so this week i managed to move on from Cats and Doctor who

But not very far, well in some sense a very far far away place asteroid B 612 to precise. As a Time Lord, The Doctor is able to travel anywhere and honestly if you were Doctor why wouldn’t you want to go visit the little prince?

The illustrations were created by french artist Geffo, I’d tell you more except that i am not a girl for languages, anyone perusing this humble blog will note that at time i have only the barest grasp of the English language, so I’m sure you can appreciate that french is beyond me. If only i had my own tardis or even a babel fish

yes the world has lost another magical voice, i don;t care how or why.

her perky bright sparkly pop stuff wasn’t my thing, her film career wasn’t my thing. But the voice… oh, when she sang, well even bad pop is so never  bad with great vocals.

In 1998 it looked like maybe she was making it way out of the blah, that was her film career and assorted album tieins of dubious quality, with her 4th studio album ‘My Love is your Love”. Like Janet Jackson’s “The Velvet Rope” from a year before this was a different voice a different woman and in both cases  stronger more assertive women full of the promise of so much more. Janet did go on, but Whitney spiraled into to a bad place.

just play a song that brought you some joy from a woman with a voice like no other.
forget the cracked up mess she was, it didn’t define her.

Little things can make a huge difference in a day; they can send you up or slow you down. I like the things that give me a little skip in my step – I’m very big on skipping and there is not enough skipping in the world

One of my little things is my computer desktop image, it might seem a bit weird but think about it, every day when you turn on your computer or wake it up from it’s nap (I have no idea which is more environmentally friendly these days) there it is. So why not use it for the powers of happiness

For much of 2011 I randomly changed my desktop background, the stars of the show were kittens, polar bears, panda bears, sloths and doctor who, plus did I mention the kittens?  Especially this image that had Doctor Who and kittens, and they made me smile.

So for 2012 I’m testing this happy idea out by changing my desktop every week.  At the end of January 2013 I plan to report back with detailed statistics of some sort regarding this wee project. This is mostly because I love playing around with charts and graphs and now I don’t work in accounts I have to find random excuses to do so.

Week 1 is a capsule of everything great about my desktops in 2011 – Doctor Mew. Doctor Mew features every single Doctor in Cat form and if you check out the website of the insanely talented Jenny Parks who created Doctor Mew (with special logo and all) you’ll even discover an additional Doctor Mew with fez!.

I’ve made the image and I always will make the image very small here, because people go buy the artwork, don’t copy it and print it out yourself, buy direct from the artist so that she can make more doctor related things.

and yes i get 2012 is a month old already, this makes this not a resolution which is less pressure on me because my brain rolls like that

Tuesday nights are so very special to me. Many lovely crafty and creative friends meet together at The Apartment 25 Allen Street in Courtenay Place. It started as a way for those selling at Craft2.0 to find out fair information but it’s wonderfully evolved into a regular crafty making, thinking planning and dreaming event. Sometimes we’ll bring projects sometimes we bring nothing because a project has stumped us and sometime we talk crafty business.

From these Tuesdays I’ve met some wonderful people and made some everlasting friends. as a bonus  I’m also a better business person.  So from 5ish every Tuesday night, unless my health has flaked out more than normal, You’ll find me at The Apartment surrounded by the very best of people and the very very best of cocktails.

Craft Up as we named it is open to anyone, crafters, knitters, artists, designers, it’s all about hanging out with other creative people and sharing out work but also help each other with our work.

So maybe I’ll see you there? Because Craft up is very much open to anyone and everyone.

Here’s what was went down last tuesday

Brand new Sock Monkeys from Miss Millie

Tardis, time lord or dalek? from MeganWegan

The beginning of some unseen things by nini

plus for company a girl with a popped tendon, which is leaving me very un crafty and very frustrtated. thank goodness for prohibition punch

I’ve been an extremely fortunate person in my life.

The places I’ve worked, the people I’ve worked for and with, the things I’ve seen and done. So while here is a great space for me to talk about the frustrations and my experiences so hopefully i learn from them and maybe help someone else, I also want to honour all the good things. Because the good things in my life have defined me more than the bad.

So to begin, lets start with an experience that change my life.
Webstock, “The mostest bestest scientifically proven amazingest conference ever. In the history of the world. Fact.”

Some people assume Webstock is just about the web, just for those who work on and in and around the web. Those people are WRONG.

Yes Webstock is all of those things, but it’s something else, something a little more magical, a little more special and a little unlike anything else. Webstock is a conference that inspires you to be the very best at what you do, to have the most fun possible at what you do and to make the world a better place doing what you do.

Sure this applies to people working in the web but as someone who lives on the remotest fringes of the geeky web world these days I can tell you from personal experience it applies to everyone, and it can apply to you work life, it can apply to your life outside work, it can apply to those secret dreams your harbour inside your innnermost being, it’s that magical.

What Webstock will do is make you think, challenge how you do things, challenge how you think about things and inspire you. Each person on that stage is a world leader in what they do, but more than that. Each speaker loves what they do, breaks all the rules and more.

In short  Webstock is the Ginsu knife of conferences.

Webstock ’12 trailer from Webstock on Vimeo.

Am I going this year? no but I’ve been lucky to attend  3 times and each time resonated with me in a different way and I still have so much sitting in my brain, and so many things i want to do  from the 3 I attended I’m not sure it has space for 4.

If you don’t believe everything I’ve said Why not check out past talks from webstock, it won’t cost you a thing, because hello that’s how cool Webstock is. Even if you couldn’t make it to a Webstock event they are sharing it with you, there’s no charge for access, no limited viewing time, just some amazing talks from amazing people for Free.

Now if that isn’t the best ”But wait! There’s more!” I have no idea what is.

That’s how it’s supposed to be right?

especially here in the southern Hemisphere where everything stops at Christmas, annual leave is taken and people slowly drift back to work during January, refreshed and relaxed from summer holidays.

For people like me in the world of selling lovely things (lovely was banned  from my vocabulary for 2011 but I’m letting myself resurrect it for 2012) December is crazy and then it’s all a bit quiet till sometime mid feb or march depending on how popular you are. So for the creative types it leave many hours over the new year to in the words of the wonderful emma, Make some plans, schemes, hopes and dreams

Every year without fail I start thinking about things, making many of those things

but then the world of my reality hits me, the one where CFS likes to remind me every January that sometimes it’s in control. So while my brain has all these things running around my body is screaming sit down slow down, because for the last few years my not so wee body has had a huge CFS crash in the first few months of the year.

It’s a result of the pressure I put myself through every December  and a timely reminder that the 50% rule is one that serves me best, think of what I want to do, what I think I can do and then automatically halve it by 50% and i get to what I’ll be able to do, except in January and February when my list is at 0 and if I get anything beyond that it’s bonus time.

When I first think about that it feels  hard and unfun. and boring oh so very boring

But If I put my mind to it and think a little more and remember this lovely postcard that I have on my wall it can be a word of fun and different and unusual. So my list of everything for 2012 current looks like this

1. apply some coco channel  to my life.

She is famously quote as saying

“Get yourself fully dressed and then, before walking out the front door, pause by the mirror and remove one item.”

and

“Less is always more.”

this is so much more fun than the 50% rule so that’s my 2012 list apply some coco

Let’s see what happens

and so it should. I

n the October lead up to Craft2.0, I had the lovely opportunity of being on Radio NZ, talking about my favourite song and all things Craft2.0 – which you can hear below.

Next thing to tick of my list of dreams is being on Kim hill of a Saturday morning

One thing of mention was my deer heads, or faux heads as I like to call them.

they were a hit at Craft2.0 with only two left to make their way home to casa sue.

I’ve now re-stocked and you can either buy a classic deer head  (as seen above) online  now at etsy (use the code LOVEPONOKO) for free shipping in New Zealand

Or head over to the Greytown this Saturday for the annual Craft Delight that is Craft Country.  The lovely nini from Things unseen will be selling both my classic and decorated deer heads.

The fair is on at Greytown Town hall from 10am till 3pm this Saturday  and is free to attend. ALL the parking in Greytown is free and the other shopping and food is fantastic.  Craft Country is one of those fairs I love so much I don’t personally sell at it but got a special exemption from the organisers so nini could sell them for me.

So my plans for the weekend is to get some therapeutic shopping done at Craft Country and check out all the cool things people from the lower south island are making

Please note if you are looking for jewellery etsy is in USD and has a limited range, head over to toggle for the full range including free shipping use the code SUPERVERY at check out and only pay $22

Ok where did 2011 go, I’m not sure
but  it’s Christmas, i know things have been (surprise surprise) very quiet on the SuperVery front, but that means that for December I’m doing things a little differently than normal.

Right now the only way you can buy SuperVery online in New Zealand is through the wonderful people at Toggle. What’s great and super about Toggle is that you can do all your handmade shopping in one place from multiple makers but just pay one invoice. Everything on Toggle has shipping included and it’s just the easiest way to get all your shopping done.

Toggle host the full range of Everything SuperVery on-line and till Christmas you can enjoy a Very SuperVery deal when you buy something from me on Toggle.

Enter the code SUPERVERY at checkout, and each of my pendants will be reduced to a staggering $22 each, down from $49.95.

So what are you waiting for?

Here’s to 60+ years of Louis Armstrong’s “La Vie En Rose”
sure everyone knows that Edith Piaf wrote and originally recorded it.
But Louis make this version his very own and it melts me every time, and for all you pixar fan here’s something a little special

I’m in Auckland for the weekend

Thus i plan to attend two very ladylike events