Winner of Tommy & Tuppence Giveaway is..............
I will be emailing you Jenny with further details of claiming your prize
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What a busy week I have had.... birthdays, coffee dates, painting furniture, sewing things and trying to fit in cooking, cleaning and going to work in there as well - all the while being six months pregnant and feeling tired. I have to say I am looking forward to the long weekend. Anyway enough of my whinging, I have a great business women and designer to show case today. I was drawn by the gorgeous homewares of this business and fell in love with the whimsical feel of the products - so come on in and meet my latest Feature Friday.....
My name is Sonda Mitchell and I am the creator of ‘Shack
Stuff’. I am married to Andrew and have
two grown sons, Josh and Ben, and one amazing daughter-in-law, Alex. My favourite
sounding board is my monster size golden lab ‘Oliver’. I love cooking for
family and friends, reading, watching movies, exploring craft shops and markets
and just being near the beach. My
background is in Adult Education and administration but now when I am not in
the ‘Shack’, I teach toddlers and pre-schoolers to swim.
It may sound corny but Shack Stuff started after years of
‘wondering’ and coming up with ideas for how to create stuff. I have loved doing craft as a hobby and have
enjoyed helping out friends and family with wedding invitations and
accessories. My dream to have my own business grew and so in October, 2011 on
my birthday I decided to make Shack Stuff official and applied for an ABN. The
website, Facebook page and Made it shop followed after that. I have some brilliant
helpers in the Shack who continue to encourage, support and motivate me to keep
going.
I guess I like to make the ordinary and the practical just a
little bit more exciting. The ideas come
from all over, and I am so inspired by the creativity of others. I love looking
at shops and blogs and Pinterest, but then I really want to do my own version
and give it my own touch. For example I
saw a frame with burlap (or hessian) inside and writing on the glass. I
wondered what it would look like to appliqué a design on to the burlap. The result is our ‘Just Saying’ frames which
have become one of my most popular lines.
I realise lots of people will look at my items and think
‘That’s so simple, I can do that myself’.
I am thrilled if I can inspire someone else to get creative. However, I
guess I want to make stuff for people who love the handmade look but don’t have
the time to do it themselves.
I also found when helping to plan my son’s wedding that
there were so many items that were overseas that I couldn’t find over
here. That’s where the idea for our
hanging jars and mesh frames came from. I wanted to provide accessibility to
these rustic designs without the huge shipping costs. It took a while and a lot
of skill from helpers to come up with our twisted wire design.
The description I give to ‘Shack Stuff’ items is ‘home and celebration décor’. On my website you will find we have two sections. In ‘Around the Shack’ you will find stuff for your home like our ‘Just Saying’ message board frames which are dry erase boards. They work really well with liquid chalk markers. You will also find our burlap wall hangings in a range of designs, decorated clipboards that have lots of customised options, and our wire mesh frames for jewellery, cards or keepsakes.
In ‘Celebrations ‘ you will see items you can use to
accessorise your special event like our hanging jars, stamped muslin bags and
our table stands.
We also love finding old pieces in farmyards and op shops
that we can up cycle. We have some amazing finds that we have restored on our site.
I just want to see it keep growing. I would love to think that one day I will
have a physical Shack Stuff store to display our items. It would be cool to
have a coffee shop and book shop/reading area where people can just hang out.
In the interim the hope is to expand into other markets, we
are already at Balmain Market at least once a month. I also want to build up and
promote our wedding accessory lines.
To sum it up just to keep ‘wondering’, ‘creating’ and
growing!
Visit Shack Stuff and say hi....
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GIVEAWAY
Shack Stuff has a range of “Just Saying” A4 frames that people can write on using whiteboard or liquid chalk markers. This aqua two bird frame is our most popular in this line and we are giving one away to one Whimsical Wife readers.
(Thank you so much sonda for your gorgeous giveaway)
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