Etsy Spotlight: Wags and Wiggles

Like most pets, our two dogs love a good chew on a dog toy (or a slipper, or father-in-laws expensive leather shoe, or the contents of my handbag...).  Unfortunately most dog toys present a challenge for the aesthetically minded pet owner, with most reeking of over-the-top cute or showcasing seriously offensive colour combinations.  

So thank goodness for Wags and Wiggles - handmade dog and cat toys that are sturdy, fun for your pets and also (hurrah!) easy on the eye.  The toys have just the right amount of quirk, don't you think?  I gave them as xmas presents to a variety of furry friends, and they went down very well (except that my Mum liked them so much she almost couldn't bear to hand them over to her mutt!).

Etsy Spotlight is the Good Things* seal of approval.  Read more here.  And see all the posts here.

The View From Here: Small Things

Ok, I think I'm a little late with this one (though I may have just scraped in to meet the one week deadline), but appreciating the small things and macro photography are two things very dear to my heart, so I couldn't resist posting in this (last?) weeks The View From Here challenge - small things.

We have lots of little treasures around the house - miniature figurines dotted about, and stacks of wonderful origami thanks to the youngest step-son.  It was actually trickier than I thought it would be to take visually interesting or 'good' photos of these small things (and it's made me really want to get a macro lens!  Oh dear!).  Anyway, here's the best of the bunch.  I might repeat this exercise when I've got to know my camera a bit more, see if I improve...

Crafting the New Year

One of my favourite things about living in Asia is that you get two new years.  That means twice the renewal, twice the fresh starts, twice that sense of every-thing's-going-to-be-better-from-here-on-in - hurrah!  Near the beginning of February is the transition from the Year of the Tiger to the Year of the Rabbit.  The Year of the Rabbit is meant to be all about calm, peacefulness, diplomacy and negotiation.  Here's hoping (or hopping?).  

The past few nights I've been having a a bit of rabbit-y fun creating new years cards and gifts for some of our friends back in Hong Kong.  As I've mentioned before, we currently live opposite one of the biggest markets in Seoul - Namdaemun Market - and the paper craft and gift wrap supplies available there are so very good.  Every time I  visit I always walk away excited and inspired (and with a giant bag full of ribbons...).  It's my kind of heaven!

If you're a vegetarian, look away now...

...because there's a whole lot of meat in this post.

First up, let me explain that my husband is a little like Rob, the dentist.  Not in that he is a dentist (he isn't), but in that I can't show you his face.  The husband doesn't really 'get' the internet, outside of where it provides immediate usefulness and/or entertainment, and I promised when I started the blog that I'd spare him.  I'm thinking of referring to him as Rob from here on in, but it might confuse newcomers.  And also my husband might one day actually read my blog (at the moment he claims it crashes his laptop any time he tries to open it...) and then he might get a bit confused as to who this Rob guy I'm hanging out with is.  Anyway, hands.  Not faces.

With the ridiculously cold winter South Korea is having, we have gone a little roast crazy.  We often do a roast beef with all the trimmings, and have got the meal to a near state of perfection.  In fact, it's been rated a three Michelin star meal*.   But we thought with a new year we'd try a new meat, so last weekend we did our first proper roast lamb.  With yorkshire puddings (cooked in bacon lard!), peas, cabbage and bacon (the perfect combination!), gravy and mint jelly (I am still not 100% convinced on the mint jelly, but the husband won't let us eat lamb without it).  Delicious.  And the best bit is there's been lots of tasty lamb leftovers all the past week!

Here's the husband's hands at work preparing the lamb with salt, pepper, oil, garlic and rosemary:

Lamb leftovers with lots of seeded mustard, a greek salad and crusty bread - a perfect meal for one. We also had crusty rolls, warmed in the oven, with roast lamb, rocket and mint jelly but they got eaten before I had a chance to take a photo...

*As far as we know the meal has not actually been officially rated by a Michelin guide inspector.  It has been rated by my husband who thinks he should be a Michelin guide inspector. 

New in store: gift tags!

I've been madly making gift tags the past few nights - oh what fun!  I love the process of coming up with different combinations, playing around with variations on shape and colour.  Plus - these are the first product shots with my fancy-pants new camera.  Am I happy?  Yes, I am!  It's going to be a good year for craft, me thinks!

Also, most of you are no doubt aware of the mad crazy floods happening in Australia at the moment, some of you may even be dealing with the mess of it all right now.  I know there are all kinds of horrible things going on all over the world all of the time, and there's only so much we as individuals can do.  But there is something about it being in my home country and affecting people and places I know that does pull at the heart strings more than usual.  And every little bit of help does indeed count.

If you feel like doing your bit to help the soggy people and animals of Queensland there's a ton of ways you can.  Here's a few links to get you started:

Give dollars here.

Give dollars to help animals here.

Buy handmade stuff here.

Donate handmade stuff to sell here.

UPDATE: I see the wonderful Lexi at Pottymouthmama has a post with some extra links to giveaways and events targeted at raising funds for QLD.  Have a look here.

And Pip at Meet Me At Mikes has a fantastic round up of everything that's going on in the field of flood fundraising here.

Plus - ANZA Korea are dedicating their first Global Cafe event to help with fundraising efforts.  Find the details here.