Spring fair in the air..

Saturday September 4. Manly Library
Mini zine fair.. as part of the Manly arts festival..
I'll be there! Pop by and say hi - have a stroll along the beach for some Spring air..

Around the corner..

.. Is Spring... yipee! I'm not quite in the garden yet.. but i guess we are having a little bit of a tidy up as the days get longer.. in between reorganising various areas i had a flip through the latest country style magazine..


With pages of beautiful photography, personal stories the September issue also has a bonus "keep calm + carry on" tea towel.. Then it was back to business..

Mr R had been at it again, the op shops that is.. his latest find (above): buffet number 3. Yes, he is stopping now. So this one slotted nicely into the newly updated shed-udio. But that meant sorting out buffet number 2.

Have you ever started some 'supplies' in a handy little container only to discover in no time at all you have several containers, bags and various others?? It was time to consolidate.. time to group like with like.. a box of felt, a tub of coloured cottons, a drawer of buttons. You get the idea..



Aaaah, that's better. Funny how it does also clear the head.. How 'bout you, have you embarked on any Spring cleaning/re-arranging?

Tea time

I don't know about you - but it seems to me that when you arrange to meet up with family/friends on a Sunday, it's a good excuse for eating. Eating something special. Something you may have fond memories of.. Something you don't usually have.. and.. err maybe going a little over the top.. we created our own 'high tea'

we had triple decker sandwiches (without crusts of course), golden homemade mini sausage rolls, fairy cakes, scones with jam + cream, the ol' chocolate cake and THEN..

These little chequered squares are Mr Kiplings battenburg cakes - little sugary morsels coated in marzipan - something from my very far past.. the round-ish cakes are 'coffee kisses' they were in fact what started the whole idea. That harmless comment to my mother one afternoon - as i walked home "d'you remember those coffee kisses you used to make? D'you still have the recipe?"
She found a thirty year old typed blue airmail letter from my Nan which had the recipe.. they are sort of bite sized crumbly cake/biscuit with coffee icing in the middle.. as i skipped down memory lane i recalled twisting them apart - spreading the icing equally on each half to make the whole thing last longer..

it was a good excuse to do many things, including using my grandmothers tea set..

...embroidering a handmade heart to attach to my freshly baked brownies..

and play a round of backyard croquet..

I hope your week was also 'sweet'...

A Phil Collins moment?

In 1985 Phil had a boppy track titled Sussudio.. if you want to see some 80's frizz then check it out.. but otherwise i digress from the fact that i have renamed our shed the 'shed-udio'. IT had been calling me all week..

It had undergone another slight change with Mr consolidating the metal bookshelves to one side.. then he added this handy little recycled screen.. it was last seen as a bench with back rest, before that it was a door.

So i did get to my desk.. began some collage.. more on that later..

Then it came over all grey and began to rain. This was the view outside just before.. not to worry, i had glue, paper, home made chocolate brownies + some masking tape!

Oh! for the 3 day weekend..

opportunity knocks..

And so it seems Mr R is having a lucky streak with his op shop finds.. this was his latest the other week..
A $10 chair - just what Miss R needed to go with the sort-of-budget makeover of her room... yes that is a lead rope for a horse, and no, she doesn't have one, not full size and breathing.

Out and about.. Friday 13th

Friday night i popped over to the Powerhouse museum to the Young Blood Designers Market. A 3 day market held inside the museum. Apparently in years gone by it had been very crowded.. originally it was free and outside.. so I paid my $5 and in i went. No crowds. On the upside it was great to walk around and chat to creative people i hadn't met before.. on the downside - because it was split over 3 levels the energy was also dispersed.. But i was happy checking out all the cool new displays..


parliament of two had an eye catching setup with quirky jewellery and dear little bookmarks.
I didn't miss the industrial designed up market products, instead it was lovely to wander through the individual scenes taking in the creative set ups..

I was grateful to those who had made the trip from interstate such as Notions from Tasmania.. whose retro brooches were very sweet.
But show me some letterforms on yummy paper tags and i'm there..


The other impressive thing about bespoke press was their digital photo frame which had a little 'movie' of exactly how time consuming - i mean truly crafty it is to print on a letter press.
Among other favourites was Adelaide's Delilah devine, i went back embarrassingly often - but couldn't decide on a vintage brooch or gorgeous little artwork...



Nearby was Melbourne's' Cottage industry, top marks for a nostalgic display - featuring cross stitch, embroidery and vintage tea towels. I was happy with my tiny purchase - which looked at home in my $3 op shop vase...

Last, but not least was the colourful world of Boniko.

Now these little guys were hard to resist, but then so were the actual Japanese tabi socks that they were made from! The socks come with the x between the toes - i love the way this has been incorporated into the characters.. Kawaii!

Pencil in my pocket..

So as another 2 pencils arrived in the post box on Friday.. i was glad i was up to date. For the Pencil in my pocket project - where i have to document an activity inspired by the colour of the pencil sent to me..

Did you know that Prussian Blue was the colour originally used to make blueprints? the kind architects use.


I didn't know that my 'activities' would all have visual components.. but that seems to be a common thread that is developing.. although i do enjoy the words.. Do you think in words, or pictures?

For earlier posts on these such pencils see here..

Out and about..

A blue sky, a new friend from Tokyo and 3 markets to explore in Sydney was all i needed to get me out on Saturday morning.. first stop was the tasty growers market. Held on the first Saturday of each month it is the perfect place to grab a coffee and sample some of the best produce around. I particularly enjoyed the sesame dressing i sampled with a chunk of cucumber. (heaps of cheese - but a little early for me). If you can't walk there, apparently a stamp from the Sydney Morning Herald info stand gets you $10 parking at Star City. Now THAT would've been handy to know!
next it was Surry Hills.. before the market we popped into Shelf life.. Ethical design for the home...

lovely displays, beautiful ceramics..


an oasis indeed... perfect to tie in with the Surry Hills market - the first Saturday of the month..
Talk to the wind and sun had been busy carving her super duper little match box stamps.. these are sooo perfect for creating your own 'thank yous' and gift wrapping..


After a bit of lunch.. we viewed "Blue" at the Object gallery..
9 artists, one colour.. two of my favourites:

The Blues: the dogs of doom, Brenda Factor 2010

Shotgun II, Mel Robson.
It was quite a visual feast of a day .. ending with a 'perk'me up at Max Brenners..

Have you tried this? the ceramic holder has a tealight candle under the metal cup.. you add the choc chips into the milk and voila! drink up the goodness through the metal spoon/straw.. sometimes genius is also useful..

Looking, making + EATING...

This weekend was bound to go well. My subscribers copy of Inside Out arrived on Friday afternoon. I was booked into a workshop at the gallery... we were having home cooked Japanese lunch and a crafternoon...!
(The Sept/Oct issue takes a peak inside artist Beci Orpin's creative home).

So chef arrived and got to work on the curry..
Funny, that 'chef' is fellow blogger talk to the wind and sun who i met on Etsy 2 years ago - when she was living in Japan and i purchased something from her... it has been wonderful being able to share creative times - it definitely adds another layer to just tea + a chat! I also have a Japanese student staying - so off we went to the table... (a little enforced crafting - surely not a bad thing is it??)

I was working on this handmade book - but more about that another time..

Incase we needed reviving we made ourselves a little treat...
Oishii, delicious!!!
Sunday i was off to the gallery to see Paths to Abstraction and do a printmaking workshop.
Perfect! We were shown MONOPRINTS, and carving into wood and chinecolle (adding paper to a print).

handy table top press - just what we all need - altho i may need to get an aluminium rolling pin, meanwhile..

lovely oil based ink ...zzzzuuuullluch..

I was trying hard to stay abstract - but faced with oil based ink + a pencil i couldn't resist a bit of line work..
Yay! can't wait to re-embrace the monoprint again one weekend!

Hope you enjoyed some looking, making + eating too!