THE GOOD
Allow me to start by announcing that following my SOS call, we have petsitters for all 5 bubs! HOORAH! Thanks to the Blogging, Twittering, Facebooking and Emailing ways of my crafty readers, our 5 little monsters are being looked after and Sharon and I are officially off to South East Asia in 7 days. Gulp. Have you any idea how much there is left to do before we're ready to go?

...(insert panicked breathing exercise here)...

Ok, I'm back. And I would particularly like to thank Lizzie and Linda for blogging, Lou for Tweeting, Jennie for emailing, Jay and Danielle for offering to move in, and all my other readers for making suggestions in regards to petsitters- it was a team effort, and we succeeded!

THE BAD
In a nutshell, the Northern Exposure Visual Arts Festival Market bombed. Hard. It was freezing cold and windy enough to make my notebooks fly; to top it off, while the rain visited us, the people did not. After four hours, ten people browsing and no sales, I packed up and ran away to defrost.

Thanks to the Melbourne blogging scene, however, the day was brightened by stalls from:

Melbourne Epicure (with delicious vegan Orange & Walnut Muffins)...

The vibrant Finki...


The talented CurlyPops...

and the lovely Polly Pratt...

Visits from the gorgeous Nikki, her cute-as-pie little girl, and birthday girl Lara also made the day much lovelier!

THE PARTY!
After the excitement of the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway, I just couldn't resist signing up to participate in another global crafty party. This time, it's A Fanciful Twist's Mad Tea Party!

All I'm saying is that on June 27th, Pepperberry & Co. will be transformed into a delicious land of Tempting Tea, a Glorious Giveaway and a Tantalising Tutorial.

Stay tuned, dear friends!

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P.S. Thanks to Cathie and Cam for the market photos, and Teegs for keeping me company on the day... and for sewing with me for 48 hours beforehand!

The Good, The Bad and The Party!

Houston, we have a great, big problem...

Never fear, the crafty blogosphere is here. Hopefully one of you crafty heroines will come to the rescue!



WHAT HAPPENED?
Well, as some of you may know, Sharon and I are due to be going overseas in 2 weeks for a 3-month adventure around South-East Asia. You'll note that I say 'due to be', and not 'are'...

The last time we went overseas, we had a horrible experience with a relative who failed to look after our home. He spent the money given to him to look after our pup's brain tumour on going out, and our gorgeous Malamute, Taj, died as a result. Not wanting to go through such a traumatic experience again, Sharon and I decided to go through a professional service to get a qualified, experienced and contracted housesitter.

About 4 months ago, I contacted Dawn McKenna from Housesitting Services to book their service. She responded promptly, and vehemently assured me that she would arrange the perfect person who would look after our home, and our 5 furry babies, as though they were her own. Lovely!

According to the Housitting Services website, Sharon and I were due to meet with our housesitter a month prior to leaving. That date came and went, and I heard nothing. I emailed her again, only to be ignored. I called and spoke to Dawn McKenna, who told me she would call me back in 5 minutes. Guess what? It didn't happen! I then called, and called again, and then again... but not one of my messages was responded to.

So, thanks to Dawn McKenna, we are left with no-one to look after our most precious belongings. Sharon and I have spent the last week desperately talking to friends, workmates, and fellow Wildlife Rescuers and Lort Smith volunteers in the hope that someone can care for our bubs. The gorgeous Teegs has come on board to look after Tango the Bichon, but unless we find other generous souls to look after the remaining mob, we're going to have to forfeit our tickets and our trip.


CALLING ALL HEROINES AND HEROES!
We have four pets in desperate need of a loving home for 12 weeks- from the 29th of June until the 30th of September. All food, litter, toy, bedding and vet costs will be covered by us, and we will happily bring the furry critter of your choice to your home. We will also provide detailed instructions about each critter, and anything else you may need. As we are foster carers for both domestic and wild animals, all four of our creatures are used to interacting with other cats, dogs, ducks, rabbits, and even humans!

Here's who needs a home:

Gorgeous Gin Gin
The sensational Gin Gin may or may not have been catnapped from his neglectful owners. He came to us with ribs protruding, dirt embedded into his skin and an inability to interact with people. He is now a giant, happy, purring fluffball who loves nothing more than a cuddle and a feed. Gin Gin is a 100% indoor cat, so anyone who would want to give him a home would need to be able to guarantee that he would be indoors the whole time.


Majestic Monsieur and Charming Coconut
Before being rescued, Coco was thrown out of a car at 110km an hour and Monsieur was dumped by his owners. Now that these two have each other, though, they have no cares in the world! They grew up together, sleep together, and even clean one another; they will therefore need to go to a home together. Both are loving, relaxed cats who are happy to sleep, eat and snuggle. Like Gin Gin, they are 100% indoor cats, so anyone who would want to give them a home would need to be able to guarantee that they would be indoors the whole time.

Magnificent Manhattan
Our beautiful Malamute puppy, Manhattan, is pure joy in a fur coat. She is still young, and her playfulness is infectious! Because of her size and age, she will either need a home with a large backyard for running, a fellow dog to play with, or regular walks and runs. She has been highly trained and socialised well, and will submit to all dogs, cats and people. She welcomes all foster pups with open paws, and needs someone who will do the same for her. Oh, and have I mentioned her goofiness provides at least 10 funniest-home-video moments per day?


OR, IF YOU CAN HOUSESIT...
If you can housesit instead of petsitting, you'll get a three-bedroom home (located 20 mins northwest of the Melbourne CBD) with: a dedicated craft room; a huge backyard; a freshly renovated kitchen, bathroom, toilet, bedroom, dining and lounge; downlights throughout; stainless steel appliances; 7GB of free wireless internet per month; a short stroll to public transport; and the use of our car. As a bonus, we'll even include loving snuggles from 3 cats and a dog!

And finally, each of the heroines or heroes who come to our rescue will also receive a $50 USD voucher to the Pepperberry & Co. store!


WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
PETSIT: If you live in Melbourne, please consider looking after one of our babies.

SPREAD THE WORD: If you know anyone who lives in Melbourne, please contact them and let them know of our need.

BLOG: If you have a blog and post about this, I will send you a 20% off gift voucher to my store... and a huge thank you and warm-fuzzy feeling!

Please help us find our furry friends a home!

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An SOS From My Furry Friends

Thank you to all my wonderful Pepperberrians for leaving such joyous comments for me on my birthday. It was, indeed, a wonderful day, and the dinner was just as magical and delicious as I had hoped! Here's my dessert, a vegan crème brûlée with caramelised pistachios...


Are you drooling yet? I am!

This, however, was not the only drool-worthy highlight of my day. A package arrived in my letterbox yesterday morning from the gorgeous Nikki over at My Black Cardigan. The crazy gal had downloaded a picture of my marvelous Bichon, Tango...

and made me a softie version of him!


Is that the most ridiculously talented thing you've ever seen?! Thank you so much, lovely Nikki!

Then, at dinner, I was presented with this...


a card that was signed by all of my amazing friends and can now be cashed in for a real, live, brand new sewing machine! What a perfect gift...

Why?

Well, let me tell you a little about my current sewing machine, Betsy. Betsy is under this strange impression that she is actually a concrete digger (Sharon tells me it's called a ja-ck-ham-mer), and when I press her pedal, she goes GA-GO-DA-PLONK-DA-GO-BRRRMMM-POOF. Just like a concrete digger, you see?

Betsy also doesn't boast some of the handier things sewing machines can have... like a speed control function (I tell you, my right foot has the most incredible clutch control), an automatic threader (lazy, I know) or the ability to maintain stitch tension (I know I'm fussy, but is it really too much to ask for?).

So, your challenge is this: tell me which sewing machine to get! What's your favourite type/brand/style/feature? What do you dream of in a machine? Is there a certain brand I should look at? What nifty features will I never be able to live without once I have them?

And sew we shall!

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Crafty Birthday Joy- Help Me Choose a Sewing Machine!

As a sewing newbie, I'm still gathering all of those nifty little gadgets that make life easier when creating things. One of the items I needed desperately was a pincushion- and of course, what better project to take on as a beginner? They seem relatively simple- two pieces of fabric, some stuffing, and a little decoration. What could go wrong?

Well, obviously I had to make it more complicated than it needed to be. Inspired by these stunning pincushions over at Carina's Craftblog, I decided to step outside of a few 'beginner' guidelines- my pincushion would be round instead of square, would have a vintage feel due to a lace trimming, and would be stuffed with Malamute hair. What's that, I hear you ask? That, my friends, is hair from my gorgeous puppy, Manhattan:



She is a wild, shedding, howling beast of an Alaskan Malamute who is more than delighted to share her monstrous fluff with me. I brushed her, washed her hair, dried it and ended up with a gorgeous batch of soft, fluffy puppy stuffing. So far, so good.

Next, I sewed my pincushion together, and quickly figured out that circles are a pain in the butt to sew- especially in a first project! Once I'd learned to tame my slightly-out-of-control foot, I became friends with the pedal and figured out how to slow down my machine. This definitely helped the process.

It came time to stuff the cushion, so in went Manhattan. Then came the interesting part... sewing the pincushion shut. I inspected other stuffed items that I had lying around, and could not for the life of me figure out how they were sewn closed. A google search didn't help, either. I was on my own! I went ahead with a tiny stitch very close to the edge, which, due to my (obsessively) perfectionist nature, took as long to do as the rest of the project- but at least it was closed! Soon after, I learnt about the invisible/ladder stitch, but that's another story.

Finally, I got creative with my lace and added a lace bobble to the top of the cushion. Ta-da! Done. But... hang on a moment... what's the strange pointy thing sticking out of the top? And the side? And the bottom? And the other side... uh-oh. That's Manhattan. To be more exact, that's Manhattan's fur, and it's escaping from it's new home with the fervour of an Alcatraz inmate. It turns out that unfelted puppy filling is not the way to go!

The pincushion, however, is finished; it now sits proudly on my desk, malting alongside the cats that insist on sitting on my stunning (and expensive!) fabric collection. Together, we all live in our happy, fluffy crafting wonderland.


...

Houston, we have... a Malting Pincushion!