playing around

On an impulse a few weeks ago I joined up for the Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search. One of the attractions was the chance to receive a professional illustration brief and have it judged by a range of amazing judges. The brief was a vintage playground image for a journal cover.

Time has been a bit scarce since I signed up, so it took a bit of a mad scramble to get an entry ready to submit. I'm glad I made the effort though, I taught myself some new Illustrator techniques and it was fun to get my illustration brain working again. Here are a couple of snippets of the final design.

Did anyone else enter? I notice the facebook group has 2300 likers, so I'm figuring I'm not alone!

away with friends

Its taken some organisation to get seven lovely, busy friends away at the same time, its been way too long since our last big trip to Melbourne.

This weekend though saw us finally all away together at this great big house I found in the Southern Highlands, tucked away on land at the end of the road, bordered on three sides by the stunning Mount Gibralter Nature Reserve.

The house booked online turned out to be a great find. It boasts lots of bedrooms with crisp white sheets and big fluffy towels, two sitting rooms, one cosy with big stuffed couches and a wood fireplace, another light filled space with floor to ceiling picture windows looking out on the beautiful view. There was even a piano room, though we didn't get round to a singalong, this time!

On Saturday we lunched at the great Berkelouw Book Barn out of Berrima. My friend Jane comes here often and it didn't disappoint. The big light dining space is surrounded by shelves and shelves of books and bordered by a 15 foot sandstone fireplace. Sadly my phone battery died before I could take any good photos, but I did manage to immortalise my lunch of Blue Swimmer crab linguine with chilli and lemon zest, the important stuff! We had a long slow lunch tucked away out of the rain and cold catching up on our busy lives.

Yesterday after a slow breakfast at home we hit Bowral for coffee at the cosy Elephant Boy cafe in main street Bowral. We then spent a couple of hours of shopping, including  a browse at the lovely shop Three Wise Monkeys, and an inspiring visit to the Dirty Jane's antique market, a great find of lots of vintage sellers together under one roof. Both kept us distracted and happy for a good while.  We finished our time away with a very late lunch of potato and leek soup back at Elephant Boy, surrounded again with beautiful old books, before packing up and heading home.

I love these girls, and it was inspiring and relaxing to spend good long hours together, having time to catch up properly and talk about work, family, life and love. We fitted in a long walk one day before the rain started, and stayed up late into the night laughing in our pyjamas round the flickering fire.

I came back with few physical souvenirs, but lots of lovely memories and conversations to ponder, and another rich layer to each of these precious friendships. And plans for another trip, much sooner this time!

thrift

 

Back to school today for my three and I'm missing them already.

They were all very excited though and ready to go back, looking forward to the new year beginning and to catching up with friends.

It is very quiet here now, which is nice as I have much to do and real life to get back to. Its time to embrace the new year and make some plans, write lists, send orders, sort out stock, make some new things...

I've been meaning to blog these holiday treasures, the souvenirs I picked up round and about on our travels this summer. I love a bit of thrifting and just lately with the kids bigger and (slightly) more patient we've been detouring via country op shops on our road trips to see what we can find.

I love the small town thrift shops, country Vinnies, Salvos or those funny little independent stores you find. Country stores often have more vintage finds than the big inner city shops and there's a lovely old time feel to them.

We hid from the heat in a huge shopping mall on that very hot day that came while we were camping, we'd gone there to watch  a movie and spent a couple of hours browsing. Even with all those shops though we didn't buy a thing. I don't know about you but I'm always so over shopping and consumption by Christmas that I can't seem to raise any enthusiasm, even with sales all around. On the other hand we didn't leave one oppie empty-handed and I felt much happier in the idea that I would be reusing something that still has life, something made to last.

There were some secondhand clothes bought along the way as well, especially by Miss A, an op shopping convert, we both found some tops and dresses, all in great condition and some still with tags.

Did you score any out of town thrift treasures while you were away. Do you like to travel thrift like us? Do you have any recommendations. We had fun scouring the Central Coast this time, Woy Woy has some great shops and there are some around Green Point too.

my creative space - snakes, flowers and society 6

Its no secret I love a bit of floral! I especially love those bold sixties and seventies flower designs you see on vintage sheets and pillowcases. I love the riot of mixed flowers, the detailled linework and the great colours.

You might remember this design, its one I doodled quite a while ago and its the wallpaper on my phone. I always get compliments on the design and its a favourite of mine too so in my spare time I've been working on expanding it and cleaning it up.

Its still black and white, I like to get the linework sorted before I play with colour (though I had a play here!). But I also love the graphic quality of black and white. Here's another pattern I've been playing with, I'm calling it snake because it reminds me of the patterns on the diamond python snake of the north coast.

I've been seeing lots of people posting about website Society 6. I went and had a look and its a site where you can upload designs which other people can order in a number of mediums, art prints, phone cases, t-shirts and now cushions.

The other day they were having a free shipping offer (they seem to have very regular discounts) and as my flower press account was already set up I jumped at the chance to see this seventies floral design in print and check the quality of the products.

The prices seem really reasonable to me so I'm hoping they look as good in real life. Has anyone ordered from them before? If you are after some designer onlines for Christmas presents this looks like a good place to start. Especially with free shipping!

Don't forget to visit the creative clubhouse.

swallow

Its been a while... as usual the school holidays have swallowed me up and changed my routine for a couple of weeks. And as usual we packed our bags and set off together for a bit of adventure and a change of scene. Last week saw us out west again, staying with Mr F's lovely Mum, eating ourselves silly, taking in the beautiful spring blossom and bulbs, putting a coat of clay mix on his sister's straw bale project and picking up rocks by her country creek.

And whoosh, it's October. I'm hoping I can squeeze a bit of making into this last speedy part of the year. I did spend a little time tidying my creative space last week before we left so I'm hoping it will be quicker to get back to all that when I have time!

birthday flowers

We jumped in the car after sport on Saturday to travel out west for my beautiful niece's 21st birthday party. It seems like only the other day we did the same trip in a rush to meet her the night she was born. I remember we found out she'd arrived at a truck stop in the mountains. She's still as sweet as the day she was born but is now the lovely grown up we always knew she would become. The party was loads of fun - lots of delicious food, laughing and dancing till the early hours with our precious family and friends. Miss A was allowed to stay late for the fun and we managed not to embarass her too much!

The blossom was out in the mountains, but only just starting on the other side where I took this snap. The other photo shows our new hedge at a similar point, about to burst. The handpainted plate at my mother in law's also caught my eye, as did this tin on Ebay. While I possibly don't need more for the collection I couldn't resist it and doesn't it look fine with some of my others.

I'm collecting other tins in my vintage love pinterest board with all the other vintage treasures which is almost as much fun.

(Oh, did you notice I made some new buttons, over there on the right, what do you think? And also some special pages up the top there for Show & Tell and the Brooch Swap to make it easier to find all the posts.)

my creative space - time

If it wasn't for the cough I took away with me on holiday it would have been the perfect break. We managed to fit in a trip to a country nursery, some op shopping and old waresing (spoils above), lunch at a cafe, lots of family catchups and big dinners, a long walk around my sister in law's bush block  and pruning my mother-in-law's 30 plus roses. Not to mention finding the right buttons for my cardigan and some new jeans for growing boys.
It was cold but not cold enough for snow, which I was sort of happy about.

When I got back my Daisychain sampler embroidery kit from Alicia was here! I couldn't resist ordering this a couple of months ago. I think the fabric is such an interesting colour and it will be a great way to learn some embroidery stitches. A good long term project to potter away on. I'm always happy when I've got something to pick up and work on when the mood strikes.

For lots more creative space don't forget to check in here.

(p.s. Can you see the four little kangaroo heads in that second landscape!)

phew!

What a crazy week, but I'm happy to say I survived it!

On top of preparing and packaging and sending all the shop and wholesale orders, driving across town to buy new packaging stocks when they ran out, and picking up some more christmas gifts, I managed to find and buy (in a one hour window of opportunity mind you!), a new dress and new shoes for a big 40th we are going to tonight. Its being held on a roof terrace with views of Circular Quay and lots of lovely friends will be there. I can't wait!

I feel like Mr F and I have really earned some fun (he's been flat out with his business too). We started slowing down last night with friends for dinner, sitting outside in the garden with a glass of champagne and fresh tiger prawns as the sun set and the moon rose high in the evening sky.

On my birthday I was well spoilt. Takeaway thai noodles at the beach and a snorkel round the rocks. Then home for mud cake and pressies. Lots of lovely thoughtful presents - some vintage, some craft, clothes. This beautiful top from Mr F is from Kisu on King Street, both the fabric and the top were designed by the owner, wouldn't that be cool, something to aspire to! And this trowel from the V&A comes from my Mum, how perfect is that! I said to her if you had to choose an object to represent me you'd be hard pressed to do better.

This is my last post for a while and I wanted to take the chance to wish all of you a Very Happy Holiday (along with any celebrations that are relevant to you!). Thank you so much for visiting, for all your wonderful comments this year, you are so generous and encouraging and nice! I've loved visiting all your blogs too and come away with many new projects, ideas and stories.

I hope to make it back to post an end of year roundup and I might pop in before then, but if not have a wonderful New Year too. I have a few things planned  for 2011 (including a great swap, I've got this idea that's been rolling around my head for a while!) and I've already lined up the first Show & Tell interview for February. Meanwhile I'm looking forward to time off to be reinspired and reenergised, time with my family and some vacant staring out at space. Some swimming, in the creek and at the beach, some eating and drinking, some reading, some laughing, some fun!

p.s. Master D was reading over my shoulder the other day and said in a very gentle way, I think you've said  'lovely' too many times. So only two here, I'm reformed ;-)