my creative space: preparations

Hello! I don't think I've mentioned this yet, so here it is: I'll be attending Finders Keepers market in Sydney, May 7th & 8th! Hooray! First business trip to Sydney. So if you're in Sydney and happen to come along, please come and say hello!

I'm sharing a stall with wonderful Emma of benconservato and Sarah of flossy-p - they are truly amazing artists and I'm so excited to hang out with them for a couple of days!

I'm taking to the market many of my existing products, and a couple of new things. I've decided to take along just a little handful of original illustrations. The light in my studio is always so beautiful in the afternoon at this time of year, so I cracked out my inks & watercolours and have started a few of these.

Depending on the reaction to them I might do some more to sell in my shop too - when I used to make illustrated purses every one was unique and it was fun just to draw something crazy sometimes, which I miss. It's totally different to my design process which needs to be quite precise. So I'm sure there will be more, actually.

I also have to confess - whenever I go anywhere where they give me a paper napkin, I save it (if it's unused!) I have a huge stash now, they are so handy for cleaning the ink off the end of my pen.

I'm also going to take just a few frames covered in my fabric. They look great as props, and are lovely hanging on the wall too (I've been trying them out around the house to see how they look!)

I've also just finished up a bunch of purple bird purses, they'll be in the shop later today.


Too see more creative spaces with lots of awesome studio photos, visit Kootoyoo and click on the links!

my creative space: gingerbread

Lately there has been a great deal of repetition in what I've been creating - purses, cards, also gingerbread. I realised gingerbread is the perfect thing to send in the mail as gifts - I even made myself a little stash of labels for them! It takes less than an hour to make a good 50 or so cookies - some to send in packages and some left over for me!

Back to the cards - the card making space looks the same every time!

For more creative spaces please head on over to Kootoyoo!

happy!

Happy Flowers! Coinpurse & pencilcase available for sale now. Right now.

I actually started drawing these cute little flowers awhile back, they're so fun! Clearly there is a big Japanese / manga influence going on, especially the one with the scrunchy eyes. I love the big yellow faced ones!

my creative space: kitchen table

This is how my kitchen table looked at the weekend. Clean, full of cookies & tea... how cute is that little bird & nest? My mum gave it to me for easter!

This is how my kitchen table looks now... work in progress! I haven't worked on new fabric designs for a little while, sometimes it takes weeks or even months for ideas to incubate in my brain. If I start them before I'm ready I just end up getting frustrated and annoyed. But finally all the ideas are coming together! So maybe soon there will be some new coinpurses & pencilcases! The sketch-book contains a sneak peek at what might eventuate - better get my fingers drawing.

For more creative spaces, visit Kirsty's blog, Kootoyoo!


And thank you so much to ricebabies for blogging about a lovely package she received in the mail, which included some of my goodies!!

let's laugh at: fear of a brown planet!

Hey Melbourne! It's Comedy Festival time again! Not sure what to go see? How about Fear of a Brown Planet? Yay!

Back in the olden days I went to university with Aamer Rahman from Fear of a Brown Planet. I was lucky enough to work with him for a couple of years, and watched him fine tune his comedic skills! Now, Aamer and Nazeem Hussain are comedy duo Fear of a Brown Planet. I love watching their shows because they don't espouse tired old humor or crack easy jokes, instead they combine cutting edge, modern Australian political critique with humour. And it is humour that is neither sexist, nor racist (what a relief!), but instead actually makes you think things about yourself and your society you might never have even thought before!

Hooray for funny clever people who have something important to say.

Website: brownplanet.com.au
Tickets: ticketmaster.com.au
Videos: youtube.com

easter baking: vegan chai cookies

I don't really get into the Easter thing, but it is a nice time for visiting friends and family (4 day weekend!) This year instead of chocolate eggs I decided to bake yummy gingerbread-style cookies for giving as little gifts.

I do love gingerbread, but decided to do a little twist and make spicy chai cookies (think chai tea in a biscuit!)

I used this fabulous recipe from the Veganomicon authors, but fiddled with the spices a bit. Instead of their spices, I used 1/2 teaspoon each of ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves, plus a pinch of cardamom. For the tea element of chai I used 1/4 cup of super strong, soy milky tea instead of the 1/4 cup soy milk. Got it?

Anyway, they are delicious! I am even thinking they might make good gifts to send in the mail because the cookies are very hard (good for dunking!) They're so perfect for this heading-into-Winter cold snap in Melbourne. And they are really very easy to make, win-win!

P.S. - the icing on the top ones was Chris's idea - icing sugar & water mixed with red sprinkles! I wanted coloured icing but we have no food dye - was contemplating plum jam until Chris came to the rescue!

my creative space

This week has been lots more sewing, slowly building up my stock of purses (I'll show you a photo soon, I think you'll be impressed!) I've also been working on my new clutch purses - I love love love these hammer-in press studs, banging it is rather therapeutic!

Folded cards, awaiting packaging. You can tell Winter is coming by the fact that the light is so gloomy in the mornings!

For more creative spaces, visit lovely Kootoyoo!