Pink Apple

Monday, June 3, 2013

What do cupcakes, red lips and a country town have in common?

What do cupcakes, red lips and a country town have in common?

Read on & find out! There should be more people in the world like you Purdie, what an amazing achievement! x

I’m a country girl through and through.
For almost all of my 35 years, I’ve called Balaklava home. I thought I knew everything there was to know about country living.

But it wasn’t until last Wednesday when I experienced first hand, just how much heart a country community can have.

My mother-in-law passed away 12 months ago after a brave 25-year journey with Multiple Scle-rosis. We watched her slowly deteriorate and her quality of life cruelly being snatched away. It was heart breaking.
Wanting to do something in her honour, I organised a fundraiser in my local town of Balaklava.

My wonderful team of helpers and I ran a cupcake stall, coinciding with the national “Kiss Good-bye to MS” campaign held during May.
And what a response we got!

To my disbelief, we pre-sold almost 40 dozen to local businesses, schools and workplaces and sold another 20 dozen on the stall. To come home with only three cupcakes, from almost 700 was quite simply amazing.

The stall was a sea of red and white, with cupcakes beautifully decorated with gorgeous red lips, red stars, jaffas and red sprinkles. Some people even said it was the most professional ‘trading table’ they’d ever seen!
We also sold show bags & raffle tickets and held a ‘guess the number of red & white lollies in the jar competition”.

More than $4,000 was raised from cupcakes and show bags alone.
I am forever grateful to each and every person and business who helped and supported in any way. It was a total team effort.

Days like last Wednesday is what living in a country community is all about.
I went to bed that night feeling incredibly blessed and humbled.
But most of all, I was full of pride. Proud that our little community helped make someone’s life with MS easier and edged that bit closer to a cure.
Well done Balaklava - for a small town, you have a massive heart!

- - - - - -
Footnote: MS is a debilitating condition, that slowly affects the messages from the brain to the body. It’s affects more than 23,000 Australians, most being diagnosed between 20 and 40 years of age. Of those affected, 3 out of 4 are women.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Introducing my Next Guest Blogger - Meg Mader - the person behind NAR Design & The Country Business Mums workshops & luncheons in Clare!

Thankyou so much to my next guest blogger, Meg Mader for sharing her painting tutorial!

When I was asked by Kathryn, along with many wonderful creative women, if I would like to do a guest blog I immediately jumped at the chance and then thought ‘what on Earth do I write about?’. For those of you who don’t know me, I organise events for Country Business Mums which is how I met Kathryn. I feel like a bit of an imposter being a part of the Handmade in SA community but as it turns out it has been a wonderful excuse to get back into painting.

In a past life I used to paint. Every day I did something because it was fun and messy and expressive and just wonderful for the soul. Then I fell in love, had children and … no time. There was always something more important to do. So here it is – my big return to painting. Please excuse the dodgy work but it has been quite a while.

My favourite way to paint is finger painting. Here is my step-by-step finger painting nude:

Materials – A stretched canvas, some acrylic paint, water soluble oil pastels and some cotton buds (they act as tiny fingers).

Find an image of a nude to work from then start with a light sketch of shape and shade.

Darken the shadows and add some highlights if you like.

Add a few blobs of paint.

Here comes the fun part! Spread the lovely paint around with your fingers. Make sure you work it into the areas that you have pastel.

If there is too much paint wipe off the excess.

Using a palette (or better yet – your hand!) get some fresh paint to use for highlighting with your fingers and the cotton buds.

Squirt on some paint for the background and spread it all around (don’t forget the sides of the canvas!)

And done! (NB It is good to try and get some background colour in the image and some image colour in the background)

Ok, so it’s quite messy and amateurish but it was fun and I really feel like I achieved something today – and I don’t mean getting the dishes done!!

So I challenge you, next time the kids are doing it, get in on the act and have some fun!

A little bit of Mothers Day nostalgia...

Is it just me or does Mothers Day make everyone nostalgic??
For me it is not just about celebrating my own journey into motherhood, or just about seeing my Mum and my Mother in law. It is such a time to reflect on our past, to celebrate where we came from and remember the mothers in past generations.
When I was a little girl, I used to help my Nanna to put flowers on the graves of my relatives every Mothers Day. First we would head out to Bute, where my Nanna spent most of her childhood to lay flowers on the grave of her Mother, Ada Chase & her sister Jean Chase (who sadly passed away at 18) my Nanna used to tell me so many stories of her Mum & sister and I grew up feeling like I knew "Great-grandma Chase" and "Aunty Jean" although I had never met either of them!

My beautiful Nanna Dossy, who I miss everyday. Pictured here with her little sister, Rita. Aunty Rita is the only one of Albert & Adas 5 children who is still alive! She lives in Victor Harbor :)

After Bute we would head to Kadina where Nanna would do the Cross side of the family - My Poppa Reg's Mum as well as his Grandmother. I remember times when I was quite scared of the cemetery, some of the old, uncared for graves really frightened me and I found it to be a place of such lonliness.

After both of my Nannas died, Mum took over and now also does the Maitland cemetery - where most of her ancestors are buried. For the first time in years, I went along to help my Mum yesterday, and it made me realise how much my view to cemeteries have changed - in just one visit to Maitland yesterday, I learnt so much about both sets of great-grandparents, my poor Mum must have been sick of my questions by the end!

I learnt so much about my family tree yesterday - My Mums maternal Nanna - Olive Blanche Greenslade - was 'a bit of a trick' according to my Mum. Mum was very close to her and she always liked to be entertaining, having her friends over for cups of tea, cooking and she sometimes let herself get into a bit of a mess. Oh wow - doesn't that sound like someone we know??? I might have got my looks from my Dads side of the family - but I think I got my creativity and nature from my Mums side!

My Mums Maternal Grandmother, Olive - isn't she beautiful! This is who I inherited my love of tea & entertaining from I think!

Mums paternal grandmother, Hepzibah Ash (who was an absolutely brilliant painter - more on that another day!) died quite young, from eating watercress that contained bacteria - Mum can't remember her all that well, as she never coped with my Poppa - her only child - getting married so they didn't see much of her by the sounds of things!

One of great grandmother Ash's paintings

I love this photo of My Nanna & Poppa Ash - my Nanna adored Poppa until the day he died - which I think is pretty obvious in this photo!

I miss both of my Nannas so very much, and in a perfect world I would have met my great grandmothers and made beautiful memories with them - so on Sunday I will be taking time to thank my Mum and to thank my mother in law for all they have done for us, for making us the people we are today, and also remembering the mothers before us who are no longer here - and also celebrating my 3 little boys and what being a Mum means to me!

Happy Mothers Day xx

Monday, April 8, 2013

The Whole Story - Warts & All

There are two questions that I often get asked - 1. How I got started in the Craft Industry and 2. Why don't you do markets anymore. So, I thought I would try to answer both questions in a blog! Be warned it's a long story so I might have to do it in Chapters ;) It could be a 2 - 3 cups of tea story too so settle in for a bit of a long story. :)

I cannot remember a time when I haven't been creative. I think it is in my blood. My Great grandmother was a painter, I am so, so lucky to have a few of her master pieces - my favourite takes pride of place in our hallway - painted in 1909 it is amazing - but that is a whole other story!
My maternal Nanna was an all round crafter, she knitted, she made chocolates and she created the most exquisite tapestries. Her work was so perfect that she almost got disqualified from the Maitland Show when she entered the first tapestry she'd done because they thought it had been done by a machine! My maternal Poppa was a brilliant pianist and my Mum an amazing cook. My Dad has plenty of talent in his side of the family too, my Nanna Dossy taught me to embroider & she knitted also. Being creative seeps in to every aspect of my life & I have passed it on to my boys - they amaze me with what they come up with!
I inherited my love of telling a story or two from my Dad so you thank him later ;) ;) ;)

I look back at my childhood & think how lucky I was that I was encouraged to be so creative. Whether it was cooking, sewing, beading or knitting, I was always encouraged to have a go.

Some have been a flash in the pan - like paper tolle & decoupage. Maybe that's telling me something - avoid paper crafts?? ;)

My poor parents, they money they must've spent on craft supplies for me!

Beading, I always loved and it was something I always came back to. I feel so ancient when I say this (I hope I'm not ancient just yet though, I'm only 33!!!) but it was so different when I started out. I used to go to Adelaide once a week and buy my beads from a little bead shop in Central Markets called 'Kabeadle' or 'The Bead Hive' on Pultney Street. The only other option was to 'mail order' a catalogue using a form from a beading magazine - the catalogues cost about $20 but oh my goodness - how I loved those catalogues! It seems like such a long time ago, but in reality it was only in the late 90's - it really is amazing how much has changed in 15 years!

If any of you can remember Kabeadle, it was magic! It was always such a little hive of activity & I loved coming away with my little paper bag full of goodies, dreaming about what I could make!

I started making jewellery for myself, my Mum & my sisters and before long people were asking "Where did you get that" and wanting to order one for themselves and thus K-Lou Jewels was born.
I made jewellery on and off over the years - it was always more of a hobby but it was nice to have a little bit of pocket money to spend on more supplies. Life got in the way of crafting though and I packed up the beads for a few years!

When I met Brett I started beading again - I needed something to help keep me entertained for the hours I spent sitting on the beach watching Brett surf :) I can tell you that sand + seed beads isn't always a story that has a happy ending!

Little markets had started to pop up in my area so I stocked up & started my market journey. By this time I had given my 'business' a makeover and my name was Jewels by Kathryn. I used mainly mother of pearl at this stage, which then evolved into glass jewellery. There is something about beads - their colours, the texture - especially the glass ones - it's like each one has it's own little story to tell!

I started having a stall at the Maitland Art & Craft Fair held in June & November and as my confidence grew I started blogging & a facebook page. What a great way to meet people! It's been a lot of fun :)

It is great to look back at old photos & see the changes I've made along the way and see the old favourites that make it in to every collection !

In 2009 I had out grown 'Jewels by Kathryn' and started on the journey that has been amazing, exhausting, exciting and has taught me a lot about myself, about the people around me, and about what really matters.

I brainstormed for months until I came up with the name Pink Apple. I found the notebook that I used when brainstorming the other day & had a giggle at some of the other names I had on the list - competely different to Pink Apple.

Pink Apple was the one I chose because I new I had to have pink in the name somewhere {I do love a bit of pink ;) } and I wanted it to be fresh. What's more fresh than an apple? And so Pink Apple was born.

It has been such a rollercoaster and at times I've felt like I am flying by the seat of my pants, but most of the time it has been a lot of fun. I have met some AMAZING people. I get the warm & fuzzies when I think about some of the people I've met - we really do have some of the most talented, inspiring and amazing people in South Australia and I am lucky enough to have shared some fabulous times with them.

I think that is enough for tonight -

I could promise that I'll finish it tomorrow night but we all know that sometimes I like to have a couple of weeks between posts ;)

Thanks for reading and I'll see you back here soon xx

*SPOILER ALERT - the next instalment will be full of these amazing people I talk about, how I've tried (& sometimes failed miserably) to juggle a home based business/motherhood/home life and how I've managed to overcome some of the bumps in the road!