time out

reporting from phillip island stop to hot to craft stop

Things and Thoughts on Siblings

Me: "Melbourne's weather is bewildering to the average immigrant - hence the seasonally confused outfit!"
My husband: "I am just going to stand here and look cute and these baby pants will sell like hot cakes"

The lovely ladies at Harvest have blogged a profile and interview featuring me and my nose in profile today. I think they are lovely to feature ex-students! I am kind of slowly wilting away on the inside because I can't do the Harvest workshop with Dylan Martorell  - I love him! But if you can, you should!!! Book at the link above!

And how cool is Dylan's name anyway. His surname reminds me of dark chocolate. 

For various reasons I've been thinking about siblings lately. I have an older sister and the older I get, the more grateful I am for our relationship. We have evolved from two kids who were at each other's throats 24/7 (I nearly bit her boob off once - that's the kind of fighting we're talking here) to the best of friends we are now. We talk almost every day and seek each other's guidance in all our life choices. It's such a gift to have such a great relationship with a sister or a brother. I think having a sibling is so important. It sets you up with a healthy base for forming relationships I think, and having a healthy attitude to competition (and learning when and where competitiveness is inappropriate too). I also have my cousin who is like a bonus older sister as well. I have friends who are disappointed in their siblings or can't seem to find access to them. I wonder how and why this happens. I think being an older sibling comes with responsibilities - my sister was very good at meeting them and used to very patiently let me sleep in her bed for years when I was little. She did really look after me. I like being the young one. I used to think it was the worst thing in the world, but I've grown to like it. How bout choo?

PS: I hope your Australia Day was nice. I like having a day off. I am watching too much Tennis. Glad I'm not the only one.

Edit: The Dylan Martorell class was already held - it just goes to show that I am clearly out of it and should go back to hibernate!

Musings

1. Sewing on interfacing is not for me. Presumably you are supposed to cut out your fabric shapes, then pin onto interfacing, cut interfacing, then iron on. I usually place the pattern pieces  or shapes I cut out of fabric right side down onto my ironing board, lay interfacing right side down on top, iron liberally, then spent remainder of afternoon peeling and picking gluey bits of ironing board. It probably saves no time at all.

2. I am channeling my inner Lotta Jansdotter (who is my all time hero) and printing with tape. I made a few stripey things as I am going through a stripey phase (and still have not gotten my act together to actually get some screens exposed).

3. I am in a creative funk and I turn my very own nose up and most of the things I come up with. I think it's because I spend too much time overthinking and less time mingling and getting inspiration from the real world. I just feel a little too cruddy to do anything about it.

4. I am so loving reading this awesome blog by a lovely lady who is currently living in my lovely hometown of Munich. It is making me homesick, but happy! I do very much miss the seasons at home -
I love spring and autumn in particular because they bring amazing smells and light and colours that you don't get here. But then again I can stand on my balcony and sniff the sea air and feel less like complaining. But home is where the heart is, so little pangs of homesickness never go away.

Slow

I'm slowing things down over here - spent most of my weekend playing around in the kitchen and spent a lovely Sunday picnicking in the park. I have been making blackberry pancakes with vanilla yoghurt all the time. So yum! I just use 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk and 2 eggs and then sprinkle the blackberries on to the batter as it's frying in the pan. Yummy yum!

I was officially accepted to take part in Craft Hatch in March this year. I am so excited. 

It means I have to put my working boots back on and go make!

Wishing you a dry and happy week!

Australian Disaster Relief on Etsy

I have donated a pair of baby pants to the Australian Disaster Relief on Etsy. You can view the spectacular kangaroo pants that are up for grabs here. I think this Etsy store is a great idea for smaller makers to contribute something! There are some delectable things in the store so go on and have a look - if I wasn't so broke there is a a pair of earrings in there I'd snap up immediately!

Just holding on to happy thoughts and hoping for a dry spell up North. What a terrible start to the new year for so many poor people. Fantastic to see blog land is coming together to help - there are auctions and raffles going on everywhere. You can donate to the Red Cross here
Have a lovely weekend!

Website and Shop are open!

My Website

My Etsy Shop

I am so excited to tell you that both my website and Etsy shop are online!

I spent a lot of time doing the photography and struggled a bit with it but it's turned out nice!

I also made the website and I hope you like it. I really have a very deep dislike for Wordpress now I can tell you. Oh my.

I hope you like it and I'm looking forward to your feedback as always!

And please spread the word if you fancy it too! xx

Dance like nobody's watching

When we went to Venice last year we got lost one evening and ended up at this festival on a square. Lots of Italians, eating sausages and drinking vino out of giant plastic Evian bottles. There was one couple,  they must have been around 70, dancing to every single song. They were wearing their Sunday best and I bet you they have been going to the exact same festival for all their lives, dancing together. You can see them in this video, spinning around.
I thought they were amazing. I wanted my new husband to grab me and take me for a perfect dance too. Sadly I only had 9 toenails at the time and couldn't move much and he was busy anyway sourcing more Evian-bottled vino. Maybe when we're 70 we'll enroll in a salsa class.

Baby Sitting Gus

Carnage in the backyard.

Banana in Pyjama assaulted.

It's fun babysitting Gus.

We do love him heaps.

Except for when we had to apply cold face washers to his belly last night to stop one of his panic attacks.

And when he attacked the leather couch. Or when he won't release the tennis ball unless we step on the squeaky toy. That's when we wish he was a bit more normal, really. 

We love you Gus. 

Your devoted babysitters. 

Of all the things I love about Australia the wide sky is number one. 

happy nancy bird dance

look what my husband got me for christmas. for this he deserves the metal for the best present purchaser in the world. i can now stop patting other people's bags in the street! hurrah!

Win for 2011

Hello from the beach! I have a Optus Dongle internet connection for about 5 minutes so I thought I'd quickly draw the winner of my wee giveaway - I did this simply by shouting "say a number between 1 and 16" at my husband and he said "8" and so the lucky winner is Tania of Myrtle and Eunice!

Thank you all very much for your comments and bloggy lurve over the last year. I am not even going to start explaining how much I am looking forward to the next one. Let's make it a good one!

I personally really can not stand new year's eve, but let's all have some fun anyway. I am going to learn how to make coleslaw and let the old year move on as we, 6 adults 3 kids and 2 dogs, squeeze onto one couch, watching BBC documentaries. xxx

Give it away now

T'is the season for a giveaway! 

Leave a comment to enter - and why not enter on behalf of a friend 

so they can get a surprise sent in the mail?

You don't need to say anything specific in your comment. Maybe just "waddup dude".

Here's what I would like to send you as a special gift:

s

One of my "Pedal to the Metal" prints

A pair of JoeyNomad handprinted baby pants size 0 

Three lovely Japanese linen fat quarters

And an extra surprise! Meeeheerry Christmas. 

Three cheers! 

The end.

PS: It is cold outside. Just like christmas back home! 

Harvest Christmas Market 2010

My mini stall looking cute

I spy Emma

The Harvest stall and past students stall in all its glory

Buntings!

2 of the 3 cool Harvest bananas Emma and Jess

So many lovely things!

Screen loveliness

Pretty Shopfront

Me and my nose in profile

Setting up and looking nervous

And more nervous. 

Little helpers 

Yay!

 Thanks to Harvest for everything. What a year it's been for them! They have now created this wonderful space - it feels like an energetic, creative living room.

The market was great - I did heaps better than expected and managed to NOT crawl under the table and hide and lots of people commented on my stuff. Many people did not understand the idea behind making things out of repurposed fabric. So I have some work to do in that department. One lady bought two of my Drooly Baby scarves and said "I wish these had been around when I had my kids". High five! And when I made my first ever sale I did jump around heaps.

Most importantly I learned so much just from being there. And I met lots of ace people, for example my brilliantly talented fellow students Mizu Designs and Unit Tshirts (I bought two - sorry bank account) and One Night in June and many others.

And the music was ace, provided by Super Melody. 

Thank you all for coming and thanks to les ladies of Harvest for being inclusive, friendly, innovative, crazy and lovely!