Our last market of the year is tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow is OTLP's last market of 2010, before we take a summer break (read: both start new jobs!) and come back with new products next year.

We've been busy making Christmas goodies and we need to share them so come and see us at the Devonport Christmas Market tomorrow 10-3pm. There will be over 60 stall holders - I guarantee you'll love it!

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Carnival Chaos! Amazing fair at Michael Park Steiner School...

I've just realised that I forgot to blog about the Michael Park Steiner School Fair last weekend. It was a real highlight of the month for me - I have never been to such an amazing school fair before. There were literally thousands and thousands of people pouring into the school to share in their friendly, colourful, entertaining fair. From castle playgrounds to dragon's 'reading' dens, go-fish ponds, flag sellers, archery games, live music all day, Mexican food, coffee shops, craft stalls and vendors galore, the event was not to be missed!

Well done to my crafty colleagues Songbird Designs, Cotton Kiwi, Cat Taylor Design, Softearthart, Zippydoodah, Cuckoonest, Linen Tea, and Ruby in the Dust - fantastic stalls, all of you.

The venue itself was gorgeous. The school is made up of lots of little 'houses', with curved roofs and doorways - it's like a little village. As a Rudolf Steiner school they teach the importance of creativity and development of the child's character and spirit and it was so neat to watch the children perform on the stage and field - from singers to ballet dancers, just fantastic. When they drew the raffle, one of the prizes was jewellery from a young, funky local jeweller - wish I could remember his name. But he got up on stage and talked about how he was a Michael Park graduate and after he'd left school he'd opened his own jewellery shop. So clever.

For Miss Four, the top thing to rave about to the grandparents was the 'flag' seller. She was particularly in love with the rainbow silk streamers high on bamboo sticks. (Oh, and the lemonade popsicles).

For hubby, it was the super-cool "NZ" t-shirts by Kolektiv Design Studio.

For me, it was the Mexican food... Organic avacados and just-spicy bean mixtures cooked by an amazing team of parents, lashings of salad and corn chips and sour cream. And for dessert - meringes, cream and strawberries. Needless to say we have copied that menu for dinner this week already!!

Here's a few pictures of our On Top of a Lily Pad stall (OTLP equals me, Topography and our honourary member Lisa at Estella Rose). Lovely to meet you all!

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Michael Park School Summer Fair!

This weekend we're off to the Michael Park School Summer Fair - apparently it's a huge family day popular all around Ellerslie, Remuera, Greenlane...a bit of an adventure for some North Shore girls.

Bring the kids, come jump on bouncy castles, and listen to live music all day!

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Mum Made - New store now open!

Since we started this blog we have discovered so many amazing products handmade by kiwi mums, and now there is a gorgeous online store dedicated to them - www.mummade.co.nz.

The website looks as pretty and professional as their sweet logo, and has a wide range of products for babies, small children and mums. 


Here at OTLP we are very proud to be supplying Mum Made with lily pad designs pinboards, Topography bag tags and our co-designed lily pinnie aprons

There are also lovely knitted things, modern cloth nappies, and soft toys, all handmade and at reasonable prices.

If you were at the insanely busy Mary's Market in Auckland on Saturday you would have seen Mum Made's table packed with goodies (Mum Made's Brenda has blogged about it here), Aimee was there too with Holly Chic and Estella Rose and has some awesome pics on the lily pad designs Facebook page

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To market, to market....

On Sunday Greta and I had a wonderful day catching up with all the other crafty people on the North Shore, Auckland, at the Devonport Craft Market. It was the biggest market yet, with more than 54 stalls! We introduced our new Christmas range of goodies and the reactions were classic - lots of 'oohs and aahs and I love them' - but just as many 'oh no, not Christmas already!'. We feel exactly the same way! Where has this year gone! Our babies are one this week and next month! But it's only something like two and a bit months away....and good to spread the budget and creative preprations.

As usual we had our stock priced at special market prices and lots were gobbled up. But you can still buy more on our websites - Lily Pad Designs here and Topography here.

NEXT MARKET DATES:

October 16th - Mary's Market:

The whole lily Pad pram liner range, and select pinboards, will be available on my retailer Holly Chic's stand - at market prices. Our joint 'On Top of a Lily Pad' lily aprons will be available on our new retailer Mum Made's stand, as will Topography's luggage tags (perfect stocking fillers for kids who like to label kindy or school bags!).

November 6: St Michaels School Fair, Ellerslie:

Along with Holly Chic we'll be showcasing our family friendly products in our first ever outdoors marquee! Come along and join the family fun day.

November 21: TBC!!!!!

(We'll keep you posted!!!)

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Applications for Markets - Now Open!

Have you ever thought about selling at a craft market? There are some great Auckland events coming up that are taking applications now.

The first Auckland Art and Craft Fair went so well in July (see this previous post ) that it will be back in December, this time in a bigger venue at the Aotea Centre (pictured). All the application details are here. The Fair is organised by the Auckland Craft Collective  - they also have an info night coming up about blogging, Twitter and Facebook (featuring one of our absolute favourite bloggers, L'il Magoolie ).

I didn't get to First Thursdays in its previous life, but I will definitely be checking out its re-boot on December 2nd. Held at St Kevin's Arcade on K'Rd, it is at night (6pm-9pm) with art, craft, food and music - sounds like a party! Applications are open now at www.firstthursdays.co.nz.

Crafternoon Tea is celebrating its first birthday in October and taking applications now. In June 'CT' was our first experience of being sellers at a Craft Market, and it was like a crash course - such friendly people and a very high standard of products (see post).

After having a break for a couple of months, we here at OTLP are very excited to be doing our next market in Devonport on Sunday, October 3rd. Applications are now closed but check http://devonportcraftmarket.blogspot.com early each month for info. At the market we will be launching our new products for the holiday season, stay tuned...

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