Backtrack : A new post series + some Sydney city gallivanting

New post series? Not really.. but kind of. Let me explain...

So on a trip to the city with some friends from my youth group we all started talking about our uni-student-on-holidays life. It just so happens that the four of us all had our own blogs (because we're all hip and blog and stuff).

And so began our little chat about our non-productiveness on the blog front. in terms of our blogs. We all have differing levels of disengagement with our blogs, from a week, to a few weeks to a few months (in my case - I've posted what, twice? in the last 6 months?)

Anyway.. someone suggested we need to make a pact to all post more and so our little blogging productive challenge was born! (I just made that name up just then) This challenge pretty much just requires us to post SOMETHING (anything?) onto one of our blogs by midnight on Monday-Tuesday. And I guess this post will count as mine. YAY! (I will link all their blog posts at the bottom so you people that read this can check it out.)

I know that I have a lot of worth while things sitting in my drafts and thought I really should post these on here. And my new "Backtrack" post series is born! HUZZAH! So for the next few weeks I will be posting some things that have been sitting in my drafts for months, years even! I can't guarantee that it will be done in chronological order but we'll see how we go. These are all events, though there are a few things that aren't, which I can get away with not being in this series (as they don't refer to some specific times/dates).

I will hopefully be posting the first Backtrack post next week some time. In the mean time here are some photos of what we did get up to in the city. Enjoy!

 We went to customs house.

And the State Library of NSW.

 

  My friend's dad shouted us lunch! We had Thai. It was yummy. 

(Yay for instagram!)

Then we strolled through Hyde Park,

jumped in front of St Mary's Cathedral

and wondered through the Royal Botanical gardens.

We took some photos on the way up to Mrs Macquaries Point.

Then watched the sun set over the harbour.

 Walking back to the station we found this sign. We accepted the invitation by walking on grass and hugging a nearby tree.

On the way back we bought some cake and other baked goods for the train ride back home. We had been talking about red velvet cake on the trip into the city and were craving some. So we managed to find some but alas! It was a very deceiving super sweet, pink, vanilla cake or sugar cake or something. There was NO CHOCOLATE. 

THE CAKE IS A LIE!! 

(Woo! References from games I don't even play)

All in all a pretty good day, despite this "red-velvet" cake. And and at the end of it a new post!

Also here are links to my friend's posts for our challenge!

Trip Tide

Brendon the Smiling Chef

A Piece of Shortcake

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

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!