I have discovered two things recently - number one, when planning to applique shapes, don't make them too small or intricate and number two, Australia produces fabulous films and we should be proud of this one in particular...
Samson & Delilah. Don't miss it, it's brilliant.
Singlets with (small) applique for Ethan.
Happy Friday!! I made a promise to post each Monday but I had a job interview this week that I had to prepare for so I am a little late in blogging. Fingers crossed for the job... now I have a two-week wait.
Speaking of waiting, my sister Megan is expecting bubby boy shortly and I am enjoying waiting for my nephew Ethan to arrive. I am a bit chuffed I will be an aunty with a nephew as I have a neice but not a nephew yet. Ethan will be a little brother for Amelie. The scary thing is he is due in a matter of weeks (unless he arrives early!) and I have loads of ideas for things to make. I would have started earlier but life has been full of other things... like work (sigh!). One thing I have bought for Ethan is this lovely print by artist Mati Rose McDonough from her Etsy shop.
Photo from Suspect Shoppe.
I am a big fan of giving children art and when Amelie was born we gave her this print from Carla Sonheim's "Girls" series (I made the teddy bear for her too along with some other pressies).
I hope Ethan likes his print. The artist said the little lucky elephant was a symbol for luck as well as strength, solitude, wisdom, intelligence and a strong sense of loyalty to the family, which are all lovely things for a bubby boy! Now I must get crafting. Have a lovely weekend!
Another long weekend - WA had a public holiday today for ANZAC Day. The weather was beautiful and we painted a new trim colour on our house and planted a couple of plants - it was lovely to be outside. We also caught up for friends for dinner and family and went to our friend George's 90th birthday celebration - yes, that's right, 90. I really like that we have a friend who has just turned 90 - we met George and his lovely black labrador Laddie at our local park where we walk our westie Matilda. There's a group of us who walk our dogs at the park and George's dog-walking friends were at his birthday party, along with friends of his from church, lifelong friends and loads of family - kids, grandkids and great grandkids. George is Irish so there was an Irish singalong - Danny Boy and other tunes and lots of good jokes. It was a really nice gathering of people but the best bit was listening to George. Several people gave speeches about George and shared stories. George gave a lovely speech too. He's always played Scrabble and cards and had family dinners and singalongs. He looks about 75 or maybe 80 - nowhere near 90! It was really nice listening to someone with a lifetime's worth of knowledge and experience - he would have been born at the time of the Great Depression, lived through the Twenties and Thirties and Jazz and the Second World War, he would have been alive for Gallipoli. He's lived in Ireland and Canada and Australia. He's one of the happiest people I've ever met. He has really lived life well. He really gives off the vibe that life is what you make it and he's always smiling. What a legend. Happy Birthday George.
Where else would penguins ready for market rest but the fruit bowl??
If you live in Perth and happen to be near Leederville on Saturday - check out the Oxford Street Markets. It's a new market for Perth, running from December through to March every Saturday. I will have a small stall at this weekend's (13 December) market - see you there!
And on Sunday, 14 December in central Perth (smack bang in the city centre really!) is the next Perth Upmarket. If you haven't visited the Perth Upmarket before, do try and get to this one because it's brilliant! High quality things, oodles of sellers (an upstairs and downstairs section) and a most lovely venue - it's at the Perth Town Hall, a historic and very beautiful building that's had a modern makeover. Speaking of craft fairs in historic places - the annual Fremantle Bazaar was last weekend (at Fremantle Arts Centre) and again was brilliant. The Christmas season is great for art and craft markets in Perth - and the numbers at each event seem to be getting bigger, which is brilliant, as people buy handmade and are after unique things.
To help with your Christmas shopping, you might like to check out the very lovely Lala Orange in Northbridge. Their Christmas catalogue is out and guess where the Pillar catepillars ended up! Yup, there's a couple for sale at Lala. Hurrah!
Hope you're Christmas shopping is going well and your plans are all in place - only two weeks to go today - eep! Back to crafting for me :D
Can we curl up on your pillow and fill your sleep with the soothing scent of lavender while you dream?
I really enjoy making these little cats - mostly from linen, recycled kimono and cotton scraps. I am trying to make a few 'gifty' type things to go with all the toys I'm dreaming of for the Made on the Left Market. Sorry to harp on about it but it really has been great motivation for me so far to actually make some of the things floating about in my head and it's given me something to stay focussed on - particularly while I count down the days in the job I'm in!!
If you love the RSPCA and/or you're looking for a fun day out and you live in Perth (or nearby!), the RSPCA are holding an Open Day & Fete on November 9th, with market and fete stalls and money going to a very important cause. More info here - all things bright & beautiful Open Day & Fete.
Thanks so much for the handy info left on my last post! I love how there's a whole community of people to help each other out and give support. Must get round to celebrating my blog anniversary soon to say thank you (I haven't forgotten!!!).
Introducing my Hurrah craft buddy... a GIANT Shem...
Two creative friends of mine are booking a table at a local craft fair to be held in October and they asked if I want to come along and sell some handcrafted wares. How exciting. Then there's the next Made on the Left market to be held in November, which I'd love to put my hand up for. It's all a bit nerve wracking to me and there's a lot to do - not least actually hand crafting some things to sell!! I like the idea of sharing a table with friends first to test the waters. It's actuallygreat motivation to get a moce on with all the crafty projects I have floating in my head. Giant Shem is going to be my mascot - and a smiley friend to help dissapate my nerves!! Now to get crafting...
For some reason (perhaps I was reading about it somewhere or dreamt it or it just popped into my head - can't really recall..) I remembered Dean's Rag Books from when I was little. I think I might have had one or two of these wonderful fabric books - often the first type of book little bubs ever encounter - and soooo precious as an introduction to a lifetime of loving books!
I'm not sure if any of my own survived (I have a lot of my childhood toys but I think books like these may have disintegrated through being loved so much or were passed on to younger siblings). This one was a recent eBay buy and travelled to Australia from Great Britain (how I wish it were that easy sometimes for people to pop into envelopes and travel all snuggly across the world instead of in snug (read not so comfy) economy seating on long-haul flights! ). Anyway, this little book arrived and it's lovely but I have to confess that I am thinking of chopping it up!! Eep! Sounds so drastic but I was thinking it would make lovely quilt blocks and as it is kind of old - it might enjoy living out its remaining days in a different form? Each page is so lovely it would be nice to showcase each in a quilt....but chopping up a book - and a baby book at that?? What to do...
Perhaps I read too much into the preciousness of things (yup - got in a pun...) and I'm all for recycling fabrics... hmmm....
This time last week was the inaugural Made on the Left Market. Full of alsorts of goodies by local artisans and crafty people, it was a splendid day out - and certainly a tight squeeze inside the Hyde Park Hotel (due to the popularity of the event - oodles of people! - and the cosiness of the hotel), which was a fabulous location for it particularly in the depths of Winter (and with the proximity of food and drinks!). There were wonderful sellers selling wonderful things. I picked up this bunch of paper flowers by Lillybuds - they also had button bouquets, which were so nice and so clever! I am looking forward to the next Made on the Left Market - I so hope it becomes a regular fixture for Perth. Yeeha!
And here's some other goodies that arrived this week from Lara Cameron at Kirin & Co:
Houses and Bicycles fabric by Lara Cameron - ooooooh I love this fabric so much!
And a printed journal as I'm addicted to journals and couldn't go past this one. Lovely postcards she sent too - I love the windowsill.
Nothing like starting the weekend with goodies :) Hope you all have lovely weekends. I must get into my study and start unpacking boxes this weekend too.... I feel lost without my sewing machine set-up.
Oh my goodness!!! Well, where do I begin?? After my last post from my cosy little nest in Perth, I have found a whole lot of other crafty eggs are in the nest too! Miss Dot (thank you so much) left a comment about Made on the Left Market and, loving markets as I do and being somewhat impartial to anything 'leftish' (tehe), I went off to investigate and lo and behold (there's that phrase again which funnily enough I never use normally...must be a phrase fad) a whole crafty world exists in Perth - and around Western Australia - that I'd only known a little bit about...
Turns out a group of WA Etsy sellers gathered together and brainstormed about promoting WA creative designers and their fabulous creations and Made on the Left is the result. "Being on the left hand side of Australia no longer means you'll be at a disadvantage. We'll bring you all the information you need to know to make things happen!", says their friendly website. The inaugural Made on the Left Market is this Saturday, 12 July 2008 at Hyde Park Hotel, 331 Bulwer Street North Perth from 11am to 4pm and entry is free! The market will feature "a wide array of Western Australian handmade art, jewellery, clothing and more, this is an unmissable winter event and the place to pick up fantastic fashions and gifts from local makers." Well now, how cool is that? Their fabulous website and blog also pointed the way to a list of crafty events to take place in Perth during the rest of the year and listed WA Etsy sellers and WA crafty/arty/designery bloggers too. So, one small comment and a whole world opened up in front of me. Funny how that can happen and how inspiring it is! Perhaps rather than an isolated nest Perth is a far away tree in the forrest of Australia but there's a whole heap of pretty cool and well decorated nests sitting in that tree!
(This fabulous poster is from the Made on the Left website).
How exciting! Katy at I’m a Ginger Monkey was giving away two of her handmade beautiful birdy mini quilts and lucky lucky me was one of the winners! Oh yay! Thanks so much Katy.
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Photo is Katy's!!
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We’re still homeless as we wait for the final bits of our renovation to be completed. The first coats went down on the floorboards yesterday but it’s pouring with rain in Perth this week so the floors are going to take longer than we thought to dry. We have been alternating between other people’s houses and I am really, really looking forward to getting back in to our own house, with our own bed and having our pets back home!!! Poor pets. Matilda is staying with friends who have a Westie too – hopefully she’s having a good time and being a polite house guest (hrm…she is a Westie though..) and poor Shmoo is staying at a cat motel. I have never put Shmoo in cat accommodation before – he usually stays with my grandparents if he can’t stay in our house but they’ve gone away this week! The cat motel people seem very nice though (odd that it’s called a cat motel – like the cats could drive there in their little cars…hehe). Nearly there though – this time next week we should (HOPEFULLY and fingers AND toes crossed!) be back in our house. Aaaah. And hopefully have a bit of time to rest before we go jet-setting to Europe (yay!!). Will be nice to have access to a computer again too!
Meanwhile, I have developed a vintage poster obsession and thought I’d share some of my favourites (art.com is having a 25% sale this week).
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The schnauzer one reminds me of Matty’s friends at the park and the white cat is such a Shmoo!! Oh pets I miss you! We will see Matty tonight when we take her for a walk and I will be popping to the cat motel to visit Shmoo…hopefully he has time between massages and spa baths for visitors...tehe!
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Hope your week is good....nearly the weekend. Yay!
Perth, Western Australia |
