Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Excuses , Excuses
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Last minute..........
(Image courtesy of My fantastic toys)
Once I get all the cooking done I am going to sit down and whip up a couple of these cute felt ornaments. I am going to embroider the kids names on them and the year on the back ..and hey presto! Another hand-made ornament for them.
Monday, December 21, 2009
The thinks you can think...........
Did you know that around this time last year I was invited to join in the Stitches and Craft show in Melbourne. That invitation pushed me to have a go at pattern writing. I needed to get and ABN, which means I am actually a business - ooops !
I have been thinking how funny it is that I just fell into this whole "business" thing with no plan , no desire and absolutely no bloody idea what I am doing. As a business ? well lets say I am still working at the day job. I wonder if this business could ever be self-sustaining or if I even want it to be? Do I have the energy needed to take up all those opportunities? Do I want to push ? Do I want to hand over some of the responsibility to someone else, join a distributor or do I want to sit at the kitchen bench folding patterns and popping them into plastic bags in my pyjamas ?
I got to go to Sydney and step waaaaay outside my comfort zone by talking to a room full of people about blogging. I was really really surprised by how much I enjoyed this... I had an absolute blast! I would happily do more of this - all those school report cards were spot on - I can talk !! A LOT !!!
I have met, in real life some of the best people EVER. That whole meeting bloggers thing, at craft group or markets or get-togethers blows me away every time. This meeting and joining and sharing I want to do more of for sure! (and I want to win lotto so I can go and meet all my international friends - a bloggy world tour perhaps ? )
I have amazing friends who are so supportive of this crazy craft adventure and so many of you I have never met. You visit here, and provide a massive cheer-squad, you test my patterns for me and you share awesome stuff all the time. I owe so many thank you's.
I seem to have morphed into a person who makes toys, and I know this disapoints lots of people (and thanks for the emails telling me just how disappointed you are) and maybe it is a strange thing for a 40 year old woman to do - but I love it ! If I had the time and the skill I would make every single toy in my sketchbook....... It seems to make perfect sense in hindsight, I have toys in almost every room of my house. I wonder if this is some deep dark childhood piece of weirdness.....
BUT I also love to make "not-toys" like the robots at the bus stop. I can't explain how much I enjoyed that little project this year.....I really want to get better at that "not-toy" making stuff and better at taking photos .....so much to learn there ...
I think perhaps I am finished with selvedges for now. I'm sorry but that was not really a marriage as it turned out , just a brief but very passionate affair.
I had a market stall which I loved. I had such fun doing that market but I can't see it ever becoming a permanent fixture for me. I sew too slowly to ever have a great amount of stock and to be honest I don't want to make 20 or 30 robots or 40 elephants. I might want to make 6 or 7 but then I want to make something new. (and I suck at selling, really suck. I suck at putting a monetary value on something I have made. I suck at making sensible choices and adding costs and all that stuff and I give discounts to anyone who seems like a nice person - This was a bit of a revelation for me, I am quite uncomfortable standing behind the stall selling stuff, but I love to be at the front of the stall chatting and buying stuff from others. I suck)
I want to give a bit more....Does that sound weird? This year particularly I feel like this blog has opened up so many opportunities for me. I feel like I get so much from this blog and I am thinking of ways to maybe balance things out a bit .
If someone told me about all this "stuff" that would come about primarily because of my blog, when I started my blog I would have thought they were bonkers.......
I apologise if this all sounds a bit self indulgent ...basically it is me saying "far out ! what a year" and indulging in a bit of a one sided conversation with myself.
So I guess I'll be heading off into 2010, running a small business, folding patterns in my pyjamas, making toys and Not-toys, fondly thinking of selvedges but not sewing them, meeting bloggers, sharing stuff, talking, more talking, hopefully some giving, and saying thanks .
Saturday, December 19, 2009
This one time, on craft camp....
Monday, December 14, 2009
Obviously....
Monday, December 7, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
I have to :
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Pssst can you spare a few bucks? (You were warned)
(all photos coutesy of Rohan)
This issue of THAW is full of lots of people you might know.....Kate and Brendon from Fox's lane and daylesford organics, The doily talking about her new roller derby passion, the gorgeous Beck of dandelion, Howl (winners of TripleJ Unearthed high), and yes there is an interview in there with me banging on (as usual) about craft and community and working in my Pyjamas.
So, I am going to flat out ask you guys to go and buy a copy from Kim and Ro's big cartel site.
Or locally from L'espresso, Upholstery gallery, Coco Pink, Art Gallery,Stride and more....)
Buy it because Kim and Ro work hard to keep this zine humming along (and sometimes giving up seems much easier)
Buy it to support handmade
and yes I may have promised NOT to embarrass her about this .......but she's 18, how many more chances am I going to get?
This is where you need to go to get fresh with my daughter