Bull in a craft shop

Dreaming away...

2010-01-28T22:26:00.002+11:00

Looking at renting a new place and stumbled across this piece of absolute gorgeousness for sale:

20 Rankins Road, KENSINGTON - For Sale by Marston & Cook Pty Ltd FLEMINGTON

If only I had a spare couple of million...

Look at the gorgeous ceilings in the lounge:

and the ornate entry with the original marble plaque intact on the wall with the list of past presidents of the dispensary:

the bathroom isn't so great and the kitchen would need a bit of reworking but oh my god what a canvas!

and the winners are...

2009-12-03T20:09:00.002+11:00

LOOPI... for you

Jodi Renshaw and

jodesmac

Congratulations guys!! Send me your snail mail address and I'll send you yr mo's!

Thanks to everybody who left me nice words :) much appreciated...

Will be thinking about a grander scale of FAUX MO's for next year...

Onto the next project!

I finally got some wire to finish making my hot air balloon and cloud mobile which I will restart on the weekend...wish me luck!

P.S. The white and green polka dot skirt was a disaster :( ...For home usage only...I think I need to go to some Thread Den classes or something as I have really lost my skillz!

Practice makes perfect though I guess...

my first giveaway!

2009-11-26T09:22:00.007+11:00

Ok, so going along with Pip's week of hello and happy I am going to giveaway my last 3 FAUX MO's.

I've been making FAUX MO's for Movember with all the money from selling them going to the Movember group who are all about raising money for men's health issues including supporting research into prostate cancer and depression.

I haven't made many and haven't really made a huge effort in my marketing campaign to sell too many as I've been too busy to sit down and make them! I only had the idea midway through Movember so am a little under prepared! But I have raised $114 for the cause which I think is OK...Maybe next year I will refine the design, my marketing and get making earlier so I can raise tons of money!

Anyway, for your chance to win one just leave a comment! I will draw some winners next Thursday. For each one given away I will donate money to my team, The Hirsute Gentlemen.

Here's a pic of my friend Karin sporting one...

Anybody for a Faux Mo?

2009-11-16T20:07:00.011+11:00

Yes, I am making faux mos for movember.

This is my way of raising funds and getting my free ticket to the movember ball...

Faux mos are felt badges I'm lovingly making by hand and am selling for $8 each. This means they are all unique. They also come on their own handmade card.

I'm not taking any money for materials or time, all of it goes to the movember group who are supporting research into prostate cancer and depression. A worthy cause I believe!

If you'd like to receive one, go here: http://au.movember.com/mospace/32527, donate $8 (plus postage and a donation would be really nice :) ...) and then send me an email or PM me with your address, what colour you'd prefer, brown or black and what style you'd like, either a connoisseur style or the thinner parisian style. Or if yr feeling adventurous, just request a random one! Then I will get busy and send one through to you!

Here's a pic of my gorgeous friend Karin sporting a connoisseur in black... (thanks for the link back and the kick up the bum to write a post too!)

and a really bad product photo...

So quick sticks! Support the cause and get yours now!

Change is afoot

2009-10-25T12:48:00.003+11:00

Seriously looking at moving out of our grey box and into something with a bit more space...space for projects and grown up type things...

Means a big change cos when you move out of a little box into a proper house, it generally means you need to get things to fill the new space...It will be strange to start accruing again...

Some photos...

Tsunami like cloud formation on the horizon...totally mad looking...

My latest op shop finds...

Dover illustration books! Awesome!

I have a board game 'thing' and have started collecting them again...need to get my box sent down from up north with my Park and Shop, Mork and Mindy, Six million dollar man and sealed version of the Golden Girl Guardian of the Gemstones game, a take off of She-Ra, whose dolls I adored when I was a wee lass...Favourites were Onyx and the leader of the baddies Moth Lady... anyway, I digress...

Heading to Tassie for a few days this week, will be nice...

Raarrr badge

2009-10-17T13:10:00.004+11:00

Made a badge for Khannie whilst he was away at a conference this week.

First one I'd tried with the newly learnt blanket stitch...not even sure if yr supposed to use that kind of stitch on softie type things but oh well...

I put it on a card for him too...

front...

and back with rarrr guy...

don't think he's going to wear it though... :(

Big bike ride planned tomorrow....50km for around the bay in a day..not quite around the bay but I think it's a fair effort...

no brain for writings...

2009-10-15T00:04:00.004+11:00

it's like a vacuum up there atm...

anyways, some fotos...

been trying to pretty up the dull, small, too modern apartment lately.

Got some new furniture, made some bunting out of old kids encyclopedia and books about mathematics and moved it all around, cos you know what they say about a change...

I know i should take photos with my real camera but It's far easier and quicker with the iPhone...

and i can make it do funny tricks...

yay for the good ol expedit...fits 12"s perfectly...

we have a new friend named Dennis Hopper...he is in the pic on the far right...if you look really hard you can make him out...

I have made something this evening but I can't post pics just yet...tomorrow maybe...

i lied...

2009-08-17T23:45:00.003+10:00

I forgot I had been a little crafty a week or so ago and made the awesome Susanator a passport cover for her birthday...

Would love to have tried to make a double version for my upcoming NZ trip (this thursday!!!) with my beau but then there's that icky thing called work and the other ickiness that goes with it of deadlines...

Anyway, til next time...

the month in pickchures

2009-08-11T21:13:00.011+10:00

New addition to my desk at work...gorgeous!
Rapahehu cocktails
Skull and Crossbones and Pirates curse cocktails from Tiki lounge bar in Richmond
P-man soaking up the love at the poker table
Design festival comes to Melbourne Central
Grafitti in an old the Donkey Wheel House during the Melbourne Open House
Pink stuff dripping from the pavement above in the basement of the Donkey wheel house
Flamiiiiinnngggg lips!
Truly
Awesome!
Op shop finds...gorgeous glasses
Even gorgeouser pink espresso cups and saucers
Pink 1975 Annual and towel origami...scorpions, whales, penguins, cats and snakes out of towels?!? cool!
inside
New bike!
Steam train rides, bike rides and car rides...

p.s. when the hell is blogger gonna sort out the terrible WYSIWYG editor...posting pictures is such a nightmare!

brooding over brooches

2009-06-15T00:26:00.011+10:00

well maybe not brooding...but i just thought it had a ring to it...or a brooch to it...heh...

I got busy late this evening...think I had dessert too late and got the sugar rush...

Ok, so 2 new brooches and an improvement to the earrings photo as promised!

First the earrings:

Next brooch number 1:

this idea has been in my head for quite a while...well since i made the measuring tape bracelet...which I'm trying to improve on by finding some fabric measuring tape instead of icky, cheap plastic...

I believe I have the worlds worst glue gun...bought from a $2 shop, it's so crap that I think the glue has melted down inside the handle...the glue sticks disappear and it doesn't come out the nozzle and it appears to be getting heavier each time I use it...

Brooch number 2

A weeny little bento box I found whilst in Sydney...i think it was supposed to be one of those things you hang off yr mobile but it had lost it's chain...I have a fascination with tiny things...always have...I remember getting a boy in grade 1 in trouble because he was trying to get me to give back a pencil he'd sharpened until it was a centimetre in length...I told the teacher it was mine and she believed me as he was the class trouble maker and I was a studious little thing...how evil I am...I still think I have it somewhere in with all my Barbie things that my mum dutifully packed up and kept...

and a couple of other randoms...

I'm wanting to take more photos and get a bit more knowledgeable about how to use my camera...took this messing with the manual focus and changing the aperture (well I think it was the aperture!), may still be a tiny bit over exposed...

Mr Bunny man who sits on my desk was looking overly sinister and Alice in wonderlandish tonight... What's up doc?

A sack of potatoes we bought down the street...I just had to have it cos it was a sack of potatoes...how often do you see a sack of potatoes?!? Just gotta think of what I can do with that once it's stopped being filled with potatoes...

quick one...

2009-06-10T22:49:00.004+10:00

had an awesome weekend (GLWE '09) with the high school pals...12 girls (I use that term loosely as we're all over 30 now...) in a big barn in the middle of the country with way too much french toast, wine, cheese and Dr Jurd's Jungle Juice (don't even ask what that crap was...)

Got some gorgeous earrings from a little shop in Balmain/Rozelle crafted from tiny paper cranes made out of japanese paper...I've always had a love for miniature things...

Sorry again...will update with a better photo when I get a chance...

Small tip, the op shops around this area are really good...saw a Parker coffee table and multiple pieces of kitsch homewares I wanted to snavvle up...booo...must plan a trip to the south side op shops...

But, I was very restrained and didn't really buy much else as I didn't want to carry it all around...stupid excuse I know...

My friend also lives basically next door to the wonderful Society Inc. which was unfortunately closed each time I was there...had a very good peek in the windows though...and lots of lusting after was had...

Some more bullet points:

Tintilla Estates 05 Shiraz is awesome, as is their Rosato di Jupiter (A rose! I hate sweet wines! But ah hah! It's not sweet!)
Berocca actually does what it says it will do...I'd never tried it before and now I am a convert...
The new safari is awesome...it is fast, and smart...love the guessing it does as you type things into the address bar, the Top Sites page and the status in the right hand side of the address bar...glad they took on board the feedback from the beta and sped it up!
I promise more crafting will be done soon..I have a couple of things in the works, just no time...
Coolest site of the week: http://www.gestalten.com/

Shameless brand promotion...

2009-06-02T22:47:00.003+10:00

Gonna be as quick as possible with this as I wanna watch Hell's Kitchen...

So I was given a watch for xmas in 2005 by my gorgeous Khannie. It was a Nixon watch bought in Canada and I loved it to death. Unfortunately, because I loved it so much, I wore it all the time and it wore out, the band (which was irreplaceable as it was glued to the face and was unique to the design) basically fell to pieces...

As I loved it so much I contacted Nixon Australia to see if they would replace the band for me. They said no they couldn't as they weren't making them with the bands like that anymore. Boohoo...
But, if I wanted to they would REPLACE it for $40!!!
I was like nah...this can't be right, they'll just somehow attach the new band to the old face, but holy crap...I got it yesterday morning...a brand new version of the same watch for $40!!! This watch retails at $250! My old watch was weeeelllll out of warranty! It was a 4 year old watch!

Anyway, kudos to Nixon for their awesome customer support...who'd ever expect that to happen these days eh?

BTW off to Sydney/Hunter Valley for the girly long weekend...will report back with some awesome double denim photos... :)

Mmmm breakfast!

2009-05-31T20:10:00.006+10:00

Ohmigod!

Finally found a good breakfast in out extended neighbourhood!!!

We first ventured to the Social Roasting Company yesterday after Khan read about these local guys employing people from migrant or refugee backgrounds, long term unemployed people or those with personal problems such as drug addiction or mental disorders to deliver their coffee...Had a coffee and an awesome 'Lemon Delite' which left me salivating after each mouthful...mmhmmmm...Beautiful flavours and social justice served with a smile...noice!

So it was decided a 2nd visit was in order for breakfast this morning...good move...I had the home made beans which were slightly mexican in flavour with a rich tomatoey sauce that was divine topped with a dollop of sour cream and spring onions...Khan had the baked eggs with feta, caramelised onions, hash brown and olives...very good also...way too big portion sizes but it's worse to get not enough...

Stupidly, I was too involved in reading the Snow '09 lift-out from the Sunday paper to take photos...next time I promise cos we are definitely going back there...

Their logo rocks too...

You'll find them on Racecourse Rd next to the antique shop that is only open when the elderly lady who owns the place has a good crime novel to read and can be bothered entertaining people who venture in to find some interesting and unique objects...should have bought that old wooden fold out ruler dammit!

No news is not so good news...

2009-05-29T08:58:00.004+10:00

I've been busy...still am and should probably not be writing this post as I have work to do...seems the old adage of when it rains, it pours is ringing very true at the moment...

I did have time to go op shopping last weekend in Sunshine, the main focus of the adventure to get denim for a double denim party in the Hunter Valley I will be going to over the Queens b'day weekend. It's part of an annual Girls Long Weekend (GLWE) where my old high school friends get together and drink lots of wine and eat lots of cheese. This will be my first as I have been overseas when the others have been held.

Anyway, successful in the denim department but also got this:

I'm dying to make it into brooches but am struggling with the 'how to' of it all.
They have holes in the sides and I was thinking I wanted to make it reversible so you could wear either the picture or the letter, depending on how you felt that day...
I'm thinking something that clips into the existing holes to secure it somehow but I haven't had any flashes of inspiration...

If anybody (out of the 2 of you) who reads this blog can think of a way, lemme know eh?

The fruits of purservering...

2009-05-19T14:32:00.009+10:00

Oh the witty puns...gotta love 'em....

So, yes the finished purse that I am mildly proud of...

front - next to my matching mattt bag

inside - oh what a wonderful lining...no puckering!

the back

Fabric is Lara Cameron's Birch in charcoal on black for the purse and in chocolate on chocolate for the mattt bag...

All I can say is woot!

Type nerd = YES!

2009-05-17T19:11:00.007+10:00

Way too slow with this blogging...Both Karin and Khan (check his blog for videos of the Primitive Calculators who played a set for the benefit) got in first, but as the instigator of this weekends little jaunt I need to put my 2 cents worth in as well...

I LOVE TYPE!

I love letters, I love the shapes they make, I love the shapes words make, serifs and sans- serifs, the variations in font families and how the application of a particular font can change the tone of a design completely...and yes, I am one of ttthhhose who HAS to comment on the use/misuse of a particular font on the side of a building or on a sign or poster and have been known to walk around streets naming/guessing fonts as I see them. N - E - R - D!

So when I heard about the Melbourne Museum of Printing having an open day as they were struggling to stay open, I was like huh? I've never heard of this place but it makes me ultra excited...

And oh boy was I like a kid in a candy shop...so many beautiful old things to see... great big old typewriters, printing machines of various eras and racks and racks of letters all sorted into their font type...Many familiar names Rockwell, Gill Sans, Univers, Times, Bodoni plus all in different weights (bold, condensed etc).

So enough of the boringness...it was totally packed and I intend on going back there to have a class or maybe even volunteer my time as all the big old machinery intrigues me so much and I'd love to help out with retaining such an important part of the history of print...here's the photos...sorry shitty photos again as I only had the iPhone...

self-indulgent typesque moment

a plate for one of the prints being sold

my favourite out of the prints available for sale, unfortunately out of my price range at the moment...

Some happy snaps...

2009-05-14T23:32:00.004+10:00

Getting arty farty with the Camerabag app for the iphone whilst waiting to begin the Melburn Roobaix...most fun had on 2 wheels...EVER!
Out with the old, in with the new...

Interesting how they kept the colour exactly the same (not that you can tell so much from my crappy iphone pic) over so many years...the design is so similar too...the newer model being plasticised to reduce production costs.

I pass these bugs nearly everyday on my way to and from work, both always parked in the same place and the funny thing is I've only ever seen somebody driving the old one...
Ain't he sweet? I don't think there's anything you couldn't do with a penguin....they're just so darn cute and maleable...

I have to remind myself all the time to look around for street art..there's some clever kids out there...

Scarves, capes, migraines and good breakfasts

2009-05-10T21:25:00.005+10:00

Not much on the blogging front as I have been stricken with the ugliness of the dreaded migraine...possibly stemming from an over-extension of my neck last week in pilates, but I think I've managed to get rid of it with packets of codeine, ibuprofen and paracetamol along with coffee, rest from the screen and some heavy crafting.

Oh yes have I been busy...

sorry about the crap photos but I kept forgetting to take photos until after dark...and yes, i know my carpet needs vaccuming...

First up scarf no. 1

Close up of fabrics > (colours = bad due to terrible lighting...sorry!)

made from some black cotton drill and some japanese fat quarters I got from the Stitches and Craft show a while back and lined with a nice knitted fabric in brown I found at Clegs.

Then after deciding I needed one to match my outfit last night I whipped up this one in under 2 hours...it's not as wide as no. 1 and is possibly a little poorly sewn but it does the job!

Close up of fabrics >

This one was made with the same black cotton drill, lined with a black version of the knitted fabric and some more variations of the japanese fat quarters.

Was actually quite easy to get a fairly professional looking outcome...an iron really helps with that too...

and tonight, I started the purse...the massive amount of instructions with ACCURACY in all caps and underlined and the 'intermediate' rating kinda freaked me out...but y'know...nothing ventured, nothing gained...so unlike my usual approach, I turned the sewing machine to low speed and managed to get it done without too much drama! I don't have the proper glue so I'm holding myself back from whipping out the super glue...so unlike me again! and am planning on going to buy some proper glue and do it properly...woot!

So I can't find a button/clasp/do-upperer for my cape, so it's just sitting there waiting to be finished...booo...

Good breakfast tip? I am an avid breakfaster...I am actually thinking about starting another blog to document good (vegie) breakfasts in and around melbourne...So added to the list this week is Palominos on High St in Northcote. Moving past the free King and Queen font used on their front window, the coffee was good and strong and the spinach and pecorino baked eggs with fennel seeds and pumpkin bread was really good...I was scraping the bowl for more...Also, props go to the newly opened Pearl Oyster cafe on Miller St Thornbury, awesome decor (exactly how I would love to decorate my house) excellent coffee (Coffee Supreme) and sublime breakfast...shame about the service, our order was forgotten twice and after a one hour bike ride to get there we were famished...but sooo worth it when we finally got it and we'll definitely be going back there...

Another thing done today was not very crafty at all, but this blog ain't all about craft...maybe more about happy stuff, and happy stuff = snowboarding...yes, we spent almost an hour in Trigger Bros with Khan trying on boots...he ended up buying himself a pair which makes me very excited as we're going to NZ in August to snowboard...soooo much funnn...can't wait...we may've also bought a DVD at my suggestion which is soooo dorky and I'm holding out on watching it cos I know I'll wanna jump out on the snow asap after watching it...

Oh and I got some awesome new shirts this week from sneak design who are having a sale on some of their older designs on their site...Go buy one or 5! Support local designers!

If only I could read german...

2009-05-05T09:31:00.002+10:00

then I would read this blog...

Do something pretty

But the pictures are certainly enough eye candy...

old school design rocks

2009-05-04T13:54:00.010+10:00

So I was looking through ffffound! (invite only, inspirational image upload site) the other day and came across these rad old covers from Fortune magazine...back in the day when things were drawn by hand and being a designer meant a lot more than just knowing how to use a piece of software...
Awesome stuff...

A rolling stone gathers no moss

2009-04-28T11:20:00.014+10:00

but I do...

The crafty weekend also yielded advances in my moss terrarium project.

I was originally going to gather some moss, blend it up with some beer and lather it onto some soil as I have seen suggested in a few places around the web. But as I am horrendously impatient, I ended up going for the transplant method...

The street I walk to to get to the Kensington shops is chock full of radside moss, so, bbq tool and lunchbox in hand I set about removing some moss to be placed into my little glass jars found in Arthur Daley's on Swanston St, $2 shops and Savers of Footscray.

So here are the results:

Notes to take from the first lot:

don't overdo it on rocks...otherwise you can't see the moss or the decorative bits...and it's almost impossible to pull it out and re-do it...
use smaller pieces of moss and squish them in...it's way to hard to get big bits out cleanly once they're in...
non-shaped glass is probably better as you get a clear view
create mushroom bases first and only after you've finished make the tops...the fimo gets coated on yr fingers and white bits turn to pinky red bits...messy!

Thanks to Blithe Gardens for the idea.

What a caper!

2009-04-27T17:18:00.005+10:00

I downloaded a free cape pattern from fitzpatterns.com a while back and have been intending on making it for a while. After a few false starts, i.e the printer stopping working part the way through printing (faulty cartridges!), then the pages that were printed from the work printer didn't match up with the ones printed at home... I finally started on the weekend.

After a 3rd attempt at piecing the pattern together (I had made 2 previous attempts, both ended up screwed up and with me at the point of giving up) , I finally decided it'd just have to do...yes the lines weren't matching up completely but isn't it close enough? Sewing is not an exact science and a lot of the time, yes, she'll be right!

Well, Spotlight, you need to train your assistants how to cut a straight line...when I folded the fabric and placed my piattern pieces on the fabric as instructed on the pattern, I found that I was short due to poor cutting! So after a LOT of umming, ahhing and swearing, I decided the facing would just have to be done in another fabric...she'll be right!

Digging through my remnants and bits and pieces I found some large scale Birch in Fuschia by Miss Lara which may not be exactly right buttttt....so I promptly cut it up, accidentally cutting one of the facings the wrong way, wasting more of my precious fabric...bahhh!

The pattern said it would take 2 hours...hmmm...due to my lack of sewing skills, the not very thorough instructions and unpicking bits, I think I'm up to about 12 hours!

Last night I had a go at thinking about lining the inside which I eventually dismissed as I just could not work out how to do it! I ended up sewing the hem and trying to work out why i have flappy bits around the neck...which i just intend on hand sewing down so they don't flap...next step is a button and a good pressing and then it should be done! Will be lovely for sitting at my work desk. I have an air con vent above me that keeps me at a sub-zero temperature most of the day.

Macchiato brown Tonia cape with Birch fuschia facings
- Sorry about the crap photo, taken at 11:30 last night in my bathroom...not the best lighting situation

An introduction

2009-04-27T16:21:00.000+10:00

The name comes from my approach to craft in general...the good old aussie style approach of "she'll be right" and sometimes, yes she is right, but other times, very wrong...

I intend to use this space as a dumping ground of things I've seen that I like including craft and design ideas, my forays into craftiness, and projects I would like to try, links to sites I don't wanna lose (yes I know about bookmarks but I have too many bookmarks these days and I need a catalogue to get through them...) and also photos as I want to get into a bit more photography, especially the kind where you see something cool on the street so you document it.

I have many projects and ideas in my head and this past weekend have made some come to partial fruition.
The first being re-organising the bookshelf. How is this a crafty project you ask? Well it isn't really but I wanted to try something that I hadn't thought of before and saw on a blog somewhere (that I have now lost the link to, hence new blog) and that is sorting books by colour. Not by author name or title or anything like that but purely for an aesthetically pleasing display of books.
Now I don't have many books left as I sold them when I went overseas so it's a pretty piddly effort but on a grand scale I think it would look awesome...maybe I should pop down to the book store now...