Deliciously Dark

Classic black pendant from jaimelisa

Vintage atomic starburst clock from groovygirl60

Crimson faux boot legwarmers from LeshasWorkshop

'Lips 5' 8x10 print from HeatherBuchanan

Recycled kraft notecard set - Bunny Love from thecraftpantry

Hand embroidered fingerprint plaque from Samskiart

Vintage typewriter key pendant from PreciousPastimes

Dead tweety returns in bronze from Moon Raven Designs

Owl swirl design cards from ALineOfHerOwn

Hooray for Hoopla

Thanks to the lovely Kendra from laylaloustudio for featuring my little bird dream hoop in her loopy hoopy treasury!

Looking for love in all the wrong places

Elroy is still looking for a home...

Will you be his new mummy? Or daddy? Or grandpapa?

Elroy's spot in the limelight will soon be dimmed when more fang bunnies arrive to crowd his personal space and generally make him feel old and uncool.

However, this might not happen for a few weeks yet - I am taking a little hiatus from sewing (amongst other things) due to some extreme mouth discomfort due to new braces. (At 28. Oh yeah, it's such a good look.)

But - onwards and upwards! Must focus on the positives. I have wanted purty teeth for about fifteen years and now, finally, it's happening. I am getting my Extreme Makeover. I got a haircut today. I'm getting my eyeballs Lazik'd soon. Then Carson will come along and whisk me away to a magical pixie land and tell me What Not To Wear and make me 10 Years Younger and then there will be the reveal and all my friends and family will go Oooooohhhh wow.

(Go away reality, I like my magical pixie land.)

Gotta go now. Need more Nurofen.

WIN with pork chop and madeit!

I am quite chuffed to be one of the sellers offering a giveaway in today's madeit e-newsletter - if you're already a subscriber then all you have to do is forward your e-news to a friend to go in the running to win my rainbow reef ribbon blanket!

If you're not a subscriber yet, sign up here for a weekly dose of crafty goodness.

Sharing is caring

The uber-crafty Pip from Meet me at Mike's has a lovely project happening at the moment - the Envelope Project basically gathers together a whole lot of pretty little packages from crafty types all over the country (and internationally) which will be used as the Meet me at Mike's window display for six weeks.

Then, one of the envelopes will be picked at random and the person who sent it gets ALL the stuff.

So what does this 'stuff' consist of? All sorts of things! Fabric, paper, ribbon, buttons, cards, tiny zines, tags, photos, drawings, whatever...

This is my contribution (but what's inside is a secret!). 

To join in, visit the Meet me at Mike's blog or click the link on the sidebar at the right.

Spread the crafty love!

Inspiration: Mark Ryden

Mark Ryden lives and works in Los Angeles, painting slowly and happily amidst his countless collections of trinkets, statues, skeletons, books, paintings and antique toys.

I love the Dali-esque, surrealist air to his paintings.

A bit cutesy, a bit goth, a bit horror... the one below is very Miro I think:

And anything with even a hint of photorealism has got my vote.

How cute / creepy is this stump baby?

All images from Mark's website.

The best thing since...

...sliced bread?

As part of my ongoing war with clutter I've relabelled the 6 zillion USB cables we have stuffed in a little box in the office.

The huge sticky labels on most of them had long since been ripped off by 'Mr GentleAndCareful' so I sorted them out and relabelled them with - bread ties!

They will not fall off easily and won't leave gross sticky glue patches if they do; and they are small, eco-friendly and practical.

Yay for upcycling!

Yo, quilters... RESPECT!

If you can quilt - I bow down and kiss the carpet under your perfect little toes. You ROCK.

I'm about halfway through my very first quilt and it's driving me BANANAS.

Ok, so I may have gone about it in a bit of a slap happy way - my research on How To Make A Quilt consisted of 10 minutes reading one random online quilting article about strip piecing - but it's looking ok so far. A wee bit wonky but this is disguised somewhat by the darkish colour palette. And I must say, I'm happy with the fabrics. I've got a bit of Aleaxander Henry's Zen Charmer in there, some navy blue Asian prints and a rad batik border that kind of looks like seawater. The backing is white minky fleece which is super soft and hugable.

However, it's not how it looks that is bugging me. It's the technical bits. Let me just say, oh my goodness, I will NOT be making another quilt. And this is a simple design, just a 8 x 10 grid of 4 inch squares with a plain 4 inch border.

I have christened it my Half-Arsed Quilt. Intended for Holly and roughly cot sized, I have cut more corners than one would think possible: blocks nearly a centimetre out of alignment? Whatever. Sheet of polyester batting not quite big enough? Oh well. Minky backing tacked on with so many jumps and wrinkles in my stitching it looks pleated? Meh. 

The measuring. The preciseness. The cutting (of fingers - with a rotary cutter - not so good). The pressing. The not-being-able-to-finish-it-in-an-hour. Let's just say, it's not my bag baby.

I'm putting the layers together at the moment. I have, however, neglected to find out how to actually do this the proper way (well - the proper way that doesn't involve complicated time consuming basting and such), so my solution was to lay the top, batting and backing together as the finished product would look, use every pin in my pincushion to attach the slippery minky fleece to the other bits, and run a rough half inch raw seam around the edge. Tomorrow I will grab some navy satin blanket binding from Lincraft and stitch it over the top of my ugly edges. Voila!

Hang on... how do I actually quilt the thing? When do you do that bit? I guess I am doing it last.

What a dog's breakfast.

I will post a better photo when I have finished the sucker... but maybe, at low resolution and in crappy lighting it could almost pass for a 'real' quilt?

Inspiration: Benja Harney

I thought I had a bit of a love affair with paper, but Sydney based 'paper engineer' Benja Harney takes it to a whole new level.

Check out these photos... these artworks are all made from paper. PAPER, people.

Oh. My. God. The patience that must be required for such work is staggering, especially for someone like me who refuses to make anything that takes longer than an hour to finish.

The cutting! The folding! The not being able to eat chocolate while you're working for fear of your grubby mitts dirtying your paper!

It's neat, crisp, gloriously impermanent perfection.

 

Visit his site for more amazing images. Images above taken from Benja's website, flickr and Behance page.

I WON! I WON! (Cue tumultuous applause)

I've never won anything other than two bucks on a scratchie, but the lovely folk at KID Independent saw fit to rectify that after I blogged about their Mothers Day giveaway.

I managed to score the sweet bonus prize which includes an original and beautifully finished handbag from Fybre; a pretty necklace and clip set from Pink Apple which just happens to be in my new fave colour combo of pink, red and aqua; and a nifty top-and-bottom opening purse from Bink & Boo.

My parcel has just arrived today and I love it! (Excuse the crappy picture taken on my ancient phone.)

Thanks KID Independent & talented crafty peeps! Now, I just need somewhere fancy to go so I can wear / use my lovely new treats... (hint hint, husband).

Wanderlust envy

My mum is quite the globetrotter.

I believe it's her plan to visit every country on earth before she kicks the bucket. In the past eight years, she has been to Thailand, Singapore (3 times), Hong Kong (twice), China (twice), Canada, Scotland (twice), England (a few times), France, Germany, Ireland (twice), Japan, Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Belarus, Poland, New Zealand, the USA, and numerous Aussie towns. Plus I'm sure I've forgotten some in there.

She has just this morning completed a Yangtze river cruise and is about to board a plan to Tibet.

And I am JEALOUS.

Not having ever been overseas myself, nor inherited the famous Clifford Holiday Gene, her trips abroad with Jimmy have always been a quirky little aside: 'Oh yes, mum's off overseas again'... I'd wistfully pretend it was me in her place for a few moments then get back to the washing up or whatever other mind-numbing menial task that normal, proper, non-travelling types like myself get up to.

However, this time it's a bit different. Mum and Jimmy are off to Lhasa, somewhere I have wanted to visit for the last ten years. I don't know why this place holds such an attraction for me: it's most likely poor, grey, crumbling, fly-blown and hard to navigate. But there's an ancientness to it; a mysticism, an honesty, a contrast, that really sets my senses flying just thinking about it.

Ganandro's shop on etsy sums up the beautiful vibe of the place with some stunning portraiture and joyous action shots from her travels in this breathtakingly beautiful country.

*Sigh*. I wish I wasn't saving for a house. But one day I will get there! Even if I am 78 and too old and decrepit to climb the steps of the Potala.

Inspiration: Samuel Flores

Sam Flores is a wicked artist based in San Fran but originally from New Mexico.

With roots stemming from skateboarding and graffiti culture, he paints big-handed figures, sometimes masked but always serene, the objects around their heads suggesting thoughts or dreams.

Accompanied by amped-up traditional Japanese street scenes, birds, butterflies and flowers, Sam's girls (they are usually female) are stunningly beautiful with classic graffitiesque proportions of exaggerated hands and feet, their heads almost always bowed as if in prayer.

His self-titled hardcover book, out under the Upper Playground / Fifty24SF banner has been gracing my coffee table for weeks and I can't bring myself to put it back on the bookshelf. Every time I flip through it I'm inspired by his style.

Sweet dreams are made of this...

I'm welcoming in a new addition to my shop - these little dream hoops.

Kind of a cross between a mobile, a dreamcatcher, and a wreath, they are so sweet, made with thrifted fabric, buttons, ribbon roses, flowers, butterflies and all sorts of other little surprises.

Hang one above your baby's cot, on your front door, on the wall, in a window, as a party decoration, give one as a housewarming gift or just use this little dream hoop wherever you need a bit of sunshine. 

This one is available from madeit or etsy.

Some more to come shortly; all quite different with their own individual personalities!