Meet the Seller - Nicole from Sweet Surrender Cupcakes

If you have tasted one of Nicole's cupcakes, you will probably be heading back to the market to buy one from her every month - they are addictive! Find out more about Nicole below.

Tell us a little about yourself – who are you? Where do you hail from?

My name is Nicole and I was born & raised in West-Berlin the very exciting, arty & now once again capital city of Germany. I crossed the big ocean via giant steel bird and set foot on Aotearoa in December 1996.

Tell us a little about what you make?

I make/create edible Artistry for the sophisticated & discerning customer. I have to say a little “toned down” for the markets but give me a special occasion and you’d be surprised what I can come up with.

I specialize nowadays on cupcakes (No they are NOT muffins!) small table cakes and small top tier cutting cakes as part of cupcake towers.

I love baking with liqueurs, champagne or port wine…needless to say I cater mainly for the “grownups”.  I just absolutely love to decorate my little sweet creations in a less then ordinary way) lush & opulent appeals to me naturally. I also study Interior Decorating & Design, I am in my second year

Have you always been a cupcake maker?

No, not exactly…I started baking at the age of 4 with my beloved Grandmother (nope, not your typical Nan but a very flamboyant woman, read about our story on my website but I have been in the Industry for a long time. When I came to New Zealand I bought & hands on operated a Café-Bar-Restaurant on Ponsonby Road for 11 years (Café Logos formerly Expresso Love) it was one of the funkiest places in town. It was all about healthy and tasty Food & a (very) unusual stimulating atmosphere. I was baking up to 6 large cakes a day and heaps of vegan muffins, wholesaling my savoury pesto filled muffins to other cafes, making all soups for “SUJU”, making Birthday-Wedding & other Special Occasion cakes and being the head chef were only part of my daily tasks. Prior to that adventure I was trained & worked as a nurse for 17 years in Germany, mainly in Intensive Care Units, Organ Transplant Units, Operating Theatre, as a Head Nurse, Nurses Teacher & a few years at the second largest Psychiatric Clinic in Germany. Oh, and I was a chauffeur for a while in my life to a few posh business clients..that was great fun and I got to drive the most amazing and expensive cars one could imagine..once a Corvette Stingray with 24 Carat gold interior and mahogany dashboard....hilarious…

  

Your flavour combinations are amazing – where do you draw your inspiration from?

I have traveled a lot and have tasted the most amazing foods. I like unusual flavours and taste sensations and I just have to close my eyes, imagine a place or an event from my past or hear a certain music/look at a picture/ feel a beautiful fabric etc and voila -  a new flavour combination pops right up in my head. I am an intuitive baker, I never follow recipes and my cupcakes are not made using a standard cupcake recipe. Once you understand how ingredients relate to one another it is (almost) “a piece of cake” to put it all together.

What is your favourite cupcake?

Ooohh..too many to pin me down on just one. My mud cake combinations are definitely in the top part of my fav list but at the moment I really like my “Marie Antoinette” - Black Doris Plum-Almonds & Pinot Noir. 

Aside from The Devonport Craft Market, where can people find your work?

People can order directly from me on my website.

July Market Sellers

The sellers for our 4th July Devonport Craft Market have been listed in the sidebar of the blog (take a look over to the left hand side). As usual, they are an extremely talented bunch and we're looking forward to another fun day of market fun.

{Mosaics by Adele}

Some of the sellers have links to their blogs and web pages. Why not take a look at some of them and get a sneaky peak of what they have to offer?

{Lisa Hooley Photographer}

If you haven't already, do sign up to our newsletter. It will be emailed to you just before each market and will contain lovely pics of some of the items that will be on sale as well as useful bits of information about the coming market. We will never spam you and you can unsubscribe at any time.

{Liberty Lane}

In the meantime, keep warm and keep well!

all the best
Sarah and Sarah x

Feeling Crafty?

Come along to the new Craft Social at Mecca Cafe, 1 Victoria Road, Devonport from 7-9pm tomorrow (Monday 14th June).

{image: Cotton Kiwi)

Craft Social is now being organised by the lovely Trish Van Bussell of Fireworks Agnes. The first night will have a knitting theme to it. Here's a message from Trish:

"Come and join us for a relaxing evening, being creative, chatting and winding down after the day. Bring along your craft e.g. knitting - that is appropriate for a cafe.

If you're new to knitting and craft - come along and have a look through some books and talk to us about what and how to start. Or if you would like to learn to knit bring along some needles and wool, and we will start you off. Or just come along and chat.

Don't worry if you don't know anyone else that is coming, wander down to Mecca and ask for the table reserved for " Trish Knit/Craft"

Hope to see you then!
Sarah B & Sarah M

Applications for the July Market are now open

Sweet Surrender cupcakes

Applications for the 4th July Market are now open

Visit the 'information for stallholders' button at the top of the page to apply.

Applications will close on Friday 11th June at 5pm. Stallholders will be informed if we are able to accomodate them by the evening of Sunday 13th June.

Please note that we do our best to fit everyone in but don't always have enough places, especially during Winter when inside space is very popular. If we can't fit you in this time, we will try to fit you in at a later date so please do reapply.

You don't scare us Mr Weather...

Today's market was rather beautiful

Even if the weather wasn't!
(click on the photo mosaic to see it bigger)

1. Pure Extracts by Adamar, 2. Inspired by Nature, 3. Classic Kiwi Rocking Horses, 4. 0 to 2, 5. Zippitydoodah, 6. Krafty As, 7. Songbird Designs, 8. Sweet Surrender, 9. Liberty Lane, 10. Natural Hand Knits, 11. Cat Taylor Design, 12. Glennie Knits, 13. Songbird Designs, 14. Bookbeads, 15. Kahikatea Haven Preserves, 16. Two Hand Jewelry, 17. Two Hand Jewelry, 18. Classic Kiwi Rocking Horses, 19. Linen Tea, 20. Kerry Mihu, 21. Collinswood Designs, 22. A Little Vintage, 23. Zippitydoodah, 24. Cotton Kiwi stall June 2010, 25. Bettys Boards, 26. Cheeky Pinchy, 27. Sandra Waine, 28. Kute Kiwi, 29. 0 to 2, 30. Natural Hand Knits, 31. Exter Creative, 32. Hope Jewelry and Art

Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine for 4th July when the next market takes place.

The links to the stallholders who exhibited today will remain in the sidebar for another week or so.

Please feel free to contact us at anytime if you wish to get in touch with a stallholder in between markets.

You can email us or call on 021 0378882

Meet the Seller - Helene from Happy Go Knitty

 

Meet Helene Dehmer. Helene has had a stall at the market since the market opened last year. Famous for being able to ‘knit and walk’ at the same time, we thought you would like to find out a little about what makes this knit-a-holic tick!

Happy-go-knitty – where did you come up with the name?

I have just re-branded my knitted crafts and I'm very pleased with the name. I wanted a name that is fun and clearly describes what I'm doing. As a person I'm quite happy-go-lucky but most of all I'm happy-go-knitty!

Where did you learn your craft?

My nana taught me how to knit when I was 11 years old and I have knitted since.

I have always made things and have tried a lot of different crafts - sewing, knitting, tapestry, pottery, silver smithery, glass blowing, beading... Nowadays I stick to the knitting and I'm a knittaholic! I can walk and knit so a lot of my crafts are made walking to and from work!

What can people expect from Happy Go Knitty?

Various knitted things! I make knitted cuffs from NZ merino and alpaca. A few years ago I learned how to do beaded knitting so some of the cuffs are bead knitted. It's a traditional craft from the early 1800s. Wealthy women used to wear bead knitted cuffs to cover the edges of their worn-out dresses. Nowadays they are used as a warming and beautiful accessory.

I also hand-dye cotton yarn and make knitted kid's beanies. The yarn is soft and nice to wear and the colours are bright and beautiful! I also make knitted flowers from the cotton and put them on rings, brooches, hair clips and hair ties.

I recently dyed a big lot of cotton yarn so now I have my yarn for sale at the market.

There is one other thing that I do..... Some people might have noticed knitted graffiti around Devonport and I have to admit that I’m the person behind most of them (not all of them though). Why I do it? To make people smile! Haven’t seen them? Check out my 'other blog' www.knittygraffity.blogspot.com

Where do you get inspiration from?

New ideas pop up in my head all the time. While working on one piece I'm already working on the next ten pieces in my head! I love colours and my big stash of yarns and beads is a big source of inspiration for me.           

Your favourite books and food?

I really enjoyed the Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larson.

Mmmm, I like thai and indian food. And sushi. And Spanish tapas. And Italian food is yummy...

Do you find inspiration online?

I love my sister's blog, she is such a clever crafter.

Yarns and colours en masse can be found at Yarn Inspiration

And I keep an eye on many blogs by my crafty friends, links can be found on my blog.

When you are not at The Devonport Craft Market – where can people find you?

I sell at other Auckland Craft Markets – check out my blog for details.

I will in the near future list my crafts on felt.co.nz and I can be contacted via email happygoknitty@hotmail.com