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January Inspiration & Making

One of my favourite things about January, a month with a pretty bad rep, is that everything feels new and fresh. It’s a time for cleansing, reevaluating and figuring out where to start now, especially  after being Christmas centric for about 3 months.

Our Bunyip new years resolution for 2017 is to make more, not something you’d think we’d generally be behind on but it’s surprising how much our day to day shop lives can leave us with little time to actually be creative! So this year we’re changing that, allowing ourselves more time to do what we love and take time to put our inspiration into action. This blog is a little look at all the wonderful things we’re feeling motivated by, and the beautiful trends we can’t wait to take ahold of our making in the next few months….enjoy!

Greenery

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So Pantone’s colour of the year is Greenery, news to which I think I made a dissatisfied grunt about the first time I heard it. However, being the easily influenced person I am, I am already starting to pursue a bit more of this shade into my everyday life & making. You can see the connections between this and the ever growing enthusiasm for plants – I can barely scroll through instagram without seeing many a beautiful botanical scene.

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I had a wonderful time picking out all our green beads and buttons for a magazine project recently, and Mattie’s been working on a fern necklace that’s got us all pretty joyful…

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Embroidery

This is one of those trends that’s almost left the runway shows now but is continuing to dominate the high street. I’ve taken one of our botanical embroidery books home with me so that I can spend my Sunday’s in bed stitching mini cacti on to a plain t-shirt I picked up – so satisfying and really eliminates my Netflix binge guilt.

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Once I’ve finished this project I’d love to start embroidering something sheer, like these ridiculously beautiful dresses that would maybe not look as amazing on a normal human but still make me really gleeful to gaze upon. We’ve recently ordered in a lot more sequins to the shop, so I’m hoping to start using more of these alongside our tiny shiny beads to embellish shirt collars, etc.

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Mattie grabbed a plain sweatshirt recently that she’s planning to embroider geometric shapes & patterns on to – I can’t wait to see!

Tulle

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Wearing mid length flowing tulle skirts makes me feel so happy and glam and I can’t wait for more of that in 2017. We’ve only recently added tulle to our fabric selection in store and immensely enjoyed making up a no-sew tutu for the window by knotting long strips around a piece of elastic. We’re moving on to proper tutus next and I’d love to really embellish a long sheer skirt…maybe I could adorn it with green beads and combine all these lovely trends into one really intense garment? Yes please.

Thanks for reading! For more crafty beauty and nonsense join us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram!

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2016: Happy Highlights!

2016 was a packed year for us at Bunyip, from substantial business changes to awards ceremonies, we had all the fun and hope you did too! Whether you’re a customer, a friend or a follower we’re really grateful for you getting involved with Bunyip Craft in the last 12 months and can’t wait for a suitably crafty 2017.

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Customer parties

In 2016 we hosted three parties for our customers and enjoyed it so much that we briefly considered new lives as party planners. Our summer shindig was a crazy 2 hours of craft hecticness that flew by in seconds, with 60 + customers enjoying Pimm’s, hair braiding and goody bags!

For Christmas we decided to split our celebrations across 2 evenings, meaning it was a bit easier to browse around the shop and to have a go at mini wreath and pom pom making. Having lots of our regular & loyal customers join us for a glass of fizz was one of our favourite points of 2016, and we can’t wait to start planning our 2017 shenanigans.

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Shop Merger
A vital part of the business this year was obviously when we merged Bunyip Beads with Otton’s Haberdashery in April, with us slowly but surely implementing our ‘Bunyip Craft’ rebrand. This has allowed us to spread our craft joy into new territories, since we were no longer bound by the beads & buttons branding. We’re really happy that the haberdashery side of the business is flourishing under it’s new investment, and we hope to carry on expanding into new areas of crafting this year.

The Contemporary Craft Fair
Pimms, deck chairs, Punch & Judy and the most beautiful craft you’ve ever seen – I don’t think I need to explain further!

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Parties & Workshops
We booked in more parties and workshops than ever this year which was wonderful! I couldn’t keep count of how many Children’s birthday parties we hosted and there were a huge array of adult get togethers too, with keen people learning everything from tote bag making, to decoupaging letters, to charm bracelets and we even made half a wedding dress for a halloween costume!

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Fore Street Flea
This year we helped organise the first ever Fore Street Flea, which was an awesome success! A gorgeous sunny day in September saw the road fill up with traders, friends and treats – we flogged our old party dresses, munched on greek street food and my dad even got his vinyl collection out. Our second flea market was slightly chillier but with even more wonderful goodies to choose from – we’re holding out for some May sunshine for the next potential event. (Spot Mattie below…!)

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Award Nominations
In April we were lucky enough to attend two awards ceremonies, as Otton’s Haberdashery was nominated for Best City Centre Business at the E&E Business Awards, and Bunyip & Otton’s was nominated for Best Retailer at the Exeter Living Awards. Sadly we missed out on both awards, but we had the most fun getting dressed up and sipping (glugging?) fizz at the ceremonies – Mattie was even a judge for the Exeter Living Awards! Just getting nommed for both of these was a real boost for our confidence and we still have our ‘shortlisted’ stickers proudly displayed…

Little Wool Shop
Back in early Spring the wonderful Lisa opened up her Little Wool Shop concession in the shop and has been part of our crafty family ever since! We get just about as excited about her orders turning up as we do about our own and her workshops and knit and natter groups are ever growing – she even made us pumpkin pie with added rum!

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