First up, Matryoshka cushions…

Mini matryoshka key rings / bag ornaments…

Mini matryoskhkas on strings of beads….

Matryoshka postcards and vintage kimono cards…

Purses / make-up bags made from fabric printed with my own designs…

Kimono Felt Craft kits…

Individual packs of kimono felt…

Kimono Paper Craft kits…

Kimono Bunting Flags…

Crafty sewing kits…

Needle cases…

Strings of birds and beads…

And stamped brown paper bags ready to be filled….!

Hello again blogland! It’s good to be back.
Lucy x

1. Matryoshka Kimono Dolls, 2. Colour palette: Green, 3. Tamarillo chutney, 4. Cutest of cute hats!, 5. West Coast adventure, 6. Hands-on dog food!, 7. Pirates treasure bag PART TWO, 8. Autumn, 9. My new crafting space, 10. Friendly cat toys, 11. Birthday pancakes, 12. Magical toadstools, 13. Bush bath bliss, 14. Coral, shell and bone, 15. Autumn Blues, 16. Big skies, 17. Garden meditation, 18. The joy of wood, 19. Gratitude, 20. Birthday bunny

 1. My shop is now open!, 2. Cosy Friday evening, 3. Kimono paper tape PREVIEW!, 4. Happy weekend papercut, 5. Colour palette: Red, 6. Tin can lanterns, 7. Shop update: Tom Cats, 8. Spring love: magnolia blossoms, 9. Poultry PS, 10. …and the winner is…, 11. Display jars for treasures, 12. Pin board inspiration, 13. Monday’s inspiration: Honour, 14. Happy Equinox!, 15. Fresh start and a GIVEAWAY!, 16. Paper Fan Inspiration Cards, 17. Morocco on my mind, 18. Midwinter mandarin lanterns, 19. Rainbow eggs and a basket of flowers, 20. Vintage kimono palette

1. London by night, 2. Travelling feet, 3. Poultry Show, 4. Kimono paper tape PREVIEW!, 5. New things, 6. A new season…, 7. Hand carved stamps: lanterns and blossoms, 8. Monday’s Inspiration: Creativity, 9. Rob Ryan’s shop on Columbia Road, 10. Happy Christmas!, 11. Happy New Year!, 12. Plant skeletons, 13. Header artwork, 14. Paper Fan Inspiration Cards, 15. Earth Hour 2010, 16. Contact me, 17. Monday’s inspiration: Communication, 18. Pirate’s treasure bag, 19. More gratitude, 20. Olive Harvesting

I’ve been having the most amazing time. I’ve got so many photos and experiences to share with you (Germany, Morocco, London…) but I don’t have easy access to the internet here so I will have to do lots of blog posts when I get back to New Zealand in two weeks’ time and catch you up on everything.

Today I just found out that my Kimono Paper Tape has been featured on this gorgeous treasury on Etsy. The treasury has also been showcased on S and O Productions. Thanks Julia, Sarah and Olivia! I’m really honoured to be showcased alongside such gorgeous paperyness.

My lovely man has been sending out my Etsy orders from New Zealand for me while I’m away. Unfortunately I’ve just run out of the HOT colours of the Kimono Paper Tape! Talk about bad timing. Oh well! I’ve still got packs of the COOL colour range in stock. I’ll make more of the HOT tape as soon as I get home…

Can’t wait to share my travels with you!

Lots of love

Lucy : )

Tom Cat’s are cool cats. They might act a little bit superior at times but they’re really just pussycats with big hearts (which they wear embroidered on their tummies!). They’ve got gorgeous, striking eyes (and fabulous eyelashes), and pink tongues, which poke out when they’re concentrating (which is actually all of the time!).

Tom Cats are made out of Japanese blue and white printed 100% cotton. Their faces are hand embroidered, as are the heart patches on their tummies. 

Tom Cats would love to cuddle up with special little human friends, or lounge on someone’s bed in the sun and look fabulous all day long! : )

I’ve been busy sorting out my shipping and shop policies and getting all the visuals prepared for my listings…not to mention actually uploading each listing onto Etsy inself. It’s been a great learning curve for me, I can tell you! Here’s a bit of a montage of some of my shop images for you to look at. I’d love to hear any feedback you have about how I’ve put my listings together. It’s all new territory for me! : )

My Kimono Paper Tape which comes in a HOT or COOL selection…

Vintage kimono postcards which are printed on 100% recycled card…

And of course my Paper Fan Inspiration Cards…

Have a great week!
Lucy x

Thank you to all you lovely people who hung in there and kept coming back to check in on me, leaving me comments and sending me messages, letting me know you missed my posts and were wondering what had happened to me. You’re wonderful!

Well, Spring is here, the season of fresh starts, and I’m beginning my blog Spring with a competition giveaway as a way of thanking you all for joining me on this (sometimes rocky) blog journey I’m on. 

The competition prize contains one set of my Paper Fan Inspiration Cards (in the little black purse), one pack of my Kimono Paper Tape, two sets of my vintage kimono postcards, and a fan-shaped decoration I made out of a piece of a 1930s brightly coloured girl’s kimono.

To enter: simply leave a comment by the morning of Tuesday 7th September (New Zealand time), saying where in the world you are, and something that you’re loving right now about this time of year. I’ll choose a winner at random and am happy to send the prize anywhere in the world. Good luck! Here’s a few more pics of what’s in the giveaway.

The set of Paper Fan Inspiration Cards (below) comes in this black, salmon, ochre and sky blue kimono fabric purse.

The Kimono Paper Tape is a pack of ten different strips of lusciously coloured sticky tape printed with real vintage kimono fabric prints.

The giveaway also contains two sets of these 100% recycled postcards. Each set has three different vintage kimono designs. 

Over the next few days I’m going to be showing you some things I’m loving about this time of year, and I look forward to reading your comments and finding out what you’re enjoying wherever you are.

Oh it’s good to be back in blogland! Till tomorrow…. Lucy x

The good news is that I’m still mostly feeling upbeat and happy, the bad news is that everything I was planning on doing at the moment has now had to be put on hold. So I was going to be launching my shop today, but instead I’ll show you some pics I took the other day of the pin board above my computer (and the shop will open soon, but just not today!). As you can see I’m at least up and about this evening, but moving s-l-o-w-l-y!

We made the pin board by covering a sheet of fibre board with hessian / burlap. At the moment I’ve mostly got bits and pieces of things to do with products for my almost-open shop pinned up there, mixed in with other odds and ends.

This first picture shows some more mini bunting made out of my kimono paper tape, this time using the cool colour range. The bunting is hanging over a Murobond paint palette, and below that is a letter I sent from Sri Lanka when I was 17 years-old to a school friend of mine  (she lent me the letter recently  to re-read) – ah the writings of a teenage girl! : )

Words of wisdom from Yogi Tea.

My mini bunting again and more of the Murobond paint palette, one of my new vintage kimono cards which will be in my shop, and an information card about my Paper Fan Inspiration Cards.

The photo of the man in the top right corner is one I took in Ladakh, North India when I was 19 years old. I asked him if I could take his photo (which I later sent to him) and he posed with his friend for me. I love the combination of his jewellery (including mother-of-pearl button ear ornaments) and his suit jacket. Great moustache too!

The cut-out face is for one of my Matryoshka kimono doll cushions.

The photo in the top left is from the same trip to Ladakh when I was 19. That’s me in the purple Tibetan dress, playing knuckle bones with the kids. We were staying in a tiny remote village, sleeping on the roof of a beautiful two-story mud house under an incredibly bright full moon. This particular day my friends and I spent hanging out with the kids, eating mulberries off the tree, swapping songs, and playing games. One of the most simple, joyful days of my life.

A swatch of one of the fabrics I use for making the little purses for my Paper Fan cards; old stamps that I used in my Colour palette: Green, and Coral, shell and bone posts; and a black and white photo taken by a photographer in India of my brother, Beren (hi, B!), and two little street girls we made friends with.

Another photo of a woman in Ladakh that I took, and two vintage kimono decorations that I made a couple of years ago.

What’s on your notice board? If you’ve posted about it on your blog, do link to it in your comments. I’d love to see.

The tape is perfect for all sorts of creative projects – scrapbooking, gift wrapping, collages etc. Here are some little ideas I’ve been experimenting with today, using some of just one set of the hot colours to complete all the projects.

The first thing I made with the tape was mini bunting. I got the idea from a great tutorial that Lisa Tilse gave over on her blog the red thread.

I made my bunting by sticking pieces of tape at even intervals along the edge of a sheet of paper, leaving a little bit of each piece of tape sticking up at the edge. I then placed thin string (you could use embroidery thread, cotton, dental floss etc) along the edge of the paper and folded down all the ends of the tape over the string to hold it in place. Finally, I simply trimmed each piece of tape into a little flag (being careful not to cut through the string).

Isn’t the finished result so pretty? It makes me happy every time I look at it! The card in the background is one of a set of kimono cards I’ve designed which will also be for sale in my shop.

Other uses for the kimono tape I played around with today: collage artworks made from cutting out shapes and letters. My sweetheart’s on the other side of the world at the moment, so this is a little shout out to him. Hey, baby!

…and of course gift wrapping. Simple brown paper, ribbon off-cuts, a cute little Japanese decoration… The cards in the background are two more of my kimono postcards.

More fun with kimono paper tape coming soon! …and of course it will be available to buy online very shortly.

Hope you’ve been having a good weekend.

I thought I’d show you some pictures from the very first bundle of vintage kimono fabrics that I ever bought over the internet, direct from a seller in Japan. 

It was a mixed lot of about 30 pieces, each cut neatly into a rectangle not much bigger than a post card. Many of those pieces are now long gone, made into purses or lavender wheat pillows and sold at markets in London or at Reiki events that I went to, but I took photos of each of those pieces and still use them as inspiration or the basis of designs and prints that I’m working on now. Such a beautiful range of pattern and style and colour.

Later I also bought many whole kimonos. Each time a new one arrived in the post I’d lovingly hang it up in our home for awhile so I could admire it whole, before painstakingly unpicking all the hand-sewn seams and sewing the fabric into new creations.

Gratitude
I am grateful for all the gifts life gives me
even those I don’t yet understand

It’s been a painful week in our family and this card feels like a sweet gift to my heart. It reminds me to notice all the many blessings in my life and also, that even in dark moments there may be gifts that we can’t see yet but which will reveal themselves to us as events unfold.

So, here’s a list of the things that I’m grateful for right now (in no particular order):

For wonderful family, near and far
For being loved and cherished
For two crazy dogs who are always happy to see me
For a warm fire and snug house on a wild and stormy night
For a wonderful email from a friend I haven’t seen for years (hi Deb!)
For being forgiven when I let others down
For a good friend to phone up and cry to when it all gets too much
For singing!
For laughter and praying mantises
For macaroni cheese cooked with love by my man
For my teenage nieces (I’ll write back soon!)
For TOAST catalogues arriving at the perfect moment
For dreams of Morocco
For lovely travel agents when you need emergency flights
For “coincidences”
For thunder and lightning
For Reiki hands to soothe anxiety away
For inspiration and beauty
For THXTHXTHX: a thank you note a day for always making me smile
For Hawayo Takata for reminding me to “count my blessings”

What are you grateful for today? I’d love to hear your list of gratitude.

Have a great week.
Lucy xx

PS You can read more about my Paper Fan Inspiration Cards here on this new page, and I’ll hopefully have them in my brand spanking new Etsy shop this week! Watch this space… : )