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{beautiful to me} Tajika Copper Scissors
Everyone in our house knows that Mum’s scissors are sacred and they may not be touched without express permission from me…
Scissors and shears created by Tajika Haruo Ironworks - located in Ono City, northeast of Kobe – are ‘a perfect balance of exceptional craftsmanship and practical function, Tajika’s line of scissors for everyday use are designed and produced under the concept “see- hold- use”. Made entirely by hand in a very time consuming process these copper scissors will change subtlety with age and use.’
I can see me never allowing anyone else to ever touch these.
Do You Want to Set Up Shop?
During April I was lucky enough be one of the inaugural participants in Jess Van Den’s Set Up Shop course – a course designed to take your online shop from go to whoa!
Having had various shops online (with all of them languishing due to the-paid-job committments) I decided that now was the time to bite the bullet and get my blog shop in order again.
Over the 30 days of the course Jess sends out a daily email, in which she shares her 5 years worth of online-small-biz knowledge.
At the end of each lesson, she also sets you a task – starting with deciding on where you want your online selling venue to be, followed by writing descriptions, branding, your about page and pricing, photographing product, packaging and shipping and social media (to name a few of the topics covered).
My light-bulb moment was that while I had previously prided myself on exclusively having one-of-a-kind items in my store, Set Up Shop helped me realize that I needed to include repeatable designs – which has led to me including limited edition pieces (which will be capped at 10 pieces in a limited edition design) in the store.
I’m also going to work in Collections (something I had done successfully previously) – with two Collections to be released each year – the first of which will be the Spring line to be released in mid-August.
I’m not sure when Jess will be running the next round of Set Up Shop (Jess!?), but if you’ve been trying your damndest and not having much success at getting yourself established online, the I highly recommend you sign up to be notified of when Set Up Shop will run again.
And tell Jess I said ‘hi’!
Monday Motivation
Playing with this neat little site to create inspiration.
If you like it, let me know and I’ll do some more…
{eat} Potato and Leek Soup
With the cooler nights starting to creep in, it’s been the perfect excuse to pull the slow cooker out and start making some of the family’s favourite soups.
When I mentioned last week that I thought I’d do a soup in the slow cooker for dinner after soccer training on Wednesday night, the Little Man was the first to pipe up and say “Potato and leek, Mum. Love the potato and leek soup!”
So I thought I’d share it with you!
Ingredients
4 tablespoons of butter
4 small-medium leeks, finely chopped, using the white and a bit of the tender green parts
4 large potatoes, peeled and cut in to 2 centimetre chunks
3 cups chicken broth or stock
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup of pure cream
chives for garnishing
Method
Turn your slow cooker on. Melt butter (microwave or saucepan, your choice!). Add butter and leeks to slow cooker insert and toss until leeks are covered. Add potatoes and broth. Cover the slow cooker and cook soup on high for 3 hours or on low for 5-6 hours, until potatoes are tender.
Puree the soup with a stick blender. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cream and turn off slow cooker.
Serve and garnish with chives.
Apparently you can eat this soup chilled, but the family prefers it warm!
This recipe is adapted from my favourite slow cooker recipe book.
How To Love Your Camera In Only 7 Hours
5 camera-crazy chicks – me, Jodie, Angie, Kate & Jacq – taken in a giant reflective window!
This weekend gone (May 4 & 5), myself and three friends all traveled the +500 kilometres to participate in Angie Baxter’s Love Your Camera workshop in Brisbane.
It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve had time away from my family, but the fact that it was a girly-weekend and we got to play with our camera’s had us all buzzing.
Angie’s promise is that within the 7 hours of the workshop, she’ll have you shooting fully in Manual and that you will take your photographs from ”so-so” to “OMG, they are amazing!!!”
What can I say, she definitely delivers!
Even though I’ve been shooting in Manual for a while now, I was looking forward to having someone explain the nuts and bolts of ISO, aperture and shutter speed, which Angie does – in simple and understandable language.
The one thing I liked most about the workshop was that once she had explained a particular principle, we then picked up our cameras and set off to practice. Angie would wander around giving us pointers and tips and lots of encouragement.
And she was more than generous in sharing her wealth of knowledge. Believe me when I say that I had more than 1 lightbulb moment in those 7 hours!
If you’re looking for a hands-on camera course, then I’d highly recommend the Love Your Camera workshop – especially if you’re keen to shoot in Manual, but haven’t yet had the confidence to give it a go.
