Competition Time.

Anyone feel like winning the very limited Hokey Croquis Fashion Sketchpad from us? The original Sketchpads are in hot demand as they have now changed to a new format, and these are the very last of this edition!
We have some for sale, and because of the hot Aussie dollar right now i am excited to be selling them for $29.95 now! They were $39.95. So if u don't win u can still grab your copy :) but hurry cos once these are gone...they are forever gone!

So basically what you need to do to enter is go to Memoirs of a gay guy blog and see what you have to do to enter!
HURRY competition closes in a week!

Easy Paper decorations

PAPER HEART DECORATIONS
I have been unwell for quite some time now and very very over it! But the positive that has come from it all, is that i can trawl on Pinterest lots and find inspiration and fun things to create!
If u haven't been to Pinterest yet, its time you visited! its Just a visual feast!! So today is so rainy and i am starting to feel a bit better and feel like making something and came across some fun and easy things to make with paper!! I know this is the last weekend of holidays for some and now here in Sydney its cold and rainy, so some of these decorations may be a great way to keep not only the kiddies entertained but also make your house that bit more special! So the first is pretty straight forward
-cut out hearts from old magazines
-stick fishing wire on the back with double sided tape,
-attach a heart in the same size to the other side
-hang up
pretty simple
for those with golden sewing hands you could sew a few in a line!

photos from Fiskars Craft

COFFEE FILTER LIGHT SHADE
So the next may be a little bit more adventurist, but the end result is quite beautiful!
i would try a much smaller version if this seems a little bit too over the top, and by changing the size of your paper lantern this is quite simple!
All you really need is
- a hot glue gun
-paper lantern
-coffee filters
You can have a look at Parlour Home where i found this paper puffy goodness for more info and pic's. Its pretty straight forward though. I love colour and i think experimenting with some water colours on the filters would look amazing as well. Even if you just brushed the ends of the filter with your chosen colour it could be quite beautiful! I will be trying this at some stage so will let you know how i go!!



MAGAZINE BUNTING
So a party that i very much wished i was able to attend was the Pinterest meet up that was held at another Paper Boutique in LA called Urbanic Paper. unfortunately due to not have ridiculous amount of money to fly over on a private jet to the other side of the earth, i will have to make do with pictures from my very good friend the Internet :)
One thing i spotted was that they had made bunting from what looks like magazine pages!
quite simply all you would need to do to make would be
-cut triangles of equal sizes from old magazines
-sew them together if you can sew
-if u cant sew, punch a hole in the top corners and use twine to thread through!
-i would use jute as i like the rawness of it and i might even add random pages from old books or newspaper just to bring something a little different to the whole look!


You can buy this spoil n scissors from Little Paper Lane as well as the balls of brown string refills

Cover your world in Washi...literally!

Holy shit balls this is awesome! So i am sure most of you follow the very lovely Hello Sandwich Blog and u have probably seen this today already, but i HAD to pop some pic's up just in case u haven't seen it!!
I actually first saw it onPoppyTalk which is another exceptionally awesome blog if you haven't read before, and every one's talking about Washi Tape for your walls! Sincol and MT have come together to create washi wall paper....and i want it all now!!
like i want to cover my car, my shop, my floors and furniture in it! Amazing!!




Photo's from Sincol

Message in a bottle

So this week i have been at home with a lovely cough. One of those delightful coughs that sounds like a dog barking and also swallowed a squeaky chew toy at the same time...mmmm nice! so i have been a little exhausted and sore from all the flipping coughing and on Tuesday i thought I was getting better and went to work(sorry if i coughed on you). It was a nice enough day, lovely customers, but not very busy!
In the afternoon an older gentleman in his 70's popped in for a little look. He has been in before and he is always so lovely and has a little chat. He is also not one of these older guys that go on and on, he just seems to know how to tell a good story then buys something then off he goes! He reminds me of a fisherman. He wears one of those beanies that old salt's wear with a duffle coat like before they are about to set off to sea on a cold winters day! In summer he wears one of those cricket hats that Sir Donald Bradman wore...What a stylish guy, he is great!
Anyway, he spotted the O CHECK message in a bottle that we sell and thought it was quite awesome. He told me that he was the caretaker and lived at Palm Beach Lighthouse for 8 years and whenever there was a westerly wind he would write a message in a bottle and throw it in the water for someone to find! He told me that he received a few messages back in the years he was the caretaker and that he received a letter from someone on Norfolk Island 5 years after he sent a bottle out! He always put a self addressed stamped envelope in it so that the receiver could write back.
What an amazing feeling to receive a message back after so many years! He received them from all over the place including Western Australia!
He told me that recently a bottle washed up a shore in Australia he didn't say where, but the bottle with its little letter of happy was written by a man who was on board a ship in the Navy during World War 1. It had taken this long to come ashore. I feel like the message in a bottle is so romantic and old school and although its kind of littering the sea, I love the thought of putting your thoughts out to sea in hopes that one day someone would read your words!
Now I'm not suggesting we litter the sea, but maybe 1 day on some very special occasion we could all put our own thoughts out to sea in hopes that someone you don't know out there in the world can read them!
Maybe a beautiful thing to do when you get married! Together with your partner you could write a message about your love to each other and put it out there. That would be a very special thing to find!



Message in a bottle is available in store now at Little Paper Lane





photo from Jervis Sparks

if u ever want a great walk i would totally recommend The Barrenjoey Headland Walk up to the light house! The view is amazing and if its a cooler day and the sky is blue its perfect for Palmy. a little tip from a local...Palm Beach is quiet Monday to Friday, its so perfect for visiting, but the weekends are chaos even in Winter when the weather is nice!