Friday Feature: Rocky The Zombie's Pirates for a b-day theme!

Hello everyone! Happy Friday, and happy 2011-is-almost-over-can-you-believe-that? day! ;)

I'm not feeling particularly reflective today, I've been rather more productive! I got up early for a day off, at 8 am to go to the spa for a Chocotherapy treatment at 9 (goodness, it was absolutely amazing! I could have eaten myself!), so when I got home, I had a lot of time ahead of myself, and thought that I felt like baking! So I made a batch of carrot cake cupcakes with the recipe for the Carrot Cake from the Primrose Bakery Cookbook and also, a batch of savoury cupcakes from Alma's Cupcakes blog: Brie & Dried Figs Cupcakes, for tomorrow's dinner. They're in a tupperware now, so they'll be fresh and ready to be eaten as starters for NYE's dinner! I work 3 to 10 pm tomorrow, and I wouldn't have had the time to make them otherwise.

My, am I a bit verbose today? Ok, time I get on with what this blog entry should be about! Friday Feature to show off how to incorporate handmade into birthday themes!

When I went to India this latest time, in October it was RD's b-day, and the theme for his b-day party was Pirates! His fave cartoons are "Jake And the Neverland Pirates" so it wasn't too surprising that RD would choose pirates as theme. As I told my G's sister, if I would have know that with a bit of advance, I could have got invites and decorations from On Cupcake Moon, cause Deb has a great pirate theme! And she can make the invites, the banners, the thank you cards, cupcake wrappers, cupcake toppers and even centerpieces, confetti and napkin rings! Since we didn't, we had to make do with what we could find in two party shops in Gurgaon.

We found quite a loot, including some gold doubloons, pirate balloons, cups, plates and some tiny things as favours/return gifts... aaand some pirate patches for the adults! Aaaaarrr! Also, since both G & me had some very pirate-y t-shirts from Rocky The Zombie, that'd be our uniform for the party!

We also had to plan some activities for all the kiddos that would be attending RD's b-day, and since the kids would be from 2-3 year-old toddlers to 10 year old older kids, we decided a treasure hunt would be great, and also some colouring. I thought that the Rocky The Zombie pirate designs would be great for the kids to colour, so I asked Rhi if she wouldn't mind sending them over, so we made a few copies, along with some images of the pirates from Jake & the Neverland Pirates.


Since on the day of the b-day G & me arrived late, when the party was under way, I didn't get any shots of the kids doing the colouring, but I'm thinking that I'd love to get any of the kids in G's family a colouring book all made out of Rocky The Zombie designs!

All in all, the party was a success, though I seriously think I won't invite as many kiddos if we ever have kids and make b-day parties for them... 30 kiddos was crazy to manage!

Shopping Handmade: Pilu's birthday, or how to buy handmade for a nurse!

Hey there! Today is Friday, and I've decided to bring back an old feature of mine, called Shopping Handmade, where I show off what handmade goodies I've bought as gifts for people, and how much they love them!

For today is the early gifts for Pilu's b-day, since I'm actually leaving for India on her b-day, and I have the days after today quite super busy! So after working night shift, I've met up with her and Esther, and I've ended up feeling like a hobbit! Wonder why?, not size related!, but I had breakfast (with Esther) and then I had second breakfast! (with Pilu). Somehow I managed to miss Elevensies there tho...

Let's start with the showing off!

As Pilu is in love with Zombie Pirate, I knew I had to get her a RockyTheZombie tee, and the new "Pirates in a Boat" print was too awesome to pass up, so I got her that one, and she is completely in love!!

Next, Pilu finally got her mini-Pilu from Camamiel, and now she's the proud owner of a nurse doll, wonderfully crafted, that looks like her, and even has a mini-Indy!!





Both mini-Pilu and mini-Indy are too cute for words! And Pilu is now super happy cause she finally has her Camamiel alter-go! Working with Ana from Camamiel is always a joy, and even more when I know her creations are gonna be loved and cherished, like all the nurse dolls I've gifted so far have been!

Ana was so nice to even send me a postcard of a photo of mini-Pilu & mini-Indy as a happy b-day card for Pilu, and she loved it!!

And last, but clearly not least, Catalepsia, a nurse paper doll, also from Camamiel! Pilu was trying to decide if she's gonna get her to decorate her car, her locker at work, or her reading room at home!

Now, it's time for me to take a lil nap, and then decide what bag to take as my carry-on luggage this time! Have a great Friday!

Wearing Handmade Wednesday: Madfoxes!

Hello everyone!


After a very busy day at work yesterday, with a double shift, and some nice sleep this morning after the night shift, I'm all ready to share with you all another Wearing Handmade Wednesday entry!


Today's entry has also been dug up from my old photos from the HDD, which is proving quite fruitful, and I've realized that I haven't shared quite a few old time sellers!

Wearing my Madfoxes Stormtrooper halter top!

Madfoxes is one of those sellers I discovered years ago on eBay, selling bands recons and the occasional geeky one, like my Stormtrooper halter! As most handmade seller she made the move to Etsy when eBay changed their policies, and she continues to sell her tops there, so if you want a band summery top, you'd do well to check her shop!

Not exactly handmade, but crafty indeed: T-Shirt Sites!!

Hey everyone!


Today I just want to share something that is not exactly handmade, but do involve independent artists and crafters, t-shirt websites!


Most of you probably know about Threadless, and also about some great designers that turn those tees into tops and hoodies. But I want to introduce you lot to a few more sites, like Red Bubble (artists submit their designs and can be printed in t-shirts, and also sold as prints) and there are also places with a limited time edition tees for cheap, designs submitted by independent artists, like Teefury, Ript Apparel and Qwertee, to name a few!


You might be wondering why do I like these places so much? Not only cause it's a way of supporting independent artists, but also cause it's the best way to find cool t-shirts for geeky ladies like me! Many Star Wars tees, Doctor Who tees even True Blood ones!


Here you can see a pair of examples of tees I own!

Wearing Handmade Wednesday!: Rocky The Zombie!

Hello everyone!


I'm back into the routine of blogging now, more or less, after G's short trip to Spain!
It was a wonderful if all too short a time, and you'll see & read more about it in future blog entries, but for now here's this week instance of Wearing Handmade Wednesday!

G happily wearing his Rocky The Zombie pirate tee!

Rocky The Zombie is the brainchild of Rhiannon (and also of her partner in crime, Hud, since they both design!) who draws and screen prints the designs in quality t-shirts! I do own many of her tees and hoodies, and I have given many as presents too! In this case, she even altered the tee to G's measurements, to ensure it'd fit him right!

Rocky The Zombie!

Finally, the weekend is here! Well, more accurately I'll be happy about my weekend OFF is here! Weekends don't really mean the same for a nurse as for regular people, since our shifts don't really go as regular office hours and the like.

As usual, time off means some time to relax, catch up on my reading without losing sleep, catching up with friends and some social life aaaand of course, having time to take pics and write on my blog!

I have a few entries planned, but I decided to dedicate this one to Rhiannon, the amazing girl behind Rocky The Zombie! Her line's name was inspired by her amazing doggie, Rocky (that sadly passed away not too long ago), and features her original lil zombie characters, all hand painted!

She started quite a while ago on eBay, but I found her through DIYScene, the most amazing forum ever! I love it, and I'm not a crafter... But I've met so many amazing crafters there, I couldn't be happier about having joined there, a year ago this month!

I heard so many good things about Rhi's shop, and her designs, so I had to check it! I went to her Etsy shop, and fell in love with all her lil guys! Since she makes all sorts of clothing sizes, from baby clothing, to toddlers, to all adults size, I was waiting for a while to see if she could list some my size, but then, as I noticed she made custom orders, I decided to contact her, and ask for a few custom made tees, with the colours and designs I wanted. She was not only awfully nice, but also very helpful with providing me all info about tees and colours available and all sorts of info about the type of paint she uses and all that jazz! I finally went for three short sleeved tees, in pink, blue & black (favourite colours of mine) and some really cute designs, Zombie with Cupcake for the pink tee, Zombies with doggie (inspired by Fabulously Fierce's doggie Henry) in blue tee and Halloweeny Zombies for the black tee. She did an amazing job at them, and everytime she paints a design it's absolutely unique, cause they're hand painted, so no two are ever completely alike! I absolutely love the three tees, and you can see me wearing the pink one!

Recently Rhi decided to try a new thing, lil 8x8 inches paintings featuring her cute lil zombies! As soon as she started listing them, they started selling like hot cakes! The paintings are so colourful and so cute, that they're irristible! I really wanted (and still want) to get one, two or a hundred! But, I don't really have space for any right now, and I'm trying to not buy things now for my prospective move out to my own place (one of these years), so I keep refraining myself. So, when my friend Irene said she was moving and pimping her new place I got a lightbulb! I could buy some of Rhi's lovely lil guys, and wouldn't feel guilty over not having space and all that jazz! I got two really cute purple lil guys, with cupcake and ice cream (and I got the most unique Zombie with floating ice cream and no arms! He's absolutely too cute and won't probably ever happen again, so it's truly OOAK). I got them last Wednesday, and today I visited my friend Irene to give her the lil guys, and I was more than ready to take them back with me home if she wasn't completely in awe with them! (Un)Fortunately she loved them to pieces!! As soon as she opened the package she had this huge smile on her face, and started going through every single empty bit of wall in her room, trying to find the perfect spot for them! And you can see her happy self with her Rocky the Zombie paintings!

I just can't wait for the moment of me being the one looking for the right spot for my own lil zombies paintings in my own place!