Creative Women Interview: Nicole of Bubby Makes Three *SPECIAL GIVEAWAY*

Nicole and I have been bloggy friends for AGES now and so it was really exciting to actually meet in 'real life' two weekends ago.

We were staying up the coast in Nicole's neck of the woods and so she came over with her gorgeous little kiddies Fern and Elliott whom Will had lots of fun playing with.

So today I'm featuring Nicole in my Creative Women Interview Series! 

You can find out more about her via her blog, etsy shop and facebook page.

 

Where do you find your inspiration?

I have always loved handmade and am inspired by everything around me... magazines, blogs, websites, parties I go to, children I am surrounded by... I have been known to sit at the playground with paper and a pencil, jotting down ideas I get from watching children play! I love re purposing discarded and unwanted bits and pieces to create something unique and lovely... but I am equally inspired by modern prints, shapes and fabrics! Somehow it all comes together to become 'Bubby Makes Three'.

What motivated you to start your blog and now your gorgeous etsy shop?

In my previous life, I worked in Government communications and spent my days writing for other people. In my spare time I read blogs and fantasised about creating a cyber-nook of my very own but I really didn't have the time or creative energy. When I left my job to have my daughter Fern, I realised now was my chance! I started Bubby Makes Three the blog in 2009 as the diary of a 'first-time-mum'. At first it seemed I was talking only to myself but over time the blog evolved and grew along with my confidence! My long-suppressed dream of starting my own business became a reality early this year when I launched a little clothing and then accessories and artwork range for babies and young children. I saw a market for gorgeous but affordable handmade items and it was a way of feeding the ideas that were pouring out of me after my son was born and I couldn't find anything for him to wear! I couldn't have done it without the support and encouragement of my readers and am so grateful for them!

How do you juggle your business as well as your little munchkins?

Well, I do tend to drop a lot of balls from time to time! It certainly isn't easy, and something has got to give (in my case - reading magazines, watching TV and cleaning my house properly!) Thank goodness for nap times... I run a fairly tight ship on the routine front and generally manage to put both children down at the same time; giving mummy a tiny window each day in which to sew, process orders, answer emails, dream up ideas and - oh - sometimes eat lunch too! It is not unusual to find my little 9 month-old son playing amongst tangled rolls of cotton or my daughter 'colouring in' with my expensive fabric marker... it is often difficult finding the right balance, but somehow it seems to work! I believe that anybody can find the time to do anything they want to do if they set their mind to it; I'm testament of that!

 

Two year old Fern

10mth old Elliott

What is your great advice to Mums with little ones?

Many people ask me how I manage to have both a little business, a blog AND have kids -- I think its about prioritising what is important to you and staying true what makes you happy. I love my kids and I love being a stay-at-home mum, but I also need a creative outlet for my own sanity! Don't be afraid to follow your dreams just because you are a mum. Oh, and involve your little ones where you can; my daughter loves craft and often sits painting, drawing or gluing next to me while I work. I am looking forward to passing on to her some of my (meagre!) skills and fostering her growing love for being creative. 

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Nicole has been so generous in offering two great opportunities for My Sweet Prints readers!!!

The first one is a 15% discount...

 

The second is a fantastic giveaway...

To Enter:

• Simply visit Nicole's store: www.etsy.com/shop/nicolecleary  
• 'Like' her Facebook fanpage at www.facebook.com/BubbyMakesThree1 
• And leave a comment on the wall about your favourite item from her store for one entry
•  For a second entry 'follow' Nicole's blog at www.bubbymakesthree.blogspot.com and leave a comment introducing yourself and why you want to win!

Winner will be announced on Wednesday 13 June, 2011

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All images via Nicole's Blog & etsy shop

Thanks so much Nicole for your generous offers and for sharing a bit about yourself! 

I'll be keeping the details of the two offers on my sidebar so get in and enter!

Have a great day everyone,

The giveaway win that made my day

On Monday when a package arrived in the mail it was SUCH a lovely distraction from the miserable day that Will and I were having. It completely brightened my day.

And what was this package?
It was the giveaway gifts from Jane's 300 followers blog giveaway in which I was the VERY lucky first prize winner!!!! YAY, YAY, YAY!

Jane from Life on Planet Baby is such a sweet, generous and kind hearted person and she puts her all into everything she does. Her blog and blog posts are embarrassingly amazing next to my usually slap-dash posts. And so it is no wonder that after less than a year she would be celebrating 300 followers! Congrats again Jane dear!!!

Here are my pretty gifts so beautifully gift wrapped - it felt like my birthday, look at the gorgeous wrapping and ribbons (Will had already gotten into the light blue one) ;)

 

And here are the items that I won!

• A gorgeous Gumball necklace made by Jane's friend Edwina of Little Snoring
•   A Rebecca Roth green resin bangle - I just love it
• A beautiful honeysuckle-coloured, cloth-covered lined notebook which Jane decorated with little butterflies (the Planet Baby trademark)
• A very cool Typo notebook with a map of NY on the cover
• And last but not least Jane's handmade little ribbon holders with blue check and blue grosgrain ribbon.

HOW LUCKY AM I!!!

 

Jane asked me to share a pic of me wearing my new necklace so here I am with all my goodies.

Thank you so much again Jane, it just made my day when I found out and especially made my day when they arrived. I will think of you whenever I wear and use my goodies!

Have a lovely day everyone,

Giveaway time

I am holding a giveaway via the My Sweet Prints Facebook Page! YAY!

You have the chance to win a Bedtime Bus Roll Poster & Morning Bus Roll Poster from My Sweet Prints.

All you have to do is 'LIKE' this competition image on my Facebook page to be in the draw to WIN!



Draw closes Sunday 20th March 2011 5pm AEST. The winner will be chosen at random via random.org and announced on www.facebook.com/MySweetPrints on Monday 21st March 2011.

I'd love you to enter, and to spread the word about my little giveaway!

Good luck,

Happy Monday

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

I thought I'd show you one of my latest etsy purchases from the lovely Sarah B's new shop Molly's Maison. You probably know Sarah from her blog already but here is a little background.

Sarah studied a Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of Tasmania majoring in photography but developed a strong interest in wearable art, fashion and jewellery design. Lately she has re-discovered her love for photography. And has started selling her beautiful photos which have a fantastic vintage style in her new etsy shop which you can visit here.

I purchased a set of her beautiful postcards and had to share... look at how beautifully wrapped they came.

Those are little stickers!!! Yay, I love stickers!

Isn't Sarah's photography gorgeous???

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AND Sarah is holding a GIVEAWAY over at her blog at the moment so you can have the chance to win some of her beautiful photo art! Click here to enter her giveaway.

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How was your weekend? Ours was great catching up with family and friends and we got Will's photo taken with Santa... I've got to go pick up the photos today but here is one I took on my phone. He was a bit wary of Santa and we struggled to get a smile out of him but I think he looks so cute smile or no smile (mummy's bias). Are you getting Santa photos done this year?


Have a great Monday everyone,

And the winner is............

Thank you SO much to everyone who entered my Giveaway!

And especially to those who blogged, tweeted or facebooked about it too, the response was amazing and I had so much fun holding the giveaway!

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So drum roll please..... the winner of my 200 followers giveaway is....


Congratulations Shan from Missy Melly you are the lucky winner. You now get to choose any two prints from my range, just email me by hitting the 'Contact Me' pic on the right side of my blog.


And I've checked out Shan's blog... she has two twin daughters so isn't it perfect that my giveaway is for two prints! Quite fortuitous!

Thanks again everyone, have a fantastic day!

200 followers blog giveaway

YAY my little blog has reached 200 followers!

So to celebrate I'm holding a GIVEAWAY!

The winner will receive TWO prints of their choice from my range. I will post the chosen prints to the recipient. It can be posted anywhere in the world!
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To enter:

1. All you have to do is be or become a blog follower of My Sweet Prints (or become a subscriber via RSS feed) and leave a comment on this post telling me you are!

2. For an extra entry, put my giveaway image above and link to this post on your side bar, and let me know you have done this by putting a comment on this post.

3. Post about this giveaway and link back to this post for an extra entry - don't forget to put a comment on this post to let me know you have!

4. Tweet or facebook about the giveaway for an extra entry. Just put a comment on this post letting me know you have to get the extra entry.

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The giveaway will end next Tuesday the 16th November at 8am AEDT and I will draw the winner and post about it on Tuesday.

Good luck and thanks for all your support, it means so much to me!

Have a great day,

Giveaway... Better Homes and Gardens LIVE event tickets

As promised, I have 6 packs of 4 tickets to the Better Homes and Gardens LIVE event to giveaway.

This fantastic event will be held at Sydney Showground, Olympic Park 15 to 17 October and will feature inspiring talks and demonstrations hosted by your favourite Better Homes and Gardens personalities; Graham Ross, Tara Dennis, Rob Palmer, Jason Hodges, ‘Fast’ Ed Halmagyi and Dr Harry. There will be thousands of products for your home and garden to try and buy and plenty of activities for the kids, to make this a great day out for all the family!

To Enter:

• Please leave a comment on THIS blog post.
• Even if you don't have a blog but would like to enter please comment and leave your Name and Email Address to be in the draw.
• If you don't live in Sydney but you know someone who does and would love to go to this event, I can always post the tickets to them.
• The winners will be drawn next Friday the 17th September.

Good luck and I hope to see you there!

Have a great day,

WIN a $100 madeit voucher!!!

I've just found out some exciting news!

To celebrate the recent My Child advert (which My Sweet Prints was apart of, see my Custom Birth Print in the middle of the page below?) one lucky Madeit buyer has a chance to win a $100 madeit.com.au voucher!!


Simply buy from a My Child advertiser (like MySweetPrints on madeit) and you could win a $100 madeit voucher to spend at any of the advertiser's stores. Giveaway runs from the 3rd June (today) to the 17th June. Winner will be picked via random.org!

Remember you must buy from one of the advertised sellers over the next 2 weeks to be entered into the giveaway. Every purchase from an advertised sellers is an entry!!!!

Click here for more details and links to all the advertised sellers.

Thanks to Madeit for such a great offer! Go spread the word and get shopping everyone! ;)

Hope you're having a lovely day,

Little Giveaway WINNER

Thank you to everyone who entered my little giveaway of six hair clips made by me :)

I used Random.org but my stupid screen shot taking function isn't working but anyway.....
the winner is - KATHERINE of THE OLD BOAT HOUSE !!!

Congratulations Katherine, I'll send you an email shortly.

Wishing everyone a very happy weekend!
See you back here next week,

A Little Giveaway

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today with a cold/flu brewing so I thought I'd cheer myself up by holding a little (and when I say little, I mean little) GIVEAWAY.

I'm giving away three sets of hair clips I've made/am making.
That is, two hair clips in pink gingham, two in the green and two in the blue, total of six.

I bought this little "Yo Yo Maker" at Spotlight on the weekend so I could make little flowers and attach them to hair clips. I figured they'd make great present fillers for all the birthday parties of our friend's little girls coming up.

So here's how to enter...

1. Leave a comment on this post - include your email if you don't have it listed on your blog.
2. Become a follower and leave a comment letting me know you are!

****GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED****

And that's it.... Ummmm.... I think I will draw the winner on Friday night 28th May, so the giveaway closes at 5pm AEST and I'll post the winner later that night.
Overseas entries welcome : )

Have a great day,

Print in New Idea magazine!

Great excitement today as my 'Keep Quiet the Baby's Sleeping' print is in the latest issue of New Idea magazine! It was part of a beautiful spread on decorating your nursery.

I was contacted by the most lovely stylist Marie Nichols about two months ago, and she asked if I would be happy to provide my 'Keep Quiet the Baby's Sleeping' print for a New Idea photo shoot she was putting together. Of course I said yes!

So I've been waiting for the feature to come out and there it was today on page 76 of the April 17, 2010 issue of New Idea.



Marie is doing a GIVEAWAY of the exact print which was used on the photo shoot on her gorgeous blog Whole Lotta Lovely so go on over and enter to win!!!

Even if the Giveaway doesn't interest you, go and take a look around Marie's blog as she shares all her amazing stylist secrets including moodboards, beautiful products she's shot, and simply gorgeous photography. To see her concept behind the Nursery Feature go here.

Have a wonderful day,

My Sweet Prints Giveaway at Spearmint Baby

Spearmint Baby blog is holding a My Sweet Prints giveaway!
Choose any print of your choice from my range and the winner will be drawn Monday, April 19th.

Visit Spearmint Baby for the details of entry!

If you haven't visited Spearmint Baby before then go take a look at the gorgeous nurseries they feature. Beautiful inspiration if you have a little one to decorate for!

Images via Spearmint Baby

Have a wonderful weekend everyone & see you back here next week!



P.S. thank you for your lovely comments this week, it really brightens my day!!!

Happy Birthday Susy!

Image via Nicolette Camille Floral Design

I want to dedicate today's blog post to my wonderful sister-in-law Susy who is turning 40 today!
Susy is a wonderful wife, mother of three beautiful children (biased aunt talking?), she's the best cook, friend, listener, she spends hours on school fundraising, uniform shop, taking the kids to every activity under the sun and she and her husband Dale have done an amazing job of getting their little family smoothly settled and so well bonded in the midst of the incredible task of immigrating from Sth Africa to Australia not even two years ago! I am still in awe!

So I hope you have the BEST day ever Susy! I can't wait to go out to dinner tonight and celebrate! xoxoxoxox

Love,



P.s. I was so excited after my first ever Giveaway being drawn that I couldn't get to sleep for ages last night! Congrats again Mel! And thanks for the blog mention too!

And the winner is........!

Drum roll please..... We actually did a little dum, dim, dum, dum as a drum roll before my husband clicked the 'Generate' button to find the results of the giveaway (he said he felt very honoured to be drawing the results)!

And so the winner is! MELINDA @ Here We Go Loopy Lou

Congratulations Melinda! You will be receiving a Bedtime Bus Roll Poster in the mail!

Please email me your address and I will post it to you tomorrow.

Thank you everyone for taking part. I hope to do a giveaway again soon so stay tuned.

And if you would like to purchase a Bedtime Bus Roll Poster, you can find it here.

Thanks again everyone!