Friday is my day: Sigmosaics

Yey! Today we will ride to sunny Portugal and meet sweet Kerrin from Sigmosaics.etsy.com and her cute 3 little "musketeers". She makes, as you can guess, beautiful mosaic works from Portuguese ceramic tiles and found pieces of ceramic, stones, gems, mirror, glass...

Please visit her Etsy shop!

(click any photo to enter the shop)

Square mother of pearl mosaic hanging ball
by Sigmosaics

Well hello there .. I'm Kerrin. I'm a kiwi girl who has lived in Portugal for the past 7 years .. I'm 'mummy' to 3 wonderful children and well, here's my friday ..

Arrrrrgh, it's 7am and the sweet dulcet tones of my inbuilt etsy alarm clock goes off in my head (don't you have the same one? .. you know, it's been 7 or 8 hours since the last etsy fix and all)

I sneak downstairs (REALLY I do) and look forward to my half hour of 'etsy' time alone .. just me and the laptop .. oh and my BIG mug of coffee. So while the coffee perks in the machine I jump into Etsy feet first! Swing by the EST thread (gotta say hi to the team), check and see if any miracles have occured overnight .. sigh .. nothing today, then read wonderful convo's from gorgeous people all over the world (LOVE that part) .. have a quick check of my emails ..

Pitter patter .. pitter patter .. here comes a sleepy 3 year old girl .. BIG good morning cuddles and kisses, followed soon after by her 5 year old brother and then as per usual I have to go and wake his twin sister!!!!

'Mummy we are hungry!!!' 8.15am ('ish) we make the breakfast, we're a toast family .. I usually have my 2nd cup of coffee right about now (I have breakfast once I get back from dropping the kids at the kindy) .. oh and that's MY coffee alongside their toast (I usually grab the huge and enormous Noddy cup .. )

8.45am 'Are you dressed yet?' .. 'where are your shoes?' .. ' Get your pants on!' .. 'NO, put your undies on first!!!' .. all of this screamed out whilst showering.
9.00am ('ish) we are buckled up in our car seats and ready to go.

Everybody say 'bye house' .. 'BYE HOUSE' !!!

Kindy is a 5 minute drive up the road .. yay! This is us driving up the road .. good thing there are no police around this morning cause i'm driving like a mad crazy thing trying to take photo's at the same time!

Bye bye my dears .. now it's time to get the bread! Every single morning I go to our local cafe to buy the yummy freshly baked bread .. no i don't own a bread maker, that's just wishful thinking.

On the way back down the hill I notice an elderly woman doing her laundry at one of the public 'laundry' areas (yes, they do exist here and yes, there are people that use them) .. I notice she's got her bottle of wine lined up next to her washing powder (go figure) .. I've slowed to a stop to take this photo and she doesn't see me.

Home again .. usual time consuming and mundane chores to be done before I can get to do my work! No, i don't have a cleaner .. again wishful thinking!

Finally I have my time .. I am looking at the pile of new dishes and bowls that are just screaming to be mosaic'd and rub my hands together in glee ...

12.15pm and my tummy begins to rumble. Today my 5 year old daughter prepared me lunch because she knew I would be taking a photo of my lunch today .. she made me a pot of french fries AND a fried chicken leg .. ooh, it looks so much yummier than my cheese and tomato sandwich! I've sneaked a few treats from the kids lolly basket .. ha ha!

I have a bit of time to continue to chip away at a very long 'work in progress' project .. (and yep, another coffee .. with Noddy .. )

Today there's no time to grout any new pieces it's already kindy pick up time! (for the month of June they finish at 1.30pm) so i'm grabbing the keys and racing out the door to shoot up the road to get the kids.

Play time .. YAY! Anyone for a game of hide and seek?

OOoooooooh, family portrait time ..everybody say cheese ...

Would you like to meet my friend? His name is Henry and he's my octopus .. I made him around 3 years ago to adorn the wall beside the BBQ ..

Jeepers, it's crept up to 5.30 pm and that means inside time and dinner preparation time (and of course a quick Etsy check in time) .. ha ha .. go on admit it, you are as addicted as I am!

6.30pm .. I'm a HUGE fan of one pot (or in this case tonight, one pan) cooking .. so we are having a Fritatta with salad .. sooooooo easy and yummy!

7.15pm .. quick quick quick .. get those rascals upstair for a soak in the bath, scrubbed, out .. into Pj's .. read stories and now .. te he he .. they can have 1/2 an hour of watching 'Winx' while I have a quick chat with the gals (and occasional boys) on the thread ..

Time to brush your teeth kiddies!!! 'bathroom now!'

And now my 3 darlings have a little message they would like to share with you ...

8.30pm-9pm kids are sleeping .. yay!
9pm to midnight ('ish) it's my time to work, to catch up on emails, convo's, news, read the online New Zealand newspaper, chat with friends etc .. try to chip away at another mosaic project
Around midnight .. bedtime. Always without fail (I guess only because I don't have a man in my life at the moment ha ha!!) I read upon going to bed .. 2 minutes or 2 hours, it doesn't matter, reading my books is my way of unwinding from the day!!

Friday is my day: JaneBoFelt

Hello and good Friday to all! Today we will fly to Moscow, Russia and meet Jane from JaneBoFelt. She makes very beautiful felted accessories; scarves, brooches, necklaces, hats...I think you should visit her shop after this flight :)

(click any photo to go to the shop)

Felted flower brooch pin Orange brown yellow
by JaneBoFelt

Hello! My name is Jane. I live in Moscow, Russia. Two years ago I discovered felting technique and now I’m making felted accessories and cloths. And since January I start to sell my items on Etsy.
I’m mother of 2years 9months old son and my days are almost the same but I really like this.
Usually I wake up at 7-00. It takes me 15 minute to go to shower and then I go to wake my son up. He is so sweet when sleeping. But we have to bring him to kindergarden till 8-30... He wake up quickly and go to say “morning” to his toys –

Today hubby bring my son to kindergarden and I stay at home alone and have breakfast. It’s big cup of green tea, bread with cheese and youghurt. Today I add big almond cake).

It’s not good but usually I eat breakfast in front of computer – checking Etsy, mails, news.
And then I’m ready to do some work. Yesterday I felted hat and now I take photo to send it to customer. Here, near light wall I make most of my photos (when I can not make it outside).

Ok, done, picture was sent to customer, hope she likes it. And it’s not all, she ordered the scarf as well! Summer here is not long (2.5-3 months) so people prepare for winter, I think:).We (me, hubby, our son) are living on the 14th floor of big house. Our flat is not big, so I make my felted projects on big table in the kitchen, it’s my workplace –

It takes time to do the scarf, time is passing and at 14 o’clock I’m hungry and prepare dinner for myself - some simple – “grechka” - buckwheat (I found this word in vocabulary, I heard that this “kasha” is popular only in Russia, it may be grown only in cold climate, it’s very healthy), cheese again ( I love it!), tomato and greens.

And you see, I’m again eating near computer... I’m checking mail, Etsy, my Russian shop, blog, Flickr, etc.After dinner I need to rest from felting the scarf . Look at my new projects – some felted and crocheted jewerly –

I usually have several project in progress – begin something new when I have got the idea and don’t finish previousJ. I must be more organized).Today I have not to go to PO (it’s bad) and to buy food (it’s well) so I’m working at home till 16-00. Before going out I look at the room, almost all is in order besides too many toys –

And I go to pick my son from kindergarden. The weather is fine and after this we go for a walk. There is big park (we call it ”small forest”) not far from our house

After short walking we go by metro (it’s near our house too) three station and we are on the outskirts of Moscow. My son by bike and I running after him by foot, we reach the place where we are hope to live soon, this will be our future house –

I hope in this house I’ll have my own studil for felting. Today hubby has spare day and he’s working there (now he’s going to make roof). And this is our “banya”- Russian sauna –

At 20-00 we come back home, having supper all together and then I go to put my son to bed. At 22-00 he is sweetly sleeping and we have calm time. This is the view from our window –

I want to edit some pictures before going to bed

At 23-30 my eyes are close and I go to bed. Friday is over. It’ll be Saturday today, we have not to go to kindergarden, job and we’ll rest all the day.

Friday is my day: LaTouchables

Today we will travel to sunny Germany and meet bag&pouch maker Dawn from LaTouchables. She makes very pretty and colorful bags you can't find anywhere else. And why is that everybody else has a cute cat or doggie except me?

(click any photo to go to the shop)

Free-Falling, large elegant bag with adjustable strap
by LaTouchables

Hi, my name is Dawn, and I live in the provences in one of the most beautiful regions of Southern Germany, the Rhine Valley, between the Palatine (close to Alsace, France) and Kraichgau (rolling hills to the east). This region is famous for it’s Rieslings and white asparagus.

Okay, in my life no two days are the same, so I take a bit of each day to be ‘my day’.

During the week, I get up at 6:00, an ungodly hour, and prepare my coffee and breakfast to have at the computer while my husband has ‘five more minutes’ of sleep.


Then I get ready for work. Three or four mornings a week, I travel to the city to teach English to some companies.


Meeting with students allows me to retain my social skills. Without the possibility of routinely correcting people’s grammar, I might be a bit odd.

I usually get home in time to inhale a late lunch, today a salad and bread.

Around now, my cat wakes up and talks to me, soaking up a little sun.

This is my sofa, a very enchanting place.

This is where I do most of my photo-shoots, next to the garden house.

My mom asked me if people might think I’m a bit odd modeling my bag with the cow’s skull. Hmmm…maybe she is right…it might be a whole lot easier to sell the cow’s skull without the bag.

Today, my niece is coming over, and we begin our photo-shoot in Great-Great Oma’s sitting room with the original wallpaper of a couple of lifetimes ago. First we pose next to the window, but not before we’ve removed all the ancestors from the wall.

Then I say, ‘Hey Sweety, put this doily on your head.’ Point and shoot. She is so delightful to work with, but very busy and hard to catch!

The last couple of weeks I’ve been renovating my studio, and this is during…

…and this is today…

…where I have a dozen different things going on, so I’ll work until my husband comes home…

I love warm dinners, so tonight we’re having Moroccan meatballs, fried potatoes, German style, green beans, and a radish salad.

After another visit to the computer, I fall into bed at around 11 pm.

As I said, each day is different, but the two constants are plenty of coffee and my cat. And my husband, of course, who more closely resembles Daniel Craig!

Friday is my day: Vadjutka

Jeeee! I am excited! Today we will travel to Budapest, Hungary the city I have always wanted to visit. And our guide today is Judit from vadjutka.etsy.com who makes very creative and beautiful jewelries with very pretty photos.

C'oon, let's go already :)

Smoothie - necklace with poppy flower and glass beads in

yellow, orange, pink and baby blue colors on chain
by vadjutka

Hey All,
It is me, Judit Wild. I live in Budapest, capital of Hungary. Budapest has two sides Buda and Pest: they are devided by our river, the Danube. I live on the Buda side, which is considerd the "posh" part of our city :-).

I live in my small - 32 square meters - flat; on 15th May it will be exactly 3 years since I moved in. I have a part time job: media analyst for the Public Service Radio (state radio), besides that I have a little ongoing research project at another workplace.

These photos are about my Thursday, which is usually "my day" or better say "jewelry-making Thursday", but on Wednesday my boss told me to come to a very important meeting on "my day". So here we go...

7.30Alarm (my mobile) rings. Back to sleep.

8.00Good morning! After half an hour of struggling I get up, try to open my eyes, wash my teeth and have a shower.

8.30After dressing up I make my cappucino and sandwich. I cannot imagine my mornings without my cappucino - I am very good in this! Checking e-mails, my etsy shop and a little chat with my friends in the EST forum.

9.30Hurryyyyy! I am late! I have so many things to do today, I have to run!

9.45Pfffff, it is raining! Lousy, lousy weather! While waiting for the tram at the station, I look for my umbrella in my bag.

10.25Arriving to the not-so-posh part of Buda, where I will get my boxes for my jewelry! I ordered some boxes a month ago, and now they are ready. This part of Budapest is not among my favourites: it is full of block houses, built in the 70s. On the photo you see the ruins from the era of the Roman Empire surrounded by block houses.

10.45YAY, my boxes are here...and it is cheaper this way, than my previous boxes.

11.00On the way back, a quick glimpse at my former elementary school. (On the photo it is under the white curtain.) It was a school for 200 years - my father, and his father attended this school as well -, but now it is going to be an office. I am sad about it, but it is better for the building to use it as an office, than to remain empty like it was in the last few years.

11.10A quick walk on Margaret Bridge: to show you the Danube and the building of the Parliament. We are heading from Buda to Pest now. And still raining....

11.15 I am hungry! I am having an early lunch: a schwarma at a Turkish restaurant. Budapest is packed with these types of restaurants. And this particular one is the best in town!

12.00Arriving to my workplace, the State Radio. OK, let's jump into that very important meeting!

17.00 After work I visit the tailor (he is a cute guy): yesterday I bought a pair of jeans on a sale, but it is long a bit.

17.15 YAY! My freebies are done: meeting with the freebie-maker guy. I decided to give freebies with my jewelry a year ago :-), but I did not have any idea....untill last month. It is still a surprise, though I can tell you, that it has to do something with my travel-photos.

17.30 I am hungry again! On the way to the tram I have a croissant and a hot chocolate.

17.45 Travelling and travelling on the - almost - new tram. This tram takes me back to Buda, where I have to go in a shopping mall...brrrr.

18.00I want to buy new ribbons for my new boxes....I cant choose. In the end I buy a big pack of pink raffia.

18.30 After running throughout the whole day I relax a bit in a bookstore while purchasing a map for future hikings.

20.00 Finally Ohmmmmmmmm! I arrive to my yoga class: this is Reka, my friend and yoga teacher...and she is going to have a baby in the autumn!!

22.30Arriving home....relaxed, but exhausted. I have a miso soup for dinner, and a toast with corn and blue cheese....and then.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Thanks Heli for the invitation: it was so much fun! xxx