Crafty Gals

Teegs and Lara – Ink and Spindle 

Kirsteene – Scrumptious Productions 

Michelle – Kids with Crayons 

Tamara – Retro Print Revival 

Pia – Pia Handmade 

Amelia – Milkwood Design 

Kelly and Heidi – Heavenly Creatures 

Shannon – Rabbit and the Duck 

Gaye – Gaye Abandon, Body parts 

Pip – Pip & Maude

Jo – Frankie & Ray 

Liz – Betty Jo 

Well – what a week end I had! I am totally exhausted today – but all in the name of good fun of course!

Saturday saw me back at the good old Maribyrnong Makers Market – where even though I have only been gone a few months it was like the long lost reunion! It was really great to catch up with everyone again. The lovely stallholders who make the market what it is – the volunteer Committee members who tirelessly work to put on a good show and of course all the visitors who come back time and time again – bringing friends along who have never been or just showing their support by buying everyone’s wares.

Pretty much the whole day was busy – which means that time goes super fast and everyone is chatty and happy. I am really looking forward to the next one which isn’t until September! If you haven’t been before – I highly recommend putting Sat 17 Sept in your diaries and making the effort to come along to see what it’s all about.

Sunday saw me out for a lovely breakfast at Happy River with friends and then off to Finders Keepers at Shed 4 down at the Docklands.

I always love visiting markets – lot’s of the time of course I am having a stall myself and so it is hard to get around and catch up with all my lovely crafty pals. This time – whilst I had planned to have a stall at Finders Keepers – it ended up being too much for me to manage and really if I am honest it was much more fun to visit everyone and have a lovely chin-wag. If you have met me before you know I am pretty much always up for a chat – I really do love meeting people and sharing stories about our creative lives and how we juggle them with the multitude of other things that life distracts us with.

The thing I think that really strikes me when I do get this opportunity to catch up with the girls – is how no matter where we are at with our businesses be they small, big or anywhere in between – we all go through similar experiences and come up against things that can stop us in our tracks or challenge us in the creative path that we have chosen for ourselves. The one thing I think I came away with yesterday as I drove up the highway to my new country home – was how I felt part of a gang.

A gang of women who are really strong, creative, clever, amazing multi-taskers and who like me have chosen to live their lives for the freedom it gives them and for the satisfaction that comes from turning your hand to the craft that makes your heart sing.

Keep up the good work girls! It was great to catch up!

Sewing Machines

When I was a girl my Mother sewed all the time. There are loads of photos of me as a chubby little toddler with reddish curls – dressed in gingham nappy pants and little matching apron like smocks with cute little iron on motifs on the front.

As I got older there were ballet costumes, party dresses and then for my 9th birthday a blue velour dressing gown with frills around the neck and bottom of the sleeves. How grown up I felt swishing around in that dressing gown! Funnily enough not that long ago Mum and I were fossicking in an op shop somewhere and we came across the vintage pattern for that dressing gown – what a hoot!

So of course as children are want to do – from the get go I bugged my Mother to let me use her sewing machine. Mum told me stories about when she was a girl and how back then she used to use her Mothers sewing machine to re-fashion hand me down clothing into something she could wear, shortening skirt lengths and turning dresses into tops and so on.

It’s only natural then that my daughter Kitty is hot on my heels. She received her first sewing machine at the tender age of 5 – a gorgeous vintage children’s Singer (thanks Kath!) and has gone on to be given a number of other children’s sewing machines to practice on. The thing is there is never quite anything like your Mothers sewing machine – so as soon as she sees me get to work she wants to make things on MY machine! To her credit – she is actually pretty good at it and as my machine is finger operated as opposed to foot operated – she seems to find it easier than I did to sew on. I always remember that my feet were never quite long enough to reach the pedal properly!

When I first started my business – I used a beautiful old vintage machine I had found in an op shop for $25 and later an egg shell blue 60’s machine (which weighs an absolute tonne).  As the business progressed and I needed to use fancier stitches I had to upgrade to a modern machine. Of course I haven’t looked back. Lots of what I do and make today is thanks to my trusty sewing machine. Thanks to Mum for having the patience to give me a go all those years ago and thanks to my High School Textiles teacher Helen Amor – who I have seen recently at various markets I attend – and have been able to reminisce with about the various projects I worked on at school! Particularly the embroidered Mum 4 Dad oven mitt!

Congratulations too to Lioness Lady who has won my 100th Blog post giveaway! Congratulations!

100th Blog post GIVEAWAY!

How time flies! 

To celebrate reaching my 100th blog post I am running a little give away! 

All you have to do to win your very own Rainbow Cast offs scarf is post a comment on my blog telling me what colour you most like to wear. 

It’s that easy!

  

In every colour imaginable the beauty of Cast offs is that regardless of the colours in season – you can always wear your colour.

Stay wonderfully warm and woolly!

The competition will close on Thursday 24 March 8pm EST. The winner will be drawn via random.org and announced on my blog on Friday 25 March. The winner will also be notified via email - so make sure you leave your email address with your comment if you are not signed in. Giveaway is open to Australian residents only.

Harvest time

Acorns ripe for the picking......

Shop renovations are underway!

As I sit here writing I can smell the most heavenly scent of home made pesto. Yum-o! The prospect of dinner is always good – but when you know the dinner has been created out of the bounty’s of your garden – it is even better!

Life is good – if somewhat hectic at the moment. The shop is undergoing quite the renovation and looks like a bomb hit it. We have certain deadlines of when things like walls need to be finished before the floor people can come and before the floor people can come the roof plumber needs to come and whilst this is all happening the Electrician needs to come and re-wire bits and then whilst he is here the Carpenter may as well come and build me a new front door and fix one of the leaky windows……you get the drift I ‘m sure.

The goal is for the shop to open at the end of May….lets hope that is the case because I have stock arriving here there and everywhere and quite frankly I just want to unpack already. I am sick of living out of boxes and having to open 20 boxes just to find the one thing that I am looking for!

On that note…..I must be off…dinner is being served (thank you kind man of the house).

And thank you to my gorgeous squirrel children who went acorn collecting on my behalf today. I love acorns!

Almost ready...yum!

Grow cob grow!

Scarf Admiration

General Edition Cast offs Scarves

The first product in my range that I ever made to sell was my Cast offs Scarves. Way back in 2004 I was playing around with some felted woollen jumpers that I had and I made one for my lovely husband Sam. He was chuffed and wore it all through the winter. I was chuffed that he wore it and that people asked him about it and commented on it.

A bit later down the track when I was pregnant with our daughter Kitty – I made her a baby cot blanket using a similar idea. One thing led to another and before I knew it my squirrel instincts had kicked in and I was collecting woollen jumpers here, there and everywhere. All these years later – my Cast offs scarves have evolved to become a true winter staple.

You won’t often see me without one on – and now that I have made the move to a colder climate – I think they will become even more of a permanent fixture! Funnily enough the customers I have met who have bought my scarves have all said similar things - in that they do not take them off during winter because they get so attached to them and then there are the poor souls that have misplaced them or heaven forbid left them on the train by accident and come to visit me at the market to share their story. I know tears have been shed over lost scarves.

Necklace Scarves from Body parts - Gaye Abandon

The thing is – I know of lots of other crafty types who also make scarves. My two favourites would have to be Gaye from Gaye Abandon who has become super well known for her lovely circles necklace scarf and Jo from Frankie and Ray who has designed and knits her own neck warmers out of the most gorgeous coloured wools and who also plays around with jumper felt and various fabric combos to great success.

I think one can never have too many scarves in their wardrobe – there is nothing quite like jazzing up your outfit with something that looks fantastic and keeps you toasty at the same time!

Stay wonderfully warm and woolly!

Frankie & Ray Scarf by the lovely Jo Dunsimur

Knitted by Jo from Frankie & Ray

Back to reality

Mum & I celebrating on the opening night of the show!

Well – here I am back home again after a whirlwind week in Sydney exhibiting once more at Life in Style trade fair. One of the best parts of my trip was all the lovely re-orders I have taken from my existing stockists and the overwhelming number of new orders I have taken from new retailers! Boy o boy am I going to be busy!! Still the best bit is that my winter woolly things like the Cast offs scarves, baby blankets and my new giant rainbow throw have all been very well received. Bring on winter I say!

My First in Style showcase!

After a couple of solid days of taking orders – I slipped away and left Mum on the stand whilst I went on a treasure hunting excursion with lovely Allison. What an interesting experience it was to be a shopper at the trade fair instead of a seller! Thank goodness I had Allison with me – who has a fantastic eye and of course lots of experience! On Saturday we spent the whole day at the Home & Giving Fair at the Sydney Showgrounds where we traipsed up and down each aisle – searching for goodies (to much success I might add) and then on Sunday we spent most of the day at the Reed Gift Fair at Darling Harbour. In the end exhausted but happy we got back to Life in Style just in time to finish off orders with exhibitors there and pack up our stands! Now I just can’t wait to get all the goodies that I ordered delivered! The Crafty Squirrel is going to be chock block full of vintage crafty goodness!

Fabulous Team Lark! Dean, Allison and Paul

One of my super favourite bits in relation to getting out and about is of course the opportunity to catch up with all the amazing crafty and clever peeps I meet in my travels. I have massive admiration for all these wonderfully creative people who all have super good taste I might add. How lovely it is to be surrounded by such a supportive and imaginative community. It certainly makes life more interesting!

After all this trade show business – Mum and I took the day off to explore around Newtown before we flew home. Unfortunately because it was Monday a lot of the shops (like Newspaper Taxi) I wanted to go to were closed which was a bummer. Still I got to pop into Made 590 which I have been wanting to visit for ages and was delighted to find that Christina was in and up for a bit of a chat. What a shop! Definitely add to your must go to next time you are in Sydney list – it is fantastic! Also too, a wee spot of vintage haberdashery shopping was done – so I really did feel like it was a super successful trip!

Now I just have to fill all those orders I took!

The gorgeous Belinda from Babushka Baby

The very talented Jarren from Temono

Shabana and her beautiful silver and ceramic jewellery

The lovely Amber from Down to the Woods – giant freckle anyone?

Clever Caitlin from Little Lamb

The talent behind Knuffle Kid – Emma!

Christina – the gorgeous Made 590 Queen!

Made 590 – one of the coolest shops in Sydney

Once a Squirrel….always a Squirrel….

My op shop Squirrel lamp - he sealed the deal!

 Have you ever heard of the theory that each person has an animal totem in terms of personality traits? Most of my life I have thought of myself as a cat. I have always had pet cats (whom I have thought of as my babies) and I am a Leo born in the year of the tiger. Increasingly however I have realised that I am also very much a Squirrel! And a crafty one at that!

Over the last few weeks in Ballarat I have managed to pay a visit to many of the fantastic op shops that are to be found around town. And what riches there are to be discovered! During these times of searching and gathering treasures I have been hard at work trying to think of a good name for my new shop…lots of names have popped into my head, been road tested on my family and friends and then discarded for one reason or another - until the day I came up with ‘The Crafty Squirrel’. The whole family said ‘Yes!’ and the more I thought about it – the more I knew it was right. So ‘The Crafty Squirrel’ it is!

Some lovely girly squirrels from one of the Squirrel books I found.

Of course the day I truly settled on the name I went out op shopping and found 3 squirrel related items – 2 books and a little squirrel night light. I knew I was definitely on the right track and ever since I have been finding all sorts of wonderful vintage haberdashery items to sell in the shop!

When I researched Squirrel totems on the internet – this is what I came up with…..it was slightly too close to home really….but maybe that is a good thing!

The gathering power of the Squirrel is a great gift. (That’s what I think J) It teaches us balance within the circle of gathering and giving out.  

They remind us that in our quest for our goals, it is vital to make time for play and socialising. Squirrels teach us to conserve our energy for times of need.  

If your totem is Squirrel or a Squirrel has recently entered your life - lighten your load of things that are unnecessary – things that you have gathered in the past and may be cluttering your life – thoughts, worries, and stresses. (Sounds like a plan…)

Squirrels are also the totem of action. Ask yourself - are you too active, not active enough, afraid of enough, hung up on accumulating and collecting. (ok, ok….maybe just a little….thank goodness I am opening a shop! Then everyone gets to benefit from my squirrel ways!)  

Squirrel people tend to be a little erratic – trying to do many things at once. (No…really!?) Take the time to stop and listen to your inner self – and don’t forget to play! (AOK!!)

This is just a small collection of my amazing knitting needles for the shop.

I couldn't believe my luck when I found this...original box and all!

A small selection of vintage haberdashery from my travels...

Grow your own

An apple a day...

Well I lived to tell the tale – of the girl who moved with so much stuff it took pretty well 2 weeks solid to pack it and 22 hours straight to move it! Just between you and I….I won’t be doing that again in a hurry – no siree bob. Definitely NOT my idea of how to have a good time….still as this blog is about things that make my heart sing as opposed to those things that don’t – I am going to rejoice in the fact that I now have a much larger garden and the best part of my much larger garden is the fact that I already have some very lovely large wooden boxes with pre-planted goodies (the previous owners bless them asked us what we would like them to plant for us so it would be well on its growing way by the time we moved in).

The garden currently has growing an apple tree, lime tree, lemon tree, plum tree and nashi tree, beetroots, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, corn, basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, spring onions, mint, silver beet, blueberries, zucchini, pumpkin and garlic chives.

We have already been eating from the garden and are looking forward to really harvesting some more and enjoying the sowing, nurturing, growing and of course more eating (that is the best bit) that will come with the seasons ahead.

This is a blessing that Kitty said everyday at school before morning tea – I thought it was a nice one to thank the garden for its abundance –

For the golden corn and the apples on the trees

For the golden butter and honey from the bees

The fruits and nuts and berries we find along the way

We praise and thank Mother Earth every day.

And this one before lunch –

Blessings on the blossoms

Blessings on the fruit

Blessings on the leaves and stems

And Blessings on the roots.

Grow forth and prosper!

A pumpkin in the making...

Ear have a cob of corn...

I thought it was a passionfruit..but not sure..

Hey pesky snail...leave my beetroot alone...

Captain Kitty is on the move

A Rand McNally Storytime Book

Well as I mentioned in my last post…we are well under way in terms of making a very large tree change. ‘VERY LARGE’ being the operative words because as you may have worked out previously…I have the most enormous amount of STUFF…ridiculous really that a girl could collect and squirrel away so many treasures.

Thankfully Mum dedicated a whole 3 days to assisting me with the packing – and was very polite when she mentioned a few times – how I seemed to have quite a collection of little ceramic jugs or indeed ceramic treasures of one sort or another.  Box after box after box has been filled and stacked ready for the impending move day.

We sailed and sailed for over a week, and followed our noses by day.

After a solid week (and then some) of sorting and wrapping, packing and taping up boxes I feel like the end is in sight – well the end as in the day the trucks come to take it all to our new pad. Thankfully the new pad has a slightly larger studio for me (with plans to renovate it to an even bigger space – YAY!) with a separate shed for all those garden tools, the mower and bikes etc that took up space in my current studio and the really super duper exciting bit for me is that next to the house – right on the corner is a shop for me to make my own!

I think the shop has been a long time in the coming really. Lots of the treasures and then some that Mum has helped me pack are destined to go into the shop – not all of them mind you…some are too dear to me, but still over the last few days I have said – “oh, that is for the shop”…or …”I was thinking that could go in the shop” quite a number of times. 

My husband Sam very carefully this morning broached the subject of us trying to keep the new house a little less cluttered. My response was that most of my stuff was destined for the shop – but of course we all know – once a bowerbird always a bowerbird!

A fun part of packing up all my stuff has been re-discovering things I had forgotten I had….or perhaps realizing how many of certain things I do have. Children’s books from the 50’s and 60’s seem to be one thing I am particularly attracted too and so have collected quite a few. Captain Kitty (1957) is amongst them. I just adore the illustrations and the story……

Oh, Captain Kitty, where have you been?

I’ve been sailing the ocean blue – And Tabby went as my good First Mate, and Pearly and Mew were the crew.

We sailed and sailed for over a week, and followed our noses by day, and when the stars came out at night, we followed the Milky Way.

The breezes carried us on and on till we came to the Tropical Isles, where the warm winds blow, and the palm trees grow and the natives wear sweet smiles.

I'm glad you like them, said the queen. I'll order some for you!

We saw the Queen all covered with pearls, we saw the King as well. And on his head in place of a crown he wore a big pink shell!

And Tabby said ‘Good queen, your beads are pretty and elegant, too!’ ‘I’m glad you like them’, said the queen. ‘I’ll order some for you!’

She clapped her hands and the divers dived to the bottom of the sea, and gathered twenty oyster pearls, as white as they could be. 

Then the King led the way through the jungle gay where up in the highest tree, ten little parrots the colour of carrots were having a spelling bee. 

‘Your jungle is charming, but very alarming!’ said Tabby to the king. ‘But I have been wishing that we could go fishing if you think we could catch anything!’ 

Your jungle is charming, but very alarming! Said Tabby to the King.

What a hulla-ba-loo when Pearly and Mew caught a prize all wet and shiny – they pulled in a whale by the end of his tail, and threw him back into the briny.

We dined on fish and coconut milk till the ending of the day. The cat with the fiddle played Hey-diddle-diddle to while the hours away.

‘Dear King and Queen and people, said I, the sun is getting low. We’ve really had a lovely time – alas, it’s time to go!

And now at last, we’re back again in Catville-by-the-Sea – We’ve been away, but I must say that Home looks good to me!’