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

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

'Little Brown Mouse' is the newest addition to Handle with Care and what an amazing range it is!

Little Brown Mouse comprises of a daughter and mother team, and together they create these gorgeous clothes, bed linen and accessories in an extensive range of beautiful, vintage and whimsical fabrics.

I was so excited to stumble across the range from Little Brown Mouse and even more excited to become one of their retailers.

Unfortunately however we only ordered a limited amount, and once I received them and wanted more I found out that it is too late- they are no longer making these!! However I do know they will be bringing out a new range that will be just as amazing.

Have a look at this Scarlett Pom Pom Dress, just too cute for words!

Below is a picture of the 'Dainty Dress and Bloomer Set' which is my absolute favourite, do you think they look lovely in this picture? you should see them in real life!

We will be taking this range to the Canberra Handmade Market however at the rate we're going there won't be many to buy as we've already sold some in store. (Don't like my chances of keeping one for myself!)

I am sure all the mothers of boys are thinking 'there's just no cute clothes for boys out there' I understand, as I have a 2 1/2 year old boy myself I understand how frustrating it is to see racks of girls clothing and not much for those gorgeous boys in our lives. Well, have a look at this lovely outfit- just the cutest outfit for your little man!

Little Brown Mouse will be available online as soon as we get them up! however in the mean time if there is anything you are interested in or would like to see images of the other designs we have please email us and we will happily provide these for you. Alternatively if you are in the Canberra region, come along to the Canberra Handmade Markets on 12th September at the Yarralumla Woolshed- we will have a stall there will with their lovely range!

Canberra Handmade Market...

Well Alison and I have nearly recovered from our big day at the markets on Saturday! The Handmade Market 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. The time put in to organising the Handmade Market, not just by each individual stallholder but also the Handmade Market organisers truly shows on the day.

The hall was crowded and certainly exceeded expectations, perhaps a sign that people are keen to spend their money on those unique and high quality items! One particular thing I was impressed with on the day was the choice of music (not that you could hear it that well once the crowd arrived!) Michael Buble and I have had a love affair for many years now so he was the icing on the cake, it made setting up even more enjoyable!

Rack of clothing, Brusselsprouts, Ivy Designs and Tikiboo

Evie lala Reversible baby shoes

Bobishi Newborn baby booties


Wild Things of Noosa Ellie and Ivy Designs Top
Brusselsprouts Cardigan with Buttons

We were so busy we didn’t get much time to search the other stall holders items (probably a good thing for our wallets), I think this was the case for all the stall holders – the crowds astounded us all! We did however get a taste of a delicious White Chocolate and Raspberry cupcake by Little Miss Cupcake before they sold out, we also had enough time to eye of some of Col Ellis’ photographs- his photographs are truly amazing and we wish we had more money to satisfy our children’s clothing obsession and to make our homes look beautiful!

We were familiar with some of the other Stalls items as they have been fellow stallholders at other markets we have attended and whilst we didn’t get to chat to them it was nice to see familiar faces around, it was equally nice to see some other products that we were not familiar with! I really want to know how do all these talented people actually exist? How can there be so many unique items in the one place?! Certainly something to be seen to be believed.

It was lovely to see some of our previous customers come by with their gorgeous little babies and swelling bumps – we really enjoy being a part of our customer’s lives and sorry we couldn’t catch up more during the market! We had some wonderful feedback on our products; it was really nice to see them all so beautifully set up on the racks.

We also discovered that some customers who have seen us at previous markets have had problems contacting us. Once again we apologise for our unreliable email system, this is something I am getting on to first thing tomorrow morning!!! If we do not reply to your emails within 12 hours please chase us up! One of us is online almost all the time!

Well that is it from me tonight, still feeling very weary from a day on my feet and keen to hit the pillow!