my creative space . . . 'first sewing project post surgery'

Greetings all,

A special extra welcome to my latest followers, hello!!  If you didn't know, i used to be a very busy handmade designer, in business full time for over a decade - until earlier this year - after 8 years of suffering carpal tunnel syndrome - i had surgery on both wrists.  Relief was immediate, however, swelling & stiffness is slowly repairing.  Anyway . . . hand sewing was my passion, it was how i fell in love with stitching when i was 5 years old . . . i didn't start using a sewing machine until i was 23 & pregnant with my first baby.  I have missed hand stitching, greatly, so when my gal pal Claire from Craft Schmaft offered a Sock Owl sewing class at Sew It Together on the weekend, i am pretty sure i was the first to sign up.  

Meet Lucy.

 I normally obsess over unfinished edges & whispy threads, but i think they add to her soft character.

Beautiful Claire allowed us to choose sock & fabric sets for the class, i made this for my son.

 I completed her wings on the afternoon school run today, where she sat waiting for her new keeper patiently, pondering the world.  How lovely are Winter days in Canberra??

 This boy gasped with glee (he LOVES handmade softies, they are all named & live in families on his bed, not all 8 year old boys are maniacs) & then proceeded to act like a maniac for the photo.

 Here is our sweet Claire, i adore catching up with her & talking raising boys.

 I wonder if she'll come up with a sock duck pattern one day??  I have muses.

So please enjoy my new found inspiration & ability to stitch again, i thank Claire.  For more crafty goodness, check out My Creative Space in Village Voices.  Love Posie 
PS last chance to enter & win a copy of the Best Ever Birthday story cook book here!!

itch'n to get stitch'n . . .

Greetings all,

I love hand stitching, embroidery & tapestry, give me any crafts you can do 'unplugged' in the car, on the lounge, watching children's sport . . . the latest issue of Mollie Makes magazine is filled with stitchy goodness, it does not disappoint.

 Even better, stitching in a hoop!!

 Mollie does a cute embroidery hommage to tea & coffee (shame i don't drink either).

 I picked up these fabulous stitchy books in the past few weeks.

 The cute transfer style of Sublime Stitching is a winner, especially with my children who have a love of handycrafts too (remember we don't have any hand held electronic gadgets in this house or in the car for long trips, i go all Amish on them in the car).  I think the Cath Kidston house cushion below is so sweet!!

 I am so doing this embroidery over the Christmas break, my son has a few products with this Cath Kidston cowboy print on it, now he'll have a cushion to match, stitched with love.

 This image of the cherry cups in the adorable cupboard ever, is a little eye candy nod to darling Heidi in Alaska at The PolkaDot Petticoat.  The shelves in her home are lined with extreme divine vintage gorgeousness.

It's almost parenting Quit'n Time tonight, then i'll start my Stitch'n Time, love Posie

i can sing a rainbow, um, i can make a rainbow

Greetings all,

Well i can't sing a rainbow, i have an awful singing voice (tone deaf & fortunately i know it) but i can see all the colours of the rainbow around me right now . . . which is handy as it's ONE stressful week with major production for Handmade Market on Saturday.  An impressive list of bloggers are coming as new stall holders or visitors, including Maxabella Loves - thanks for your support!! 

Last night i picked up my girls from a sleep over at a friend's farm in Murrumbateman (thanks for all the lovely comments about the last post on twins, yes, i embrace my good fortune!!) & look what they have been busy picking . . .

crabapples in varying degrees of ripeness & . . .  

 quinces, my nightime photography not doing their greeness justice.

 Then home to finish off a rainbow of products for the market, like children's necklaces.

 Just in time, a shipment of amazing craft-enabling Tasmanian Oak knitting needles.

 Lounge craft = hand stitching penny wheels & buttons onto headbands.

 A splash of pastel, i'm thinking of doing up lucky dip jars with pom poms, bias, ric, rac, ribbon & other trim, plus buttons for a basket of fun on my stall.  Brilliant way to share the love & offer up cost price haberdashery i can finally part with.

 Today was spent making . . . 300 Liberty of London badges.  I cut the fabric sitting in the car park outside school each afternoon last week & now i've sorted them into sets, plus some singles.  I have this fabulous 1950s travel case to display all my Liberty printed goodies in, including hair clips, hair slides & buttons too.  Kind of hoping it will be a show stopper. 

 I've made 16 tulle ruffled bottom bloomers, they took ALL Saturday & i'll thread the elastic in the carpark outside school this week (you safety pin the ends together, then do a mega elastic sewing session in one hit when you're next at a machine).  Pricing these is difficult, they use expensive materials & take at least an hour a pair to create (as i restitch the tulle ruffles to the actual fabric).  I've done 3 sizes but want to try to do another dozen, especially in the larger sizes.

 Last market i didn't take headbands, new hair clips, coin purses or cosmetic purses - um, 4 of my biggest sellers, so this time i've come prepared with a tonne of each.  The Hello Kitty fabrics sell well at Shop Handmade & the new hair clips will all be in Liberty prints!!

Another no brainer product i've managed to neglect for a while are simple gift tags, i normally have them with fabric but this time i'm doing stamps - vintage, Euro & quirky - in an 8 for $5 pack, mixed up colours & styles.
Phew, yes, exhausting & a very busy week ahead, but making the most of my rainbowy outlook, or i'd crack under the pressure i put myself under.  I need to cut about 100m of fabric to feel like i have filled up my baskets from the last market.  Have a beautiful & colourful week too, love Posie
PS the winner of the Handmade Business Summit All Inclusive Pass for this Friday in Canberra is Fiona, who is just starting up a small business now, Congratulations, you were randomly selected by Julie, Queen of Handmade, thank you to everyone for entering!!

EDIT: just found this drawing on my sewing machine from my rainbow boy!!  The children were drawing & painting up a storm today.  Bliss. 

my creative space 'fabric ribbon purses'

Greetings all,

Well it has been an exhuasting week with ALL of us getting back into the swing of school routine.  High School starts 20 minutes earlier than Primary School, which puts me in heavier city traffic, sigh.  I'm trying to think up exciting sandwich & lunch box options + i'm back behind the counter at Shop Handmade. 

Knowing it would be a challenge to do any sewing this week, i got stuck into fabric & ribbon coin purses on the weekend (watching Mad Men series 3, again).  Here is this week's offering for Kootoyoo's My Creative Space.

 Finally able to upload images - these are some close ups of the pencil case in the 'packing for high school' post.  She studies Japanese & likes birds, deer, hearts & mushrooms, voila ribbon perfection!!

 This is the 'just in case' purse, more oriental ribbon love.

 I made four dozen purse pouches, seeing the first batch sold out quickly, this should last a while.

 I'm working on a Euro theme for the Handmade Market in 10 days. 

 How cute is this for some French amore??

  Plus a new batch of larger purses in my gorgeous collection of linens printed in Japan.

My feet are sore - i'm not 'Shop fit' meaning i'm not used to standing for 5 hours a day but wow, do Rachel (Shop owner) & i laugh, at anything & everything, all day!!  Then home to cook dinner, organise uniforms & bake for the following day (i bake twice during the week for recess, while the oven is on for dinner).  Small mercy we don't have homework this week as i get back into the structured school routine, covering books & labelling every single thing my children need for school.  Oh & so far - putting my credit card on no less than a dozen notes for all sorts of things from school photos to camp.    
My husband has been out bush for almost a month now in hot humid Brisbane & tries to call in every couple of days.  I have to say technology has come a long way since the days when he'd go out & i wouldn't hear from him at all during an exercise, little babies or not (i'm possibly the world's more relaxed & patient wife).  Skype is working a treat, the children can see his face & chatter away about their day, their new teachers, classrooms, friends, it's gorgeous & natural.  I've love it, i can chat meaningfully & hand sew at the same time, glee!!

Shall enjoy the rest of the week home alone sewing up a storm, ahhhh . . . once i nail the new school run & earlier start time, i should be home from 9a.m. for almost 6 hours of sewing & gardening, yippee!!  Love Posie
PS so good to be running at full internet speed again today, ah, i'm off to visit blogs, tally ho.

snippets of my studio

Greetings all,
I have a love/ hate relationship with my studio??  I LOVE it when it's tidy, orderly, spacious & clear, i hate it when i have let it go . . . piles of fabric, piles of incompleted projects, piles of filing, piles of regret i wasn't tidier.  Right now, i'm in love with the studio.When i did a big clean last weekend, i changed a few things around, like . . . moving the replacement printer the burglars stood on & broke, into the study nook in the hall so now when anyone needs to print, it's central.  In it's place . . . an overlocker, now on it's own portable table.  It's so much easier to manage over locking all shapes & sizes with clear space.  We all know how PMT overlockers are, i overlock like i'm on egg shells chanting "please don't break the thread" - threading bobbins is annoying enough, but rethreading or changing the needle on an overlocker, oh, so frustrating & the interuption to completing your project is infuriating!!  

 . . . slowly working my way through these bolts . . .

 . . . one end of my studio . . .

As my business is a mega chunk of my home life & i'm the only one home during the week, i have the entire front of the house as my studio.  This shot barely covers 1/4 of the glorious space i have to be creative in.  I like working at this end, with the sun pouring in & 3 sewing machines at the ready, Mad Men in the DVD player, bliss.  I keep the ironing board up permanently too!!  Notice the no-more-burglar-grills on the window??
Time to cuddle up next to handsome soldier after a full day of sewing today while he ran the children around to sport & parties.  I should have mentioned in my last post he has already won a Husband-of-the-Year title, he he, it was a magazine competiton with a holiday & prizes, 10 years ago??  The state finalists included a fireman (who won the national title) also a policeman, a customs officer, a hairdresser, an engineer & of course, my soldier.  I sent in 25 words on why he's such a great husband & a shot of him holding our first baby in his UN Peace Keeping ensemble, they mustn't have noticed the rifle he had slung over his shoulder. 
Happy sewing everyone, love Posie

for the love of stationery

Greetings all,
Like most, i'm a big fan of stationery & packaging.  With Christmas markets looming, i have a few tricks up my sleeve for subtle customer reminders for seasonal gift buying - like laminating the sheets of gorgeous Christmas wrap from Kikki-K (double sided, love that) & hanging them from my market stall (so they can spin & show of both festive sides).  Aces!!
I couldn't resist the goodies from Typo too, those stacking boxes (set of 5) are not $25 for extra large, $20 for large, $15 for medium & so on, i got the LOT for $14.95!!  I'm going back for more today as they are fabulous for holding stock & this particular print has an international flavour with Eiffle Towers & Statues of Liberty in small reptitive print!!

Shock horror gasp, i spent Sunday tidying up my studio & there is a floor afterall.  I treated myself to a new sticky tape dispenser, note pads, clutch purse (totally unrelated to my studio) & to start my Christmas cards.  I have a market on Thursday, little 3 hour event at Canberra Airport (Brindabella Park to be precise) so i'm madly trying to make stock in the evenings after a fun day at Shop Handmade with Rachel.  It's hard to resist my husband so i'm doing hand sewing next to him (lounge craft) rather than being in my studio (& watching reruns of OffSpring, why Nina, WHY??)  I'm pretty torn, husband vs OffSpring & all.
Have a lovely week, i'm still only able to upload one image at a time, so expect single-imagey posts for a while.  Love Posie
PS thanks for your thoughtful comments to my last post - i think it's fascinating this whole teen thing.

my creative space 'car craft'

Greetings all,

Yet more travelling around the countryside this week, this time . . . in the hope of finding some land to buy.  Still a pipe draem but if/ when you leave the Army, you lose your Army house, so if/ when handsome soldier discharges, we need a back up plan for our big family. 
So i took hand stitching (which was hard to focus on as my husband likes me to pay attention to him & i had wide eyes looking at the big chunks of Australia i could imagine raising our children on) but also sent some emails for my husband as things popped into his head.  Such multitasking, we women can do anything!! 

I like this property, over 100 acres (tick), within an hour of Canberra (tick), electricity connected (tick), wind break (tick) . . . my list is pretty modest.

Anyone else gone house or land shopping & tried not to let their dreams, heart, head run a mile a minute?? 

My husband is having heart palpitations at the thought of leaving his career to try something new, house a growing family (no more children, even more scary - teenagers!!) oh & we're about to toss a private high school into the expenses & build, oh that's right, we'd have no where to live in the mean time??  Yikes!! 

For less stressful creative spaces, check out those who worship Kootoyoo here.  Love Posie

my creative space 'handstitched lampshade cover'

Greetings all,
Remember these free lampshades i got from Revolve a few MCS posts ago, tossed in with that cabinette??  I finally got around to covering them & put them in the girls' bedrooms.
I have THOSE kind of children who can't resist fooling around, like pretending to be a lampshade??!!  Trust me, she was very quiet & still, our 3rd daughter makes a good floor lamp.

 it was 10C yesterday so my children were in bikinis with no where to swim

 imagine this sweet print in a pink, red & white bedroom

 making crude measurements, circle sewing is always deceptively greedy with fabric

Ok, so this is NOT the Babushka print, instead it's the one my eldest daughter chose, she just loved the greens in this fabric.  I hand stitched them completely from the comfort of my lounge - tacked the hem then turned it over & anchored the top & bottom in place to the wire, easy peasy speedy project. 
Happy Creative Spacing, thanks Kirsty for hosting.  Love Posie

& posie has fallen off her trusty workaholic steed at the last hurdle . . .

Greetings all,
This will be the last post on the children's school holiday tidy up, redecorate & relocate for now.  The furniture hasn't arrived & i'm at a stalemate with how i felt at 3a.m. when i left my son's room like this, with a migraine - this was as good as it was going to get for the boy for now.

Two of my favourite things in the world - a trusty Dyson vacuum & super stylish Little Nest mini-e Chair & Ottoman.  FYI Sam from Little Nest hasn't asked me to plug her products, i just thoroughly believe in promoting what & who you love!!  'tis how we mums in business roll.  The detail, quality & design are amazing, keepsakes for sure!!

 So while this workaholic mummy isn't quite finished - curtains need to be made, furniture chosen/ delivered/ assembled . . . & i desperately need to rest my hands.  I have carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands, i sleep in metal hand splints (yeah baby, sexy as, no wonder my husband has spent less than 20 days at home this year) & scrubbing walls & sorting a billion Lego pieces has left me in agony.  Basically when i was 28 & pregnant with my 4th child, my carpal tunnel would leave me numb, unable to hang out nappies in the morning or pick up my twin toddlers, it was painful.  Surgery is an option, but i'd rather play princess & stop when they hurt for now.  Something to watch you crafty handmade types - i have the hands of an 80y.o. leather factory worker, i blame 6 years of scribbling notes at University & hand quilting & changing half a million cloth nappies - all repetative strain acts, hmmm, how do you get compensation or sue yourself??

So good time for a break & trip to Sydney to meet up with my husband (on his way home from Brisbane) spend more time with my elderly parents, visit friends & IKEA.  I'm not kidding, sometimes it hurts to hold the steering wheel when my carpal tunnel is messing with me.

  Does anything beat white leather & walnut 1960's style??

While blogger is messing with my images, i'll leave it here.  Seeing the boy is the last child, he has been lumped with all the toys from his siblings collective childhood.  I could cull more but he genuinely still plays with everything in turn, why ditch them now??  Anyway, this is all inside his wardrobe, who else is going to see them when the doors are shut?? 

Any one else have a wardrobe full of those giant black school art folios folders, they are so heavy with sharp corners & no child can lift them!!??  Owww, i have scrapes down my shins to prove it from 6 of the bloody folders.
So as i tidy up the boxes in the garage, pack for Sydney & lug 4 garbage bags of goods to charity, i bid you a lovely weekend.  I will be having dinner with my husband on Saturday night, in a real restaurant with make up & heels on, ahhhhhh, love Posie

don't diss the little local market events

Greetings all,
So you might do big markets which are proven, tried & tested success, but don't diss the little local market events too.  They are usually inexpensive to have a stall or it's a free stall + donation to a raffle.  You have nothing to lose, other than time & energy to set up & stand by your stall. The atmosphere is fun & festive, take your children along, you'll meet new people from your local community who can discover you & they're normally short events. 

This is the MOCCA (Manuka Child Care) Spring Fair i did on Saturday, i know, a market just hours before my handsome soldier flew in??!!  It was a good distraction.  I just set up a very small, easy stall with an umbrella & took lots of my on line shop products which i can't take to genuine handmade only markets. 

My little rule is that you should have $ sales of 10 x your stall fee as a starting point.  I took my 2 youngest as i knew they'd love the petting zoo but boy, with a cake stall, hot chocolate, zoo, games, activities, face painting, BBQ - i ended up spending over $60 + a Dumpling Dynasty Bunny Kit to keep someone happy, NOT something i normally do at any maket but this was a fundraiser & i was a bit giddy with the excitment of my husband coming home that afternoon. 

A little sneaky - when you're not sure of your allocated space or position at a market & don't want to take extra tables . . . using large baskets are a handy 'next to stall' cheaters way to spread your wares.  These giant baskets are the largest of 2 sets of 4 baskets at $50 each set, from Lincraft in August.  Perfect for my fabric sale, otherwise, they look amazing filled with small cushions or eventually in my dream home filled with logs for a fire - i'm a tax deductible planner & a dreamer you see!! 

The always lovely Tania McCartney did a book reading too, my 3rd daughter took some shots - there are also 25 images of the petting zoo, i contained her enthusiasm to just one on the blog!! 

So if you can fit in the little events too - do them!!  Thanks Jenny at MOCCA who organised this event, it was delightul.  They are also a fantastic way to do PR for your website, Shop, other larger markets you do where you'll set up a larger (proper) set up. 
While you're reading this i'm on the road doing hand sewing on our way to Nanna's funeral in Sydney.  I hope the 'delay' post worked, sounded simple enough to use.  Have lovely weekends everyone.  Love Posie