birthday flowers

We jumped in the car after sport on Saturday to travel out west for my beautiful niece's 21st birthday party. It seems like only the other day we did the same trip in a rush to meet her the night she was born. I remember we found out she'd arrived at a truck stop in the mountains. She's still as sweet as the day she was born but is now the lovely grown up we always knew she would become. The party was loads of fun - lots of delicious food, laughing and dancing till the early hours with our precious family and friends. Miss A was allowed to stay late for the fun and we managed not to embarass her too much!

The blossom was out in the mountains, but only just starting on the other side where I took this snap. The other photo shows our new hedge at a similar point, about to burst. The handpainted plate at my mother in law's also caught my eye, as did this tin on Ebay. While I possibly don't need more for the collection I couldn't resist it and doesn't it look fine with some of my others.

I'm collecting other tins in my vintage love pinterest board with all the other vintage treasures which is almost as much fun.

(Oh, did you notice I made some new buttons, over there on the right, what do you think? And also some special pages up the top there for Show & Tell and the Brooch Swap to make it easier to find all the posts.)

my creative space - envelope liners

It may seem like I haven't been making much around here, but I haven't been completely quiet on the creative front. As always I have lots of plans floating around my brain, and new/old designs being fiddled with, I'm hoping to get them sorted and share them here soon but in the meantime, here's a project I finished a while ago. Its another tutorial for Grant Studios using their beautiful papers to make personalised envelope liners.

This is such an easy quick project to fancy up your envelopes. It would be so perfect for wedding, birthday or party invitations, or thank you notes. And its simple enough for middle sized kids and up to make themselves.
This project would also be fantastic with hand-drawn inserts, or you could use photo prints, vintage wallpaper, wrapping paper, or blockprint some paper, or photocopies... the opportunities are endless to personalise this idea.

While I'm sure you can get the basic method from the photos there are a couple more steps so if you want the tutorial follow the link to the Grant site where you can download the pdf instructions.

More creative inspiration at the home of the Creative Space.

(Oh and thank you so much to Megan, Leslie, Rosalie, Kylie, Julie, Justine and Annika who all signed up to Kiva, and between them made 12 loans. You're the best!)

free kiva loan for you!

I've told you about Kiva and how much I love it before. I love the idea of supporting other small businesses, like mine and I use my profits from flower press for the loans. To each person I lend US$25 and over time its repaid to my account to relend. These small parcels of money help people all over the world get their businesses started or more often, help them expand. I can relend the money once its repaid too, its a loan, so over time I've been able to help lots of wonderful people improve their lives.

I love that you can choose who you lend to and that you get to share some of their story. Often you are given updates at the end of the loan to hear how their business has grown with your help. I'm including a picture of one of my favourite recipients Flor, with her small son. Read her story here to get an idea of how Kiva can help.

Its also something that's great to share, I've gifted Kiva loans to my mum, my sister and my mother in law and this gift keeps giving, they can relend the money each time its paid back to help finance another person.

And now you can become a Kiva lender for free!! Kiva are offering 4000 free loans between now and the 13th. No strings. All you need to do is register to be able to lend $25 to someone who really needs a little help. I would love it if you wanted to help and its obligation free, they pay for the loan. (Oh and if five people join in I win a t-shirt, which I'll give away on the blog.)

Just follow this link to play. Come and join all of us over there, I'm sure you'll find lots of friends at Kiva, there are lots of crafty types there :-) But quick there are only 2400 1300 399 left! Kiva have responded to the great demand with 4000 more free loans so get in quick!

STOP PRESS: 7 Lovelies have made 12 loans!!! Thanks guys :-). That's enough for a t-shirt which we'll give away on the blog. BTW you can still sign up via the link but now you will have to pay for your loan (about $23AU each with today's exchange). You can relend that money over and over as its repaid.

http://kiva.org/invitedby/susie7959