Thursday, September 30, 2010

blog-a-thon!



happy thursday, cutiepies!

thought we'd start a fun new tradition here on the blog today - it's the end of a wonderful month & i 'd just love love love to thank you all for coming by & playing!

so leave us a link to your own blog + it'll be a superfun way to meet new folks + share your writings with everyone!

can't wait to visit all of YOUR beautiful blogs!
have a great day, sweeties!

{ps: have a gorgeous online shop? add your link to *my talented, talented friends* page here for all to see, too! } 


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603 + 41

some happy congrats to dole out this morning, nicies!


congrats to the winner of the beautiful 3squares giveaway... random.org's #41 ... the talented waterrose! i'm an adoring fan of waterrose - so many congrats, nicey! visit her gorgeous handmade shop with embroidery to swoon over at every turn! yay!


and our 2nd congrats to the winner fo the september * i love my sponsors * giveway .. congrats to #603 ... gale of scribbleprints. just love your fabulous zazzle shop nicey - such great artwork!

it's such a pleasure to see the talented folks who are entering the great giveaways on the blog, nicies! bravo artistic superstars! bravo.

still time to enter the paper in style giveaway, fun ones!

AND... the last DAY to save save save in my BUY 3 stockings, get the 4th FREE sale in my rikrak shop!

and i'm back in a jiffy for a fun party on the blog today! come see!
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

collection & a giveaway: with paper in style







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i just love seeing what folks are collecting. i guess i kind of feel it tells us just a little bit about what inspires them, what they love, and what they choose to surround themselves with in their home. today, i'm delighted to present the next in the rikrak studio's collections series: 11 & a 1/2 quick questions with a wonderful artist on what they're collecting, (apart from their art supplies! ) you can also check out my new *the collectors* series on Etsy, based on these posts! hope you'll just love: vintage spools with Ceylan!
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who (are you): My name is Ceylan of Paper in Style.

what (are you collecting): I collect vintage wooden spools.

when (did you start): I started collecting spools in January 2010.

how (many do you have?): I have about 50 and always looking for unique ones!

where (do you find them): I found quite a few in antique shops in RI, on Ebay, of course on Etsy. Anita who is the owner of Rolling Hills Vintage always emails me when she gets new and unique ones.

where (do you keep them): I keep them in my craft room since I used them in my pictures for other shop package in style.

what (‘s a crazy/interesting story behind one): Each one of these has its own story, a life they led before finding me...

what (piece would you like to add): I am looking forward to my trip to Europe this summer, where I will be hunting for vintage spools!

why (do you love them): I love the details on these spools, the colors, the scratches: Some have seen harder days than others, each spool has its on tale that I will always be wondering about.

which (one is your favourite) & why: The one that has red ribbon on is my favorite. I found it hiding in a corner at the bottom of a vase in an antique store in RI! I also love the little tree shaped ones that I've got from Anita.

what (else do you collect): I recently started collecting vintage ribbon. Some of my favorites are on package in style.








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thanks so much, ceylan! what a great collection! i love the way you've given a new life to each spool, too! wonderful!

come visit ceylan's two lovely shops: package in style + paper in style for something great 
{ & eco friendly! }  to add to your own at home collections!


find ceylan @


AND... now 2 lucky rikrak studio readers will each WIN a fabulous prize...


--> one of 2 personalized stationery sets <---
one person will WIN a bamboo stationery set
one person will WIN a green dandelions stationery set









1. visit the lovely Paper in Style shop. 
...  tell us about your favourite goodie & why you love it!
=   1 entry


2. visit the beautiful Package in Style shop. 
... tell us about your favourite goodie & why you love it!
=  1 entry

3. follow BOTH paper in style (she's http://twitter.com/paperinstyle) & the rikrak shop (that's me! twitter.com/therikrakshopon twitter
... & tell us.
= 1 entry

4. friend paper in style on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/paperinstyle
... & tell us. 
= 1 entry

5.  follow or subscribe to the rikrak studio blog
... & tell us.
= 1 entry


6. tweet on twitter
... about this giveaway and come back here and tell us! be sure to include @therikrakshop so i can find you! 
= 1 entry

7. blog about this giveaway
... come back and tell us.
= 1 entry

8. grab one of my NEW rikrak studio buttons,
like this one from the left hand sidebar, for YOUR BLOG!


the rikrak studio



the rikrak studio

and add it to your blog!
{ ... just copy & paste the text in the box above  onto your blog sidebar! thanks! }


9. :: PLEASE NOTE ::
each entry must be it's own comment.
thanks!


..........................................
:: RULES ::
a) it is possible to have a maximum of 8 entries total per person.
b) please make sure to leave each entry as it's own comment. thanks!

c) using random.org, 2 winners of the paper in style giveaway will be chosen on thursday october 7th @ 11pm EST.
d) open to contestants worldwide.
e) please be sure to leave me an email where i can reach you if your account doesn't link to one. thanks.

 
................................................



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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

fill-in-the-blanks interview with brilliant blogger: sandy a la mode!


it's a fun new series on the blog, nicies! a fill-in-the-blank interview with some of our favourite super-bloggers from around the blogosphere that inspire each of us everyday with their writings! we all know that brilliant bloggers spend so much of their precious time crafting the perfect posts. so  i thought we'd give our fave wordsmiths a little break: i sent each nicey a page full of fill-in-the-blanks questions { my words in pink } ...  & they filled them in with their insights { their words in grey/gray! }  hope you'll enjoy fill-in-the-blanks with our next brilliant blogger: the lovely sandy of sandy a la mode!



Hi all!  I’m super excited to be featured here on the fabulous rikrak studio blog! {editor's note: thanks, cutie! so honoured to have you! }

I'm Sandy from Sandy a la Mode, a blog and more recently, an etsy shop!

I love cupcakes & traveling & shopping for dresses.



I blog about my photography, baking, sewing adventures as well as inspirational finds over here: http://www.sandyalamode.com/.

{You might be surprised to hear that I travel almost every other week, to cities all over the world, for my full-time job.}

Beyond blogging, my perfect afternoon would be: a picnic, with my husband, eating ice cream, talking about our next vacation (hopefully Australia), listening to Billboard Top 100 songs.

I'm a huge fan of frozen yogurt with mochi + strawberries.

Here's my favourite photo of myself.
I love the photo because that camera strap cover was the first thing I’ve ever sewn and made me realize that I could be a crafty person.  Also, most of the time, you can find me behind my camera.

I just finished sewing a bunch of mini drawstring bags for my etsy shop.  To celebrate my grand opening, I am offering them for FREE with every order.

I love making anything with puff pastry & sugar.
 
The sunshine makes me happy & ice storms make me sad (and really cold).


A word I love to overuse is “amazing”.

And I may have made up the word “dramaful.”

I HEART blogging!

Taking pictures for the blog and meeting new bloggers inspires me to keep on posting!

I began blogging to document my journey in cooking, sewing and photography and now I blog about inspirations, our basement renovation progress and other DIYs as well.

What amazes me about blogging is that there is such a VAST community of encouraging, supportive bloggers out there!

My 3 tips to a great blog would be:
pictures
content
& humor.

Gosh! It's challenging blogging when I have a full-time job, travel all the time, have all this housework,
but fear not, I just try and schedule up posts ahead of time on the weekends so I’m not AS busy on the weekdays trying to blog.  It doesn’t always work out that way, but I try! J

One of my favorite blog posts I've ever written is this one on the baby shower I planned for my friend. 

 
I documented with photos the food we prepared, the decorations we made and the games we played.

I spend a lot of time reading other blogs.

I love the rikrak studio blog because it's fun and has posts about a vast variety of topics. { editor's note: superthanks sweetie! }

and I can’t help but check the bright side project blog because it's got giveaways every Monday, Wednesday and Friday – who doesn’t love giveaways?.

and of course the oh hello friend blog is beautiful because it's always got a daily dose of inspiration.

One thing I wish I had learned sooner in bloggyville is that it is super addicting.

and don't worry: if I can get myself to close my computer lid then I can step away for from blogging for awhile and enjoy the fresh air haha.

My favourite part of blogging is that I have been able to meet so many blogger friends online and even some in person.

However, I could do without spam comments.

Something regular happening on my blog these days is my Friday Flavors to Follow posts.  



sandy a la mode


Hope you all enjoyed reading a little bit more about me, a fellow blogger and friend.  OK time for me to go, ice cream is calling my name! 

......................


yay!
thanks so much, sandy, for your inspiring words!
be sure to visit sandy around the web.. she's such an amazing superwoman! 
& please leave her a hello here, too!

happy blogging, nicies!
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Monday, September 27, 2010

:: inspired reading :: the imaginary garden with guest blogger deanna


watching the clouds go by print: jennifer lommers



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i've asked a dear friend, deanna, to be my first-ever guest blogger! she's always inspiring me with her wisdom + wit, kindness + generosity, supermommying + love of handmade. she's a delight & i know you'll love her too. in her series: inspired reading, deanna shares & discusses a fabulous book,  as well as a beautiful indie-find garnered by her reading of it. yay to  great books & great friends!

...................

During a recent camping trip, my little reader and I decided to investigate the woods near our campsite. As we were stuffing our pockets full of red leaves and collecting handfuls of acorns, I realized that summer was ending. Fall is a beautiful season, my favorite in fact, but as September departs, I'm already mourning the end of those lazy summer days in the park, me and my little reader laying on a blanket under the trees, perfect blue sky above the canopy, all the neighborhood gardens in bloom, gladiolus and hollyhocks, towering sunflowers peeking over fences. I will miss it all.

Then this morning, I pulled from the shelf a new favorite book: The Imaginary Garden, written by Andrew Larsen and illustrated by Irene Luxbacher. This charming children's story centers on the tender relationship between Theodora and her grandfather, Poppa. Poppa and Theo love gardening together, but when Poppa moves to an apartment, his new balcony proves too windy to accommodate a real garden. Theo is heartbroken by the thought of going without flowers, but she and Poppa soon discover the perfect solution when Poppa props a large canvas against the balcony wall. Donning gardening hats, Poppa and Theo take up their paintbrushes and set to work creating a beautiful imaginary garden.

Today I asked my little reader if she'd like to make an imaginary garden of our own. It would be as simple, I told her, as going to the art supply store and buying the biggest canvas that I could carry. We'll get out our paint bottles and brushes, put on old t-shirts, and lay the canvas on the lawn. Together we'll paint petals and stems, grass and leaves, dirt and sky, and more than enough sunshine to see us through the colder months ahead.

...................


about the blog author: Deanna does most of her reading in Guelph, Ontario, where she's a stay-at-home Mom to a spunky 5-year-old daughter. Besides reading, she spends her time writing, baking, and hanging out at the park.

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wonderful! thanks so much dear deanna!
little rikrak + i love this book, too! and we loved how it inspired handmaking with kids, too!
so how about you?
have you read the imaginary garden?
what did it inspire in you?
read a book that's inspired YOU lately? 
please tell us! we'd love to hear!

have a create-your-own-fun kinda day, nicies!
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congrats!

 
 
happy monday, cutiepies!
hope you had a fabulous weekend! we had lots of fun with family that's visiting from out of town! yay!

so let's start off the week by awarding some congrats! thanks to all of you who entered the amazing tanis alexis giveaway! fun to read what you're all having *love affairs* with these days! random.org chose #27!... jen osborn of *the messy nest!*

be sure to visit jen's fabulous site: filled with inspiration + ideas! you'll love it!

and fear not, lovelies: still 2 more rikrak studio giveaways you can enter today: 

(ENDS tomorrow!)

and

and i'll be back in a bit with an inspiring guest-blogger post you won't want to miss!



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Friday, September 24, 2010

sharing love

i love you card by pistachiopress
.......................
how do you share your love?
i'd love to hear!

in this whole wide world there is nothing i love more then my wonderful, fun, thoughtful family.

and this past weekend we celebrated a glorious family milestone: the most-fabulous wedding of my darling brother and my glorious new sister! it was the most wonderful of times:

some things remembered:

  • i'm so lucky to have a family that shows and shares their love.
  • it was an honour to be part of such a sincere + loving event and be warmed by amazing person after amazing person articulating so beautifully: by their words, in song, by their actions;  how they loved my brother and my new sister, D + A. 
  • it was so wonderful to have everyone affirm how D + A had inspired their lives, filled all of our lives with love and generousity,  and to smile at how they spread kindness + thoughtfulness everywhere they go. 

it was, no doubt, the gosh-darned-est most loving, most lovely, most filled-with-sharing-love wedding i've ever been to.

i love you nicies so much, d + a.
thanks for spreading love everywhere you go.

so.. i ask... how do we show our love, nicies?
how do you communicate with those around you {that mean so much to you!}  that you love and appreciate them?
a note?
a call?
a visit? 
a hug?

how can we as parents, aunts, teachers help inspire our children to be loving people who can express their love in wonderful,healthy ways? 

what are some ways others have shown YOU love that you appreciate? 
here's to spreading love this weekend, nicies, and to letting those around know how much they mean to us!
love loves!
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

your 2010 festival looks revealed!


 knit frekkles charms in ...

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ulixis lights up the red carpet in ...


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travelinmama sparkles in ...
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vadjutka delights in ...

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Anne-Marie looks sweet in .. 

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good heavens ... you beauties look gorgeous!
so move over hollywood starlets!
zillion-dollar designer outfits have nothing on our amazing handmaking community!

i asked you to join me on the RED CARPET at the Toronto International Film Festival  (shield your pretty eyes from the blinding paparazzi flash bulbs, cuties!) .. so now you can join me in oohing and aahing at today's handmade & vintage TIFF looks!

thanks again so much to everyone who played.
sorry i couldn't include everyone this time around. but you all look STUNNING!

so yay to handmade + vintage!

& how lucky your celebrity dates are escorting you!
see you at the *afterparties*, cutiepies.

and have a glamorous, megawatt-smile day, nicies, whether your strutting your stuff on the red carpet or dancing in your kitchen.
see you tomorrow,  superstars!


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rags by sock monkey rocks the red carpet in ...

 .................. 

 ira grant looks gorgeous in ...


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Jacaranda Designs sparkles i ... 

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UNA looks stunning in ... 
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

come advertise with the rikrak studio blog!

 
 
i just love my sponsors! i'm so thankful for their kind and artistic support each month! and i'm just delighted with how things are going, growing here on the blog with you lovelies. thank you!

so i'm very happy to be offering a few new ad spots as of today for OCTOBER if you're interested!

with october comes a readying for the BIG holiday season, and i hope it might be a perfect time to showcase your beautiful shops & blogs for all of those early bird handmade shoppers out there!

if you feel that your shop, group or blog would be a good fit with the rikrak studio blog feel & focus, and are interested in rates, please email me at 
---> rikrakmail @ yahoo.com <---.

there's lots of continued fun coming up on the blog: funfun guests, little inspirations, more fabulous giveaways you're not going to want to miss, great games, fantastic features and, as always, a few extra fun surprises, too. being part of the fun is a great way to boost sales, increase exposure and build your little business in the handmade community, too!

i'm a handmaker & mommy and know it's a challenging economic time out there... so i try to keep the rates nice & reasonable.

i also love designing ads for folks that need them, too.
so just let me know if i can help!

so come & be part of the fun!
thanks so much, lovelies!
k.
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