Sign-ups for the Christmas Cracker Swap close on Friday

This is just a reminder that the sign-ups for the Christmas Cracker Swap close this Friday on the 30th November.
You can see all the details here.

We already have quite a few people signed up but it would be nice to have some more so please get in touch if you'd be keen to join in :-)

Secret Santa Links and Ideas

I've spotted a few things on my internet travels lately and thought "what a great idea for a secret santa/stocking filler gift" so I thought I'd share them here...

These plants in a can cost $9.99 and would be a great present for someone who might be keen to grow their own herbs. I'm thinking they could be good for someone who sits at a desk all day - they could grow a little plant right on their desk to suck in all the bad-electrical vibes. I found them on the California Garden Centre Facebook page.

You may be wondering if I am on some kind of commission scheme with Emma Makes given how much I have mentioned her products on here lately :-) I think this set of 5 witty pencils already tucked in a pouch and ready to hand over would be great for an office worker or someone crafty. They cost $10 and include free NZ postage!

I also had a lot of fun combing the Ezibuy Christmas Catalogue when it arrived and found a few great secret santa gifts there too....

How cute is this Cookie Press? You can spell out anything and stamp it onto your cookie. This is right near the top of my Christmas list this year! And only costs $12.99.

I think these rubber duck ice-cubes are pretty quirky and a great addition to a Kiwi Summer Christmas. They cost $12 (at the moment on sale) for 12 ducks.

And another one for baking fans - these little silicon teacup moulds are great for little cakes and cost $9.99 for a set of 4.

And back to the interwebs and all things handmade...

Felt has a great Secret Santa Gift Ideas section in their Christmas Gift Guide so you can also pick up some great ideas there too!

Heart Felt blogged some stocking filler ideas recently including these two items....

For kids and crafty types these Make Your Own Peg Doll kits by Oaktree Mama are a bargain at $5.

And these Pirate sets (containing an eyepatch and bandana) cost only $10 at pommesrouges and fit most adults as well as kids!

If you are a fan of secret santa but don't have the opportunity to do it through your workplace or want the option of another swap why not consider the NZ Twitter Secret Santa? If are you on Twitter why not consider signing up? You can find all the information about it here. Sign-ups close 30th November, the cost is $10 gift plus postage. I have done it the last 2 years and have thoroughly enjoyed being involved!

PS. If you are visiting and have drawn my name in the secret santa any of these presents would be AWESOME and I also like rainbows, crafty things and anything that twinkles :-)

PPS. If you have spotted any great stocking stuff or secret santa gifts and have a link please do share in the comments :-)

Instagram Fans: StickyGram Discount Code

I love StickyGram! 

It lets you turn your Instagram photos into cute little 2x2inch magnets. I blogged about them a while ago when I ordered the magnets in this picture above. The best thing about it is you log-in with your Instagram log-in details and it brings up your Instagram feed so you can just click on the photos you want to turn into magnets. Nothing complicated and no uploading :-)

I get their newsletter by email and noticed a special offer that may benefit readers of my blog so I thought I'd share it....
If you use this friend code: FRIEND384D when you order it gives you $2 off your order (meaning you get 9 magnets of your instagram photos for $12.99 (US$) including international postage! (That's only $16NZ at today's conversion - less than $1.80 per magnet!) They'd made great stocking stuffers/Christmas pressies!

(Disclaimer: If you use this code it also gives me a $2 credit to my account which means I get to order some new Stickygrams! Yay!)

Will you join me for a ***Christmas Cracker*** Swap?

I think I've had a great idea but until I post this and see if I get any responses/sign-ups I won't know if it's as great as I think it is! I also appreciate it's a busy time of year for people and we may all be committed to other swaps already but I'm hoping this one is reasonably simple for people to join in.

Let me explain what made me come up with this swap idea...
This week I bought the Your Home and Garden Christmas issue and was flicking through it. I saw their article on making your own Christmas Crackers and thought it had been years since I made crackers and that I should make some for hubby and Mr Mischief this year with cute little trinkets and quotes/jokes picked out especially for them. (Which I'm still intending to do). But then I realised I wouldn't have a cracker to pull along with them and it would be a shame to make my own because I'd know what was in it.
And just like that - ding! a lightbulb went off somewhere above my head!
Why not see if anyone else would be keen to make and swap special Christmas Crackers? So here I am :-)

Here's what I'm thinking:

• If you're keen to join in sign up on or before FRIDAY 30th NOVEMBER (please - at least one person sign up so I get someone to swap with!). I will then match people up and send out details around the 3rd December.
• If we have an even number of sign-up's I will probably do 1 on 1 swap partners (you get the name of 1 person and make a cracker for them, they make one for you in return). If there's an odd number I may do a random draw (i.e. you may not be sending a cracker to the same person sending one to you). If you have any preference between these 2 options please let me know here in the comments or in an email.
• Each cracker should be handmade using a cardboard roll (for a bit of strength to keep the contents safe), pretty papers and embellishments.
• The cracker should contain a small gift (value $5-10) suited to your swap person (hopefully you will have a blog, twitter or facebook link to find out more about them) AND a quote or a joke that you'd like to share with them.
• Optional extras include: a snap (I know these may not be easy to get so won't make them compulsory)***, a lolly or sweet treat and a paper hat
• Aim to send your cracker to your swap person by 15th December (you will have about 2 weeks between getting their name and having to post) so that it arrives with them before Christmas.
• It's up to you how extravagantly you decorate your cracker. I have been collecting ideas on this Pinterest board that might help. There are also some links to tutorials there as well.

So...please tell me you might be keen? 

If you'd like to sign up send an email to me (katie@mummy-adventures.com) by/on Friday 30th November with a note of:

• your name, 
• email address, 
• postal address
• and a URL (blog/twitter/facebook) so your cracker maker can hopefully find out more about you and personalise your cracker in some way).

And if you know someone else who might be keen to join in (even if you're not) please spread the word! 

If there's any questions feel free to comment or email me (katie@mummy-adventures.com).
If there's enough interest I'll set up a grab-code for the button so you can grab it and share it. Alternatively just save the picture and then link it back to this post :-)

At this stage I am thinking this will be open to NZ addresses only (due to postage times and prices) but if you're overseas and super keen email me and I'll see what I can do!

***Please note: Thanks to Kimberley for letting me know that NZ Post won't let you mail crackers which include a snap as it's considered an explosive! So please don't add snaps to your crackers or you won't be able to mail them. We will all just have to say "bang" when we pull them :-) ***

To (hopefully) make you smile...

Hubby shared this YouTube video with me last week. It's a collection of misheard lyrics. I laughed and sang along as the clips played and it cheered me up after a rough day. Some of the misheard bits show how crazy peoples minds must be (and rude too!)



So what song lyrics have you misheard? I used to think that "Forever in Blue Jeans" by Neil Diamond was "Reverend Blue Jeans" and was about a vicar/minister who wore jeans!

Craft 2.0...More Pop Than a Firecracker!

I was lucky enough to get along to Craft 2.0 last weekend. It was held at St James' Theatre which was a lovely venue. I was rather bad on the blogger front and took no photos of the actual craft fair (d'oh!) but I thought I'd share some photos of my goodies (1. because I love everything I brought home and 2. because it might help give you ideas for Christmas presents for people!)....

I got 2 beautiful prints from Sweet William - I have had my eye on the Sweet William Felt shop for quite a while and I couldn't resist the rainbow print as soon as I saw it. The hardest thing was deciding on a 2nd print to purchase (as there was a deal to buy 2 for a special price!)

Here's the link to the Sweet William Felt Shop and here's the link to the rainbow print.

This photo shows items from 2 different stalls...
The pencils (and postcard) are from Emma Makes. I love the Emma Makes stationery range and recently gave away a notepad and pencil (plus look out soon for another giveaway hopefully coming your way!).
I stood for ages at the stand trying to decide what pencils to add to my collection next. I already have a couple of pencils and considering the awesome price of $2 each I don't know why I didn't just buy a few to save the indecision :-) In the end I went with "Unforgettable that's what you are" and "Dance for me Monkey" - mostly because they are gold but also because of the great sayings!

The "I heart Wellington" badges are from SuperVery. My husband couldn't work out why I wanted 4 badges the same...but given we married in Wellington and now live here I knew I'd find something to do with all of them...maybe a giveaway or maybe for friends and family who enjoy their visits!

You can visit Emma Makes felt shop here and see the SuperVery badges online here (be sure to check out the faux deer heads while you're there!).

I have loved the Tea Pea online shop for quite a while. It's the perfect place to go visit and dream up ideas for crafty projects with all the gorgeous things they sell. Last year, hubby ordered me some bakers twine on vintage cotton reels for my birthday (swoon!) and it was lovely to visit the stall. I could have spent a fortune but restrained myself quite well (I'm saving myself for a visit to their workshop in Khandallah sometime soon!). In the end I chose some festive coloured bakers twine on pegs and some gorgeous Cornishware-style paper bags (I have no idea what I will use them for but couldn't walk away from them!).

You can visit the tea pea online shop here, look at all the goody bags here and here's the bakers twine on vintage cotton reels I mentioned. (Heads up for the husband - THIS is on my Christmas wishlist!)

I saw mention of this Seasons Eatings 2013 calendar by Dear Colleen before I even got to the fair (I think there was a sneak peek on Instagram) and had already decided to buy one even though I didn't know how much they were! I have seen some lovely calendars like this that show illustrations of seasonal produce for each month but they were always for the Northern Hemisphere. The illustrations are beautiful and I can't wait to hang this in my kitchen next year.

You can see the Calendar for sale in Dear Colleen's Etsy shop here.

Another thing I spotted online before the event was these lovely Wellington design tea towels by Flora Waycott. I purchased these 2 for Christmas presents and now I'm kicking myself that I didn't get one myself (although saying that if I did have one I don't think I could bring myself to getting it dirty by using it in the kitchen!).

You can visit Flora Waycotts shop and see the tea towel design here.

And last but not least - this photo shows the contents of my goody bag! It cost $25 and there were lots of great goodies in there. My biggest d'oh! moment (other than not taking photos at the fair itself) had to be not realising I had coupons and vouchers in there. I could have kicked myself because I would have saved a wee bit of money on nearly all of my purchases had I realised this before my spend-up. And I felt too silly to go back and ask the stall holders if I could use them after the purchase.
I guess this would be 1 thing I would suggest to the organisers next time - to remind people the vouchers are in there when they hand the goody bags over :-)

And that was Craft 2.0. Hope you've picked up some awesome links to visit and maybe even got some ideas for the people on your Christmas present lists!

For more information on Craft 2.0 visit their blog here and you can also like them on Facebook too.

Disclaimer: I have not received anything for writing this blog post or linking to these shops. I just LOVE craft fairs and buying handmade :-)

Photo a day :: October

And October is behind us already. In 2 months time we will be into a new year (sorry, that's a little bit scary isn't it!?). I love that my October photo-a-day mosaics show our 1st full month of living in Wellington.

Here's a look at them...

You can see all of my photo-a-day mosaics here.

3 years ago today

Today is our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. Those 3 years seen to have flown by in the blink of an eye and yet we seem to have gone through so much since then...

And all going well, we will be celebrating with a child-free lunch followed by a shared bottle of decent red wine this evening.

Love you G x

(I know I've posted these photos on the blog before but I REALLY love them!)

My Creative Space: Halloween bits and bobs

I was feeling crafty yesterday so decided to make a few things along the theme of Halloween seeing as it was the 31st October...

Being new to the area I wasn't sure if we would get any Trick or Treaters or not so I bought some fun size Milky Way's to be on the safe side. 

I decided to make some of the treats a little bit more interesting...I cut some toilet roll tubes in half, covered them in orange paper, drew some little pumpkin faces on them and wedged 2 Milky Ways in each. Orange circles topped and tailed the tubes and then I wrapped them in some plastic (cut up sandwich bags) and tied the plastic with green and white bakers twine (I was hoping to use Green curling ribbon but can't remember where my present packing supplies are!) I was quite pleased with how my little pumpkin treat containers turned out...

We (Mr Mischief and I) also baked some cupcakes and I decorated them with orange butter icing and then chocolate writing icing and green sprinkles to turn them into little pumpkins...

And finally I decided to make Mr Mischief a little superhero eye mask to go with his superhero cape I made him last year. I found some red card in my scraps box, drew a rough eye mask shape on the back and cut it out then cut out eye holes. I found some star stickers for some decoration and then used some blue wool to tie around each side to hold it on his head...

He had lots of fun rushing around in his superhero costume. 

I named him Mr Mischief (of course) and here he is with his loyal sidekick McRhettles rummaging in the garden!

It's funny how it's the days when I get randomly creative that I have the most fun!
Today I'm linking up with Our Creative Spaces.