My Day Monday

On the wings of the dragonfly

Clockwise from top left: vadjutka, AliBaliJewellery, kirevi, BlueTerracotta.

My newest listing is another Goga wristlet/clutch, this time a little more luxurious edition, made from plum purple chenille and adorned with golden lace trim and a large antiques brass dragonfly charm. My entry for this week's EST challenge, hosted by lucietales, entitled "The roaring 20's"

The challenge - And the winner is...

I want to thank you all who entered their work in this week's EST challenge, following my theme Marie Antoinette.

I had to choose among these 10 beautiful entries:

:: Marie Antoinette's never experienced romantic voyage in Africa cuff by LaTouchables,

:: a more contemporary, Kirsten Dunst's version of Marie Antoinette in sneakers by Ginaregina,

:: stunning set of knotted frozen-like lace earrings and necklace by staroftheeast,

:: amazing back-in-time pearls and cameo choker by helmitarha,

:: very clever transformation of painted porcelain plate into a necklace by Anakit,

:: nostalgic deep blue swarovski crystal necklace by LeelaBijou,

:: breathtaking antique treasure lace made into a decadent collar by lucietales,

:: soft as a cloud silk-merino-cashmere cape for those chilly nights at Versailles by nauliknits,

:: sweet rococo flowers from Marie Antoinette's country gardens by DinaFragola and

:: lovely sparkling chandeliers of Versailles earrings by gr8jewellery.

Imposible to chose the winner but one has to be named in order to select the next week's challenge theme...

So... when I think of rococo, the first thing that comes to mind are pastel coloured bouquets of flowers everywhere, wide damask crinoline skirts with flower embroidery and silk flowers, birds and butterflies, embedded in perruques and hats of Versailles ladies...

Well, everybody knows I like flowers, right?

So I chose DinaFragola's tiny flower bed necklace - congratulations, Nathalie!

European Street Team Challenge

My Mia pouch won the last week's challenge entitled "stripes" and hosted by Estella from Star Of The East - which means I get to chose the new theme!

And inspired by my new homeland (and not the famous, but falsely attributed quote), I chose:

Marie Antoinette.

OK, she was Austrian by birth, but you know what I mean, right.

Excessive, over the top wigs, jewellery, clothes, cakes, dogs and furniture. As an illustration I borrowed a picture of one of my favourite hand sewn dolls by the amazing Heather Louise from The Doll Farm.

Deadline for your entries is next Monday evening. You can send me the link to your new listing through Etsy conversations...

Let the games begin!

::::::::::::::::::::::: and here are your entries :::::::::::::::::::::::::

Marie Antoinette in Africa by LaTouchables

lacey cuff with buffalo horn buttons

Marie Antoinette wears sneakers by Ginaregina

recycled denim cuff with lace

Earrings and necklace by staroftheeast

hand knotted lace

Marie Antoinette necklace choker by helmitarha

pearls and cameo

Marie Antoinette porcelain enamel necklace by Anakit

china plate pendant

Atlantis necklace by LeelaBijou

swarovski crystal and silver plated findings

Marie Antoinette versatile lace collar by lucietales

three neck pieces in one

Cape Elletra by nauliknits

for those cold nights at the castle...

Marie Antoinette flowery necklace by DinaFragola

golden filigree base with flowers

Versailles earrings by gr8jewellery

The challenge

It is time to start participating in European Street team's weekly challenge again - each theme gets picket by the last week's winner and after that we get one week to list theme related items in our Etsy shops.

This week it's all abour stripes, a theme chosen by Estella from staroftheeast.

I chose to make a zipper pouch from the most cheerful of my striped basque canvas collection - a kind of srawberry lemon sorbet with a slice of lime on top. I even found a pink candy striped cotton satin to line the pouch with...

Mia zippered pouch in pink, green and yellow stripes

The challenge winner will be announced on staroftheeast's blog on Monday at the end of the day.

Another challenge entry

I am participating in another European Street Team's challenge - this week it is hosted by Dawn of LaTouchables, who runs a unique Etsy shop, full of gorgeous bags and accessories.

The new theme is self portrait and I chose all my favourite fabrics and colours to make this Pupa shoulder bag, called Simply Me. I love the red flowery lace trim I bought years ago - it makes me smile every time I look at it. I like drawing with thread and this time I used some thick embroidery thread to make decorative stitches on both sides of the bag. They remind me of nonsense drawings I doodle while I'm talking on the phone; the drawings often turn into flowers without me even being aware of it...

The new shoulder bag is now available in my shop!

k

You can see all the other challenge entries at Dawn's blog.

BEA the boyfriendly tote

My latest listing (and the last for some time - at least until I set up my work space again in the new home) is this large city tote made from black denim and cheerful striped canvas.

It is a Valentine's day handbag with a bit of humour, inspired by this week's European Street Team's challenge. The theme is "Bring your inner child out to play" and HERE are all the entries, in a blog post by enchantedhue, who won last week's challenge.

The boyfriendly tote has a reinforced, zippered "boyfriendly" pocket in the back to store your date's wallet - so he never has to fish it out of the depths of your handbag, trying to avoid the lipstick and the tampax during his search...

The tote has two comfortable shoulder straps, a cotton lining with flowery pattern, an interior pocket and it closes with a magnetic clasp.

My EST challenge entry

I've just listed my first ever entry for European Street Team's weekly challenge.

This week's theme was Friendship. I've made a black denim tote with embroidered tulip on the front, growing out of a striped canvas pocket. On the back is a small embroidered watering can; for friendship is like a flower - if you want it to bloom, you have to water it regularly!

You can see all the entries for the theme Friendship at the blog post of last week's challenge winner, Kim from viltalakim, HERE.

Woman at work

Yesterday I started working on a new tote, trying out some new fabric I have bought recently (nice and heavy black denim) and matching it with colourful pieces of the handwoven basque cloth.

My initial inspiration was spring (Christmas isn't even here and I'm already fed up with winter and the icy cold), but it later evolved as I decided to join this week's challenge, organized by Etsy's European Street Team.

The amazing ladies from EST meet every day in the forum thread, where they discuss everything, from their creative progress to cooking recipes&cold remedies and share all the latest listings, Treasury lists and blog posts. Every Monday the new theme is announced by the winner of the last week's challenge and then members have one week to make and list an item, inspired by the theme.

The challenge (and the relatively short deadline) seems to bring out the best in everyone, giving amazing results, each creating an item in their own signature look. This week the theme is "friendship" and you can follow the listed items as the last week's winner, Kim from viltalakim, posts them on her blog.

We meet back here in a day or so if you want to know what the final result of my challenge attempt looks like...

Update 19-12-09

See the final result HERE.

And thanks to Laura from BlueTerracotta, another fellow ESTsian, my Bee mine decorative heart was featured in recent Treasury West along with some delicious honey/caramel items. Thank you!