My deepest appologies

Hello internet,

I would just like to appologise for my absence over the past month. I know I said I would post at least once a week and I haven't been doing that.

In all honesty I have been caught up with life and my newest project, being my new brand The Jolly Cottage. Business has been slow but progressing and I will have to update you all on how things are going and a look into what I have been working on lately.

I swear I will get back into it soon. In the mean time please check me out on The Jolly Cottage Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram if you would like to get back up to speed.

With that said, Hope you all have been well.

Julie.

It's TOMORROW!

Can't keep my excitement for the Vintage Markets tomorrow!

So the shameless advertising will soon be over, soon..

The markets will be running for the next fortnight. Dates are as follows:

• Thursday 17th October
• Friday 18th October
• Thursday 24th October
• Friday 25th October

Starts at 4:30PM but more info can be found on the Facebook event here.

SO come down and see all the things I've been making in person. There are quite a few things that I haven't posted up so come and say hi and see my stuff before the rest of the internet does!

Also just a reminder to like the facebook page, The Jolly Cottage.
And to follow on twitter @TheJollyCottage!

Yay! See you tomorrow!! :D

Julie & The Jolly Cottage.

DIY Must Try: Improv Polka Dot Wallpaper

Love polka dots?
Love wallpaper?
On a budget and/or not willing to commit to big renovation project?

Well here is the perfect DIY for you (and me)!

I present to you the easiest and cheapest faux wallpaper DIY ever!

and how good does it look?

This awesome project is from Finnish blog My Second hand Life on the Indie Days website. It is in Finnish but there is an English blurb at the bottom. There is no actual DIY instructions but I thought I would add some here. And I haven't done this project yet (hence the "DIY must try" but I am hoping to try it out ASAP, probably going to the shops to get my supplies tomorrow or by the end of the week)

Now for the how-to.

All you will need is:

• a wall
• a roll of little dot stickers in the colour/size of your choice otherwise known as circle label stickers.

So this is the kind of thing you are looking for. You can find a roll at your nearest Officeworks or other stationary store. Probably just in the stationery isle of your super market will do. One of these should cost you between $5-$10! Change the look of your walls for LESS than $10! How crazy is that?!

The instructions..

1. Select the wall you want to polka dot. It can be one wall in your room to use as a feature or two walls or even 3. All of them?! The ceiling maybe even or a door (I do like the door idea).
2.  Make sure it's nice and clean. It doesn't have to be spotless but no one wants to look at a dirty wall. Just use a damp cloth. If you are having any difficulties, consult a professional (that's a joke).
3. Start sticking! You can place your dots as dense or as sparsely as you like! You can place them randomly like in the photo at the top or you can be really pedantic and space them all out evenly with a ruler (this will probably make this DIY more difficult and time consuming).
4. You're done! Step back and admire your hard work. ☺

Of course there are alternatives to dots. Use stars, squares or cut up your own shapes from a roll of colour tape. And it doesn't have to be on a while wall either! It's all up to you. Hopefully I can try this out soon and I will post some photos up.

In the mean time good luck with this!

Julie

Little projects: Origami business card stand

Hey internet,

So I've been following How about Orange for a while. It's a blog by a woman named Jessica Jones, she's a graphic designer. On her blog she posts little DIYs, free printables and  desktop images and other cool little fun things she find on the internet. Needless to say I have spent a good amount of time on her blog (especially during my HSC)

Anyhows, so I saw this link to a tutorial to make an easy origami business card stand a little while ago (post here).  Thought it was worth trying, but thought "hang on I don't have any business cards to put on it". So I left it and continued surfing the net as I do.

Don't you think they look pretty nice all coordinated with the stationary and such?!

Anyway, months later, I made some business cards/contact cards for The Jolly Cottage for the markets! And these neat little crossed my mind. So I made some!! 

Here are my new cards! Don't mind some ink leaks and wonky printing/trimming. They're handmade, complete with some washi tape. But they look pretty good if you asked me. What do you think?

And here are my cards in my little card stands! Yay!! They aren't really in the colour/pattern of my choosing. Just recycling a map of Taronga Zoo my little sister printed off when we took her there last school holidays (pretty sure it was the winter break). I thought it looked nicer then all the other random stuff in the recycling pile. Huzza! for recycling and saving the planet! Think I will make another proper set of business card stands for the markets. Any suggestions on the kind of paper. Colour? Pattern? 

Pretty happy with how everything turned out. Those card stands are SUPER easy! You should try it yourself. I've even embedded the instruction video for you! It is just below. :)

Woo! It can also be used as a phone stand too. Multi purpose. I like it!

If you try it out, let me know and tell me how you went and we can chat over how awesomely easy they are to make.

Anyway, have fun with that and enjoy your weekend!

Julie

Packages + Announcements

Mail time! MAIL TIME! MAAIIL TIIIME!!!

Anyone get the Blues Clues reference? Used to love that show, even when I was older than the intended audience age.

Anyway..

I got a package!! Here it is..

WOO PACKAGE!! It arrived in the mailbox on Monday. It came all the way from the UK! Hoorah for online shopping! Was TOTALLY excited for it to arrive. I've been wanting one of these for a while and finally got around to buying it online a few weeks ago. Want to know what it is?!

TA DA! A very badly focused photo of my new DIY self-inking stamp kit!! Then I can stamp all the things! It can stamp up to 4 lines of text. It even has 2 different sized character sets. Only reason why I preferred this to the one I could have bought from office works with 5 lines, also it was a few dollars cheaper.

It actually took me a good 10 minutes to stick all the little letters in.. I think i was over thinking having to write everything backwards. I had a few errors mixing up the character sets. Also left out the second "L" in finally the first time. Got it right in the end but I have to get faster at this.. It is a little tedious.

But worth it when you finally get stamping!! Weeeee... Anyone getting the Toy Story reference? Too many references in this post from my childhood..

And then changed all the letters out to use it for it's intended purpose and stamped the back of all my notebooks so that they're all branded and ready to go for the markets! How good does it look? (I was super pleased with myself at this point).

Speaking of markets, more info has been released about the Parramatta Lanes Festival later this month! The Vintage Market that I will be featuring in is going to be held in the Connection Arcade just across the road from Parramatta Station on Darcy street. The arcade connects to Church street where Sweet Street Bakery is. Here's a map.

And just a reminder I will be there at the Vintage markets on Thursday 17th, Friday 18th, Thursday 24th and Friday 25th October from 4:30pm to 9pm each day.

For more info, click here. You can also download the festival guide there too.

And now for my announcement!

The Jolly Cottage now has a Facebook page!!  Yay! That's facebook.com/thejollycottage. So go ahead and like that if you wish. Either by searching "The Jolly Cottage" on Facebook or clicking here!

As you can see it's only got 7 likes.. we need more friends..

There is also an event page for the Vintage Markets on the Facebook page. Go and check it out here. So if you are planning on stopping by click that you are "Going" and go invite your friends too! I'm sure the Festival will be a great night out. Well 4 great nights out.

There are some photos up there but other than that page is still a bit bare but only really been playing with it over the past two days. Just need somewhere for people to go if they want some contact details from the markets but just in general too I guess so I can show people what I'm up to. Those who can't be bothered reading this blog. Any suggestions on what else I can put up there?

Speaking of which, not sure whether I should change the name of the blog to "The Jolly Cottage Blog" or something along those lines. Only thing is that it's not strictly just Jolly Cottage stuff that gets posted on here though at the moment the vast majority of my latest posts are related. I think I will have to think about it more. See what happens after the markets. 

Anyway, till next time.

Julie & The Jolly Cottage

Producitvity of late (Finally!)

Hello,

I've been a bit naughty and havent posted anything for more than a week! Makes me feel bad. What makes me feel worse is that I've had this post in my drafts for almost the past month and FINALLY getting around to posting it.

So here it is, my first long awaited productivity update! What have I been up to in the past few weeks? Lots! Lots of making and designing and crafting and sewing. Some stuff for myself and other things in preparation for Parramatta Lanes. Seeing as this is my first Productivity update I'm still figuring out how to write it out I think this will mostly be photos and little blurbs about the photos sort of segment.

Firstly things that I have been making for the Parra Lanes Festival. 

So like I have mentioned in THIS previous post, I will be having a stall at the up and coming Parramatta Lanes Festival! So very excited but also a little freaked as it's my first time selling my things. But I'm sure it will be a good learning experience. Here are some things I have planned for the markets. Your opinions and feedback would be most helpful.

Things that will be for sale include these little hand-bound notebooks.

Also these cute repurposed jars. Sustainability is big these days.

Drafting some possible packaging ideas for the markets.

Designed myself a logo for my 'brand' for the markets. I think it might be too cute but that's fine. just want something to put on a little business/contact cards. Thoughts?

Then some other personal projects.

And of course not studying this semester has given me some time to work on some other side projects for myself and my friends. It's nice to just be able to go and make something cos I can.

Made a batch of tiramisu the other week and packaged it up to give to my boyfriend as a treat for work.

Hand painted watercolour card for a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed 1st birthday. Got into water colour during an Illustration elective I did at uni 2 years ago. Brings me back to my childhood.

Present package: Made coordinating bag, wrap and card for a baby shower.

BUNTING! Some of my friends call me the Bunting Queen. Made about 4.7m of bunting for my friend Ben.

And packaged it up nicely for him. Did I mention I liked packaging?

Also designed, inked and framed this typographic birthday message for my friend Keni

That's all the recent stuff that I could find on my SD card. I thought I might put up some of my intern work on another post before this one gets too long.

If any of you internet people would be kind enough, I'd love some feedback on my stuff. Especially on things for the markets. Do you have any suggestions on what else I can make. ALSO Christmas is approaching and wanted to make somethings for the holiday season, Anyone got suggestions? Most helpful!

I know I am slowly easing my way back to blogging and not quite at the readership as I used to be but hoping to have some reader interaction would be very encouraging for me, so if you could be so kind. Also what are your thoughts on social media for The Jolly Cottage? I am hoping to get a Facebook page happening. Will maybe sort that out this week.

Gee I ask a lot of questions, my apologies. Anyway I hope you enjoyed seeing what I've been up to. Hopefully won't be too long before I post my next Productivity post, then I can show you what I do for work!

Till next time,

Julie

Workspace + ANNOUNCEMENT

A little peek into what I'm up to (kind of) and evidence that I am actually up to stuff despite my lack of posts about it all. Also evidence of all the mess I make when I make stuff (more mess than actual stuff sometimes). My super exciting announcement is at the bottom of this post. :)

my craft desk in my room

this one didn't auto rotate

all packed up on the coffee table, there is more on the other side.

yes, that is Clag

yes, I have a dumb phone which is slowly dying on me

GOLD

So yeah, making mess in my room, the dining table, the family room etc. Hopefully will be worth all the work. These are for a bunch of different projects but mostly for my own personal stuff. I will do a "Crafted" post with finished things later on so stay tuned for that.

ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!

So I am very excited to share with you all that I will be having my first market stall at the Parramatta Lanes Festival with the help of the Prospector Store! I will have a stall in the "Suitcase Market" trading under The Jolly Cottage*.

Take a journey through the hidden lanes of Parramatta and discover delicious street foods, pop-up bars, live music and art installations as traditional urban spaces are transformed into playgrounds for the curious (and hungry!).

Over 4 great Spring evenings I'll be out selling my wares to the world!! So come down, come in, come by and say "Hi!" (I'm a rhyming genius). Buy something even! All the locations are still being sorted and yet to be announced but I will be sure to keep you all in the loop.

When: 17 & 18 and 24 & 25 October

Time: 4:30-9:30pm

Explains all the mess I'm making. Not enough mess I think though, lots of work to do still. So I hope to see some of you blog readers there, even if its just to make my stall look popular. Might make a special blog discount password! So be attentive, you won't want to miss it.

For more information just follow this link to the Discover Parramatta event page on thier website.

And check the Prospector Store here and there because it's awesome.

Till next time,
Julie

*thanks Ben for helping out with the name!

DIY must try: Himmeli

So I do a lot of surfing the net and saving images and bookmarking pages and pinning things. So here are some things that I want to try out now, some time in the future (or possibly not get around to doing however unfortunate).

First up.

Himmeli

Himmeli is a Finish tradition where they hang intricate, hand-made, straw mobile over the dining table to promote a good harvest. These traditionally geometric mobiles can look quite modern and geometric and have been recreated by designers for general decorative purposes. Here are some examples below (which I just pulled of Google Images). 

A traditional himmeli made from straw.

A collection of mobiles and ornaments by Melissa of AMradio. You can by her things from her Etsy shop Hrŭskaa.

One of my favourite things by Melissa are her brass himmeli mobiles like these awesome hanging planters.

A himmeli pendant light by designer Paul Loeback.

I stumbled across these beautiful mobiles after watching a tutorial on how to make on the KIN Comminity youtube channel. You can watch the tutorial below.

It looks so easy to do, I just want to make some to decorate my room and to make for Christmas. Bring a little of Scandinavia into my house (I miss Sweden). If any of you internet people try this out let me know and show me!

Till next time,

Julie

Culinary Exploration: Strawberry Shortcake

So, thought I might start a monthly/weekly(?) Cooking thing. Gee I'm great at English.

Anyway, I like to bake and it's something I don't do often. Would also like to cook a bit more too so now I hope to try and get my self in the kitchen as often as possible and post it up online. Take some WIP photos and the end result (because I just like taking photos of food :)

ANYWAY! Last week I decided to bake Strawberry Shortcake, the recipe of which I found on the Sorted Food (these guys are awesome, follow them on Youtube!) website.

I was hoping to make some easy mini quiches but my mum didn't buy the puff pastry I requested the day before so I couldn't. I also couldn't be bothered walking down to the shops to buy some. SO I thought I would bake something else.

Mum just bought two big punnets of strawberries and wanted to use them somehow and decided on this shortbread recipe as it seemed quick and easy.

I didn't have enough butter so I just halved the recipe.

Cute little heart-shaped tin from DAISO! Only $2.80 #winning.

and into the oven

 it took FOREVER to cool down

TA DA!

Yay for fresh strawberries!

Also made a little cupcake sized one with the left over dough and packaged it all up for my boyfriend because I'm awesome.

Also made some choc chip cookies and some brownies for my friends fundraiser. The guys from my Industrial Design course who are graduating this year are trying to raise some money so they can put on their end of year design exhibition and had a stall at my university's open day on Saturday. Unfortunately I totally forgot to take proper photos. This is all I got.

 Hope you enjoyed the post. If there are any recipes you want me to try let me know.

Till next time,

Julie

I'm BACK! ~ update & announcement ~

And here to stay, at least for a while.

Hi blogger and the internet at large!

Haven't been here in a while. How have you been? What have I been up to since my random blog post over new years you ask?! LOTS!

But before I go into all that, I SWEAR, this time I really will keep blogging!! It's taken some time but I am finally living up to my New Years Resolutions.

1. Focusing on my crafts
2. Get back into blogging

So it has been a slow start to say the least. But I am FINALLY here to take my resolutions seriously, also things have started going in that direction with little nudging from me throughout the year.

But right now I actually have time to myself, at home to craft and to BLOG! 

So *drum roll for my announcement* from now on expect me to blog at LEAST once a week! If not more. Internet you have to keep me to this otherwise I might fall through.. and we don't want that.

Not only will this mean I will be back and documenting my work, making sure that I have something new to post up every week but also get's my work out there and hopefully, just maybe, at the end of this crazy adventure I can live off crafting and selling my wares.

I also hope to do a catch up series of all my travels and what I have been up to this year to get the internet back up to scratch of where I'm at. Next post will probably go more into detail of what I am actually up to these days but until then stay tuned!

- Julie

New year and resolutions

Greetings from Vienna!

Anyway, just wanted to quickly say that my new years resolution this year is to get back into my crafts. Only being at uni part time I'm going to craft like crazy, open up an etsy shop and start selling stuff at markets. Just like what I wanted to do when I was in high school.

I dont normally do new years resolutions but this time i really want to take this one seriously. Kind of decided that I want to do craft for the rest of my life. I knwo i do design and as mucha s I like it I want to get back to my roots. Sure i can incorporate my design schooling into it but crafting seems to be the only thing i keep coming back to and now that im in the latter stages of my degree i'm starting to think about what im going to do after. Craft, Its what I do Its in my blood.

As Part of this I want to get back into blogging again. Blogging used to go hand in hand with my craft. I guess its a way for me to keep track and stay organised. Ah this post is getting long.

Also need to post photos up too! wish i have photoshop on my laptop. I think im going to have to upload things unedited. which i guess is good but yeah. SO MANY TO SORT THROUGH.

I'm going to stop here. till next time. :)

- j