Bless you

Two sleeps until Christmas! We've done the last food and gift shopping, made the gingerbread house and tomorrow will just be spent wrapping gifts and catching up with some friends.

So all I have left to do is to thank you for coming here this year, leaving your lovely comments and for being such a wonderfully supportive blogging community. It's been a great year for me and Ruby in the Dust, and whether you've supported my business, left a comment, been a friend or just read my thoughts on this blog, I want to wish you the best for Christmas and the New Year. See you in 2010!

The tree

Congratulations to Sarah from CottonKiwi who won the giveaway! Sarah's favourite tree also turns out to be one of my absolute favourites, especially this time of year.

The acacia is such an unassuming tree for most of the year, just minding its own business with big old thorns and tiny leaves, but around December it blossoms into something quite amazing. The flowers are small and round (a bit like a wattle's), but what makes it even more special is the fragrance. It's hard to describe, but to me it just smells of Christmas. The closest equivalent here in NZ has to be the silk tree; bury your face in the flowers and you can get an idea. To me it smells of happy days spent in the sun, eating watermelon, camping by the river. Of a home and family far away.

To have everything

It was our 10th wedding anniversary last week, and I had such a hard time thinking of the right gift for Craig. Thank goodness for Rob Ryan and Olivia Coote is all I can say. The words are from a paper cut by Mr Ryan (follow the link), and the maps were repurposed by Olivia.

The story: about 13 years ago Craig and I met in Cornwall, travelled to Egypt and worked in Scotland. We literally had nothing, just our little tent, camping stove and each other. Aaaah...

Taking photos

I had a few spare minutes today to take some photos for my shop update on Felt. I thought I might share my version of a light box that I use as a background for photographing smaller items.

The idea with a light box is to have a seamless background that makes the most of the available light by bouncing it off the sides of the box. I use a presentation folder you can get from all the large stationary shops; it folds nice and flat when not in use. I prefer to use a light coloured background to white; I think it shows off my work better. I use a large A2 sheet of card which I just pin to the presentation folder and there you go, I've got myself a nice background no matter how messy my work table is! Etsy has some very useful basic photography tips in their Storque articles, have a look at this one for ideas on how to best photograph jewellery.

A winner and another giveaway

Before I get down to business, just have a look at the pohutukawa tree we camped under this weekend... It's such a magnificent tree and has a very real presence, not only providing shade for us all, but also a wonderful place for the kids to explore and play make-believe games in.

I pulled a name from a bag last night, and the winner is... Little Miss Flossie. Congratulations!! I really enjoyed all those movie choices; a few of them are already on my list of favourites, like Delicatessen, Baghdad Cafe and Juno. I'll keep your list for when I'm going to the video shop again; I'm always at a loss in there.

My next garage sale giveaway contains these goodies: one pocket mirror featuring Heidi, 4 vintage kid's book stickers and 4 covered embroidered buttons. The mirror and the buttons are seconds, just not as perfect as I would like for selling, but still in great useable condition for yourself. Today's topic is 'what's your favourite tree'. I'll give you until this Sunday night 8pm (NZ time) again. Remember to leave your email address if you don't have a Blogger account and good luck!

Getting close...

I can't believe how Christmas always seems to sneak up on me, even though I started thinking about and planning for it around May this year! (It was really just the bird kits, I'm not really that organised...). We're taking a bit of time this weekend to go camping with a few friends, no I'm lying, quite a lot of our friends. It's an annual event and so much fun to get a camping trip in before Christmas.

Before I go I just want to share the last couple of ornaments I received this week, both decorated with buttons. The lavender-filled heart is from Amy and the button wreath is from Nicola in Dunedin. I've really enjoyed this swap; it's so great to look forward to those little parcels in the mailbox.

Finally, I made these stars for a friend who bought some felt birds from me last Christmas. Who knows, you might be able to make your own next year...

Garage sale giveaway

I've been planning this giveaway for a couple of days now and guess what; I just won a giveaway on Ribbons and Pom Poms! So I want to pass on the favour to somebody else...

I just went through my boxes the other day and discovered a few things that are slightly damaged or that have just been sitting around long enough for me to get a bit tired of it. In this giveaway are two peg dolls (in perfect working order :), a small rebound notebook (not making any more; I sold my binder) and a poppy vintage embroidery brooch. The brooch is damaged on the back: good enough to wear yourself but not to give away as a gift. To win I want you to leave a comment here: name your all-time favourite movie. Hard work, I know! I'll give you until next Sunday, 8pm NZ time. Remember to make sure I can contact you (if you don't have a Blogger account, leave your email address).

I think I might fit in a couple more giveaways before Christmas, so come back next week for the second installment...

Keep your cards

I was so excited to get my latest copy of World Sweet World today. At the start of the year I played around with some old Christmas cards, making some gift tags and bunting. I sent the idea in to Hannah and almost forgot about it until about a month ago, when she said they were going to use it. And now it's on the 'Quick and Easy' page, yes! So keep your beautiful cards and try out my quick and easy ideas :) You can read it here, just zoom in at the bottom of the Scribd page:
cardswsw

Some more Christmas

This handmade ornament swap is so fantastic, look what I got this week: a little mushroom wreath from Sarah at Songbird Designs, a Hippety Hoppity pudding bunny from Jessica at BamBamCreative and a couple of handmade silk birdies from Cambodia (that's not part of the swap, just a gift from a lovely customer). Score!

Thank you...

...for all your thoughtful, encouraging words after my post the other day. It's so great to be part of a communtity of bloggers and -readers who listen and share their ideas and experiences so freely.

As you can see I wasn't too upset by those ladies: here's some more of my destruction, on its way to Emma in Wellington.