Cheeky monkey

Well! We did have great warm-ish days and sunny skies the last few days.....but I still missed the blog and all of you peeps. And there's lots to tell. I've been a busy bunny.

Let me introduce you to the first of the summer range. Cheeky monkey! That's what I'm calling this smock.....cos' look at the super-cute print.



The fabric is from Retromummy, if you're wondering.....and some natural coloured linen. This is an experiment that thankfully is going to work out after all. I find that sometimes linen is too stiff to work with, until it's washed with a big drenching of fabric softener. So I'm going to be making some more of these very shortly.

And because I'm sorta chuffed about the first linen smock, I went on a bit of a spree today whilst I was sans bub, with most of the market dosh. Lookee, lookee! A whole heap of plain linen and cotton voile fabrics lined up for the next laundry day.


And they were from apparently a garment industry secret source deep in the rat-infested streets of Surry Hills, Sydney......because I got them all at wholesale prices (with a small cutting fee, because I can't really buy the whole roll). Can you hear me whooping with glee? Hip hip hooray! And thank goodness I didn't have the rug-rat, as it was soooo tight and squeezy in there.

Oooh, and I'm going to be cheeky and keep the secret....unless you really, really, really want to know.

Squeezing in another

Because I might be staying away from the blog for the next few days, if the weather is nice and sunny....and because this blogging thing is so compulsive!

After that list-y this morning, I managed one pair of bloomers made out of one of the Lightning Bugs fabrics (love this fabric!) and some dainty crochet lace around the legs. Tracing and cutting the dang pattern from the "map of Tokyo" took the longest time. Pattern was from this craft book.


And here are some action pics.



You can hardly see the crochet lace edging. I might try some wider lace next time.



Yep, the bub's almost walking. Once she does, we'll need to put a leash on her.......I'm kiiidddding!

While I twiddle my thumbs

Thought it's time again for some to-do list making while there's a lull in the market sewing. I'm beginning to realise I have the attention span of a gnat...no wonder I cannot sew several smocks in a row. I'm always looking for something small and new to make in-between.


So for the next few days, I must make time to do some:

(1) new smock listings on Etsy
(2) laundering of a whole load of linen and japanese fabric
(3) photo taking of our dining room table and chairs to flog on eBay (decluttering exercise)
(4) summer bloomers for the bub, my guinea pig
(5) one sample linen smock
(6) figuring out on what to make my little cousin for her birthday

That's enough, I think, to keep me busy. And those smocks above are now on Etsy as I speak. I've also taken new photos of the other smocks to re-load and re-fresh the look of the shop. You'd think from my marketing background, I'd remember to do this earlier. Nope! Ahhh well!

Okey dokes! Time to actually do something with the day......cheerio!

The lowdown

Funny how things just turn around! Immediately after the last market, I was a wee bit despondent about attempting another one, having sold just one smock. But in the next few weeks or so, I managed to flog off another couple on Etsy (thank you!), and then another one on MadeIt (thank you!). Today, being a very slow-quiet market outing with the added chance of a sprinkle, I was even more astounded to off load another two smocks (thank, thank, thank you!).

(fabric porn alert! japanese fabric stash expansion)

And thank you so much, dear reader-peeps and bloggy-buds, for the encouragement and consistent hurrahs, because I'm certainly chuffed and excited after today's market. I also managed to sell a few bibs, zip pouches and one robot art print. Sorry, no photos of the shenanigans....I forgot the pic-snapper, and besides our market stall looked the same as the last time.

(more japanese goodies from leslie)

I think I'll just kick back next week and maybe do some sewing for the bub's summer wardrobe, while I plot out the fabric for the summer linen smocks.

In the meantime, my friend Desie has just become a food blogger recently and you just gotta check out her mouth-watering recipes. Back when we were single gals, a dinner invitation to her place was an eagerly anticipated event......nay it was a foodie highlight in our circle. Please go say hi, cos I know lots of you crafty peeps are also part-time foodies.

One more thing, Belinda is hosting a scrap swap and its going to be maaassive! I hear she's already got sign-ups from peeps as far away as Norway. I've got my button!!! If you're up for it, sign-ups are open until the 31st August.

Rrrright! I'm about to turn into a pumpkin......goodnight, and I hope the rest of your weekend is good!

Another bib hits the dust

Awww.....dang crap photo! I'll replace it tomorrow promise. It's prime time tv oggling time over here, hence the lack of camera-worthy light.

Edit: Okay! New photo loaded and replaced!


What a great feeling to pretend I'm young and untethered again! Today was my bub-free day, you know....and it was packed with lots of traipsing all over the burbs, but not much sewing. These bibs were hot off the sewing machine last night. I finished hammering in the snaps just a few minutes ago.

I spent the morning trapped in a dentist' chair, in a frozen grimace and thinking samadhi yoga-esque thoughts. I was trying to escape the heavy-handed masked lady, into my inner mind. Unfortunately, attempting to meditate myself out of the pain, was making me more ridiculous by the minute....as I would involuntarily jerk one or both of my hands like a marionette, followed by an "aerrrghh". Apparently, I did quite well!...and that was just a teeth clean!

Afterwards I braved the hordes at Ikea to get some frames to showcase my prints at the market. I swear the crowds are getting worse, ever since this town was reduced to just one store (we used to have three!). This is a week-day, people! Why aren't you at work?!

Then it was more window shopping (I picked up lots of windows!), fingered some trashy mags and fondled some fabric at Tessuti's, my favourite garment fabric shop across the other side of town.....and before I knew it the day was gone. Kinda productive, yeah!

Funny how time used to drag so slow when I was a wee lass....or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. Nowadays, there just aren't enough hours! Is this the same with you, or is my sense of time off kilter???

Okay, enough babbling! There's still a tiny bit of market prep to do....before Corrie picks up all my wares tomorrow. Ciao!

Long time between posts

Just when you thought I was back on the blog-front, I go off and sneakily take a blog break.....ha! In fact, I didn't realise until this morning that it has been a full week since. What the?!


Anyway, it has been a tightly packed few days spent sewing and hand-finishing a pair of smocks. If you're thinking one of them looks mighty familiar, well, you're right! I just discovered that I had enough fabric to make a larger size version of the first tree smock. The bub always gets noticed everytime she wears it while we're out and about, so I'm thrilled to be able to duplicate it again in time for the market.


The other smock is my first foray into trying to coordinate print with print on a garment and its turned out very cute...but I'm biased.


But really in the midst of all of this, the sweet geezer decided to spring a surprise mini-break whisking us off to Leura in the Blue Mountains for two days. I happily scuppered the sewing in exchange for two days of no routines and no cooking. And what's a visit to Leura without an obligatory trip to a lookout.....and a stickybeak into the Candy Store, where we came away with barley sugars, fruit sherbets and these extra sour fizzy coke bottles which the geezer used to scoff down during his childhood in Belgium. I polished off this remainder of the first packet this morning.


On today's agenda, more baby bib-sewing, I think. The sky's looking a tad grey and ominous for any outings. Fortunately, I've got a child-free day tomorrow. I can't wait!

Stack of bibs

Its been a bit of a production line over here lately.....the mini blog break did kick start the crafting momentum which I needed to have.


The bib prototypes I ran up a couple of weeks ago were very well received by the little boy bub and his mummy. They're a lot quicker to whip up than I expected, so I've been using this as a project filler between smocks. It's also a great way to use up some one-off novelty fat quarters I had knocking about in the fabric boxes.


And now for some linky love....I've been keeping this one close to my chest because everything is so nice and I wanted to keep it all to myself....but only for a short while, and I think you'll agree with my sentiments once you see. Leslie from Nagoya (hear that! she's in Japan!) has opened up an etsy shop and its been going gang-busters. I've gone a bit crazy nutty over the fabrics she has in her shop. I think I'll be attempting to snag a craft book next. Aside from that, her blog gives great insight into everyday life in Japan, coupled with great photos and narrative.

Anyhow, I'm on a roll....gotta get back to the crafting!

I made it

Another smock down the hatch!....and wait for it, wait for it...listed on the new aussie indie craft site MadeIt. I just thought, lets throw this one at it and see if it sticks (not too much). I'm crossing my fingers!


There's a few more smocks in the works and I'm gearing up to make some linen ones for our summer, just a few months away. So you know what that means! Lots of actual fabric fondling and daily cooing at the fabric prints that I see online. I do love my (bad) habits, I mean, hobbies.

And before I forget, I did promise you a peek into the insides of that crochet book. Behold the milkmaid get-up.....


....refashioning your nanna's afghan? Here's an idea.


I actually love the lacework coasters, but the pouffy chair seat pads???


I also love these two pages! Check out the photo that inspired that hexagon crochet blanket.


The choice of colours on these two totes are just eye-catching!


The lowdown? Mostly good, some kinda not my taste....but all very inspiring! I'd probably use each pouf on that chair and transform it into a brooch instead....so its not so kitschy tacky. Or even a crochet wrist corsage (harkening back to the days of my youth!)....or not! Hmmm, it could be construed as "ironic" fashion. Anyhow, there's better photos of the above in flickr, if you care to take a gander.

Cheerio!

Nice & rocking, too?

Awww shucks, you girls! And I'm talking about Anna and Jude who've both nominated me on their blogs for some virtual group hugs and back patting. Thank you so much, ladies! I feel so chuffed to be part of your circle.

Because being nice does matter even if we never ever meet each other in the real world. The acknowledgment, the replies, the comments and the emails all add up to how we hold each other in high esteem. Yes, I am capable of writing some serious guff, too!


I don't think I can only give this out to seven bloggers, that's just too narrow a field....but I'm going to try. Here are seven of the nicest ladies I've met since I've started blogging.

Belinda, Corrie, Claudine, Gail, Melissa, Jude, Di and Cathy, please stand up. You, too, Anna! Some of them I'm pleased to know in person, some of them I've known since my early blogging days (when I had almost no readers) and some of them I only met recently....I'm not going to elaborate on the why, but I think once you visit their blogs it's quite obvious that their good cheer, warmth and just general niceness is so infectious, you'll want a piece of it, too.

Now I never thought of myself much as a "rockin gurl blogger chick", but I'm so thrilled to be tagged by Jude as one.


And I'm pleased to say the following five ladies are all rockin' and rollin'. So come on down, Nicolette, Anna, Monica, Leslie, Leslie and Jhoanna! Their blogs always give me lightbulb moments, with their novel crafty ideas and gorgeous photos. Any blog that makes me want to go rummage my stash is inspirational in my book. (Yes, there's more than five, but I couldn't not include anyone.)

Hokay! I'm off to take craft book photos and get on with some sewing. Hope your week is good!

Another fabulous package

No, not the geezer....although I personally think he's fabulous, each to their own tastes you know. But I digress!

Some time back I got lucky out of a whole lot of blog-readers to win this fab crochet book on Moonstitches' blog. Alex also generously included some lovely Japanese fabric with this unique textured surface.


The book is as stunning on the inside as it is on the cover....apologies, it is now dark down under and I refuse to post crap photos. For crochet virgins, there's copious diagrams on how to perform those crochet stitches. If there's enough interest, I'll take pics of the book's insides to show. Again, a huge thank you, Alex! This parcel has made my weekend!

Breaking the blog break

I knew I couldn't stay away....not when the laptop is so tantalizingly close to both "singers". The lure of the blogosphere is always close. And of course you know, cos I've been popping into your blogs the past few days.

Then, when Anna and Jude both dangled some carrots to get me out of hiding, I had to laugh! Ah, you girls! However, more on that later as each deserves its own separate post methinks.

Anyways, I've been busy......beavering away on a smock.....and thinking up a bucketload of stuff to make. With the impending warm weather just a whiff away, I'm also planning some sewing for the bub's summer kit. And speaking of summer, here's a peek of the outdoors (because I always show only indoor pics) while we were having our morning shot of caffeine.

Balmoral Beach with the lone crazy swimming in spanner water.


The view towards the harbour.


Arty farty look at the boardwalk with my hooty tootsies.


And the bub looking very cosy indeed!


And now for some utterly shameless self-promotion (hope you don't mind, I borrowed your turn of phrase, Kirsty), I've plunged into printing some of my tiny artwork and am quite happy with the result when they came back from the printers. So happy, in fact that now I can share some of these with you. Go ahead, have a squiz....they're all in the shop.


Now I'll leave you with some actual thrifting found at the Salvos during our outing....the first time ever I got lucky. The broderie anglaise edging on the pretty pillowcase, I'm thinking of ripping out and turn it into a hem on a summer dress for you-know-who.


This fab find is a kit to make the skirt and sunsuit, complete with instructions, thread, elastic and the retro print. I couldn't really leave it behind...not when it was just a dollar.


Cheerio! Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

When the good mail drops by

You know how annoying it can be waiting.....waiting......waiting for a package you've been expecting for some time. Because living on the arse-end of the earth can be a real bore when it comes to jetsetting post packages. That's alright! I know you all empathise.


But when they all arrive at once, its a never-ending surprise.....because sometimes you've forgotten you even put these in your online cart, oh, about a month ago. Sad, isn't it? (Lots of fabric and craft book porn in this post)


Anyhow, the good mail karma seems to go both ways! After my earlier post today, I'm thinking that my luck is definitely on the way up, because I'm happy to say that I'm sewing more smocks....to replace the ones that sold in the shop (who would've thought?!) and at the market.


So I'm giving myself a swift kick up the backside, as I'm easily staring at a few weeks worth of sewing to do......methinks its time for another blog break! Just a fortnight or maybe less......I'll see how I go.

In the meantime, I also have some good mail to send out. Hope you all get some good mail, too!

The package of awesomeness

It's arrived! I couldn't wait to tear it open when I saw where it traveled from. And it looks even better in the real-life (and on my kitchen floor) than I ever expected.


The uber-talented Julie hosted an interactive project with the readers on her blog. For each of the ten stages, she took ten suggestions from her readers, pulled one out of a hat and executed it on the painting. At the end of the project all 100 suggestions went into a hat.....and my karma must be on the up 'n' up, cos now its propped up on my craft table and I can't stop looking at it. Thank you so much, Julie! The geezer will be gobsmacked.....wait till I tell him tonight.

Distractions

My lovely geezer.....isn't he a good boy?.......has gifted me a brand new toy!


I've been tinkering with it tonight, but so far haven't revved it up yet. Still revelling in all the shinyness, while I read up on its inner workings. Tomorrow, if I can steal some time I'll take it for a test run. I can feel a round of clothes sewing in the works!

Just playing

This is how it usually starts. I make a little something to give to a little someone....small and cute to match the little cutie. It turns out adorable (to me anyway) and an idea is born.


Yesterday and today, I've been playing with more Japanese fabrics, some fleece fabric and some snaps.....and what do you know? They turned themselves nicely into bibs.


These are going to a little boy bub on the weekend. Depending on how well they're received, I might make some more and take them to the next market. And speaking of markets, I need to give a huge thank you to Jennie for her incredible informative post on how to do markets, which I ate up in preparation for our first. For anyone out there wanting to do markets, she's the guru!

The shrine

Wanna see my playroom? Notice that I call it "my" playroom....not the bub's or the geezer's, although occasionally the geezer will try to hog my laptop.

Let me take you on a tour through my shrine of craftyness.

This here is where everything mostly happens. Sewing, drawing, cutting and sketching, along with lots of messy piles. During the before-bub days long long ago, this was the sun room where we ate slow, big breakfasts on weekends. Not so now, with the semi-permanent fixture of the Singer.


Pan to the left and on the floor against the wall are the stacks of boxes.....all filled with fabric. And because they are full, I've now resorted to piling them on top of the boxes.


Left again and you see my essential blogging tools....the laptop and the mouse.


And against the wall behind the screen are my inspiration boards, which are looking a bit haphazard at the moment......must fix them.


Notice, I haven't shown you the floor? Har har har! It's not so presentable as everything above waist height. In fact, if you squint you might even see some dust bunnies. Dang!

Alright, I've procrastinated enough. Must get back to cutting fabric.

Illustration Friday - Moon

By the light of the silvery moon....


Just a quick doodle, while I give the sewing machine and my hands a bit of a rest. I want to get back into regular drawing. Really I do!