Crimbo at the beach house

Christmas at the beach house! Where has this year gone? It has certainly been a busy one indeed.
In the recent weeks I have sold my wares again at the Perth Studio Potter's Christmas Bazaar. Plenty of felties went to good homes and I created two new products under the Suzie and Otto label; hand printed baby suits and lovely hand printed wrapping paper.


Some of the loveliness that was on the stall

Two weeks ago some students from school found a little kitten on the way into school in the morning. Since Mum offered to provide 24/7 support and friendship to Otto Hannah due to my extreme work hours in the second part of this year I have been a bit lonely at 48 Andromeda.... so look at my new house mate:

Meet Betsy!


Butternut pumpkin gone mad
About 5 weeks ago my lovely friend Kim of http://www.freckledgarden.com/ gave me two butternut pumpkin (squash to my UK friends) seedlings. This is the resulting monster! I have had to wrap it around the lemon tree three times to get it to fit in the garden. This weekend I brought the first pumpkin down to Dunsborough and made pumpkin scones with creamed honey and double cream. Delish! Not a brilliant recipe though... they didn't have amazing height so I think I had better repeat the activity with the next offspring from the beast.


Finally... I made a collection of Christmas tree decorations for friends. Here are a few decorating a little succulent and getting me happily in the Christmas mood.


Merry Christmas friends near and far. I will try to squeeze in one more post for 2009 and I will try my very hardest to be better at this in 2010 (I feel a new year's resolution coming on....)

Love Sarah, Otto and Betsy
xx

My Nest in the burbs





My little house is coming together at last. It had a lick of white paint over the holidays and is being filled up with my recent pottery works. The image on the bottom right shows three of my latest pots from the Raku firing. The yellow table in the top right is a bit of a DIY job on a garage sale table. Bottom left is a bit of a view of my little kitchen and top left is a couple of my pottery projects on display by the pond out the front.
I will try to get some more photos during the day while the light is better over the weekend so keep posted.



Raku Firing in Toodyay



I am lucky enough to teach a wonderful pottery class at the Perth Studio Potters in Cottesloe. This weekend we visited the breath taking property of Caroline and Lachlan in Gidge where we took part in a Raku Firing.


We enjoyed a shared lunch of homemade roast pumpkin soup, mulled wine, crusty bread and salad followed by home baked apple crumble, cheese cake and cupcakes.


Everyone had success with their pots and enjoyed the sensational late winter day. Thanks to Caroline and Lachlan for having us.








A few of the Art Ed'ers met down at the lovely Gen Baker's property at Toodyay and took part in the pit firing. We used iron and copper oxide, banana peels, copper wire, salt and string to create the markings. Although it poured with rain all night the firing was a great success!
There will be an article in the next Art Ed Journal with loads of photos of the lovely pots created.








Pit Firing in Toodyay








Hottie Covers



My new product: hot water bottle covers.

Perfect for Mothers Day and scrummy on cold days. I have already claimed one to get me through this winter since the cost of electricity is about to go up.

I have made 7 and will be felting into the small hours of tomorrow in preparation for the market. I would like to have 10 ready.

Happy Friday!

S

Beautiful New Plant Pots





Here are my lovely new pots for herbs. They are going to be sold at the craft market at the Studio Potters tomorrow. 10am - 4pm, 1 Burt Street Cottesloe.
Hope to see you there!











Latest bits and pieces for markets




In preparation for the Mother's Day market in Cottesloe on May 2nd I have been experimenting with slightly more Mother's Day friendly items. The Little succulent pots generated lots of interest at Made On The Left but I am thinking little herb pots might be nice for next one.
I am also on the hunt for hot water bottles. I think felted covers will be the perfect Mother's Day gifts as the evenings start to get a little chillier. Difficult to find at the moment which leads me to believe they are either deeply out of fashion or in high demand (although I hope the latter to be the reason, I suspect the former is closer to the truth!). Since electicity bills are about to get a bit expensive a hottie might be just the thing for this winter.
Will have a few samples ready to post by the end of the weekend. Off to Bunnings to try to find some black Japanese lacquer to re-do an old table and chair set.
Happy autumnal stormy day!

4 whole months!

I have just been very inspired by a few gorgeous blogs and some very crafty ladies at the Bunbury Made on the Left market last weekend. I am suitably ashamed at the state of my neglected blog so I am on a mission to get it up and running.

Watch this space...