Handmade Market this weekend

Can I preface this with reminding everyone that there are only 37 more sleeps until Santa visits! Needless to say we are excited that another market is on! Canberra's quarterly Upmarket brings together talented artists, designers, stylists, craftspeople and gourmets all at one destination. It is a unique event to connect the makers of beautiful things to people who appreciate the quality, handcrafted and locally designed.

Come along to the Twilight Market, this Friday 20th November from 5-9pm and enjoy a glass of wine, some dinner underneath the 'stars' and a shop around over 50 boutique stalls. Or come along on Saturday between 10am-4pm and enjoy the Eat@Handmade and many many many boutique stalls both indoors and out.

The organisers have really out done themselves this market, with industrial fans organised for within the shed and a free bus running from Civic interchange to the woolshed on the Saturday. Follow this link for more information about the bus service and the market including a vendors page.

I really encourage all Canberrans to venture out and check the market out, there really is something for everyone and it is definitely more of an event than just a market.

Addiction...

This week I am 23 weeks pregnant with my much awaited second beautiful baby. Unfortunately this pregnancy has come with the lovely symptom of reflux. I have been overjoyed to experience it since about week 7 of the pregnancy which left me very ill until I worked out what it was. It’s been managed well since then, but this week I’ve had to use the Zantac and Mylanta together which has left me looking at my diet and wondering if there was something (other than my increasingly active growing baby) that was causing it to worsen. I’m absolutely devastated to work out that it is chocolate. My beloved!

Now Wikipedia describes addiction as an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence and in its most common usage these days for things like chocolate addiction it says the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user themself to their individual health, mental state, or social life. I read this and it occurs to me, I do have an addiction, because despite this awful side effect of heartburn even when I use zantac…I still want to eat it.

Most devastating, is the fact that the Handmade Market is on this weekend. Alison and I have typically eaten our way through each market, conveniently we have had one of us pregnant at each market, and so eating our way through and supporting the food vendors at the markets has been easy.

I was gearing up this week to buy our ever favourite cupcakes from ‘Little Miss Cupcake’.

These Red Velvet and Cherry Ripe cupcakes are absolutely divine…(and chocolate!) and are just one of the huge range of absolutely delicious cupcakes that Little Miss Cupcake offers. At the first Handmade Market we attended Little Miss Cupcake sold out before midday...testament to everything I've said above and more.

And so, I have given this much thought and I have decided that the mylanta will be visiting the markets with us this weekend because I simply CANNOT resist the temptation of Little Miss Cupcake…and I highly suggest everyone try them. But I warn you, once you go there you quite possibly will never come back!

See you there

Heather

A day at the markets

Today Heather and I attended the Mathilda’s Markets in Canberra. What an exciting busy day we have had, so many people! – once again we ask ourselves ‘where did they all come from?’.

As much as we adore our little two year old boys, it’s always nice to leave the house to go and play with all things pretty at the markets. Today we had my little 6 week old Emma accompany us, and she was so well behaved! She certainly put on the perfect baby act, I don’t think people will believe me when I say I am sleep deprived…but really it was nice to have her with us particularly when we apparently bored her somewhat!
One thing contributing to Emma being the perfect baby was Heather’s mum- she cuddled her for most of the markets! Thanks Jan!!

As a stallholder it can be really hard to find the time and mindset to shop and spend at the markets, but this time I managed to do a little shopping and bought this gorgeous soft toy for Emma’s room from Sweet Sista’.

This cute giraffe caught my eye and I had to buy it as it reminded me of Emma’s Aunty Claire who is living over in the UK- her favourite animal is the giraffe and I have no doubt she would love this one too! The girls at Sweet Sista sell all sorts of lovely wares including other really cute animals made from gorgeous fabrics similar to this giraffe. You can see more of their products on their website http://www.sweetsista.com.au/

Once again, a big hit for us were the myMonkeymoo Pram Liners and Blankets, not surprising given these truly are something special. We have blogged about them before and the opportunities just keep arising, these babies sell themselves!
So we packed up (which is the worst part of going to the markets- a bit like unpacking after a holiday) only to be repacking this week for the Canberra Handmade Market which is just around the corner this coming weekend! EEEK!
We had a good response to our nappies also which is great, each market we go to we get the word out more about the benefits of using cloth nappies, so hopefully we've converted some people.

The talented West...

Handle With Care is proud to stock a number of product lines from Western Australia. Brusselsprouts, Woddlebots and Green Kids are big sellers at HWC.
Well, Alison and I have been on Etsy and Madeit...again and we have found even more talent that is now on its way from WA and I had to share them with you!

First up are Jingle Sox! It's that time of year again and the moment we saw these we wanted them...needed them in our store! Jingle Sox are the creation of Jenny; wife, mum of four beautiful children and grandmother with an obvious love of fabric, designing and sewing!
Deekie Belle Designs creates fun and funky Jingle Sox made from many fabulous high quality fabrics and quilts. We are so excited to have a parcel on their way to us which we will have at the upcoming Mathilda's and Handmade Markets - unless they sell out before!
Have a look at these gorgeous creations! don't you just love them as much as we do?!!

Our next show off creation Little Bean is designed and made by Emma Little, a mum of 3 girls under the age of 4!
Being mums of 2 year old boys, we are all too familiar with the need for ice packs.
These creations spell cute, fun and highly functional all at once!
These gorgeous children's cold packs by Little Bean have many more uses than for just those little (and not so little) falls! with summer fast approaching we are keen to use them to help keep our children's lunches cold, keep ourselves cool, use on our own aches and pains thanks to lugging toddlers around... the list goes on.
Emma's creation of a smaller ice pack to use on her pulled muscle after having a caesarean section quickly became a cold pack specifically for children. With some gorgeous fabrics to choose from and a high quality finish these cold packs are sure to be a hit (and easily beat any pack of frozen peas!)
We cannot wait to show them to our customers at the upcoming markets!

See you at the markets!

What we love...

Living in Canberra, we were fortunate enough to have a public holiday yesterday for Melbourne Cup Day. In a bid to avoid more housework that never seems to end anyway, I decided to finish unpacking our latest beautiful Ivy Designs order and hang them ready for our upcoming markets.

It is always good fun unpacking our latest orders and this one was no exception.

As Summer approaches we enjoy dressing our little boys in light and fresh clothing, and it is just as fun helping other people have the opportunity to dress their little ones in beautiful unique clothing too.

The amazingly talented Wynona and Anna of Ivy Designs design and handcraft all their gorgeous wares. The have once again created a beautiful range of girls clothing for summer.

This season features a lovely range of clothing and accessories that meet the light and fresh requirements of Spring and Summer!
The theme for this season is Tea Parties! and as you can see from the the photographs featured, the range certainly does bring back memories of tea time in the garden and picnics in the countryside.
The modern vintage collection brings together florals, ginghams and polka dots which are not only pleasing to the eye but look absolutely delightful on any little girl.

Ivy Designs clothing is so beautiful and is always made with close attention to detail and are superior quality- we can't wait to showcase Ivy Designs in the Canberra market.

Ivy Designs range is now available in store, online or you can visit us at the Canberra Mathilda’s market on Sunday 15th November, and the Canberra Handmade Market on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd November.

Heather & Alison