Tag Archives: bird

YOU gift guide goodies…

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Firstly I want to thank everyone who came to the Stellenbosch markets over the weekend. Despite the raging black southeaster friday night eventually turned out to be a success, and saturday was even better. What a beautiful venue. I really recommend venturing out to the Stellenbosch Slowmarket for their weekly market on a saturday! Oude Libertas is really gorgeous and there don’t seem to be any queues to the toilets or ATM despite the fact that it is a really busy market. There are plenty outdoor areas to hang out on the grass with views across the vineyards, and eat cheese and drink wine, and there’s live music!  I will definitely be back!

And on this pretty dreary looking monday I thought I would show you my products in the YOU magazine Christmas Gift Guide this year! How exciting! And what a great selection. My Pretty Proteas cushion cover is featured in the “In Full Bloom” collection and my Blue Origami Birds Cushion Cover is featured in the “A Natural Thing” collection. See more images below, and both are available from me here.

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My Pretty Proteas cushion cover up close…

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PrettyProteasCushionCoverWrapped

And my Blue Origami Birds cushion cover up close…

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BlueOrigamiBirdsTeaTowelCloseup

BlueOrigamiBirdsCushionWrapped

And its off to market we go…

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Its going to be a very busy weekend for handmade by me. We are going to be participating in 3 different markets over the weekend. Firstly we will be taking part in our usual Bay Harbour Market all weekend long. And for the first time we will be joining the Lock Stock Market which is in conjunction with Die Plattelande food market at the Palms Lifestyle and Decor Centre on Saturday . And then on Sunday we will be joining the Blue Bird Garage Food and Goods Market in Muizenburg. There’s live music there and lots of wonderful things to buy and to eat, so come on by for some lunch. If the weather is great, all the markets will be worth a looksee as there is plenty of outdoor area to sun yourself and have an ice cold beer. If the weather is bad, everything is covered and you can come and escape the wind or the rain, or just to have a good time. I’ve heard really good things about these two new markets and am very excited to see what they are like to sell at. Here’s hoping we have a really successful weekend ahead! Don’t forget to come and say hi : )

And to get you ready for what you might find at the market, here are a few new available products to purchase…

Of course you can always get ahead of the crowds and shop online here.

More vintage aprons…in new designs…
MINI Blue Origami Birds, Birdy Num Num & MINI Black Origami Birds

my brand new Cup O Tea napkins

Birdy Num Num napkins

MINI Origami Birds napkins in black

handmade by me.

Pink Flamingo! in Good Taste…

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I am delighted to see my Pink Flamingo! Tea Towel has made it into the Good Taste magazine. A lovely piece written about We Heart This, one of Handmade By Me’s favourite stockists, if you haven’t had a chance to visit this lovely online store do so now, there are plenty of lovely christmas items just waiting to be delivered straight to your door!

Time for tea…and finally the move!

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So next week is the big move! And as much as I am absolutely excited to get my little business going in sunny South Africa, there are lots of mixed emotions with leaving Ireland, my home for the last 6 years. Anyways with that in mind, I won’t be posting much over the next 2 weeks while we enjoy our last few days in Dublin, and start getting settled into life in Cape Town. I can’t wait to begin posting again because that means I will have started to get cracking on my next set of ideas and projects, and I won’t be able to wait to show you all. So while we get on and move, I’ll leave you with some pics of my new tea towel range, all ready and waiting to find themselves a new home : )

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with any news in the meantime you can go to http://www.facebook.com/handmadebymeblog and “like” handmade by me’s facebook page.

My new Cup O Tea design…

Pink Vintage Squares


Birdy Num Num

Pink Flamingo!


Blue Origami Birds

Striking Strelitzias


Red Vintage Squares


Indigo Red

Handmade by me.

decorative deco birds….

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This is a design that I had initially had in mind for my course I did in Printed Textile Design. What I hadn’t realised was that creating your own fabric design by hand, including the dyeing of the base fabric, is very different to the way I do it digitally. It is hard work. Getting that colour juuuuust right. What I also realised is that printing by hand is alot more suited to a fine art style rather than graphic or geometric shapes, and you can forget about reversing out in white! So I decided to take my idea and digitally create it just the way I had pictured it in the beginning…and at the same time sadly realised just how bad my manual effort had been.

Anyways I bring you my deco birds design. I wanted to take something geometric and something organic and offset the two. Available in two colours, daytime green and evening blue. Here they are as cushion covers…but also available as napkins and tea towels.

I actually found this image below after designing my deco birds fabric, but I feel it captures the colours and styles of the Art Deco era I was trying to achieve.

Handmade by me.

striking strelitzias…

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I recently thought that my pretty proteas fabric (see below) needed a friend, something similar but different, that would work well alongside it, but also stand out on it’s own. I immediately thought of strelitzias (also known beautifully as birds of paradise) as they are absolutely gorgeous and really bright and colourful. And since they are also common to south africa, I felt they were perfect for the job. They also happened to work really well in the same geometric style I used for the proteas…and so after some seriously tedious repeat pattern work…I present to you…my striking strelizias pattern…

here’s a closeup…

Here they are together with my pretty proteas…sigh…

The striking strelitzias along with the pretty proteas are both available in cushion covers, napkins and tea towels at my Etsy store.

Handmade by me.

fly away birds….

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Don’t you sometimes wish you could be a bird, fly away and see the world whenever you want?

Introducing my latest design called fly away birds…

Now available in cushion covers, napkins, and tea towels at my Etsy store.

handmade by me.

NEW: tea towels, greeting cards and gift wrap!!!

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Tea towels and greeting cards in all my designs are now ready to purchase online at my Etsy store. Feel free to have a look and see if there’s anything you fancy.  All tea towels are printed onto a cotton linen canvas which is the best of both worlds really, linen for quality and cotton for softness, and they will last. Don’t forget about my Save the Rhinos tea towels, I’ll be donating 10% of any purchases to www.stoprhinopoaching.com

And after my valentine card became so popular I decided to make some others using my designs. These are printed onto a silk card and folded into A6 size, and are available in mixed sets of 5 different patterns, with plain white envelopes included. There are 2 different sets to choose from. See below.

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I am also starting a gift wrap service where I will wrap your purchase nicely and include a message from you in a card with the same pattern. ie if you choose to buy a vintage floral cushion cover for a friend’s birthday, I’ll wrap it up, write your personalised message into a card with the vintage floral pattern on it, and send it to the address you choose when purchasing. Please ask if you want to know more about this.
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The card sets…

handmade by me.