Calendar Girl

Sometimes really big crappy stuff happens, and even though you feel completely helpless, just something teeny tiny like making someone smile is enough.

Bianca had sent me a lovely calendar teatowel quite a few months ago now. One of her girlfriends bought it for her as a 30th birthday pressie.

It had been languishing on my cutting table ever since....

In a serendiptious moment at the oppy, I found this lovely green floral fabric which was a perfect match for the bag lining, and that spurred me into action.

I couldn't quite decide between green and orange straps (and I couldn't ruin the surprise by asking) so I decided to go with both!

While I was making it behind the scenes, I even sent out a few sneaky WIP photos on instagram.... but she still didn't notice.

But I can happily report that it most definitely made her smile!

Wildflowers

I had a little bit of spare stitching time on the weekend, so I finally had a chance to whip up this lovely bag.

The colours are amazingly beautiful....

I'd pre-prepared the teatowel over a month ago when I made the 'shrooms bag. it's been hanging around keeping the ironing press warm, and mocking me from the corner of the room.

But, mocking me and my lack of time no more..... it's now in the shop!

Shrooms...

It's taken me well over a week, but I've finally finished the 'Shrooms handbag....

Made using a lovely 100% linen handscreenprinted Thea & Sami teatowel which was a lovely surprise from Melissa.

Luckily, I have a very lovely Fisher and Paykel Double Dishdrawer dishwasher (which I highly recommend purely just from an ergonomic point of view) so I never, ever, ever dry the dishes....

... and anyhow, I think every teatowel deserves to become a stylish handbag... don't you?

PS - this one is now available in the shop...

A Teatowel Tale

A long looooong time ago, a pretty little teatowel began it's maiden voyage...

It was designed and printed somewhere in Australia, but then managed to find itself sad and unloved in a charity shop (that's Op Shop to us Aussies) somewhere around Lancashire in England.

In an amazing twist of fate, a lovely lady named Lynsey spied the poor unloved teatowel, and took it home, before packing it up and sending it all the way back to it's birth country, to a lover of tea towels (ie. my place).

There the tea towel sat, in the stash for a whole twenty-one months.... until it was time.

Jess had spied the Quince teatowel bag on my blog, and enquired about it at Pip's book launch, but alas, that bag had already been snapped up.

I was quite sure that I had something else suitable in the stash, and Jess said that she'd like something Vintage Australiana with Echidnas or Wombats.

The next day I started searching..... and as I was getting closer to the bottom of the teatowel stack, I was starting to panic that I hadn't found anything with an echidna or a wombat!

But serendipitously, right near the bottom of the stack came a shining light (ok, well that might have just been my imagination, or lack of oxygen to the brain).... but it was the PERFECT teatowel - Echidnas, Wombats, Koalas, Kangaroos, Cockatoos, Possums, Kookaburras, and Platypusses (forgive me but I don't know the correct plural for platypus).

So now Jess has her very own unique OOAK bag with nice dark handles to carry about all her bits and bobs and widgets and squidgies.... and the teatowel is going to live happily ever after.

THE END

Serene Sunday

Yesterday was one of those perfect days.... no plans, nowhere to be, no-one to see.
Time to just potter about the house, listening to some tunes.

Amongst the pottering, I spent some time admiring my busted stash, where I just so happened to find a lovely hand screen printed tea towel that I bought at the Design Market in 2008.

It's now a super swanky handbag, just as I'd originally planned....

This one is heading to my next market, and there may be a few more too!