Hello there

The school holidays has meant numbers for the craft course have dropped as mothers have
had there hands full. It has however worked out will for our needle felting sessions as I have been able to spend quality time with each student. When our busy mums return they too can have some valuable time with me. Its been a real inspiration to watch every one get hooked on needle felting.
A big hello to Carolyne who is in Australia, we are missing you heaps, come back well rested and with heaps of ideals, (remember to visit the craft markets etc) Love and hugs from us all.

hART ART

The felting workshop was a huge hit, and the results were simply stunning.
The Cafe is looking very flash and I will take some pics very soon and upload them asap.

Heart Felt workshop

This Tuesday 1st July we were going to have our needle felting workshop. Unfortunately we have to postpone this to 8th July due to the prolonged renovations of the Cafe. The good new is the Cafe is going to look like a million dollars, so make sure you come in and check it out,

Needle Felt work shop 8th July
The cost is only $15.00 per session all materials are provided, and you will have enough wool to complete 2 heart brooches. The Felting needle and foam rubber slab is yours to keep so you can continue to felt at home.
The morning session is already full and the afternoon session is half full so bookings are essential.
Please ring me 3795505 for bookings (if the morning is the only time you can make it ring me and I will see if I can squeeze you in) Scroll down to check out the picture of my heart felt brooch (or click on the girls day out post to the right) which is an example of what we will be making. The images to the left also have a couple of felt hearts, the teddy bear is a future workshop as are the beads.

A big thanks to Southern Comfort Beds Carterton, who donated the foam rubber slabs.

So much to create... sew little time

I remember my grandmother telling me that only boring people get bored, I personally cant understand where they find the time. I sometimes fantasy that I will have one of those moments, which would be a great time to find a passion for housework or organizing my studio. As I try to cram all the crafty projects into my week I have found multi tasking takes on a whole new meaning, for example tonight I manged to create six rose rings, watch "how to lose a guy in 10 days" and stab my finger 4 times. Dinner is cooking next door to a pot of roses in a dye bath, a clotheslines filled up with beautifully shrunk jerseys (What must the neighbors think?) and the vacuum is still blocked with my perfectly form felt balls.
This week wizzed past and this Tuesday came around so quickly, marking the end of the first month of Crafte latte. Just look at some of the great crafty latte projects our ladies have completed we are so proud.

Tuesdays Child...has far to go

A great turn out again, with plenty of projects on the go, and three bags almost completed. We had a show and tell, where some of the ladies brought in crafty projects that they were working on at home. The beautiful blue bag on the left was made from home spun wool and knitted by Gloria, the blue and white detail was tacked on just before felting, the rose in the picture well not be on the finished piece, she is considering using a Paua shell button.

The Pink bag to the right was knitted by Donna, seen knitting in the Background, there is also a picture of her Beautiful Candle wick blanket below.



Carolyn whipped up a few tea cosys which proved to be a huge hit.

Girls day out

You never know where you will end up when you you have a day out with Carolyn. shes the kind of lady whom has the most interesting friends and I always look forwarded to our outings.
The first stop was in Greytown at the lovely little shop Ruby sparkles, Where we took in some of the crafts produced by us under the Crafte latte and Cupboardluv branding. Nickie the Gorgeous owner of Ruby Sparkles was very encouraging, her enthusiasm was very much appreciated as its not always easy taking your wares to a shop, not unlike asking someone if they think your baby is beautiful.
The picture is of one of my needle felted Hearts pins, they infused with real lavender, when squeezed they smell divine.A really special gift to give a stressed friend as lavender is so relaxing. I plan to have a workshop on making them in July.

We then took off to lower Hutt.....

Where I was dropped off to look at a shop called "three buckets full" A little further down the street was the French Bakery (very nice) where we had lunch , the highlight however for the day was a visit to Anastasia's a popular fashion boutique, where I met Carolyn's wonderful Friend Anastasia..after a quick chat, she insisted that we come out back to the nerve center of her business the sewing room.

Anastasia gave us a demonstration of how quickly she could whip up a top, 2 minutes cutting, 3 minutes over locking and a minute or 2 turning the hem, now thats my kind of sewing, whats more the top was stunning.
Its hard to sit by idly in such a creative environment, eyeing up a her waste paper basket filled to the brim with ribbon like scraps of fabric, out came the knitting needles and while she was serving a customer I quickly made a flower. Unfortunately I left my camera at home so when I came home I knitted another.
This time I added wool so that I could felt it, the result is somewhat like what my mother in laws type person's cat Aggie would thrown up, perhaps it will improve on drying . I recommend you visit Anastasia's store if you are in Lower Hutt, shes such an inspiration .



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Cant stop smiling !

Theres something special about the magic that happens when women come together in the name of creativity, the rhythmic clicking of needles, the counting of stitches, not to mention fantastic conversations , its true I just cant stop smiling.
This Tuesday was not with out its hitches how ever , the pattern I posted on my

cupboardluv blog has a few glitches in the leaf part of the pattern. I will go in and make the necessary changes very soon (I will also post a note to say when this is done) . We looked at patterns posted on the the following sites :

knitty.com

Berroco.com

We had quite a crowed on the morning and it was great to see people from the first week helping the newcomers with there knitting, the afternoon was much quieter (very relaxing ) if there is anyone interested in joining us for the afternoon sessions please contact me , Victoria Te Tau on 3795505, I will be very happy to take your booking.

Next week we will look at the making of of a knitted felt necklace, I will upload pictures and material lists asap so check back soon.

Time to Felt the Roses

First was the name, it had be catchy and describe what we were about, it started out as "share crafty', which summed up cooperative nature of what we were about, how ever it was pointed out to me , not so delicately by my mother in law that this was "naf". I could have sulked and vowed to trip her up next time she was trotting down to My op shop, however she redeemed herself and after a couple of lattes came up with the name "Crafte Latte" .

Thanks to the clever workings of bloodygooddesign

whom put together the posters, created the logo, and designed the web site, and Rochelle from Wairarapa News we got the word out.

Today was the first day of Crafte latte, 12 ladies, booked into this prestigious first session, by the end of the morning we attracted 3 extra students whom will join us for our next Tuesday session .
Having the first class within the café was great, as you can tell from the photo we all
Ordered out lattes before launching into the task at hand, it wasn’t long before a dozen roses were completed.

Next week we will be knitting the leaves and sewing up the flowers, as will as picking the pattern for our knitted bags.

For the pattern and instructions of Carolyn's Cabbage Rose check out my craft blog:

cupboardluv blog

Because of the high demand, we have decided to have
an afternoon sessions 1.30-3.30 on Tuesday as will as the morning sessions. If you would like
to join in please email me HERE or ring
06 3795505 for bookings and material list.

"Oh Carterton OH Carterton how Beautful though Art!"

When I first moved to Carterton I was told that this town had more artists and crafts person per capita than any where in New Zealand .I cant remember if I really believed this at the time, this town had me at "giday"as for being the center of the artistic world, well that was just froth on my latte .
15 years on and I have noticed more of a surge in the artistic community, we do indeed seem to boast more than our fair share of the creative genius.
Why Carterton is attractive to the creative throng, perhaps if we took a poll , it might suggest the array of quirky second hand stores, so many fish and chip shops you would need to work out out in one of our 2 gyms, duality seems to be a quirky trait of this town. There was a time we had 2 cafe ole's, 2 Perrys secondhand stores and you guessed it 2 square cafes. But if you ask me what makes this town really special , I suggest you take a walk down the main road of Carterton late at night, illuminated by the street light Carterton is at its most seductive, there is something very sexy about a town that hasent been renovated to within an inch of its previous lives.
It was only the other day someone said to me that Carterton is shaping up to be another Greytown. That was enough to stop this born again Cartertonian dead in her tracks, luckily I was outside our purple fish and chip shop, facing our lovely family thrift shop , for the time being a least bless its "woolen felted socks" Carterton thank goodness has never lapsed into the slippery slope called "good Taste".