Pork Chop in frankie magazine!

Look who's in issue 37 of frankie! I'm quite proud of my little self because:

a) It's my favourite mag
b) It's the first time Pork Chop has featured in print
c) editor Jo has written a lovely little blurb about my bunting (reproduced below), and;
d) I can wave it in maniacally front of my husband and say "See?! Craft is not so lame after all!"

It reads:

HELLO DOILY

We learnt a new word the other day: tchotchke. It's Yiddish and it means 'cherished knick knack', and we couldn't think of a better description for the little dangly piece of bunting fun you see right here. This particular tchotchke is made by Sydney crafter Pork Chop out of vintage doilies (some from her nanna) and bias tape, so it comes pre-cherished and ready to cherish some more. A bit sweet, isn't it? $38, www.madeit.com.au/porkchop

PS - Note the pink and white candy striped one featured has sold already but I'll be listing a couple more soon; or contact me for a custom one.

"Now when we go out for lunch today, I want you to be good in the restaurant..."

...as if that ever happens for more than 5 minutes. However, with this nifty little roll-up car case I made for Tyler, he is happy to play quietly for at least 8 minutes.

I used a modified version of the long thread's kids drawing case pattern, available on Ellen's blog. I don't think I modified it enough to pass it off as my own(!), so I won't be making any for sale.

What I can do though is tell you how I made this one. Instead of making the case 13 x 10 in, I cut it to be around 20 x 12 in. The chequerboard pocket piece was half the height when folded, ie: about 6 inches.

Each car slot is about 3 inches wide and the case fits 6 matchbox cars in total. I made sure to position the velcro tab 3/4 of the way down the side of the case, so that I could fold the road part over the 'garages', then roll and velcro it, otherwise the cars would fall out.

For the road, I used two strips of 2 inch wide black cotton twill tape sewn as 'lanes' alongside eachother, although if I had an old seatbelt at hand I probably would have used that instead. I considered getting fancy with different shades of green ricrac 'grass' placed at the edges of the road but settled for a yellow line down the middle. In hindsight I probably would have used one length of black 'road' and made the other side look like train tracks somehow, seeing as how I realised Ty's die-cast Thomas trains can fit in the case too.

Give that gal a medal

Big thanks to Kelsie from In Favor of Fuzz for featuring my brooch on her blog. She certainly sounds like a girl after my own heart with a obsession passion for textiles in all their beautiful forms.

Inspiration: Lisel Ashlock

Based in Brooklyn NY, Lisel Ashlock's acrylic works have a beautiful, stately air.

Her haugty dames and upright gentlemen share studio space with landscapes and natural history themes.

Her drawings span a range of styles from line drawn figures to grungy, charcoal-scratch sketches to almost neon abstraction which brings to mind Reg Mombassa.

More inspiration here. Oh, and she has an etsy shop.

De-cluttering

After a major emotional meltdown today I've decided I need to stop overstretching myself to the point where I am crying at the kitchen sink due to the sheer load of crap I have to get done.

I have started by:

• Culling my RSS feeds from 35 down to 15 - leaving just the ones I read religiously (etsy's daily finds, pikaland, the long thread), and the ones that give me a laugh (regretsy, clients from hell). It was getting to the point where I'd sit down for a moment to 'check my mail' and still be checking it an hour later.  
  
  
• Deciding to blog once a week, rather than just randomly trying to write something of interest every second day. Hopefully(!) this will mean better quality posts for you and less waffle for me. Although I do enjoy a good waffle.
  
  
• Deleting my facebook pork chop account, which I never really updated or used much.
  
  
• Costing out each product that I make down to the small details - if it's not making sense financially, then it's got to go. Perhaps this is a no-brainer and something I should probably have done when I first started this whole gig, but hey. You live, you learn.
  
  
• Homeshopping - for groceries via Woolies online. Dragging one kid around for an hour trying to dodge repeated requests for freddo frogs was never fun, now with two kids it's even more challenging. I even tried giving Tyler his own shopping list with pictures of a banana, a milk carton, a toilet roll etc. Despite my forced enthusiasm for this, the novelty of his own special list has worn off. I'll just suck up the $9 delivery fee and order from my desk, thanks.
  
  
• Cooking up a storm - thankfully, I was in the cooking mood earlier in the week and after dinner one night made a stack of stuff to freeze: a tuna and rice bake, some salmon and corn patties, and some lovely healthy muffins that I kind of threw together without a recipe - all cereal and yoghurt and pears and such. I am going to try and do this once a week or even once a fortnight just so I don't have to stress about dinner every single night.
  
  
• Making lists - starting with what both children need to take to daycare. Until I get used to what goes in the Thomas bag and what goes in the Pooh Bear bag, this list puts my mind at ease during the morning rush. I've always been a big list fan anyway but now they are stuck on the kitchen wall, in my office, on the fridge, and you can usually find a shopping list written on my hand.
  
  
• Using my diary religiously. Scheduling EVERYTHING. This includes marking out me-time every now and then. Whether it actually happens as planned is another matter!
  
  
• Having a bed time. No more late, late nights thinking 'I'll just finish this then I'll go to bed'...

I'm sure I'll be making more changes too. I'm so over spreading myself so thin that I'm doing ten different things and feeling like I'm not doing any of them justice, including the most important job of all. More energy to play with pork chop and muffin top all day is the ultimate goal of this whole thang.

Feel free to post suggestions! Anything that will help me get 'all my poo in one sock', as it were. 



Image credit - thanks to the closet entrepeneur

Product testing 101

Yo mums (and dads). You know feeding babies can be messy. And you know the worst possible mess EVER is created by that most deceptive fruit, the seemingly innocent banana.

Not until after that first time you feed your bub solids, after that little smear of creamy pastel yellow sinks in to your little one's freshly laundered white bib and turns like an evil death cloud into horrid manky brown ugliness that cannot be removed for love nor money, do you realise the curse of the banana.

WHY I ask you are all bibs white? Or light pink? Or yellow? Or other stupid colours that show a stain for every little spat-out morsel of your lovingly prepared gruel?

Go into any Kmart or Target store and your choice is  pretty much white or white. So, I am offering an alternative to this nonsense... BLACK bibs. The most sensible colour. Apart from looking quite chic, the black bib shown above has been road tested by Holly using half a banana. She smooshed it in an ever so ladylike fashion all down her front and into her hair. This pic was taken after it came out of the wash... SUCCESS!

Watch this space. I'll be making a stack with pretty bias edges soon!

Thanks stranger...

The lovely Miranda from Howdy Stranger has kindly included my 'Switzerlove' shabby fabric brooch in her sweet madeit finds post... thank you!

The Howdy Stranger studio is based in Newcastle and I see Miranda has listed some handmade markets in her local area on her website... perhaps a good excuse to go and stay with my dad & stepmum for the weekend one time in the near future?

Dad experienced his sea change a few years back and left Sydney for a ramshackle old miners hut on The Hill, with vines growing through the walls and mould in the rafters. Sounds crappy, but he's a builder, and a visionary one at that. Dad bought the worst house in the best street, and with a view of Nobby's beach and millionaire neighbours, he pretty much single handedly transformed a dump into an amazing three level pad, mixing the heritage listed ground floor elements like sandstone walls and original floorboards with ultra modern slick entertaining areas. Salvaging the majority of convict bricks from the original home, he paved the back courtyard to form a lush little outdoor area, and replaced the entire back wall of the house with glass louvres on all three levels, which is heaven when the afternoon sea breezes come through.

It's a pretty awesome place and dad, being the thoughtful bloke that he is, created the whole bottom floor to be self-contained for guests, and we are yet to take him up on his regular offers of 'come up and stay'.

Craft markets you say? That's all the impetus I need to get off my backside and organise a weekend to crash at their place! Plus I really need to spend an entire day pounding the pavement on Darby Street, finishing with a coffee at Goldbergs.

Fabric of the month: Bunny Bender

Just because I have a thing for bunnies in incongruous situations... I'm loving this fabric by milktooth available via Spoonflower. She's also got an etsy shop.

Because even bunnies get hammered sometimes.

Hide and Seek and ye shall find

Ususally I would have to moan and bargain and cajole and blackmail and pout to get my husband to agree to go to 'a craft thing' with me, however this weekend I have an excuse: it's my birthday, dammit, and we are going to the inaugural Hide & Seek market.

Organised by the lovely Aloma, this market promises to fill a gap in Sydney's handmade market scene, catering to the West and surrounding areas which have previously been bereft of pretty handmade baby stuff.

I am looking forward to it both as a customer and a potential future stallholder... hopefully pork chop will be on the attendance list for a later date this year... watch this space!

Blog love

Check out Jem's lovely blog at Mummy Jembelina... she is a fellow madeit seller who makes the cutest knitted pants for bubs, and she has just featured my doily garland in a madeit finds post.

Thanks Jem! xo

More doily garlands on the to do list soon! I have just picked up some beautiful blue and cream striped bias tape, some in a light coffee colour, and some sunny yellow too, so more pretty garlands are on the way!

Enjoy your week peeps... I am enjoying the last few days of being 28, and the last few days of being a full time stay at home mum. As of next Tuesday I will be gainfully employed as a part time graphic designer. I think this is a good thing, but I really don't know. There's lots of conflicting emotions going on in my brain right now...

It doesn't rain, it pours...

In the last seven days, I have:

- Got a job (yeah a real job, with a payslip and colleagues and everything)
- Been offered a small feature in frankie magazine 
- Been to a Play School concert
- Made beautiful potato-stamped wrapping paper with my little pork chop
- Inherited a stack of fabulous retro sewing patterns from my Aunt
- Been given Jack Johnson tickets for my birthday (thanks Richie)
- Had a wonderful hubby give the kitchen windows a fresh coat of paint which looks awesome. Yes, that would be him in the photo, letting the two year old climb 12 feet up a ladder to 'help'.

On the flipside, I have had a little girl with bronchiolitis (some sort of horrid phlegmy precursor to pneumonia), had 29 hours sleep (in 7 days - I worked it out - that can't be healthy), had to resign from the job I was on maternity leave from *insert guilt here*, had to steel myself for sending my little boy back to daycare *insert MAJOR guilt here*, and made the decision to stop breastfeeding *insert remaining guilt here*.

However, I have still managed to get a bit of sewing done. I've made a fang bunny for a friend, and there's also a new guy in store... Barf is green and gold and full of cuddly sparkly goodness. There's a sweet little girly tag blankie in pastel paisley, and another one to come in white, pink and purple. I've made two bibs for Holly, from fabrics that will hopefully hide manky brown banana stains, and if they stand up to rigorous testing by my messy little girl then I'll be making some for the shop. In BLACK. The most practical colour for bibs.

Phew. That's a lot of stuff going on really isn't it? I need a hammock, a coffee and a good book, a sunshiny winter day, peace and quiet, and a crochet granny blanket to keep my tootsies warm....

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!

Mmmmm.... tastes like chicken

Holly has been helping me sew today, as well as channelling Ozzy Osbourne and gnawing on the head of her wee bird.

There will be a few more dribble bibs in store soon - I have been working away like a little chipmunk on a custom order for a lovely customer, Amy, who wants to buy twelve of the suckers. So, I am running up a job lot and will be listing more next week.

Also soon to be listed: some new shabby fabric wreaths I have been working on, something gorgeous from Michael Miller's Gnome Love fabric (a dress perhaps?), more bunting and more fang bunnies.

But now... to bed. I can't seem to shake this flu!

Preloved Markets for Little Ones next weekend

Just a heads up - the Preloved Markets will be held at Dural Recreation Centre next Sunday 6th June from 10am till 1pm.

These markets cater for children between newborn - 10 years old with clothes, furniture, toys, books, prams and more in preloved condition all under one roof.

My good friend Heidi will be selling a load of her daughter Georgia's baby stuff (and with any luck she'll be selling our old pram too!).

Inspiration: Tara McPherson

Oh how I love this gal's work. I first read about Tara in Frankie Magazine in 2009 and was instantly a huge fan.

She is an incredibly talented illustrator based in NYC who works with a range of mediums to create quiet, spooky, feminine artworks in a limited palette that are at once flat and three dimensional. I especially love the tones of pink, red and turquoise that feature in a lot of her work.

You can check out some more of her other-worldly work here.

We eat ham and jam and spam a lot

Forgive the Monty Python reference, but I've had the Camelot song in my head for the last two days after taking the kids to 'My Lords & Ladies Medieval Fayre' at Nurragingy Reserve on Sunday.

Richard was reading out the newspaper article to me the day before and to be honest I wasn't overly keen, but when he said 'Ooo Noni, they have craft markets', I was a lot more open to the idea! 'Twas a good day out overall - and there's nothing like a bit of old fashioned hand-to-hand combat to get the blood pumping and refresh the senses. Ty enjoyed the horsies, Rich the jousting, I was just happy having a coffee and a nice walk.

The 'craft markets' were perhaps a bit too ambitiously named as such, although there was a lady using Australian farmed deer leather to make some beautiful shoes which were so strong and soft. And the three friendly maidens demonstrating tablet weaving were very talented!

I came away with a pair of silver bagpipe earrings for my mum (a bit of an in joke), and a pretty mint green knitted baby jumper for Holly which is sooo soft and only set me back ten bucks. Bargain!

So bravo for nanna knits - who needs to pay $30, $40, $50 or more on madeit or Etsy when you can just swing past your local Rotary stall or Lantern Club street market and pick up a genuine handmade piece of fuzzy love for peanuts. And why not pick up a few crocheted coathangers whilst you're there?