yakety knack, the big shwop and blind bunnies

last week my blog friend, scrapmate, real life friend and hopefully soon, my neighbour mandy took me along to yakety knack. yakety knack was created by jacq and anna who gather crafty minded women (like myself and mandy) together once a month in a room at the back of a central city pub; ply us with a free hot drink of our choice and a KIT of crafty goodness all ready to make!

the kit comes with everything you need to make that evening's project, including instructions! it's genius!

here's what we made:

the white bag was already sewn, we just cut out the circles and did all the stitching. i luuuuuuurve hand stitching. it's sew theraputic. SEW theraputic - get it??? haha - i kill me!

here's mandy, diana and myself at our table

and here's me trying to cut out perfectly round circles for my bag
some days, near enough is good enough!

then today it was onto the BIG SHWOP
you can read all about it here and on their blog here

their blog actually has some very interesting videos, like what goes into the making of a pair of knickers, and one video of a woman who wore the same dress for something like 206 days (and how she changed her outfit. 206 photos all run together, very cool actually).

basically, you take high quality used clothing (bags and shoes too) and for every item they accept they give you a 'voucher' - they used puzzle pieces which i thought was fun!

i have to say there was a little of 'label bashing' happening, in that they refused some very good quality stuff based on label alone, but the concept itself is fantastic.

they have sponsors now, so we got wine beforehand and nibbles too
i had 11 puzzle pieces to start, but i gave 2 away to a woman who had all her items rejected!

it's all being prepared behind THE BIG RED CURTAIN!

i was starting to freak out a bit! you could see women scoping each other out in a
" i could take her in a shake down for a pair of size 7 jimmy choos" kinda way

i was worried that i'd have to deal with some badly behaved women, but it never came to that. even though there was a mad dash at the start, it was all quite civilised...

and they're off!!!

every item you 'buy' costs you one 'voucher' (puzzle piece) so no money changes hands
this apparently makes us 'ECO SHOPPERS'

there was also goodie bags which was very cool
(peoples' fair trade coffee and trilogy hand cream)

here's my with my stash (i came prepared with a big bag!)

and here's mandy with her lone skirt
at least she got something!
and here's some of my stash back at home

yes, i like red shoes - so what of it???
this is my favourite 'find'. i'm going to wear it tomorrow over my new bootleg flare jeans to MAMMA MIA - after yum char lunch with my scrapmates
see that welcome home sign? it's been there a YEAR - since i got home from new york. it's not there to remind me that my family missed me and that they were glad to see me home...

...nope - i just can't be arsed taking it down...

a closer look at the red dress
cute green top
i might just have to take this baby out dancing one night soon

and now for the sob story of the day...

the fat bunny on the left (oscar) has run away not once, but TWICE

he came back on monday after THREE weeks away looking thinner but fine, but today miss 11 noticed one of his eyes was totally milky white and weeping (note i have not photographed this)

i went straight to yahoo answers and read that it was probably an infection (that can come on slow) due to stress (or a poke in the eye) and that he should GET THEE to the VET

which we did

it's a BAD infection and now mr scrappy has to inject oscar every day for a week and put cream in his eye THREE times a DAY!

poor oscar is now BLIND in that eye, and it may swell even further and actually EXPLODE, at which point it will have to be removed.

i know! totally gross and he had to have pain relief too!

not mr scrappy - the bunny!!!

he seems calmer now. the bunny AND mr scrappy!

fingers crossed for a full recovery please my bloggy friends!

we're off to the rugby tonight - wellington are in the semis of the NPC

wish us luck and have a happy halloween everyone!