may yours be merry and bright

bubble bliss

I've had a scorchingly busy couple of months. I can't remember the last time I gave myself a full day off. With all the market preparation, travelling to and from, follow-up work afterwards, sewing my way through 85 pillowcases, Christmas shopping, a Mr You family funeral last week, etc, etc... there hasn't been much time for R&R.

But yesterday was the day. Started off with a sleep-in, followed by a yummy cooked breakfast, and then I had a loooong bubble bath! IN THE MORNING PEOPLE! It's unheard of I tell you. I don't think, in my entire life, I've ever started a day with a long slow bubble bath. AAAAAHHHHHH.

From there I spent some time lying on the lounge, doing some Christmas baking, (okay, then I did squeeze in a teensy hour or so of work), but we finished the day with a trip to the movies.

It was bliss I tell you. B-Liss!
And feeling so much better for it.

my stall

More pics of my stall...












All of my fabric products; whale stuffies, library bags, pillowcases, and brand new lavender bags all sold out faster than I could have predicted. I'm now up to my armpits sewing the other 85 pillowcases I took orders for. Yes, 85!!!!

But the absolute highlight of the market for me was this little ditty...

On the first night, a lady called over the top of the crowd to me, asking if I had any pillowcases left. I had one left, and she grabbed it, telling me she'd seen it online and came to the market specifically to get it! She got the last one.

So that was pretty cool in itself... right?

Well, the next day a kind-faced gent waited patiently to get through the crowd to the front of my stall, and told me the woman from the night before was his wife.

He told me how when she got the pillowcase home she put it on her daughters bed (who is just 3). Their daughter took one look at it and ran off down the hall. She was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, put on her pyjamas, and rushed straight into bed. Then as she lay the side of her head on the pillow, she kept stretching her eyes down to see the picture. The next morning when she woke up she ran into their bedroom hugging her pillow, excited to show them.


It could be all these extra hormones, but I still get teary telling that story.

Honestly, it's moments like that (people taking the time to tell you those stories) that really makes it, you know?

*beam*

sydney market in review

Whaoh... Where on Earth did that past week go!?

So, where was I? The markets...
The Sydney Finders Keepers Market was... you know what I'm going to say... GREAT!

Some highlights:


Our lovely neighbours, Benconservato, and Alfalfa Crafts.


Benconservato's amazing bespoke softies, keeping an eye on everything.


General cool ambience.



And decorations.



The shoppers getting involved in making the papercrafts.


Actually speaking to Kareena Zerefos this time, rather than shyly oggling her from a distance. These are her lovely new pendants, made to match her illustrations. Cool, huh?!


Meeting Chloe from Little Green Seed, and falling in love with her porcelain pendants.


And left kicking ourselves for not splashing out to buy ourselves one of the awesome stools by The Missing Pieces.

And of course, as always, meeting some really nice people, including the other stall holders.

(Thanks to the official FK Photographers for these amazing photos).

home

Photo by Jillian Leiboff.

Home again from a HUGE weekend in Sydney at the Finders Keepers Market. It was seriously good. Thanks so much to everyone who came along, to all the nice people I met and to the other stall holders. I wish we could do it more often.

I'll tell more soon, when I regain some energy.

sydney summer finders keepers market

Come say "hi" if you're coming along to the Sydney Finders Keepers Market this weekend.
I'll be in the main room, sharing a stall with Benconservato, opposite end of the room to the band.

Can't wait! Hopefully see you there!

(Back to sewing up more whale stuffies... busy busy busy)

thanksgiving 5 winner!

Late last night Mr You cranked out his amazing lotto machine once again, and we watched in excited anticipation as it randomly selected this years winner...

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

Congratulations lucky you! I shall be in touch to find out which print you would like, and to get your postage address.

Thanks once again SO much to everyone for playing along.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

a riverside wedding

Remember I mentioned (on my anniversary post) how I'd been commissioned to create some personalised wedding invitations, in the style of ours, for a good-lookin' couple? Well they're done! And sent! And I'm so happy with how they came out!

I hope they LOVE them, and I hope their guests do too :)

Have a wonderful wedding day you two, and a very happy life together. .xx.

5th annual thanksgiving giveaway

Announcing the 5th Annual Thanksgiving Giveaway!
Yaaaaay!

But wait, for this year's annual giveaway I have some good news and some bad news...

News Update
I realise this event has become a bit of a highlight for this blog, for me, and I know you look forward to it each year, which makes what I'm about to announce a little hard for me.

The bad news is, after much to-ing and fro-ing, and kitchen table conventions with mr You, I have decided that this year the prize will not be a personalised illustrated commission (as it has been for the past 4 years). With a baby on the way in the new year, and all of the commitments I've taken on between now and then, I just can't see when I would have time to make a commission with the dedication it deserves. I'm so sorry.

The good news however, is I have not cancelled the giveaway altogether, I have just changed the prize...

The Prize
So this year the prize will be a huge pack of flossy-p stuff (and they are all illustrated, so officially it's still an illustration giveaway). Just in time for Christmas, you can either wrap them all up for yourself, or use them to help out with your Christmas gift giving to those you love and adore.

The pack will contain illustrated greeting cards, an illustration print of your choice, one of my brand new colouring books, and a flossy fabric surprise!

What It's All About
I really like the general idea of the Thanksgiving celebration, but we don't celebrate it here in Australia, so I have developed my own tradition, showing thanks to this sweet blogging community by hosting a giveaway.

How To Enter
It's easy, just leave a comment on THIS post anytime between now and the morning of thanksgiving (my time) the 25th Nov. That's just under a week away. One comment is enough, as I'll remove duplicate entries before the draw so everyone gets an equal chance. The draw will be completely random, and I'll be drawing and announcing the winner on U.S. Thanksgiving Day (which according to my calendar is the 25th Nov).

Sorry for the let-down, I hope this excites you all the same. Good luck!
(I plan to return to the proper-program again next year)

thieving is mean

Let me tell you a sad tale… The tale of when someone stole money from my market stall the other weekend.

I thought my cash was in a pretty safe spot; in a cash tin, hidden inside a big timber box at the back of my stall, right next to me. Unfortunately anyone watching me would have seen me going back and forth from it, and would have worked out exactly where it was.

This person, waited until a very very busy time, Mr You had gone off to get us some lunch so I was on my own. The stall got very very busy at one point, and obviously when I was distracted showing someone something, the thief squeezed up the side of my stall, reached around inside the box, into my cash tin, and stole a big handful of notes.

I noticed it was missing right away. My heart sank. My face got hot. My body went limp. My head spun with dizziness.

With a big crowd of people in front of me I announced, "Someone has just stolen money from me. Did anyone see anything?"

The people in front of me all froze and went deadly silent, then murmurs of "That's awful", "What can we do?", "Who was it?", "How long ago?", some dashed off to tell the market organisers.

I felt so embarrassed, so upset. Once I realised there was really nothing I could do (barring locking-down the whole building and demanding to see inside every single persons pockets), I apologised to the concerned faces in front of me, and decided to just put on a smile and carry on. But first I grabbed my money tin and stood on it, where it remained for the rest of the day.

Everyone was so nice to me about it, so concerned, and I could see they felt as helpless as I did.

It was only later on that I realised that it was most likely someone still standing in the crowd in front of me, giving me their sympathy, who would have done it. It was that quick.

I can't be sure exactly how much they scored, but I know it was somewhere between $200-$400. At least they didn't take the entire lot, I am thankful that, and at least they left me with some change so I could carry on the rest of the day.

Still…

It really really sucks…

This person obviously assumed that because I was at the market I could afford to lose that money. Little do they know this is far from the case. Starting from scratch it costs me a LOT of my own money to get to an event like that (we're talking thousands, not hundreds); with the stall fees, insurance, travel, accommodation, and all the materials I have to buy to have enough to stock a stall. The money I make at the market goes towards paying off that debt (and it IS debt), but I rely on what opportunities come next to pay off the rest and perhaps make a bit of profit.

It's a jolly hard game. It's a gamble.

By the end of the day I had told some other stall holders and they were SO nice to me. No-body could believe that someone could be so low as to steal from a hand-made market. I certainly learnt my lesson.

By the end, my stall neighbour and I were joking about the gigantic, humungous, mammoth amount of bad karma that person has coming to them… Not only stealing from an artist (who was hungry for lunch at the time)… but a PREGNANT ARTIST!!!!

MAN! When karma catches up, that's gonna hurt them so much more than it hurt me.

And while I could never willingly wish harm on anyone, I must admit this does satisfy me just a sneaky little tiny tad. ;)

merci beaucoup

(Image from K is for Calligraphy, on Etsy)

Thank-you all so much for your kind, happy, sweet, encouraging and thoughtful words on my previous post!

Yes, I did manage to keep it quiet for quite a while, mind you, you may have noticed long absences on this blog in the past few months as a result. ;)

PHEW... it feels good to let the cat out of the bag I must say. Now I can catch you up on everything... actually there's not that much to tell (apart from some hilarious comments from Mr You). I've been uber-lucky to have had a dream run so far, not a single spew believe it or not. Actually I feel so robust I am trying to work out ways I can get super-high hormone levels and increased blood volume after all this is over. I feel so much more healthy than normal.

Yes, don't you worry, I am WELL aware of how freakin' lucky I am. Trust me.

On the flip side, because I am 5 foot 1, and before all this weighed 45 kilos, I have been warned by the obstetrician that towards the end I will have an almost impossible time breathing, eating, moving... eeek.

I have banned any talk or stories of childbirth until after Christmas. I aim to remain in deep denial for the rest of the year. If you try to talk to me about any of that just yet, it may bring on a big spew after all.

No, we don't know the gender yet. We're going for a surprise. We're pretty sure it'll be a boy or a girl... although it looked A LOT like a puppy at the first ultrasound. Hmmmm, maybe that's why I get a bit teary when I see lost or sick dogs on TV these days.

I'll keep you posted.
Thanks again. .xx.


P.S. Speaking of "thank-you's", my Thanksgiving giveaway will be announced shortly, although it's going to have to be a little different this year. Stay tuned.

my creative space: womb fruit

While I'm busy working away at my desk; painting a new commission, creating more fabric designs, doing an inventory of stock... below the desk, warm on the inside, I am busy creating something much much more.

I'm 25 weeks pregnant.

I'm in amazement at how it all happens, how fast it all grows, and how much pure creation occurs. Meanwhile all I'm doing towards this master project is drinking milk by the gallon, eating as much fruit and leafy greens as I can, and waddling along to yoga each week.

People in the know tell me so far I just look like I've eaten a big hamburger, pasta or pudding. And while I'm not denying having done all those things, what's actually happening is my womb is fruiting!

So now you know. I'm not gluttonous... I'm pregnant. :)

brisbane finders keepers

WOW! What a great weekend!

We left on Thursday and got back last night. Lots of driving, and our little car was visibly swollen with all the stuff we packed into it. But we had a really really great time.

Brisbane has changed alot since I was last there. We loved it, pretty, well planned, and so spoilt for art galleries and public art.

But the markets!.... Well, let me show you some photos (I was too busy to take any, but Mark Lobo has just released the official ones on his facebook. They are really really good photos, I hope he doesn't mind me showing you some here....).







The market was held in a beautiful old museum building, and despite the predictions, the weather was gorgeous. People picniced, played totem tennis and listened to the bands outside on the lawns. Meanwhile inside, three large decorated rooms were filled with stalls of the most high quality, handmade goods you ever did see.





We had a steady flow of shoppers all weekend, met some really nice people, and had great chats with quite a few. All my pillowcases sold out within a few minutes, and I have taken custom orders to make over 50 more!

We were in good company with our neighbouring stalls: Vinyl Design selling their decals, and Brisbane local Simon Suckling with his exquisite range of hand-thrown porcelain tea cups! (Really nice guy too).



All of the stallholders we met were incredibly nice too, so nice infact, if we were in our home town we probably would have invited them back to our place afterwards for a celebration. Hopefully we can keep in touch.

The girls from Red Seed Studio, Ben from Rebound Books, Torrun from Herbert and Friends.





Then I got brave and went and met fellow artists Courtney Brims, Beth-Emily and Lauren Carney.

Each of them were so nice, friendly, supportive and generous. Especially so when I told them my sad story of having money stolen from my stall during a particularly busy moment (more on that later, today is all about the good stuff).







I did do a little shopping at the end of the day. Gorgeous curly earrings by Sarah Rothe for myself... But I can't tell you anymore because they are all Christmas gifts.



And I very very much would have liked one of Cat Rabbit's surreal softies, but by then I was reaching the end of my spending allowance.



There were so many more good things there, too many to show them all. There are more pics here if you're keen.

Thanks so much to everyone who came along, to those who said hi and had a chat, and to all the other stall holders for creating such a sense of community. HUGE thanks too to my awesome assistant Mr You, who I never knew had such a talent for merchandise display. I had a ball!

Now I'm gearing up to do it all over again in Sydney next month.

to market, to market, jiggety jig!

The reason it's been so lonesome on this here blog recently, is that I've been a-frenzy of activity, making lots and lots of new stock ready to take to the Finders Keepers Market this coming weekend.

So before I pack everything in my car for the journey, it's time for a big old fashioned show and tell...

Firstly:



So, what do we have here? A basket of tiny shapeless pillows?...
...
...
...
...



Noooo, it's a basket of eversocute whale stuffies!

See!




Next:

Library bags in two designs, each with unique backing fabric.








And Finally:

Pillowcases! Snuggly huggy pillowcases.







All packaged and ready to go :D


Of course I shall be selling all of my other products too: cards, postcards, and prints of varying sizes, plus my colouring book!

It's going to be so exciting. So again, a reminder, Finders Keepers Market this weekend, Brisbane.

If you do come, please say hello. I know it can be scary, but its scary for me too, and its much nicer for me when people say hi :)

I'll also be coming to the Finders Keepers in Sydney in early December too! More on that when I return next week.

borrowed suitcase

(Photo by Mel Stringer)

Earlier in the year Mel Stringer invited me to be part of a new zine she was pulling together, Borrowed Suitcase, and last week my copy arrived in the mail! I must say, I'm a little humbled to be in with other artists of such calibre. Thanks so much Mel!

You can buy yourself a copy here, of if you're feeling lucky, you should enter Mel's very first giveaway to win one (along with a huge bounty of other crunchy-cool stuff).

breath of spring

Breath of Spring is the name of the paint colour we are in the middle of painting on our kitchen walls. The name, unlike some paint colours, describes it pretty well I think; a warm citrusy yellowish green.

We've almost finished that bit, and have now moved onto the dark grey feature wall that frames the window. After that it's onto floating shelves me thinks. I've always wanted floating shelves in the kitchen. Although, I hear it creates alot of dusting, but who cares about sticky kitchen dust when there's pretty kitcheny things on shelves for all to see.
_ _ _

(The picture above is not our kitchen, but the colour is pretty much identical. Our kitchen is, at this moment, dismantled and shrouded in plastic cover sheets... which is making the task of preparing food all sorts of tricky.)

Sorry I can't remember where I nabbed that kitchen picture from. Thanks to the source all the same.

friday faves: magic carpet

Fell in upsidedown, insideout, love with this rug this week! From Florian Pucher Carpet Design, they do landscapes from different continents, but the European one is my absolute favourite.






I wonder if they include a few cows when you buy one?


Elsewhere these colourful rugs also caught my fancy...

Scale rug by Carpet Direct on Etsy:






And this painstakingly made, but yummy all the same, bright Felt Ball Rug, by Krita on Etsy:



Hope your feet find something bright and soft to play with this weekend.