New goodies for Gleaners Inc

I've just been to visit the very lovely Liz at Gleaners Inc

I dropped off some new Sunnies/Specs Pouches made with vintage pretties from the stash.

Liz wrote a very good post yesterday about shopping local and supporting Australian designers. Food for thought!

Sunday Snippets

This week I decided to play along with the Fox In Flats Style Dare Challenge.

The challenge was Could you pin something fab onto your outfit for 7 days in a row?

Day 1 - Necklace by Betty Jo - Flower Brooch by me.

Day 2 - Un-Reel Pendant Necklace by me - Flying Ducks Brooch by Finki.

Day 3 - Necklace by me - Lino Brooch by Betty Jo.

Day 4 - Necklace by Lauren Williams - brooch by Shonah 

Day 5 - Un-Reel Pendant Necklace and Beaded Heart Brooch by me.

Day 6 - Necklace by Elk - Flower Brooch by me.

 

Day 7 - I'm still in my pj's after getting home very late from a party lastnight, so here's a gratuitous photo of Mr Limpy Houdini Dog.

Sunday Snippets with Tinniegirl

The Finders Keepers Market

Hay Ho! It's time for the Finders Keepers Market again.

This year it's being held in a brand new venue at The Royal Exhibiton Buildings in Carlton on Friday night, and all day Saturday.

Head along to the Betty Jo / Gleaners Inc stall to find yourself some lovely handmade CurlyPops goodies.

I'll see you there!

Markit

 

Are you looking for something to do this lovely Sunday?

Why not pop on down to Fed Square for Markit! 

Make sure you say hello to Betty Jo in the BMW Edge Theatre Foyer. She'll have all of her Betty Jo goodies as well as some some choice pieces from Gleaners Inc (including some CurlyPops stuff).

The Week That Was - Part 1

It's been a really quick week so far.
Time seems to have passed in one giant blur.... and here we are - Friday already!

On Monday, I caught up with a friend for lunch and then we popped into Gleaners Inc to visit Liz.

Geez... I really need to find a better hand model. If only Frances wasn't armless.

I couldn't resist treating myself to one of Liz's brand spanking new hot off the press recycled marble rings. It matches my cardi perfectly!

I also bought myself this lovely Greg Mann pendant from Gleaners Inc a couple of weeks ago. I've worn it a few times already but kept forgetting to blog about it. There's at least three more pendants that I'm coveting too...

Well, I'm off to pulmonary rehab (while dreaming about the cake I'm going to treat myself to afterwards). Have a lovely Friday!

PS - I've popped a few of the vintage fabric sunnies/specs pouches in the shop!

Featured Hottie Number 13

This lovely Hottie is sort of like a double feature....

If you remember back to when I featured the gorgeous Hottie brooch by Liz from Betty Jo.... well, that was only half the story.

On Thursday night, she bought along her finished Hottie for me to bring home.

It's a Hottie Electric Blanket - and it's ingenious my dear Liz!

The homepage of The Hottie Challenge - lots more in the Flickr Group

Featured Hottie Number 2

I have another lovely Hottie for you today.

This super cute Budgie Hottie brooch is by Liz from Betty Jo.... I wonder if it's part of her finished Hottie Challenge piece?

Oh, and the postie delivered the very first finished hottie to my house yesterday. Thankyou Trudi!

Where's W.... Owlie?

Super Cute Collage by Betty Jo

It seems that some of my little plastic Owls have flown the coop already!

Going Cuckoo

I've been wanting one of these for the looooooooongest time, so when I won the Betty Jo Fan comp, I knew that I was putting my gift voucher towards my very own cuckoo clock.


Every time I walk past it, I want to break out and sing So Long, Farewell...

Is it a bird, is it a plane?

Wearing my Betty Jo SuperPops

No! It's the return of SuperPops!

Unfortunately, SuperPops had been put out to pasture in the good paddock for far too long over the winter.....  meaning that her superhero dress has become a little bit too tight around the midriff section. She can't currently sit down, as a button might literally pop off and take someone's eye out.

You may be wondering what would necessitate the return of SuperPops today.

I could pretend that she'd returned to rescue a kidnapped baby, do a good deed for a pensioner, or give away a prize, but in this case, I'm afraid she's returned to the blog for purely selfish reasons.

You see there's a Betty Jo fan giveaway going on at the moment, where some lucky duck can win a gift voucher (and I really want to win so that I can buy myself a cuckoo clock).

From Betty Jo:

Send me a photo of yourself or your Mum/Sister/ Gran/Buddy/Bloke wearing or posing with a Betty Jo Designs jewellery or clock. Please lets see who you are (no lapel shots or chopped off heads or macro zoom type pics.) Either email them to me (bettyjodesigns@gmail.com) or upload them onto to Betty Jo's Facebook
I hoping to make a customer gallery and need some submissions to kick start it!
I will leave this open for a while so (hopefully) I have a few entrants from which to choose who will win the voucher ( it will be a random choice I might add).

This is my proper entry.... now you should all get photographing pronto!

The one where I finally say thankyou

Lauren Williams Button Necklace and Betty Jo Lino Flower Brooch

Life suddenly got a whole lot busier this year, so I've been a little slack with keeping up to date with the thankyous!

Lovely Lauren gifted me this gorgeous button necklace at the market on Saturday (it features one of my favourite Ume Komachi fabrics) and lovely Liz gifted me a gorgeous (extremely limited edition) floral lino brooch.

In the mail last week, I received these fabulously funky retro tea towels and a gorgeous scrappy brooch from lovely Steph at Moo Bear. She stumbled across them at a garage sale....the floral motifs and the colours are absolutely amazing.

...and last but certainly not least is this absolutely beautiful tea towel from lovely Mandapanda at Krafty Panda.

 I desperately need to make myself a new tote bag (the grubby penguins need a wash), so this will be the perfect size and print!

Thank you so so much to all of you for the super special pressies!

On My Wall - Part 2

While cleaning up on the weekend, I discovered another hidden treasure.

It had fluttered itself all the way home to my house..... only to get covered in a pile of fabric!

But now, this beautiful Betty Jo Lino Butterfly wall hanging has pride of place next to SuperPops, and all is well in the world....

In the News...

From L-R - Liz, Myself, Jay, Cathie

The Northern Craft Bonanza is in the Northcote Leader today.

We had lots of fun at the photo shoot last week, and it was the perfect excuse to head to Chair 14 for a coffee and a muffin!

The dates got a little mixed up, so I'm going run with the dates in the newspaper which means that the next one is tomorrow night - Thursday March 4th from 7 - 9 PM.

Please come along and say hi!

Razzamatazz

Liz tipped me off the other day, about a little shop that I'd never visited....


Trimmings and Remnants is jam packed with all things bright and sparkly - fabrics, sequins, trims, ribbon etc etc etc. If you needed to make a costume for Mardi Gras, then this would definitely be the place to visit!

I just couldn't resist picking up a couple of sparkly remnants, and some sparkly thread to play with. Now... what to make???

The Bonanza

Thanks for all of the lovely blogaversary comments yesterday. I'll be drawing a winner tomorrow night, so keep your fingers and toes crossed at all times!

On Thursday night, I headed off to the Northern Craft Bonanza to meet up with some wonderful crafty girls.

I took along some brooches that needed hand stitching..... although there was more talking and eating than hand stitching going on.....

The time absolutely flew by (as is always the case when you're having fun). I'll be counting down the days until the next one..... head on over here if you're interested in coming along!

Going Greener

Betty Jo Collage Cards and SuperPops

I had a very interesting morning today. As part of the economic stimulus package, households can have a free environmental assessment of their homes, to learn about how to practically reduce their environmental impact, save money on energy bills, and of course make homes more comfortable and energy efficient to live in.

I've already made a start since I moved into my new place by installing heavy curtains, new exhaust fans, and a skylight. I have plans to install ceiling fans so that I don't have to use the air conditioning, and after today, I'm also going to look at having an external awning blind installed on my bedroom window..... in fact, I've been to the blind shop for a quote already.

I've learned about lots of new products on the market to make it easier to be environmentally friendly too.... it was definitely well worth organising. If you're interested (in Melbourne), let me know and I'll email you the contact details.

The photo above shows the the lovely Betty Jo Collage Cards that I bought for myself on the weekend. I'm planning on framing them to create artwork for my walls.
They fitted in with my environmental theme today as they were all inspired by the flotsam and jetsam that Liz has collected from various beaches. I was also lucky enough to bring home SuperPops.... and she has a brooch finding so I can wear her with pride. Thanks Liz!

Super Cupie Lino Pops

This one is especially for my BIL.... a laminex and lino Betty Jo SuperPops.

From Liz:

She has a Red Laminex headdress, cape and pumps to Give her extra SUPER CUPIE powers!
She has on her Super Cupie Pops apron with the famous motif, and attacks her evil foes with pegs ...pinching them within an inch of their lives!

Here she is with her Super Cupie Posse..... oh so cute!

Thanks so much for playing along Liz.

How on earth are we ever going to be able to pick a winner? I'm thinking I might have to do a blog poll at the end of the month.....

Another market wrap

Well it was another lovely day at the Made'n'Thornbury market yesterday. I only managed to take a couple of happy snaps before my camera started beeping to let me know that my battery was flat...drats!

Looking at the photo, I can now see that I had far too much stock on my table - a good lesson for the next one.

It's always great to meet up with the rest of the stallholders for a chat, and we also had lots of other lovely visitors come to say hello too.

We missed Cathie.... we were dreaming of her red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting all afternoon.

I've spent all day today sitting on the couch eating (tim tams, vegemite toast, and cupcakes) and drinking cups of tea, and generally just veging out which has been wonderful.

Hmmm I think I have just enough time for one more tim tam without spoiling my dinner!

A broochfest

There seems to be a little bit of a broochfest happening around crafty blogland, so here's my show and tell!

I try to co-ordinate a brooch to my outfit every day, even if I'm just schlepping about the house. Brooches just seem to make me happy.

• Top row - Beaded Heart and Flower Brooches by me
• 2nd Row - Aunty Mabels Handbag & Owl by Betty Jo - Wonderland and Chocolate by Sophie Isobel
• 3rd Row - Flower by Greenolive, Owl by Hokey, Vintage Diamante Cluster bought from second hand shop in Clunes, INXS badge from the 80's gifted to me from Steph.
• Bottom Row - Necklace / Badge Combo by Lauren Williams, 3 vintage floral & 1 Pippijoe fabric badge from Starashan.
• Cluster of badges on the right hand side made by me at Brown Owls last year.

Do you have a little bit of a brooch collecting obsession that you'd like to share?

Taking notes

When a seriously talented and successful crafter gives tips, I listen.

I've been using paint cards and playing cards as backing for my brooches, and I was also considering using some 1970's recipe cards.

Liz just happened to mention a little tidbit about the busyness of the packaging taking the spotlight away from the actual product - and it was one of those lightbulb moments.

So, after a little bit of re-thinking, I ordered some very white and very plain postcards.

Now my next task is to tone down the look of my market stall..... could be difficult!