Plush Team Summer Challenge

After a lot of busy months I am so happy that I have managed to make something for this month's Plush Team Challenge. The theme is 'Dessert or Desert' and I decided to combine the two and make a cactus ice cream! I drew a little picture of the idea that was in my head, and a few hours later, after some unravelling and re-doing, I finished it!

The perfect desert dessert. The cactus ice cream cornet.

Cactus Love

If you're looking for an original, cute valentine's gift for that special someone, look no further! There are now plenty of cute little cacti available in my Etsy store. You can find this little on by clicking here!

Meet Judith, your perfect desktop companion, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face even on the most difficult of days. Give her to someone special in your life so that they remember you every time they see her cute face! She is a great gift for those plant lovers who just can't keep a plant alive, but need a little life and light brought into their office or study. She would also be happy to be an ornament on your bookshelf or mantelpiece. 

Sandy is a plant who will never die! Perfect for those of us who don't have green fingers, and those who do! She would be a lovely gift for that special someone. Or, if you want to keep her for yourself she would very happily be an ornament on your bookshelf, desk or mantelpiece. 

Amigurumi Cacti

You see quite a lot of Amigurumi Cacti popping up on Etsy. Some people make realistic looking ones and others go for the cute kawaii option with a little face. This pattern by mutts is one of the cutest and most original ones I've seen. She sells some fantastic patterns in her Amigurumi Friends Pattern Shop and she also has her Studio Shop where, if you're not much of a crocheter, you can buy the finished articles.

Momiji Fudge

If you have never heard of Momiji dolls then you must check them out. They are awesome! I am on their mailing list and for December they are doing an 'Advent Calendar' where everyday until Christmas they email something like a discount code or a craft tutorial or some other special offer. The other day they emailed a recipie for fudge (click and scroll down to December 8th) so today I tried it out. It tastes great!

Cute and Cuddly Cushions

Cute and Cuddly Cushions - my first treasury in a while. Click here to see the real thing and make sure you check out the shops of all the amazing people who made these cushions - you can do it by clicking on each individual picture.

Jamie and Julie the Cactus

This is Jamie and her best friend Julie the Cactus. Together they run an exotic plants shop in London. They travel round the world twice a year - once in January and once in July, in search of new plants to sell in their shop. Having a shop in London is never boring as there are always plenty of interesting customers - even the odd celebrity! available in my etsy shop now!

Celebrating Etsy's Euro Week; supercute style

It's Euro Week on Etsy and so today I want to introduce you to a few of my favourite supercute European etsy sellers. So first up is KittyPinkStars and her supercute pancakes.

Next we have a supercute robot from cutedesigns who has also recently launched a new website.


and then we have Binky the sock bunny from Siansburys...

and last but not at all least we have this amazing tooth necklace from cute creations.

I hope you will join me in celebrating Euro Week by visiting their shops and hearting these awesome items :)

Polly Loves Knitting

Polly loves knitting. She always has her latest project in her bag so that in a quiet moment she can get it out and do some knitting. She has to catch the bus to college every morning and she usually knits as she stands at the bus stop. Some people look at her funny, but most of the regulars are used to seeing her standing there knitting - and some of them have even commissioned her to make them winter scarves and gloves! Polly is available in my etsy shop.

Essi the Eskimo

This is Essi the Eskimo. He is an Ice Lolly Farmer. He was on his way home from harvesting some of his crop when he started to feel a bit hungry so he decided dip into his basket and see just how good this year's orange lollies taste :)

Essi the Eskimo was inspired by a t-shirt from threadless.com and will hopefully be my entry into the threadknits competition if only the website will let me sign in!

StarPuff needs a place to stay

StarPuff is feeling a little bit of culture shock as this is her first visit to planet earth. She would like to meet and get to know some earthlings but she is quite shy. Maybe you could introduce yourself to her and offer help her to settle in on this strange planet. She needs to find a place to stay and then she would like to enrole in an art school. If you want to be her friend you can contact her at my etsy shop.

International Travel

This is the latest creature to leave our lovely home and fly across the sea to somewhere new.

When I went to the post office to post him, the lady looked at the address on the parcel - UK and then looked at me and started gesticulating and pointing obviously trying to tell me something - but I had no idea what! I guess she thought as I was sending something to the UK, I was from the UK (which I am) and so could not speak the local language. It was really funny that she didn't even try speaking to me - not in her own language or any other language, she just pointed and made faces. Anyway thankfully I can speak the local language in a basic way - and so I should be able to after being here for 16months, and so I was able to ask her what she was trying to tell me and we got it all sorted! he he - the joys of living in a foreign country.

Frank Camera

Frank Camera is a specialist architecture photographer and his favourite medium is black and white photography. He loves to take photos in the big cities of the world - some of his best photos so far were taken New York City - the Flat Iron Building, the Empire State and rows of Brownstones being amongst his favourites. At the moment he is working on a photography project in Bosnia Herzegovina but after that he will be looking for a new job. Have you got a project for him where you live? If so you can contact him via my etsy shop.

Mac Apple - or is it apple mac?

Mac Apple is a graphic designer. He's into retro design and loves the London Underground Map. He prefers to go around barefoot as it helps him feel the creative vibes - but when it's really not practical he does wear shoes. More important to him than shoes is his MacBook pro which he always has with him in case inspiration strikes.
Mac Apple is available in my etsy shop.

Exciting times...

Exciting times! On Saturday I made my first real etsy sale - until then all my sales had been to family members which kinda doesn't count. And more exciting news - I joined the etsy plush team.

Today's excitment was going to the sewing shop and stocking up on wool. As you can see by the labels on these balls of wool there isn't much choice when it comes to different brands of wool here in Mostar - pretty much there is just the one brand! Nakolen. The shop I go to is called Vez. It's a good little shop - but there just isn't the stuff available here that you can get in the UK or USA. I get my safety eyes from Enamieyes on etsy. The eyelash yarn that I use for fluffy jumpers and hair gets sent to me from the UK by my Mum.

Polyfibre stuffing seems to be impossible to get hold of here so I have to get people to send it to me from UK. When I first started to make amigurumis I realised that I needed to buy some stuffing. Not being fluent in the language yet, I didn't know the word for stuffing so I looked it up in the dictionary, walked up the road to Vez and asked the shop keeper 'Imate li nadjev?' He looked at me very strangely so I started to explain it was white stuff to make dolls. He laughed and said 'ok so do you mean this?' and showed me a bag of chopped up bits of foam. I explained that I really wanted white fluffy stuff but he said that was the only stuffing they sold. Anyway, turns out I had asked him for the kind of stuffing you put inside a chicken and not the kind you put inside dolls!

Amigurumi in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Amigurumi is becoming popular all over the world. On etsy you will find lots of people selling amigurumi toys and patterns. People from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Italy, China and more. But if you look on etsy for sellers from Bosnia and Herzegovina or if you google 'amigurumi bosnia herzegovina' there are only 2 people that come up in the google search. One is me and the other is Pepika. Pepika makes amigurumi and sells patterns. It seems that her trademark amigurumis are cute little fluffy bears like this one. She has a website http://www.pepika.com/ and and etsy shop http://www.pepika.etsy.com/. Visit her websites and check out her work and while you're at it, see what you can find out about Bosina and Herzegovina. It is a country that most people have only heard about in a negative context because of war, but there is so much more to it than that - as Pepika says on her website 'it is a beautiful, yet isolated part of Europe.' - it really is, I love living here and I would say if you get the chance it's really worth a visit!

Sunshine at Christmas

It's pouring with rain today and I would really love to see a bit of sunshine! A few years ago we spent Christmas in Cape Town with Matt's brother and family. It was sooo nice to go from rainy cold England to the sunshine of Cape Town - and even nicer to see our family who we hadn't seen for a long time.

Tomorrow they are coming from Cape Town (via visiting family in UK) to visit us here in Mostar and this time we haven't seen them for an even longer time - nearly 2 1/2 years! I can't believe we're actually going to see them :) so exciting - and now there's 4 of them - last time we saw them there was only 3. So they are swapping the chance of sunshine at Christmas to come and visit family on the other side of the globe.

And while they are here, my sister has gone with her husband to visit friends in Cape Town and is sending me texts like 'sunbathing, just been swimming in the pool...' so someone in our family is enjoying sunshine at Christmas. What a well travelled family we are!


This is Lulu. She also loves sunshine at Christmas and sea and sand. She's been surfing since she could stand and has won lots of competitions. She loves it when she beats the guys. She's just picked herself some hibisucs flowers and made herself a lei to welcome the new year in. She is available in my etsy shop.

cute things that make me smile :)

I've been spending quite a bit of time getting to know my way around etsy over these last few days - and there's so much to learn! I've been taking part in forums, visiting the virtual labs and reading the storque blog. One of the things that caught my attention was the etsy treasury - a place where you can create a page of 12 items which you like - and then upload that list to share with others. There are a limited number of treasury lists that can be up at any one time so you have to wait for a space to come up - and from what I read in the forums, a gap can be quite hard to find as they are highly sought after! but... I got one and here's my list. If you want to see more of what each of these sellers has to offer I have listed the urls of their shops below - they are in order of the pictures working from left to right. I have put up more then one item by some sellers. Enjoy :)



http://www.zafras.etsy.com/
http://www.keitosan.etsy.com/
http://www.cutedesigns.etsy.com/
http://www.theitsybitsyspider.etsy.com/
http://www.wooldebeast.etsy.com/
http://www.applenoggin.etsy.com/
http://www.outoftheframe.etsy.com/
http://www.bravemoonman.etsy.com/
http://www.salihan.etsy.com/

Tweedy Cat

Tweedy cat likes to be outside and to climb trees. As you can see, he ripped his jeans climbing a tree last week and had to have them patched up. Today he had better luck - he climbed up the tree, picked a lovely red apple and put it in his bag ready to eat later on.

Tweedy cat is for sale in my etsy shop.

raspberries and custard

Happy Christmas everyone :)

I finished making raspberries and custard yesterday. She's really got the colour co-ordinated accessories down to a fine art - and check out her mittens, complete with safety strings so she doesn't lose them, just like we all had when we were kids.

raspberries and custard is for sale in my etsy shop.

bunny prepared...

This is bunny prepared. I made him over the weekend. I seem to be on a roll of making bags for amigurumis at the moment - so he has a bag, and in the bag a carrot! He makes me smile every time I look at him. He really looks like he's about to start out on a mission...