My First Guest - Natalie - NorthShore Days

It's my great pleasure to present my first ever guest at DK's Craft Café - Natalie from NorthShore Days, a girl who tells stories through her fantastic jewellery. She's got a great tutorial for us today.

Hello Everyone, I'm Natalie and I  blog over at NorthShore Days where I share crafts, DIY, photos and funny stories about my 3 loud, cheeky but very sweet kids… 

 

I love white decor and everything beachy and I’m lucky enough to live very near the beach on the beautiful North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand.

 

I'm very excited to be here guest posting for Donata. Dona has been such a great bloggy friend and a wonderful support during my blogging journey...

Today I'll be sharing one of my latest jewellery creation with you all...

 Its such a simple tutorial and I'm hoping you are inspired to make your own. I found this gorgeous tile pendant in the jewellery section of Spotlight and I just love turquoise so had to buy it.

What you will need:

A tile or decorative bead, 3 charms or smaller beads, a headpin, jump rings and long nose pliers.

What you need to do: (following the pics)

Gather all the components.

Snip the end off the head pin as you will be looping both ends of it.

Form a loop by first bending the end of the pin at a 90 degree angle then looping the pin back onto itself - this forms a really neat loop.

Pass the pin through the tile and repeat the loop at the other end.

Using jump rings, secure the smaller beads or charms to one end of the looped head pin.

Attach the pendant to a chain using another jump ring.

 Seriously how easy is that? And how cute ....

 

 I love how this necklace turned out, and as I used a copper chain and accents along with the turquoise, it has a real beachy vibe to it

 

I hope you enjoyed my post today. Thank you so much to Donata for having me.

Dont forget to pop on over and visit me at NorthShore Days and say hi...

Take care

xxx

Thank you so much, Nat! You never fail to touch my heart with your creations.Please visit Nat over at her blog and check out her etsy shop XOX

Discount And Useful Info on Glasses

I'd like to share information on glasses today.
(I have discounts for you today!)
Why glasses? Well take a look at this:

My son wears eyeglasses since he was seven. Ten years and many broken frames since then :)
I love my sunglasses. Not only for protection. They are important accessory for many women (and men) ever since Jackie Kennedy and Grace Kelly.
And I have been using reading glasses for several years already.

With all that said, no wonder that I'm always looking for cheap eyeglasses. 

The red ones that I'm wearing on the photo with my son were found on the web. But only recently I started to look for prescription glasses online. I guess I'm still learning to fully enjoy the convenience of online shopping. And the great prices!

So, no wonder I was delighted when I was contacted the other day by GlassesUSA.com. 
For some reason, I thought they only sell within the USA, but that's not true. I can order glasses from them! This is great news for me and here's why:
1. Loads of frames to choose from
2. Low, low prices 
3. Check out the virtual mirror below. My son and I had so much fun last night 'trying on' frames for almost an hour. 




Have fun, find great frames and save money.

And here's even better news:

DISCOUNTS FOR MY READERS!!!

STOREWIDE OFFER - Take 15% off your entire order amount + FREE shipping (orders over $50). Code: FS15

Take 10% off any order of prescription glasses. Code: Blog10

Love,
DK

Disclaimer: This is an advertising, but I only gave my most honest opinion here.

In Bold Colors

I'm in a new phase :)

I guess this a cry against this gray, cold, wet winter that doesn't wanna go away.

These babies make me feel better.

And I saw mimosas somewhere today! Yay!

Love, 
DK

Linking up with:
Fine Craft Guild 
My 1929 Charmer

This Week's Update - Hanniscrafts, Nat's Bracelet & more

There are several things I'd like to share with you, my dear reader, this week.
First, I received my beautiful new bracelet I ordered from Nat of NorthSore Days.

The weather this week was so cold and gray and this bracelet warmed my heart with it's story of the beach. She uses high quality materials including New Zealand's  ocean shell beads.


If you like Natalie's creations as much as I do, here is where to get them:
Nat's Etsy Link


Another great thing I would like to share is that I'm guest blogger at hannicraft by Hanni, my dear friend from Hungary.

Please go over to see the post (she really made it look great) and if you don't know Hanni, make sure to see her work. She is very talented and makes miracles with yarn and fabrics.
Make sure to visit her Etsy shop too:

Hanni's Etsy Link

And last, but not least: I had two sales in the first week at in.cube8r.
I call it a start :)
I've been working on a new collection - I'll post about it soon. (Hint: bright colours this time!)

Love,
DK

Hannicrafts Bag

It's arrived! I ordered Hanni's black&white beach bag recently and it's here :)

It's large and strong and perfectly done. I warmly recommend it, really.
Here is her Etsy link: hanniscrafts

She even went so far to add this lovely surprise gift:

 Thank you so much, Hanni!

Other news:
My baskets finally moved to in.cube8r gallery Fitzroy/Melbourne yesterday :)

Wish me luck :)

Love,
DK

I'm A Guest Blogger at NorthShore Days!

I've never been invited to be a guest blogger before.
All of a sudden, I got two invitations. It feels good to be invited, doesn't it?
So today I'm a guest of my dear friend (and neighbour)  Natalie from New Zealand.

NorthShore Days

I shared some more of my crochet rings.

Please go over to see what is new in my 'rings department'.
While you're there, take a good look around - Nat is an amazingly inspiring girl.
Thanks heaps, Nat! XOX

Love,
DK

My Baskets at in.cube8r!

Encouraged by all your attention, I have been working on my crochet baskets ever since this post:
Crochet Baskets
Thank you all so much for your constant support! xox

Now, you can imagine that my baskets started popping out from each corner of my home. I had to do something about that!
I thought of Etsy, but most of my readers are from overseas and Australian postage is too high for me to be competitive on Etsy.
I thought a gallery would be a better choice for me at the moment.
And here is my good news:
in.cube8r gallery in Melbourne 
is selling my baskets starting tomorrow, August 10!
Oh, boy, am I excited!
Here are some photos of what I've prepared: 

Please wish me luck!
I hope this will inspire you to go our and show off your crafts. Maybe make some money with it too...

Love,
DK

Knitted Scarf with a Twist

Today I'm sharing a scarf with a hole :)


While most of my dear readers are enjoying summer, we are in the middle of winter here.
So I made a scarf for a friend the other night.
That one is gone, but I thought I should share how I make these.

Here is how I make them:


Start with 20 or 30 stitches (depending on the size of your needles).
Knit 18-20 cm. Take an extra needle and keep one half of your stitches (10/15) on it. 
Now work on the other 10/15 stitches. go for some 10 cm. 
Do the same with the other half and continue working on all stitches. 
You'll have a 10 cm long 'hole' in your scarf. Go on until you reach the length that looks good on you.
I make mine some 85 cm long.


I really like this twist in front where one end goes through the other and I've made a bunch of these scarves over several years using different materials and different colors. They are all gone. I only kept this silver colored one and I have been wearing it for three years now.
I like how it 'sits' and with this kind of yarn the hole is not even visible.


Hope you'll like it and make one for you before winter :)
I can only imagine how great it would feel to ware a scarf made from pearl yarn I saw here:


FB Photo


Love,
DK

Photo of the Day - Light in the Sky

Hello my dear friends!


Oh, boy, I'm so glad I kept warm pictures like this one for the cold days to warm me up.

I would like to apologize for not being around much lately.
As we all know, life is not all pink and balloons, but don't worry, I will keep it for myself. This is a place for all things good and I want it to stay that way.
I still do my crafts and will be posting more soon. In the meantime, I do visit other blogs and try to 'stay in the loop'. 


I've been very much into my baskets and rings for a while now. 
Maybe it is time to show everybody some of the baskets that evolved from the first bunch I shared here in April. I might as well do it soon.


Until then, I hope this photo cheers you up.


Love,
DK

Photo of the Day

Today I felt like sharing this photo, taken last spring (October) at Gold Coast, Queensland.

This winter day in Melbourne feels much better spiced with warm beach memories.
Funny enough, what you can see far in the back is a place cold Surfers Paradise :)


Have a fantastic day!
(If you're in the USA, have a happy Independence Day and enjoy your fireworks! I wish I could be there...)


Love,
DK

Photo of the Day - Power of the Ocean

This is one of many photos I took each time I went along the Great Ocean Road. This road is rated one of the best scenic drives in the world, so if you visit Melbourne, make sure not to miss this ride.
There are many rocks like this one telling us stories of the power of the ocean. This always takes my breath away.

Love,
DK


P.S. You'll find a comment under this post that you will probably not understand.
Rosilene is from Brasil and it took some effort to translate this, but it was worth it :)
Here is what she wrote:
'I know a legend where the sea dominates the cliff and then abandons, as sometimes happens with humans, beautiful photo i will move on.'
(Something like that)
I was very touched by this and would really like Rosilene to share the story with me.
If it happens, I'll keep you posted.


Love!

Grace Kelly Exhibition

I can't even start telling you how excited I was about this last week!
Grace Kelly exhibition! 

Ever since I was a little girl, I loved Grace Kelly. She was The Princes to me.

Well, we could not have it here in Melbourne, but it wasn't hard to travel for a couple of hours to Bendigo, a provincial town in Victoria - the only place in Australia lucky enough to host this great exhibition.

This exhibition was first shown in London and now the world tour is on. Unfortunately, cameras were now allowed, but I found photos taken in London to share with you.

First meeting with her Prince. Because of an power outage at her hotel on the day, she could not dry her hair, so she improvised. Don't you think she did great? Wait, that's not all. She could not iron the frock she planned to wear either! She had to choose the least wrinkled one and it was a dress made from a pattern! Now you tell me it's not about how and by whom it's worn!

(This is why we call this bag 'kelly bag'. She had them in different colours.)

Well, I hope this will inspire you to dream and create something very stylish, my friends.

Have a fantastic week!

Love,

DK

Happy Father's Day!

(I used this beautiful vintage picture from 'The Graphic's Fairy' for this card.)


Love,
DK

My Memories Giveaway Winner

To all participants: 
Thank you so very much for participating! 
If you were not lucky this time, I will have another My Memories giveaway in 3 months. Make sure you visit then.


If you decide to buy this software, you can get a $10 discount using this code:


STMMMS19805 


And here is the result of the first ever giveaway here at DK's Craft Cafe:

                                                        

So, 'The Keeper of the Zoo' won My Memories software for liking My Memories on Facebook.
Congratulations! I hope you'll have as much fun as I have playing with this software.
Also, make sure to use the opportunity to download additional free gifts - there are so many there.


Love to all,
DK

Make a Ring - Tutorial

Thank you so much, everybody, for your kind comments on my ring.

I promised I would tell you how I made it, so here you are.
Many of you probably figured out immediately that this is the simplest crochet ever done.
- Start with a single loop.
- Make 6 stitches from that first loop
- Then do 2 stitches from each of the 6 stitches you've just done. (= 12 stitches)
- You can add one more 'expanding' row. You'll be doubling the number of stitches again.
- When you are happy with the size of your future ring, you will want to decide whether you want your ring to look like a little ball or more like a button.
- For the button look, you will go for one simple, 'single stitch' row - just repeat the same number of stitches in this row. If you are making a 'ball like' ring, skip this row.
- Then you start downsizing - 1 stitch in every second stitch from the previous row.
- Before you close the form, fill it with a cotton ball.
- Finish the 'ball'.
- Glue it to the 'blank' ring finding bought in a craft store.

Ta-Da! - A fluffy pink ball :)

The best part is playing with different materials.

I played further and here is more:

I used rough, shiny craft yarn here. I also made earrings here. 

This one comes with mini arm warmers.

 And this is a set in making - a ring, hand warmers and a brooch.

I hope you will find this post inspiring and the tutorial useful. My apologies - the photos are ugly again. Most of the winter I am at home only in the evening and this is the best I can do with the light I have to work with.

Love,

DK