Sewing, Printing, Sewing, Printing......................

So much to blog about, but no time. Have a market coming up this weekend (Saturday, 6th September), fingers crossed that people come and rain stays away. It is the inaugural Olive Tree Market held at The Junction Public School at The Junction. Hopefully this market will be a success otherwise it is no more markets for me in Newcastle. I'm getting a bit over throwing stall money away and not recouping anything in return. The Janome is burning rubber at the moment. Have had it revved up for the last few weeks now, I'll make sure I take some pics of my stand and see what you guys think of my setup. The pic I'm leaving you with today is of a letterbox that I rode past on my way to work one day and has been crafted by some crafty Kenny me thinks. The letterbox is an exact replica of the house behind it. Too funny...... Promise to pick up my act after the market on the weekend. Must post about the 'art of the note' swap. There are so many cool cards arriving in my letterbox... Thanks everyone.

Big Blog Post - Well for me Anyway.....

Today I sent off my contribution to the 'art of the note gocco swap' run over at clothpaperstring. Great idea and Sarah who ran it all has taken on a mammoth job. Over 50 contributors - wow! I was really happy with how my little note cards turned out, they measure about 10cm square and I handmade all the envelopes. Big job. What do you think? I searched high and low for this kraft card. Anyone know somewhere I can get some more? Preferably in Australia.

So this is my idea of a boy doll. Yeah I know, it's a boy in a skirt, but I love the wee little scotty boy and his lil' bagpipes. I thought I could name all these softies, ie Hamish MacDougall and his bag-blowin' mate Angus McTaggart. I cut these wee boys from lino and stamped onto some lovely fine weave cotton. On the back is a lovely brush cotton tartan. On the front, of course, is a lovely ginger scotty boy. The back looks like a chop- mmm tasty! I think they're cute. Thoughts anyone? Would you buy yer wee barn a chop-like, skirt wearing, ginger, bag pipe equipped, scotty boy softie?

Just to share - this is my current obsession. Wooden forks and spoons - sparked from a few blog posts back. Sourced from a local packaging place I am in love with these wooden lovelies. They also come in bamboo, but these ones are made from pine. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, probably just stay obsessed for a while and look, touch and rearrange them.

For the love of stripes

Here in Australia we wear a uniform to school from kindergarten to Year 12. All through school we whine and complain about the lack of individualism and try and customise these horrible sweaty sack-like check uniforms. My primary school uniform was a grey check teamed with yellow accents, it was ugly and then some. Being very short I rolled the waistband of my high school skirt about 4 times to get it to the inappropriate length and teamed it will a school blouse my mum crocheted the bottom of. My friend Ange made shorts out of the school uniform check with a very fancy dancy headband, very fashion forward. And yet now I find myself an adult pretty much wearing the same thing day in, day out - welcome back the uniform- only this time it's stripes. I have an array of stripe shirts and like the uniform they serve their purpose. I love not even thinking about what to wear - cause stripes it is. I can't stand winter, but it is my winter stripe uniform which is bringing me through the slump. To honour my stripe uniform here is a lovely lassie finding love in her stripes.

So much been going on lately, have finished two wholesale orders, whoohoo! Finished my printsy swap. Can't wait to see the prints everyone contributed with the theme, seasons. Will post when they arrive. Had a bit of a manic crafty moment when I thought I'd nearly completed a linocut for the printsy exchange when I realised I had done all the type (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) backwards. I was four letters away from completing, yep was a bit kicking myself in the pants for this one. Printed it and thought I could put a metaphoric twist on the backwards mishap. You know, well it may be winter here, but in the northern hemisphere it's summer and blah, blah, yeah didn't make any sense, looked crap and started again.

Oh well, onward crafty soldiers.................

RIP Singer Sewer 1993-2008

Here is a pic of my recent snow expedition, just for some of you readers who find it odd that it actually snows in Australia. The landscape is pretty wild compared to other ski fields. We have mainly rocks and eucalyptus trees. This pic was taken at Charlotte's Pass a ski field only accessible via oversnow truck. In this pic in the distance is our highest mountain, Mt Koscuiszko 2229metres.

So the sewer died and it is indeed a sad, sad day. I loved my Singer sewer. It was a full metal sewer with only minor bits of plastic, not like the complete horror plastic numbers on offer nowadays. I can't bear to throw it just yet so it is languishing under my bed until I decide it's fate. Could turn it into a sculpture of some sorts. Must put my crafty mind to recyling possibilities or is this going too far? I was watching some very bad craft show the other day, as you do when crafting, and some nutter even had a tattoo of her sewer on her arm. Now ladies I'm all for lovin' the sewer, but plu-lease this is just tramp stamp craftiness gone wrong. In the meantime I've welcomed a new edition to the family a Janome Sewist, sounds so posh, and is so quiet. The Singer used to rock the table and was a tad, well let's be honest, freight train noisy. Midnight sewing was definitely frowned upon when the Singer was involved.

In other news, my article in the wonderful mixtape is in this month's edition. So crafters if you want the lowdown on lino cut printing go get yourself a copy here.