Tuesday, March 9, 2010

New Hero Arts Stamps!

Hi All,


Hope you all had an enjoyable long weekend. Mine was fairly relaxed, lots of family time and extended family time also. Lots of time to have coffee and chat with my lovely neighbour who I just adore. So nice to have someone who lives next door with kids roughly the same age and we have lots in common. Anyway I just thought I would pop in to share the latest happenings here behind the scenes at Koko Vanilla.


Here is a little sneak of what I am waiting (very excitedly) to be delivered this week. The cutest and newest stamps from Hero Arts. I couldn't hold back when ordering these, I am such a sucker for stamps, can't you tell!!

Sweet Wonderful You

Flamenco Dancer



Heart Owls

Girl with Gift

There are still plenty more stamps but this is just a little sample of what the latest style is with Hero Arts this year. The whole industry seems to have become very adorable and cute and I have to confess I love it. These stamps will be up on site in the next couple of days so check back you will find them here. Whilst your waiting for these hot new stamps to arrive I have marked down some of the current stock to make room for these newbies, you will also find them here.

Anna

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Blog Gratitude

It's always nice when someone notices your store enough that they feature it on their blog for Favourite Shops Friday. Thanks Beth from The Ruby Blog for choosing Koko Vanilla as one of your featured stores. Beth also has an Etsy store called Rubys Upcycled Designs.

On another note if you are in Melbourne, how good is this gorgeous rain. My kids have been splashing and playing on the roadside in the puddles all afternoon and just enjoying gettting completely soaked. I think it's been so long since we have had a good downpour complete with hailstones the size of rocks that it's a novelty for them. I personally have loved listening to the sound of the raindrops outside whilst doing jobs around the house. It's melodic sound and the refreshing coolness seems so long overdue.

Enjoy the cleansing!
Anna xx

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Colour Design & Inspiration


How beautiful is this image of flowers. I would have to say my favourite flowers and my absolute favourite colour combo very fresh, beautiful, uplifting and inspiring.
I came across this image whilst blog hopping (loooove blog hoping and getting sidetracked). The blog where this image is from is the The Creative Mint. Lots of great colour combinations on this blog and lovely photographs taken by the creator of this blog Leslie. Perfect for when your in a bit of design rut or wanting a fresh idea of what colours would look great together. So I am very inspired from this photo above and I am going to spend the next week coming up with some gorgeous creations using these colours. If these colours are a bit too girly for you she has lots of other great colour combo's on her blog.
I wonder who it was that said "Pink and Green should never be seen." They were so totally wrong!!!
Happy Sunday Night to all
Anna xx

Friday, February 26, 2010

P.S "I Love You" Scrapbooking Kit

Hi Everyone,

Our newest scrapbooking kit is now up on site
P.S "I Love You"
Scrapbooking Kit

Filled with gorgeous papers, ribbons and embellishments, you will love having a play with this kit. Great for all those family and romance layouts.

To purchase this kit go here.

Anna

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

February Scrap Kit Sneak Peak



A little sneak peak of the new February Scrap Kit


Available in store soon!

Anna xx

Monday, February 22, 2010

Hey, I'm Back!!!

I really do miss blog world when I haven't posted for a while. I am finally starting to feel a little more like myself and just taking life a little slower and less serious. Trying to do a lot more letting go rather than stressing out because things aren't how I think they should be. Do you have this lesson to learn? I'm sure we all do on some level. I think we can spend so much time analysing whether we are doing this right or that right or should be doing this or that, and life just passes you by day by day never being present, never really appreciating and allowing yourself to experience life and feel good. I know I am often in the should mode I think I learned that from my upbringing, I should work harder, be better, do more, manage everything. In fact a friend pointed out to me the other day, "Just becuase you can do something doesn't mean you should." This conversation topic was about helping out at school with craft. She made a really valid point as I know I have often felt like I should be running the school craft because I am creative, but the truth is there are probably lots of mums who are just as creative if not more so that never put their hands up to help. Point made, lesson learned!
Another wonderful friend lent me this book below. I highly recommend it. I have read lots and lots of books I love books, this one is simple and consice and I must say I have learnt a lot about the symptoms and signs of stress, tension and anxiety from this book that I haven't learnt from thicker and more intense books. Really worth a read. One point I will mention when I had a so called lightbulb moment (as oprah would call them), Eric mentions " Excessive thinking is the fuel that powers the body's stress response, anything that reduces the fuel supply helps us to the relax." He goes on to say that we should be in the senses more aware of sights, smells, sounds around us. Sensing relaxes you whereas thinking arouses you. Thinking creates adrenaline which tenses your muscles leading to stress. Well that point alone really woke me up. I think that I think all day about the past, future and everything in between. So anyway without going on forever, if you are the same as me this book has some great little and quick meditations to just do throughout your day, without having to really stop for a long period of time to meditate.
http://www.amazon.com/Flip-Switch-Anytime-Anywhere-Meditations/dp/1569754160#noop Link to amazon

Onto other things...
I finally managed to get an update out to all my subscribers today, so if you are not a site member you can join up on the home page to get all the updates. I have run a competition the last two months where all orders go into the draw to win a $25 gift voucher, this was a member only draw, so its worth it to sign up. My newsletters usually consist of site specials, new products and gallery samples.



The gem brads pictured above have been loaded in store today, there are a few colours to choose from you can view the rest here. There are also some pearl brads as well, both in pearl colour and oyster colour. These are great for invitations, cards, adding to the centre of a flower etc.
Well that's it for today, I will be back with more, a couple of kits are on the agenda for later this week. Stay tuned.......
Anna

Friday, February 12, 2010

Week in Review...


Hi Everyone,

I haven't been around much lately as I have had a bit of a challenging week health wise. Happy to see the back of this week, never to return. I guess its not untill you have a really low week that you realise just how nice it is to have a normal and peaceful happy week. Gratitude is so important and keeping your thoughts positive even more important.

Anyway on a brighter note, I am looking forward to a weekend of socialising, happiness, fun and feeling peaceful.

Also wanted to mention that I have loaded on site the most gorgeous limited edition stamps from Basic Grey - Basic Grey Delta Series Limited Edition Stamps. This lot comes in 12 individual mini packets and just about covers any subject you need from cardmaking to scrapbooking. They are cute and fun and I highly recommend you purchase yourself a pack. I have my own set and just love them. You can see from the image above what the individual packs look like. They are clear stamps so you will need an acrylic block to use them.
Okay so that's all for now. Hope you have a lovely Valentines Day planned on Sunday with someone special.
Anna XOX