Bespectacled Bear

Following on from my works in progress... I've been doing a few little Bespectacled coinpurses. I love this one. Such a little hipster/geek. Bespectacled Bear on Etsy.

works in progress

I wear spectacles. I really love Pretty Little Thieves, lots of the girls wear spectacles too. And then I told Nancy from Pretty Little Thieves (visit her shop here) I think she's cool and I said I would do some spectacles, too. Watercolour, and different inks.

Who doesn't like magic? Watercolour & india ink.

bits & pieces

Little snippets of the past few days...

I participated in the GeorgieLove 2009 Swap-A-Palooza, and I just received the most amazing parcel from lovely Marianne of Applehead. I got a gorgeous CD, some art prints, and, and, so excited, a pincushion! Marianne had checked my blog and saw that I really wanted a new pincushion and sent me this: so gorgeous. She made it all herself, and it's even got some embroidery by her! It's like my dream pincushion.

Marianne also sent me some of these super cute prints of her original artwork. So awesome! See more at Applehead.

Got a big yummy box of organic vegies home delivered from The Green Line. Nice! Not sure about the plastic bag bizzo though, will see if they will go bag free for me. I love that I can get organic vegies and delivery is actually a more environmentally sustainable way to purchase than buying at a supermarket, however I don't love the plastic & new cardboard boxes. Will let you know the progress!

Chillaxing with my new issue of Frankie! Yeah!

Making clutches, yeah! Blue Wrens on Vintage wool, available in my Etsy shop!

new: totes!

I've been printing away (Chris has been helping with the printing!) and I've made up a little pile of tote bags. They're pretty awesome as these new ones are all made with recycled fabric (fabric found in op shops, the plaid one is even a doona cover!)

Available in my Etsy shop, with more coming soon!

P.S. You can get some of these puppies at Hunter Gatherer on Brunswick Street too!

Gorgeous, gorgeous: benconservato a.k.a. Emma Kidd

Amongst the other goodies I received last week in the mail, I was lucky to get my own little package of benconservato goodness from lovely Emma. I have been loving her art for just a little while now, her Etsy shop is an amazing gallery of original art, gocco & screen prints, lomos & photos, and she sews things!

I won a giveaway on Emma's blog, so I got a signed copy of Lucinda: A Tale of Believing in Yourself, a gorgeous book written & illustrated by Emma. Talent, much? Get one for yourself, and then tell me if the page starting in 'She felt invisible...' is not the best illustration? I think it is!

And also, is that not the best way to spend the morning, a cup of tea, half an apple scroll, and an amazing book?

I also got Monacled Cat Limited Edition Screen Print, which is gorgeous! The back of it reads:
Nous Vous Observons
We are Watching You
anti-terrorism takes many strange forms

Which I love, because it is true of all governments.

And Puppet Gocco 6 colour Print, which I love love love!

Sometimes I just spend, well, a lot of time in Emma's shop, looking at everything and planning what to get next.

Please note that all these artworks are copyright Emma Kidd. Thankyou!

Jolly Good

Today was just generally a jolly good sort of day. I met up with lovely Fran for coffee and second hand kids book shopping, and she gave me my incredibly awesome Lyptis jumper that she made me, I'm so excited about it! Basically I either lost all my warm clothes since last winter, or I was just very cold, as I've got nothing. Until now! If you want your own, ask Fran (she normally makes dresses but she made a jumper specially for me!)

This is me, wearing my Lyptis jumper, holding an original illustration I just listed on Etsy. Pea Pod.

Another reason my day was Jolly Good is that when I got home, I had 1, 2, 3! packages waiting for me. One of them was this gorgeous Chirpy bird name Oleander (cute!) from Cath. Cath had an awesome giveaway on her blog, and I won! You can seek your own Chirpy from Cath's shop, Chunky Chooky.

Number 2 waiting for me in my mailbox was this totally gorgeous silver earrings from Jess at Epheriell Designs. This was another custom order, Jess makes gorgeous brass, copper & silver hand forged jewellery. My poor little ears only tolerate silver, and my face generally only tolerates round earrings, so I was so happy when Jess made this for me. Get your own here.

Then, finally, Chris & I did some tote bag printing. The colour's a bit off, but they're gonna look awesome! Hopefully if I'm not a total slack-arse I'll finish some tomorrow.

I also got an amazing package (number 3, for those of you counting) from Emma at benconservato... more on this tomorrow!

Wishlist Wednesday + Britain's Got Talent

Hello chickens! You've probably heard about this by now, but if not, prepared to be happy-ed.

Britain's Got Talent has just started screening, and, well, just watch this video. You can see the whole 7 minutes of footage here on Youtube, and it will be the shortest 7 minutes you've watched, I promise. Susan Doyle, a never-been-kissed 47 year old, auditions for Britain's Got Talent. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Here's my wishlist for today.

Baboushkas Original Illustration by Emma Kidd, at benconservato. I love this. I love Emma's whole shop, go check it out!
Circus Fringe Necklace at FaerieMajikk, by lovely Linz. It's so cute & circussy, it reminds me of a cross between hundreds & thousands, & coral. Lovely!!

dear and spring - original drawing and painting at PrettyLittleThieves. I love that they're all bespectacled, makes me feel at home!

Happy Wednesday! Now go watch that video, I'm telling you.

Giveaway Winner + Happy Easter!

Hooray, thanks so much to everyone who entered my little giveaway. The winners...
I put everyone's names who entered into a hat, and out came Emma! Yay! (The bunny's holding an Easter egg, is that clear?



The hard part was choosing my favourite 80s video. Awesome entries. This is my favourite (thanks Nicky!)

Honourable mentions include Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (thanks Christine) and Take On Me (thanks Nat)!

Happy Easter, go eat some chocolate & hot cross buns!

stampy goodness! + market!

I just got my awesome custom made stamp in the mail today, I'm so excited! I designed it, and lovely Terbear of TerbearCo (on Etsy) made it for me and mailed it over. It's so so cool.

You can buy your own gift tags in my Etsy shop. Hurrah!

Oh also, remember to enter my giveaway for your chance to win some Eighties coinpurse greatness. Sweet.

Also,

Pocket Carnival will be at Ceres Market this Saturday!

9am - 1pm
CERES Community Environment Park
Cnr Roberts and Stewart Streets,
Brunswick East, Victoria

I forgot to mention this... me and a few buddies will be having a stall, with awesome Pocket Carnival goodies and a huge pile of second hand clothes. Yay!

See it on a map here (it's where it says Energy Park)

Wishlist Wednesday

Wishlist Wednesday: Things I Want!

Red Patchwork Pincushion by VintageSewandSo on Etsy. My current pincushion is very shabby.

Coral Vintage Lace Hair Comb by gorgeous Gaby of HopelesslyDevoted on Etsy. Love!

Paper Airplanes Art Print by BetsyWalton on Etsy. This is awesome.

Remember about the 80s Giveaway!

80s Music Night + Giveaway!

Okay, so on Saturday night we watched Burn After Reading (which was awesome) on DVD, then I switched on Rage and it was an 80s Music Night programmed by the very funny Laurence Leung.

And so I was like to myself 'this is freaking awesome and really inspiring' and so I drew the songs into coinpurses. Yeah!
And then I made them into coinpurses. I think the whole thing went pretty rad! The coinpurses will be available on Etsy over the next few hours.

Check these out on Youtube and you'll see...
Don't You Forget About Me - Simple Minds (watch on Youtube!)
Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr (watch on Youtube!)
Shake Your Tailfeather - The Blues Brothers (watch on Youtube!)
(I've Had) The Time of My Life - Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes (watch on Youtube!)


Eye of the Tiger - Survivor (yeah!) (watch on Youtube!)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears (watch on Youtube!)
Weird Science - Oingo Boingo (this one's great) (watch on Youtube!)
Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel (watch on Youtube!)
Never Ending Story - Limahl (watch on Youtbe!) (you have to watch this)

All available on Etsy now!

Thanks for entering! The giveaway is now closed!
Okay, so... the giveaway part.
The giveaway has two prizes (one per person, there will be TWO winners) - two custom designed 80s coinpurses - you choose your song!

I want inspiration! Leave a comment with your favourite 80s song, and if possible a link to it on Youtube.

One winner will be randomly chosen (1 comment per person please!)
The other winner will be whoever posts the best song! You can put more than one song in your comment but as if I'm gonna watch them all if you have 30 songs in there.

Oh and I'll probably close the competition on Saturday night, possibly Sunday morning.

rude / royal

Oh, I Say! This little cat I imagine speaks like Hugh Laurie in Blackadder the Third. You know the one where he plays the Prince of England and he speaks so pompously and stupidly? That's how this cat's saying 'Oh, I Say!'

Oh, Frell! This rabbit's just a bit rude.

new + two

Hooray! Today is the second day of my new item + post per day.

This is my favourite clutch I've ever created. This one is available on Etsy. I'm going to make myself one, I love it so much! It's made of gorgeous vintage houndstooth wool in brown, honey & cream. The flap is Blue Wren fabric from Ink & Spindle, designed by lovely Tegan Rose.

And this little pile is some of my collection, I'm making a quilt for my grandma. I'm being very slack and haven't started, apart from putting the fabric together. I bought some super sharp new scissors today though, so no excuse! Chop chop!

April Goals

I've set myself a challenge this month: list 1 new item each day in my Etsy shop, and do 1 blog post per day.

Unfortunately I was a little lacking in inspiration today, so the first day of my daily blogging has actually been stolen from Frankie Magazine... as Louise writes, this is feel good gold.

Enjoy.

nice things + peppermint

Today's been just one of those very lazy days. I spent a long time taking photos of myself on the camera before, but none were very good. I planted some silverbeet in the garden, played with my beads and found some really great apricot vintage seed beads, and had lots of cups of tea.

I got my copy of Peppermint Mag in the mail, so read that for awhile. Am very impressed, it's only the 2nd edition and it looks great and is so awesome - it's basically an eco-friendly fashion magazine.

Also sorted out my things from the sewing classes... these are some of the samples I took (the pencil case & coinpurse are about to be added to Etsy.

The girls weren't so into the cleanup, and apparently ended up chucking lots of things into my bags randomly - these are a couple of things they made which I will return to them! Cute!

Wishlist Wednesday!

It's Wednesday already again! My wishlist... more favourite things that I will buy one day when I am rich and most likely famous.
Matisse Seaweed Sterling Silver Brooch by Ceeb Wasserman, available at howlindoggie.

Husky Print... In The Winter it is Impossible to Survive Without a Fire by Sarah McNeil, available at funiscool.

midnight dive (art print) by Laura George, available at laurageorge.

Everything's better with a Prize Winning Paper Plane

Today I am excited/tired.

Tired: just finished 3 days teaching sewing classes to Year 6, 7 & 8 girls. How do teachers do it? I am exhausted and it was only 3 days.

Excited: Etsy has set up a Fall Fashion Poll - you can vote for your favourite Fall Fashion. They've included one of my clutches. Voting here!

The clutch is my very newest one, it reads 'everything is better with a paper plane'. It's available on Etsy right now!