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Lauren's Princess Plum Blossom
14 years ago
Showing posts with label mostar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mostar. Show all posts
Modamo.kreARTiva is still being talked about
More about Modamo.kreARTiva Sajam
I hope you aren't going to get bored with me going on about the craft fair I was at over the weekend, but it was really good so I'm going to tell you about it anyway!
This is my table. I'm really happy with how I set it out, it looked so cute and funny with all those big eyes looking about! I was really encouraged by how many positive comments I got from people who seemed to love my dolls as much as I do! It's the first time I've exhibited them when I have been present so I've never had those kinds of comments before. Thank you to Zanovijetak Cvijetak who I think too this photo - and if she didn't she took some other great photos which I'll put in another blog post. If you like to accessorise with flowers check out her facebook page.
And this is a review of the craft fair in the newspaper - why is that exciting? It's exciting because I made the headline! It says 'There's something for everyone, from jewellery and bags to dolls made using a japanese knitting technique.'
Highlights from Modamo.kreARTiva Sajam
This weekend I was in Mostar at the Sajam Lijepih Stvari - or craft fair of beautiful things. This video shows a few highlights from where I was standing and the video below gives an overall impression of the whole thing. It was a fantastic event, really well organised and really well attended. It was great to meet so many creative people. The atmosphere was positive and exciting, and for me, as a foreigner, it was a privilege to be part of something new and inovative that tells a different story about the people here in BiH than those you usually hear on the news. I'm looking forward to what will happen next with the Modamo.kreARTiva community :)
Gabby is in the newspaper!
This is an advert made by modamo.KreArtiva for the newspaper Večernji List for the craft fair in Mostar in December and there in the bottom right hand corner is Gabby the love messenger doll! I'm not sure if it's already been in the paper or if it's yet to come out. I just found out about it so I hope it's not out yet so that I can buy a copy :)
Getting ready for the craft fair
I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks and maybe some of you have started to think that I've stopped making dolls! But no... here is the evidence of what I've been doing lately. I've been busy getting ready for the craft fair in Mostar in December and life has been generally busy too. These 3 dolls are awaiting accessories. Apart from that i'm focusing on Christmas stuff to sell at the fair.
finally - a space to be creative
Those of you who regularly read my blog will know that very soon - like in about 10 days we are moving from Mostar to Jajce. I'm excited about moving for lots of reasons, new challenges, new start, new opportunites, meeting new people, exciting times, living in a beautiful part of the world and somewhere new to live.
We found a place to live in Jajce about a month ago and over the last couple of weeks we've been moving our furniture there and getting it ready for when we move in. It's a really great place - probably the biggest place we've lived in in our 12 years of being married which means that we have space to be creative! No more wool and amigurumi stuff all over the sofa and the living room floor. No more guitars sleeping in the spare bed or camping out in the living room. Finally we have enough space so that everything can have it's place :)
This is one corner of my space - there's another corner too but it's not finished yet. Oh and the view from the window is amazing - but that can be another blog post!
a new way of life...
Yesterday we came back to Mostar after spending a few days in Jajce preparing our apartment for when we move in -sometime in the next month or so. Jajce is the smallest and most rural kind of place I have ever lived - not that I live there yet, but when I do it will be! Anyway, everyone there heats their homes with woodburning stoves so part of our work these last few days was to stack 7 metres of wood into the store room. Considering how big the pile looked when we started it didn't take as long as I thought it would, but it was tiring and messy, especially the second day when the other half arrived and it was pouring with rain. Change is always fun and I like new challenges so I'm looking forward to this new way of life.
What a week...
Last week seemed to last forever. There were some really good moments. My sister and her husband were visiting from UK and we had a great time all together going to the beach for our day off, BBQ with friends, hanging out together and working together in klub. But then there were also some really bad moments. One of the kids who comes to our youth club died from an electric shock. He was only 10 years old. He was with us in the youth club in the morning, his usual excited self, and then the news came during youth club in the evening that he had died in hospital as a result of an accident that afternoon. There are no words in this kind of situation. Seeing his friends break down and cry in front of us in the youth club as they kept saying to themselves over and over again 'he's dead, he's not here anymore' was heartbreaking and I'm just glad that we were there to give them what comfort we could. The funeral was on Saturday. There were over 1,000 people there as his Dad is a footballer in the local team and so his family are very well known. Images of it are imprinted in my mind but I can't find the words to describe it. The words that are going round my mind at the moment are from this song. All of my life, in every season, you are still God, I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship.
oh and in case you're wondering, the amigurumi in the picture is one of the things I'm working on at the moment.
some things are hard to describe...
Some things are hard to describe, some experiences difficult to explain and all I can say is that once again I am so aware of what a privilege it is to live here. The richness of experience that comes from living a cross-cultural life is amazing.
My husband is much better at putting things into words than I am and if you click here you can read his blog where he talks about our life here in BiH.
Etsy Craft Party
Welcome to our Etsy Craft Party! The people at Etsy encouraged Etsians all over the world to have craft parties on 18th June in celebration of Etsy's 5th Birthday. I have a friend,BlessedFlower, who is preparing to open an etsy shop and so together we decided to organise a party here in our town Mostar. There are not many Etsy sellers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and there is only one other in our town (well 2 cos they're a married couple, but it's one shop!). We wrote to all the Etsy sellers in BiH to let them know about the party but most of them live in the capital city, Sarajevo and it is too far for them to travel for one night. But the other Etsy sellers from Mostar came and it was great to meet them. They make amazing jewellery, you can check it out in their Etsy shop - Lottaart.
The idea of our party was to have fun encouraging other people to be creative. We prepared different activities for people to try:
- crocheting bags with plarn
- making sock monkeys
- sewing flowers
- making altered art journals
We also had a good supply of cookies, brownies and other snacks :)
Everyone had a great time and hopefully we encouraged those already creative people to try new things and we awakened the sleeping creativity in everyone else!
House Hunting
Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will know that I am an English girl living in Bosnia Herzegovina. Why am I living here? I'm working for a UK Christian charity called Novi Most. Novi Most is all about bringing the hope of a better future to the young people of Bosnia Herzegovina, empowering them and giving them new opportunites through youth work. At the moment we (me and my husband) live in Mostar but in the autumn we will be moving together with another couple to start a new youth work initiative in a town called Jajce. We are really excited about all that will happen there - but first we need to find somewhere to live, so that's what we're doing this week - house hunting!
This cute house necklace is made by Cute Creations. I totally love her acrylic jewellery. I don't really wear jewellery like that myself but I love her necklaces so much I got one anyway and it hangs on my bookcase! It is a slice of battenberg cake with a smiley face - and it always makes me smile when I look at it. It was actually what inspired me to make this amigurumi!
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.
a snowy day in Mostar
This is my first non-amigurumi related post! but I thought I'd show you what our street looks like today. I don't know if I've ever seen this kind of snow before - coming from the south of England -and it's pretty unusual here in Mostar too. We went out into town to enjoy the snow this morning and took lots of photos. I love this photo because of the bright colours of the graffiti against the beautiful white snow.
