That's Noice!

It’s not hard to tell that knitting, crocheting and other crafty hobbies are fasionable atm – all you have to do is check out all the Aussie bloggers, authors and now… knitting cafes!!

This is a relatively new avenue – turns out that there’s only a handful of cafes across the world dedicated to the knitting and crocheting niche – but there are TWO in Australia!

There’s Woolly Latte’s in Perth, WA (what a fab name) and A Coffee and A Yarn in Newtown, NSW.

Unfortunately, the Woolly Latte’s web site is pretty bare, but A Coffee and A Yarn has at least some information about the classes they offer (I’m eyeing off the beginner’s knitting and beginner’s crocheting course, closely followed by the Amigurumi course).

I’m still lamenting the end of Notebook: magazine and their craft classes, but I reckon these types of venues will hold their own and keep the craft trend alive.

While I was getting the goss on the state of knitting cafes, I came across this pick of a (name unknown) knitting cafe in LA… isn’t it stunning? Makes me want to give up housework and craft instead!

If the supermarkets are anything to go by, Easter’s just around the corner.

Check out these super cute cupcake toppers for Easter.

Visit each site for the download link and instructions

1: Bunny Cakes 2: Skip To My Lou 3: Paper Glitter 4: Holiday Crafts and Creations 5: My Grafico 6: Tip Junkie

I missed the boat when it was first released, so a week or so back when I noticed Portal on special I splurged the two American dollars and made it mine.  Til playing it, I never realised why it had cult status.  Now however, I understand that the cake is a lie.

These instructions are a step by step guide to making your own Weighted Companion Cube Tissue Cozy.  Once you’ve made it, you can relive the happy times which were abundant before you were forced to euthanise it in the Emergency Intelligence Incinerator.  Of course if you’re feeling extra lazy, you can always buy the premade plush version from ThinkGeek.

If none of this post makes sense, have a read of the Portal wiki page.  If it still doesn’t make sense, well, it’s a gaming thing.

Sydney-sider crafty-wannabes (oh, hai!), have you heard the awesome news?

Notebook: Magazine is offering craft classes!

They’re calling it The Craft Room and will be starting with Sydney classes in May and June, but have promised to expand to Melbourne and other capitals in the near future.

They’re offering sewing, embroidery, crocheting, knitting, quilting, scrapbooking AND CUPCAKE DECORATING!

Guess which one Leigh and I have registered for already? (Yay cupcakes!). We’re sofa king excited to be going – and Liz is coming with us, too! Yogi from Sweet Dreams Cakes will be our teacher and it looks like she makes spectacular cupcakes – nom!

(Shh, don’t tell Leigh or Liz, but I want to peer-pressure them to come to the beginner’s sewing class. It’s taught by Corrie, and if you take a look at what she makes, you’ll see why I’m so keen to go for a lesson!).

The classes are reasonably priced (we seem to think so, unless anyone has any knowledge/experience to share?) with the cupcake decorating class costing us $75 for a three-hour class (though it’s going up to $95 for the June timetable). The bigger, all-day classes are $200+. The sewing classes are sponsored by Brother, featuring brand-new sewing machines to play on!

I wish I had a hand steady enough to make cute things like this out of eggshells:

The little shower cap is just too adorable! Check out Chez Larsson for a heap of other scenes created with eggshells. Amazing stuff.

I’m sure most bloggers have beeen there, you have thought of something amazing to blog, making a mental note for late..yes must blog that!

Only, you sit down to actually blog..and it’s gone *poof* Mental notes aren’t too reliable unfortunately.

With this super handy Blog topic to post list, you will never forget those awesome posts again.

Available over at Vale Design as a free download and print yourself.

You must check out her other printable freebies, some really great stuff in there!

Okay you guys, I am suddenly wanting my own children:

Care Bears were one of my favouritest things when I was growing up (apart from Rainbow Brite, of course. And Muppets).

The instructions for this on Instructables are brilliantly written:

Find a really chill baby, and convince them of how fun it would be to dress up like a bear. Rawr! Surround with other toys, a la that scene from ET.  As if you needed to add cuteness.

Excuse me, I must go steal a child so I have an excuse to make one of these…

Anyone who loves Ikea knows their attractive shopping bags. The yellow ones you get to use in-store, and the blue ones you can buy to take home.

Most people stash their pretty blue bags in cupboards. But not Adriana:

Beyond Awesome.

Adriana does more than just create things that end up on Ikea Hacker, she also runs a course called IKEA-ology: Ikea as global urban home.

Adriana is my kinda gal!

I can’t sew. My sewing machine is held together with sticky tape, srsly.

But I so wish I could sew one of these super cute cat houses. My lot would love it, and love to fight over it.

Isn’t it awesome! Perhaps my meezers would need a duplex?

Check out the tutorial at Sew take a hike.

First the came iPad, now we have the iTampon…

*groan*

I know, I know, we are all sick of the feminine hygiene product related jokes surrounding the big iPad announcement yesterday. I know I am.

I for one love the idea and can’t wait to get my hands on one.

But the iPad isn’t shipping for months, and maybe you can’t wait that long? Well, you can make yourself your very own iTampon!

All you need is 50 tampons, some hot glue and a little bit of crazy and you’re set to go.

I must admit, while it is very disturbing it’s quite detailed isn’t it?

Maybe you would like to check out some of the other tampon craft projects… though I would strongly suggest that you don’t o.O

An Irish company has launched an environmentally-friendly personal massager (you know… for the ladies).

Ahem!

Instead of using batteries, it’s powered by a wind-up mechanism, much like old-school wrist watches.

As the official web site says:

“Unlike traditional “green” toys it will never require replacement batteries as it houses its own patented power core. Intense vibrations from the word go. A specially adapted key is fitted within the base and is extracted and turned to initiate the power core. A few quick turns ……. and hey presto!!”

“Hey presto!”, huh? Not quite the term I’d associate this with, but okay lol

The Earth Angel is available Down Under (see what I did there? oo-eerr) from Natural Contours Australia for $109.

Who’s willing to do a review for That’s Noice? ;)

The Finders Keepers markets are coming up in Brisbane and Sydney.

A great chance to support some amazingly talented Australian designers and artists and get in a spot of Christmas shopping perhaps.

The Brisbane markets are will be held on the October 31st and November 1st 2009.

The Sydney markets will be held on the 4th and 5th December 2009.

Check The Finders Keepers site for more information on times an venues.

Sydney City Council has put together 2 great self-guided historical walking tours of Sydney’s music scene. One is focused on Oxford Street and the other centres on the inner western suburbs of Newtown, Enmore and Erskineville.

You can download the mp3s from the Walking Tours section of the Council’s website and you can even download PDFs showing maps, photos and overviews of each walking tours.

And it doesn’t cost a cent!

The MP3s feature members of Mental As Anything, The Hoodoo Gurus and other artists (who I must admit I hadn’t heard of, but perhaps I’m just musically uneducated?).

As a Sydney-sider I’m chomping at the bit to give these tours a workout — reckon they’d be great for visitors to our fair city, too.

How do you display your birthday/Christmas/etc cards at home? Do you hang them on your venetian blinds? Hang up a piece of string to drape them over? Just stand them up on the sideboard?

Our rental house is a bit… restricted in terms of space. We don’t have Venetian blinds (unusual for a rental!) and we’d lose our bond if we tried nailing some string up on the wall. I have a sideboard but because space is so precious I prefer to keep the top of the sideboard available for important things (like cupcakes!)

I’ve got a vase filled with dried pussy willow branches and it occurred to me recently that it would make a great way to display our cards. Especially now that I’m engaged and we have a long-ish engagement, this tree is great to keep the cards on display for a longer period of time.

All I did was attach cards to the “tree” with cute clips and things from a cheap stationery shop:

Voila!

How do you prefer to display cards at your place?

One of my favourite things to do when I was little was to draw on my chalk board. I “inherited” one when my family sold the drive-in we owned when I was little. It had the Paul’s dairy logo on it and I can still remember it clear as day.

I would draw on it, practice my handwriting, I’d dip the chalk in water to make darker colours – I’d spend HOURS with it.

Ever since, I’ve been fascinated with blackboards in home design – inside the pantry door, on sections of kitchen walls… but this one is the best, I reckon!

Rebekah from Wild Ink Press repainted her spare fridge with blackboard paint and I am head over heels in love with it. Imagine all the things we could draw all over it – even cupcakes!

Oh how I love thee! I have been drooling over these things for so long! Up until a few months ago I thought we would be stuck renting for ever and I could never enjoy the awesome of the wall decal.

Now we have a lot of the painting done in our new place, I am trying to find some great decals. But it is hard to decide, there are SO many. Thought I would share some of my great ones I have come across. Are you a decal junkie?
First on my list, is this one drop dead gorgeous Cherry Blossom. Now, while it might be a little on the expensive side (approx $235AUD) wow..what an impact it would make. I love Cherry blossoms.

Threadless t-shirts, shirts do not get much better than these..love them. Did you know you can get some of your fav T designs as wall decals? Blik makes a range of wall decals based on some of the great threadless designs. Unfortunately, they do not ship to Australia. But thankfully, NZ company Jujube does! They stock a range of the great threadless decals as well as some other design. And the Aussie/NZ dollar makes it even cheaper shopping.

Vinyl Interior Design, and Aussie on Madeit also had a range of decals. Rah featured a tetris decal not so long ago.

And so so soooo many more. Do a search on etsy for wall decals and you will be blown away.

Does anyone have any decals? Would love to hear how you have used them in your home.