner - Snowflake - Hand Screen Printed     by PonyAndPoppy

Stag Reindeer wood Brooch Christmas Australian Tallowood by corejewellery

Sweet Snowflake Clay Tags- set of 2 by Marley and Lockyer

Candy Cane Macarons Soy Candle - Baby Honeypot

with FREE shipping by Kitchen Aromas

Creative Christmas Fare + Pretty Decorating Ideas

Creative Christmas Fare + Pretty Decorating Ideas 

With Christmas time drawing near, here are some lovely ideas to share with you all, alternatives to traditional decorations and refreshments. Enjoy xo

Crochet Stockings from better homes and gardens

Veges and Dip from Art Pics

Table Toppers from better homes and gardens

Watermelon + Cranberry Mocktails - Better Homes and Gardens

Fruity Christmas Tree from ginger-and-garlic.blogspot.com.au/

Friday Friends - West Australian Makers - MollydagMade

Happy Friday lovely Maddabling readers, the countdown to Christmas is definitely upon us. I have nearly finished the Christmas Shopping and can be proud to say that many gifts this year were Fair Trade or Handmade. I love finding unusual and meaningful gifts to give. This week I have a wonderful Friday Friend to introduce - meet Amber - a clever West Australian Maker, and the face behind MollydagMade.  

Do you want some new ways to keep the kids entertained over the school holidays? Or even on rainy days? Then these wonderful games from MollydagMade could be just what you are looking for. I must confess, a couple of these toys may have made it into my nephews Christmas Stocking this year! 

MollydagMade makes a variety of wonderful games and toys including Counting Games, Fine + Gross Motor Skill Builders, Games to Go and Memory Games. 

These sweet memory games come several designs High Seas, Woodland Friends, Space Robots and Tea Time just to name a few. It is a more traditional memory game which features twenty wooden tokens each hand stamped with ten pictures, for which Amber uses a water resistant, permanent, non-toxic ink. To truly make these a Game on the Go, the game pieces come complete with a matching hand stamped drawstring bag and there is an option to purchase a  set of 5 laminated travel Bingo Cards.

 

MollydagMade has a fabulous focus on play that is designed to build Fine + Gross Motor Skills. 

For example, these throwing comets, which are small + light are safer for indoor play. Weighing in at 25g, have a 6.5cm 'square' bean bag, 30cm long rainbow ribbon tail making them safer for indoor play. A child can play throw and catch, land the comet in a bucket or throw it through a hula hoop. You can even use these to practice your juggling.

There is also an "I Spy" game which your child can squish n' squash, shake + shimmy this little bag to reveal the wooden disks around behind the window. There are 20 little pictures to discover (10 little 2.5cm wooden disks, each stamped on both sides) and the bags are made from undyed cotton, measure 14cm square, making them a perfect size for little hands.  All seams are double stitched for extra durability.

And for the budding fisherman how about this fabulous magnetic fishing game? There are 12 fish (large and small) made from a super tough PVC fabric. Each fish is hand-stamped with the numbers 1 to 12 for counting, adding, sequencing - the learning games are endless. Each set also comes with two 8 inch fishing rods made from Tasmanian oak & hand stamped cotton drawstring pouch (15x22cm). This game is fabulous to play inside on a restaurant table or outside in muddy puddles!!! Fish by number, colour, size, or just fish for fun!

An example of one of MollydagMades counting games is one that I haven't ever seen before. The aim is to capture the ladybirds as they leap from leaf to leaf. It is a modern take on the ancient game of Mancala (or Kalah), a game that has been played as long ago as the 7th century. Amber describes this game: 

"At the beginning of the game, 4 ladybirds are placed on each leaf. Each player takes turns picking up all the ladybirds on a leaf and letting one 'leap' on each leaf in turn. If your ladybird lands on an empty leaf, the player will capture all the opponent's ladybirds on the opposing leaf! Who will capture the most ladybirds? A great game of counting & strategy." The game set includes includes: 12 felt leaves, 50 wooden ladybirds, drawstring bag, instructions and a tin carry case.

Readers, I will now hand you over to Amber to tell you a little more about the MollydagMade story - have a wonderful weekend and remember to stop and smell the flowers at least once at this super busy time of year. 

The Magic of MollydagMade

Hi, I'm Amber, the hands behind Games to Go by Mollydag Made.

I'm a wife, mother to two, a PhD graduate, crafter and small time business woman. 

When my kidlets were toddlers, I was always on the lookout for things that we could do together which were educational, but more than that, were loads of fun. 

I strive to hand make traditional, simple and engaging games that make learning fun. 

Dear readers, want to explore the MollydagMade world some more? Here is how you can connect: 

Become a fan on Facebook here: 

http://www.facebook.com/MollydagMade

Visit the MollydagMade website at: http://mollydagmade.com/

Buy lovely things from the MollydagMade Shop here: 

http://mollydagmade.blogspot.com.au/p/shop-mollydag-made.html

Read the MollydagMade Blog here: 

http://mollydagmade.blogspot.com.au/

Follow MollydagMade on Pinterest here: 

http://pinterest.com/mollydagmade/

From Tanzanite to Blue Topaz - Wednesday Wishes

Maddabling just happens to have a Birthday in December. I thought I would do a little research into December Birthstones. Here is what I found. 
"If you were born in December, you are lucky to have a choice of three gems on the modern birthstone list: blue topaz, turquoise and tanzanite. Blue is the color for December, and the traditional birthstone list also includes zircon and lapis lazuli." 
information from: http://www.gemselect.com/other-info/december-birthstones.php
I hope you love the pretty blue December Birth Stone collection I have put together x

Woven silver ring by JanetSteinJewelry

Blue Zircon sterling silver post earrings by bluebirdss

Lapis Lazuli + Turkish Dark Blue Silk Silver Plated Bracelet by sevinchjewelry

Mobile Earrings in Silver with Periwinkle Tanzanite by BohBiJewelry

Genuine Turquoise, Sterling Silver,14K gold Metalwork Art jewelry pendant 

by littlebugjewelry

Friday Friends, DUST Team Makers, Rare Beasts

Happy Friday lovely Maddabling readers, welcome to a brand new Edition of Friday Friends. This week sees the creator behind Maddabling turn another year older, and very much in relaxed Holiday Mode. Maddabling hopes to head to the Denmark Arts Markets on Saturday to catch up with two DUSTy Divas being Deb from Unique Dichroic and Karen from New Earth Soaps. 

Ok, now back to todays blog post - it is my great pleasure to introduce you all to a new guest blogger, Australian Maker and DUST Team Member, meet the super talented Brian from Rare Beasts. 

My hubby writes, records and edits his own music and I am pretty sure that Brians' creations would be of great interest to anyone who dabbles in music to the more serious musician looking for that unique sound. 

Brian says this in his Etsy Shop Announcement to give you some idea of his craft : 
"At RareBeasts you will find unique electronic musical instruments, synthesizers, drum and noise loopers and other custom electronics, all items are 100% designed and handmade by me. Recycled materials are used when available and practical. Custom orders are most welcome."

Flash-Tron II Light controlled handmade synth 

I will now hand over the blogging reigns to Brian so that he can tell you more about his amazing craft. Have a great weekend everyone and see you all again soon xo

The Rare Beasts Score

My name is Brian and my Etsy store is Rarebeasts. I'm an inventor, musician and gadget freak that builds hand held electronic musical instruments that are so simple that anyone can play them.

Apart from creating and selling things on Etsy I also contribute articles to a magazine called Make, often writing how-to articles about products from my Etsy store. Because I work from home it allows me time to look after my two kids (we get to make lots of cool projects) and I also play in a band called CupAndBow that makes music using the instruments that I create and build. 

I've always liked music and electronics so I find my inspiration from marrying those two interests. I find that many mass produced electronic instruments are too complicated with menu systems forcing you to reach for the instructions every time you want to play, so I wanted to design simple instruments that do one simple task, that anyone could pickup and start playing.

I've been tinkering and pulling things apart since I was very little but I've only really been designing original instruments since I made a piece for my daughter's 1st birthday called the R-Tronic, it was a simple step sequencer that uses shapes to put sounds into a sequence that makes up a little song.

I find inspiration from many places but I do have to give credit to those old electronics kits you could buy, that taught you the basics of electronics. Credit also goes to great sites like makezine.com and instructables.com that have an amazing community of creative people contributing to them.

Sometimes a new design will come from a need to make a certain sound or find a new way to play an instrument, for example my Wicks Looper allows you puts sounds into a loop using a rotary control rather then a sequence of button presses. But sometimes its just a matter of playing around with new circuits and finding that crazy sound completely by accident.

I hope in the future I'll still be making new instrument designs and I hope to expand my production of electronics kits that will teach a new generation about how to make their own instruments and have fun making music with electronics at the same time. 


Dear readers want to explore the craft of Rarebeasts and CupandBow some more ? 
Here is how you can connect. 

Buy cool things on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/rarebeasts

Follow sweet tweets on Twitter here: @rarebeasts https://twitter.com/Rarebeasts

Follow the fab images on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/people/rarebeasts/

Become a fan on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rarebeasts/435992720186

Download music from Bandcamp here: http://cupandbow.bandcamp.com/ 

and learn more about CupandBow on TripleJ Unearthed here:
http://www.triplejunearthed.com/CupandBow

Things that caught my eye - Wednesday Wishes

Well dear readers, today is my birthday. And I want to share with you all a few things that caught my eye in this edition of Wednesday Wishes - perhaps I can put these on the Birthday Wishlist for next year? 

I hope you love these beautiful Australian Handmade Finds. 

lady pastel drawing print by Savage Kitten

Yellow clutch with berry tree and blue silk lining by sirtom

Necklace - silver, gemstone, crystal, pearl "Winterbeach" by Natural Candy

Yellow + Black Retro Style Felt Miniature Dress Brooch by CandykinsCrafts

lavender sachet pink bird in eco felt. embroidered flowers on linen 
by edwardandlilly