Good Prod and Giveaway: Motherscout

I got to meet Nicky from Motherscout on a recent Auckland trip.  Lucky me.

It's a great story - a story of a collection.  My favourite kind of story.

Nicky has been collecting Mother badges for a while, and now she has over 60 of these amazing pieces.  They are beautiful.  They are all shapes and sizes, colours and details and she displays them in beautiful black velvet jewelry boxes.  She had to explain to me what a Mother Badge was.

Mother Badges date back to early last century and were especially popular in the 1950's.  They were usually given as a symbol of motherly love, but sadly these days they are "pieces of junk".  Nicky's collection grew over the past few years, adding to it while she was based overseas as well as in NZ.

She sees them as more than a collection of worthless junk - they are amazing little individual symbols that grouped together are "like artwork".

This 'artwork' concept lead her to thinking outside of the square and wondering if they should be photographed for sharing.  A new product idea was born.

Motherscout has used the professionally taken images and made them into a series of Cards and Swing-tags.

 They are stunning and I have a pack to give away to one of my lucky readers.  

The pack contains x3 cards and x6 swing tags.

Perfect for Mothers Day (which is coming up here in NZ on Sunday the 12th May) or any time you want to celebrate mothers.

I will make the draw next Monday the 27th April 2013.

To enter please comment here on the blog or my facebook page and tell me your favourite things about your Mum.  Bring the Mumma-love my design buns.  I'll start.

I love my Mum becasue she's creative, funny and loves colourful shoes.

If you don't win and want to buy one for your special Mumma, Motherscout can be found all over NZ and stockists can be found over at her Facebook page.

Stop! Collaborate and listen: Alex Fulton Design and Commando-M

If you were an 80's kid living in New Zealand you would have worn a pair of these puppies.  You would of not only worn them you would have pimped the eff outta them.  

I recall many an English lesson doodling all over my Commando-M's - especially the 'M' part of the white rubber sole.  It had magnetic powers and the more I swore I would leave it nude the more I just couldn't help myself to doodle.

Well guess what my kiwi friends, they are back and have a new look goin' on.  They have revived the classic plastic moulded sole with a new reconditioned upper that's customisable!  Yes, you can create your own little piece of shoes nirvana!

I was sent a pair to give my own spin. I thought I would show my level of maturity and design professionalism, soooooooo I scraped the doodle and opted for the highly sophistic relm of multi coloured confetti.

I even did a movie!

Alex Fulton Design creates for Commando-M Shoes from Alex Fulton Design on Vimeo.

What will you do with yours? 

Design or buy your own pair here and then go visit Commando-M facebook here 

Conference: Bloggers Connecting 2013 (Christchurch)

I've just come back from a weekend of blog-mania.  

Bloggers Connecting Conference (Christchurch) got together 60 bloggers from all different walks of life, the common theme being we are all from NZ. 

It was a super weekend with much fun, extremely helpful techy sessions (thanks to Talia from Talia Christine and Meghan from MNMs) and tonnes of good ol' fashioned chat.

I just wanted to personally thank the amazing organising committee of dedicated blog babes.  
It was a incredible amount of time and effort for you all to put in, so many thanks.  We all got so much out of it... As well as a friendship or two!

special mention to my photo booth bestie beavers
Alice from Our Tiny Landscapes
Nickie-Jean from Stuffnjsays
(we really shine in enclosed spaces, cars included)

See you next year!

images:  photo booth at the Winnie Bago's Dinner (Could someone please tell me the name of the photographer so that I can credit!)

Bloomin' good: Verve Flowers, Marlborough

When I need flowers for a photo shoot, I need flowers that don't look like they from a florist.  I need flowers that look like they have been picked from a garden and cleverly arranged without being too contrived.

(a skill I wish I had, but don't, so out-souring I must!)

One of the exciting parts to moving regions it finding new artisans to feature and boy did I find a goodie with this one.  Actually it was my friend Kirst that put me onto Jeanine Wardman from Verve.

Jeanine is a floral doyenne with an abundance of knowledge and skill which she replicates in her beautiful blooms.  All her flowers are grown on her flower farm based in  Marlborough which must be an oasis of gorgeous growth.

When I called her (abeit last minute) she picked up the challenge to fill our house in flowers for a photo-shoot.  My brief was simple - they had to look like they were 'real'.

All she needed was a quick overview on colors and style and she nailed it the very next day with 8 vases ranging from large to small.  

Her arrangements were interesting and hauntingly beautiful.  They packed the colourful punch I needed without distracting from our home.  

She's good, very good. 

You can find her on facebook and website.  Please have a look-see at her other creations too as they are equally stunning (and more).