the light garden

Snowy days in Turkey

2012-02-10T13:07:00.002+02:00

This is a photo Sena (our friend and partner for Hamamist) quickly snapped on her way into central Turkey to meet with some of our loomers. Looks amazing don't you think! I'm glad they made the long trip safely! Apparently Turkey is having one of the snowiest Winters in a long long time.

As you can probably guess by how often I am posting here things have been busy! We have some new designs for hamamist - including hand towels and bathrobes - yay!

And we have been updating some current designs and adding more colours too. One of my new favourites is the updated Kapadokya Design (below) - now the stripes are in a natural linen colour instead of the cream they were previously. I think now it really reflects better the actual place it was named after (which, by the way, if you haven't been there, is a 'must visit once in your life' type of place- I have never seen anything like it - such a unique and amazing landscape) - if you are interested also check out this beautiful photo of Kapadokya.

And there are many new things on the horizon, which I will be sure to share here as soon as possible - I promise! :)

Have a great weekend!

First Day at Pre-School

2012-01-30T14:23:00.000+02:00

...sigh! An exciting and nervous day...for me. He loved it!

Recent work for Children's Bookstore - Tirtil Kids

2012-01-24T09:15:00.000+02:00

You might have guessed that I have been busy again...and not quite able to keep up with everything!!

This is some recent work that I have been doing for Tirtil Kids - the wonderful children's book store in Istanbul.

This one above was a bit of a challenge -it took me a while to figure out how to communicate this message in illustration - but I was really happy with the final concept :)

They are doing so many exciting things at the moment - I am so impressed everytime I hear from them!! The one above was for a reading done by actress and singer Şevval Sam.

Above was the little gingerbread village I did for the holiday season.

I hope you are all well and enjoying a great start to the year!

a summery christmas

2012-01-04T12:08:00.000+02:00

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!Ours was very different from the past 2 wintery ones we had in Istanbul!

We headed down to Melbourne to spend time with family, including a beautiful break down on the Surf Coast - where Yashar had fun at the beach with his cousins. This was one early evening we went down to the beach. The weather was nice but, as usual, the ocean was cold!...it is definitely no mediterranean :)

So I got Yashar all rugged up to turn those lips back from blue to pink after his swim.

Coffee Sack Cushion Covers

2011-12-21T06:14:00.000+02:00

I mentioned last post about some of the people we met at the Bondi market, one of which was the maker (along with his wife) of these beautiful coffee sack cushion covers. I loved them, and was so happy I got to take one home with me!

I had thought I would just take a quick photo of it on the couch, but I got carried away (haha! what's new??) ...and I liked how it sat with the hamam towels (these ones are the Istanbul and Alacati designs) - so many lovely textures! I think I want to just have piles of linen around the house ;) You can find the Coffee Sack Cushions online here at Coffee Sack Design. The blanket (at the bottom of the pile) is one I bought just before we left Turkey from Zara Home.

Bondi Markets

2011-12-19T12:11:00.001+02:00

I am very happy to report we had a fantastic day on Sunday at the Bondi Beach Market! These are a few shots I quickly took with my phone on the day. Wish I got around to take some more of the other stalls and people...next time...

My very tired and hardworking husband above - thank you sweetie!
And today I am exhausted...it's amazing how tiring it is! But, it was wonderful to talk to so many wonderful and interesting people...makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside :))

We had a lovely little spot under a big tree and we were lucky the weather held out for us. Thank you to everyone who came down!

We'll be at Bondi on Sunday!

2011-12-15T06:18:00.000+02:00

Ooh I'm so excited! We just found out on Monday that we have a place at this Sunday's Bondi Market for Hamamist! It should be fun....as long as the weather holds out!

This is one photo from the stand we had at the Magnolia Square market in November. I had hoped to take a whole lot of fancy pictures :) But ended up not having any time for it at all! Having the stand at Magnolia Square was great - we learnt a lot, were rushed off our feet and totally exhausted afterwards...but we'd do it again :)

I flew down to Melbourne for it while Senol stayed in Sydney with Yashar. Luckily my sister Emily and my Mum helped out sooo much...there is no way I could have done it without them! We had the chance to meet some wonderful people too...so inspiring to see such creative and entrepreneurial people building their businesses, and a crowd of people that really appreciated their work!

Fingers crossed for the Bondi Market!

PS My sister is starting to get her online store for Emily&Leo happening (I think it is looking great!) and is having a pre-Christmas sale with 20% - check it out!

Recent Work: Tirtil Kids Bookshop - Istanbul

2011-12-12T11:23:00.001+02:00

I am continuing to work with Tirtil Kids Book Shop in Istanbul and am loving it! The work often needs to be done quickly and I try to make it eye catching and fun... These are a few I have done recently - above is a detail from a birthday related one, ...and you can see some of the past illustrations here.

One of the exciting things that the book shop is doing at the moment is having different comedians and actors in to do readings each month..so fun I think! This is the most recent one - the reading is on this Thursday:

And this was the one for last month:

Christmas Making Inspiration

2011-12-09T07:52:00.001+02:00

Source: purlbee.com via Verity on Pinterest

I've just started to get in to Pinterest ...and I'm liking it a lot! It's basically a website that lets you collect pictures (and links to the sources) of your favourite things from around the web and organise and share them. These are some things I 'pinned' from around the web today - all for some Christmas making inspiration.

Source: sweetpaul.typepad.com via Verity on Pinterest

Source: poppytalk.blogspot.com via Verity on Pinterest

Source: bostonmamas.com via Verity on Pinterest

Have a great weekend!

Recent work: Invitations

2011-12-06T06:01:00.001+02:00

These are a couple of photos I quickly snapped before sending these invitations I created off on their journey to France. They were for a very sweet little girl's Baptism and used one of my Angel illustrations as a basis. These were so fun to work on :)

A snowy Istanbul scene for the 'Action Pack - Celebration Issue''

2011-12-05T00:35:00.001+02:00

Thank you for the lovely birthday wishes for Yashar! This is one of the many other things that has been keeping Yashar and I busy lately!

A little while back I was contacted by the the amazing Kathreen, founder of whipup.net and author of Whip Up Mini Quilts and Little Bits Quilting Bee She asked me to contribute to the December/January edition of 'Action Pack' (an e magazine with loads of activities to do with kids) and of course I jumped at the chance!

Yashar and I made this wintery Istanbul scene - complete with Galata Tower, Aya Sofya, the Maiden's Tower and the Bospherous Bridge. Yashar loooved making it... and so did I!! Above is a layout from the Action Pack with our activity (and Yashar busy at work!) on the left, and below is the super cute cover of the e mag.

If you would like to buy the Action Pack, with the printable Istanbul monuments and all the instructions on how we made it, you can do so here. The Action Pack is fantastic - so many activities to do with kids - I think it is around 80 pages this time! You can read more about the pack here. It is going to be keeping Yashar and I happy and busy for many many hours this Summer!

Oooh! I almost forgot! You can use this 10% discount code 'WPContributor' to get 10% discount off everything at the whipup.net or action-pack.com store!! - especially for friends and blog readers. Yay!

Hope you all had a great weekend! I'll be back with loads more posts very soon :) So happy to be back blogging again!

Yashar is 4!

2011-11-30T08:02:00.001+02:00

Wow! It's been a long long time - far longer than I meant and I have really been missing blogging! This is a post that I actually started writing a few weeks ago but didn't get around to putting up. I have so so much to share with you all. SO expect plenty of posts in the upcoming weeks! Thank you for sticking by in the mean time :)

Yashar turned 4!! Can you believe it!? When I first started this blog he was less than 6 months old. We went down to Melbourne for the weekend and had a mini fiesta in the park, complete with nachos, pinata and even margaritas! I forgot to bring the memory chip for my camera (as I often do) so I was very happy that my sister Mindy could take some photos - including the cake!

It was so nice to have a birthday for Yashar surrounded by my family - to spend it with them and have all their help. This was the first time Yashar had a birthday in Australia!It's amazing to see Yashar growing, learning and adapting to life here. I don't know if I have written about this before but he actually spoke only a few words of English (despite understanding everything). Now he is learning so much every day. So wonderful to watch.

For Yashar's actual birthday we had a quiet day (after an overnight drive back from Melbourne!) The photos at the top and below are him at our new fave cafe where he has already been busy charming the locals. And don't worry - he got a haircut the next day - in all the rushing and moving etc his hair grew in to quite the little mullet :)) hehehe! actually it was only looking at these photos that I realised just what a mullet it was!

Yashar pulling a silly face for the camera!

And now a special message to my little Yashar:

Well done Yashar and Happy Birthday! I hope the year to come is as wonderful as the past four have been. I hope that you continue to be your wonderful, warm, talkative, gentle and inquisitive self. I hope that you continue to grow, to learn and to have fun! I will miss you when you start pre-school in January, but I know you will love it. I hope you are happy here and I know that you miss your friends and family back in Turkey. But I know too that you will make some wonderful new friends and have so many good times getting to know your family here. All my love, Mum

You are so VIP!

2011-10-13T12:33:00.002+03:00

Hey - my sis Emily is having a VIP this coming Wednesday evening - and since you are all my VIPs you are totally invited! :) She was kind enough to have it the night before we move to Sydney so I didn't miss out. I will be there helping out and sipping on champagne so I hope you come and say hello!

We made it!

2011-10-11T07:33:00.000+03:00

We're here!! Still settling in - my husband has found a job, we have found a house and in two weeks time we will move to Sydney! Another adventure! We had hoped to be in Melbourne - where most of my family and friends are but I am particularly excited about 3 things with the move to Sydney - getting to spend time with one of my sisters that lives there and getting to know her two cute little kids (who I haven't even met yet!) and also that I will have a little studio to work from! I can't wait to get set up in there.

We have been spending time catching up with family and friends here and hanging out at my sister's shop - Emily & Leo - which I love!! I'm so proud of her :) You can see the cards and notebooks of mine she has in store in the top photograph and we have also set up a mini wall of our Hamamist towels here - they go beautifully with the yummy soaps and beautiful leather bags and wallets she has here!

These beautiful rings are also from Turkey - we brought some more back for her with us because they have been selling out so quickly! If you want to get your hands on one be quick! Drop in to the store or email her at info@emilyandleo.com I love them!!

We still have lots to organise - like the move to Sydney, a car, beds, a fridge etc etc - ahhh! Please let me know if you have any shop/restaurant/things to do with kids recommendations for Sydney too!! I'm looking forward to getting to know it :)

Huge News! and a huuuuge sale!

2011-09-09T18:08:00.002+03:00

(huge news for us anyway) ...we are moving back to Australia in 3 very short weeks! It was really a big decision for us - and still everyday we ask each other...are we really moving?! I'm sure later I will be in the mood for writing something thoughtful, meaningful and emotional about it all...but at the moment it's all about packing :)

We made the decision not to ship our things over - which means we just have our luggage allowance and some small packages that we will be mailing over...yikes! I totally thought I would be fine with that, but now that I have started packing I have no idea how it is going to fit and how I am going to choose what to take and what to leave behind!

All of this means that I am having a CRAZY HUGE SALE of all the stock I have on hand. I have put a special section in the shop here where you can go to see all the discounted items. The images here are just a few of them. The matted prints (which are usually $28) are on sale for $14 - yikes!!

So if you have ever been thinking about getting a print, or you want to stock up ready in time for birthdays or Christmas then this is the time!! There are very limited amount of stock - just what I have here in the studio that I am slowly and sadly packing up. Have a great weekend!

LOLA Children's Art Studio

2011-08-30T23:02:00.001+03:00

Iyi Bayramlar everybody! I hope you all are having a wonderful break with family and friends.

Here are a few photos I took recently for Alara - whose beautiful children's art studio (LOLA) Yashar and I love so much!! Also check out her blog for lots of great ideas for creating with kids.

Think and Draw Creative Sheet #5: Space Kitty

2011-08-22T17:41:00.000+03:00

This is another free printable page for creative drawing and colouring. Feel free to print and use as many as you like! Click on the image to print. You can find the whole collection of Think and Draw Creative Pages here.

Hope your kiddies have fun with it :)

Copyright Verity Heysen Kizek 2011. Must not be altered, resold or used for another purpose.

Recent Work

2011-08-19T15:17:00.000+03:00

Recently I have been doing some illustrations for Tirtil Kids - a wonderful children's book shop here in Istanbul that stocks books in English, Turkish, French and German. The two below are little details from a couple of the illustrations.

And here are two more - one for 'Summer Skill Sharpeners' and the second 'Going on Holiday'. The illustrations are for their fortnightly emails that you can sign up for in store. I'm so happy to be working with them :)

Also, check out this great post over at the Lots of Lovely Art blog full of excellent ideas on what to do with all your child's art work. Very needed in our house!

Have a great weekend!

Think and Draw Creative Sheet #4: Birdie

2011-08-15T16:15:00.003+03:00

This is another printable page for creative drawing and colouring. Feel free to print and use as many as you like! Click on the image to print. You can find the whole collection (of 4!) Think and Draw Creative Pages here.

Thank you :)

Copyright Verity Heysen Kizek 2011. Must not be altered, resold or used for another purpose.

Press!

2011-08-12T10:47:00.001+03:00

After a little unplanned hiatus (things have been very busy behind the scenes here), I am popping in with some exciting news - my 'I have climbed to the top of the tallest tree' print was featured in Shop 4 Kids magazine! It was in an article called 'Off the Wall Colour Combo's' on the Peach and Gold page. Definitely a little off the beaten track for children's bedroom colours...but I like it!!

Can you spy it there?...In the middle, to the right of the lamp. I put a larger image of the print below too in case you are interested.

A huge thank you to Amanda from Brown Paper Packages - one of my lovely lovely stockists! If you haven't visited her shop recently go and check it out. The site has been redesigned and looks fantastic and there are so many gorgeous and interesting finds that she has there...perfect for present buying!!

I will be back next week and plan to be back to my usual posting. I miss it!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

NEW PRINTS!

2011-08-03T20:12:00.001+03:00

Still very busy here at the Light Garden and Hamamist HQ :) Here is a sneak peek of a couple of new prints I'm adding to the shop - I only had a chance to take quick photos for the moment and I was getting lots of reflection in the glass...but anyway - here they are!

I hope you like them!

Images of... New Hamamist Photos and Our Village Visit

2011-07-28T22:11:00.001+03:00

These are some photos I took a couple of weeks ago (time flies!) for Hamamist. I took them at my lovely friend Alara's apartment -who, by the way, is ridiculously stylish in a totally natural way - I basically just want to move right in to her apartment ;) I was totally overwhelmed with all the beautiful things that I might put in the photos - check out the beautiful glass bottles below with shell tops - she made them! I will definitely have to have another photos session there!

And these are some more photos of from the trip to my husband, Shenol's, family village near the black sea coast. I wasn't at all restrained with these - so quite a lot of photos coming up :)

The house we stayed at was where Shenol's grandmother lived - it was the one next to this and looks pretty similar (somehow I missed taking a photo of it!) The two houses are surrounded by forest. Below is the swing by the front door of the house - Yashar loved it!! It was so green, cool and lush there.

This is the lovely cool stream that you need to cross to get to the houses

Cherry picking!

We went to a neighbouring farm for some cherry picking - this tough and independent woman was working the farm as we arrived. She told us about the loaded gun she carries and how she takes it to wedding to shoot into the air in celebration - yikes!

Below is the yard at the house where Shenol's farther grew up, and below that is the forest next to the house.

Thanks for joining me on this little 'slideshow'!

2011-07-25T23:21:00.000+03:00

Last week we headed off in the early hours of the morning to drive to Senol's family village in Erfelek - near Sinop on the black sea coast. I had been before - about 7 years ago - but I was still totally amazed by how beautiful it was. Surrounded by forest, houses that are truely 'handmade', bucket fulls of cherries and vegetables straight from the plant to the table. I'm just stopping in tonight with one of my favourite photos from the trip - this huuuge linden tree (called ihlamur here in Turkey). You can see by the ladder leaning against it that some one had already beat us to picking the blossom and leaves used to make ihlamur tea (a wonderful tea to have when you have a cold!)

I'll be back with some more photos of the trip (and loads of other things) soon. See you then!

Making Mondays: Think and Draw Sheet #3 Framed

2011-07-18T16:10:00.002+03:00

I hope you all had a great weekend!

This is another free printable page for creative drawing and colouring. Feel free to print and use as many as you like! Click on the image to print. You can find the whole collection (of 3!) Think and Draw Creative Pages here.

This is actually one I created for Yashar in July 2009! I had posted about the idea here but never made the sheet available for download/printing. At the time I had made it for a car trip we were about to go on...so it's perfect timing as we head off on a long car trip tomorrow morning.

Copyright Verity Heysen Kizek 2011. Must not be altered, resold or used for another purpose..

Special Announcement!

2011-07-12T18:55:00.001+03:00

So, you may (or may not!) have been wondering what I have been so busy with that has been keeping me away from blogging as much and keeping up with all my usual things. Well here is the big reveal!

I have been working with my husband and two friends of mine here and created Hamamist!! (You can read all about what it is below) We are so excited about it! So I have been busy - designing towels, taking photos, making booklets, designing packaging etc etc! And I have been making the website...I'm no expert at making websites so it has been taking a while (!)...and will take more time as I do things like change the front page and add more information about Pestemals and more images. But it has launched! So please go over and have a look! Let me know what you think!

So far, it has been going better than I could even have imagined...and I would definitely appreciate your support so much in making it a success! Please tell your friends if you have the chance! :)

Maybe you have already heard of Hamam Towels? Here they are called Peshtemals and are flat woven towels that we use all the time - in the bathroom, at the pool, at the beach - we love them!

This is a little that I wrote for our 'About' section on the website:

Hamamist is all about creating beautiful towels of the highest quality, using natural fibres and hand looming. An everyday luxury.

Why are these towels so special?
Hamam Towels (peshtemal in Turkish) are flat woven towels that:
*are light weight, compact and fast drying

*absorb water as quickly as standard towels

*are natural and eco friendly as they take up less space in your washing machine

*easily fit in your beach bag or travel bag

*look great worn ‘sarong style’ poolside

*are perfect for using at the spa or gym

*make a unique and beautiful gift

Hamamist peshtemals are hand loomed in the same villages that they have been made in for centuries. This means that every item is slightly different and unique.

A bit of History...
The peshtemal was,and still is, the traditional attire worn at the Hamam or Turkish Bath. The history of hamams and peshtemals is a rich one. Hamams were influenced by the Roman ‘thermae’ and Byzantine baths and reached their peak during the reign of the Ottoman Empire.

The ritual at the hamam involves bathers relaxing in a very warm room before splashing themselves with cool water. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation.

Today peshtemals are widely used on the Mediterranean beaches of Turkey and also poolside, in bathrooms and at spas.

It feels so good to finally have launched the website and to be sharing it with you! I hope you like it!

Making Mondays: Think and Draw Creative Page #2

2011-07-05T00:00:00.002+03:00

I hope you all had a great weekend!

This is a free printable page for creative drawing and colouring. Feel free to print and use as many as you like! Click on the image to print. You can find the whole collection (of 2!) Think and Draw Creative Pages here.

Copyright Verity Heysen Kizek 2011. Must not be altered, resold or used for another purpose..

Making Mondays: Leaf Print Lions

2011-06-28T17:47:00.000+03:00

On the weekend I prepared a little activity for Senol to do with Yashar so they could have a little more 'Baba and Yashar time'- I helped too ...and loved it!

It was from the Turkish version of the book 365 things to make and do - which I assume is virtually the same as the English version. Love this book! - So many great simple and easy to make ideas.

It uses leaf prints to make different animals - we did the lion - but there was also a very cute giraffe and hedgehog. This is how we did it:

1. First we collected a few different leaves. Then Yashar and Senol painted the leaves and made prints on brown paper.

2. While they were doing that I drew the lions heads and bodies on brown paper and cut them out.

3. While the leaf prints dried a little Yashar and Senol drew the grass background for them on a sheet of paper.

4. Then Senol started cutting out the leaf prints while Yashar and I stuck down the lion bodies with a glue stick.

5. Then Yashar and I stuck down the cut out leaf prints - big ones for the Baba lion and small ones for the cub. (and by the way - we stuck everything down together...

6. Last of all we stuck on the lion faces.

I LOVE how it turned out and Yashar was so proud!

A super sweet nursery

2011-06-22T12:56:00.000+03:00

Late last year Katie ordered a Cool Forest print while pregnant with her son. I was so thrilled when she contacted me recently to share this adorable family portrait in her baby's nursery with the print in the background! The print looks so at home there with the beautiful pale walls, white floorboards and of course the gorgeous family! Katie and her family live in the mountains and she hoped that it would help to inspire him to appreciate the wilderness around them.

Katie has put some more photos of the forest themed nursery up on her blog if you want to have a peek! I particularly loved these beautiful birds and the large painted tree with the Animal Portraits from Berkley Illustration perched around it. So cool.

And the cutest thing in the room - little Eliot of course!

Thank you Katie! Seeing this makes me ridiculously happy :)

Making Mondays: Think and Draw Creative Pages

2011-06-20T18:48:00.001+03:00

Wow! I have been meaning to do this for so long...and finally I have started! This is a free printable page for creative drawing and colouring. Feel free to print and use as many as you like! This is the first time I'm doing this so please let me know if you have any troubles - you should be able to just click on the image and then print.

The plan is to do one of these each week...let's see how that goes!

Copyright Verity Heysen Kizek 2011. Must not be altered or resold.

Mr Sleepy Fox

2011-06-17T16:25:00.001+03:00

You might have noticed that I'm in the midst of changing things here at the blog ...about time.!..those snowy trees that were in my header before weren't quite suiting the middle of Summer! And it gives me a chance to introduce my little sleepy fox here... he's one of the things I have been busy working on lately!

I created him as part of the designs I am doing for my collaboration with Secda - to be screen printed on fabric and then sewn up in to all sorts of goodies. I am actually working on a second version of him now - a little bolder and less finely detailed as I think that might be better for a screen print.

I also had an amazingly wonderful customer recently that I designed some baby shower invitations for. It really makes me love what I do even more when I come across such lovely, encouraging and supportive people. I also made this matching notebook for her and I made a few extra for the shop - which you can find here if you would like one.

I feel like I am showing you about 10% of what I have been up to lately...so many projects in the pipeline! I'm looking forward to sharing it all with you! Thank you so much to all of you that come here to look and read, for all your support along the way. Thank you to everyone that leaves comments...I love reading them - and replying whenever I have a moment! And if you have never left a comment before please don't hesitate - I would love to hear from you - what are you making at the moment? what is inspiring you? :)

I hope you all have a gorgeous weekend!

v

Making Inspiration: Ohdeedoh, A New Creative blog and a Crafty Gathering

2011-06-14T15:38:00.002+03:00

Well I have been very busy, including working on some new designs that will be printed on tea towels - so fun! Yikes I'm ridiculously excited about it! So I haven't been able to get up to my usual Making Monday goodness this week. But don't worry I still have plenty of making inspiration for you!

First up, Ohdeedoh shared my sunprints project I made with Yashar in a post 'Get Inspired by Sunprints' yesterday. Thank you Ohdeedoh! And if you haven't made sunprints before I definitely suggest checking out the post I did about them and giving it a go - we had so much fun with it - easy and creative for any age!

For more creative inspiration I suggest getting in early on the blog recently started by Alara Hindle (my lovely friend and owner of LOLA children's art studio) Alara has such a wealth of fantastic ideas for creative things to do with children. She is posting activities once a week - there is already a great art deco one and some fun beach theme ideas. Don't miss it!

And finally...here's another (all very summer party inspired) installment of 'Crafty Gatherings'....where the best things to make, gather, stand around looking cool and sip on mojitos ;) links below and all photos via the respective websites.

Zoku Pops - this is the pineapple and coconut recipe - yum!
- (found via Design Mom)

Lemon and Fetta Dip - from Sweet Paul (and the Sweet Paul online mag has just come out...can't wait until I have time to have a look!)

Glow Cones - glowing snow cones. Fun for a summer's night kids party or rave ;) - from Giverslog

Pinata Inspired Party Lanterns - Brenna for Design*Sponge

Artist Tim Craker

2011-06-09T22:41:00.000+03:00

Now that the weather has finally warmed up, we have been enjoying eating outside - I love it! Yesterday evening we were very happy to have Tim Craker over for a relaxed dinner on the balcony. Tim is an Australian artist doing a residency here in Istanbul with a focus on researching patterns.

His work involves painting, installation work and sculpture. He does some very interesting work creating beautiful forms using everyday objects like this installation (directly above) that particularly stood out to me, made using take away food containers. His work challenges notions of what art is and what is beautiful.

You can view more of his work at timcraker.com - I was particularly drawn to the subtle richness of his paintings - like those pictured top and directly above - in some ways the one directly above, latice x, reminds me of an antique Turkish carpet...so I think he might be in the right place for some inspiration!
All images are from timcraker.com.

Making Mondays: Fathers' Day Cards with Sand

2011-06-06T20:23:00.000+03:00

It's about time I did another Making Monday around here don't you think?! These are the father's day cards Yashar and I made for Senol this year. A couple of father's days ago we made another card involving sand - which Yashar loved doing - and that Senol loved so much that it is still up on display here! And not so long ago at LOLA we made some gorgeous pictures using coloured sand from a kit like this. So I knew making another card using sand would make Yashar happy :)

For this one I got a couple of pieces of thick watercolour paper and folded them in to little card shapes. Then while Yashar was sleeping a I drew a simple outline for a boat and the word Baba (Dad) in faint pencil.

Then Yashar and I painted lots of craft glue inside the lines. I then had a tray set up with a little bucket of sand on it that Yashar used to put the cards on and sprinkle the sand over.

Then Yashar decided he wanted a little flag on his boat and some water for it to float in - great idea Yashar! Then we left them to dry- ready for the big day!

Still here! Some creative finds from London

2011-05-30T19:39:00.001+03:00

Yep, I'm still here - just busy busy after my sister's visit and the little trip to London. Does that always happen to you?? When ever I have a little holiday planned, all of sudden things get busy and there ends up being a huge rush in the lead up and after getting back! But anyway, being busy makes me very very happy!

Just stopping in with a couple of great little finds from the Spitalfields market. The very lovely Mandy from Belle & Boo recommended I visit this market on Sunday morning and I wasn't disappointed! First stop was yummy breakfast and coffee and then a little browse around the lovely market. I came home with a gorgeous screen printed illustrated bag from Brick Lane -no website... yet :( Photo above - That's the illustrator on the left - what amazing work! And a super cute long sleeve top from Rock a Bye Baby for Yashar - it's the white one with the red guitar on the right..and it comes in a record sleeve - so cool!

The market is also surrounded by some fantastic little vintage stores like elemental. Elemental has some great light fittings, a huge collection of letterpress letters, and lots of little interesting finds and mini collections. I just had a quick look at their website and blog too - I know I'm going to be spending any spare moments there for the next few days!!

Above is another shop with many gorgeous baskets hanging outside that we passed on the way back to the hotel... check out the guy on the right's sneakers - awesome! More on the London trip and lots of other things soon! But now back to work :)

2011-05-19T16:30:00.002+03:00

Things have been quiet on the blog here but busy behind the scenes! I had my sister Emily visit for a few days - after not seeing her for 2 and a half years! It was fantastic but too quick of course. One of the afternoons we headed in to Tahtakale - a crowded wholesale area here in Istanbul and we were not disappointed!

The photo above is one my sister took on her iphone - I love it. These are the funny icecream sellers - you've been warned! If you come on a trip to Istanbul expect them to play a few little tricks on you when you go to buy an icecream! My husband likes to quietly tell them to really play it up for some of our guests - it's hilarious! Tomorrow I'm off to London to meet up with my sister there - so I will hopefully be dropping in with a few photos while I'm there.

Have a great weekend!

A very 'small' photo shoot

2011-05-12T13:47:00.000+03:00

Phew - where is the week going?!
You might remember a little while back I mentioned the logo and business cards I designed for my sister in law's children's clothing shop - Kebelek Cocuk Giyim.

Well a couple of weekends ago, she asked me to take some photos of Yashar and her daughter Belinay in some clothes for the shop to use in a brochure. Considering that we had literally 5 minutes before the kids got bored and went to play in the dirt, an old wall as a back drop and and very little light - I was very happy with the result! But then again, with these two little cuties pulling their best 'model poses' they were bound to turn out well!

New Work: Alone with the Sea

2011-05-09T12:12:00.000+03:00

Good morning! I hope you all had a wonderful mother's day!

To start off the week I wanted to share a new illustration that I have been working on. For a little while now I have been working on developing my illustrations - my technique etc. I have been experimenting - there were these illustrations I posted here and here. And also lots of sketching, thinking etc! I wanted to bring more atmosphere and texture into my work.

Now I finally feel like I am starting to get to where I want to be with this - which is both exciting and a relief! I would love to hear your thoughts on it...

I will also be making this available in the shop...finally a new print!!

ps thank you to Alara for the lovely shout out in the LOLA newsletter and a very warm welcome to my new visitors! Hope to see you in at LOLA :)

An inspiring meet up with creator Secda Kaska

2011-05-04T12:20:00.001+03:00

On the weekend I met up with the wonderful creator Secda (and her very sweet daughter!) ...she has an online shop Secdus, which I was lucky enough to design the banner for quite some time ago. At the time she was making sweet little clothes hangers for children, but her work has since evolved to exquisite cushion, napkin and placemat designs. And I was so excited to find out that she recently designed a collection of cushions for Mudo.

I was so happy to receive this present !! Some of her beautiful linen postcard placemats - in the photo directly above. And they are even better in person! And I see that the vintage postcard cushion cover above that is on sale in Secdus's shop at the moment - so be quick if you want to snap that one up!

These are some more of her creations. It was so wonderful to meet someone so likeminded. Isn't the internet, and the whole world of blogging and etsy and all this creativity amazing?! ... And I am very very happy because we are going to be collaborating in the near future so stay tuned!

-all images are from Secdus's shop-

Making Mondays: Geometric Paper Garlands

2011-05-02T14:18:00.000+03:00

After last week's Crafty Gathering post - especially the paper garlands from Weekday Carnival and the watercolour paper cups from Stephanie Polli, I got inspired to make some paper garlands with Yashar using a mix of coloured paper and paper we painted using watercolours.

This was a great activity to do with Yashar! He loved it - the painting, the cutting and then the important job of handing me the next piece to sew ;)

To make them we first painted strips of watercolour paper with watercolour paint. While they were drying we cut lots of triangles. Then we cut the just about dry watercolour ones. We weren't too particular at all about the triangles being perfect. Yashar was very proud that he learnt to cut a triangle!

Then we lined them up on the table arranging them in a rough pattern. Then I sewed as Yashar handed me the next triangle for sewing. You can see in the photo below that we managed to work a little bit of neon pink in! (they were cut from post-it notes)

That's it! Nice and quick - which is great for Yashar's age and he was so happy to see them displayed up on the wall (and so was I!).

The wall sticker was a prototype for the deer party set of wall stickers I created - it seemed to be pretty happy to be hanging out amongst the garlands!

Crafty Gatherings: Let's Party

2011-04-28T21:22:00.001+03:00

A crafty gathering of some of the things to make that I liked the most this week...

And now I realise there's a bit of a party theme going on with them all...I must be wishing for Summer!

Watercolour paper cups: Stephanie Polli via Design*Sponge

Ombre Tablecloth: Brittany (the house that Lars Built) via Jordan Ferney (Oh Happy Day!)

Fringey Monogram: Michaela (Blissful Fetes) via Jordan Ferney (Oh Happy Day!)

Geometric Paper Garlands: Weekday Carnival

an istanbul door and an istanbul notebook

2011-04-27T16:06:00.000+03:00

This is a quick shot I took in Galata last week before my camera batteries ran out. darn it. The detailing on this door was gorgeous -you probably know by now what a sucker I am for a nice door!

I've been busy working on a few different projects and also a couple of new notebook designs. This is a simple one that is almost finished - just needs the threads tied at the ends and then to be packaged up. The weather apparently didn't get the memo about Spring starting -so still very grey for photo taking :(

And this is another design - which I have already taken down to Molka - I'll have to remember to take some photos of the actual notebook soon!

Yashar and I didn't have a 'Making Monday' for you this week...but have been doing plenty of making at our super cool weekly art classes at LOLA. And I did receive an ingenious card from Yashar (with help from his Dad) for my birthday that involved a car with a window that opened to show a picture of Yashar and I - very cute!

So, to make up for it, tomorrow I'll be back with some making inspiration with a crafty gathering of some of best things to make from around the net. See you then!

Emirgan Park Tulip Festival

2011-04-20T17:18:00.000+03:00

Some friends of ours visited for the last few day and the weather was miserable!! Where is Spring?! We did manage to make it in between rain falls to Emirgan Park where the annual tulip festival has started. My camera was out of batteries, but luckily our friends took plenty of photos! Here are a few:

Making Mondays: My Own Elephant Applique

2011-04-18T15:43:00.000+03:00

Well, we didn't quite get around to making anything this week...but luckily someone else did!

A little while ago Mirna from Croatia ordered a 'My Own Elephant' name print from my shop for her son Gregor - which I remember well as she was such a lovely customer!

She got inspired by the print to make this gorgeous pouch with an elephant appliqued on it and embroidered her son's name on it. I was so happy to see it!! What a super sweet idea - I love it!! You can see more images of the pouch - and some other gorgeous things she has made over at her flickr here. You should see the pouch she made for her other son Bartul - it is amazing!!!

Thank you so much Mirna for letting me share your beautiful work!

Photographs from Basar Bascumali

2011-04-13T11:22:00.002+03:00

Recently we were in at our favourite local cafe, Molka in Yenikoy, at the same time as the wonderful architectural photographer Basar (pronounced Bash-ar) Bascumali...and of course Yashar managed to get himself in many of the photographs :)) You should be able to click on the one above to make it a little larger - it's such a sweet shot!

These are some of the photos she kindly shared with me - I love them!! You can also check out more of her wonderful photography at her blog http://archiwink.blogspot.com/

Her photographs of many buildings around Istanbul show a view that is much broader than the usual tourist shots (and there are also photographs from other cities too).

Here's Yashar at his usual spot at Molka - hanging out at the bar drinking chocolate milk.

Molka is such a great space. And I want to take the chairs and light fixture home with me!

Making Mondays: Sleepy Papier Mache Birds for Spring

2011-04-11T22:15:00.001+03:00

You might remember a couple of weeks back that I mentioned plans of making papier mache birds. Well, we did it! These were so much fun for both Yashar and I. Yashar especially loved the messiness and how tactile making these were. Apart from making the legs, drawing the eyes on, and supergluing the ribbon, Yashar made all of his little baby bird (the one with the red ribbon) himself. I'm so proud of him :))) And I became a litlle mesmerised and relaxed making my 'mama' bird too! -It turned out to be a perfect activity for both 3 year olds and 30 year olds!

This is how we did it:

1. First I made up some glue using this recipe for flour and water glue from http://www.papiermache.co.uk/

I put a small amount of the glue in a bowl and the rest in a jar to use later.

2. We made each bird shape by scrunching up 2 squares of foil - 1 smaller for the head, 1 bigger for the body and then taping them together using masking tape.

3. Next we ripped up old paper brochures and bags into small strips.

4. We covered the paper, piece by piece, with glue and put in on to the bird shape - to cover each piece with glue we sometimes dipped the paper into the glue and sometimes painted glue on to each side of the paper with a paintbrush.

5. We covered the birds with a couple of layers of paper at a time, leaving them to dry fully, and then adding another two layers and so on.

6. To make the legs I used the wire from a champagne cork - half for each set of two legs - as in the photo. I taped them on after the first two layers of papier mache had dried and then papier mached around them in the following layers.

7. After doing about 8 layers we left them to dry well and then painted them using acrylic paints. After the paint dried I drew some simple sleepy eyelids and lashes on and stuck a little piece of ribbon around each of their necks - joining it with a little superglue.

It seems like Spring is as sleepy as these birds around here...can't wait until the weather warms up!

I'll be back later in the week with a post about our crazy 'long weekend' roadtrip we just got back from.

Small/Cool Contest and some other awesome things to check out this week

2011-04-05T12:26:00.000+03:00

You can now vote for your favourites in Small/Cool 2011 - The 7th Annual Smallest Coolest Home contest on Apartment Therapy. Selected entries are beginnning to be posted from now until May 1st. This is my fave so far:

Evan's NY loft in LA (850 square feet)

Check out the Ready Made 100 - the 100 best projects of the year.

Super sweet sale at Aunty Ollie - when Yashar was smaller I was looking everywhere for a nice wide brimmed hat like this.

And check these out :)) ...

Yashar's room was featured on Ohdeedoh.com - thank you Ohdeedoh! Love you guys!! The post was about the 'clouds' we made for Yashar's room a while back. Funny to read the readers comments on it... just about everyone seemed to be worried about dust! hehehe! I had never even thought about it - although it hasn't been a problem so far so I guess we're ok!

And Design Mom gave my Matryoshka Gift Tags a little link love- yikes!! It was so fun to have so many people check the tags out - check out her gorgeous and very popular blog - I'm loving all her posts on her family's move to France for the year!

Spring Planting

2011-04-01T12:55:00.001+03:00

Spring has finally arrived and so we have brightened our apartment up with Spring flowers! Every time I look at them I sigh - they are so pretty! :)

And Yashar is so excited about them - he's continually telling me excitedly 'Look! Mum! Our plants are growing!!'

Have a great weekend everyone!

Molka

2011-03-30T16:39:00.000+03:00

I love good coffee..and am basically a fixture at our new local cafe - Molka....you know you come in a lot when you are have barely sat down before they have already brought out the coffee, just how you like it, without you needing to say a word! We were so happy when Molka opened - great coffee, great food, friendly people and well designed. The owner trained at the Istanbul Culinary Institute and apprenticed at 360 - she really cares about good quality ingredients - which of course I love! After only having been opened for a few months they have already been featured in Marie Claire Maison and Time Out. The image to the left is from the Marie Claire Maison Turkey article in their March issue. So we are so lucky to have them as our local cafe!

And, now I love them even more because they asked if I would like to stock my cards, notebooks etc there! :) I love the big industrial/rustic shelves they have for them.

If you live in the area I definitely recommend stopping in for coffee, lunch and, if you have room left, some of the delicious cakes! The cafe is on the sahil yolu (seaside road) in Yenikoy next door to Pasa Firin.

Commissioned Work - Portrait of a very sweet little 2 year old!

2011-03-29T12:50:00.000+03:00

I just got a very sweet message from the lovely woman that commissioned this portrait of her 2 year old daughter - so I can now happily share it with you! I loved working on this! She had asked for a portrait in the style of my I Heart Milk print. The photo below shows a little of the process of making this.

This was one of the later drawings I did for it (after many initial ones!) Portraits can be quite difficult - especially of children I think - they grow and change so quickly don't you think? I worked on capturing her shining eyes, the little curls that poked out from the back of her hair and the sweet innocence I could see in the photos of her.

This is the final portrait (unfortunately I only quickly snapped some photos on a grey day before I sent it off)
so here is the digital image to see it more clearly.

I was so happy that she was so happy with the portrait when it arrived! It makes the crazy number of hours I always end up putting in to my work worth it!

Euro Week!

2011-03-23T15:49:00.000+02:00

This week is Euro Week on Etsy! I don't know about you, but I am definitely a europhile, if that's even a word...and, living on the European side of Istanbul, I just make the continent cut off! These are some favourite things from some of the many many awesome European shops on Etsy.

The Stockholm Bag - Ika Bags in Paris, France

Owl Pin - Moloco in Kiev, Ukraine

Arturo the Bunny - Contemori in Tuscany, Italy

Postcards from Europe mail organiser - Tuuni in Helsinki, Finland

ps - a quick note because I have been wanting to reply to comments and leave comments on other peoples blogspot blogs - I can't! The ban of blogspot blogs here in Turkey continues. Although I have some means of getting around the block to view blogs and publish my blog, I still can't leave comments :( So please, everyone, pretend that I have written very nice and thoughtful comments and replies ;) Hope the ban ends soon!

Ahhh...so many ambitious plans

2011-03-22T08:00:00.000+02:00

...mainly of making papier-mache birds after being inspired by this photo of crepe paper birds on marthastewart.com (image from marthastewart.com)

and then remembering the branches with fabric birds on them at Hatice's (the very lovely portakal agaci and kirmizi minder blogger) - which I was lucky enough to see in person when I visited. These birds are made of fabric and look gorgeous close up.

so hopefully you will see some birds being made around here later in the week!

and speaking of birds - I am now tweeting - I just joined twitter! I can already see it is going to be a slippery slope to addiction ;) So if you are a fellow tweeter you can find me here and/or let me know if you are on twitter so that I can follow you :)

Spring Styling: Heather Moore aka Skinny laMinx

2011-03-17T18:01:00.001+02:00

Something about today made me think about Heather Moore aka Skinny laMinx. I think it might have been the lovely Spring weather that reminded me of her beautiful prints. So I thought that it only fair to share something about this eternally cool artist/illustrator and designer with you! The image above is a laundry bag made for one of her 'Making Friday' posts on her blog using her cloud birds fabrics. It looks so fresh for Spring don't you think?

Skinnylaminx is one of my 'go to' shops when I want a lovely present for someone. At Christmas I bought this tea towel and the tea towel pictured above and this gorgeous 'pincushion' runner in charcoal as presents - and the recipients were very very happy - and asked me how I manage to find such beautiful things! That's the kind of response I like :)

Heather makes her images using papercuts and drawings and has a simple, natural and bold style that I love. She has also just recently opened her own bricks and mortar shop in Cape Town - I wish I could visit!

Have a great weekend!

All images are from the Skinny laMinx blog and shop.

Making Mondays: 3 Sail Boats in a Box

2011-03-15T20:09:00.000+02:00

My sister bought this cute little set for Yashar for Christmas. It's such a great idea! And of course, me being me, I loved that involved something creative to do. It comes with 3 little timber boats that you can paint if you like, little paper sails and a spool of 'rope'. The box is cleverly designed to then become a little display stand for the boats (you can see it in the photo above). It comes with the little stickers you can see Yashar stuck all over the sails and boats - he got pretty excited about them! Now I really want to make some up myself!

I'm not sure where my sister bought this one - but a did a quick google search and found them on amazon here and in a 'Pirates' shop here. Don't believe what it says on the front of the packaging - making just one of them took us far longer than five minutes!

Like everyone I guess, I have been thinking alot about the devastation in Japan and have been wondering what I can do to assist - so this week I am donating 20% of all proceeds from my shop to the Save the Children Japan Eathquake Tsunami Relief. So if you have been thinking about buying something in the shop - now would be a great time - or donate directly here. You can read more about the important work Save the Children is doing here.

Some design work and a snow day!

2011-03-11T12:00:00.001+02:00

**edit - I forgot to mention that the sale in the shop has been going well and there are just a small number of items left. It will finish on Monday - so if you have been thinking about taking advantage of it don't miss out :) **

You might remember me posting about the children's clothes shop my sister in law opened a little while back. It's all going along very nicely and last night I designed some business cards for her. Which reminded me that I had never gotten around to sharing the logo I designed for her when she first opened!

So here it is - the business card with the logo. The name of the shop 'Kebelek' is a play on the word Kelebek - which is Turkish for butterfly. Kebelek is how some very cute little kids mispronounce the word. I printed them on my favourite thick textured card and was happy with how they turned out - sweet and simple I think...I hope you think so too!

And can you believe we have had snow here for the last couple of days! Yashar was squealing with delight when we walked outside! This is Yashar, staring out while standing up on the window ledge, when we first got up in the morning to find a little snow blanket over the rooftops.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

I'm a dedicated coffee drinker, but...

2011-03-09T20:48:00.001+02:00

...these super awesome illustrated Bathing Girls teacups from Dutch illustrator Esther Horchner could turn me.

And these are perfect for the hot chocolates needed now that it's snowing here!

Hidden Animal tea cups from Ange-Line Tetrault

Making Mondays: A room in the clouds

2011-03-07T15:12:00.000+02:00

This is another little DIY we did for Yashar's room a little while back - a billowing cloud like ceiling.

I have to say, getting this to happen should have been much easier than it actually was! Poor Senol - I made him do most of the work on this! (I think mostly it was hard because of the concrete walls in this apartment and because all of that fabric ends up being very very heavy!)

The way we eventually made it was to screw hooks into the ceiling with metal wire strung between them and then white material billowing over them. I won't go through it here because, really there must be a better way! What ever you do, it needs to be super strong - you don't want there to be any chance of it falling down on your little one.

It was inspired by the room below on design*sponge that I posted about a while back. You can find more images and info about the rocking room makeover Melissa did here.

PS The blogspot ban continues here in Turkey but it seems I can now access the part I need for publishing my posts so am happy about that!

Crafty Gatherings: A Few Favourites

2011-03-06T04:03:00.003+02:00

Blogger.com and all the blogger blogs (including mine!) has been blocked again in Turkey :( Very frustrating! It makes it very hard for me to publish posts and people here in Turkey can’t read it (unless they use a proxy site). It has really bummed me out! I hope things are back to normal soon...

Anyway, here I am, subversively bringing you a crafty gathering of super cool things to make:

This apple pie from Sweet Paul seems to have perfect timing…makes me think of early spring days… as the greys slowly turn to greens and the days are still crisp and cool…rushing inside as the sun disappears to some warm apple pie. Yum!

Stenciled floor from Ashley at Design*Sponge - Beautiful idea…not that I could do this in our rented apartment…but one day I would love to have this in my studio

This doodle tablecloth from Cox and Cox reminds me of our family outings to a French restaurant with paper tablecloths we could draw on. Mmm French food and ‘fine art’…a perfect match.

This craft paper wall art, also from Sweet Paul, looks like something that could also be made with kids - and even the most super stylish Mum or Dad would be proud to have it hanging around.

My notebooks' little journey to France

2011-02-28T20:21:00.000+02:00

I'm stopping in from the depths of sickness :( to share something I'm so excited about! (And a big sorry to everyone that I owe emails to - I will get to them as soon as I feel better - I promise! - there are some really lovely ones there and I want to take the time to respond to them properly)

Just before going away I was contacted by the very lovely Emeline from Yume Store. And as soon as I had a look at Yume Store I was beyond happy! Her online shop is exquisite! So many items I would love to have in there! And look at the pop up shop she had in Paris - isn't it beautiful!

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to find someone that shares the same aesthetic and appreciates the work I'm doing. It's definitely very satisfying. The order of notebooks has just arrived in France and is available at Yume Store here (in French) and here (in English).

And look at all these other yummy things you can find there!

Ok, I hope I'll be back soon rested and recovered...

(All images are from the Yume Store site and blog)

Crafty Gatherings: Scandinavian Winter

2011-02-25T22:19:00.001+02:00

Yikes! Where did the week go?! Actually I know - Yashar and I are sick...again! It's been a nasty winter of sickness for us this year :( Makes me want to curl up on the couch, under a blanket and make these:

Hmm...ok, some of these may be a little hard to make while curled up under a blanket ...

Scandinavian Inspired Wooden Heart -Kate Pruitt - Design*Sponge
Clara by Karin Vestergaard Mathiesen - this one made by Alicia Paulson - Posie Gets Cozy

Felt Hot Pads - Molly's Sketchbook - The Purl Bee
Big Herringbone Cowl - The Purl Bee

Have a great weekend!

Back to it!

2011-02-21T14:33:00.000+02:00

I hope you had a wonderful week! I had a great time away snowboarding in Austria! Unfortunately not many photos as I definitely didn't want to risk taking my big camera snowboarding with me. We stayed with a couple of friends at a fantastic apartment just between Zell am See and Kaprun. I had forgotten just how much I love snowboarding! We spent most of the week up at Kitzsteinhorn Glacier - so amazingly beautiful!

I had a nice surprise during the week I was away - the Ikea expedit shelves I painted for Yashar's room were featured on ohdeedoh.com Thank you ohdeedoh! And a very warm welcome to all the new visitors and sorry I haven't been able to get back to your questions - ok - tick - I just went and did that now.

And now I'm back to catching up on everything around here...including spending some time with Yashar...did I mention that we had left him at grandma's for the week while we went to Austria...eek! Of course we were a little stressed about doing that and of course he was totally fine! And yes, I did wake up during the night while I was there thinking 'what have I done! How could I leave him for the week?!' Our strategy, after I talked to some other mums was to leave a small present for grandma to pull out from us each morning (stickers, pencils etc) and we made sure to emphasise that we would be back soon. It seemed to work well :)

Valentine's Day is almost here!

2011-02-08T15:52:00.000+02:00

Just a quick post because I thought you might be doing some Valentine's Day making at the moment. In case you want a little inspiration - these are the cute valentine's day 'love' boats we made for Yashar's friends last year.

And this is the Valentine's day card making we did for this year using the personalized printables I have in the shop.

Some more super sweet valentine's day ideas:

here and here at poppytalk,

and here at made by joel.

Exciting News: What I've Secretly Been Working Away On

2011-02-07T15:28:00.044+02:00

Firstly - I am off on a snowboarding holiday tomorrow for a week - yay! I'm thinking I won't be able to post, but we'll see. Now to the exciting news - late last year I was secretly working away on something...and I'm so happy I can finally share it with you! Yes, this is a wedding invitation...but no, I'm not getting married...coz that would be kinda weird since I've already been married for almost 10 years!!

I have been designing invitations for the very cute site Shichijiro! The designs at Shichijiro are cute modern and original and I'm so happy to be designing for them! They customize the invitation and announcements and print on premium heavy recycled card stock - yay for eco friendly!

In case you are wondering where the name of the site comes from - this is the explanation from the site:

Shichijiro is a little night-shift worker. He sits in front of his computer with his eyes half closed. His name means seven-two-boy in Japanese; it is a really good name since he is a wall street trader. They trade stocks, futures, whatever in Tokyo and European stock markets. That is why they have to work nightshifts. We don't trade stocks, but we do stare at computers until deep into the night.

Isn't that baby so sweet?!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Making Mondays: Hat Obsession

2011-02-07T14:32:00.001+02:00

Ok, this is starting to get ridiculous! I have finished the Pasha hat, I'm half way through the Jane hat, 90% done on a thorpe, finished a hat for Senol and have started another for me! Yes, I am addicted.

This is the finished Pasha hat. I like it a lot - nice and loose and comfy - but I'm not so in to how it bunches/waves at the back where the decreases are - so am thinking to undo that part and try to make the decreases a little smoother looking.

This is me...I have this strange habit of pulling weird faces as soon as I feel the camera on me - which means I often look at the photos later and think - that doesn't look like me at all! This is funny given the amount of photo taking I subject the rest of my family to...a lot!!!

Speaking of which - here's Senol in the hat I knitted for him - I really like how this one turned out - simple and roomy - so I'm knitting another version of it for me at the moment (I knew I needed to do this as soon as I realised I was wearing his one around the house the whole time!). I just made this one up as I went - so if anyone would like the pattern - let me know and I can post it soon....

Do you have a favourite knitted hat?

New Stockist - The Laurel Tree

2011-02-05T10:57:00.000+02:00

It was so wonderful to read the open and heart felt responses to my last post. Thank you!

Today I'm excited to introduce a new stockist! The Laurel Tree is a new gift shop in the Mission Village area in Omaha in the US. It's so fun to think that my prints are in a special little shop so far away! The Laurel Tree is stocking a number of my prints, along with many other unique handmade items. So if you are in the area, why not check it out?! I see they are doing some renovations at the moment-so I'm looking forward to seeing the results. I'm so happy that they are also able to send the prints of mine that they stock to US customers that need their print quicker than the time it ususally takes to send prints from here to the US - great for making sure you get gifts in time etc!

I'm so happy to be working with such lovely people!

PS They also have a facebook page here.

An indulgent trip down motherhood lane...and a little on change and identity

2011-02-02T15:29:00.000+02:00

I realised - as I went to show a friend some photos of Yashar on the blog recently - that I am well overdue to put some more photos of Yashar on here! This is him at our new local cafe (which is fantastic by the way - if you live in the area it is definitely worth checking out - great coffee and the owner is very much into providing delicious food with good quality ingredients - Molka in Yenikoy).

One of the questions I like to ask other mothers that I meet, is whether they think it gets easier to look after their child as they grow up. The responses I get are very mixed! I'm always surprised that so many people swear that it is either just as hard or that it's getting harder.

In my own experience, I'm finding it much easier to look after Yashar these days. I think that this is for a mix of reasons, not all to do with Yashar! When I first had Yashar it was a huge time of change for me - I moved from working full time as a lawyer in Melbourne to being at home full time and when he was only 3 or 4 months old, moving to Istanbul. I was struggling with finding my direction and a new sense of my own identity.

As much as I loved being here and found it such an amazing and inspiring place to be, I did find it quite an adjustment. I knew only a very small amount of Turkish, I wasn't used to the cultural differences, didn't know the area and didn't have any help with Yashar for the most part as my husband's family lived quite a distance away ...too far for dropping in for a few hours to give me a little break - as much as they would have liked to. And then there was the sleepless nights, the crying... the usual exhaustion of caring for a baby I guess!

Now Yashar has grown in to this amazing little boy - smart and gentle, and by 3 year old boy standards, very well behaved! Life has changed for the better. He brings happiness and pure joy to my life everyday. From simple things, like a totally unfiltered pure grin, and the squeal he gives seeing a cat on the street, or that he just decides to make me a 'present' by wrapping up one of his toys and presenting it to me.

Wow...I had just meant to write a couple of sentences!...Thank you for indulging me. I'd love to hear what your think and about your experiences...does it get harder or easier? What does your child or children do that brings pure happiness to your life? When have you gone through times of big change in your life... what did you do to cope and how did it work out!?

Making Mondays: Shelves - A Very Simple Before and After

2011-01-31T22:17:00.001+02:00

When we moved to Istanbul, we thought that we would just try out living here for 12 months (it's now been almost 3 years!). That and the pure ease, when you need a household worth of things quickly while shopping with a small baby in tow, meant that we have a lot of Ikea furniture!

So, a little while back I wanted to make these Expedit shelves, that we had picked up in the Ikea 'bargain corner', a little more interesting and put them in Yashar's room. So I used high gloss enamel paint (a mix of white and blue) to paint the inside of some of the cubes. I painted them carefully, making sure to wipe off any paint that got on to the front of the shelves, and making sure that runny drips didn't form in the paint as they dried. I let it dry for a few days.

And that's it! Finito! A perfect home for Yashar's favourite toys and books (I secretly wish his collection of 70's matchbox cars were all mine!!)

Sale!

2011-01-28T15:22:00.001+02:00

A little while back I posted here about how I was changing the size of all the prints in my shop. Well that meant that I had a small amount of stock that was in the old sizing, so...it's sale time! I have reduced the prices on these items a lot!....much more than my usual sales. The sale stock is very limited - to see what's available click here and I hope you don't miss out on anything you have had your eye on!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Some making this week

2011-01-26T20:13:00.001+02:00

The Pasha is finished and I've moved on to The Jane!

The Pasha was very straight forward - despite the lace pattern. All I had to do was make sure I didn't lose where I was up to and it was easy! I haven't managed to take any good photos of it yet - but will soon. But the Jane is even easier!

The pattern is also by Jane Richmond.

And these are the notebooks I made over the weekend for my sister's bricks and mortar shop Emily & Leo in St Kilda, -Melbourne, Australia. (psss - she's having a little online sale at the moment!) I posted about the prototypes here. I was so happy with how they all came together.

I've been thinking of offering personalised notebooks for the shop...what do you think?

New Work

2011-01-20T22:55:00.000+02:00

Feeling wintery here. This is a new personal piece I just finished this minute!

Have a great weekend!

V
xo

Making Mondays: The Pasha in Progress

2011-01-17T20:10:00.000+02:00

Almost done with the Pasha hat I posted about on Friday! Hopefully I will finish it tonight...so more photos coming soon!

And these are some crochet squares that I was blocking last week for a custom order

...luckily I had a very helpful assistant! (Don't worry -he's very careful with the pins)

Crafty Gatherings: Wintery Knitted Hats

2011-01-14T13:39:00.001+02:00

Now that the cold weather has really hit here and we have a snowboarding trip planned (yeee!) I thought I might try knitting myself a hat. I actually only rarely wear a hat a winter hat - the only time I wore one last year was when we had all that snow here - I think beanies always make me look slightly ridiculous!

So I went in search of a pattern that I hope will suit me! I finally settled on this one: The Pasha by Jane Richmond I found it via Ravelry and bought the pattern there, but I now see that Jane has a etsy store here.

It's a lace pattern - which I haven't done much of before so fingers crossed.

Here is a photo of the Pasha and some others that made it to the shortlist (images are from the respective designers except for the Selbu Modern):

The Pasha - Jane Richmond
The Jane - also by Jane Richmond

He Said She Said - Chic Knits
Selbu Modern - Kate Gagnon Osborn (image is by A Shrill Caramel of the hat she knitted - I love the colour combination she chose)

Mixed Tape

2011-01-12T13:48:00.001+02:00

A mix of things to tell you about today. The first is a new illustration I just finished working on (above). The first result of my new year's resolution to work on my portfolio, spend time developing my technique and just creating! Here is a little close up on the butterflies.

This is a gorgeous blanket that Sevim crocheted for a custom order that I sent out last week. I love the colour combinations! Poor Sevim has been in and out of hospital this week - she accidentally breathed in some very toxic fumes. So please send all your warmest thoughts to her!

A lovely lovely customer recently asked me to make my 'To' sticky address labels (that I use for all the orders I send out) available for sale. After some very nice encouragement I thought 'why not!' So many of them are now making their way to her and I am off to list some more packages of them in the shop now.

And, finally, I spotted this tape via the Thompson Family-Life blog (love that blog!) today...isn't it gorgeous! - Image is from the Thompson Family Life blog. The tape is from Sassy Talk Cafe - an etsy shop full of supplies from Japan and Korea - cute!

Making Mondays: Valentine's Day Cards

2011-01-10T22:40:00.001+02:00

A quick little bit of making today for Yashar and I today...it involved glitter so of course Yashar loved it!

To make them:

1. We used the new valentine's day printable cards I just put in the shop which makes it easy to make lots of these - but you might have a suitable image or perhaps draw something yourself on some nice card stock. (I printed ours on some lovely textured card stock).

2. I painted some craft glue on the heart using a paint brush.

3. Yashar glittered! I like these shaker style glitters we have at the moment - a little more controlled for when a certain 3 year old shakes out as much glitter as possible! Be sure to put a piece of paper underneath to catch the extra glitter so you can use it again.

Finished! This was quick, fun and simple - perfect because there was quite a few to make.

Notebooks for Emily & Leo

2011-01-06T23:31:00.000+02:00

These are some notebooks I designed for my sister's beautiful new shop in Melbourne - a flagship store for her label Emily & Leo - I'll have to get her to send some photos to post here! I was lucky to get her Stripe Shoulder Detail shift for Christmas and have been wearing it all the time...actually I am even wearing it now! I've been wearing it with black tights and my grey suede boots to drinks, and with jeans, boots and my grey military jacket during the day. I love it!

I have also put them in my etsy shop here.

Of course, with my coffee addiction, I couldn't resist a caffe latte colour for some of the notebooks!

Making Mondays: Deer Party Pencil Case

2011-01-03T23:05:00.002+02:00

I hope you all had a wonderful break and are full of fresh ideas and creativity for the new year! I have been focusing on my goals for the year and hope to make it prolific!

This was a little gift that made it under the tree for Yashar. When ever we go down to our local cafe I ask Yashar which toys he wants to take with him - often a colouring/activity book (like this beautiful one) and a pencil case full of pencils make the cut. So I thought this might be appreciated- especially now that the cold weather has really hit - so trips to the park are few - the cafe is the preferred and cozier destination- look at the cold crisp light in these photos...brrr!

I made it using the deer party fabric I got printed via Spoonflower (remember I posted about the sample here and wondered what I could make with it?) The back is a lovely linen and the inside was tartan from a shirt of mine. I used a free tutorial I found online...and now can't find again! But if you google you should be able to find one easily enough...

This photo makes me think of a frog's mouth! Please note the covered zipper ends...this is about as complicated as my sewing gets! The sewing machine and I are definitely not the best of friends :)

2010-12-28T15:42:00.000+02:00

A quick stop in today - just because I wanted to show you the new blanket my mother in law Sevim made. I love it so much I couldn't wait until after the new year to show you!

I've put in the shop - you can find it here if you are interested. That's all from me today - I have been out of action for a few days sick, but after a trip to the doctor yesterday, and my lovely husband Senol staying home to look after Yashar while I slept all day, I'm finally on the mend! I hope you all have a sparkly New Years Eve!

Verity
xo

Crafty Gatherings: Some crafty ideas to cozy up with over the next week..

2010-12-24T14:04:00.000+02:00

Wishing you all a warm and wonderful Christmas and New Year! Thank you so much to everyone that has stopped by and thank you so much for all your lovely lovely comments. It means so much to me! It has been a wonderful year and I am excited about what the next year might hold. I'll be back after the new year...I might even pop in next week sometime too. Otherwise, see you in 2011!

Well, it's just about too late for any Christmas making now! But I hope that you and I both have some relaxing time over the next few days...maybe after Christmas lunch or the next day after eating leftovers!...to take a little time for ourselves to create. Here are some ideas...

Mitered Baby Blanket -Chocolate a Chuva

Postage Stamp Coasters from Jessica via design*sponge.

Super Easy Baby Blanket - kits from Purl Soho

Lunch Bag Pattern - The Long Thread

Changes in the Light Garden including notebooks!

2010-12-22T15:32:00.001+02:00

I have been planning to do this for a loooong time. Now all the prints in my online shop come already matted and there are also some frame options to choose from in there too!

I had been wanting to change over to all matted, and with some frame options, but hadn't been totally happily with the local framer I had been using. I'm pretty picky when it comes to framing. I think it comes from all the times I would go over to my Dad's on weekends and help out with his framing work. Usually I would cut the mounts, he would make the frames and Senol would cut the glass. Then Dad and I would often carefully put them all together. Always with lots of coffee breaks :)

Finally I found a framer here to work with that had excellent quality workmanship, reasonable prices and had some frames that I thought suited my work. I think that having them matted just looks more complete. I also think it makes them more special for gift giving and makes for better display in stores. Plus I have my new packaging 'ribbon' that sits nicely on it :)

I have also made up some little notebooks and put them in the shop! It was so fun to make them up...including stitching the binding! I'm hoping these will be the beginning of many!

Ok, now I'm off to get working on the next project! What have you been up to? Any Christmas or Winter creating?

Making Mondays: Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids

2010-12-20T09:12:00.000+02:00

On the weekend we had some of Yashar's playgroup friends over for a little Christmas Craftiness. It was fun! I put Christmas music on and then we made some more glittery pinecones (like we did last weekend) except this time with even more glittery goodness.

And we also made some Clear Sparkly Ornaments and some Paper Christmas Wreaths both of which we learned to do at the lovely toddlerart classes we go to at LOLA. Yashar loves those classes so much! If by any chance you live nearby, I definitely recommend going (or if not, finding something similar in your own area) - it really has kindled Yashar's creativity.

To make the Clear Sparkly Ornaments:

1. The night before I cut out large rectangles from contact (about 10 x 20cm). I also cut out small pieces of coloured foil wrapping paper, cut out some snow flakes from a Christmas card from last year, punched heart shapes out of coloured paper from magazines and punched holes out of the coloured foil wrapping paper too. You could also use sequins etc.

2. On the day, I gave each of the kids a contact rectangle (Mum's helped to peel off the backing) Then the kids arranged some of the various bits and pieces over the sticky side of the contact.

3. Once they were finished we folded the sticky sides of the contact together (to make a square). Then I quickly punched a hole in each and tied some ribbon on it, ready for hanging!

To make the Paper Christmas Wreaths:

1. The night before I cut out 'cardboard donut' shapes (about 20cm wide - you could use any small plates you have as a template - an perhaps a glass for the centre if you like). I punched a hole in the top of each and tied some ribbon on the top of each. I also cut out some simple leaf shapes from some wrapping paper, silver foil wrapping paper and some red velvet. (about 15 leaf shapes total per child - plus some extras just in case)

2. On the day I put a cardboard donut out for each of the kids and Mum's helped them spread some PVA glue all over one side. I shared out the leaves and the kids arranged them on the wreaths.

I love how these turned out!!

I hope you're all having a lovely time in preparation for the festive season!

Collaboration with Treehouse! Turkce alisveris icin Treehouse ile isbirligi!

2010-12-17T16:50:00.003+02:00

Some exciting news today! I'm now working in collaboration with what I think is the most unique, interesting and beautiful children's shop in Istanbul! If you haven't come across it, you should definitely take a look at Treehouse. It is in Kemerburgaz and you can also shop online here (all of the shop images in this post are from their website).

Please scroll to the bottom for some information in Turkish - since one of the things I'm so excited about is that you can now shop online for my work in Turkish! Sorry - it's not a direct translation of this post...my Turkish isn't that good! Asagida sizlere Turkce yazmaya calistim- cunku artik sizlerinde internet uzerinden alisveris yapacaginiz Turkce sitesi oldugu icin cok heycanliyim! Ozurdilerim, herseyi Turkce ceviremedim ve de anlatamadim - Turkcem okadar iyi degil :(

My cards and a small number of prints are in store now and you can also buy a wide range of prints that can be personalised and/or framed from the Treehouse online shop. We thought it would be perfect for people looking for a unique and personal gift this year. If you are in Turkey, you can order them through the site up until the 20th for delivery before Christmas, and up until the 27th for delivery before New Year.

Apart from my cards and prints, you can also buy a perfectly curated selection of high quality imported toys, furniture, bedding and clothes...including items from Dwell Studio, the gorgeous bla bla dolls and lots of other things you won't be able to resist. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be working with them. Especially because of their committment both to social programs and the environment. If you are interested, you can read more about that here.

A little in Turkish:

Bugun heyecanli bir haber vermek istiyorum! Simdi Istanbul’un en guzel, en ilginc cocuk dukkaniyla calismaya basladim. Eger simdiye kadar gormediyseniz lutfen Treehouse’in web sitesine bakiniz. Isterseniz online alisveriste yapabilirsiniz. Asagida Treehouse tarafindan yazilan aciklamayi sizler ile paylasmak isterim:

"Hala o en güzel hediyeyi mi arıyorsunuz? Hem de herşeyinin olduğunu düşündüğünüz birisi için mi?

Onları düşündüğünüzü bileceği bir hediye mi arıyorsunuz? Treehouse listenizdeki herkes için sizlere bu konuda yardımcı olabilir!!!

Sizlere Verity Heysen-Kizek tarafından hazırlanan "The Light Garden" markasını tanıtmaktan mutluluk duyarız. Bizler, bir araya gelerek sizlere bu Noel ve yeni yıl arifesinde; çevre dostu tebrik kartları ve resimlerden oluşan özel bir koleysiyonu sunuyoruz. Resimleri isteğinize göre kişiselleştirilebilir, hediye olarak çerçeveletebilrsiniz.

20 Aralık Pazartesi'ne kadar siparişinizi verirseniz, Noel öncesi teslimatlarınız sizlere ücretsiz olarak ulaşır. Ayrıca 27 Aralık Pazartesi'ne kadar sipariş verirseniz de, Yeni yıl öncesi hediye paketli olarak teslimatınız ücretsiz olarak sizlere ulaşır. "

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Verity

Cute!! Felt animals from Central Asia

2010-12-14T17:02:00.000+02:00

Seriously, where has the time been going? I feel like I have been running around doing so much...but what have I got to show you...hmm nothing much at the moment! Lots of things that are in the works...and lots of not as exciting things, like updating the images for the shop, and the wholesale pages.

But I did manage to buy some of these adorable felt animals! That mouse looks like it is whispering something cute to the horse. They are from a lovely business called Tribal Arts, here in Istanbul. They have a shop in the grand bazaar, but I bought these at a stall they had at a fundraiser at one of the colleges here. They also have a website here.

They are handmade by women in central asia using eco friendly materials and are so cute! I'm hoping to add to the collection each year. Yashar picked out a lot of these. I especially like the camel he picked out when the owner told him he could pick one as a present. The hand work is so beautiful.

Making Mondays (ahhh Thursdays): Quick Christmas Crafts for Toddlers

2010-12-09T15:48:00.001+02:00

**edit - oooh I forgot to mention that tomorrow (the 10th) is the last day to order from the shop to ensure your package arrives before Christmas - (December 16 for within Europe and December 20 for within Turkey.)**

Well, I'm sure I started writing this on Monday...anyway, it's about time I had some more things to make with toddlers on here! These are some very quick and fun Christmas decorations that Yashar and I made on the spur of the moment over the weekend.

On our way out on Saturday we saw these interesting shaped pinecones had blown down in all the windy weather we've been having. We brought them in and they dried out a little. Then, with some inspiration from the pinecones we made last year and the pinecones over at Maya*Made. We painted ours with a little white paint and sprinkled lots of glitter on them. Yashar and I LOVE glitter! So pretty and fun :)

Then on Sunday we made some little heart shaped decorations. This straw came with the eggs we bought from the market this week...and my husband knows me well...asking if I wanted to use it for an art project before he threw it out! This is how we made them:

1. I cut out two larger shaped hearts and two smaller hearts out of some white card.

2. Yashar was then in charge of putting glue, using a glue stick, all over the two bigger hearts.

3. Then we set them on a piece of paper and Yashar piled up some straw on each of them (he was very excited about that!) Then we pressed the little heaps of straw down a little to make sure enough of it had stuck down.

4. Next, Yashar put glue all over the smaller hearts and we put them on a piece of paper. Then he shook plenty of glitter on them.

5. We shook all the hearts a little to get any loose pieces off then I stuck the smaller heart to the middle of the larger heart using double sided tape.

6. Then I punched a hole in the top of each, put a little ribbon on them. Finito!

Chest of Drawers: Before and After

2010-12-02T20:46:00.001+02:00

I bought this set of drawers at a local second hand place because I liked the size of the drawers - long and thin - to store lots of papers and prints in my studio. But apart from the size of drawers they were pretty nasty! Lots of missing handles and those that were there were not pretty, and lots of tape stuck over the front.

So I gave then a good clean, removing the sticky tape and all the remaining knobs. I took all the drawers out and stood them upright on newspaper and painted them with a white enamel paint. Having them upright meant I could paint them with good thick coats while still getting a nice smooth finish (no drip lines). I gave them two coats (with a couple of days to dry in between). I managed to get these pretty handles on sale at Zara Home - yay! I went to put one of them on after letting the paint dry for a day but realised the paint wasn't totally dry...ooops! So I left it a couple more days before putting the rest on. I left the outside as it was and I really like how it framed the white drawers.

I was so happy with how it turned out...and with how many of my things fit in them....

The Bazaar went really well :) And it was great to meet so many lovely people that were really encouraging about my work! Thank you! But...I can't believe I forgot my camera ...so no photos. I was disappointed about that because I was so happy with how it all came together. Oh well! And I am way behind on my emails! So sorry to everyone I haven't got back to yet - I will as soon as I possibly can.

Ooh! And my new cards were featured on Print & Pattern today! Yay! Thank you so much Print & Pattern!

IWI Christmas Bazaar Tomorrow!

2010-11-29T14:36:00.002+02:00

I will be having a table at the Christmas Bazaar tomorrow at the Hilton Hotel Convention Centre in Istanbul! We had a great time there last year. You can see a few photos in my post about it last year here.

It is open from 12 to 4 and the organisers net proceeds go to IWI charities. They also have a raffle there with the most amazing prizes!! I will definitely be getting some tickets.

Sorry for the late notice, but if you have a chance I'd love to see you, so come and say hello :)

And I'm hoping after that things will get back to normal around here...phew!

New Prints and Crafty Gatherings

2010-11-24T15:04:00.001+02:00

I have added a couple of new prints to the shop! (and don't forget...today is the last day for the blog reader discount - details here)

And Christmas is well on its way! We have already made a few little things in Yashar art class to decoate the house with - so cute! So I thought it would be a good time to share some gorgeous to make for this time of year that I have come across in my searching :)

Vintage Inspired Arrow Decor - Danielle Thompson

I thought these would make such a cute gift! Perfect for a boys room!...um ok, if they were in Yashar's room they would definitely have to be kept out of reach!

Lovely Forest Quilt - the Purl Bee - pattern from Sharilyn Wright

Scandinavian Style Felt Bird Ornaments - Kits from PurlSoho

Cranberry Citrus Walnut Bread - Poppytalk (recipe adpated from ReadyMade) - This looks delicious!!

Memories of ...

2010-11-24T14:14:00.001+02:00

Late last week Senol's grandmother passed away. So everyone is a bit emotional and exhausted around here. Last weekend, Senol, along with many other family members took her back to Sinop for her funeral. In a small village near Sinop is where she spent most of her life - Senol's family village. Basically a few houses in the middle of beautiful forest. She didn't know how old she was, but knew that she was alive when Turkey became a republic, which was 1923. Since Senol's Uncle (her son) died 3 months ago, she was never the same. She passed away surrounded by loving family.

She liked to look out of the window, watching the world go by - and especially liked visits to our place, where she could watch the ships sailing past. We didn't talk that much, Grandma and I - with my accented Turkish, her hard of hearing and speaking Turkish peppered with Georgian it was an uphill battle! But I remember her when we first met, squeezing my hand so tightly and giving me a look that I knew was kind hearted and meant 'you are welcome here.' Once she told me about one of her children - they all went out together to a wedding together and when they got home her child died and they didn't know why. More often she would tell me about when she was young, how she loved to ride horses and pick the chestnuts from the trees. We'll miss her a lot, but we know that she is at peace now.

Beautiful Blanket, Blog Readers Special Deal and a Bloesem mention!

2010-11-19T20:58:00.002+02:00

Lot's of Bs in that title! Totally unplanned...and totally unpoetic! Oh well... thank you all so much for your lovely messages about my new cards and tags and for Yashar's birthday. That was awesome of you! And I also hope that everyone celebrating Kurban Bayrami has had a wonderful week with family and friends. Iyi Bayramlar!

This blog means a lot to me and I appreciate that so many of you stop by to read. You guys are the best :) So... a little thank you - I'm having a special secret discount for blog readers only. It will only run for the next 5 days (finishes midnight Wednesday November 24), so now is the time to get your Christmas shopping organised early! If you purchase any item from the Light Garden online shop, you can use the code 'blogreader' in the 'shop coupon code' section to get 10% off from your purchase (excluding shipping) and you will also get some extra little goodies in your package. Click here if you need help on how to use the code. Yay! Christmas time is on the way...my favourite time of year!

And this is another amazing blanket made by my mother in law Sevim. I love the colour combinations in this one! I'm off to put it in the shop soon ...so it should be available there shortly.

And I was so excited when I found out about this! My deer card was featured on the beautiful blog Bloesem in a post about '36 Papergoods ideas to give' ! Yeee! You can see a peek of it there on the top left...

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Making Mondays (hmm ok Tuesdays): Vibrant Floor Cushion

2010-11-16T23:17:00.000+02:00

ok, so it's not Monday, but close enough! Today is kurban bayrami – I wrote a little about it here. This year it falls on a Tuesday, which means my husband gets the whole week off work –which of course we are very happy about. So I’m just dropping in with a little thing I made on the morning of Yashar’s party – the party had a bit of a jungle theme going on so in one room we put up mosquito netting, had lots of jungle leaves around the place and lots of rugs and cushions on the floor. So I thought this would be a cute addition.

The cushion is fairly large (about 59 x 59 cm - 23.2 x 23.2 inches) The material is Annamoa from Ikea – I love this fabric – so vibrant and interesting. The insert is from Ikea as well. The cushion cover is a simple envelope style – you can see the back of it in the photograph above and took about 20 minutes total to make…that’s my kind of project :)

You can probably figure out how to make this type of cushion cover, being the clever types that you are! But if you don’t want to bother thinking about it, you can find the instructions for how to make a envelope cushion cover here.

PS The cute dog is from Mudo (I couldn't see it on the website but they had plenty instore)- after Yashar had carried it around the store patting it and cuddling it and saying we needed to feed it, I couldn't resist getting it for him when he asked!

3 years old...the birthday cake

2010-11-10T21:54:00.000+02:00

How are you all? I have been neglectful of you I'm afraid. Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and emails! And sorry to those of you that I owe emails...I will try to get to them very soon! I have been busy with my new cards and other things, but especially with Yashar's birthday! Yes, he was 3 on Monday!   Can you believe it? I can't.

For those of you that have been around here for a while...do you remember this photograph?? This was when he was just 6 months old. Wow, life is different now!

We had such a fun party for him on Saturday - with a bit of a jungle theme going on. I was rushing around and didn't take enough photos at all :(     I will look at what I did take soon and show you all the little details, making etc! But first one of the bigger details - the cake!   I'm definitely no professional cake maker...this had the 'homemade' look to it for sure hehehe. But anyway - it was a hit...because Yashar was so excited about it and loved it...and of course, that makes me very happy.

When I was little, every year I was allowed to pick a cake for my Mum to make for my birthday from the Women's Weekly Childrens Birthday Cake Book. It is such a fun tradition... This book is pretty classic 80s I think! So, with some scanning and emailing of all the jungle related cakes in the book, Yashar was also able to make his choice. He chose the lion!

The instructions from the book were just to use packet cake, but I wasn't having any of that ;) So I did a quick internet search and used this 'One Bowl Chocolate Cake' recipe from Martha Stewart. It was fairly easy and turned out nice and moist. I just substituted plain yoghurt for the buttermilk.

The finished cake! And you can see a peek of the snakes in jelly...eeeewww!

Then there was the icing, oh the icing...which was delicious...but took a looong time. I used this recipe for Buttercream Frosting also from marthastewart.com. I followed some of the commenters' suggestions and didn't use as much butter as the recipe suggested. For quite a while, while I was in my pjs making it an hour before the guests arrived, I thought it wasn't going to work...but I just kept on mixing and finally it thickened up and I had time to quickly put the funny lion face together :) Next time I want to try the Magnolia Bakery Buttercream... Mmmmm... sounds delicious and much much easier to make!

Process: Working with a Professional Printer

2010-11-03T15:49:00.000+02:00

I thought it might be helpful to post about what the process involved in making the new cards I posted about on Monday -particularly the experience I had using a professional printer. I really had no idea about what it would involve beforehand (or that it would be so time consuming!) - I didn't know where to start or what the Printer expected me to prepare for them. It's actually fairly straight forward once you know :) So for those interested - here it is! .....Warning! Long post ahead :)

Creating
The drawing and designing is the most time consuming and fun part of the process for me. This time I knew I wanted to make things a little more colourful and fun. This is my process in brief. For the cards and tags I first sketched some ideas and then went in search of reference photos. I usually do this on flickr where there is lots of great photos of animals etc. I find this especially helps with drawing the stance or pose of an animal. Then I sketch a lot more and then inked my final drawing. Then I redraw and ink the final drawing again. I've found this last step helps to improve the drawing a lot!

Then I scanned the drawings and, for these cards, used Illustrator to colour them (often I use Photoshop or a combination of both).

Working with a Professional Printer
In Turkey Printers are called Matbaa - which I love the sound of :) I don't know if this is how all printers work - it has been a total learning process for me - but this is how it all went down with the Matbaa here.

The printers I have worked with use a 50 x 70 cm sheet. So before I got in to any major drawing and designing I did a rough layout to work out how many cards, tags etc would fit on that sheet. This helps me to keep costs down while getting quite a few different designs done at the same time. This time I was also fitting packaging, business cards and bookmarks on the sheet.

When I prepared each design (as separate documents) I made sure that they were in CMYK mode. I also made sure that there was a 'bleed' area around each design. So, for example, I knew I wanted to make a card that was 115 mm. I put crop marks in to show where the card was to be cut, and then I put an extra area of 3mm around each edge. The colours and design continued out into this extra area. This is important because when your work is being cut, the cut may be slightly off - even it were only 1mm for example, if you had no bleed area then you would be left with an blank/white space - not pretty! I also used guide lines to show the Printer where to fold the cards.

Then we met with the Printer. I have used two different Printers and there was a difference with how they dealt with us and in the end result. I think its important to find one that you can work well with. The most recent Printer was fantastic and the quality of their work was excellent. They took the time to discuss the work and it I felt like they really just 'got it'. I could tell that they really took pride in their work -and it meant that in the end I loved the result - unlike last time where I had to get them to print quite a few items again because of faults in their work.

During the meeting we looked at the designs and discussed how I had indicated fold lines etc. We chose the paper - a really beautiful thick textured paper that was environmentally friendly - with high recycled and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) content - yay!

Then I emailed them my designs and the font files I used as they were not standard fonts. The Printer prepared all the designs and did test prints to give us an indication of the colours. We then went in again to check do a final check of the designs and that we were happy with the colours (although we knew they may vary a little once they are printed on the paper we chose). This is also when we were given a final price for the printing. Things that affect the price included the number of prints, whether die cut knives are required (I needed them for my tags) and the paper (mine was more expensive but I really wanted to have beautiful and more environmentally friendly paper).

We picked them up a few days later and they came up perfectly! Actually even better than I had imagined...I was so happy! And glad that we took all the time before hand to get them just right....now on to a lot more work putting the ribbons on, packing them up prettily etc etc!

Phew! A long post! Hope it's helpful :)

Yeeeee! The new cards and tags are here!

2010-11-01T13:51:00.001+02:00

Wow - last week didn't go as planned...so finally here are the new cards and tags! The sun finally poked its head through the clouds long enough for me to get some photos of these - yay! I had a bit of a hard time photographing these actually (self inflicted) as I was so happy with the actual items that I didn't want to let them down with the photos. I ended up keeping it simple and fairly uniform.

They are printed on a beautiful paper that is 40% recycled, 55% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. It is nice and thick and has a texture like watercolour paper - I love it!!

They are all listed in the shop now - you can find them here... I have high hopes for these :) Everyone that has seen them here has loved them and they have been 'flying out the door'. I just hope that translates online too. Fingers crossed! And I would definitely appreciate your help with getting the word out - if you know anyone that might like them or if you would like to post about them on your blog etc that would be awesome! Please feel free to use any of the images for that too. Thank you :)

PS - If you are in Turkey and would like to buy some the cards you can just contact me at thelightgarden@gmail.com and we can organise it that way - you can write in Turkish if you would like too. No problemo :)

On Wednesday I will post about working with a professional printer if you are interested (just finishing off writing it now). And I also have some making planned...Yashar's birthday party is next weekend so some party related things are in the works...let's just hope all goes to plan this week :)

In the works...

2010-10-25T16:28:00.000+03:00

Yeeee! I am pretty excited about the new cards! We picked them up from the printers on Saturday and they did an amazing job! So now we have lots of scenes around the house like this

and this

Even, though I get these professionally printed there is still lots of work to be done...cutting ribbon, threading ribbon, putting everything in their little packages, photographing etc! All of which means a very quick post today and then back to work :)

Hope you are all having a great start to the week. I hope to be back soon with some nice photosgraphs and even a little Halloween making!

Things are getting more colourful around here...

2010-10-22T19:57:00.000+03:00

Wow, where did the week go? On Wednesday I took photos of some of my gift tags, mini gift cards and Christmas cards for the shop. I wanted to mix some bright items in with the cards, which are quite delicate and soft in colour. Here are a few of the photos...

I don't have much in the way of props here. When we moved to Turkey about 2 and a half years ago, we only brought 3 suitcases of with us - mostly filled with things for Yashar - who at the time was about 4 months old. And since then we have tried not to buy too much. Both for the budget and the thought of whether we would bring it back to Australia with us once we eventually move back. So when I take the photos I just try to use some of the few things we have around the house... No stylists dream I'm sure! But I had fun with it and I like how the photos look festive and vibrant compared to the previous ones.

These are a couple of the Christmas postcards. The frame is one I bought from Chakra quite a while ago (it was part of a father's day present for Senol)

I think you would be amazed at the amount of time that it takes to bring a little range of cards in to being! Just taking the photos, editing them, and uploading them seems to take me days! I'm planning to write a little more about the process from start to finish of creating a set of cards next week, once I get the new cards back...if you're interested...

Have a great weekend!

Verity

Making Mondays: Some fun things to make with Baba

2010-10-18T13:07:00.000+03:00

Hello! How was your weekend? We had a sweet time - busy on Saturday and then a quiet day on Sunday because Yashar was unwell :( It meant some time for indoor activities though which was fun - you can really see how the light has changed here in the photos - such a grey and rainy Autumn here.

I know that my husband Senol has been wanting to spend some more time doing things with Yashar, so on the weekend I prepared a couple of little fun things for them to do together. Firstly - remember the woodpecker from Made By Joel that I posted about last week? We made it and it was a hit!

You can find the instructions and the template to print out on Made by Joel here. It was really easy! It is basically a cool little bird that pecks its way down a rubber band. - you can see the blur in action here.

While Yashar was sleeping I printed out the template and Senol cut it out. (the cutting out would have been too hard for Yashar - who is almost 3- but older children could easily do the cutting out too.) Then Senol and Yashar made the rest of it together following the instructions over at Made by Joel. Once it was made - it only took about 5 minutes) then Senol taught Yashar how to make it work - by holding the rubber band stretched out and letting the woodpecker peck its way down. It took a little while for Yashar to get the hang of it but once he did he was loving it! The photo above is my favourite....

But this photo is hilarious! Hehehe!

I had also prepared this spinning top for them to do...but somehow Yashar and I ended up making it together instead. We made the spinning top using the instructions from the Science Toy Maker site (found via Made by Joel) here. This was another easy and fun project.

This is what we did:

1. While Yashar was sleeping I printed out the template from the Science toymaker site. I had printed on some card so I could cut those ones out and then I cut out some extras from a box. We ended up having 8 circles I think. It is really just some circles about 15cm in diameter with a marker in the middle - so you may be able to save paper and not print out the pattern. The site recommended using a milk carton for the circles which I think would work well.

2. Then I pressed a small hole in the middle of each circle with a ball point pen (this makes it easier to push the ink pen through with out the tip getting damaged). After that I took a ink pen and pushed it through the centre of the the circle.

3. On one of the circles I drew three evenly spaced lines from the centre to the edge divide the sections like a pizza.

4. When Yashar woke up I put out some paints for him so that he could paint the 'pizza' sections in different colours. You can see it in the photo above - I think he did such a fantastic job!

5. Once it had dried we put the circles on the pen and started spinning. At first we had trouble getting it to spin much - but then we added a couple of more circles and tried it with a different pen and it worked much better. So if you have any trouble I would suggest trying a few different pens and adding more circles.

Yashar had a lot of fun painting the circle and like watching the top spin - although I think he found the actual spinning a little frustrating. It is probably suited to a child a little older than him I think.

The Cookie Experiments

2010-10-15T17:01:00.001+03:00

It's getting to that time of year again...the jewel like pomegranates are coming into season...which we love! We mostly just eat them straight up, but now and then I put some in a salad ..and of course a fresh pomegranate juice is so yummy (and so much better than the juice you buy at the supermarket!) What do you make with pomegranates?

We are lucky that Yashar is a pomegranate fiend! And he likes to get quite dramatic about it - closing his eyes and sometimes even throwing his head back in delight - hehehe!

It has also been the weather for baking. Is there a better combination than this??

I don't think so! We have been experimenting a little with cookie recipes (ok a lot - you should see the amount of cookies we've been eating!) Do you have a favourite cookie recipe? We would love to try it - I hope you'll share.

This is the most recent recipe we have come up with - which I really like - for a lot of reasons - one being that we don't get the electric mixer out - Yashar just keeps mixing with a big wooden spoon the whole time. They are also very quick to make and I love the little hint of honey through them.

75grams butter (softened)
3/4 of a cup of sugar
vanilla essence
1 dessert spoon of honey
1 egg
1 cup of wholemeal flour
2 cups of oats

a few dessert spoons of chocolate chips

Mash the butter with the sugar with a wooden spoon. Add the vanilla essence, the honey and egg and keep stirring. Add the flour and continue to mix, then add the oats and chocolate chips and mix. The mixture should be very thick and sticky. Yashar finds it very hard to resist eating the mixture at this stage :)

Put cherry tomato size balls of dough on a greased tray, squash them down a little and bake for about 10 minutes or until golden (oven at 180 degrees celsius). Leave to cool. Makes about 24 small cookies...which in our house lasts less than 24 hours!

Have a great weekend!

Crafty Gatherings

2010-10-13T15:19:00.000+03:00

Crafty Gatherings: The (almost) weekly post where the most awesome things to make like to gather, hang out and generally stand around looking cool.

The weather has turned...which means no more daily trips to the park and lots more time spent inside! Yashar and I have started 'toddlerart' classes at LOLA - (which are wonderful by the way! such a lovely space and a fantastic way to spend time together!) And I have been thinking about more things to make that Yashar would like and things we could make together. Here are some recent discoveries:

Tooth Fairy Bunnies - eeee! these are gorgeous! found on inchmark here and using the bunny template from Kata Golda's book Hand-Stitched Felt

Great Butter Cookie recipe - also from inchmark...so many lovely things there! - I know Yashar will love these - he is always asking me if we can decorate some biscuits :)

And some from one of my favourite places to find beautifully designed things to make with and for kids - Made by Joel

The Paper Owl Mobile and the Woodpecker

A few photos

2010-10-12T17:34:00.000+03:00

Phew! I'm back - I think (fingers crossed) our internet connection is now fixed! So, how are you all? What have you been up to?

I have been working on some new card and gift tag designs for the shop - including a few Christmas items. Yeee! I am really excited about these! There is a peek of one of them down at the bottom of this post. And now I just have to pick the paper I want for them this evening and then off they go to the printers! I'm looking forward to getting them back and sharing them with you!

These are a couple of photos I snapped while stuck in traffic recently. The sky was amazing! It was at dusk and just about to start pouring. Fishing is a very popular pass time here - especially along the banks of the Bosphorous. And they are dedicated too! I often see people still fishing in the cold and rain. It's getting in to fish season here - tonight we are off to get some delicious and very fresh 'Hamsi' for dinner. You can see photos of our local waterside fish stall here. Hamsi are a very small fish that we eat lightly floured and fried - and Yashar loves them too - which I am very happy with since they are so good for you!

And of course I'm a sucker for a pretty old doorway! Actually there are loads of very interesting and much prettier doorways - but of course I always miss out on photographing them...next time!

This little elephant can't wait to meet you ;)

A little late Sunday night post

2010-10-10T23:32:00.000+03:00

Eek! I feel like I have been out of touch for so long! Really its only been a few days but... I have been busy busy, and our internet decided to stop working 99% of the time...so when it has been miraculously been turning on for a few minutes here and there I have rushed to try to answer emails and basically catch up! To everyone that I owe emails to...I promise I will be up to date soon - sorry :( I 'm not ignoring you! I appreciate your lovely comments and emails so much.

These are some little things I quickly wanted to let you know about last week...and here it finally is, in a late night Sunday post...

One thing is that while my dear Mum came to visit a few months ago we went ribbon shopping! And so I have now added this new pack of Little Fairy gift tags to the shop, with lovely satin ribbon in three colours - a lovely fairy floss pink, a silvery lavender and a deep crimson. They come in packs of six and have my little fairy illustration on them, with a magic wand ready to grant little girls wishes! (and that's a little teddy bear she has in her other hand -I think it's a little hard to see in these photos...)

I have also brought back the toadstool gift tags. This time with a lovely bright red satin ribbon. I think the new ribbon really brightens the tags up so nicely - yay! Coincidentally - you can also spy these toadstool tags over at Portakal Agaci - where Hatice put them on each guest's plate. Each guest wrote their wishes for her very cute little baby on the back - a little treasure for him in the years to come. I thought that was such a sweet idea! And I was so so happy to see my tags used for it!

I'm working on some exciting projects at the moment...including new cards and gift tags designs that will be going to the printers tomorrow (fingers crossed!) and some other special things that I can't wait to share with you...under wraps at the moment....but soon all will be revealed ;)

I hope you are all having a lovely end to the weekend!

New Blankets!

2010-10-05T20:23:00.002+03:00

Sevim, my dear mother in law, has made some more blankets. That woman amazes me! If you missed seeing some of the earlier ones she made, you can find them here, here and here. They are made with love and a smile as she talks and jokes with family and neighbours. My husband, Senol, definitely got some of his cheekiness from her! (Senol's father was apparently pretty cheeky too!)

I am in love with this one - a colour combination that I never would have thought of but that really grabs me!

And this one is so so pretty.

I am off to put them in the shop now - if the last few blankets are anything to go by, they won't be there for long!

(edit: All done! I have just finished putting them in the shop now - you can find them here)

Making Mondays: Cooking Afternoons

2010-10-04T15:00:00.000+03:00

This Sunday it rained off and on, so Yashar and I got busy in the kitchen! We started with these chocolate and cranberry cookies from the beautiful beautiful book Apples for Jam
- I love that book! Then we left them to cool as the last few rays of afternoon sun poked through the clouds.

I would feel wrong about putting the recipe here - but I definitely recommend buying the book! Or you could use any simple chocolate chip cookie recipe - like the one I found online here - and add some dried cranberries.

Then Yashar chopped away - alternating between deep concentration and delight - to help make a creamy mushroom sauce with pieces of sucuk though it to go on some pasta - delicious!

Speaking of delicous food...I was lucky enough to eat at this gorgeous table last week. I had offered to bring some last minute presents that Hatice had ordered to her house and when she offered to have my husband, Yashar and I over for tea, of course I jumped at the chance. I didn't know just how lovely it was going to be though - Hatice's food blog definitely deserves to be as popular as it is! The spiced apple cake you can see in the middle was so so delicious! And it was wonderful to spend time talking with Hatice - and Yashar had such fun with playing with her daughter that he is still talking about it!

I have mentioned Hatice's wonderful food blog here before -'Portakal Agaci'. The site is full of wonderful recipes - just use google translate if you need to. I was also lucky that Hatice wrote some very kind words about my work. A warm welcome to all the new visitors - I am so glad to have you here :)

Stay tuned this week - we have been busy and I have lots to show you...including some beautiful new crochet blankets Sevim has made and some new goodies for the shop.

Verity
xo