bondville charity auction

I've talked before about the wonderful ABCD meetups we Sydney bloggers are lucky enough to enjoy. It is so much fun to break out from behind the computer and meet all the delightful bloggers this city is blessed with and a great chance to talk shop and share ideas with other makers and bloggers.

ABCD is the brainchild of the lovely Steph Bond-Hutkin and so when she put out the call for help with her 10th Blog Birthday Charity Auction it is not surprising that she was showered with fabulous donations from a who's who of creative peeps. A lot of our ABCD friends are represented.

The auctions are running on Ebay and now is the time to bid to get some awesome bargains and give to a fantastic cause, The Children's Cancer Institute Australia. But hurry, most auctions finish in about a day and a half, early Monday morning.

I have donated the popular Tomato Filigree Linen Tea Towel and an A4 size Ruby Slippers print with a combined value of $35 and with free postage to anywhere.

Last time I looked at the auction you could pick these up for about $20 posted. Just think you could have two Christmas presents crossed off your list and support a great cause at the same time! That's of course if you can bring yourself to give them away.

There are some beautiful art, homewares, clothes, toys, accessories and jewellery. I have bids on a few things and will be checking back soon. Go and have a look!

these days

Phew, life has hit the ground running since the holidays finished. Suddenly everything is happening at once, carnivals, assemblies, music lessons, sport teams, bills to pay, paperwork, meetings, camp...

In between the busyness though I've squeezed in some time to catch up with friends, so good for the brain! A week or two ago I had lunch with blog friend Lamina (doabit) and also got to meet Jo from Bubala at last too. It was so nice to talk 'shop' with these lovely, talented girls and we followed it up last Thursday with the abcd meetup at trade show Life InStyle at the Hordern Pavilion.

What an interesting night, the first part was free entry to the show and wandering the aisles of makers with their beautiful wares. Then at dinner afterwards we heard from crafty business owners who were attending the show about the wholesale thing, and the nuts and bolts of that.

It was my first abcd (Artists + Bloggers + Crafters + Designers) meetup, but definitely not my last. Many thanks to Steph and Lisa for organising these events. It is so nice to catch up with like minds and share ideas and it was such an interesting night. And thanks to Sophie from Scoops Design who was so generous with her knowledge in our little group.

I've had lunch out a couple more times since then, one a belated birthday yum cha where I scored this great Anna Laura brooch and then last Friday after the Mr and I watched our girl speak at the Sydney Town Hall at school presentation day (so proud!). I may have wiped away a tear or two, it was so great to see her up on stage in this amazing space. Afterwards we bought lunch and walked down to Circular Quay to see the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the MCA (which was wow!).

I have managed a small amount of making in between, I cooked these delicious sticky date cupcakes with salted caramel icing one day and I made a batch of homemade laundry liquid over the weekend. I've also been making quite a few batches of yoghurt - I think I've got the hang of it now.

There's been some good mail, I bought some of this great Julia Rothman print Type to make something with (must use stash!) and my Society6 tshirt print came, modelled here (under sufferance) by Miss A. I like it and the quality's great, must print some more of these.

So there, that's what I've been doing, what about you? What have you been doing? How is the new year treating you?

Hey and guess what!? I have a lovely surprise for you all (a surprise for me too!). Tomorrow I'm posting the first of this year's Show & Tell interviews, number 31 in fact!

To tell the truth I wasn't sure I'd keep the series going this year, its a bit of work on top of everything else and I was thinking maybe I needed a break. But when it came to it, I'm really proud of the series and I love all the wonderful bloggers I've featured, so I'm not quite ready to quit. So come back tomorrow and meet another inspiring blogger!

And if you have any ideas about other bloggers you'd like to see in this space, I'd love some suggestions, tell me and I'll see what I can do.

three year plan

The other night I went along to my second ABCD social meetup, close to home at the Three Weeds pub in Rozelle. I also signed up for the goodie bag and took along some Ruby Slippers cards to share, 28 of them!

To see some (better) pictures of the night and the contents of the goodie bags (treasure!) do visit the lovely Steph at her Bondville blog. Steph and Lisa (the red thread) are the generous organisers of the ABCD catchups.

There is something wonderful about being in the company of creative types. That unspoken understanding of the need to make, create and surround oneself with beautifully made things. Its always a great chance to share inspiration and information with like minds.

We were asked to come with thoughts about our three year plan to share in small discussion groups during the night. A simple enough topic but one which made me really aware of my lack of a one week plan, let alone three years!

Saffron Craig chaired our little group which also included Cath from Prints Charming. Both inspiring women for a fledgeling fabric designer like me. Each person then shared their big dreams and their small ones, finishing with me, and while I fumbled out some vague plans, I resolved to go home and really think about what I want to do. Get a plan! It made me wonder too if I'm guilty of exploring too many creative paths, maybe its time to choose a single direction. Hmm, not sure I can do that!

Anyway, making fabric remains a major goal of mine, and despite appearances I have been productive, see sneaky peek above. I have some new fabrics to share, just no time to make anything from them or take photos! All that is about to change. I think its time to show you what I've been up to and I feel some scrap packs coming, I do love a scrap pack!

And after all, spring is here and my sixth blogging anniverary approaches! Amazing!

p.s. a rare selfie with lovely girls Lamina and Sheryl.

muted

I promised exciting making news last week, and here it is - I bought a kiln! 

I've been stalking Ebay for ages now, waiting to find a secondhand kiln that didn't cost very much and could work on domestic power. I love the idea of being able to experiment at home with my ceramics, which is why I accidentally got that pottery wheel too.

The less exciting news is that it will take time to get our wiring adjusted and put in a dedicated circuit so that I can finally plug the kiln in. So in the meantime I will still have to fire my work at the local ceramics shop which means a long drive and a wait until they have a full load for firing.

That first batch of bisque pieces have had their final glaze applied and gone back for a last firing. Luckily batch two, the newer pieces that just needed bisque firing came back in a few days.

For those of you that don't know, bisque firing is the preliminary firing that sets the clay hard. A second, hotter glaze firing is needed to really set the clay and the glazes and give the piece its finish. So its quite a looong process. Hopefully it will all be quicker when I have a working kiln and hopefully I can show some finished pieces soon!

I made up some rough test tiles to use in my kiln when its ready, for a first test firing. These sample my stock of underglazes (I got a few colours for mothers day!) at different strengths and with different finishes.

Actually I quite like these as little pendants or decorative tiles. I must make some more.

Recently I also caught up with the ABCD social girls at the Etsy Craft party. We had fun gossiping while we embroidered and modified old photos. Its always fun to see everyone, craft people are nice people, so if you are local and haven't been I recommend it. Its always nice to be among like minded craft addicts!

2013

And there goes 2013, just like that!

Actually mentally I'm still in 2013, and will be for a while. I'm still on holidays and have some lovely family camping in my future, hooray. 2014 can cool its heels a moment while I recharge.

An annual tradition round here is this end of year post when I go through my Flickr pages and compile a mosaic or two of my creative life for the year. {and if you're interested here's 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008}

Its always a nice surprise to see how busy and productive I've been despite sometimes feeling like I'm getting nowhere and taking too long about it!!

This year is no exception. It was big! Some great important things happened this year and I learnt a lot.

My work was featured in The Sydney Morning Herald's Spectrum Design section.

I taught my first craft workshops at SewMakeCreate.

I did a ceramics course and learnt to throw pots. A new addiction this and I'm already signed up for more in 2014.

I learnt to Shibori, expose my own screens and make coiled brooches at workshops run by other people. It was fun! I tried embroidery. Here's to more learning this year too.

I cooked and ate a lot. A brief flirtation with the 5:2 diet and an increasing dislike for processed food saw me make my own pickles, jam, marmalade, yoghurt, ricotta, paneer, bread, soup, curries, pastries, pizza, dolmades, soap and lots of cake. I also grew more of my own produce, which made me very happy.

I printed lots of fabric. So much that I didn't get round to showing it all on the blog. That's something to remedy in 2014, and sewing more with my flowerpress fabrics is another.

I sewed some more clothes for me, and I thought and read a lot about learning to adapt patterns to my particular shape. That's another thing I want to pursue further this year.

I dithered in my bloggings and was quiet for some of the year. I can see from the comparative number of posts that I wasn't as present here. However, the absence made me realise blogging's importance in my life. I hope to embrace it anew. This year I hope to be a more focussed and committed blogger. Another thing I really enjoyed this year was getting out and meeting more bloggers in person, both friends I've met through the blog and via ABCD meetups and the Voices 2013 competition. Bloggers are such lovely people and its nice to have a chance to catch up on all that stuff that you never talk get a chance to talk about in emails.

Do you have plans for 2014, I need a few more ideas for the year, and I'd love it if you wanted to share yours here. And Happy New Year!!!  Here's to 2014, but not just yet ;-)

days

I'm still here, and getting back to the creative stuff which I'll blog soon, but in the meantime here are some pretty pictures from the last week. 

•  Seedlings gifted from an old friend who's newish business brings gardens to underprivileged schools. Such a great thing.

•  Lunch in Summer Hill with some lovely bloggy mates. So good to talk shop, craft, make, life and I'm looking forward to the ABCD winter meetup this week.

•  Zone athletics carnival two days last week, so exciting, a third ribbon for D and J's relay team made it to the Regional level, which is tomorrow!

•  More late winter spring surprises.

•  Ms A won the lolly guessing competition at school! Now to 'borrow' that great big jar from her!

•  A computer hiccup saw my printer sent me yardage of the Bricks print in this teeny tiny scale. Isn't it cute! I've put it in the shop at a discounted price, along with new stocks of the popular small scale print, and the large scale too. Now to think of a project that uses all three!

• ... speaking of which, a new baby arrived in the extended family over the weekend, a little boy! I just love how technology and social media saw us all able to share in the excitement from near and far. Welcome dear little Sid!!