Lately the Paperlab girls have caught an extra dose of craft workshop fever! We’ve been busy attending a bunch of craft workshops and making all sorts of things as well as learning all about happiness along the way. Here’s PaperLou’s summary of what’s been happening…

A couple of weekends ago I was lucky enough to win a free pass to a Top Knot workshop on Saturday 18th May at the lovely Artifice Store in Williamstown thanks to Craft Victoria! I can’t tell you how happy I was – finally someone to actually show me how the hell they do that fancy stuff with a bit of colourful rope. Believe me people, I have tried and tried and borrowed many a book from the library and watched countless You Tube videos and downloaded instructions and tutorials galore… all to no avail and lots of frustrating knotty messes.

So imagine my excitement when I was able to come home with my very own handmade, handknotted beautiful plant hanger after attending their super fun craft workshop! It goes to show that Katie & Kashia from Top Knot really know their stuff and are wonderful teachers too.

Finally the mystery that was Macramé was revealed in all it’s glory early one Saturday morning.

To find out about their next classes go here. Oh and by the by the folks at Artifice have some other super fun workshops coming up too so check them out!

macrame

On Sunday 19th May my talented business partner in papery goodness, Mitch, ran our ever popular Coptic Book craft workshop. Can I confess something? This was the first time I actually FINISHED a coptic book… sure Mitch has shown me before and I’ve attempted it,  but I’ve never actually finished one. If you missed out on this last workshop we’ve just released another date. Head to our bookings page to find out when and register.

photo (3)

We had a wonderful group of crafty folks in the workshop and we had tea and biscuits to keep us going.  Check out the finished book that one of our students, Chandni, made.  Chandni is one of our wonderful paper friends and she runs her own lovely business in Origami design called Kishmish Moon. Be sure to check out her site.

chandni book

 

On Thursday 23rd May the Paperlab girls went along to the Happiness Workshop at the Kikki-k store on Little Collins Street, Melbourne. PaperLou discovered all about it via Instagram through the Happiness pledge and thought it would be a great way keep a happy focus for the rest of 2013.

The workshop was a wonderful evening filled with insightful perspective and real happiness in action! The beautiful Happiness journal was included in the price of the workshop and our teacher Marie-Suzanna was a delight and had the best Swedish accent ever.

photo (2)

Over the hour we were guided through reverse bucket lists, thimble lists and our own 2013 happiness pledge.

think happy

Some interesting facts we learnt on the night:

Happy people live longer, feel better, function better and are more productive.

Studies have shown that 8 hugs a day, each of 20 seconds in length to maintain and keep our happy.

I’m up to number 3 for the day… how about you?