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!

photostory friday: someone turned 18

she had 'drinks'
this is not to be confused with a party
'drinks' is invite only for between 9-12 of your closest friends

there was a greek toga theme

although i don't remember the greeks wearing sports socks

they played drinking games
they sung along loudly to bon jovi and aerosmith
they said thank you when i brought in snacks

there was cake

at midnight they turned off the music
brought out the dishes
recycled the empties
vacuumed up the cake crumbs
and put the furniture back

the boys went home
and the girls went to bed

but wait!

where's the rebellious teenager?

oh. there she is

but enough about me.

there were presents too

mostly brought from overseas

the 'joey hat' - LONDON BABY!
i couldn't resist
then there was the tootsie roll jackpot

candy sent from this blogger and this blogger too!
these are the faces of two people not in the know...

but the biggest thanks goes to my KC peep melinda, who sent enough candy to satisfy the scrappy family sweet tooth until long after christmas!

and i got some too!
junior mints and york patties are my fave

and some of the mini album i made her, which is more like a MONDO album because the child has had such a busy year

Hosted by Cecily and Carissa

wordful wednesday - can i please have a number 17 and SEVEN spoons?

yeah, restaurants pretty much love us.

(yes, i know i only have 4 children, but miss 18's bestie came with us, seeing as it was a birthday dinner!)


for more wordful wednesday, go see angie over @ seven clown circus

CSNBaby Giveaway!

a couple of months back, i was approached by CSNBaby to host a giveaway.

i was pretty excited as i've never approached for anything like this before!

CNSBaby sells everything from nursery furniture to toys. go take a look!

...but let's get to the giveaway!

the winner will receive this gorgeous march of dimes diaper bag. made of wipeable microfibre, it comes with a co-ordinating changing pad, magnetic closure, metal feet and lots of extra internal and external pockets! dimensions: 12 x 14 x 6.

but wait there's more! the winner will also receive this 'melissa and doug' usa floor puzzle. the heavy-duty cardboard is durable, easy to clean and just right for little hands.
and now for the small print:

open to US and canadian residents only
CSNBaby will ship the prize DIRECTLY to the winner

WHAT TO DO FOR EXTRA ENTRIES!!!

1 entry - leave a comment
2 entries - follow me
3 entries - facebook this giveaway
4 entries - sign up to my RSS FEED (left side bar)
5 entries -blog about this giveaway and link back

LEAVE A COMMENT FOR EACH EXTRA ENTRY.

giveaway runs until october 31st and i'll announce the winner on november 1st.

good luck!

fastest 100 visitors EVA but no cigar

well, ya gotta feel for mel (a regular) and muthering heights (a PSF regular) at 19,999 and 20,002 respectively.

but in the end it was someone from utah
(was it you honey mommy?)

who surfed in and surfed out, thereby missing out on 'something shiny'

i'm grateful for ya'll counting along with me and i'm sad i couldn't give anything away today, but i'm only 3 or 4 posts away from my 400th post, so we'll see what next week brings shall we?

119 visits until 20,000 (not 19. i never said i was a maths whizz)

if you stop by, scroll down to the bottom of the left-hand sidebar and find yourself being the 20,000th visitor, leave a comment and i'll send ya something shiny...

photostory friday: i heart italian food, but when you're in italy, it's just called food

well, first there's gelato

of COURSE there's gelato

i ate some

it was chocolate and it was good

then there's cheese - a LOT of cheese

and whatever THIS is

lemonchello, or in our case - LEMONZ - it was tastyz

then of course there was the cheap but very yummy wine

and beer (who are these clowns?)

peroni was mr scrappy's favourite beer

some nights before we went out to dinner, we had a little appetizer at home

mooocho yummeeo

and let's not forget coffee and pastries in the morning

check out these ladies pretending not to notice they're gonna end up on my blog some day soon

then there was pizza

this is me and my quattro formaggio pizza (that's 4 cheese pizza to you)

i should start out by saying that i can never eat more than 3 slices of kiwi pizza coz we have thicker crusts. it was a shock to me as much as anyone that i could eat an ENTIRE pizza (but again i draw your attention to the thin crust). THIN crust i say.

okay - one piece down, trackin' ok

and i make it look so delicate too!

oh dear. spoke too soon

aw man - italian pizza makes you crazy!

no wait, just a little bloated

and here's my little 'mum and pop' moment of the post.

we didn't eat out every morning. sometimes we had cereal at the apartment first! they sell special k in rome - how cool is that? i think the guy on the front of the box is saying that if i eat special k i'll become irresistible to him, and that he's "comin' for me".

[that's my story, and i'm sticking to it]

Hosted by Cecily and Kelli