and the winning pinner is....

Thank you to everyone who created their "Happy Birthday Ribbons Galore" pinboard. I've loved looking through the pinboards and seeing your favourite Ribbons Galore products. It's been a fun way to celebrate Ribbons Galore's 7th birthday.

So now onto the winning pinner...

Congratulations Bec. Thanks for entering, you have won a $70.00 gift voucher to use in the Ribbons Galore store.

If you'd like to join Ribbons Galore on Pinterest, please visit HERE.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Easter break.

Cheers

Fiona x

ribbons galore is 7 years young, and we're celebrating on Pinterest

March is Ribbons Galore's birthday month.

Seven years ago, I opened the virtual doors to a new little online store selling a small range of brightly coloured ribbons. Seven years on, I'm very happy to say, we're still here with a new Ribbons Galore website and over 500 products. I'd like to thank all my customers for their support during this time.

To celebrate our birthday, I've organised a little "pinning" fun sweepstake.

If you join in you could have the opportunity to win a $70.00 gift voucher to use in the Ribbons Galore store.

The sweepstake will be run over on Pinterest.

Here's what you have to do to enter the competition:

1. Subscribe to the Ribbons Galore newsletter, (you can skip this step if you already subscribe).
2. Create a Pinterest board with the name "Happy Birthday Ribbons Galore" (this is very important, as this is how I will be able to find your Pinterest board, and verify your entry).
3. Pin 7 (seven) of your favourite products from the Ribbons Galore store. You can pin more if you'd like, but a minimum of 7 products are required.
4. Include in EACH pin description the hashtags "#ribbonsgalore" and  "#ribbons".
5. Send me a message just letting me know you've entered (so I have the contact details to  advise the winner), please do this via the CONTACT US page, or you can leave me a message here on this blog post.

The rules:

• Anyone can enter. You will need to have an account with Pinterest to play along.
• You have until next Wednesday to create your board. Competition closes on Wednesday 27 March 2013 at 7:00pm (Sydney time | Australian Eastern Summer time).
• When the competition closes, all "Pinners" who have completed the steps above will be entered into the sweepstake and a name will be randomly drawn.
• You will be contacted via email if you are the lucky winner of the $70.00 store voucher.

If you would like to see examples of a Pinterest board, I have created one HERE and HERE.

Have fun, and thanks for the last 7 years!

Cheers Fiona

striped grosgrain ribbons now at ribbons galore

This new collection of grosgrain is beautiful, I love everything about them, the colour combinations, the thickness and quality of the ribbons....

They are available in a variety of 9mm, 23mm, and in some designs 38mm widths.

They are a lovely quality for sewing and to finish off your packaging beautifully....

(Above image from Cookie Dough Biscuits, thanks Lisa for letting me use your photo.)

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Fiona x

ripple crochet blanket with ripplealong

It's not like I needed another crochet project, but when Mel Goodsell announced she was hosting a RIPPLE-ALONG... I just felt I needed to join in!

While I have been happily crocheting my african flowers, Mel had been posting pictures of her ripple blanket she's been crocheting on her blog and intasgram. It was gorgeous!

After signing up to Mel's "ripple-along", I had to choose the wool for my new project.

Last year (January 2012) I was holidaying on the beautiful South Island of New Zealand. We had a few nights in Dunedan where I found a few crafty shops selling gorgeous New Zealand wool. I bought a few balls back with me, buying only one colour of each. These are the wools that I decided to use for my ripple blanket, it's going to be my New Zealand South Island inspired Ripple Blanket.

So here's my wool selection...

Random Dyed Tekapo 8 ply wool

Colour "landscape" (shade #062) by Ashford.

Why I bought this wool: During another holiday on the South Island of New Zealand, we stayed a couple of nights at Lake Tekapo. It snowed while we were there, the first time my girls saw snow. The colours of the lake and the surrounding mountains was amazing, like the colours in this wool.

Merino Possum 8 ply wool

Colour navy by Merino Possum

Why I bought this wool: Curiosity, to be honest. Possums are a protected animal here in Australia, they are a pest in New Zealand. Introduced from Australia a long time ago, they loved New Zealand (who wouldn't), and spread, and spread and became a pest. They are "harvested" for their fur. The fur is mixed with merino wool resulting in an incredibly soft wool.

Rare Earth 8 ply wool

Colours "old snow", "champagne" and "camel" by The Rare Yarns Company

Why I bought these wools: The softness of these wools, they are beautifully soft being made from alpaca and merino.

Starting the ripple

Two days ago, during soccer training, I finally made a start. I'm using Lucy's pattern from the Attic24 blog. Lucy's instructions are very good, with lots of photos.

I started with 199 chain stitches. The first row was the hardest and slowest. It got easier after that.

I'm 14 rows into the blanket so far, and I fear I'm going to be running out of wool some time soon. I'm already researching how I can buy more of my wool... I might have to plan a shopping trip back to New Zealand to stock up :)

If you'd like to play along with the ripple-along, visit Mel's blog for details.

If you'd like some inpiration and ideas for a ripple blanket, I've been adding ripple blankets to my crochet board over at Pinterest.

Will be back soon to share my progress.

Cheers

Fiona x