Your perfect workspace competition...

I am so excited that I'm finally painting the studio. The ideal situation was to paint and decorate before moving in last year... but that just didn't happen. With 3 young kiddies, time isn't that spare these days. So I moved in and now I've moved out to paint! Don't worry I'm still making, just back inside the house!

My studio.

So to celebrate that its all GO here, I want to giveaway a pair of my NEW French postmark earrings and a $20 voucher to spend in my online shops www.mudbird.co.nz or www.mudbird.felt.co.nz. Total value $55.00 The earrings are hung from stirling silver hooks.

All you need to do is go to my Facebook page and write down what your dream studio/craft/work space would look like. Get your thinking caps on... I want details, colours, styles, furniture... (oh and if you want to include what you'd create I'd love to know!)

Then get your friends to LIKE and VOTE for your idea. The idea with the most likes will win!

I'll start here:

I love all things vintage & French, I love wooden antique cabinets and shelving. I like light and airy spaces, so warm whites or pale creams would be my choice in colours in my work environment. (altho I'd love to use Aqua or Turquoise colours I think I'll have to leave that more my next studio space with more windows to let the light in) I want great storage and organization, that also looks fab! I want to display my treasures to inspire me, like my antique woodblocks, little italian handmade leather journals, vintage key collections, antique blue ball mason jars... vases and jars of my dried poppy heads and bunches of bunny tails... and

all the other treasures and antiques I've collected in my creative journeys... Oh and I'd have french doors opening out onto a veranda ( yay I've got that bit!!)

So click here and get typing, then email your name/ address to MUDBIRD  so I can contact you if you are the lucky winner! Please put French giveaway in the subject line.

x Gill

p.s forgot to mention when it will close!! Get all your ideas and likes in by this coming weekend (5th February 2012.)

Day in the life of a pottering painter with 3 kids

Hello 2012!

Last weekend we got home after a FANTASTIC holiday - 7 sunny hot days of camping at Okains Bay. After getting through a week of 8 loads of sand filled washing, unpacking and getting back to ‘normal’ life, last night I decided on a whim to start painting the studio! Hard part is that it was filled with tables, cabinets, bags of clay and well… general studio stuff! So I hauled a few bits around and did the ‘cutting in’ paint work in the studio. With the French doors wide open I was joined by about a ton of mozzies, moths and other buzzing things. Hubby made it lovingly clear that he built the inside of it, so I get to decorate it…. On my own!

So today I decided to start undercoating the walls once baby was napping. All started off perfectly – drop clothes laid out, paint tray filled, new roller attached, studio packed up properly and most of the contents on and under the large trestle table in the middle with large drop cloth over it (don’t ask me to find anything!).

9 wall panels to paint! Each approx. 1.2m x 2.2m

My 5 & 7 year olds were playing nearby and happily occupied so it was now or never.

BEFORE with messy cutting in....

1^st panel = carefully painted using the new roller, even smooth finish & coverage, up to standard! I’ve been painting rooms for 21 years so feel like I’ve got this one sorted!

2^nd panel = same as above – it’s looking good folks. Sore wrists (old pain) but I’m powering through. The paint I am using is a new 3 in 1 paint, not my favourite but its doing the job! (actually its a bit like glue!)

3^rd panel = enter 7 yr old daughter wanting to watch and ask LOTS of questions = result still looking great, although taking longer to paint. Not letting her anywhere near the walls or paint!

4^th panel = 7yr old daughter wants to paint the wall with the small roller. I gingerly set her to work on panel 5 with the tiny roller and not much paint! With lots of interruptions and instructions, panel 4 stops and starts and not as perfect as others.

Helper # 1: Taking her job very seriously...

5^th panel = Grandma W arrives to take 7yr old out, so enter 5yr old son who has been pleading to paint (baby still sleeping!!) He strips off, then dons his superman cape and works messily on panel 6 while I finish off panel 4…. And start panel 5. End result is a bit patchy but I try to fix it up with more paint. Meanwhile I try to save panel 6 from his artistic offerings. By this stage I’ve embraced the children’s ‘artwork’ and just try to keep the carpet covered. I think I’m making more mess due to being distracted.

Helper # 2: He nabbed the big roller when I went inside!

6^th panel = needed to refill paint tray again, so check on baby. He is happily using his cot as a trampoline so time for lunch! (2pm ). Organise a smorgasbord of snacks & lunch and a drink, take high chair out to studio and plonk him in it by the French Doors. Start to paint panel 6, takes a looooong time with many, many interruptions. Can’t fix the dried lines from where I stopped/started the roller and had to entertain him. Also trying to stop his toy missiles landing in the paint tray. 5yr old going to town on panel 7, then takes off outside to ride his sisters pink bike in the yard. Panel 6 looking very sorry for itself.

Helper #3: Just being cute.

7^th panel = Baby finished lunch and needs nappy changed. Do that inside then try to con him back outside with some toy animals as we practice animal sounds. "No, a cow says Moo, not Meow". Panel 7 has surprisingly been painted quite a lot by 5yr old son, with 2 different brushes and the big roller!! Argh, when did he get his hands on that?. Slap on a extra layer of paint and cover up the blotches. I was even distracted enough to do a few swipes on the peaked ceiling panels.. oh dear.. loosing it.

8^th panel = its just undercoat right? No need to be tidy? The top coats cover all sins.

9^th panel – hubby arrives home and I’m in a rush to get this finished so we can drive out to Sumner for Fish and chips in the sunshine. Surprisingly this panel looks half decent in the end… or maybe it’s due to the failing light and I can’t see it. Final verdict tomorrow when I tackle the ceiling… JOY!

After.. not a job I am proud of ;-) Top coats will fix all that... and they will be done ALONE!

*** Small flys and other flying insects were harmed in the painting of this studio ***

We have a winner...

Thank you everyone, the Winner of the Giveaway has been drawn and details below in the comments of other blog post. You are all amazing and I'm amazed at how many hardworking, crafty people there are out there! Merry Christmas and I hope NEXT year is fantastic for all xx Gill

Thank you!

Well hello there... this is a long time coming.... trying to find the time to sit down and get this started. What better kick in the pants than a facebook fans & customer Thank you & Merry Christmas giveaway!

Here is a peak of what is on offer!

Adjustable green ring by http://www.Mudbird.co.nz/ on an antique bronze band & cute Cherry Brooch from Random little things

Hummingbird Coffee - I thought this was fantastic, made especially for the Re:START project in Cashel Mall, Christchurch. Money from each sale goes towards the new Court Theatre!

Also Mammalissa's Cocoa Butter... smells so good you'll be tempted to eat it! Cute wee labels from Mixing ink and the FANTASTIC Kiwi Diary from Kiwi diary

"The Kiwi Diary 2012 is a carefully curated 250 page window into Aotearoa's cultural soul. Containing all you need in a diary like a year planner and address book. Every page journeys through the collective New Zealand mind: with every page adorned with art, stories, environmental tips, recipes, music, quotes, jokes and mindfood, the inspiration cycle keeps flowing! The Kiwi Diary is Kiwi culture by the road-less travelled, and epitomises Aotearoa-style, plugging you into inspiration, entertainment and info on the good things in life, along with plenty of space for you to diarise the amazingness of 2012"

...and of course, my new Coral Leaf drop earrings available from http://www.mudbird.co.nz/ and http://www.mudbird.felt.co.nz/

I was the lucky recipient of some of these goodies from The Craft Collective raffle and so I want to pay it forward to someone at Christmas time and added a couple of my own designs. All these goodies total over $140!!! Sorry, this is only available for New Zealand addresses :-)

So why you ask... let me tell you...

It doesn’t seem that long ago when my baby boy turned 1, just a few months ago it seems, and I've just realised that Mudbird has officially turned 1. I remember making, making, making, as much as I could when I was heavily pregnant and wanting to be prepared to launch my Felt shop after he was born. Since then I've participated in about 10 markets, bought 2 kilns, endured over 14,000 aftershocks since the BIG Earthquake in September last year, lost lots of stock due to breakages and 3x caged trailer loads worth of personal belongings... all due to breakage and the dreaded silt which flooded into our storage garage & property and destroyed everything in its path twice, been interviewed in the Christchurch Press/Zest newspaper, launched a website & built a studio outside plus many other amazing things!

Funnily enough, my 1^st Felt sale was a donation I made to ‘Felt like Helping Out’, a Felt store set up to raise money for the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal - since then I have made 100 sales which isn’t bad considering the difficulties I have faced this year- and the fact I work at home with my 1yr old with my eldest son just had his first term at school with his big sister (7).

It was this time last year I was in the middle of prepping for my 2nd Christmas market withThe Craft Collective in the lovely Poplar Lane area in Christchurch CBD. I had my 1st 2 markets there, right next to Julia from Relique Jewellery, who has helped me heaps over the year and fun to have markets next to. Sadly a lot of that area was lost in the 22nd February earthquake - but I've still got all the memories.

Big changes, big challenges and it really has been quite amazing! Also together with all you wonderful folk, we have also raised substantial amounts for the 3 Charities I chose to support through the sales of my Emerge Range.

So I’ve been reflecting on and realising the success of my brand – feels like it fell into my lap and it’s very humbling indeed, but in reality I have worked so very hard to get here. I’m usually up past midnight most nights, with the occasional 2am finish. 18 hour days have been tough, especially since I’m a full time Mum as well. I follow in my mother’s footsteps who is such a hard worker & has achieved so much in her lifetime, still achieving at 70! Next year will be a bit different, bit better planned out, studio times ‘booked’ in and markets spaced out (I mean who books four in a row without looking at a calendar!!) ;-)

So to say a HUGE Thank you for all your support & custom through my Felt shop, my Facebook page and my website I want to have this wee ‘Giveway’. it truly has been an amazing year in all aspects and I would not be here with out you all.

To be in to WIN... Enter your details by submitting your name and email address below under "view comments". Or if you prefer, you can email me at MUDBIRD and/or sign up to my newsletter here and just leave a comment below.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

xx Gill