One of my favourite parts of my job is being able to spend large amounts of money on shiny things. I get to browse catalogues online and make informed decisions on whether the 6mm jumpring is better in 1mm thick wire or 0.9mm thick wire. And if 16mm wide ribbon will look better than 23mm wide ribbon.

It’s all good fun until you can’t find anything you’ve bought. I was forgetting what I already had and would spend too much time pawing through laser cuttings to see if we already had one in the colour requested. I’m a very visual person, I need to be able to see what tools and supplies I have at my disposal, and it makes sense to be able to find what you’re looking for at a glance rather than searching through a basket all the time.

I had the idea for this pin board quite a while ago. I bought the board and then it sat there doing nothing, like most of my projects for a very long time.

Finally the urge hit (another great thing about working for yourself, being able to do whatever you want when the mood strikes) and I pinned everything to the board. It’s so much easier to find things now! It’s not very pretty, but it does the trick. Maybe I’ll decorate it when the next mood strikes.

Have you got any tips for organising piles of stuff in a small apartment?

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Have you entered the birthday competition yet? You have one day left!

It’s a very exciting day in the Cupcake Factory as one year ago cupcakesandmace.com was born.
“But posts in your archive go back to March 2008″ I hear you cry. And yes, you are right. When this blogging thing started for me I went through a few names before I decided I wanted to take blogging a more seriously and register a domain.

Life has changed a lot since then. I’m self employed now, blogging, thinking up pretties, and interacting with customers on a daily basis. I really appreciate everyone who has joined me along the way. Thanks to you I have no plans to give this thing up.

To say thank you and to celebrate this milestone I’m giving you the present! We’ve started designing necklace squares with helvetica text. I have no idea what to call them collectively, so feel free to help me out.

The Rules

All you have to do is comment and let me know what you’d like your square to say if you win. It can say anything at all. Easy as.

The winner will be picked by a random name draw, but if we really like your idea there might be a prize heading your way too.

And as per usual if you’d like extra entries post a link from your blog to the comp or tweet about it.

You have a week. I’ll draw the winner next weekend on the 3rd of October. And then it’ll be your turn to send me the presents as it’s my birthday on the 9th of October. :D

I could not believe my luck when a last minute (because I get up so late and am so slow getting ready) dash into town to have a quick shop started with picking up the much coveted Nike Dunk red and white check hi tops!

Not only were they $40 cheaper than when they first caught my eye Shoe Connection are also having a buy one get one half price sale! :D So The Boy got a pretty pair of shoes too and we both saved an extra $40 something each.

These are my first pair of Nikes. :D

This candy necklace is new in the shop. We’ve got a few new things up and a few more coming this week.

I also picked up the new Dan Brown – The Lost Symbol. I haven’t read an actual book in a while, keeping up with the hundreds of blogs I read is enough for me. I don’t care what people say, I like Dan Brown’s writing. It’s easy to get caught up in.

1. I prefer to work from 1pm – 4am so your knocking at the door at 9am is a waste of time, I just pretend I can’t hear anything. I suggest you deliver packages to offices in the morning and come to my residential address in the afternoon.
2. I really do appreciate it that you will come back the next day in the afternoon to deliver my package.
3. Because I work from home I enjoy working in my dressing gown and slippers. They are comfortable. Some days I’ll have a shower and then continue wearing my dressing gown. Most afternoons you deliver stuff to me I haven’t been up very long, thanks for not pulling a face when I answer the door in a fluffy pink dressing gown, with my greasy hair, and morning breath. Your acceptance serves to cement future viewings of me in a dressing gown. In summer it might even be silky.
4. Despite what @nzlemming says I refuse to believe you have x ray eyes.
5. Thanks for taking the time to come to my door even when the package doesn’t have to be signed for. The old letter boxes were falling apart so the body corporate replaced them with teeny tiny ones that can’t take anything thicker than 20mm and can’t be opened without a key. Yea, we have to lock and unlock the letterbox, with a key, Every. Single. Time. Also, they only gave us one key to share.
6. Your electronic signature thingees are stupid. Especially when combined with an unclicked ball point pen and me trying to hide behind my door. IT always misses the first line of my K, and make me look like I zigzagged lines all over the screen.
7. It makes me laugh when I open the door in my unwashed state, and you look at the package and read that it’s addressed to Cupcakes and Mace and then you look at me and ask if it’s the right address. Sure is. This is what Cupcakes and Mace is all about!

Does anyone else ever get the pleasure of greeting couriers, and on some occasions 3 young electrical company salesmen, in your dressing gown or an equally embarrassing state?

*****

Just as I was about to post this a courier showed up at my door. I was in my robe, and socks.

*****

Cupcakes and Mace has been down the last 12 or so hours. First the server ran out of space and then I found that my database had been deleted. If you commented yesterday afternoon it has been lost sorry.
Backup your data on a regular basis!

We’ve been busy in the Cupcake Factory this month, adding a lot of new things to the store in an effort to give you something to look at for more than one minute! We’re going to continue adding new stock and designs until we reach at least 100 products so there is plenty more to come.

These are new products added over the last couple of weeks. Each picture will take you to the Etsy page for more photos and information. (And everything is less than $18 :D)

Cupcakes and Mace

I’ve been out of my office job for just over two months now, so I thought it was time to review the list I made back in February.
A list which boldly stated what I’d do if I didn’t have a day job.

• Create the already thought out design for Cupcakes and Mace
  I changed my blog theme in April in order to give myself more control, I also added a new header. There are still changes I’d like to make though.
• Read books often
  I haven’t read a single book since I’ve finished work. I read so much online every. single. day. that I feel like I don’t have the time. I’m tempted to try Twilight to see if the book is any better than the movie.
• Spend more time writing posts
  I do spend more time on most of my posts now, just because I can. I have a lot of half done posts and ideas as well, sometimes I’m too tired when it comes time to write something though and I end up writing filler (like this :p).
• Name, tag, and upload all of my photos
  One day I’ll get to it.
• Write to do lists
  I’m the kind of person that loves to plan, loves to prepare, but can’t quite get the same enthusiasm to perform the task.
  I bought a whiteboard and a corkboard, I write lists, I make piles, I plan, and plan, and plan. But I don’t actually finish anything on the list. I have been writing the lists though so I suppose that means this one is done.
• Exercise
  Hahahahahahahahaha
• Bake
  I’ve been putting my limited and lazy baking skills to practice. Today I made courgette and mushroom bread and it is delicious!
• Write letters
  Email is just SO much easier (and free).
• Find the best thrift stores and ask when new stock is put out
  I’ve hardly left the house during the day, let alone been going thrifting.
• Plan outfits
  When you don’t leave the house there is no need to plan an outfit.
• Get more sleep
  This. This! This is something I’ve gotten REAL good at. I sleep as long as I like and wake up refreshed and happy instead of bleary eyed and grumpy. I wake up and pull bake the curtain and get straight up.
  It’s the best feeling.
• Listen to music lots
  I did for the first month, but I haven’t listened to as much this month. The iPod is all the way over there, and my laptop speakers are tinny as fuck.
• Clear out my old clothes
  Must get on to this. It would allow me to use my desk.
• Bask in the glory of having no boss
  There has been much basking in the Cupcake Factory.
• Breathe more fresh air
  I get to enjoy every sunny day. I wake up when the sun is at its peak and wander into the toasty lounge. I open the bedroom window and front door wide and air the house. Its great.
  My skin is much nicer and not as dry now that I’m not stuck inside with aircon all day.
• Make jewellery
  I get real enjoyment out of making pretty things so making jewellery has been one of the few things I’ve been doing.
• Have fun with my “Wreck This Journal”
  Nope.
• Attempt to alter clothes
  Not yet. Though I’m planning on shortening the straps on a dress tomorrow. My size 12 boobs don’t quite match up to my size 13 thighs.
• Play my bass
  The only time either of the guitars get picked up is when one of our musically inclined friends comes over. I’m too impatient for music, if I’m not good after almost a year of weekly lessons I’m done.
• Save money on food
  We definitely haven’t been eating out as often and I don’t buy lunches so money has certainly been saved.
• Use recipes
  Not as much as I would like, but more than when I had a day job.
• Tweet constantly
  I’ve got the tweeting bug. I don’t tweet constantly, but I’m there often, and I’m always reading.
• Find the best photos on Flickr
  I often spend hours at a time finding perfect photos with CC licences for posts. (if you use Flickr you should give your photos a CC licence so they can be shared :])

So there you have it, I’m as lazy as ever, but I’m happy.

Last weekend while out shopping with Chickie Little and our significant others we came across a wonderful place. A place full of trinkets, organised just enough that you can find what you’re looking for, a place where the price is right. An emporium so full of wonder it exclaims that there is something for everyone inside. We all scoffed and bet that The Boy wouldn’t find anything, but we were wrong (he bought some wheels)!

This magical place is Pete’s Emporium, in Porirua, about 20 minutes north of Wellington City.

It’s a little known fact that emporiums are one of my favourite places in the world. A favourite shopping destination second only to supermarkets (food emporiums if you will). I can shop for hours, sorting through the junk and inspecting the treasures, deciding how many of each brightly coloured button I’ll choose.

I ended up getting a few brightly coloured treasures for my jewellery making, including some pink and blue bunches of grapes. After much wrestling I managed to turn one pair of each colour into earrings. Get them in pink or blue in the shop now. :] The hooks are sterling silver so your ears stay pretty.

It’s often the case, when a hobby turns into a job, that you love it a little bit less. That your friends are no longer gifted your experiments. And that you only allow yourself to keep the work that doesn’t turn out perfect.
I find myself wearing all the jewellery that doesn’t cut properly and has scratches.

Sometimes we’ve got to remind ourselves that it’s no fun to work like that! There is a reason you count yourself lucky to be your own boss. It’s because you love what you do, and you love it so much you probably started off doing it for free.

On that note I started making myself a charm bracelet. Not just from the left overs that didn’t fit anywhere else, but from the charms I actually liked. The ones that mean something to me, or look pretty, or make me laugh.

The Jack in the Box is my favourite. My Mum gave it to me, it really closes up and then pops out on a spring when you unhook the lid!

Somehow I decided that making my first bloggy video would be a good way to announce the winner of the nameplate necklace competition despite being a terrible actress, having no idea how to edit video, and never having made one before. Once I got started though I was determined to finish.
So here it is, atmospheric feedback and all. Please go easy on me.

I thought Sarah-Rose was very right when she said that font 5 would look adorable as a sweary word so I got it cut last night. I’m wearing it in the video and below.

Just as I finished recording the courier came with a package for me from Pakistan. It was all wrapped in cloth and I was a bit scared of it till I remembered my glasses were coming from Pakistan!
They are amazing for $26 NZD delivered! The right eye feels slightly blurred My ears are wonky so the right eye doesn’t line up properly all the time and is a teensy bit less clear, but I can still see great in them, they look cool and they even came with a hard case and cloth. Woop, will definitely be buying glasses online again.

Now I’m off to see Harry Potter. :D

O and please don’t name the winner in the comments so it’s a surprise.

• Mini panics when I suddenly think I’ve only got one day left in my weekend till I have to go back to my horrid workplace. Obviously working in a nasty office left deeper scars than I’d realised.
• Finding out I’m a night owl and my body would rather sleep until 2pm and then stay awake till 3am than get up with everyone else.
• Not feeling the need to feed my face constantly. I’m eating probably half of what I was eating when I was in the office. No more eating to cure the boredom, no more left over cake in the staffroom. I often have my first meal of the day at about 4pm now. (um, except for last week where I ate almost 3 blocks of chocolate, a box of popcorn, two ice creams, a bag of lollies, cheese and crackers, and fish and chips)
• Becoming a bit of a recluse. I haven’t been leaving the house unless we’ve been invited out somewhere, so I often leave the house only once or twice a week. Many days I live in a dressing gown because I don’t see the point in getting dressed!
• An obsession with the Gilmore Girls. Now that I have no office these ladies are my workmate replacements.
• Wanting to/having the time to bake again.

And some expected side effects: losing the bags under my eyes, not having such dry skin due to air conditioning, being happy!