Craft Corner at Fanantique

Cut and Paste

With Bastille Day coming up next week, I have been planning a little French event at the boutique. I have been brainstorming about what to serve at the event (Champagne is of course a given) but I thought it would be fun to have some sweets and cakes with little French flags on top.
I was lucky enough to pick up some traditional red, white and blue flags at the party shop down the road, but I got to thinking that surely I could be more creative.
We have in the store at the moment a gorgeous set of Parisian style rubber stamps from Zetta Florence that I have been dying to play with so I thought this could be the perfect excuse. We also have some fantastic decorative wrapping paper (also from Zetta Florence) that had me inspired. I decided to try making my own 'cup cake flags'. I picked up some toothpicks and craft glue and got to work with my trusty cutting board and scalpel.

 

Zetta Florence Decorative Wrap

 Above: Zetta Florence Parisian Style Stamps

I set myself up in front of the TV one night as Gabor watched the World Cup (and I pretended to) and got to work. Apart from a few interruptions from Gomez, who thought it was great fun to jump on top of what I was doing (cat paws and ink pads are not a good combination) and a headache from those silly South African horn thingies at the soccer the whole thing was quite successful if I do say so myself.

Parisian Style Cup Cake Flags

My success with this project and the fun of using the stamps inspired me to create more.

Parisian Style gift tags

Small gift cards

Greeting Cards

Meet Gomez

Several months ago, while Gabor was scrolling through the Trading Post (as most men do) I happened to come across a small ad that was set to change my life. It simply said "Kittens- free to good home" this would not have been too hard to ignore usually, BUT this ad included a photo of the most gorgeous little black balls of fluff that I have ever seen! I had to have one.."PLEEEASSSSE can we get one???"
Gabor, wisely knew that he would never hear the end of it until he said yes. I rang straight away and told the lady on the other end of the phone that we were coming. There's only two left she said. I knew we had to hurry, these kittens were adorable!! Before we were even in the car, the phone had rang, it was the kitten lady.."Now, there's only one left . Are you still coming?"
"yes, yes, please hold him for us!!!!"

So, we jumped in the car and set of to the other side of town to pick up our little bundle of joy. As we drove across the Westgate I had visions of life with my wonderful new cat. He could come to the shop with me and hang out while I drink Champagne...........

 After that, he could sleep in the window and enjoy the warmth of the afternoon sun.......

 He could generally just hang about the shop being cute , be adored by the customers and keep me company..........Yes, my new kitten and I would indeed by a stylish pair..........

 

But I was in for a very rude awakening indeed. As soon as we got little Gomez (named after Gomez Addams of course) home , things began to change. The first thing to change were our curtains. It was cute at first when he would race up the fabric, but as he got a little bigger and a little heavier, he would tear them as he climbed..our place was turned from 'shabby chic' to just plain shabby overnight.

When Christmas came around, he thought he was in heaven, so many things to play with!

We have recently found out that Gomez is an "American Bombay" cat. This cat is described as the perfect cat for someone who would enjoy having a monkey for a pet! This explains a lot. He loves to run up our leg and sit on our shoulders!

So as gorgeous as he is, I don't think he will be my shop cat for a while, he will have to stay at home until he can be trusted not to shred the Vintage Dresses! In the meantime, I will try and get my hands on one of these divine "Cat carriers " like Dita Von Teese has, Gomez would love to be carried around in such style!