Check out this month's new guest pattern... ❄️🎄

Woohoo! It's a new month, and we have lots of exciting news to share with you... ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­

Woo hoo! It's a new month (can you believe it's almost the end of the year?!) and we have lots of exciting news to share with you. Let's dive into it! In this newsletter: November Guest Pattern revealed! On the Blog: How to bind your hoop Cute 'Sunflower Cuppa' by member A giant teddy made out of chocolate?! A helpful tip for dealing with negative comments In our world: Heavy heart 😢💔 Introducing... I am so excited to bring you all our guest pattern for November - Christmas Village! This was designed by the lovely Laine Irene of @laineirenedesigns.   I have been following Laine for awhile now, and have always admired her gorgeous designs full of whimsy, which really come to life with all of the little details she adds. I particularly love her festive designs - so I knew she was the perfect fit for designing our Christmas pattern (and I must say she nailed it!).    This pattern is for Super Confident Makers+, and is a great way to practice lots of different techniques. I particularly love the candy canes with Whipped Back Stitch!    The Christmas Village Pattern Kit is now available to purchase in our online shop. It includes the printed pattern guide, a square of Kona Cotton blue coloured fabric, 11 different DMC thread colours, and a 6" beech wooden display hoop. We have limited stock of this kit, so we'd recommend grabbing one while stocks last! Christmas Village Pattern Kit Shop now On the Blog... How to bind your hoop If you find that your hoops aren't quite holding your fabric taut enough, and you have to keep pulling your fabric into place and re-tightening the screw - then binding your hoop could be a great option to try. It's when you wrap your inner hoop with fabric or tape, so that it creates more friction between your inner and outer hoop. Which therefore should hold your fabric in place a lot better.   If you'd like to know more about this method and give it a try, then you can check out our blog article here with a step-by-step guide.  GO TO BLOG What have our Makers been up to? How cute is this version of our 'Pumpkin Cuppa' (guest) pattern by our lovely member Jamie? We love how she switched it up with a sunflower instead of a pumpkin. Our members are so creative!   She said: "I've made two of the pumpkin cuppa and loved them so much! I tried to play around and tweak it a little bit. 🌻" What's inspiring me on the creative front... Can you believe that this giant teddy bear is made entirely out of chocolate?! I couldn't believe it either, until I came across Swiss-French pastry chef 'The Chocolate Guy' Amaury Guichon (@amauryguichon) and his incredible, show stopping chocolate creations. He creates mind blowing sculptures, 'out of the box' delicious pastries and desserts that will leave you wondering, 'how did he do that...?' Well you can see for yourself over on his Instagram page here, where he shares the process for each and every creation he makes. Enjoy! Something helpful... I know that for a lot of people it can be a real struggle to deal with negative comments from others. I wanted to share this really helpful tip from Kathrin Zenkina of @manifestationbabe on how to stop letting them affect you. It was such a great insight into how you can put these things into perspective. I have been following Kathrin and listening to the Manifestation Babe podcast for awhile now, and can really recommend checking her page out here. Her content is sooo helpful - whether you are on a personal growth journey or just want to get started on improving your mindset! In our world... Thanks so much to everyone who has shopped our bundle sale, I can't wait to see all the beautiful patterns that are going to be made with these kits.   We had a lovely weekend away with friends, and spent a lot of it in the pool and spa, feeling like summer is on its way here. Woop! We also watched the All Blacks lose the Rugby World Cup final, sob. But we still feel incredibly proud of them and the performance they put up.   To be honest, even as we live our happy life, my heart has been feeling so heavy over the last couple of weeks, as I see the incredible amount of suffering in Gaza and Israel. As a mum, I find it so heart-breaking to see how much of the trauma is carried by children and young adults. Words can't describe, and I've shed a lot of tears. I don't see how the continued violence can achieve anything but more divisiveness and suffering. Behind the scenes I've been trying to help in whatever small way I can, and I truly believe that every voice speaking up counts.    I hope you have a safe, happy and great rest of your week xx   No longer want to receive these emails? Unsubscribe. Clever Poppy Ltd 39 Woodside Ave Northcote, Auckland 0627