the handmade olympics celebration!

indeed! think like a winner illustration print by the lovely heidi burton

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cue the national anthems!
ready your handmade banners!
get out those cameras!
here come our medallists!

welcome to the 2010 handmade olympics medal party celebrations!!

so glad you could all attend! what a fabulous month and a half of handmaking amazingness it's been!

while you're taking your seats... i've just a few words i'd like to share!
(what olympic event would be complete without a speech?!)

cheers to everyone who nominated, cheered on and encouraged others in handmaking, as part of these fun events!

over 15000 individual votes were cast (i *think* that might be more then voted in our last election! :) {you nicies should run for office the way you've inspired grassroots cheering like this! amazing!}

ah, how folks LOVE the handmade community! your enthusiasm was inspiring! the events were created in the hopes of celebrating handmade, and what a celebration you all helped to create!

congrats to ALL of the fabulous nominees, the amazing folks shortlisted for each event, and now, to our medallists!

thanks to everyone who played.
hope it encouraged you, at the very least, to get your wonderful work out there, and to cheer on others in our lovely handmaking village! whether you played, voted, created or cheered, i think we all play a great part in building our amazing handmaking community, together!
thanks for being part of it!

indeed, most of all, let's take a cue from those *other* olympic athletic competitors to achieve our own handmaking bests... dream big, weather the ups & downs, keep trying, surround yourself with great, encouraging folks, and most of all... believe in your self, your creations, and your fabulous work!

without further ado... as nominated by YOU, shortlisted by our fabulous judges, and voted on by YOU, our medallists (whose prizes total over $2000 worth of handmade & vintage goodness) in the 2010 handmade olympics ARE.....

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gold: typography soap by soapylove
silver: clutch purse by made by hank
bronze:TIE reusable vegetable bags by wonderthunder &
organic tree bark vessel by charlotte hupfield ceramics

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gold: Princess and the Pea Set by Treefall Design
silver: Indoor Play Teepee by Moozle Home
bronze: Woodland Mobile by Pink Perch
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gold: telephone wire earrings by lalipourie
silver: pistachio shell flower brooch by reloveddesigns
bronze: eco wedding dress by threadhead
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gold: Handwoven Superwash Wool Sweater Rag Rug by fiveforty
silver: Wings of Iris Necklace by jewelera
bronze: Zen Bordeaux - girl and women linen shoes by LaLaShoes

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gold: Lucy from Attic 24
silver: Hearts for Haiti
bronze: TIE: Margaret from The Resurrection Fern blog
& The Toy Society
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gold: the fancy lamb
silver: maya*made
bronze: betz white
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gold: instant party by bunny with a toolbelt
silver: love gnomes by sewn Natural
bronze: rub ons by yaelfran
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gold: feeling stitchy
silver: the long thread
bronze: pins + paper
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woohooo!

in the event of two nominees coming within one vote of each other, i awarded a tie. ;)

i look forward to featuring some of our fabulous medallists in the upcoming months.
and i especially look forward to continuing to cheer on the handmade community!

personally, i've found myself a whole bevy of amazing new artists to adore, and happily rediscovered many faves! and thanks to the many of you who have told me you've loved them, too!

so grab a beverage (i'm on my 4th coffee!)
take a visit through the medallists fabulous work, meet some new handmaking friends,
and enjoy the celebrations!
thanks, nicies!
what a fabulous party it's been!

thanks again to our sponsors:
adorn+cherish
alex keller
artisan clay
blomma finds blog
blueshinebaby
chakrapennywhistle
craftgasm
crafterall
crow+iris
dot handmade
empty nest
fluur
the framed frog
funkey monkey company
green violet vintage
hazel & harlow
jadite kate
june shin
kalla studios
karuski
little bit of pretty
the little red door
lucindas nice things
luttrell studio
michele maule
michmade
mousetrap vintage
open stock party
paisley baby
papermode
the peach tree
plushroom soup
polarity
pom love
remaker
rikrak
rikrak studio blog
rj charms
small grapes fabrics
tangente
themefragrance
too aquarius

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happy july 4th with a little red, white & blue!

happy red white & blue to all of the lovely handmaking nicies in the USA!

seen here: some little handmade sustainable goodies from the rikrak shop, including quilted wallets, fabric & paper tags, eco gift wrap, quilted clutches, eco. bibs , iron-on birdies, fabric stitch cards, teatowel pillowcases & more!

hope you have a happy, celebratory weekend, lovelies!
see you monday!

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let's celebrate: architechture! doors open ottawa

inside the wonderful national gallery of canada
photo by Intrepide98

i just love architecture.
i've been a longtime fan of amazing buildings & fabulous structures. and one of the many funfun things our lovely city of ottawa celebrates each year is the amazing architechture all around us with *doors open!*

yay!
so this weekend, throughout our lovely city, folks are celebrating *doors open* : a rare chance to glimpse inside some of our city's most amazing buildings.

the ottawa experimental farm by Lin-Na Tan via the doorsopenottawa photostream

first of all, it's free! wonderful!
2nd, doors open is a fabulous chance to see many usually *private* buildings from the inside out, just for one or two days a year! this year, there are 108 buildings opening up to the public in ottawa. in the past few years, the family rikrak has been amazed and thrilled to explore the Canada Post Mail Processing Plant (you know how i love mail! - it was AMAZING in there seeing the letters whirrr past as cyber speed!), the Brittania Water Purification Plant (seeing how that works was so fascinating!) , and various science labs, goverment buildings, embassies and places of worship!

many museums and art galleries are also free over the weekend, like my very favourite, the National Gallery of Canada! woohoo!

started in 1984 in France, the doors open movement has spread throughout Europe. in 2000, toronto was the first city in north america to celebrate it's heritage buildings with doors open toronto! and soon the fun spread throughout ontario. according to the doors open ontario website, numerous other destinations, including new york, denver, newfoundland & alberta celebrate doors open each year!

so check your local doors open calendar, OR maybe encourage your own municipality heritage group to think about it!

interior detailing of the Chateau Laurier by georgia.g

it's a wonderful way to see, up close, the amazing architecture of our hometowns and cities. and i think a wonderful way to garner appreciation for the beautiful buildings that are part of our everyday designerly lives!

does your city participate?
if you had the chance, what's a building in the world that you'd love to see inside? i'd love to hear!

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tulips!

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tulips pillow by chakrapennywhistle
tulip skirt by Ureshii
tulip bag by morelle
hat tulipe for children by cocon
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i love my lovely city. ottawa is a really great place.
one of the reasons i think so is because of ottawa's amazing array of fun festivals!

this town sure knows how to celebrate things! we've talked before about ottawa's wonderful winterlude festival. this season here in ottawa, we're celebrating tulips!

isn't that a great reason to have a festival?
wonderful. so simple! let's celebrate tulips!

so if you can make it to canada's pretty capital this weekend, come and enjoy the final festival festivities. lots of beautiful beds of tulips. wonderful concerts. readings. fairs and more.
yay tulips!

hope you have a great weekend.
don't forget to enter my little twitter giveaway (thru monday!)
and have fun celebrating all those wonderful, little things in life... like tulips!


the Peace Tower @ Parliament Hill, Ottawa via Troy and Naomi's photostream


under tulips photo by emmarts


Tulip fields just outside Alkmaar, North-Holland, Netherlands via Allard One's photostream


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{ps: thanks so much playing the fun game yesterday!
i loved reading all of your answers, nicies! }

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let's celebrate: roadtrips home!

road side fine art photo by chelseadosset

(editor's note: our roadtrip home, sadly, looks nothing like above photo! :)

ah. roadtrips. sweet roadtrips. we drove home tonight, after a glorious little weekend visit seeing our lovely lovely family. great talks, beautiful walks, yummy foods, chocolate chocolate & more chocolate...

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here's the roadtrip home itinerary:

playlist: our "80's dance party car tunes" via the ipod (think: lotsa early 80's, seat-dancing hits to jive to, sing out loud to) on repeat for 5 hours.

menu: yummy snacks packed by my wonderful mom. sigg's full of water. far-too many cups of coffee. the remains of the easter hunt treats.

on the agenda: the usual round-up of fun-filled car games: many many rounds of 20 questions, " favourites ", i spy, license-plate bingo. add a dash of spring bird watching, lego space centre buildling. travel-agency playing, mommy & daddy chatting, funny joke-telling, etc.you get the idea.

stop-overs: off the highway twice to drive up to the river (or down to the lake), to play frisbee. a couple of times for more coffee/pitstop breaks!

weather: beau-ti-ful spring!

travelmates: the cutest boys ever (mr. rikrak and little rikrak, to be sure!)

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so great to see our family over the weekend.
and now, so nice to be home, sweet, home.

how about your roadtrips these days. any usual fun stops, games, chats, menus, etc?

hope you had a great weekend.
see you tomorrow! Pin It

a great little moment in time!

photo of President Obama on Parliament Hill, Ottawa.

taken by little rikrak, age 5 , up on daddy's shoulders,
(edited by mommy!). taken 19.02.09

oh goodness! we just got back from a wonderful little trek downtown... to see President Obama! he arrived in our lovely Ottawa this morning, and we joined 1000s of other fans on Parliament Hill to cheer his arrival. it was great! we didn't even really think we'd see him. all the reports said we wouldn't. but we all just wanted him to see us, as canadians, cheering him on! we hoped he'd see how very very much we respect, admire & appreciate him as a leader. and it was super! so many fun folks. such a great spirit in the crowd. seeing little rikrak so excited about just glimpsing at history. and then...he arrived! the crowd waited. cheered. hoped. lots of cars in the motorcade.. and then... a glimpse of him! standing at the foot of the peace tower. the clock @ 11.45. and he smiled that great smile & waved! there was an electric, tearful, joyful cheer that errupted! fantastic! what a great time!

now i've been thinking lots this week about time. the passage of time. milestones: my own little celebrations, and all of the wonderful reasons to celebrate that so many of you have shared for the giveaway. (thank you! i love reading them. what amazing tales folks are sharing!!). i think of chakra pennywhistle's vintage cameras and all of the special times and events folks record. and now today there is another great little moment in time!

these are surely difficult times for many folks, for many reasons. but i think it's also an inspiring time. there are great things going on... just check out some of the amazing stories folks are celebrating today in the giveaway comments! it's really inspiring! so in honour of a great time ... and seeing an inspiring scene in front of our lovely peace tower clock this morning (see above photo by my little sweetie!) ... some beautiful clocks for you... to help show that the passage of time can be such a lovely lovely thing.

handmade doily clock by andfurthermore

RND wall clock via momentoitalia's photostream

vintage sunbeam clock via bythewayside

handmade splat red bamboo clock by pilotdesign

recycled bike wheel clock handmade by pixelthis

GE vintage wall clock via atouchofvintage

george nelson vintage clock via monitorpop's photostream

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