This week's work - SALE TIME!

So this week has been about Curious Bazaar! We have a huge clearance sale, as we are all inspired for 2013 and all want to make some room for new creativity :) The one-week sale has everything from $2 cards to original paintings, screen printed tshirts, totes, jewellery and lots of children's clothes. I have a pile of about 10 tops sitting next to me to add, and then it is done!

A new exhibition

Last week I had the pleasure of setting up a new exhibition in local cafe Have Ya Bean in Upwey's main street. The artwork isn't mine, but is by Jarf of Medieval Mirage, represented by me through Curious Bazaar and I had thought that the work would look beautiful printed up on high quality watercolour paper and framed, which it does :)

The frames are all re-used frames found in op-shops and then taken to a framer to all have matching mats cut and glass put in if it was missing. There are 10 pieces, and 3 sold within a day, which was exciting! The exhibition runs for the rest of October, if you are in the area, why not grab a coffee and check it out! There are a lot of reflections in the photos, and they look much lovelier in real life.

Big sale and new cards

Over at Curious Bazaar we are having a HUGE card and print sale! Most cards and prints are 50% off, and postcard sets are 40% off at just $6 for 6 postcards plus a free 7th postcard.

Why not take the chance to browse the store for some gorgeous gift ideas and check out this gorgeous new release range of cards from Medieval Mirage...

Enter the code PAPERSALE at checkout to receive free shipping for cards and prints! As always, enter LOCAL for free local delivery or pickup :)

Drawing, eating and a Curious Bazaar giveaway

To begin with, I have a fabulous Curious Bazaar giveaway for you!

The prize: A $30 Curious Bazaar voucher and some secret surprise-y treats added to your parcel when you use the voucher. Yay!

The deal: We'd love to increase our audience for Curious Bazaar, celebrate the end of Summer (I love Autumn) and share the love! I have a nice big update happening later today and would love to get the word out. So, there are three ways of entering...

1. Share Curious Bazaar on Facebook, simply click 'share' under the giveaway post on Curious Bazaar's page.

2. Tweet the link to this post, and then comment here to let me know you've tweeted.

3. Share this giveaway on your own blog, and then comment here to let me know you've blogged!

Giveaway closes 14th March 2012! International entries are welcome, I'll be adding international shipping to all of the shop items over the coming week :)

Note: These photos are from Tickle the Imagination issue 03 and was photographed by Curiouser, featuring Curious Bazaar brands Sew Chirpy and Polkadot Lane as well as the gorgeous creations of Little Tree Kids and Monet Paisley!

In home news, Sienna has been drawing and crafting up a storm lately, with a decidedly lalaloopsy focus! She's made clothes, constructed a boat, various beds and houses, mini blocks and toys, paper baskets and lots of little drawings. Here is one recent sketch, a little picture of 'Lady Stillwaiting'...

I've been cooking and baking lately, and yesterday afternoon made some yummy cupcakes from Lauren's blog, some 'pirate cookies' from a book Ash had borrowed from school, and a favourite casserole (Chicken, Mushroom and Leek) for dinner. This is a native herb-y pasta bake I made last week - the recipe will be added to Season with Saltbush soon!

Cute things and a growing boy

Summer is nearly over, and to celebrate the February sunshine we are having a sale over at Curious Bazaar! Polkadot Lane is all reduced by 30%, including funky screen printed tshirts and tote bags, cute pillowcase dresses and more. In addition, you can get 30% off everything in the Canvas Art section by using the code SUMMERART on checkout! 

This boy is growing up a lot, playing trains for hours every day and starting to use the potty. He also loves playing with the keyboard (musical, not computer) and on the ipad. He likes pottering about with lalaloopsy dolls and has his own large Sir Battlescarred. But mostly it's about the trains ;)

A Curious discount

Almost forgot when I was posting last night, Curious Bazaar has a sale on this week only! End of year discount of 15% off storewide. It was a Facebook sale so I'm being a bit sneaky and popping it here too ;)

Simply enter FACEBOOK2011 at checkout until the end of the year (only a couple of days left now).

Note: If you want to pick up your item locally, or have me bring it to Adelaide in January for you to pick up, just let me know and I'll refund your postage! Here are a few of my personal faves:

Maeve and Tickles

Well while I've been squirreling away with dentist, occupational therapy, doctor and speech therapy appointments, photographing stock, posting orders, burning discs, painting Sienna's new bed, making moussaka, babysitting a little munchkin and talking to my mum on the phone, a couple of new exciting things have come out online!

First, I write for Maeve occasionally and their Summer 2012 issue has just come out. If you have a good look, you'll find my article 'The busting dance' tucked in there somewhere :)

Tickle the Imagination is the other online magazine that has a new issue out this week, this time featuring my photography shoot of clothes by Little Tree Kids, Monet Paisley, Dinky Me and Polkadot Lane, as well as accessories by Sew Chirpy (Sew Chirpy and Polkadot Lane stocked at Curious Bazaar, of course!). Sienna appears throughout, she's a pretty easy model, and Cedar and Ash both appear somewhere in there ;)

Have a read here - our feature is from page 53 onwards. Yay!

Curious Bazaar is here!

179 products so far (and I haven't added any magnets, bags, dresses or skirts yet!), some fun time playing with design and html, and some linky love happening on Facebook. Here we are, Curious Bazaar is officially live! I'm stealing Kell's nifty idea of introducing it with the 'About' page content ;) but before I do, there is a promotion going on to help with our launch.

Help us grow:

As mentioned on the Curious Bazaar facebook page, obviously, we are very new and would love your help to grow. Share the 'Curious Bazaar' store, or one of your favourite items from the store, on your facebook wall or personal blog and I will send you an exclusive discount code! Don't forget to let me know that you've shared (either here or via messages)...

Of course, you'll also have our happy go lucky gratitude and some warm fuzzy feelings to go along with it, which is always nice.

What we're doing:

Curious Bazaar was launched on 28th November 2011 as a result of long chats with friends about craftiness and market stalls. We thought it would be great if customers could go to one single online space to browse a wide variety of things we make, from our various brands, and have them combined in one parcel for a single delivery price.


In this, we present you with a unique niche market of whimsical, creative and handmade, arising mainly from the Dandenong Ranges area east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Shopping at Curious Bazaar is part of supporting handmade, supporting local artists and craftspeople, people who make things because they love to and want to share those products with you. Poppytalk share a fab list of 101 reasons to buy handmade if you need any more inspiration! Speaking for myself and the women behind the brands stocked here, we're proud and excited to be part of the handmade landscape!

More teeth and a new project

So yesterday's dental appointment didn't go exactly as planned, as the two fillings ended up taking ages to do (apparently they were tiny cavities and my teeth are small-ish which made it a bit tricky), so she only extracted one wisdom tooth. After all the tension of the drilling and whatnot for the fillings, the extraction was a bit of an anti-climax! Didn't hurt, but now is a bit achy there and tastes disgustingly fleshy - reminding me of Cass's comments on my last post. Anyway, the next two are coming out tomorrow, I'm getting the occlusal splint mould (for the teeth grinding) taken next week and leaving the specialist until another year ;)

Thank you so much everyone for your stories, it was great to hear different experiences before going in, as it's not pain I'm worried about as much as feeling out of control, not knowing what to expect. I might be a tiny bit control-freakish ;) So I felt loads better reading about what happened for other people.

If you're on Facebook, you would have seen news of my latest project, which I'm very excited about. It's been theoretically in progress for a couple of months now, and arises from attending markets with my sister and friends. Some weeks ago I sat down with Ben and evaluated my business, all the different bits and pieces I do, and we prioritised / reshuffled my direction for the next couple of years. One big change was no markets, but to replace market attendance with one online shop that also promotes and sells the work of friends and others over time. A few other changes are also lined up, but more about them another time.

So I'll be running a new 'whimsical gift shop' online and stocking the creations from various local crafty people, such as The Kooky Green Owl and Polkadot Lane, as well as my own art prints, canvases and cards. You'll be able to buy gorgeous jewellery, hairclips and bands, handmade children's clothes, funky screen-printed totes and t-shirts, art prints, a range of cards, art prints, magnets and original art. Yay!

Curious Bazaar launches on November 28th, but in the meantime 'like' us on Facebook to keep up with the news!