mailbox love

I love ordering nice things online.

I love even more opening those nice things and finding little extra sweetness in the package.

This funny looking little thing is actually a tampon cozy. I'm the type of person that just chucks tampons (and all kinds of things) down the bottom of my bag. Then whenever I clean my bag I realise in dismay I've wasted several tampons as they've kinda unravelled. Well - not anymore. I'm gonna put this in my purse I think. Hooray!

The cozy is from Radical Rags, and was sent to me by Rayna with a gorgeous typed (on a typewriter!) note, explaining that her grandma taught her to knit, that the wool is from an awesome op shop that I should visit, and just generally other great things.

I also got a copy of Hoopla. I'm going to wait until Thursday to read it, with my Beatrix Potter book.

Today was my first teaching day, and it went okay! More soon.

teaching sewing

One of my friends, Sophie, is a teacher. Awhile ago she asked if I'd like to teach a small group of students (year 6 - year 8) how to sew. Sure, sure, fine. All good. Ages away. Heaps of time, heaps.

Now, it's tomorrow.

I am busily preparing.

I've made the students all little pins & needles kits.

Samples. My mum came over earlier and I showed her this embroidery sample and she laughed. So now I'm nervous the kids will laugh too and I will be the unpopular crazy sewing lady. Edit: my mum just called me and said I shouldn't tell everyone she laughed. She didn't laugh in a mean way, just in a way that suggested my sample could be a bit more impressive, which I guess was true!


My mum did give me this cute Beatrix Potter book so I felt better. It's like an adults kids book, it's all copies of letters Beatrix Potter wrote to people, and it has popups and foldouts... Will investigate after my first day as the crazy sewing lady. Wish me luck!

cheers me up

Cookie & apricot jam filling, from Fleischer. Frown's upsidedown.

exciting + supplies

Today I'm very excited!

First reason: I have opened a vintage & eco friendly supplies shop on Etsy!




So far I've stocked it with a few little vintage buttons, and over the next little while will be adding more things. I love to find awesome, useful, crafty things in op shops and vintage shops. I love finding big bags of buttons, gorgeous fabrics, blank gift tags, buckles, beads, anything useful to crafty people. However, I can't use it all! I only usually use big buttons in my creations, so I have HEAPS of awesome little vintage buttons sitting around. So now I am sharing.

Second reason: lovely Lynsey from Cuteable has featured one of my items! If you haven't seen Cuteable before then please check it out, it's a treasure trove of sweet handmade goodness.

Wishlist Wednesday

Some more items on my wishlist!


Oh Spring Pillow (Bear) by Ninon. Some amazing things in this Etsy shop. I love how the little bear has antlers too.

Madam Caramello Cloche hat by Baboom. I need something snuggly & pretty for Winter!

Business Deal by RetroWhale. Again so much amazing art in this Etsy shop, but I just love how these guys have that whole seedy 80s business deal vibe. Nice.

Charlie Bear

This is an old man bear version of Charlie Chaplin.

I've been drawing increasingly elaborate stuff on calico while I've been sick but this is one of my favourites. On Etsy!

Why yes, I am playing...

Wonderful and very funny Sally from Georgielove has organised THE MEGA-GIANT GLOBAL MIX CD AND CRAFT SWAPAPALOOZA 2009.

Do you want to join in? Do you want to participate in an awesome craft & mix-tape swap-a-palooza? If so, check Sally's blog post about it here. I'm in!

button love

These are a few of the latest additions to my vintage button stash - I ordered what I thought was quite a small collection of buttons on Ebay, and when they arrived there were SO many more than were in the listing photos. Some of them look very old and are rather crumbly. The ones in the photo above are some of my favourites - there's more than a thousand buttons to sort through! Hooray!

Oh, and something a bit embarrassing. I've been rather sick, and have been mostly lying on the couch watching dvds. My buttons arrived and they were all colour coded in little bags so I had fun looking through them for about half an hour, then I started to feel sad again because I'm sick. Then I got up, still feeling sad, and realised I had been lying on the bag of pink buttons! So then I felt happy again because the pink buttons were the best, with all the pretty floral ones.

Wishlist Wednesday

I was just reading Carley from Vanilla Pixie's beautiful blog, and she's just invented Wishlist Wednesday. Here is my wishlist!

tea and sympathy I - fine art photograph by bellalucephotography.

winter creatures by cocoon designs - these are gorgeous creatures made from recycled fabrics! Neat!

Bunny Egg Warmer by redmush - so cute! I think I would use it as a finger puppet though.
So that is my wishlist for today! I think it's a little bit Alice in Wonderland!
PS: all photos copyright to the Etsy store owners linked to.

super eco recycled!

So I've been chopping these jean legs for a couple of days now, and am nearly finished. The jeans bums have been made into short shorts sold at Hunter Gatherer, so I really do only have the jean legs.


Most of the legs are the perfect size for two clutches, but some have a little bit extra, so the extra bits have become these cute little pouches! Two have been made with a little vintage doiley detail, and the other has a teeny patch of leftover Ink & Spindle Birch Forest organic fabric.


Super eco organic recycled - even the lining is from the op shop! Hooray! On Etsy!

everything's better with a paper plane

So I made this coinpurse a little while ago, and I wasn't sure, but then I realised that that old expression is really true, everything really is better with a paper plane.

Available on Etsy at a special sale price. Sorry it's all sold now!
Edit: Oh my goodness check this blog: Disapproving Rabbits.
Oh P.S. friends & pink champagne! Hurrah!

loot (or, stitches & craft)

I went to the Stitches & Craft Melbourne show yesterday. Fun! I went with my mum, and we bought things and chatted to crafty people and had a good time. I bought substantially more than she did... all of it is hand screenprinted on mostly organic fabric using solvent free inks which is great.
Gorgeous fabrics from my favourite fabric printers, Ink & Spindle. I got a lot (yay!!!). From left to right I got - Birch Forest (skim to the next photo if you don't wanna read a lot of fabric names), Ginkgo, Blue Wrens, more Birch Forest on linen, Houses & Bicycles (very exciting as they haven't printed any more of this), Ginkgo in snow, there are some more tucked underneath, but on top are three fat quarters, Bloem, Sumor and Seeds.

This is all for making into pretty clutches to be sold around Melbourne and in my Etsy & Madeit shops. I'm working on some bigger handbags at the moment which is very exciting.

Aunty Cookie stash - some really cute fabric and an original illustration! Love the illustration, so perfect, so true, hooray for sewing machines! I think Chris was a bit sad when I showed him. Ah wells. I think I'm going to make the eye chart and the green cookies fabric into cushions!
And finally, some beautiful beautiful fabric! The left one is a peacocks print from Kristen Doran who makes such lovely fabric - I've never bought any of her fabric before but this one is just so pretty, and I think I'm going to make it into a bag for myself! I also got a copy of Mixtape zine and had an exciting chat with Justine, the gorgeous lady who runs Mixtape! More on this exciting chat soon!
And finally (phew), had a lovely chat to Thea from Thea & Sami. She makes beautiful clothes and prints all her fabrics herself. I got a little snippet of her Marguerite fabric on hemp/cotton, and a couple of pieces of pretty vintage fabric.
And I know two posts ago I said I was working on an Autumn / Winter collection in reds, browns & blues, and that most of these fabrics are very not these colours... what can I say. I like pink!

sitting & the woods

Two new original artworks, available in my Etsy shop.
The Woods.

Both mixed media on calico, stretched over a frame. There's also a print available of Sitting, The Woods print coming tomorrow. Enjoy!
I've also given my blog & shop a mini-makeover, hope you like!

too much thinking

Lately I've been more and more committed to the idea of not buying new fabric. I've been snapping up fabric in op shops wherever I can see it, as well as things like tea towels, jeans and doilies and the like. When you're relying on vintage and second hand fabric, it's a bit harder to get exactly what you want, but it can be a lot more fun and inspiring!
I made this coinpurse a few days ago, and really love it. It is a bit different to the usual bright fabrics I've been using, but a lot more appropriate for Autumn / Winter. This got me thinking that it could be nice to create a 'collection' as sometimes the fabrics I use end up being very different. So above are my inspirations for my Autumn / Winter collection of bags & purses. There is a vintage brown & cream wool houndstooth, a recycled loosely woved blue & white leafy print, a vintage wool leafy autumn print and a recycled red tartan.

I'm pretty pleased that it all goes well with the current Ink & Spindle fabrics I have. This Birch Forest clutch now available on Etsy.

Sometimes I just feel like I have too many ideas but I think this is going to be a good one!

lovely

Roses from the St Kilda monthly market, and a gorgeous handmade bird made of old kimono fabrics that my parents bought for me in Beechworth.

Just a little snippet of my day! The little tag on the leg is the birds name - Maude.

toasty

It's finally raining (it hasn't rained properly in Melbourne since mid December) and we're going through some very chilly weather. I'm enjoying myself, tucked up inside wearing my warm clothes and painting. It's amazing how much more I enjoy the onset of Autumn now that I'm 100% self employed and don't have to get up early and venture out in the rain to head to work! I've just finished making a big pot of soup for dinner, and am all curled up, toasty warm, painting some very Autumn-y things.

This is another little something I'm working on. I still just need a staple gun!

work in progress

True story: I did an ink drawing class sometime last year. One of those good old fashioned India Ink & pen + nib type classes, which I loved. I took in some sketches to show my teacher Anna, along with a coinpurse so she could get my vibe. I really wanted to work with India Ink so I could be all real artist, so I was the teensiest bit upset when she said something along the lines of 'y'know, I kinda like your stuff on calico the most'.

10 months and much resistance later, I have to say I agree. Watercolour & archival ink pen on calico, nice. Awaiting more paint & some stretching over a canvas frame.

My gorgeous new Daler-Rowney watercolour set, my parents gave it to me for my birthday but I haven't had time to play with it much until now. Thanks Mum & Dad!

Another little something (this one hasn't photographed very well, it's much cuter in person!) Watercolour & india ink on my favourite cotton paper, awaiting a little more paint & some framing action!

(P.S. some new coinpurse action in my Madeit Shop).