http://www.marakye.com.au/blog

I am still working on the appearance so apologies for the boring background!

NAIROBI ( AFP ) – A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa , officials said The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

“It is incredible.. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a ‘mother’,” ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP

“After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother Fortunately , it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together,” the ecologist added. “The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother,” Kahumbu added. “The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years,” he explained.

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

This is a real story that shows that our differences don’t matter much when we need the comfort of another.

We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God,

I am sure I am not the only dissapointed WA jewellery maker….

If you are in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane you can find out more about the Shows at

http://beadandgemshow.com.au/ 

and I would love some feedback if you get along to any of the shows.

All Jewellery Organisers have now been updated and are ready for purchase. I have marked a lot of them down to expo prices for the next few weeks.

Jewellery is still being re-stocked and fingers crossed if all goes to plan we shoul dbe back on track by mid-week with hundreds of new dichroic pendants in store by Friday!!!!

Just enter the code word ‘marakye’ at the checkout to receive your 10% discount.

www.icklekids.com.au

Ickle Kids specialise in activity packs for kids on the go! Each of their Activity Packs contain a selection of handpicked, fun and educational toys for busy mums, dads and carers to just “grab and go”. Their packs are sure to keep kids entertained in tricky situations such as travelling, waiting in the doctor’s surgery, visiting Granny’s house, dining out at restaurants and on rainy days.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte appeared today and although she did not sing she was interviewed by Tottie Goldsmith and she is such a stunning and lovely lady. Maeve was cooking in the kitchen again, the psychics were busy doing readings and the crowds were busier than the past 2 days. All in all it was a very quiet expo but also very rewarding in many ways. 

After so much hard work making jewellery and getting new stock, pricing, displays and all of the background work it was amazing to see it all come together without a hitch at the event and I felt so proud to see all of my hard work fall into place.

I had so much positive feedback over the weekend about  my work it was inspiring. I was also able to meet so many other fantastic business owners and network with them which has given me some wonderful new ideas for moving forward. The real thrill for me is to be able to be face to face with my customers and see how much they love some of the jewellery. I am a people person and I love to talk to I love being able to interact with my customers. 

So at the end of a long weekend we were given a bottle of wine by the event coordinators and we definitely needed it!        

 Back to work this week getting the web site re-stocked and open for orders again all ready to do it all again in June for the Every Woman Expo, but more details about that soon!

I hope you enjoyed following our first Expo journey with us!

Cheers!

Well the expo was much busier today but still very quiet.

It has been great for the visitors because there is no problem getting to see all of the wonderful booths and being able to talk with all of the exhibitors. There has been some great bargains over the weekend including our own. Our Expo special is for a free fashion necklace with every purchase of $100 or more and our fashion necklaces have been very popular.

Our excitement for the day was when the Young Divas fell in love with my dichroic work and were admiring the sterling silver. Our booth was buzzing with people getting the girls autographs and photos… but it didn’t take long before they were whisked away!

Mum and I were lucky enough to get a sneak preview as we turned up early this morning and had our very own concert while the girls were rehearsing and they sounded fantastic.

Tomorrow will be a great day with Natalie Bassingwaighte and loads more people not wanting to miss out on the great deals from the exhibitors. Maeve is cooking up a storm in the celebrity kitchen and the catwalk is busy with fashion parades. There are also some great prize giveaways for tomorrow.

We hope to see you there!

Kylie & Rose

Being a Friday & conventional work day the parking in the city was a bit of a nightmare and as a consequence the expo was very quiet today. My mum and I thought we should make the most of it and treated ourselves to a bit of shopping and a psychic reading, which was very interesting.

The weekend is full of entertainment with The Young Divas appearing tomorrow and Natalie Bassingthwaighte  appearing on Sunday as well as Maeve in the celebrity kitchen all weekend. Parking should not be a problem over the weekend and we are expecting the crouds to pick up so come along with plenty of time to spare as there are some fantastic booths to visit, workshops being held throughout the day and on stage entertainment not to mention the giveaways!