Our girl

Well that was a big week. Lots of sickness, end of year exams and assignments for Mr F, work, sewing orders, parcels, parties and family stuff, and some exciting news about our darling A.

During a big weekend at Schools Spectacular Miss A found out she'd been voted a prefect by the school body for next year. Her high school is a middle school and she'll go to another campus for her last two years, so its a chance for earlier years, the Year 10s to have leadership roles. Its one of the things we love about our school.

Then on Tuesday I was out at a double 40th birthday lunch with some of my very favourite ladies when she rang me with big news...  she has been elected girl School Captain by all the prefects and nominees!!!!

Wow, we are so surprised and delighted! I don't talk about the kids much here but you know she is such a lovely person and this is such a milestone I couldn't let it pass without a post, and without telling you guys, my bloggy mates our wonderful news :-)

treasure

I love these two recent treasuries which feature flowerpress wares. Such beautiful springlike colour schemes and coincidentally they go together beautifully. The first 'storm in a teacup' was made by Grace Gladdish, one of my favourite instagrammers (gladdish). Grace has a newish online shop called trees4thewood. She lives on a flower farm in Tasmania and has the most picturesque landscapes and ethereal sunsets on her instagram feed.

The second treasury, 'its a bit cloudy' is by Lamina who I had the fun of meeting in person recently. Lamina has just opened an Etsy shop called doabit like her blog. I was so excited when she gifted me this beautiful zip purse as I've loved this pattern since she first printed it. I was reminded of it today when my new Camellia bloomed, they look a bit similar I think!

the blues

Thanks for all the wonderful feedback on my foam printing tutorial, I've actually been showered with Pinterest love this week after the wonderful Rashida Coleman-Hale (of I heart linen fame) pinned it to her Fabulous Tutorials board. I love thinking that lots of crafty people will have a try at this simple printing style.

I've also been lucky enough this month to have my Filigree tea towel featured in a Moody Blues spread in this month's Homespun magazine. I'm in great company in this beautiful issue, with lots of great crafters, projects and tutorials this month.

Also in the blue spectrum, I joined in with Poppytalk's Summer Colours Flickr Group this past week.  I've played before a couple of times, in Jan's Collecting Nature and Spring Colours Weeks and I love the beautiful images that come out of these community projects, they're always stunning. I was really excited that Jan used my swimming pool image as the title image for the blue day, along with some others of mine (the waves on the left and the mountains on the right).

In the same spirit I'm also joining in with Ally from Everyday Miracles posting a monthly garden moodboard. This is my first, July.

signing out

Here's one last post before I sign out for the year, to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful New Year. I might pop in with pics over the break but I'm actually hoping to be flat out reading my book, having a snooze, playing a board game, eating something delicious or lying on the beach. Priorities people!

What a fabulous year I've had hanging out with you guys. You are the best company - wonderful taste, interesting conversation, great food and you tell a mean joke. And your making is always so inspiring. Sometimes too inspiring! Here are some christmas stars we had to whip up yesterday, in the middle of the chaos, with some air dry DAS and a snowflake cookie cutter after seeing similar ones on Pinterest. Ours are slightly more rustic ;-)

I have lots of plans for next year, some more fabric designs, loads of people on my Show & Tell wishlist and even more craft. I want to get more organised and I want to work to make my little business a tiny bit bigger - the usual really!

Here's a last christmas treasury which someone emailled me about today. I love all the different elements and it illustrates the artisan and vintage styles that I love. I love that my work fits in that eclectic mix. Thanks friends for supporting Flower Press and I for another year.

home beautiful!

Its my birthday today, I haven't opened my presents yet (except my cute chair) but I'm having a lovely birthday so far. I spent the morning at Miss A's school presentation seeing my girl receive awards which was a pretty good way to start the day! So proud :-)

Yesterday I had another early birthday present when I picked up the new issue of Home Beautiful and got to see my Teapot tea towel in this lovely spread! Its pretty cool to have my work featured and I love the way they've framed all the tea towels like art, such a great idea. I have a limited number of these Teapot tea towels, which have been out of stock for a while, so be quick if you want one for yourself. (And help me reach 700 sales, I'm so close!) p.s. Last shopping day Sunday, last post Monday.

We are off to Korean BBQ in the city tonight. I've never had it before but I've been wanting to try it and we saw the restaurant from the Monorail stop a while ago. Can't wait to barbecue at the table!

If you haven't entered don't forget to stop by my giveaway post. 235 entries and counting, wow! There are lots of great ideas on how to use my Bricks fabric in the comments, thanks, I'm going to have to try a few next year. And check out all the other SewMamaSew giveaways while you're at it.

it never rains...

... but it pours. Front page today (and I got to see this one live). I really like this treasury too, and its so nice to see my new Filigree panel being loved up.

front

One of the nicest things about selling on Etsy are the days you log in to find you've made the front page. Nothing can quite match the first time I was featured but I still get a thrill to find my views spike and my favourite counts go through the roof.

Even nicer when its a lovely treasury like this one, featured yesterday. I used to be better about documenting them on my blog, so here's another fab one from August.

I'm actually making something today (wonder of wonders!) and I'll be back on Thursday to share. Gotta go though, I'm off to have a champagne and watch the Melbourne Cup :-)

scoutie girl

I got an email this week from the wonderful Scoutie Girl alerting me to this beautiful feature, which shows my Chalk Filigree tea towel and illustrates heart hopping on Etsy, one of my favourite pastimes, searching through other people's favourites to see the wonderful treasures they've discovered on this huge site. These days it mostly starts with my circle stream, my friends are so clever at finding beautiful things.
I'm sitting here checking my emails with Miss A practising her clarinet in another room, its such a beautiful sound, and it makes me happy too.

Madeit Picks

Its all happening around here this week! I got an email the other day asking if I'd like to be one of this week's Pick Editors on Madeit. Which means my favourites are being featured here all week:
www.madeit.com.au/picks.asp

Come on down and see my choices, you may even recognise some makers over there! Visit my Madeit shop while you're there. My new favourite way to browse after clicking through all the lovely newsletter features is to click on the new button to see all the freshly made stuff.

In giveaway news the winner of the Grant Dress Up Dolls is, drum roll please, the lovely Kate Henderson of two little banshees. Send me your address again please Kate so I can put Lilly in the mail!

Spring Colours Week

I loved joining in last time for Poppytalk's themed Nature Collection Flickr group so I was really excited to look through the submissions for their Spring Colours Week and add some of my own photos.
Over consecutive days this week we all added our take on the spring colours in order from green, yellow, pink, lavender and finally white. Did you join in the fun?

I was excited when Jan featured some of my white pictures on the Poppytalk blog yesterday and then in the white mosaic. And I loved it when I saw another of my pictures on Emma Lamb's lovely blog in her roundup of the week. To check out individual credits follow the links. Can you guess which are mine?

Apologies for the delay in choosing a Giveaway winner. I had some more boring stuff to sort out yesterday before we go away next week. I promise it will be drawn and announced here tomorrow. Looking through and sorting the comments yesterday I was feeling a bit sad that I can't send prints to everyone, so many lovely friends and followers have joined the fun and some new faces too! You know I would if I could right!

Just now we're getting ready for our birthday sleepover - six ten year old boys camping in the backyard overnight. Think of us, won't you!?

findings!

I was reading Amy Prior's rain and shine blog this morning (its one of my favourites) and came across this lovely gift guide Amy has chosen for the The Finders Keepers blog, including my Doily denim cushion!

Five textile designers have shared their choices for a fabulous indie textile Gift Guide. (As most of you would know Amy is half of the talented Umbrella Prints team.)

I really hope someone I know is reading it because this is a wish list come to life. Lots of beautiful textiles, local and international, lots of favourites and some new discoveries. I'm in wonderful company!

Go here to drool! My Doily cushion is available on Etsy and Madeit.

Thanks Amy :-)

the rikrak studio

The rikrak studio is a wonderful blog always overflowing with beautiful things, and well known for its regular Olympic and World Cup competitions for handmade designers. I love to vote in these and was delighted to see that one of the 2011 winners awarded favourite 'handmaking nicies' for her coordination of  fundraising auctions for the Qld Floods was Toni Coward of Make it Perfect.

You can imagine then how delighted I am to be featured this week on Kristal's blog as part of a list of "my favourite things - beautiful tea towels", alongside some truly fabulous company including dottieangel, baileydoesn'tbark, wonderthunder, soraam, skinny laminx and more. You can see all that tea towel loveliness here.

Thanks for the sympathies for my boring stuff of my last post. I've made a concerted effort this week to banish the worst of them instead of letting them hang over me and as a result I'm feeling much happier and more positive!

By the way, can you believed we are half way through March already! I'm hoping to post this month's Show & Tell next week. Another really wonderful blogger, closer to home this time, but that's all the hint you get!!!

fame

My copy of Extra Curricular landed in the letterbox today at last. What a lovely magazine it is, I'm so happy to be part of it, thanks Ellie!

Extra Curricular is full of lots of really interesting articles about creative people - why they make, what they make and lots of great information about how they make it. Its really fresh and honest and wonderfully inspiring whether you are a maker already or just wanting to start. The mag is available through the big cartel shop or via some other stockists listed on Ellie's blog. (I've seen it at Lark and Little Jane Street.)

I was lucky enough to be interviewed for Extra Curricular by fellow Sydneysider Ike Levick who arrived on the appointed day with takeway coffees in one hand and some Prints Charming embroidery in the other (she'd just been to a workshop). Needless to say we spent the whole time talking and came away great friends. Thank you Ike for the lovely piece and for your great enthusiasm and kindness. I was a bit anxious about being interviewed but you made it lots of fun!

The article tells a lot about how I came to be doing what I'm doing, how I do it and why. All the kids' names are in the article and some of their art appears on my pinboard, so they are enjoying the fame too :-) And while I've managed to keep my face out of this blog for three years, here I am at last in living colour (!?), photo by Mr Flowerpress.

weee!

 Extra Curricular is a journal about folks who get creative with their spare time.

With cover art by Jessica Hills, this issue includes a printmaking 'featurette', an article about getting crafty in the kitchen along with a recipe for summer berry jam, interviews with creative geniuses and more. It comes with a bonus too - 'the little holiday activity book', to keep you occupied with things to make over the holidays.

Extra Curricular is printed in full colour with vegetable based inks on recycled stock.

72 pages

200mm x 148mm

Have you seen Extra Curricular magazine? Launched last year by the talented Ellie this beautiful little magazine is published three times a year. Its about people who make part time. My lovely friend Melissa from tinyhappy was featured in the first issue, last year and I remember thinking how beautiful it looked when I saw it on her blog. So I was more than delighted when Ellie asked me to be part of this edition, devoted to printmaking. This is the fourth issue and its out tomorrow! I don't have my copy yet but I can't wait. Its exciting enough seeing my name there on the cover!

I promise to show you and tell you more about the making of it as soon as I have it in my hot little hands. And for those of you who can't wait, and want to know more about why and how I do what I do, you can pre-order here.

Storque

We got back last night. Not a long time away but such a fun time. But more on that later...

I got back to find this beautiful feature on Etsy's blog The Storque. Photographer Teri Lyn Fisher was Guest Curator and talks about using special pieces to style her food photography. And she's named my Chalk Filigree tea towel as one of the featured props! I adore all the wonderful Etsy wares she's chosen and feel very honoured that she's included my tea towel in her list.

I have such great admiration for stylists. All of us who shoot our own photos for online shops and blogs know how very hard it is. And the irony is that looking simple, easy and natural is the thing you are really aiming for! For wonderful inspiration and some great interiors have a look at Teri's wonderful Fish Food blog and online portfolio. Oh and when you're done go and drool over all the beautiful ceramics and linens in her Storque piece, such beautiful simplicity.

september sapphires

The birthstone for September is a sapphire (happy birthday septemberites), which kind of explains how my wares have ended up in these six fantastic blue treasuries in the last week! Oh and for a slight change of pace number seven below is called Ketchup!

notebook

I was so excited when the wonderful Notebook magazine contacted me a couple of months ago asking to feature my work. Here is my Chrysanthemum tea towel in their list of 'Things we Love' for Springtime, in the September issue which arrives in stores today.

I love Notebook which does a great job of covering all the good stuff, and gives lots of support to local designers and crafters. This issue has some great interiors, articles, recipes and making. And me!

peppermint

My lovely Down Under Street Team of Australian Etsy sellers, DUST, were given an Etsy advertising grant earlier this year. And so it was decided that interested Dusters would join together and pay a little extra to take out an ad in the fantastic Peppermint mag "the new green fashion magazine, covering eco and ethical style in a positive, uplifting and forward-thinking manner".
We held a competition to choose which items would be featured and I was lucky enough to be chosen, see my little tea towel! Yesterday I picked up the magazine and here is the ad full of talented Dusters, Peppermint readers can use a special discount code on checkout with all the participating Dust members, there are quite a few of us. These wonderful sellers are featured on a special webpage where you can see their products and discounts. We'd love it if you wanted to support Peppermint and Dust by buying an issue and using this great discount.

treasured

This month has been a lucky one for Flower Press. These three beautiful treasuries have all made the front page of Etsy. Last night's treasury (at the top) brought 1100 views to my little shop! Wow. I think that might be a record! I love how different they all are from each other. And I think my favourite thing of all is the kitty in the rocket jacket! Thanks to SeaPinks, UnJardinDeHilo and KandiceInWonderland.

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on Tania's Show & Tell interview, I knew you would love it :-) And thanks to Tania for sharing herself with us.

Would you believe I've had Miss A home this week with the Chicken Pox! I'm just happy the vaccinations the kids had have made their doses relatively light, because its not fun from what I can see. Covered in spots, feeling sick with headaches and insanely itchy for a couple of days, to the point of tears. We are only just through the worst.

One nice thing about having her here is that she loves to cook (oh, and she makes me laugh). She's made cake and toasted sandwiches this week, and just now she's gone off to make her first eclairs! Then later on we might just attempt bagels. (Yes, we have been watching too much Master Chef, why do you ask?!).

I finished Miss A's earflap hat which is a great success. I'll be back soon with some photos of that, and some new repeat patterns (more spots!) that I've been working on, they are headed somewhere fun - I can show you next week.

Amazing times here in Australian politics yesterday. A woman prime minister at last! I only wish it were in happier circumstances, and I really hope that KRudd, a good man, is remembered for some of the wonderful achievements of his short tenure, not least his apology to the stolen generation.

handmade nation

Handmade luminary Faythe Levine, artist, gallery owner, photographer and filmmaker whose documentary of the current crafting movement Handmade Nation has been so loved (and the book of which I got for my birthday) was one of the jurors in the recent Poppies voting.

Imagine my surprise and delight when she posted her short lists on her Handmade Nation blog recently, and Flower Press was on it in the Textiles section!

Read and explore Faythe's curated lists for her favourites in each category. I jumped up and down a lot after I read them, but its not obligatory ;-)