catbirds!

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Are these not the Cutest.Things.Ever?

This morning I was walking to the train station with my mum and stopped by the markets, and I saw the cutest cards you ever did see. Collages of cats faces. On birds. And people. I Love. They are handmade (no photoshop here peeps) and and made me gasp quietly. The craftmanship. The aawww factor. And CAT FACES people!

They are made by Ange, you can see more here and like them on facebook too!

Thanks to Ange for letting me use her pics!

my creative space

Ah another Thursday, another creative space!

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This week I've been working on antlers. The same ones. Three times. First they were too small and looked a bit funny. So I made them bigger, but they were too floppy, and antlers should not be too floppy. In the interests of child-suitability, wire was out, along with hard plastic. I perservered, and by fusing four layers of felt together then blanket stitching around them, I have antlers that are still soft but stay upright! Woho!

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So yay for antlers I'm happy with, this deer has a green body from a recycled pair of woollen flares and some more japanese print.

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Something else driving me nuts this week is taking good product photos. The light has to be just so, and it's been raining and cloudy and generally wintery here in Sydney, so they are dark and dim and I'm.just.not.happy. Does anyone have any tips for this?
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Hope your creative week has been a little less frustrating!

See more creative spaces here.

Pepper Stitches on Blue Caravan

Yay! Pepper Stitches can now be found on Blue Caravan, an ethical design market that supports independent design and promotes direct trade and loves fairtrade and sweat-free certification.

They believe that ‘ethical’ is no longer a choice separated from style and design and have so many beautifully designed goodies that you can't help but agree! Based in Australia, everything is in Australian dollars, and I like that you can search by category (like stationary, home & body, ceramics or for little people) but also for organic products, handmade, upcycled, eco-sustainable and fair trade.

Alice Dress by Rummage Style
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A Love Story pendant by honeybee

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Fabric Covered Journal - Rooftops by rabbit & the duck
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Here are some of my favourite things.. Now, must go sew more so I can buy them without guilt (one of the new rules I've had to make for myself, spending time in all these beautiful markets; must not buy lovely things faster than I post my own listings!)

watercolour- Amy Ross

Fairy Ring

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Woodpeckershrooms

.. Duck Magnolia
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I do love these watercolour prints by Amy Ross, combining plants and animals in beautiful and unexpected ways, and humans and animals, and all kinds of whimsical notions. I also like the branches, they make me think of woodlands and crunchy leaves underfoot.

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Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, artist Amy Ross is interested in the idea of artist as mad scientist. She creates paintings, drawings, and collages that turn the natural world on its head, morphing flora and fauna together.

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Some prints are available in the Keep Calm Gallery, and you can see so many more in her portfolio here, including some amazing series.

my week in pictures

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On a day off, woke up to strawberries, perfectly poached eggs, watercress salad, goats cheese wrapped in bacon and buttered sourdough. *sigh* The Boy can cook.

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Finally made some roses bunting inspired by these. It hangs above my bed, matches the roses on the cornices, and makes me smile and think of my sisters.

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Best.Duck.Noodle.Soup. Ever. Followed up by popcorn at the cinema watching Toy Story 3. It's good, I laughed so much, Oh Ken! (and cried a little at the exhorbant ticket prices for 3D. Basteerds.)

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A friends birthday cued drinking and mixing. By him and the Boy, not me.

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I mostly choose wine from the prettiness of the label. (Come on, I know I'm not the only one). This wine had an awesome letter-press picture, and a funny name, and was really really tasty. Winner.

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My housemate playing guitar. She is super-ace and makes me laugh.

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This is my new favourite drink. Swedish Cider. Refreshing and lovely, like drinking dessert and more pretty labels too! (realising this post makes me look like I spent all week drinking. I didn't.)

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I also went to a small business expo (much more interesting and informative than I hoped!), posted custom orders, and read 'Persuasion' by Jane Austen. Which is now making me want to watch BBC period dramas and sigh.

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I hope your week was lovely too!

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blog love of the week- paperlion

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This weeks blog love is Jenny from Paperlion, who just did an ace interview over here. Jenny is also a fellow brown owl, and is such an ace person, she is lovely and made me feel at home when I first joined and is super encouraging too! Paperlion is a lovely blog with photos of Japan (and her cute cat), and lots and lots of lovely hand-bound journals.
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Her shop is 'the result of my stationary obsession - handbound notebooks and photo albums, handcut gift tags and fabric journal covers.' See lots of gorgous journal and paper-ness at Paperlion's etsy store.

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I'm trying to get back into journal writing, and these are perfect, they're oh-so-pretty and they open flat for easy writing. If you're journal writing too, I also recommend this blog. It's making me want to pick up a pen post-haste.

deer little antler creatures!

Oooh here are my antler boys featured on an ace blog for styley cute things for kids- minimusthave! Yay!

my creative space

Running a bit late for this week's my creative space, but here we go!

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More sweater cushions. I love these, the different textures are lovely and using them is like hugging clouds. Or your nana. Or a nana cloud. I'm working on a range of them, and am eyeing off all of my sweaters for possibilities. Lucky for them it's winter and I need them more whole.
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Playing around with my first stencils and fabric paint. Oh the possibilites. I'll be adding machine stitch detail in coloured thread, then making them up into tote bags with green lining. Oooh. Greeeen. Will keep you posted on how (if) these turn out.

More creative spaces here.

keep your chin up

via

*sigh*. More of Rob Ryan.

markets!

Last Sunday I had my very first Pepper Stitches market stall. Here it is early in the morning before the markets opened, when I stood back, rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sipped tea from my thermos.

Things I did:

- set up the table in the loungeroom first to check it out and sort out signs and extras. It was so much easier to set up when I had done it before.

- brought extra stock. It's nice to replace stock on the table when it goes

- sold out of antler boys and babushka rattles!

- made friends with neighbouring stall-holders

- brought pretty ribbon for free gift wrapping

- had business cards on the table

-didn't forget to bring plenty of change!

Things I learnt:

-2 thermos of tea is enough. Any more and too many toilet breaks ensue.

-bring a market umbrella (lucky I bought one from this gal) to shield me and my table from the sun which even in winter almost gave me sunstroke

- bring product packs with wholesale price lists for interested peeps (and there were a few!)

- don't bother bringing knitting or the paper. You won't have time.

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Thanks to my lovely friend Ange who awoke so darn early to drop me and my suitcases off, and my new housemate Louie who picked me up (and will ferry me to and from future markets in return for jean darning and sewing services!). Thanks to everyone who said I should do it, and everyone who came by. You made my day!

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I will be there again this Sunday, at the Addison Rd Organic Markets in Marrickville, if you are in Sydney do come by. They have lovely coffee and so many pretty things.

deep breath

Oh My I haven't posted in over a week. You see I got so excited, with so many ideas and plans and possibilities swirling in my brain, and doing so much all at once, that after four days I found myself on the floor of the Boys apartment unable to do anything but watch Oprah and re-runs for 3 days.

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It's just that I get so excited I almost hurt myself. There are so many things to make, to do, to cut and sew and stuff and paint. And there's not as many hours in the day as there used to be (my theory is the days seemed longer when I worked 9 to 5 in a job I didn't always enjoy. Sometimes time draaagged on. Now I'm creating, the day disappears awfully quickly and I wonder where the hell it went. )

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The markets went so well, and I have wholesale orders and appointments and custom orders and shopping and meetings and so.much.indeed that I am feeling a little overwhelmed and need to take a deep breath, and have faith that this will work out and I may actually be able to make a living.

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Here's hoping, and here's to slowing down. I need to learn to pace myself and do one thing at a time. I'm trying to scheduled in rest times. Library times, cafe times, just.doing.nothing. times. Also photo times and blogging times. I am making an effort to consciously note when I start work and choose to stop. Here's hoping.

blog love of the week- banana smoothies for strawberry sundays

via tramfriends

Hannah from banana smoothies for strawberry sundays likes vintage salt and pepper shakers (see some cute ones from her collection here) and makes pretty things. You can see more in her shop tramfriends where she sells them with other things made by her friends. I like her blog for its simplicity and pretty pictures. Shes' very nice, too.

I love lists

I do. I make them all the time. Every week about what I need to do during the week. Every day. Lists about what I will do, what I haven't done, what I want to do, what I need. Books I want to borrow, ideas I want to think about, friends I want to catch up with. I need to empty out my brain on paper or the thoughts keep circulating and I'm afraid I'll forget them all.

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.via bisonbooks

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via talkottown
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I just read this post about obsessive list disorder. It made me smile. There are list-writers everywhere. I think if you're going to make so many lists, I think you deserve a very pretty book to write them in, like one of these.

etsy craft party @ notebook

The etsy party on Friday was just super. We came, we chatted, we made. We each recieved a sweet goody bag. We ate heaps of deliciousness. We laughed.

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There were brown owl friends who are always funny and lovely and encouraging too; and I met other crafty peeps like Michelle (who made me laugh heaps!)and Alex (who is super creative and holds crafternoons! and made that retro crafty holder in the photo up there) and Britt (who makes adorable mug cosies, (I want this one)) and Jackyln and Amanda (who is releasing a line of beautiful stationary) and Anastasia and other people too and hope to see them all soon.

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I made a brooch (see that linen one with the yellow button?) and learnt how to stitch hexagonal paper pieces (thank you Amy) and had a lovely time. Plus I won one of the awesome door prizes! A pack of this fabric donated by the ever-super Badskirt! Woot!

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Etsy ought to have more birthdays. Heaps of thanks to Corrie from Retromummy who organised the whole shebang.

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Aceness.

It's etsy's birthday!

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Etsy is throwing a huge party tonight in honor of creative communities across the globe, find one near you here. (on Meetup, just use your facebook account to access!). If you're in Sydney, make sure you come to this one.

We're going to make fabric yoyos and have goody bags and meet new crafty people and everyone is bringing a plate of scrumptiousness. It's going to be lovely. See you there!

Happy Birthday Etsy!

my creative space

I'm afraid there's not much goin' on in my creative space right now, my sewing machine decided to splutter and die last week (I know, great timing, right?) and I already have a bunch of patterns cut out and lined up, so can't bring myself to add to the pile. I ordered a new machine (yay! on special too!) and other assorted supplies of course.. and I'm waiting waiting waiting for them to arrive.

Until then, here are some antler boys and girls that I finished by hand, they have embroidered faces and hand stitched antlers and little hand knitted scarves. They were fun to make, and fit nicely in your hand. (They're in my shop now)

Catching up on lots of blog reading, and making notes on my business plan, and seeing.as.I'm.a.wee.bit.hungover.today considering making pancakes and watching tv.

(see more creative spaces here!)