cheerios and cheers

Christmas day is almost here and it's time for me to take a break, hang-out with family and friends, eat yummy food and be merry! What are you up to for the holidays? Whatever it may be and wherever you are I wish you the safest and happiest time. Thank you for stopping by, your presence and support here is always appreciated, it helps keep me motivated, inspired and spurs me on. I can't wait to catching-up again in the new year.
 

bent

Last weekend was the Bend and Snap twilight market at £1000 Bend. There was a good size crowd shuffling around soaking up the talent and since I had an incredibly patient helper I managed to join in a couple of times too. Here are just a few of the clever folks I spotted.

1. Fun novelty fabric Tea Cosies  //  Pom Pom Parlour
2. Statement knotted necklace  //  Ceci Project
3. Hiking Squirrel  //  The Creature Workshop (I couldn't resist a reindeer, or two from this talented maker)
4. Portrait Illustration  //  Thanks Heaps (aka Roger Wadia, Illustrator Extraordinaire... I'm not making this up it says so on his business card)
5. Pearly Whites Necklace  //  The Triangle of Bears
6. Resonating Jellies - A5 Print  //  Hannakin
7. Bow Tie  //  Sincerely Cornelius
8. Monster Paw Key Chain  //  Little Evil Stuff

I didn't take many photos on the day but there are a couple on Instagram if you'd like to look.

birthday wishes

Happy birthday to the lady in the middle - my mum - who turns 60 today! I can not believe you are turning 60. I know my disbelieve comes from facing my own age. Enjoy your special day getting pampered and spoiled like you deserve. Not only have you passed on your crafty gene and love for animals but one-day when I have a family of my own I hope that I'll love and care for them as selflessly as you have done for yours.

Mum will probably dislike that I've shared this photo here but I couldn't resist. I had never seen this picture of her until a month ago when my dad email it to me, it was taken at a friend's wedding and that friend had recently emailed it through. My guess is that it's from the 70's or early 80's.

bend and snap

As mentioned previously I'm participating in Bend & Snap's twilight market this weekend along with a bunch of other lovelies. So if you still have Christmas shopping to complete or would like to snap up a market bargain or two, stop on by and say hi!

Bend & Snap - £1000 Bend (361 Lt Lonsdale St, Melbourne) Sunday 16th December, 3pm - 8pm

weaving in the 70's

Last week I did a little impromptu op shopping and scored one of the best books ever! I kid you not. Along with this amazing book I found a sweet mini vase and super soft black and white check fabric.

Ok, so back to that gem of a book, Shaped Weaving, circa 1974. The pictures, although mostly black and white speak for themselves so I won't say too much except, it kinda left me wondering... Where are the cape and bib wearing dudes, beards, and man hands in today's craft books?

For some modern day weaving inspiration you might like to check-out the gorgeous work of New Friends, Belinda's Instagram feed and these beautiful branch weavings. I'm feeling pretty inspired myself and have a mini home-made loom sitting there ready to experiment on, I might just have to give it a go!

listening

I'm a big fan of Design Sponge and especially enjoy Friday's Before and After posts as well as the informative Biz Ladies column. Recently I began listening to Grace Boney from Design Sponge's, After The Jump audio series on Heritage Radio, which is great because unlike reading it frees the eyes to continue working while the ears listen. I'm keen to know if there are any audio / video resources that you enjoy listening to while you work? Do tell — After The Jump has finished for the year.

Images unrelated. Snippets from where I work.

> > > Thank you to the anonymous commenter for the WNYC's Radiolab podcasts tip-off. This is new to me and I'm loving it - especially enjoyed this Mel Blanc story. 

lana pelana

The above images are of a handmade necklace I treated myself with a little while ago. It was so lovingly packaged that I had to share it with you. I also want to introduce any of you not already acquainted with Marta's wonderful work to her blog and shop which go by the name Lana Pelana. Marta lives in Valencia, Spain and along with her illustrations and embroidered jewellery she also sews fantastic characters too, which I love. Check her out!

While on the topic of shopping and buying handmade I have been thinking a lot lately about how my thoughts and actions over the past few years have changed. I'm a much more thoughtful consumer now than I was in my teens and early 20's and while I was never a big shopper I did my share of mindless buying. 'Want' purchases rather than 'need' purchases. These days as I journey on a simpler, more conscious path I buy mostly on a need basis, but lets face it from time to time we all deserve a little treat. So when that time comes and as with all my purchases I now stick to at least one of the following categories; second-hand before new, locally owned and produced, handmade and quality over quantity. What about you, do you have any considerations before you buy or do you simply like it, buy it, no questions asked?

hatched

Hello! I hope you had a lovely weekend. As you know from last week's posts, I participated in the Craft Hatch market over the weekend. It was a quite day for me in terms of sales but that's ok. Compared to other Craft Hatch market's I've visited it seemed a bit thinner on visitors too. It got me wondering if Melbourne's market scene is becoming over-saturated, especially at this time of year. There are so many, many markets on. And so many big scaled market events too. I wonder what you think?

The day didn't start so quietly though, missing a turn on the way in, getting trapped in a lane-way by a car that needed jump-starting plus taking a wrong turn which trapped me in a miniature city parking block resulting in a too-tight maneuver that scrapped the side of my car. All before we'd even set-up! This introvert was pretty close to calling it a day!

One of the bonuses of sharing a stand was getting time to sneak off and check out the other stall holders work, all of which was wonderful. My husband managed to get Christmas shopping done when he stopped by too. Yay for supporting independent makers this Christmas! 

One of my favourite stalls of the day was Brianna's from Jack of Diamonds - in action on her knitting machine - I wish I had a photo to share with you. Her knitwear is beautiful! Other highlights for me included; detailed triangular smocking from Yoshie, the delightfully colourful worlds of both Dear Plastic and Paradise Structures, divine pottery by Yoko Ozawa, the delicate knitted jewellery from Helen Noulas of Elenii and Georgie Cummings' ceramic and leather work.

I only managed to take a couple of pics on the day which I posted on Instagram. The image above of Jess and I is thanks to Jess's gorgeous mum. Thanks also to Channon and the team at Craft for organising the day!