myfuroshiki advent calendar 25

* Day 25 *

Merry Christmas!

myfuroshiki advent calendar 24

* Day 24 *

Almost there and I'm back on track!

Taonga Jewellery

Even though we've never met, we've met some great people online this year and it's been such a boost to have such lovely customers - friendly, enthusiastic and general all round nice, nice people! Oh, and very talented too ...

Lili draws pictures

Zebedee

Aleximo Croissant

myfuroshiki advent calendar 23

* Day 23 *

Another thank you to our lovely customers and look at some more of their marvellous creations.

Japan Crafts

See the Woods

Talking Beads

myfuroshiki advent calendar 22

* Day 22 *

Isn't this gorgeous?
A beautiful Christmas Princess bracelet from Rachel Lucie
that's far too lovely to be just for Christmas!

myfuroshiki advent calendar 21

* Day 21*

This lovely furoshiki reminds me of Christmas. I'm not sure if it's because the background looks like the wintry skies we've been having recently when there's been no cloud and the stars look really bright or because the three stones look like Christmas baubles. It's part of a beautiful and interesting series of furoshiki created by Judy Wross. I've seen and admired some of her work on flickr during the year but didn't realise till I read her blog that she has made 52 furoshiki in all, one a week throughout 2009.

myfuroshiki advent calendar 20

* Day 20 *

Wrap up warm, it's cold out there!

Some little bits of quirky cuteness courtesy of Quernus Crafts
(who also makes charming customised creatures - take a look at her blog)

myfuroshiki advent calendar 19

* Day 19 *

(and normal font service has been resumed ...)

A big thank you to everyone who mentioned us in their blogs.
We've found ourselves in some great places this year:

* The Earth Day feature on Cuteable, run by Lynsey from SwirlyArts
* GlassPrimitif's feature on Folksy Finds
* PiratePixieCrew's Autonomous Artisans' Coriandr feature
* Coriandr Featured seller of the week - thanks to DigTheEarth
* The Coriandr Express blog
* Found on Folksy in It's in the bag
* Making good use of all our fabric scraps in Sew Mama Sew's Scrapbuster month
* Alongside some lovely sellers at Ilkley Market
* Great gift wrapping ideas in Wrapped up in Bow by Aleximo Croissant
* Birmingham Friends of the Earth It's a Wrap for eco-friendly wrapping
* With the cutest deer in Lili Draws Pictures' Happy Holidays post on Craft Candy
* and finally, wrapping it up, in Pink to Green

myfuroshiki advent calendar 18

* Day 18 *

Some more of our lovely customers' own creations - this time from etsy.
Snowdrop

Glimpses & Remains

SGSquared

The Creative AZN

myfuroshiki advent calendar 17

* Day 17 *

Ooops, a little behind on my days here - just adding to the suspense of Christmas - will I catch up with my advent calendar before the big day or not ... :)

Anyway, another wonderful thing I've discovered this year is google alerts. Mine are set for furoshiki, bojagi and of course myfuroshiki and almost every day they throw up some great links.

Here's one very relevant one I came across this morning. My google alert took me to the intriguingly named Confessions of a Grandma blog and a post about gift wrapping and from that post to Skip to my Lou's, Fun Ways to Wrap Packages (how did my google alerts miss this one back in September?).

There are lots of good posts about alternative gift wrapping and I particularly like this because it includes practical instructions too, for example for pillow gift boxes made from ceral packets, boxes made from recycled greetings card, some lovely cone boxes, ideal for hanging from the tree, and also these cute felt elf shoes from Jolly Allsorts. I have to stop now tho I could spend hours browsing from one link to another. It's a wonderful world out there!

myfuroshiki advent calendar 16

* Day 16 *

A big thank you to our customers - what a wonderful and wonderfully talented bunch!

Here are a few of their creations.

Little House

Lily Vanilli


Cottage Crafts

Art by Adora

myfuroshiki advent calendar 15

* Day 15 *

Probably the most terrifying thing for us as we started myfuroshiki this year was doing our first markets. Would people like myfuroshiki? Would they even know what one was? Did we have enough stock? How should we display it? We tired ourselves out before we'd even started! But it was all worth it ...

Perth Unwrapped - March 2009

Keighley Arts Factory - April 2009
We've met some great people, customers and fellow stall holders, had some funny experiences and even sold some furoshiki so now, a dozen markets later, we're happily planning our ones for 2010 - watch this space!

myfuroshiki advent calendar 14

* Day 14 *

... and the final lot of fabulousness from the Coriandr Express!

Tiny Pretty Things
Sweet Treat
Heart and Soil Baskets
Ruby Spirit Designs

Tomato Tea

myfuroshiki advent calendar 13

* Day 13 *

... more current goodies from the Coriandr Express crew ...

Snapdragon Beads
(Alice's Coriandr shop is closed until 2010 but check out her website)

FruteJuce

CeeGee Jewellery

Lej Jewellery

Love, light and peas

myfuroshiki advent calendar 12

* Day 12 *

... more of the original Coriandr Express crew ...

Creativesque

Nic's Knots
Mrs Toad Designs
Debbs Elliman

(I think she may be on holiday at the moment, but do call back)
myfuroshiki :)

myfuroshiki advent calendar 11

* Day 11 *

One of the things I've really enjoyed about selling on line is getting to "meet" so many wonderful sellers. There's a great sense of community which really came out in the Coriandr Express promotion which we took part in earlier this year. Twenty sellers got together to promote each other for three days at a time. Here's a quick look at what the first five have in their Coriandr shops now.

Dig the Earth

Blue Fish Handmade
Handmaid by Julie Mills
Kitty Ballistic
Pirate Pixie Crew

myfuroshiki advent calendar 10

* Day 10 *

There are so many wonderful blogs out there, quirky, funny, interesting, informative ... here are just 3, each with a Japanese connection, that I love to read:

Hiroko lives in Denver and posts beautiful photos of her life there and thoughts on living a greener life on her blog Live Simple Eco Life, Love Green.

Mari is a student in Brazil who writes a blog, M's diary, as part of her English class.

"East meets West at La Fuji Mama, a home cooking blog dedicated to exploring the relationship between food and culture."

Hope you enjoy them too!

myfuroshiki advent calendar 9

* Day 9 *

is origami day - beautiful goodies from Buddhist Musician, Wrapped up with String, Little Crane, Snowdrops and Daisies and Sian Bostwick Jewellery.

myfuroshiki advent calendar 8

* Day 8 *

Woo hoo! We're very pleased and proud to be one of the featured sellers on Folksy this week!

And here are some glimpses of the others, Champignons, Pants and Paper, Bookity