why do i do this to myself?

image from tablecalender

See that measuring tape trim in this photograph? I have become obsessed with trying to find some. A customer came into my shop today, and she had this cute black top on. Around the bottom of it several slits had been cut, and this trim had been woven through them, and tied up at the front. I almost offered to buy the top off her back I loved it so much, but that may have warranted a formal complaint. So, I have been searching online for the trim, but so far have only found this photograph. *sigh* I think my good luck with the french clouds has made me giddy with hope and high expectations. Red measuring tape trim, where are you?

**UPDATE**

Thanks to the generous nature of the blogging community, I have located some tape measure trim! The lovely Fiona from tablecalender has found the exact trim in the photograph at myetsyshop. Why I didn't think to look on Etsy last night remains a mystery (actually, I remember now, they were down for maintenance). I've also managed to find the trim in other colours! There is going to be lots of tape measure love in my house tonight (and a big dent made in my Paypal balance). Thanks also to Shannon from Aunty Cookie, who offered to post me some trim she had at home. You guys are fabulous!

sunday stash: a love story

I know we've all seen this fabric many times before on various journals, clutches and pencil cases, but I have a love story to share and it involves this print, so please bear with me : )

My love affair with the french clouds began early last year when I was just learning to sew. I bought a metre of it from duckcloth and began stitching away on some sample journal covers (I should have started with calico perhaps but I am impatient). I quickly used up the metre I had and decided to buy more. But there was a problem - duckcloth did not have any left! After searching high and low for more and not having any luck, the lovely Leslie from good-ness offered to try and find some for me on her next fabric shopping outing in Japan. I was in luck, so ordered a few more metres, knowing this may be the last time I would have the opportunity to buy some.

This is where the story gets good : ) While searching online for the black bird fabric in my previous sunday stash post, I discovered jack and gill - an online store selling mostly handmade items for children. They have a small fabric section in their shop - and when I clicked to have a look I discovered most of the fabrics I use - including the french clouds - at heavily discounted prices. Plus they are in Australia! I was so excited I bought all of their remaining red french clouds, plus a few metres of the same print in black. I would definitely check them out if you have a love of japanese fabrics, they have some echino on sale as well.

I do enjoy a good love story, particularly one with a happy ending! 

more etsy love

A few seconds after finishing that last blog post, I clicked over to etsy and was quite surprised to see my hopping bunnies clutch on the front page! Woo hoo!

black and white

I was excited today to find my letterhead journal featured in this gorgeous etsy treasury by aaron overstreet art. It inspired me to bring out the rest of the fabric (which is a delicious hand screen printed cotton/linen by aunty cookie) to sew up some matching pencil cases. I would have shown you a picture of those, but production came to a halt when I ran out of black sewing thread. A quick trip to Spotlight and I was stitching again. I was almost done and only had the hole in the lining to sew up, when I realised I didn't have any thread in a coordinating colour (I needed blue or purple, two colours I don't normally work with). There was no way I was going back to Spotlight so the pencil cases will sit in my 'work in progress' pile until I remember to finish them. I did get some other designs completed though. I may get around to taking photographs one day soon so stay tuned...

continuing my bird obsession

Today I dropped off my black bird dress to the dressmaker for much needed alterations. At a cost of almost $50, it probably would have been more financially viable to wait, and exercise, and eat better, but that could take weeks with no guarantees, and I want to wear the dress to a wedding next weekend. So, to the dressmaker it was.

It seems I am a tad obsessed with birds at the moment, all I could think about today was making these bird cards. I spent a good part of the afternoon hunting around for my black Derwent pencil to draw the speech bubbles and birdie feet. I could not find it in the end and had to use one of the pencils from the set my boyfriend brought back from Muji for me. I'm slightly devastated that one pencil will now be shorter than the others, they all looked so pretty sitting in their cardboard canister, all at the same height. 

Anyhow, if you feel like saying hello to someone, or sending an anonymous note to someone you fancy, I've popped a few of the bird cards in my Etsy shop. 

the dress that started it

I have long been a fan of this gorgeous black bird fabric from kokka. On my last 3 visits to Amitie, I had been eyeing off the colourway below, but could never think of a project to use it for. Last week while shopping on Smith Street in Collingwood, I came across the dress above. Even though it was a bit expensive and slightly too small (do I ever learn?) I bought it anyway. It has been hanging on my bedroom door ever since, and each day I look at it lovingly. It's going to pay a visit to the dressmaker this week so I can wear it and breathe at the same time.

The more I looked at the dress, the more I wanted to buy some of the fabric for my own use. I started thinking of ways I could use it, and have decided that I am going to add some smaller journals to my range. So off to Amitie it was to get my stash stocked up! 

Want to play Sunday Stash? Visit Tam at 1/4 of an inch and leave a comment here.

You can also check out the ever growing stash over at Flickr.

l-o-v-e

our new friend claude (the bird)

I'm excited to announce that a select range of journals, envelope clutches and greeting cards are now available in the delightful shop Claude (the bird). The rabbit & the duck are very happy to have made such a lovely new friend : ) 

bushfire appeal

This was the view from my front door last night - a beautiful sunset, but sad to think that those deep pinks and oranges are caused by the bushfires that have swept through Victoria these past few days.

The Australian Red Cross has launched an appeal to help the families affected by the fires. If you can help in any way please visit their website here to make a donation.

Meet Me at Mikes has also listed some other ways you can help too, and are collecting toys and donated goods at their Fitzroy shop.

EDIT: The lovely Kim from Claude the Bird will be donating all sales from the days trade at her shop this Friday to the Victorian Bushfire Fund. All money from trade on Saturday will be donated to Wildlife Victoria. Her shop stocks the most beautiful products including clothes, accessories, and handmade goodies, so please pop in on Friday or Saturday if you can. Claude the Bird is located in Shop 2, Kings Arcade, 974 High Street, Armadale. Phone 9509 5955.

EDIT: Some wonderful members from Etsy DUST (Down Under Street Team) have set up a Victorian Bushfire Appeal Etsy Shop. All items have been donated by fellow Etsy sellers, and all profits go to the Australian Red Cross. So far they have raised around $2200 AUD, truly amazing! Please click over if you are able to donate an item for sale, or would love to buy a unique handmade item for a good cause. 

a sign of my addiction

The last time I went fabric shopping at Amitie I reached a milestone on my loyalty card and could choose a free fat quarter. Yay! I decided on this fun alphabet print. I've already made a few fabric covered buttons from it, and will use the rest to line some new pencil cases I think.

number 6

I've been tagged by the lovely Jodi over at Che and Fidel to play a little photo game.

The rules:

"Open the 6th picture folder on your computer, open the 6th photo and blog it. Write something about it. Then tag 6 more people to do the same."

This was actually a difficult task for me, since I don't seem to have any organised system of sorting my photographs. There are folders everywhere, I think after I finish this post I need to do a bit of a clean up! Anyhow, I went with the 6th folder in the 'Pictures' category my boyfriend set up for me, and this was the 6th photo:

Funnily enough, I blogged a similar picture here back in December. We don't usually have a Christmas tree at our place, so instead we have the 'Christmas Basket'. This was ours from 2007. Since it's long passed I can tell you now what was inside each of the presents : ) 

Clockwise from top right:

Black wrapping: A Sukie Agenda (for me - yay!)

Bon Bon: An etched glass christmas bauble 

Red and white trees: Thai Food cookbook by David Thompson

Kraft with red and white trees: A London Map journal I made for my boyfriend 

Kraft with red ribbon: A mystery, I can't remember what was in this one!

Red and white polka dots: Jane Austen 'Pride & Prejudice' 

And the big square one on the bottom was a gorgeous screen printed cushion from Spacecraft, which now lives on our sofa.

I tag Alex, Tamara, Alarna, Jay, Jo and Black on White. Have fun ladies!

honey i'm home

Well, the market is over! It seems that 46 degree heat with dust and wind thrown in to boot really does make people want to stay at home. Although a quiet day, I had lots of fun chatting to other stall holders and still managed to make enough sales to cover my costs for the day, so I'm happy. And the good news is that I will be slowly updating my Etsy shop this week with lots of new stock! For now, here is a pic of my stall. Please excuse the quality, the lighting in the hall wasn't that great for taking photo's, and even though I tried, I can't work out how to make them look better in my photo editor.

I'm already thinking about the next market and some new products I want to try...stay tuned!

market tomorrow, ready today

After months of planning, sewing, more sewing and saying to my boyfriend 'I'm never going to get everything done!' I think I'm ready for the market tomorrow. My bags are packed, ready to load into the car. I have bottles of water waiting for me in the freezer. It is going to be 44 degrees in Melbourne tomorrow! The good news for those thinking of coming to the market is that the hall will be air conditioned. Please cross your fingers the power stays on! 

Please pop by my stall and say hi if you do decide to venture out into the heat. I'd love to meet some of you and I might even have a little Rabbit & the Duck surprise for you if you mention my blog : )

Happy weekend everyone xoxo

oooo i was featured!

Thanks to the lovely Ruby Jo for pointing out that my Hello Bird greeting card was featured on the Indie Fixx site this week! How exciting!

poached eggs on grilled polenta with roast tomato

This morning I took a break from crafting to go out for breakfast. The Eurodore in Port Melbourne had been recommended to me and it lived up to expectation. This cafe has a great deli section as well, I wish I had taken some photo's of the cakes and tarts but I was worried I would get caught! I will be going back so perhaps next time : )

After enjoying some sunshine this morning I am now back at home, and need to finish off some last minute things for the market tomorrow. I've been putting off the not so appealing task of hemming the piece of fabric I have bought for a table cover. I was thinking of leaving it as is but it would probably bother me all day to look at it and see uneven ragged edges. So ironing and hemming it is. Yup. Going to do it now. Really. 

the buttons are finally finished!

These were stitched up yesterday after I had to find the hammer to finish my button making, due to earlier mentioned crafting injury : )

a few more things ticked off the list

Why is it that when you have a lot to do, time seems to whizz by in a blur and you get to the end of the day and think to yourself - what have I been doing all day?

I've realised that I may not tick off every box on my long list of things to do before the weekend. But I'm happy with what I have achieved and I'm sure no-one will notice if I haven't sewn up those few extra pencil cases.

Today I gave the fabric hearts I cut out yesterday a new life on some greeting cards and gift tags:

On the left are some felt heart ornaments I've been stitching. More colours to come!

And below is my afternoon project - button making. I didn't know it was possible to sustain an injury from this activity, but it is. I had to stop after about 30 or 40 buttons as my thumb was aching from pushing the button backs on. And later this evening, I went to stretch out my right arm and couldn't, I think I may have strained a muscle! I was eating icecream at the time, perhaps this was the universe trying to tell me something? 

My favourite button is the little yellow bird near the centre, though the red singing bird is a close second! 

a promise kept

Today all the pieces of the envelope clutch puzzle fell into place and I finally got around to taking photographs of my new range. 

Comfortable temperature for outdoor photography - check.

No gusty winds - check.

No glaring sunlight - check.

A boyfriend at home to take photographs - check.

I hope you like them! I'll be taking a big batch to the Sisters Market this Saturday, but have listed a few in the shop as well. 

For tonight I will leave you with another sneak peek of what I have been working on today:

Little fabric hearts for my Valentine's Day range,  how pretty do they all look together? 

a parade of elephants?

I love this fabric! When I first bought it I had planned to make some journal covers, but when it arrived from Superbuzzy I realised it wasn't a heavy enough weight (I like to use home decor weight for my journals). So into the stash it went, waiting for the right project to come along. This week I pulled it back out and made up a couple of envelope clutches, it looks great against the cotton/linen I have been using, and I found the perfect green polka dot print to use as a lining. 

I promise photo's will be coming soon of all the envelope clutches, today could be the day I get outside to take some snaps!