The Little Details

Some close up details of the recent artworks I have created. It is sometimes the little tiny details that I like the best, usually the accessories on the outfits or in the hair. I'm enjoying using paper to create outfits and wish it was that easy to make real ones.

Tomorrow is another Rose Street stall. It looks like we have another sunny day so lots of super doopers to be eaten. I've got my Mum helping me set up, hopefully she can be my sherpa, because after three markets I have ended up with cuts, bruises and strange marks on my arms and legs from the car to market haul.

Lastly, for those of you in NSW, particularly Newcastle, my bags and badges will be joining Meringue's wristlets in a shop called Betty Mim. Gareth sent the package off on Tuesday so hopefully it is all there by next week!

Swing Swan

Over the last few days I've listed some new artworks on Etsy. They are mainly the fashion style illustrations I have been doing with the paper collage dresses and this one above is one of my favourites, mainly because of her clutch bag. Although it is really simple, the colours on the paper really appeal to me. I created it from a white screenprint over paper in an old book, this part was a drawing of a man in ancient Rome and the white ink didn't spread evenly over the image.

This week has been a little busy with a trip into the city with the students yesterday. It is always rather tiring, particularly while standing in the sun for more than a few minutes and spending most of the day on your feet. I met Gareth in the city for his birthday and we went out for dinner and drinks. I was so tired I had to sleep on the train ride home as I couldn't keep my eyes open. Even today I was feeling tired so I'm going to try and get an early night even though I have a lot of things I need to do, including writing reports, sewing up things for the market this weekend and planning exciting, fun, engaging end of year activities for kids who will most probably get bored very quickly anyway.

market swing

Meringue and I had our third market yesterday and for once it wasn't too hot or too windy. It went well and we were lucky and were next to Justine and Megan. Jodie and I had a few laughs and some serious business chats as well as a Super Dooper which looks to be a market staple. I took some along in a little esky but they turned to liquid before the market even started. My Sunny Boys I planned on bringing took longer than overnight to defrost, although Jodie remarked that once frozen they would sink the Titanic for several hours, not like the piss-weak Super Doopers.

Report Writing Dag

I was recently tagged by Hollabee so thought I would add the dag into the title as it is dutch for day. I kind of like the translation because of the meaning it has in English.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


1. In 1998 I lived in Belgium for a year as an AFS exchange student and before I left I would often write of instead of or. I don't know why I made this mistake, but when I got to Belgium I discovered of meant or. So when I make the mistake now I just blame Belgium.

2. I sell my badges in a shop called Little Salon on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy Melbourne. In 2003 when I was working in a call centre I would go past the shop each day on the tram and think to myself that I should be making things to sell in that shop rather than telling people that if they didn't pay their phone bill it would be cut off and I had no power to stop it from happening. I often told myself I wasn't good enough to do it. I wish I could tell myself that one day it would happen.

3. I have 13 more days of work until I finish teaching. I decided in August to leave my job and try and make money from my art. It is a risk I realised I could take as I have no children or mortgage and although I am nervous and scared I am looking forward to doing this.

4. Tonight Gareth and I celebrated our 5.5 year anniversary. We didn't do anything big, as it is only a half anniversary. I cooked a yummer dinner and we had some booze. We met on May 22nd 2002 at Club UK. $2 pints = total romance.

5. I used to play this game and at one stage was at the top of the points board.
http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/geogeniususa/play.php


I am going to tag My Charlie Girl, Ali J, Meringue, Bec from Madeit, and Edee!

Too Hot To Handle

I have not got a treasury in so long that when I saw the lists on Etsy at 222 I was in shock at the thought of finally getting one. They are fun to do in terms of composition and colour and getting it to all look right. Anyway I nabbed one and I'm pretty happy with the results, so I thought, why let it die tomorrow evening, I might as well share the love around. I've linked up the image above so you can go to each of the items on Etsy, except Skinnylaminx because the item sold, so it takes you to a similar item. Enjoy the pretties on Etsy!

Sweat/Shop

I have spent the weekend sewing up two orders for shops in the ACT and NSW. I thought I wouldn't get the second one done for a few weeks but I have almost finished the order. I started using the fabric I got from Lara and it is lovely to work with. I have used linens before, but this one seems much more natural and the colour is stunning. I used the fabric to make some little coin purses and a wallet with the dark denim. One of the orders was for coin purses which I have not made in a while. I think I might make up some more for the markets coming up as they are quite quick to make and very handy. I have made them in a variety of sizes and some are really small and dainty, particularly compared to the other pouches I make. Not much else happened this weekend, I need to get onto my reports tonight, only two and a half weeks of school left!

Big Red

This are my super big red ladies. When I cut the felt out I ended up with bigger rectangles and decided to use up all the space, rather than split it and make a smaller badge. I liked the idea of doing the first badge design on a bigger scale. The largest is 8.5 cm high and rather large compared to everything else I have made. I have not tried to sell them because they are too big for the plastic pockets and the cards I normally package them in. I like looking at them next to each other and comparing their looks. The one second from the left seems to be the prettiest, as she has lovely bright eyes. The next one along, second from the right seems more dainty and fragile, then the one on the far right is very cute and childlike.

Weekend Market

Jodie from Meringue and I spent the weekend at two markets, the Rose Street Artist Market on Saturday and the Brunswick Indi Artist Market today. We had a two week break since our last Rose Street stall which was good because I managed to get my Dad to make up a partition, which worked a treat. The Brunswick Indi market we did today has only just began and it went really well. Lots of people came by, including my cousin Rachel and Shara. It was a shorter day so went really quickly and I was home by 5 for a green curry dinner courtesy of the Gareth's Mum and the freezer and some Casino Royale. For more pictures, check out my flickr or Jodies.

Meringue and I will be at Rose Street Artist Market again this Saturday from 11-5. Come along and say hello, hopefully this time we wont be so tired, although after today and a full day of teaching I am tired and unable to do much at all.

On Sunday Meringue and I will be at the Brunswick Indi Artist Market at The Aldermans on Lygon Street in East Brunswick. We are going to have a stall on Peira Street Lane and it runs from 12-4pm. The pub opens for beer at 3 so come along and have a drink with us!

This is another of my new artworks, this one has tulle in the hairpiece which was fun to work with. I liked the dress in this artwork, although it looks nothing like the original picture, which wasn't a bright red dress! I'm enjoying using yellow and red together at the moment and might try doing some screenprints using the same combination.

Feeling Jaunty

This weekend was a 4 day weekend due to the Melbourne Cup. I like to pretend I have two weekends, and when Monday comes around I like to think it is Saturday again.
Although many people would have been looking all sorts of glamorous today, I for one was not. I spent most of the day at my sewing machine in my PJ's sewing up some pouches for The Hive Gallery in Canberra. I did decide to inject a little glamour with some race inspired drawings although I have never been to the races. For some reason all I think of are shoeless, drunk, spaghetti strap wearing woman (or men!) that are sunburnt and slurring. My lady below is none of these things and would never take her shoes off and she has the added advantage of not showing off all of her lady baps.

I was worried I was trapped!

I went down to Gippsland for the weekend for my 10 year high school reunion. I decided to not go back yesterday due to the crazy weather and sat and watched Pirates with my Mum on the couch and marked papers and stitched up little ladies. I didn't think I would have any problems getting home today and almost forgot about the flooding until I got to this road and realised I would need to do a 3 point turn. Lucky it wasn't over the road in Stratford and I was able to get back to Melbourne without any problems. I'm now starting weekend number two in my four day weekend and have a lot of sewing to do.

BOB in Bendigo

I now have a new stockist of Anna Laura products in Bendigo called Bob Boutique! When I was down a few weeks ago on a tourist trip with Gareth and his parents I found the shop and had a chat to the very friendly owner Sonia. There is some pretty amazing stuff in there and the shop looks amazing, so I'm quite proud that my bags and little ladies are surrounded by such amazing things. If you're in the area pop in and have a look, especially for the Mikiya Soap Cakes which are made by a lady in Geelong. They are the most beautiful soaps I have ever seen in my life.


Below is a new artwork in my Etsy shop. It is called Hover Erratic, but I'm now wishing I called it How Erotic after this sign on Rose Street in Fitzroy as that is what GreenOlive thought it was called!

Something which I found annoying AND frustrating was someone nicking the sign at Meet Me At Mikes. I don't know what kind of fool would do something like that, but whenever I meet someone called Mike for the next few months I will eye them off suspiciously and ask what they did on Halloween.