It's been busy and frantic but we did it! Yesterday Artfull Crafts opened it's new shop at 24 Latter Street, Timaru.

It was a most wonderful day. It started with lovely group of ladies bring morning tea, flowers and cards and then people rolled through the doors all day. I got more flowers and more cards!! I felt like it was a really special day - and it was!

We've been working long hours to paint and decorate and then the weekend saw a huge effort put in. Thanks to the friends who popped by and helped out.

Here are the photos of the work in progress:

Today we start to move the shop from the house to 24 Latter Street. It's looking fantastic and I'm really excited (REALLY!). Last night Sherri came (again) and helped out and we had a painting party in the room that will be our lounge and kitchen. We had lots of paint left over from other DIY projects - so this room got the lovely deep orange/red. Funnily enough we painted out all the orange in the shop rooms and painted them pink...!



Now I get to tell you our cool carpet story. We only saw the place 2 weeks ago - and things happened very quickly! By this week Tuesday I realised I'd better get the carpet sorted out... I went to 3 places and got quotes. They all came that day to do the quotes (I love doing business in this town!). At the end of the day all the quotes were twice what we had wanted to spend. I decided that maybe we couldn't afford to lay carpet in the classroom but instead we'll have a huge carpet mat that went right to the edges. That way we'd save some pennies!

I rang a friend that day as he worked at a flooring place. He was out of town but said he'd get back to me the next day. He rang at 8:30am and said they had some brand new carpet that had just been uplifted from a property and it was high quality Feltex carpet in the grey tones. We jumped in the car, saw it, bought it (at a low price) and then they said they could have it laid by Friday (today!) I couldn't believe it!

But the story gets better. At 12pm I get a phone call asking if they could lay it that day - in 45 minutes time!! I jumped in the car with the trailer, went to Graham's work where we had been given free underlay, went to the shop, emptied the room, laid the underlay in time for the carpet to go down...

So here's the classroom before and after the paint and carpet. Of course it will look even better once we get the furniture and some curtains!

Well, it's been a busy week. It always is busy - but this time we managed to squeeze in the new shop removations as well! On Saturday we had a lot of fun when our friends and their children came to help. I love these photos of the 3-year old and 5-year twins helping us out...

YOU GUESSED IT - We're moving into a real shop!


28 Latter Street, Timaru


Well I don't want to spoil the surprise by posting a whole lot of photos ... but maybe just one or two. Especially since my lovely husband has put a few on his Facebook account!

This is the new shop being painted ... yip that's bright pink and a lovely dark grey colour.


Every evening we head down and do a bit more work on the place. It's looking great. And to be honest, if I weasn't heading to Christchurch on Saturday I would probably just move in this weekend. So we'll move on Labour Weekend - and we will be labouring hard! We'll be open for business on Tuesday the 27th. It's so exciting - can't you tell?!

What's amazing is that I started this as a hobby, then it turned into a Trade Me business, then a website business, then a home-based shop and now we're moving into a real shop. I never really intended this! I just decided to take it as far as it would go... so here we are. Some people plan their businesses - but I'm just stumbling around trying to make it work! I feel very blessed to have a wonderful husband who is really excited for me, great workers (Juanita and Vicki) and fabulous crafty people who support us. Not to mention all the friends and family who have encouraged us to "Give it a go!"

To be honest, winning the major Kaisercraft prize earlier this year is also a big factor in giving the business a boost along. THANKS KAISERCRAFT!

So, we'll have an opening party on Saturday the 31st - details coming soon... I'm sure we can muster up a bit of fun in this quiet town...

No more surprises then...

Yes we've found somewhere to move too. It's very exciting. We've decided to set up a 'real' shop in Timaru. The business has been growing and growing - now it's in 2 bedrooms, the dining and room, study and most of the lounge. It's sort of out of control. And we get pretty good foot-traffic too. So we've taken the plunge and found a very cool building near the city centre. It's got a 1 bedroom bedsit at the back - so yip - we're going to try apartment living for a while. Here's a look at what condition the 'lounge' is in at the moment...

But we love DIY and so this one is no problem. A bit of paint, carpet and a new kitchenette and we'll be right!

Mmm... Hilary wants more information about the teaser...

Paint under the fingernails.
Tired arms and legs.

That will do for today...

Okay - so on my website email I said that I had TWO lots of exciting news to share. Here's the first part of it...

KAISERCRAFT Q2 PRODUCTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR SALE ON THE WEBSITE!!

Stunning papers, embellishments, stamps, rub ons, projects etc.

That's pretty exciting for us. It's been 5 weeks since we went to the launch party in Melbourne and saw the wonderful goodies. And now we get to share them with you! The boxes arrived this morning (I woke up at 6am and checked the doorstep for them... then I started getting worried when they hadn't arrived by 7:30am... but by 7:40am they were there). We spent the day putting the goods on the shelves, packing up the pre-orders and then selling the goods to the Timaru public. Then the rest of the day was doing all the final touches on the website. It takes a lot of work to manage a big website like ours - but we like to make sure it looks good and is easy to use. We love having the coordinating products with the Kaisercraft Collections but that's time consuming!

Then we had to 'pop out' and take my parents to look at the second surprise... more on that later.

And finally we drew the winners for the competitions, made the website live and sent out the email blast to the people who receive the weekly update from the website ...

CONGRATUALTIONS wazzasgirl! You have won the Lilac Ave paper collection. Be sure to e-mail your address to us...

CONGRATULATIONS to Raewyn G for winning the pre-order prize - the Advent Calendar. It's FABULOUS! I'm just not sure when I'll have time to decorate mine ... that's because this new exciting thing I'm talking about is going to be time-consuming....

Perhaps I'll just pop this little photo up for a teaser and tell you about it all another day...

Mmm tired now - it's been a long day.

Well we are home! And no rest for the holiday makers... Yesterday was the official launch date for the new Kaisercraft Q2 products - but we were on a plane coming home. So today we got up early (no time for jet lag around here) and got busy on the website.

We have made the Full Collections available for pre-order at this stage. The goods have left Aussie and on their way over here - but I don't expect them to leave customs until later next week. At that point we'll release the individual items and the Beyond the page Projects (which you REALLY must see!). Here's the Star Wreath that I know will be a hit! It's about 30cm across.SPECIAL DEAL: For each Full Collection you pre-order you'll go in the draw to win an Advent Calendar ($39 value). This is the most amazing project. I can't wait to get my hands on one!

We've been away for almost 4 weeks! It's been fun and I am pretty much recovered from the operation that knocked me flat for a few weeks. We've been all over the place - from Bangkok to Koh Samui, back to Bangkok and then to Paske, Laos, then back to Bangkok! We're staying with friends now and start the journey home tomorrow...



The Bangkok parts were pretty much dedicated to sourcing craft products to import into NZ - and I wasn't disappointed. We've been here a couple of other times - so we had some contacts and leads already. The flower shop was the most fun. Graham had the fun of standing with the calculator, camera and notepad! He's a great helper.


This is the crazy market in Sampheng, Chinatown. It was wall to wall with people during rushhour! And hot and stuffy...

Dinner anyone? The smells of Bangkok are incredible - not all good!! People eat and cook on the side of the road. It didn't look very appetizing to me...

This is Graham and Thakmany in an Ethnic Village in Laos. Thakmany lives with our friends in Paske and teaches them Lao in return for learning English. During the morning she weaves at her local village.


This was a lovely Spa Resort we treated our friends to for one night. Pool anyone? I hear it's been cold in New Zealand - so maybe I should stop putting up these great photos!And maybe it's a bit mean to show me getting a foot massage. They are so cheap in Thailand - it would be crime not to get one...

So, we fly home over 2 days. First to Melbourne tomorrow and then to ChCh the next day. The Kaisercraft Q2 release is due on October 1st - but we'll be travelling! You'll all have to wait until the 2nd... The goods haven't actually left Australia yet though - so we won't be able to send them just yet.

We've decided we will make Collection pre-orders available on the 2nd. The lucky people who order these will have the priority for the first shipment. We know there is a lot of interest. The second order is organised already!!

Today we organised the shipment of some of the Thailand craft goodies home. But I'll be honest, I wanted lots of the new products to come home with us - so we've packed those for the airline and sent lots of our clothes home instead with the courier! Who needs summer clothes in NZ?!

You'll hear from me in a couple of days - to announce the Q2 products!

My brother's wedding on Koh Samui, Thailand was a beautiful occasion. I took hundreds of photos and am looking forward to creating an acrylic album and a memorabilia box of the day for them. (I'll use the Tic Tac Toe box from Kaisercraft for that one). The table setting was filled with fabulous scrapbooking memorabilia! I'm such a hoarder - and what better hobby could there be than this?

The day really was perfect. The beaches on here are stunning and the wedding was held at sunset. 35 people travelled across the world to attend the occasion - from Australia, New Zealand and England.

The groom entered firstly with his groomsman, followed by en elephant that danced for us and then the parents. To be honest the elephant really stole the show!



Then some dancers did a lovely ensemble for the groom, before he moved down to the sand to await the Bride's arrival.

Illana entered, looking stunning, and the ceremony began. My father had the privilege of speaking at the wedding - reminding us of the basis of marriage and the importance of it. It was a beautiful ceremony.
The local paparazzi (me and a few other keen guests) snapped photos at every opportunity - petal throwing, sunset poses, tree planting, cake cutting, fireworks, lantern lighting, speeches and dancing.


I finally managed to successfully use my camera on Night Mode and I went through two batteries. So now comes the fun - trying to select the best of the hundreds of photos...


But the fun isn't over just yet! We are still enjoying everyone's company at the resort until Sunday. Then we head to Laos to visit our very good friends for a week. We know that when we return to NZ things will be crazy! We have to find somewhere else to live - and move the business too. And of course the Christmas frenzy will begin - starting with the Kaisercraft Q2 release in a couple of weeks.

I'll just enjoy the break while I can!!