Make Yourself @Home

Popping in

I'm still here.

Two weeks 'til the launch of Etzcetera and time is flying by fast. The magazine is all consuming at the moment. I am living and breathing this project! BUT unlike anything else I have ever done, I'm enjoying the entire process. I'm not particularly stressed out or overwhelmed or wondering what on earth I am doing. I'm enjoying the whole thing!!!

Today I interviewed a lovely "mumpreneur" duo for an upcoming article. I felt very professional with my notebook, armed with my questions and my iPhone on record and during the interview I had that excited little feeling, that joyful feeling of "I love this!"

I truly enjoyed chatting face to face with the girls, listening to their stories of how they got started, their challenges, their triumphs, their motivation and their goals.

I also showed them a peek at some of the finished pages and their reactions were so heart warming. I was thrilled that they were thrilled and enthusiastic about the magazine.

Except for mum and Ken, I haven't shared any of the finished pages with anyone just yet BUT I did allow a teeny, little sneak peek in today's newsletter. If you missed it, here's the image..

Ooops, thats a small image..but you get the idea..told you it was a LITTLE sneak peek!

impromptu lunch and afternoon tea

I love spontaneous outings! Where you just make a decision to do something and jump in the car and do it! With little or no notice!!

Sunday we did just that and found ourselves at the yacht club for lunch with mum & dad. The weather was divine and we had a sunny spot where we could enjoy the marina and boats and the lovely view as we ate our lunch. And we were so spontaneous, I left home without my camera and had to make do with my iPhone!

After lunch we walked next door to Rock Salt for coffee and dessert..Here's mum and Jamison walking along - he's grown SO tall and this photo..

reminded me of this photo taken about 4 years ago..

We had a lovely marina view table at Rock Salt..

source. 

and ordered delicious desserts to share. We all marvelled at how the desserts were plated up..and did our best Masterchef impersonation as we tasted each dish!! Capri and I shared a chocolate wedge cake with milk bottle ice-cream (Rock salt's description - was really just vanilla ice-cream..)and teeny raspberry jellies with some weird looking wafer thing balanced precariously on the ice cream!

And mum and Jamison shared a meringue and honeycomb stack with a Bailey's puddle and toffee shards on top..

and Ken and my dad stuck with the coffee although did have a taste of our desserts!

and it was a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

today I am knitting

This big ball of colourful texture and my knitting needles are calling my name this weekend. I have had a little idea brewing away in my mind for a week or so and I hope to grab some time today to get started!

I hope you have a crafty kinda weekend too...

yesterday my very first Etzcetera newsletter went out

..and that made me so very happy.

The Etzcetera newsletter will come out every second Friday and will have a few crafty tidbits, a tutorial here and there, some behind the scenes Etzcetera news and the all important news of when each issue is ready for viewing. It's just a little way for me to stay in touch with all our lovely readers in between magazine issues.

I know we had a flurry of newsletter signups AFTER the first newsletter went out yesterday. And you guys will start getting the newsletter from Friday 17 June UNLESS you would like me to forward yesterday's little newsletter to you. Email me if you do want a forwarded copy.

Well it's now JUNE which means that the 1 July is looming fast which means theres SO MUCH going on behind the scenes to get Etzcetera ready to go. I'm so happy with how it's all shaping up. To see an idea go from this little seed of "can I actually do this?" to becoming a reality is well, pretty cool really.

Over this coming week I will introduce you to a couple of lovely people who have come on board regularly to write or curate lovely collections to share or create projects for Etzcetera. They're all wonderfully creative, enthusiastic people and it's been a pleasure to work with them on this first issue and to know they're sticking around for subsequent issues too.

Have a crafty weekend everyone.

a little Friday morning shop, shop, shopping

Just wanted to share with you a lovely little Etsy store called The Greatest View, run by Gail Lindner. It's a store filled with the cutest embellishments...like this

these

and the loveliest little paper banners like these...

and for a splash of colour..how about these

or these..

Find Gail's shop here or learn more about Gail and her craftiness here on her blog..

Happy shopping.