family time and a happy new year

I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas holiday! Here's a bit of what we've been up to..

illuminated tree at Stanley Park's Bright Nights

kid-made sugar cookies (yes, it was messy, and a little stressful at times, but sooo fun and delicious!)

 family trip to Victoria (Vancouver Island) where most shops on the main strip seemed to require *very* large, often well dressed animals to sit at the shop entrance

hotel dining at its best :)

 Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island) to visit some family. Amazing backyard!

Aunt S's sweet dachshund relaxing by the fire

back home for Christmas Eve and some pretty awesome presents - 

 fairy wings from Aunty S and a spy suit from Nana

Christmas day dinner with the family at my childhood home. Especially excited my sister made it home for Christmas this year! (yup, everything in that kitchen is yellow. It's no wonder I am so drawn to that colour now)

 the classic punch bowl

 the dessert table (I forgot to get a picture of the actual dinner spread which is always an impressive mix of potluck contributions - turkey with sticky rice stuffing (my mom's specialty), Thai noodles, radish cakes, yams, veggies, dips, spring rolls, zucchini pie, prawns, curry pastries...)

C with one of his favourite aunts

stockings lined up and ready for Santa :)

I'm feeling a little sad that the holidays are almost over. It was actually pretty relaxing and although we didn't end up doing half the things I thought we would, it ended up being perfect. New years eve for us will also be pretty laid back, dinner at home with the kids and maybe some grandparents. My kids haven't been sleeping all that well lately so I'm sure it won't be too much of a stretch if they wanted to stay up until midnight (not sure I'll make it though..) And then it's a new year! I'm not normally a 'resolutions' kind of girl, but I do like to think about what I'd like to do with the fresh year ahead. You know, the usual 'start exercising more', 'eat better both health-wise and in a more sustainable, ethical way' (just watched FOOD, INC. again and feel like I just got a good kick in the butt to be more pro-active with our food choices again)... But as for sewing and crafting, oh man, looking all the patterns and books I've accumulated recently, it seems like I have pretty lofty goals for the new year. I'll get into this more in another post.. Do you normally come up with new years resolutions? Do you believe they actually help achieve your goals? 

Well, I'm not sure I'll get back on here before the new year, so I'd like to wish all of you an absolutely wonderful, exciting, and joyful new year! And thank you so much for reading this little blog of mine. This past year was an exciting one for me with the start of this blog and my shop and I feel like since I joined this community, it's really helped me focus more and actually make time for doing what I really love to do. And for that, I'm grateful :)

xo melissa

happy holidays!

Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone Peace, Warmth and Joy! 

xo melissa

(photo taken at Bright Nights in Stanley Park)

giveaway day WINNER!!

Whew! Giveaway day (week) is now over and whoa, what an amazing response! Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to enter my contest, and of course to everyone who participated in Giveaway Day on their own blogs. I can't believe how many new blogs I visited and how many contests I entered. So much fun! And a special 'thank you' to Sew, Mama, Sew for hosting this awesome event! (I'm feeling a bit like a pageant winner now..) 

Ok, so I was getting giddy thinking about who was going to win the dress or $25 certificate, so I did the draw and here is the lucky winner..

(Please excuse this screen shot from my phone. I can't seem to figure out how to get the actual results screen on my blog without it resetting again.)

And #152 is:

Katie said...
I would love to win the dress, it's adorable!16 December, 2011 8:25 AM 

Congratulations Katie! I'll send you an email shortly so I can get your info to send your prize off to you! Yay!

 
Thanks again to everyone who stopped by my blog (and to those who have decided to continue following). I'll probably take a wee break from the blog over the next week or so, but will be back before the end of the year (and will quite likely also have a huge sale in the shop!) Cheers! Happy Holidays! Mwah! :*

hooray for GIVEAWAY DAY!!

Well hello friends! and a special fuzzy warm welcome to everyone visiting from Sew, Mama, Sew! It's giveaway day again and this time, I thought I'd do something a little different. For this giveaway, I'm offering the winner two options to choose from. And here they are..

OPTION #1

Upcycled Shirt Dress - Size 4-5T

($38 value)

This dress is 100% cotton (a former Calvin Klein button shirt) and features sweet ruffle cap sleeves and the original button placket in the back to make dressing easier. To complement the light blue and sage green striped pattern, I appliqued a large coral/pink flower and added a little hand embroidered detail (applique will fray a bit after a few washes for a cool, deconstructed look). *the colour in the photos is showing the dress to be a bit on the pinkish side, but it is actually off-white, light blue and sage. The inside of the dress is finished with French seams and a sweet little 'boutique' label. The size is 4-5T but it would very likely fit a 6 year old comfortably as a tunic top. The measurements are approximately 14 1/2" across the chest (underarms) and 25" from top of shoulder to hem. This dress is one-of-a-kind and handmade by me :)

OPTION #2

A $25 Gift Certificate for Oh Hello Rabbit which can be used for anything 'ready to ship' in my shop, including sale items (cannot be used toward 'made to order' items). What would you choose?

So, are you in? To enter, simply leave a comment below letting me know what you would choose if you won. And please make sure I have a way of contacting you if you do win :) One entry per person (with the exception of the 'hoop-jumping' below..) This giveaway will run until Friday, December 16th at 5pm PST and I'll be using good old RANDOM.ORG to pick the winner who will be announced on this blog the following day. This is open to anyone, anywhere in the world (with a legit mailing address of course). As a reminder, the gift certificate in OPTION #2 is only good for READY TO SHIP items (cannot be used toward 'made-to-order' items) and you must select your item(s) by Dec 19, 2011 so that I can have your goodies wrapped up and in the mail to you by Dec 24th).

And now for the 'hoop-jumping'..

For up to 3 more entries you can:

-follow my blog

-follow me on twitter and tweet about this post tagging @ohhellorabbit (easiest to just click the 'twitter share' button at the bottom of this post)

-follow me on facebook (I'd be super happy if you shared this post but it's not necessary for the extra entry)

For each additional entry, please leave an extra comment below so it gets counted.

Phew! And there you go. Good luck everyone and be sure to check out all the other amazing giveaways on Sew, Mama, Sew!

o christmas tree

Last weekend we set up our Christmas tree. It's one of my favourite holiday activities and it's become even more fun now that the kids can help.

Although you might not be able to tell from the picture, about two thirds of the decorations are hanging from the bottom two feet of the tree. And check out that nicely tangled strand of gold stars! I think I've always loved 'random' and colourful Christmas trees. Although I can appreciate a perfectly colour-themed and meticulously decorated tree, I prefer chaos, which is the mindset you need when decorating with little kids. Every day some decorations are removed, and some are added. I've found stuffed toys (including this little worm), plastic bugs and hotwheels balanced on the branches. This tree is truly one of a kind!

As for our 'real' ornaments, we have a pretty solid mix of ornaments from my childhood, and from my husband's, most of which are handmade and were purchased at craft markets and church bazaars in the '70s and '80s. And every year, we buy or make one new ornament for each of the kids and sometime for us too. Here's a small sampling of what's hanging on our tree right now..

a sweet little mouse from my childhood tree

a folksy horse from my husband's family tree

 I've named this guy 'disco mouse' (love his orange suit and green tie!)

and of course, you need a Christmas seahorse! (or is this a loch ness monster..?)

a cutie little felted wool penguin (I bought this handmade from a craft market in Vancouver a 3-4 years ago and I'm kicking myself for not being able to remember the crafter/artist's name. Hopefully it'll come to me. She had some pretty amazing stuff!)

And this is one of this year's new ornaments. A Christmas Yeti that was selected by Big C from Sweet Earth Celebrations at this market. Yup. Pretty hilarious (and a little scary!) A couple ornaments that I made last year are in the background. A scrappy owl from this tutorial, and a bird from this tutorial. I'm hoping to make a few more ornaments  before Christmas. If you know of any other fun ornament tutorials, please share! 

{this moment}

'A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.' -words and inspiration from Soulemama

If you have a moment you'd like to share, please leave a link in the comments. Wishing you and yours a lovely weekend!

lil c's new dress

Lil c was eyeing some dresses before I took them to the market last weekend. She placed dibs on the turquoise teacup pinafore (similar to this dress) with Jay McCarroll's purple dropcloth print on the reverse side. I promised her that she could pick one dress from whatever was left over from the market and luckily, the one that I had left happened to be in her size :) She held me to my word. 

market, giveaway winner, and a belated SALE!!

Well, it was a busy weekend at the Urban Artisans Craft Market. Thanks so much to everyone who made it out in the rain to visit and support the local craft scene! Not only was it fun to chat with shoppers (everyone was super friendly despite the rain and gloom outside), it was also a wonderful market for meeting other crafters and artists!

 Pouches and bags in sweet Japanese fabrics, hand drawn cards and super cute sock monkeys by Amrita

DIY felting kits by Woolly Owl Designs 

Super fun felt party games, toys and dress-up supplies by Sweet Earth Celebrations 

Skinny ties, felt necklaces, ornaments and mobiles by Happy Little



My fabulous crocheting friend and table buddy Jenn's Yarn Addiction



 And of course, my table and offerings :)

And there were so many others that I just didn't manage to get pictures of, like Noei and her Japanese fabric pouches, passport covers and adorable elephant coasters, and Comiditas with the amazing felt play food. Really, I originally thought that after this market I wouldn't want to touch my sewing machine for a month, but I came away from it feeling even more inspired to make things! How cool is that! :)

And now, moving right along...

Thanks so much to everyone who entered my Japanese pattern book giveaway! According to the mighty Random Number Generator, the lucky winner is #11:

miamihoney said...

I like you on FB!

25 November, 2011 10:37 PM

Congratulations miamihoney! I hope you love this book as much as I do! I'll be doing another giveaway fairly soon as I'll be participating in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day on December 12th. Not sure what the prize will be yet, but I promise to make it good :)

And finally... a belated Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday... ok, let's just call it a Holiday SALE!! 25% off everything in the shop with code HOLIDAY11. I'll be adding a few more things (skirts, dresses, lounge pants, bunting flags..) hopefully by end of day tomorrow. Happy shopping and have a fabulous week!!

xo melissa

some silliness and a GIVEAWAY reminder

So it's just one more day before the Urban Artisans Craft Market, and things are starting to get just a wee bit silly around here. While I was busy doing some last minute sewing and tagging, lil C decided she wanted to do some modelling.

The picture's a bit blurry because she also thought it would be 'nice' to do a dance while modelling the Bloom Dress. And here she is checking out the price tag of the Kaleidoscope Skirt. (I think she's saying 'wow, what a bargain!')

And since it's still Movember, check out big C's 'green juice' mustache (he was especially proud of this one)..

Or how about his 'noodle mustache' from a couple weeks ago..



Yup, it's pretty silly over here. By the way, if you haven't entered the Japanese Pattern Book GIVEAWAY, make sure you head on over and do that now. Contest closes end of day Sunday and I'll be drawing a winner on Monday! And also a heads-up that I'll be closing the shop for the weekend while I'm at the market, but should have it up and running again by monday along with a nice little SALE :)