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?...
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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.
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(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.

annual bloom

Last year were given many lovely wedding gifts, but one of the sweetest was from our neighbours.

Do you remember how we asked each of our wedding guests to bring a flower, and with these they made the circle we stood in?



Well our wedding present from our neighbours were the actual plants they picked their flowers from. They dug the plants out of their garden and potted them for us. They told us that the flowers bloom at the same time each year... So we would be reminded that our anniversary was near when the flowers appeared.

Well last week, this is what happened to those plants:



This past weekend, one year ago, we stood together inside a ring of flowers, and were married. Now we get to be surrounded by those flowers each year, to help us relive the brilliant day we had.



Our first wedding anniversary was sweet. We spent the weekend looking through markets, art exhibitions, eating out, and listening to the recordings of the live music performances from during our ceremony.

Now I'm in just the right frame of mind to start a new project this week. A good lookin' couple from Melbourne have asked me to create personalised wedding invitations for them, in the style of ours. Perfect timing!

look! look!

Last evening I was catching up on visiting some blogs, having a look through Herbert & Friends, by Torunn (who makes the awesome softies), perusing through some snaps she took of lovely shops in Newcastle... and LOOOOOK!



That's MY COLOURING BOOK!!!!!

I have a copy, so I knew it existed, I just have not been able to find out if it is in any shops yet.

But there you go, apparently it is in a shop in Newcastle called 'High Tea With Mrs Woo'. I've been told it's in lots of other places too, I just have no idea where.

So I'm chuffed. It really does exist, and it really IS in shops.

Now I just need to find out where.
In the meantime I plan to get a stack to sell at the Finders Keepers Market in Brisbane in November, and online to anyone else who's interested.

(Photo by Torunn from Herbert and Friends. Thank-you.)