Ah the serenity....

First up, thank you all so much for your lovely comments yesterday. You're all very sweet to share in my excitement, it means a lot to me!

Today being Friday, and almost the weekend after a busy week, I am in the mood for some serenity. I am hanging out for the weekend and for some quiet time (Mum and Dad are having Will for a sleepover tonight!) so I thought I would post some beautiful images which might just get me in that sort of mind frame.

You could unwind pretty quickly in this room, with this view couldn't you?

If you were after something a bit more classic and a little fancy you could try here.

Some cups of tea, maybe reading the newspaper at this table would be nice.

And finally, snuggling into this bed to catch up on some sleep would be heavenly!

All images via here

Wishing you all a calm, peaceful day today full of beautiful serenity!

My Sweet Prints in 'the(sydney)magazine'

Excitement here at My Sweet Prints HQ today as my 'Bedtime Bus Roll Poster' is in this month's issue of 'the(sydney)magazine' pg. 62 which is out today in the Sydney Morning Herald.

I was contacted by the really lovely Deputy Editor of the(sydney)magazine, Stephanie Wood over a month ago and she asked me if I would be happy to provide my Bedtime Bus Roll Poster to be shot for a special Home & Design issue of the(sydney)magazine in which they were featuring Sydney arts and crafters.

It's a fantastic article titled 'I made it myself' which interviews three crafty Sydney women and also features 10 products (including my Bedtime Bus Roll, see number 4) from other Sydney crafters/designers like me.


So exciting to see support of the handmade/small business market in articles like these. It's very encouraging to me and I'm sure to others.

Big thanks to Stephanie and the 'the(sydney)magazine' team! And if you're in Sydney, go get yourself a copy, it's a fantastic issue with lots of stunning eye candy including a little look inside the home of the uber talented Catherine Martin & Baz Luhrmann.

Have a lovely day everyone,

I bought myself a present...

I love this present I bought myself yesterday.

Now you might be picturing that I bought myself something like this....

or this...

or these...

And as much as I love the above, I don't think they'd make me as excited as what I bought yesterday.

You want to see it???
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TA DA!

A Dymo LabelWriter 450!
Yeah I know, you're probably like 'Hmmm well that was an anti climax' but seriously people this baby is a life saver! You see I've always handwritten my addresses onto sticky labels for all my orders as my printer doesn't like feeding or printing the sticky sheets.
And when it came to posting this many envelopes on Friday alone....


I thought right, I've got to do something about this! So that's why my new Label Printer is my new best friend!!! I think I'll be having lovely dreams about the soft whirrrrr of my little printer for the next few nights. hehehhee.

Have a great day everyone, think of me sitting at my desk pushing the 'print' button with glee!

Sisters are doing it for themselves

This morning I am really inspired to post about all my 'sisters' out there - that means YOU!

Everyday in the blog community, or through talking to customers or friends (Suz & Maree you know who you are), I come across so many women who, have taken the often very scary steps to starting their own business, try new and exciting ventures, re-train into a new field or just generally follow their dreams.

It is so exciting to see and I don't think we give each other enough credit for it. So today I just wanted to say 'You go girlfriend' hehehehe!

I was inspired to start My Sweet Prints by reading about and seeing other women follow their dreams and I just wanted to say that if there is something you have been dreaming about or toying with then just pursue it, give it a go!

Lets really get behind each other (as I know we already do, that's what's so fabulous about the blogging community). And if anyone ever has any questions they'd like to ask me about starting your own business or starting on etsy or madeit.com.au, please feel free to contact me. I don't claim to know all the answers or be any kind of expert but it can help just chatting to someone who's been there.

And if you have a new shop, blog, hobby or something you'd like to get 'out there' then please feel free to email me too, I'd love to feature you on my blog or interview you to find out about your journey. Lets keep each other inspired!

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I also wanted to let you know about an Art Show I'm involved in which is coming up on Sat 7th August. If you live in Sydney and would like to see some gorgeous artworks and sculptures (and prints :) then come along to the:

It's going to be a fantastic event, so if you live in or around the North Shore then come by and say Hi :)

Have a lovely day everyone,

Our weekend

We had a very nice weekend.

Saturday morning we had lunch at a local cafe/nursery/gift shop. We went there to buy some garden things. Take a look at what we got...

A sandstone birdbath for that little spot out the front.

A sandstone bench for down the bottom end of the front garden (the garden still needs to be finished off). And we also ordered matching sandstone square planter boxes for either size of the garage.

Then on Sunday when we came home from church we popped next door to say Hi to our neighbours who were all working and playing in their front yard. While we chatted. Will started walking along the path in front of their house with the girl's old little dolls carriage. Then suddenly splat, he fell over forward with his hands still holding the handle bars and his knuckles and fingers were sandwiched and scrapped between the cement path and the carriage handles. OUCH!
My poor bubby was crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrying and screeeeeeeming and shaking and when we checked his hands they were bleeding and one of his fingernails was half off and hanging by a thread.

I'm sooooooooooo not good with blood or anything and lucky our neighbour is a nurse. She cleaned up his hands and gave us some good bandages. But when we took him home, Glen had to take the remainder of his fingernail off. Talk about trauma... I was crying, Will was obviously crying and then we had to bandage it up despite his protests.

OUCH!

Will says please don't laugh at my bandaged finger or the fact that I was walking with a dolls carriage when the accident occurred.

My poor little man is back to his normal high spirits this morning which is good and we have a lovely day ahead.

How was your weekend, what did you get up to?

Are you good in those sort of medical 'emergencies', do you freak out a bit like me?
(I know I'm going to have to get used to it, what with having an active little boy etc - Ek!)

Have a great Monday,

Happy Weekend!

Image via here

Love,

A corner of my home

This week's post is the 'work area' of the My Sweet Prints assistant.

It is a very busy work area, with lots of things spread near and far. A lot happens in this corner of the house...

It can be hard to get on top of things...

But customer service and a personable approach is always paramount!

And here is the corporate mug shot of my little assistant in front of his work station, oh.... so cute. He has been complaining to management about a better central heating as he doesn't appreciate having to wear a scarf indoors while he works.

Have a great day everyone!

Thank you Ohdeedoh!

Wow, thank you so much Ohdeedoh.com for featuring my 'A World to Discover' customised World Map! I am very flattered and very excited.

Apartment Therapy's Ohdeedoh featured my Bedtime Bus Roll Poster back last year and the response was incredible so I never thought I'd be lucky enough to see my work on their amazing site for a second time around! Click here to see the feature.

It's made my day (week and possibly month for that matter)!

Wishing you all a happy, exciting day too,

DIY Roman Blinds - wish me luck!

This project has been on my mind all year but I have not yet had the guts (or the time) to undertake it. Yes Roman Blinds people, tricky, but maybe not too tricky - I hope!

Take a look as some pretty inspiration so you can get my drift...

Isn't this the happiest looking home office? The colours and the light are stunning, and so are those blinds.

A more subtle room but very elegant and neutral, those grey roman's with the white ribbon down the edge are gorgeous!

These ones let lots of nice light through and really tie all the elements of this kitchen together don't you think?

And do you know a little girl who WOULDN'T want a pink and turquoise bedroom like this one?

Above images via here

Very wintery, cosy, natural looking and you can't go past stripes can you?

So do you want to see the fabric I've chosen? Well this fabric chose me really. I saw it at Spotlight yesterday and it was my favourite in the whole shop by far so I bought half a meter to make kitchen tea towels out of but then when it rang up at $5/mtr as opposed to the $14.95/mtr on the tag I said to the lady 'Well at that price let me have an extra 2mtrs'. THEN she couldn't get get the computer to work properly and gave me the extra 2mtrs at $1.50!
Don't you agree, it was meant to be?

And there it is, stunning right?

So it might take me a few weeks to get started (find the time) but I will do a little 'how to' post when it's completed. I've got a great book which has 'how to make roman blinds' but I've lent it to a neighbour down the road so if I don't get it back in time I've found a great online tutorial which looks just as good as my book's instructions here.

Have any of you lovely ladies out there made roman blinds before? How did they turn out, is it hard... no, no, actually don't tell me that!

Have a lovely day,

New Print - 'Home Sweet Home'

I'm so excited to show you my latest print!
I really love this one and had so much fun designing it... it's called 'Home Sweet Home' and is a modern take on the old 'Home Sweet Home' cross stitch in a frame.

Blue Version

The design is inspired by papercut art and it has a modern folk art vibe - you can also see my love of the humble doily coming out in this print too can't you - remember this post?

Green Version

I have three colour versions on my shop (two bright, one neutral) but it can be customised to your choice of ANY colour to suit your home/room.

White on Taupe Version

I have designed it to fit perfectly into the within the matt of the Ikea Ribba 50 x 50 cm (20 1/2 x 20 1/2") frame.

I'm so excited about this print (as you can probably tell) so I'd love to get your feedback on it as always :)

I've just put it up on my etsy shop here. And my madeit shop here.

Have a lovely weekend everyone,

Things that I'm thinking about today

The things I'm thinking about today are:

1. That this room is soooooo cute, and I would love to sit here with each one of my bloggy friends and have tea and biscuits together and just chat. Isn't it adorable and fun?

Image via here

2. That I've really got to stop making myself instant coffee in the morning (oh yeah, that self inflicted coffee ban from a few weeks ago lasted all of about 2days) and so I should just get off my butt and crank up the espresso machine we have sitting in the corner of the kitchen. My cup of instant coffee tasted more like dish water/grass clippings today than it has before and I poured it down the drain it was that bad!

3. I am also excited that I got all the paint yesterday for painting the steps, garage and gates! Yay! See that Smoke Haze colour? It's a pretty close match to that one, which looks like the riversand colour I was after.


4. That I'm sooooo excited about a new print that I am having so much fun designing at the moment. Can't wait to show you when it's finished!

5. That this is an awesome verse Lamentations 3:22.

6. And lastly that I have the funniest little bubba that looks so cute when trying on my sunnies.


What are you thinking about today? I'd love to know!

Have a great Friday everyone,

A corner of my home

I thought I'd do another 'A corner of my home' post as I haven't done one in a few weeks. This time it is of the hall table which you see as you walk into the house and the little display I have on top of it.


At one end I have my little ceramic birdie and Eiffel tower with my chandelier tile coasters. You may recognise the bird and tower as I've used them as props when shooting my prints before.


On the other end I have a vase with a pillar candle in it, a gold bowl which has a scented candle in it and an old photo in it's original frame of Glen's parents on their wedding day.

And in the middle of the hall table I have my 'Phalaenopsis benth' or Moth Orchid, well it used to be a real 'Phalaenopsis benth' that my sister-in-law gave me but I accidentally killed it - whoops (I'm not very good at keeping things alive).

So I bought a faux Moth orchid branch from Freedom and stuck it into the same pot which used to hold the real one, what do you think, can you tell?

So that's my hall table. I'd love to get a rectangular silver tray, sort of like a small butlers tray and place it in front of the orchid, where we can put our mail etc, as this spot often becomes a quick dumping area for things as we walk in the door.
So if I see one at the Vinnies then I'll buy it but I also have to bare in mind that things can't be placed in reach of certain little hands that like to grab and destroy...

Yes people, don't be fooled by those puppy dog eyes, my little bundle of love likes to go on search and destroy missions at every opportunity :)

Have a lovely day everyone!!!