Some Great Things I have Purchased!

Well, I haven't really been at the computer much of late, as I have been incredibly busy with the making of jewelry and also Mr. Mettle has been away for a month in Russia. And wow what an interesting trip that was!

I bought a gocco from this great seller on etsy.
The 'apprentice and I decided that it was high time to try something new. She made these cute prints with the gocco.

Bought this great little hand made leather mini journal from kreativlink

We Have Been Eating Out Alot Lately

Well, we have been eating out at least once a day/night these past couple of weeks. Life seems to be getting really flat out and soooo much busier than just being in the studio making things and going to and fro school.

Last week we went to the Gelato Bar at Bondi Beach

We had alot of Eastern European Dishes which included Veal Knuckle (Mr Mettle's favorite); I had a Russian Dish called 'Pilmeny" which looks like a flat Tortelini, but isn't. That was stuffed with veal and it is eaten with a mustard/sourcream/vinegar sauce and is delicious!

Lots of yummy salad and fresh Sydney Oysters were also gulped/slurped down.

Going To the Park

Here we are at the park which is just down the street from where we live. Whenever I'm not in the studio, we try to go there so that we can all have a bit of a run around in the fresh air.

3rd Sydney Dust Meeting In Clovelly!!

Well, here it is!! Finally the photos from our 3rd meeting. there were only 6 of us, but i must say we got alot done!

The apprentice(my daughter) was just a gem. She helped serve drinks and sat reasonably quietly, until she decided that it was getting a bit "yawn" boring, so off she went shopping with dad.

Meanwhile, the etsyers who attended were Amanda from peepbags & peepbebe; Tara from hedgiepig; Sue from McArt; Jenny from paperlion; Jenna from jennaappleton & myself (Ceeb from howlindoggie).

We ate alot!

The merchandise in the images is from hedgiepig.

Am awaiting communications as to when the next meeting will be. We haven't decided.

I was featured on Rare Bird Finds!

Last week, unbeknownst to me, I was featured on Rare Bird Finds! How cool is that!
I have had a whole lot of traffic in my etsy store and I have sold several of the moeko pendant.

Also Susan Snyder of SES Designs was featured on the friday page. Susan picked my modern leaf neckpiece as one of her favorites! Twice in one week! I feel honoured!

Some things I Purchased

I always get my stickers and cards from this&that and i have always been very happy with them. I like the idea of supporting a fellow etsyan

they are exactly like my banner and they always arrive on time and are really well made.

I believe it's important to support the handmade community instead of some of the large card/sticker companies.

Anyway, I hope that you'll check her shop out and next time that you need card, stickers, etc, you'll convo leslie

Some Lovely Sydney Spots

Last week was my daughter's birthday (the one wearing the cap), so one of the things we did was to take her & a friend to Luna Park for the WHOLE day.... I was exhausted just hanging around waiting for them to go on all the rides as I don't enjoy being spun around & thrown around, upside down & inside out.....Arrrrgh..... It would make me ill...

So the girls went and enjoyed hours of this torture (for me it was torture, they thought it was wonderful...)

After I checked out the photos I remembered what a beautiful city we live in!

The Sydney Harbour Bridge was right in the background.

It was slighty cooler as it is winter (about 10C). This winter has been alot cooler that previous winters. The snow in the mountains (yes we have mountains too) seems to have lasted longer and it has snowed alot more there than what I remember.

FRONT PAGE

I was on the front page of etsy the other day, and thanks to my wonderful friend marsha , who took a snapshot of it because she knows how totally tech unco i am...
(check out her etsy shop: http://marshatoh.etsy.com/
and her blog : http://www.marshatoh.blogspot.com/)
I had the image on here but I think that for some reason etsy didn't approve so it dissapeared and there was a sad face instead. Oh well, nevermind. It was a really lovely frontpage put together by nyhedy, one of the metalsmiths who sells her work through etsy. I will make the next post about the etsymetal group that I belong to and will show some examples of their work if it is allowed.

sydney dust meeting at badde manors

dust3
Originally uploaded by esta.sketch

here's another shot of us at the meeting!


if you click onto the dust3 that'll take you to estasketch's flickr page. there are more photos of the meeting.
here's a linkto tamptations blog (and I hope it works!)http://tamptation.wordpress.com/

Sydney D.U.S.T. Meeting

The 2nd official Sydney D.U.S.T. meeting was on today at 3pm in Glebe, a suburb of Sydney near the University of Sydney, Chinatown & the CBD (for those of you who who aren't in Sydney). we met at Badde Manors, a funky little coffee shop on Glebe Point Rd.

Those who attended were:
Ceeb (me)- howlindoggie
Jenny-paperlion
Andria-shagpile
Lisa-estasketch
Jenna-jennaappleton
Amanda-polyclarific
Maria-oneandonly
Suki-tamptation
Michaela-taschka
Amanda-peepbags,peepbebe
Kit-heartbreaker
Michele-wooldancer
Alisha-screamingcactusart

We all brought samples of our work, and WOW we really are a bunch of talented vegimites (an australian delicacy....hee hee)..
Turns were had by all in explaining how & why we managed to FIND etsy and have a shop on there and then we turned to a more organized part of the meeting, discussing what we actually want to do to promote etsy (and the handmade) in Sydney, as the general concensus was that etsy is more american than global.

Australians are still really quite unaware of etsy.

We threw around ideas and came to a plan, which will be discussed at the next meet, which will be on the 2nd of September 2007 at my workshop/studio.

It was very exiting to have so many people in one group who are so talented and have similar gameplans. We have etsy to thank for throwing us all together!

Some Favorite Things I've Purchased

New Production Work

Here's some new pieces that are currently on my etsy shop. I still have to decide if I will place them on montd or not.

I am still finding that making my blog really fabulous with all the extra links to mintd, etsy and all the other on-line things quite difficult. i will have to enlist the services of a friend who is a better bblogger than I. Any takers? Can any one help me with very easy instructions how to load the links and things??

Enjoy the photos!

Technorati Profile

Can It Be Possible That Life Exists Outside of The Studio

Ok. It's Mothers Day!I was pleasantly woken by 'the apprentice' (my 8 year old daughter) with a lovely gift that she had purchased at school at the mother's day stall! Lots of lovely bath goodies and a new make up bag with a built in mirror!

The rest of the day was spent rather unglamorously sitting in front of the computer, revamping my etsy store! I also managed to make a couple of things to list on etsy.

The other day I vetured out of the Studio....(can it be possible that life exists outside the realm of the workshop?) and I visited my old Alma Mater... and I remembered this time to take some photos of the beautiful tree/s....

MEETING OF SYDNEY ETSYERS!

It was a beautiful day on Sunday as I drove off to Newtown to meet some fellow etsyers. My daughter accompanied me and we wandered across King St and then Enmore Rd only to feel abit lost...

Oops! I couldn't remember where the Courthouse Hotel was.. I sent Andria (shagpile) a text and she sent me the directions.

Sascha and I came across a cute little Gallery on Australia St, which I thought had a lot of potential for some etsy sydney shows...

We arrived a little early and found the biggest table outside (but under cover so as not to get sunburnt......where's the cold weather???) And being the kid that she is, my apprentice wanted 'chips' (fries) and lemonade.. after a few minutes Andria arrived and we wondered how many etsyers would turn up.

Sascha's chips arrived and she promptly proceeded to wolf them down with a big dollop of ketchup. Shortly after that Maria (one and only) arrived. We waited for some time thinking that people might be delayed because they couldn't find the Pub.

We started talking about how we could promote the Sydney branch of D.U.S.T. and thought that perhaps we should schedule another meeting in 2 months time (sometime in July). We threw around some ideas like a show in a gallery, etc..

Or perhaps even have some workshops like at the labs. All of those things still to be discussed with all relevant persons.

It was lovely and also a little strange to meet people that you never actually see their faces, when one iis madly typing away on the computer.

Now I have to go and check out the Forum on etsy to read about why not many showed up.

Just so that you know, shagpile makes gorgeous bags & jewelry like on these photos and oneandonly makes stitched and beaded jewelry.