T to the A to the XXX

I'm off to the accountant tomorrow to sort out my tax. Last year I didn't realise how much more a business would cost when doing a return and I almost decided to do it myself this year, but booked into one up the road at the last minute. I'm hoping they are better than the lady who did mine last year. She wore Kath and Kim style Christmas earrings (I did mine very late) and didn't know how to spell certain words that I thought were quite easy to spell. The earrings didn't bother me too much, the spelling worried me.

I also found out the year I worked 3 days on a potato farm required a tax return. I figured I was doing the tax department a favour by not doing the paperwork on the $11 of tax I made on the few days work. My foolish 19 year old brain didn't understand how the system worked. All I knew how to do was pick out the bad looking potatoes and try to sound convincing when the other girl working with me asked me if I wanted to listen to Alanis Morrisette.

Took me long enough...

...to come up with a name. When in doubt go with something French and Rachael's suggestion of Matisse really did get the ball rolling and thank you for all the other great suggestions as well.


Now I have to get back to work getting products ready for the Balmain Art and Craft Show in Sydney. It will be held at Father John Therry School, Eaton Street, Balmain on Saturday 8th - Sunday 9th of November from 10am - 4pm. I will be sending up a range of products including items from the new range, so if you're in Sydney it sounds like a great event. I just wish I could be there!

Veronica and the Lols

My badges from Brown Owls last night.

Veronica Darling has tagged me and as I've not done in ages I thought I can try and think of six things. Have a look at hers because it involves kitties and Lols, two of my favourite things and I was super impressed.

The rules:
- Link to the person who tagged you.
- Mention the rules.
- Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
- Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
- Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged.


1. I went to school with Veronica Darling. She was the year above me, we were in the same house and our Mum's both taught at the school.

2. I used to write stupid comics for my uni newspaper under a fake name. Something I forgot until I went back to my parent's house on the weekend and found one. I wasn't very impressed with it and my spelling was ghastly.

3. I went to life drawing last week for the first time since about 2003.

4. I've lived with 15 men during my entire life. Their names in alphabetical order are Adam, Andres, Bartek, Gareth, James, Jim, Mark, Nicholas, Peter, Richard, Rory, Simon, Tim, Tony and Travis.

5. I cooked dinner tonight and it was a beef and bok choy stirfry. It's one of the best I've ever made and I think the trick is to keep it simple. I always try and over complicate things when I cook.

6. On the way back from Gippsland my brother told me to shut up and stop being a backseat driver. I think I told him off about 4 or 5 times for speeding or going the "wrong way" when dropping me off.


I am going to tag Danielle, Penny, Dudley, Honor, Jess and Bianca but if you're too busy or have done one recently there is no pressure!

Country Boys

I know it is super early to be thinking about Valentine's Day cards, but I've been thinking about them for months now. After making them up this year I thought I might get some printed up for next year. They are kind of like the male version of my lady badges. Dorky men making big statements of love, or in this case, how they plan on romancing you. I've had roll in the hay idea in my head for a while and the trip back to the country over the weekend inspired me to get the ball rolling by putting pen and brush to paper. I just noticed the thing going on with his lip, he kind of has a snarl to him which reminds me a bit of Elvis before he ate all the cheeseburgers.

I got to go along to Brown Owls tonight and make some badges with Gemma Jones on the Tecre badge machine. It made the Hello Kitty badge maker I got off ebay in 2005 look like two busted bike wheels on the ground compared to a Porsche or some other wizz bang car. Don't be tempted by the $60 badge maker people, they are rubbish! I made four badges and I will post some pics of them tomorrow. It was great fun to have a chat to all the crafty ladies, although every time I spoke to people I had a very chewy mintie in my mouth so I probably sounded a little odd.

125

Four shopping bags with the Natascha print and primary tulle details. I made the print on silk that is meant to be used for printing onto paper. I specifically got it and it felt a lot softer than the normal silk for fabric printing. However when I used it I found that it printed just fine on fabric. The silk for fabric is should be a lot looser to let the ink through, as fabric can absorb a lot of the excess, where as paper needs a tighter weave because the excess ink just goes sideways, making things look not so pretty. Anyway I am happy it works on fabric as it is perfect for the shopping bags.

This weekend I have the 125 year anniversary of my Primary School back in Gippsland. Gareth is taking over Rose Street for the last couple of hours which is very sweet and lovely of him and if you have any suggestions of thank you gifts please I am all ears. I am not sure how many people will be coming who I know from school as I only ever had 4 or 5 people in my grade because it was a tiny country school. I think at one stage we had a total of 22 pupils so it was probably smaller than most people's actual grade. My two favourite games in school were Round The Bush and Tyre Season.

Round The Bush was pretty simple, it involved a big thick bush and we ran around it playing chasey. We adapted it over time so the person looking was blindfolded and you could hide in the bush. I remember getting scratched to all get up while hiding right in the middle of the thing thinking I was so clever because nobody would ever find me, yet I probably still have the scars from it.

Tyre season involved a large number of tyres the school had, which seems normal to me, but I image sound weird to anyone else. I managed to get the 10/10 truck tyre in Grade 4 when my cousin Greg left the year before and was mighty chuffed with myself as it was really the Rolls Royce of the tyres. I'm not sure what we did to occupy our recess and lunch other than race tyres and roll over them. I remember one time trying to roll over the top of a tractor tyre down a hill only to fall off half way through. Thinking back to what I did I am surprised I didn't have a cast on my arms or legs from 1985-1991. Hopefully I will have a few pictures after the weekend, the one above is me in grade 1. My friend Aisha thinks I look like a little boy and my over sized fringe probably falls into mullet territory.

Pods

This is print number three in the new range and is printed on the stone linen/cotton blend. What do you think of the yellow on stone print? Gareth isn't a fan and I really like it and I would love to know what others think of the colour combination. This print was made with the drawing fluid technique so I have the screen available permanently, rather than the paper stencils which have a shorter life.

I made up some more fabric brooches, but they are a lot different from the last ones I made. I have added a button and kept the stitching more minimal so you can see the print detail. They have denim with heavy interfacing sandwiched between them so they are quite sturdy. The linen/cotton fabric is really lovely and the best stuff to print on, the colours seems to really stand out on it.

I went along to the Spiegeltent today to check out the space for a market that will be running for 6 weeks in November and December called Bizarre Bazaar. The market will be running on a Sunday morning from 9.30am - 1pm inside the tent and entry is free. I am sharing a stall with Shonah, who makes beautiful pendants from fabric, resin and wood and also sells at Rose Street. Hokey and Starashan are also going to have a stall so come on by if you're in the city on a Sunday. It starts on November 9th and should be a fantastic market in a great location.

Tubes

This is what I do when my train has been cancelled and I have to wait another 20 minutes for another one in the wind. One long tube of interfacing and a camera created about 5 minutes of fun and some odd looks from people.

A few people asked about the chiffon clutches that I've been making and if they would be available before Christmas. I have a yellow one over at Dawanda and will be putting more up over the next few months. Also, if Australian buyers are a bit put off by the US dollar making our bucks have no bang I suggest heading over to Madeit or Dawanda if you are wanting to make any purchases.

Names please

I spent the last few days finishing up two wholesale orders for Little Bird in Elliot, South Australia and Betty Mim in Newcastle. I got some lovely feedback from Kate from Little Bird on Stocklist, my wholesale ordering system created by Gareth. I passed the feedback onto him and he was a little surprised that something he made is easy to use. He must usually be making big beasts of databases because mine is really easy to add and upload to. I just break it when I don't put underscores in things.


I few posts back I said I was a little clueless with naming the new range, some people gave me some great suggestions but the images I had then are different to the ones now. I'm going to put the call out again, because I'm stuck. Everything I suggested to Gareth was silly or stupid and his suggestion had summer in it, and I didn't want to specify a season, even though the colours are quite bright.

I liked the idea of having primary in it, but I'm not too bothered about that, that is just my brain trying to come up with something easy. If someone suggests something that I really like I will send you something in the mail. I don't know what, but I have lots of nice things hanging about, so it wont be an old MX and a half eaten packet of tictacs.

Rose Street is tomorrow and Bridget is back from her overseas jaunt and Hollie and Mikey are back from their 2 week break. Although I had Kitty next to me last week and she was a great next door neighbour, I do miss Hokey on the every second week. Although it is going to be really warm tomorrow so I think my brain might turn to fuzz within the first hour. Last week, and it was after 4 so pretty late in a long day, a lovely lady purchased something from me and I was eating a superdooper (courtesy of Karina). I think I just handed her the bag to put the pouch into as I couldn't figure out where to put it. Yeah, customer service is very high when you're in a room that is not unlike a sauna and your brain is functioning at 10%.

Out Out In

I went to the opening of Across the Universe and Back Again last night at No Vacancy Gallery. It was a great space and really fantastic exhibition including work from My Charlie Girl, Scarlett Cat, Gala House and Kelly Smith. The exhibition is on until the 22nd of October and the gallery is in QV in the city. It was nice to go along and have people that I know from the internet land to chat with rather than standing in the corner with your boyfriend talking about how gold coin donation for a VB is very good value for money.

This weekend I have two markets, on Saturday I'm at Rose Street and then on Sunday I am at the Makers Market at the Abbotsford Convent, just near the Collingwood Children's Farm. I've got lots of new products that I've been sewing this week, including some wallets in two sizes. The smaller ones are made for phones or MP3 players and I've put the press stud inside the lining so it wont touch whatever is inside. They could also be used for other things like business card holders or a little wallet for inside bigger ones.

Hog Wild

Rose Street is on tomorrow and I have lots of new products, including these coin purses to bring along. The screenprint is another one of my painted designs printed onto white canvas, which is a dream to print on. I've been busy sewing all day today, listening to music and looking forward to tomorrow when I can talk to someone other than Gareth. I think he is the only person I've really spoken to for the last week face to face other than shop keepers. I did speak to our lovely neighbour who mowed our front yard the other day. He knows we have a push mower and the grass was getting to the stage where it would have been a super workout to even get a small area done. I gave him some plonk to say thank you but really don't think it was enough.

Oh and for those of you up to date with Project Runway Season 5 you should get the hog wild reference. Sometimes I forget that they have actual contestants on that show making outfits and all I can remember is the funny things Nina Garcia, Tim Gunn and Michael Kors say and do. Although Tim Gunn is obviously everyone's favourite, including mine, I really am a big fan of Nina and Michael. This week Nina was totally rocking a top that could have been part of a new line of Spring/Summer Starfleet uniforms. I'm looking forward to the finale next week and I think I know who I am going for but I will wait till I see the final collections. I also wonder how long Anna could get away with speaking in third person before Gareth traded Anna in for a new lady. I suspect it would be hours.

Good Light

Despite it being sunny outside I have found it really hard to get good light for photographs in the last few weeks. It seems when it is really overcast but not dark overcast I get the best pictures and today was one of those days so I tried to take advantage and get some good photographs. I took some photographs with a doily, this one above is with a little badge, a doily and some red tulle.

I did some screenprinting with a new stencil as well today. I got some Speedball screen drawing fluid and filler and have been using that the last week or so. It means I have permanent screens so the laundry is going to fill up pretty fast. This one below is a really simple brush stroke that I printed in blue on white canvas. I am thinking of printing it in a few colours on top of each other, most likely starting with red, blue and yellow. I've put some more pictures over on Flickr.

Rose Street Pictures

Last time I took my camera to Rose Street I broke it so the last time I got a stall shot was probably back in Febuary. I've been in this corner spot for the last few months in the area up the ramp. The backdrop of the door frame seems to look more impressive in the photographs and they have added some skylights so it is really light inside. I'm looking forward to the next few months at Rose Street in the lead up to Christmas and if you're in Melbourne it really is a great place to shop for gifts as you get to talk directly with the people who make the items. Plus the cafe does a nice lunch!

It always goes back to primary

So my post a few days ago showed part of my new range of coin purses and a week or so later and everything has changed. The yellow took over and invited blue along for the ride. I'm not sure if other people love red, yellow and blue together as much as I do, maybe I'm one of the only ones. I just looked through my Year 12 Graphic Communication sketchbook and a lot of the stuff in there was all primary colours as well, so it has been around for a decade at least.

I'm at Rose Street tomorrow and I'm hoping it doesn't rain. Although living in Melbourne you come to expect weird weather like hot mornings, washing your sheets at lunchtime, expecting them to be dry in a few hours time, then having to pull them off the line because it starts pishing down. But as that happened today, I am hoping for better luck tomorrow. Oh and thanks to Hokey for the I love your blog award and I'll see you bright and early tomorrow at Rose Street. I have so many people, including Hokey's blog, that I love reading, so I should get round to posting them all.

Chiffon

I've never been much of a chiffon fabric fan. You can iron it and it seems to twist and go a little crazy when you work with it. I got some a month or so back in a print that I really liked with no intention of using it on anything except maybe some clothing for myself (which I wasn't going to make - I was going to pass that challenge onto my Mum). I ended up using some of it on a clutch and I had been playing around with thicker fabrics in sort of similar way and realised the chiffon would work much better. Now I am a bit of a convert.

This yellow clutch is part of the new range I'm making at the moment and I think I prefer the shape around the chiffon rather than it all out on its own. I'm also trying to come up with a name for the range, everything I think of sounds a little wanky or doesn't describe it very well. Over the last week it has evolved a little as it was just meant to be red, grey, olive green and brown, but yellow is creeping in becoming the main player which is good as yellow is one of my favourites for bags.