MADEIT LAUNCH PARTY - MONDAY 15 JULY TO FRIDAY 19 JULY

We are in celebration mode over at Madeit.com.au!

After months (and months) of hard work, the wonderful Bec and her team have upgraded the marketplace and it is totally fabulous!

To celebrate many of the shops will be offering coupon codes during this week - here at Very Cushy Homewares we are offering Free Postage on all Australian deliveries.

Just use code: MadeitParty0AusPost

Happy Shopping!!
‪

Lacey Finds

I have always been fascinated by lace. I even contemplated learning how to make it at one stage. Indeed, one day I will try and learn how to make it, but until time becomes an limitless option in my life, learning to make lace has been placed on the 'yet to do' list.

That doesn't stop me from admiring all of the other talented crafters out there who manage to incorporate lace into their designs. Whether it be the physical item or the feeling it evokes, lace can be found in many places.  I did a quick search on my favourite handmade online shopping site - madeit.com.au - and came up with the following items.

From left to right: Baby Dragon Designs | Rochelle Toomey | Springwood Porcelain Jewellery

Each of these items show the delicateness of lace, but also it's versatility - from inspiring designs for paper cut art, to becoming a pattern for a porcelain bowl or even just being used to adorn the head of someone precious - lace can be used as inspiration for many beautiful items.

Have you used lace as inspiration for any of your designs? I'd love to hear how you've done it.

Until next time...Cheers!

Postscript to Valuable Lessons

This is the result of my previous post...

Yay me!

Valuable Lessons

I learned a very valuable lesson yesterday...

...always back everything on your laptop up to an external drive.

This may sound totally sensible to all of you - it certainly does to me - and yet I hadn't done it.  The result was my laptop suffered an irreversible problem that I couldn't fix without reverting back to the factory settings.

Agh!!!!!

I've lost everything.  Business stuff. School stuff. Work stuff. Home stuff. Kid stuff.

The most painfull loss is the loss of all of my photos.

Double Agh!!!!!

It did make me think though.  It made me think about everything we know we should do in life, but don't and then spend time wishing we had.

Should we have asked that boy out on a date?

Should we have bought that pair of shoes that were never going to be that price again AND available in our size?

Should we take that job that might be a bit scary to start off with, but might just be the best thing that ever happened to us?

Should we be brave enough to turn our hobby into our business?

We all have a lot of 'should' questions that we ask ourselves everyday.  Some with consequences more important than others. 

Maybe the question we should ask is 'What will be the consequence if I don't take action now?'

In the meantime, I know what I will be doing...

...buying myself a terabyte of external back up space just in case I can't do anything about the question straight away!!

Did You Know? Cushions

I spend a lot of my time surrounded by cushions - most of us do - but how much do we really know about them?

The first of my 'Did You Know?' posts is a little snapshot of the history of the cushion - let's get to know them a bit better (with thanks to Wikipedia).

 A cushion is a soft bag of some ornamental material, stuffed with wool, hair, feathers, polyester staple fiber, non-woven material, or even paper torn into fragments. It may be used for sitting or kneeling upon, or to soften the hardness or angularity of a chair or couch.^[1]

A cushion is also referred to as a bolster, hassock, headrest and a sham.^[2]

Cushions and rugs can be used temporarily outside to soften a hard ground. They can be placed on sun loungers and used to prevent annoyances from moist grass and biting insects. Some dialects of English use this word to refer to throw pillows as well.

The cushion is a very ancient article of furniture; the inventories of the contents of palaces and great houses in the early Middle Ages constantly made mention of them. Cushions were then often of great size, covered with leather, and firm enough to serve as a seat, but the steady tendency of all furniture has been to grow smaller with time.

Cushions were, indeed, used as seats at all events in France and Spain at a very much later period, and in Saint-Simon's time we find that in the Spanish court they were still regarded as a peculiarly honourable substitute for a chair. In France, the right to kneel upon a cushion in church behind the king was jealously guarded and strictly regulated, as we learn again from Saint-Simon. This type of cushion was called a carreau, or square. When seats were rude and hard, cushions may have been a necessity; they are now one of the minor luxuries of life.

Decorative cushions are likely to have a fancy cover material which are patterned style and generally used to decorate furniture.

So there you go! You are now a little bit wiser about an ordinary household object that most of us can't live without - the cushion :0)

The Winning Cushion Cover

For those of you who like to see the end result of a giveaway - here it is!

Our winner Jess chose the colourful cotton Deer Tea Towel and it has come up a treat. A fabulous design that will make a great interior design cushion.

Great choice Jess!!

If you would like your own tea towel cushion, visit us at Very Cushion Homewares and see what we can make for you :0)

Giveaway - January 2013

To help us launch our Tea Towel Cushion Covers we are giving one away!!

 This giveaway is now closed :0) Jess you are the winner!
Please see your comment below for instructions

Date: Right Now to 5:00pm (aest), 27 January 2013

All you need to do is visit our Facebook page, look in the January Giveaway 2013 photo album and pick one!

Let us know in the comments below which tea towel is your favourite and if you are the randomly drawn winner, we will make it into a cushion cover for you.

How simple is that!

All you need to do is pop a pillow in it when it arrives in the mail and then 'voila' - you have your very own, OOAK, Very Cushy Homewares Tea Towel cushion :0)

Feel free to share this giveaway with everyone you know - you don't have to be a 'liker' to enter.

Did we mention this is open to our international friends as well?  No?  Well of course it is!!

So, in summary:

1. Visit our Facebook page
2. Look at the January Giveaway 2013 Photo Album
3. Pick the Tea Towel you like the best
4. Come back to the blog and tell us which Tea Towel you like the most in the comments section (please leave your email address for contact if you win)
5. Have a cup of tea and cross your fingers!

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions via email - verycushy@gmail.com

Good Luck everyone!!

Welcome to Very Cushy Homewares!

Very Cushy Homewares is the latest store from Australian mother and daughter craft team; Diane and Karen.

This blog will be used as a place to showcase our wares, share a bit of what is going on in our craft rooms and will be where we hold all of our giveaways.

We hope that you enjoy what we do and we look forward to chatting to you :0)

Cheers,
Diane and Karen.