Merry Christmas Joyeux New Year

Counting down now until 1pm when I can start getting into the Chrissy spirit, Something happened this year and I am not really " into " it yet !

5 sleeps and I'll be in Melbourne for a girls family holiday so we hope to catch up with some blogging buddies then and break bread with them, we hope you can make it along, details unknown exactly yet but you'll hear on the Melbourne bloggy grapevine ! ( pleeeeeeeeeease come :-) )

Thanks to everyone this year for your support of bubbachenille and The Handmade Expo, and now mimmis, without you all, your friendship and your creativity and support and encouragement none of these things would be possible, I love a lot of you for different reasons !

mimmis is closed from today until the 12th January, when it all starts over again, all refreshed with lots of new inspiration !

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a great New Year !
X X X

Promoting HANDMADE

Liesa was presented on Bris31 a few weeks ago promoting Handmade and The Handmade Expo as well as Handmade Heaven. She has done such a great job as our " Media Queen ". See what you think ! Click here to view. And if that doesn't work, ( which at time of posting was not working grrrr ) then here it is again.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os1pwksbWhs
Love ya Lizzy :-)

Getting Close

I seriously cant believe it's almost Christmas, holidays, last market for the year and just for the fact that everything seems to come to a massive build up and then........the end of the year and time to re- assess the next year, a bit ground hog day, but ground hog year !

When I opened mimmis on the 11th November I had already planned, booked and paid for a lovely girly holiday in Melbourne with my mum, sister, and daughters so I will be closing mimmis from 1 pm Christmas Eve and re opening on Wednesday 12th January 2011. Next year my weekend will be Mondays and Tuesdays and will be open Wed to Sun every week.



I am finding it hard to find time to blog as regularly as I did pre mimmis, but I dont want to stop blogging. I am still reading all the blogs I follow and trying to keep up with all the wonderful things you do, but alas, too much commenting takes up a lot of time. I am a Facebook addict and tend to keep up with lots of creative people on there more than in blog land these days.

mimmis is quite full at the moment with about 25 creative people contributing to beautiful things for sale in mimmis and customers are truely delighted at the quality and cleverness of all my contributors, so congrats to all those handmadies, you know who you are !


Theres always an opportunity to have your lovely things in mimmis on commission or wholesale purchase, so if you are interested in having mimmis as one of your stockists then please get in touch with me.

Theres a big night planned here in Forest Hill tonight with the closure of the street this afternoon and I'm told around 5000 people flood into this tiny village for the annual Christmas Festival, I have some helpers coming in and lots of new stock, the main attraction to this festival is the hundreds of hams and turkeys raffled off by way of the good old "Ham Wheels ".


All proceeds go to each group in town like the SES, the school, Fire Dept etc.

Busy behind the scenes with the last Handmade Expo for 2010 too, It's on next Saturday 18th and you can expect at least 120 stalls, A long visit from the Jolly man in the red suit, Carolers and Pioneer Steam Train rides too. Great for last minute Christmas shopping.


I will catch you before Christmas, enjoy your day !

Weekend wrap up

Friday night saw four generations of my family head into the city ( Brisbane ) to have a look at the Brisstyle Twilight Market in King George Square, being a member of Brisstyle I thought it was about time I did this and I was blown away, as were Liesa, Micky and Mum. ( My grandson was the fourth generation and he was indifferent ! )

Well done to all the girls who had stalls and a special well done to the girls who organise this market, Hasn't it taken off in the city ? The music was great, the lighting and atmosphere electric. Awesome...

Oh WOW WOW WOW NUMBER TWO

Was our very own Handmade Expo Market held on Saturday, Up at 10 to 4 in the morning makes us tired for days !

It was the best market we have ever had for customers and stallholders alike. We had 137 stalls and over 2500 people come through the gate to enjoy the market offerings, steam train rides, Soulman singing his great soul music, great food, flowers, fruit and just a huge array of lovely handmade things, oh not forgetting Wayne the Fireman, ( I'm sure he attracted a few people on the day ). Thanks to the Mayor, for supporting us once again, and to Councillor Andrew Antonelli for coming to judge our Christmas Stall winner too. Dorothy the Dinasoar won the best dressed stall and chose Ipswich Hospice to be the reciprient of the $100 donation.

There'll be more market wrap up on The Handmade Expo blog once all the pics come through from our new photographer, Paula from Minta Entertainment.

Gosh thanks to all who visited bubbachenille on the day, you are awesome too.

It's been so long, so much has happened !

I hardly know where to start, from someone who was blogging every few days to almost nothing the last month or so.

Since opening my shop one week ago today I have been overwhelmed with busy-ness ! Since day 1 of setting up and opening it's been three weeks of non stop on the go.

My first week was amazing for lots of reasons, sales, support from friends, family, aquaintances, customers and total strangers, locals, holiday makers, online likers, friends and buddies and you all need a massive thank you, so THANK YOU and I hope you all know who you are !

I also need to give a massive THANK YOU to all the lovely "handmadies" who have put their faith in me and allowed me to showcase their creations, My shop would be nothing without all of you and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart too.

I will start to promote all those creative talents soon, ( when I can master the light issue with my camera! )

I do have some pics to show you courtesy of Paula from Minta Entertainment and a few of mine that are reasonable...( just ) Thanks Paula X

I will be at The Handmade Expo on Saturday as I am still creating for bubbachenille. It's the biggest market of the year, with over 130 stalls booked in for a fantastic day of shopping for Christmas, lots of food and entertainment too, pop over to the blog for more info.

Thanks again for supporting mimmis on the journey of my life !

Childrens Cupboard
Nicole from Hot Toffee has set up her studio at the back of mimmis and is creating all her gorgeous fused glass creations as well as some other items you may not have seen before.
Beautiful Miss Rose Sister Violet pieces, the flower on the top is a hair pin, the second is a wrist pincushion for the sewer who has everything, the third is another hair pin and the fourth is a lace embellished glasses case.

These gorgeous hair accessories from Sewn Sentiments are made from vintage fabric and pre-loved ties. You can find Sewn Sentiments on facebook.

Bags by Lilly Cottage and Handmade atWoolshed Creek, both attending The Handmade Expo on Saturday.

mimmis opening tomorrow

Yes thats the end of the setting up ! Well almost...

Hope you'll be able to make it some time soon to mimmis, I'm opening the big double doors tomorrow.

A lovely addition to mimmis will be the very talented Nicole from Hot Toffee who has set up her studio in mimmis. For those of you who are familiar with Hot Toffee you'll know Nicole works in various mediums including fused glass. You can view her work here or pop into mimmis.

At the moment mimmis is only on facebook and unsure as to whether there will be a blog in the future, but you'll be the first to know.

mimmis update

Forgive me blogging buddies for I have sinned, It's been ages since I last blogged.

Just reading my last post it was 23 days until I open mimmis and now its only 11 days ! eeks eeks and double eeks !

What is left to do? Only organise internet connection so I can Facebook all the exciting happenings, new stock and sewing updates and hopefully be really busy! Not too busy though, I would still like to take some time to smell the roses !

Speaking of Roses, I will be stocking lovely goodies from Miss Rose Sister Violet, oh yummo ! ( and some other special places that I totally cant decide on !) I have some super creative people helping me stock mimmis on commission as well and this excites the pants off me. I will let you know who they all are soon but you can definately keep up to date on this new journey of mine by following on facebook, It's awesome ! I have a mimmis page and a Miriam Bain page, so I'll see you over there really soon.

If you would like to come to mimmis opening on 11th November, Then please accept this as your prsonal invitation, I'd love for you to come and see what I'm doing, and have a gorgeous lunch across the road at Caffe Sorella.

The address is Victoria St, Forest Hill, QLD 4342 in your GPS . Theres only one street with shops so you cant miss it !

If you dont get to opening day but need a bubbachenille fix, I still have my things in Handmade Heaven, I am attending Gatton Christmas in the Country next Friday and Sat and will have my usual stall at The Handmade Expo Market on 20th Nov.

Busy busy busy and hopefully worth it, worth it, worth it !!

Crazy wind

Never been to a market where the wind was so crazy ! Gusting it was ! But all our wonderful customers still came out to get their fill of handmade lovliness and many of the stallholders had the best day ! Go figure. At least there were blue skies and no rain. Here are some pics from Kellie Christies viewpoint of the day. You gotta look back and chuckle !

Then on Sunday Handmade Heaven and I went to the Gold Coast Launch of Poppyseed Markets, Relief to be indoors, you have no idea! Met some lovely people we have only known on facebook and in blogland, that was lovely, and some lovely customers who recognised us from other places. Thanks for coming !

Now it's back to the sudio creating lots of things for Gatton Christmas in the Country on at the Gatton Town Hall on Friday and Saturday the 5th and 6th November, then to fill my new bricks and mortar shop in Forest Hill official opening on 11th, but in reality I will probably be open on the 9th November. Hope you'll come for a look see. I'll tell you more about that in the next 23 days! Busy, busy, busy !

Giveaway for Popple

Hi again, another blogging buddy is have a milestone giveaway, race over there, it finishes on Wednesday! Heres the link, click here

Update on weekend markets hitting the blog tomorrow!

The Handmade Expo Market

My last chance to sit on the computer so I'd better not forget the MOST important post of the month !
This Saturday, from 8 am - 2 pm join in all the fun of nearly 100 stalls of all Handmade, delicious food, steam train rides all in one venue at The Handmade Expo Market, Brisbane Road, Bundamba.
Heres an example of just some of the things that will be there !

Poppyseed Markets this Sunday

I decided to dip my toes in a new market to be held on the Gold Coast this weekend, Sunday actually. It's called Poppyseed Markets, Have you heard of it ?
Liesa and I will drive down after The Handmade Expo on Saturday, staying the night at a Resort then off to " work " the next day !
Here are some details about the " handmadies " who will be adorning the Handmade Heaven Stall as well as bubbachenille as well !
If you haven't started your Christmas shopping then pop down to the coast for the day and include Poppyseed on your list of places to visit. Its at the PCYC at Broadbeach and all the details are here.

Giveaway winner

I was supposed to draw the giveaway this afternoon. EEEEEEKS with all the excitement of my announcement on Facebook I forgot to do the draw, sorry 'bout that.
But I did the random draw thingy and even after two years blogging I still cant figure out how to get it on to the blog.
So you'll have to trust me...It was number 4, tatgurl Congratulations, I'll scoot you an email !
Thanks everyone for entering and dont forget The Handmade Expo is on in 4 sleeps and the Poppyseed Markets on the Gold Coast is on in 5 sleeps.

One more day for giveaway

Oh Hi ! Please pop here to enter my givaway of a bubbachenille voucher to spend, I'm drawing it tomorrow afternoon!
Good Luck !

amazing giveaway if you love fabric

If you are a fabricoholic, then you must go here for an amazing giveaway.

Something for mothers

It cant all be about the "child" at the Brisstyle Mother and Child Market this Saturday. So today I made these for the mums.

Dont forget about my giveaway below....:-)

Divine

Micky and Liesa had their 30th Birthday party on Saturday night and presented these floral arrangements to mr bubba and I, ( the red one is mr bubbas )

They came from Trumans, a local florist that also has a stall at our market. Justine does such an awesome job with floral arrangements don't you think?

You can find Trumans by searching Trumans on Facebook and also at The Handmade Expo each month.

Thanks so much Liesa and Micky, they are truely divine :-) X O

The fragrance filling the house is beautiful too.

Giveaway extended !

Oh I am a silly duffa! I need to extend my giveaway to take into account the Brisstyle Mother and Child Market on next Saturday.
Please go here to enter to win a $30 bubbachenille voucher, you only need do two things on the list and I'll bet most of you are already there!
Click here to go directly to the giveaway.
New giveaway date is Tuesday 12th October.

Oh heaven !

I HAVE to be a taste tester for Cadbury, I won the oppotunity on chunky chookys blog ! Seriously, some new flavours to taste and report on!


I bought these shoes yesterday at K Mart ( haven't been in there for years ! ) and I am in love with them, I'm going back for all the colours ! They were $6.
Dont forget to enter my giveaway in my previous post, Incase there is some confusion you only need to do TWO of the things on the list, At this stage your chances are really excellent for winning !

GIVEAWAY TIME Extended to 12th October

I have been checking out all my stats lately and have been looking for a reason to have a giveaway. I decided there were actually lots of reasons to have a giveaway! The fact that I am close to 1700 friends on facebook, nearly 300 posts on my blog, the fact that I just appreciate feedback, comments and new blogging buddies is enough reason dont you think ?
So a big thanks to my followers and friends :-)

I'd love to give a $30 voucher to spend on bubbachenille goodies, choose anything you like from bubbachenille on madeit, etsy, ethikl, craftumi, facebook album, something you've seen on my blog, something in Handmade Heaven, whatever you'd like ! ( no custom orders though sorry )
The giveaway will go for 1 week. I will draw it by random generator on Tuesday 5th October.

So here are the rules, yep there's always rules but they aren't hard rules, dont worry!
Just do any two of the following,

suggest me to friends on facebook,
become a follower on my blog
link my giveaway on your blog
share my giveaway on facebook
link The Handmade Expo in a blog post
link Handmade Heaven in a blog post
suggest Handmade Heaven to friends on facebook
suggest The Handmade Expo to friends on facebook
use the event invite to The Handmade Expo Market on facebook and invite friends to come along

If you have already done 2 of these just leave me a comment and you'll be in the draw.
Good luck !

New place to get your bubbachenille fix !

bubbachenille now has a new stockist....A lovely lady named Cas who has a business called Mumatopia.
Please pop over here to read all about Mummatopia, see all the services she is offering and check out her online store.
Mummatopia is also on facebook..

Home at last !

Dont you just love getting home after a busy weekend of markets, expos, networking and other such events ?

I had two expos on the weekend, but left home on Friday morning, stayed at Mickys two nights and got home late yesterday afternoon. Thanks for helping me lug everything around Micky.

Both expos were really about giving out lots of free info. The first was a baby, toddler and child one, quite poorly attended by the public, the second was a smart living expo and average to low turn out to that. Oh well been there done that, so thats a free weekend I'll be having next year!

I did make an interesting purchase though...A wash ball that lasts for a year, no detergent necessary, will do a post on that after I've used it and will review it for you, if it's good and works will save from $500 upwards per year in laundry detergent.

I also managed to take some nice photos of my stall, which is different every single time I go to an event!

The new tooth fairy pillows will make their way to Handmade Heaven this week and then will go on tour to, Brisstyle Mother and Child Market, The Handmade Expo Market on 16th October and then to Poppyseed Markets at Broadbeach on the GoldCoast on 17th October. Hope to see you there !

Yummy Heat Packs..above

Tooth Fairy Pillows...above

My helper Micky...above

Off to unpack the car, clean house etc all the yucky things that have been neglected for a while !

My Garden

Oh look out,

Last week was so hot and sunny I thought it was summer,

This week is cold and raining, until a couple of hours ago.

You know what this means?

Must be perfect weather for growing veges !

I strolled down to the garden only to my surprise my radishes are all ready to pick, my baby siverbeet looks like it's on steroids, my flat leaf parsley is all over the place and everthing else has grown so much in the last week its absurd!

I'll be having radish salad every night for a month!

Any suggestions how to make it different?

Personally I love them straight out of the garden , but I need to plate them up !

Market gone, Another Preparation begins

Well The Handmade Expo Market on Saturday was the bees Knees !

Lots and lots of enthusiastic, happy customers, stallholders and Steam Train riders!

The highlight ( other than all the delicious food and Handmade goodies ) was Soulman whipping the crowd to a frenzy with him awesome music. He'll be back in November and December to entertain you all over again!

Now I am busy this week working on some new stock for this weekends Baby, Child and Toddler Expo at the Ipswich Showgrounds on Saturday and the Smart Living Expo on Sunday, also at the Ipswich Show grounds.

You could say I have been having a " play" and I can assure you the colours are much nicer up close and personal !

Seeing I am going to a child and toddler expo, the thought crossed my mind to make some new items especially for children! Above are tooth fairy pillows..

Oh and I must tell you about a new coffee house in Ipswich. They make awesome coffee, just like in Melbourne, Just like it should be made, ( ie without boiling the milk ! eeeeewww!) and also they have simple yet to die for bagettes and cake! yum.

I really should have taken a photo of the bagette as it came wrapped in white paper and tied up with string, they had me at the presentation, Luckily it tasted extremely delicious!

Congratulations

A massive congrats to my daughter, Liesa who won Retailer of the year in Ipswich on Friday night for her shop Handmade Heaven.

Well done and you deserve it! Love you X O

Nearly Ready for The Handmade Expo Market Saturday

This morning I have been very productive, finishing off a few skirts and pants from a big sew up yesterday.

My rack floweth over!

Lots of new spring colours in little girls vintage chenille skirts sizes 1 - 4 and lots of boy colours in pants, sizes 0 - 5.

I have a little time left today before I have to start packing up the car for Saturdays Handmade Expo Market, I think I'll put some of those creative ideas into action and start cutting out some new things for next weeks sewing.

Melbourne Here I Come ( hopefully here we come ! )

I am heading to Melbourne Dec/Jan for 9 nights ( girl holiday only, trying to get Liesa and Micky to join me for a couple of days too ) and I am hoping to meet some blogging buddies for lunch one day, in the city maybe ?( thats where I am staying and I think it would be so much fun ) Interested ?Please leave me a comment and I'll make a list !
I am also starting a list..TONIGHT of totally un missable events, fabric shops, markets and handmade related places ( cos thats my passion other than food ! )
If you have some of the above that I simply must add to my list could you please either email me or leave a comment.
Dont forget I'd love to meet you if you're around!

Look where I went today!

I have been hanging out to go here and I wasn't dissappointed ! I even managed to feed my shoe fettish! Thanks Simone, It was so nice to meet you ( again! ) and your sister also. Congrats on a shop that is just plain gorgeous and I cant wait to re visit. Can you believe that ? I just got home!

Oh and P.S
If you are going, there are no road signs to Bulimba !
Follow signs to Hawthorne.
Or you know what else you could do ?
Take the GPS that your hubby got for Fathers Day but wanted to wait to install until he had read the instructions ( which BTW we know that will never hapen!) That way you could go straight there, instead of leaving Hamilton at 2.15 pm and arriving at Bulimba at 3.45pm.

Here is a link to this Just Plain Gorgeous Shop click here

Garden and sewing update

Well my garden is starting to come along with the structural help from Mr bubba!

I cant believe how well everything is doing,

We'll be reaping the rewards soon !

Just about all my seeds are up and the seedlings I planted have taken off too.

Following on from the cowboy pants I made, I have made these in chenille.

I popped 5 pairs on Facebook to show all the size 3 lovers and 2 have found new homes already.

Back to the drawing board, I had a huge cutting out day on Tuesday, concentrating on boy colours in pants and much more in the girly skirts too.

Lovely bright colours for summer dont you think ?

Gotcha holster ? gotcha cowboy hat?

Cos I got ya cowby pants!

Especially for Brisstyle Market

I have made these especially for the brisstyle market this Saturday, I wonder if anyone will make one of them a new home ?

Here's the details for this Saturdays fun !

This Saturday

Hope you are coming to this awesome Market on Saturday..
Stay tuned for some pics of a new design I will have for sale on Saturday. I hope to have enough to photograph and take with me..something different !

New Fabric

I got these new fabrics from the states today and I am ready to create something new !



I just need some time and inspiration, but at least they'll be waiting for me when the time comes!

More lovely Pictures from the market

The Lovely Linda sent me some more lovely pics from The Handmade Expo Market on Saturday.
It was such a glorious sunny day we couldn't have wished for a better one !

Justine from Trumans Flowers had her debut on Saturday and has the most gorgeous arrangements as well as really reasonably prices bunches ( from as little as $5 )

Boxes and boxes of these delicious little cupcakes, given to the first 500 lovely people who came in through the gate.

Liesa, Micky and I the lucky ones to hand out the cup cakes, very cold morning!

Did I mention we all had a great day! Cant wait until the next one on Saturday 18th September.

If you are interested in having a stall or know someone who might be, then all they have to do is to hop on The Handmade Expo Market blog where you will find all the guidelines and application form.

The Handmade Expo Market is also having fun on Facebook if you'd prefer to contact us there.