Week Three, Serbia

Hard to believe that it's week three (well, nearly) of our wee holiday. Above are three snaps (of the around 900 I've taken so far - geez!) taken in Belgrade, Serbia, an amazing city that we weren't originally planning on coming to. Happy Monday!

Croatia and Bosnia

Holidays are so relaxing, with lots of book reading and sight seeing and sitting in the sun drinking espressos and eating gelati and endless salads. Above is Dubrovnik from a few days ago, at night and day. Since Croatia we have been to Montengro and are now in Mostar, in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia, and have walked across the amazingly reconstructed bridge many times. Hope your Sunday is just as great.

Hello from London!

It feels like forever since I've looked at my wee blog, and that's because it has been forever. I really really was going to say something last week, and the week before, but of course preparing for a holiday means there are a million more important things to do. And now that I'm on holiday, there are a million more things to do and see and look at and a computer is not one of those things. Except this afternoon when I feel like catching up.


Me smiling my head off, next to the Serpentine. Note my new bag - Mattt's bag with my T print - it's perfect for traveling as is so sturdy, good one Matt :)

London is so amazing - huge and old and beautiful. And although it was raining and freezing when we first got here, since then it's been sunny and warm(ish). So I've walked about 100km a day, photographing everything in sight and have checked lots of to-dos off my list - Liberty, Muji, Cath Kidston, Orla Kiely, Skandium (see below photo. I nearly cried when I went inside, it's sooo amazing. God help me when I actually get to Sweden!). I've also eaten amazing food and had many great espressos (they didn't seem to exist the last time I was here). Oh, and have been to a museum or four and seen Big Ben and all the usual stuff.

Tomorrow is another day and we'll be in another country (Croatia, en route to Bosnia), can't wait. Bye for now!

Stuff in stuff

I don't know how they found it, but another of my tea towels made an appearance in Apartment Therapy recently (in 'the kitchn' section). Thanks (again) to Michelle for seeing it and letting me know!


And thanks to Becky for the wee interview that recently appeared in Crafting A Green World.

Now back to holiday planning! Hope the week is fun for you and you're eating at least one hot cross bun a day like me - mmm :) It's bought ones I'm eating as I haven't made any this year, but did last year and the year before that. Gosh the years go by quickly!

It's not so bad

OK, so it's been a while between posts. And that may or may not have something to do with the rain that I mentioned in my last post. Rain! No, it was more extreme freaky loud hail storm that is now causing quite a headache for insurers. Anyway, let's just say I've spent a lot of time mopping up and squeezing things out in the studio, along with moving my miraculously untouched books/electrical equipment out of the waterlogged region and into my now-full-of-stuff apartment. Yep, crafty things are vying for space and trying to squeeze Jed's bikes OUT of the living room.

Luckily I've got other exciting things to think about. Like Sweden. Did I mention that I'm going to Sweden? And Bosnia, as you do, with a stopover or two in London. In two weeks. For nearly two months. Eek! It's been forever since we've been on a proper holiday, so we figured now is as good as time as any. And heck, as I mentioned a while back, I surely do deserve a pair of Swedish clogs (or two), right? And it totally makes sense to go there to get them. Definitely.

So that's what's news here. Happy Monday!

Quotes in colours

And here are the coloured versions of my new 'Quotes' tea towel! Lots of umming and ahhing and mixing and testing took place before these colours were decided upon. Looove the muted feel of avocado green & grey combination (suits today's weather in Melbourne, along with the record floodings and massive hail) and the brightness of the 1950s blue/red combo.

Now time to don the gumboots and brave the weather - fun!

Look at my new bag!

So Japanese, so cute, so practical, so cheap and hand delivered to boot - thanks Rootote (and Michelle for recommending!)

Quotes in my head

It seems like foreeever since I've had time/inspiration etc to do something new, but last week I just sat down with my trusty notebook and drew one of the ideas in my head. A day or so later, I made up a new screen for it and did some printing...and then a week later, I get around to taking a photo of it! So ta-da, here's my new tea towel, called Quotes. It kind of sums up what goes on in my head sometimes - a million ideas and thoughts flying around - I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

This first run is a lovely contrasty white on natural linen (my favourite new thing! And they're extra large!!) I've just put it in my Etsy shop and soon there will be coloured varieties, yay. And if you look closely you can see my new logo, which I'm yet to actually use anywhere else but on my new packaging. I'll surely show it here sometime soon :)

Happy Thursday.

PS. Also just put the new T Towel on Etsy - white on natural linen, mmm!

Little Shop Of...Fun!

Finally, finally I visited Little Shop Of last week, so cute! Yes, it's wee tiny but it's so packed full of stuff that the tininess doesn't matter so much. I dropped off a bunch of my tea towels and fabric, chatted to Bec and then headed up the road for a delicious bagel, mmm! Morning well spent :)



Speaking of shopping, how much do I want to these shoes? Soo cute. And yes, I must have a thing for yellow shoes (and red shoes, and blue shoes...)

This week

Haven't been up to much, beyond trying to have *ahem* a life. These photos are actually all from the weekend, which involved getting some sun, eating, drinking and relaxing. But I have been doing some work (fun work) that involves getting the emulsion out in preparation for making a new screen/design, which I haven't done forever. Can't wait to get the ink out! Happy Thursday.

These are going to be mine soon...

..I just need to decide on the colour. They're so ace and they even have wooden clog heels. Swoon. And though I could just buy them online, I think I've got a better idea that might just involve going to Sweden and picking them up in person :)

Finally

So the Craft Hatch market was fun with lots of cute things to see. And my new set-up (a great old ladder with shelves, as you can see above) worked out great, yay! AND I got my coffee cup - I went minimalist, all white - from the lovely hookturn ladies :) It's a reusable, silicon cup and is very very nice.

I was happy to see all the fabric wrapped up in my new packaging (which I've got no photos of, bah) and as ever, the red Akzidenz was the most popular. And as of now, it's all in my shops - Etsy (USD) and Made It (AUD) so take a peak :)

Colour mania

Woot!

New & upcoming stuff

After a lazy January, February so far had been a bit mad for me and I've got the squeegee blisters to prove it, eek. It's a new year that's full of promise and I'm pretty excited about my first market of the year, which is on this coming Saturday.

It's Craft Hatch, the Craft Victoria market for emerging designers and this edition is a special one, to coincide with the Sustainable Living Festival. It's at the City Library, Flinders Lane in the city from 11-4. Can't wait to see my neighbours, including Hookturn Industries (love their mugs!) Oh, and if you come along it's upstairs :)

Hookturn Industries' coffee-coloured mug with white lid, pic courtesy of Hookturn Industries.

I'll have a bunch of new things at the market including a brand new range of colours (soon to be photographed!) of my 'Akzidenz' and 'Polka Dots' yardage and super amazing new natural linen tea towels that I'm in love with. Oh, and a new market set-up, I hope - fingers crossed this week goes slowly so I can get everything ready in time...

And before I forget, a big thank you to Rebecca of My Green Australia, who featured my Enka tea towel in her article about creating a paperless kitchen (some good tips there, thanks Rebecca!)

And thanks to all those who voted for me in the Poppies - it was an honour just to be nominated :) I think the trusty gals at Ink & Spindle were the "winners" of the crafty Oscars, yay for them and their fab work.

The Poppies

Ohh, someone has nominated me for The Poppies (awards run by the lovely folk at Poppytalk Handmade, whose market I took part in last year), in the Favourite Handmade Textiles section. How sweet and what an honour to be mentioned alongside Summersville, Skinny LaMinx and local heroes Ink & Spindle (and many others). Go and vote for your favourite (you get one vote per section) with polls open until 29 Jan. And it only takes a minute to do as you don't need to log in or do anything annoying like that.