this week's market

i'll be at the lovely mathilda's market this sunday in hawthorn, along with a whole bunch of my buddies who i probably won't even have time to chat to, it's that short and sharp of a market - lots of great stuff, lots of people, just a little time to cram it all in. dana will be there with her gorgeous, vintage inspired kid's clothes, cintia will be right cross from me with a whole range of beautiful goodies, allison is in the lobby (i think? don't quote me on that one. she will be there, anyway!) and i have to be SURE to sneak over to her stall since i haven't been able to make the trip out to her beautiful shop in daylesford yet. throw in some more great and original kid's clothes from cindy of bugandpop and emma of knuffle kid plus a ton of other stalls that i'm dying to check out and i'm almost wishing i wasn't selling at this one so i could go shopping there instead...

all good

custom well dressed oobee for a little girl born six weeks early. hope this one keeps her good company until she can go home...

a good start to my markets on saturday. it was quiet but i had good sales and lots of friends come by to pass the time, including birthday girl, bec, and the super lovely belinda, all the way from sydney! the colour blocks were a hit which made me very happy. i love those little blocks and they had such a good response here but you just never know how that is going to translate into sales. luckily they were well received : ) i came home to a blissfully empty house as shane and mae spent saturday night in bendigo visiting family. home alone for a whole. night. and. day. what a serious luxury. baxy and i had popcorn for dinner (okay, bax only had four pieces), chilled out and stuffed some toys in front of trash tv, had a good sleep and then were up early to get some more market stock made. when i set up my stall on saturday, i realised how little i really have prepared. and still four markets to go. one of them three days long.

eep.

so yes, sunday was spent busting my ass trying to get some more baby oobee sleepy sets and colour blocks made, finishing some oobees in progress and binding a cot quilt that has been waiting for weeks. i'm feeling slightly more confident now but i think there is going to be panic sewing between every market anyway. which is a good thing. all good.

yarraville market::this weekend

and let the market chaos begin! i will be at the yarraville market this saturday and it marks the first of five straight weekends of melbourne markets for me. bring it on... for those of you out of town, don't despair, i will be doing an update of my etsy shop on december 1st but please contact me if there is something specific you are hoping for, i have no idea how much stock i will have available by then (and still have two markets after that - yikes!).



some happy new fleurs ready for loving homes, they'll be joining me on saturday, with plenty of pals : )

alive. hot. busy. one year older.

woah, things have been a bit crazy lately - the herald sun article has brought huge numbers of inquiries and orders with it, which is a great thing, of course, but has left me struggling to keep up. add to that the basic day to day life with a 15 month old and trying to prep for five markets, throw in some bloody hot days and you have plenty of reasons why i have not been in front of my computer lately. also, i've been doing a lot of this:



marveling at my little girl, who is SO no longer a baby and seems so much like a little kid now. taking steps between things, finally, which is right on cue as she gets cranky with crawling and then wants to walk around holding my fingers which is only fun for so long (for me). i've been wanting to do a huge post about mae and all of her cuteness but time and energy haven't let it happen yet... soon.

and yesterday i turned 34 which suddenly seems so much older than 33 somehow. we drove down to barwon heads early in the morning, to get in some beach time before mae's nap. it was her first real trip to the beach, as in actually going in the water and she LOVED IT. loved the water, loved the waves, loved the sand, dry or wet. i foresee that much time will be spent at the beach this summer...

happy weekend

just back from a perfectly lovely weekend with wonderful friends at the beautiful sewing retreat, sewjourn in lancefield. a lot of sewing, a lot of eating marvelous food, a lot of great girl talk and a little shopping makes for a perfect weekend if you ask me. especially when you open up saturday's paper to find this waiting for you...



a double page spread on yours truly, written perfectly and beautifully photographed. this is the result of the photo shoot i mentioned back in september and i could not be happier with the finished article, it really is lovely and has already garnered quite a few emails from new customers. i can't thank the great team at the herald sun home magazine enough! and thank you to my husband who rushed out and bought five copies : )

busy days

a walk every morning::cruskits and cream cheese snacks::so much watermelon::backyard swinging::hammock lazing::bubble blowing::playgroup attending::pointing at airplanes::waving at cars::calling the dog::running errands::and sometimes, when she's asleep, sewing...




a soft pink cot quilt, started ages ago and finally finished. i'm so happy with this one. the pink base fabric is so, so soft and has small, soft cream stripes that don't show up in the photos. i only quilted the center, straight lines through the patchwork squares and i love how it turned out after washing, all extra crinkly and cosy, perfect for some sweet little girl somewhere.

well looky here!

lovely jen emailed me today and sent along a scan of something interesting she spotted in the american better homes & gardens this month...



see that sweet little oobee posed on the bed? so cute and made my whole day! thanks, jen : )

back in action

wow, it's really, really hard to jump back into this space after neglecting it, like trying to interrupt a conversation you've been eavesdropping on. or something. anyway, here i am, feeling like i might just have enough stock for seven days of markets (although i might just be delusional) and that i can devote a bit more time here again. how have i done it? cutting out stuff on the kitchen table while mae plays under foot for a few afternoons, sewing every nap time, shane taking over with mae from 4:30pm until dinner so i can get a few more hours in. i'm a little low on baby oobees and could use a couple more fleurs perhaps but i figure i've still got three weeks before my first market and then there are the days in between each market too.





here's another freeform pram/bassinet quilt i finished a couple of weeks ago in pinks and reds. i can't wait to see my pram quilts all piled on top of each other at the markets, like a little rainbow : ) back tomorrow with more. or the next day - but no later, promise!

it's business time

i realised i'd better write something here when even my mom had to call and see if i was alive after checking my non-updated blog. it's a busy, busy time for me and i haven't been online too much - i feel like any luxurious moments spent surfing around should really put towards sewing right now. i'm feeling fairly on top of my market stuff, thanks to my husband putting in some extra baby wrangling time, but i need to do a little stocktake and see where i'm actually at. i possibly may have bitten off more than i can chew but i am determined to buy us a shmancy, comfy king sized bed for christmas and would like a tidy sum leftover for some onegirl projects i have up my sleeve for next year. it's all about goals, people...

and so i don't have to feel guilty, let's make this a business post:



i've wanted to design a simple christmas stocking for years now and all these markets have spurred me on. classic, natural linen with a festive patchwork border and personalised applique, these are a good size for stuffing with little goodies and to be used for years to come. i've popped a listing in my etsy shop for preorders - you order one with your initial of choice and i will make it up and send it out to you no later than december 1st so that it arrives in plenty of time for christmas eve. i don't know how many preorders i'm going to take yet, it will depend how many i get from the markets so if you're keen, head over there and place your order now!



ps. sorry the photos aren't great, it's been a rainy, grey week in old melbourne town.

oh right, good stuff...

i was doing some sort of daily good stuff thingy this week wasn't i? let's just add that to the very long list of things i have said i will do/photograph/write here and then have never mentioned again. my internet is painfully slow this week and i am tired, tired, tired from working late into the evening on ye olde sewing machine and then dealing she-who-likes-to-wake-frequently so that i never seem to get more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. of course there are still a billion things in my life could list in my good stuff series but i found i'm too lazy to take pictures this week and i like to have a good image to go with words.

here's one from last week:

good stuff.