Inspiration for rainy days … and sunshiny ones too
We’re on holiday in Brisbane visiting E and Baby D’s cousins, who happen to be more or less the same ages. Being on holiday calls for pancakes for breakfast and the big boys were thrilled when I made them these teddy bear ones. Yay for holidays!
I found the idea over at Mini Eco.
Oh my. Today I discovered a treasure trove of epic proportions. If vintage and retro gets your heart pumping, this place could quite possibly give you a coronary. The Woolloongabba Antique Centre is a huge 1500 square metre warehouse in Brisbane jampacked with thousands of items from years gone by. They have all your expected vintage wares. Wooden crates and apothecary bottles, records and brooches, furniture and signage and some stunning frocks that could have been taken directly from Betty Draper’s wardrobe. I spent a good two hours wandering around in a daze, it was so much to take in.
It’s a great set up. There is so much stuff in there, I thought, how could they possibly have the time to source all these goods? It would be a full time job for sixty people, then I realised that’s essentially true. It’s an unusual and very clever set-up. The floor space is divided into dozens of little rooms without doors or walls that all meld into each other. (Kind of like Ikea, but without the one way traffic). Each piece of floor space is rented by a different vendor, but they aren’t manning the store all the time. So as a customer you are able to shop at what looks like one giant store, but it’s really a multitude of retro and collector stores all under the one roof.
It is a destination that really needs hours to be appreciated. Make a whole morning of it and have a cappucino and a little baked cheesecake at the 1950′s inspired café (it’s worth popping in for the coffee alone, the barista has skills). If you need respite halfway through, there is a mini theater up the back where you can rest your tired feet and watch an old black and white Elvis movie.
It was my birthday yesterday and my brother and his lovely girlfriend gave me the best present ever, a credit note to buy what ever I wanted in this store. I was so overwhelmed with trying to take it all in, I looked at a thousand things and couldn’t decide what to take home. I have given myself an excuse to go back for another visit, like I needed an excuse!
Taking the plunge to start your own blog is exciting and a little daunting. I remember when I first created my blog and I thought, I’ll just start it for friends and family to keep up to date with the kids. Then I got my first comment from someone I didn’t know and I was so thrilled. Wow, someone cared enough to read and then comment on my blog!
I was chatting to a friend this week who is just starting out with a blog and it got me thinking about when I first started and how I have learned a few things along the way. I don’t always follow my own rules, but if I was a better blogger I would always keep these things in mind…
Starting out…
I can only vouch for wordpress as I haven’t used any other blog system. I have no complaints, I love it. I chose it because I could build my own theme to get the exact look I wanted. Having said that wordpress is brilliant even if you don’t have the skills to create your own theme, there are so many great free themes out there you can use to make your blog look fantastic. An added bonus for me using wordpress was that I was lucky enough to be ‘freshly pressed’ that means I was selected as a featured blog on the home page and overnight I went from 30 hits to 3000. I don’t think you can plan for it, it was a lucky break that sent lots of people to my blog, but if I can get on there, I’m sure you can too.
If you don’t know how to design your blog, start with a simple and clean template and a nice header. If you aren’t sure about something then remember the rule – less is more!
On the content…
Have nice photographs. I’m a visual person and when I look at other blogs I am much more likely to stay and read if there are pretty pictures to look at too. Unless you are a writer and your blog is a writing outlet, then photos would be secondary to the text, but as I’m not much of a writer, pictures are my thing.
For that reason, carry your camera with you, everywhere you go. You never know where you’ll see inspiration. I keep my camera in my bag and if I don’t have that there is always instagram on the iPhone.
Write about what you love and it will come easily. My blog is about documenting my crafty activities and inspirations and it’s a personal journal of the time I have with my kids while they are small. Sometimes I sit in front of my laptop and think, it’s been a while, I really need to write something, but if I’m not feeling it, I put the laptop away and come back to it later. If your heart isn’t in it, spend your time doing something else.
Sometimes I have ten ideas for blog posts in a day and no time to write even a sentence and other times I am drawing blanks all week. So when I do have that golden opportunity of ideas plus time, I sit and write as may posts as I can and save them. Then later in the week when I haven’t got the time but I want to post, I can just press publish and the work is done.
To get more traffic…
Use good tags, these are keywords that describe what you are talking about in your post and this is how people will find you through a google search.
Connect your blog to facebook, when you write a new post it will appear in your newsfeed and let your friends and family that you have written something new.
Add your blog to your email signature.
Start a pinterest account and pin some of your favorite posts. Shameless self promotion is, well, a bit shameless, but if you have something like a tutorial or an idea that you think is worth sharing that other people will like, than go for it, pin away.
On being a good fellow blogger…
Read other blogs, and if you like what you’re reading, leave a nice comment! Even if your intention is to just write for yourself, it’s so nice to know that someone is reading and appreciating what you blog.
If someone has left a comment for you, go and check out their blog.
Always credit any images and content from the original source and put a link back to it. Ideally use your own original content.
Happy blogging!
Happy Easter everyone!
We had a very lovely Easter Sunday at a friend’s house. She organised a sweet egg hunt for the kids and they got such a thrill searching all over the garden for the shiny coloured eggs and rabbits and filling their baskets.
She also has the most adorable Easter decorations. I never knew anyone to decorate their house for Easter until I met her and it’s so nice. Though it’s really difficult to buy nice decorations in Perth, of course she got them in Europe. I have seen some cute felted Easter bunnies on Etsy.
I’m very excited to be part of an exhibition at the Swings & Roundabouts winery in Margaret River over Easter. Each participant was given a cut wine barrel and an open brief, basically to ‘do whatever you like!’
I haven’t seen any of the other barrels yet, I can’t wait to see all the finished pieces and the different techniques people used. It was an unusual project for me, because as a designer I always have a defined brief and certain parameters to work within, it’s actually quite challenging to work with no rules!
After deliberating for a few weeks on what to do I decided that I would expanded upon one of my paper-cut designs. I was going to cut it from paper and adhere it to the wood, then my brother suggested I have it cut from metal. He works at a local company called ATA steel that uses a plasma machine to cut all types of metal. It was quite an intricate design compared to what they usually cut but it turned out really well.
I’m actually kind of hoping it doesn’t sell because it would look really good in my garden!
