my madeit shop…

…finally has some more goodies in it! 

After months of being neglected while I sewed and sewed for Niche and filled custom order, it feels really good to be filling up my little shop with things again.

Pants…

Bibs…

Blocks…

And a few other bits and pieces too…

  I’d love you to pop over and take a peek!

niche!

What a great time we had a Niche market on Friday and Saturday!  Christine came along on Friday night, and mum helped out on Saturday.  We were exhausted by the end, but it was just so much fun!

This was the first time we’ve had a banner up above our table, and it was great.  It uses the same size letters as I have in my birthday banner kits, so it was good to be able to show people what those letters were like.  We sold lots of banners, too!

There were so many talented people there selling their beautiful goodies, and it was great to catch up with some designers that I’ve met through our market – and to meet some new ones!

It was also the first time I’ve had my memory card sets for sale, and I was anxious to see how they went.  I sold nearly all of them, which I was super excited about!  I will soon put some in Under the Oak (another post about that coming up soon) and in my madeit shop (which is gradually being re-stocked).

Lots of tea wallets went off to new homes, and even some pairs of reversible pants.

But really, meeting our lovely customers and being among so many clever people who love working with colours as much as I do was the biggest treat!  Plus, we were able to donate $236 to St Giles!  Thanks for coming along!

graduation!

On Saturday I graduated!  Like my hat?  I think it fits Toby better than me.

This was my third graduation.  I really don’t enjoy them at all.  What I really wanted to do was this:

As I was graduating as a Doctor of Philosophy, this time I had to sit in the front row, which made it even worse!  But I will definitely never be graduating with a PhD again, so I’m glad I did it, even though getting all dressed up and walking across a stage in front of hundreds of people was absolutely terrifying.  I was so worried I’d forget what to do.

My thesis was about hospital treatment provided to nineteenth-century patients in London, Bermuda and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).  I put my sewing on hold during the three years it took to complete, and although I really enjoyed researching and writing, I’m loving being creative again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming up this weekend: Niche!  I will do a big sewing update very soon to show you what I’ve been working on.  There has been a lot of sewing going on, just not much blogging…

market update

So, it’s August!  Nearly market time for me, yippee!  The first one will be Niche Market, on 24th-25th of August at the Inveresk tramsheds, Launceston.

This market is run by St Giles, to raise funds for equipment and services for people who need some extra help in their daily lives.  20% of stall-holders’ profits go directly to St Giles, so you know that the dollars you spend there will not only purchase you some lovely goodies from some talented people, but will also support a very worthwhile cause too.  (I am Facebook illiterate, but you can apparently access the Niche page here.  Let me know if there’s anything important there!)

Then in October the happy nest will be at Inspire Handmade Market in Deloraine.

We had a fabulous time in Deloraine last time, and would are super-excited to be invited along again to help raise funds for the Deloraine Primary School!

And November brings Elizabeth Handmade Market, which is of course particularly dear to my heart.  Elizabeth Handmade Market was formerly The Branch Handmade Market – we’ve changed the name to bring us closer to our purpose of raising funds for Elizabeth Home in India.

Pop over to our website to find out more about Elizabeth Handmade Market, or to apply to be part of it – we’d love to see you there!

So there are plenty of fabulous opportunities to get out there and support some great causes – looking forward to seeing you there!

honey jumbles

This Sunday we had to stay home from church (Toby had an ear infection and Jasper has caught his cold.  Sigh.  I love the way they pace themselves with infections diseases like this, makes the joy last that much longer…).  So we made honey jumble to cheer ourselves up!

Isn’t it a fabulous name!  Honey jumbles.  Sadly my recipe didn’t actually include honey (is that normal for honey jumbles?  Maybe the name just comes from the flavour), but once I’d told myself that was ok, we had lots of fun!

However, before we get into that, a confession.  I’m not great at baking.  I do it once or twice a week to keep something homemade in the lunchboxes, but it’s not something I love and I wouldn’t miss it much if I didn’t do it.  But having said that, there are definitely things about it that I do treasure.

I love cooking with the boys, teaching them little things that I remember my mother and grandmother teaching me (like it’s awesome if we actually break the eggs into the bowl, but it’s not the end of the world if they end up on the floor.  But it’s probably best if we don’t tell daddy).  I love the rhythm of baking…getting everything out, measuring (well, sometimes measuring), mixing, rolling or pouring, watching it transform as it cooks, the delicious smells filling the house.  I even like the flour all over the floor and clearing up at the end (again, might be best if we don’t tell daddy about that bit).

About half the time I bake, what comes out is edible and ok, but nothing fantastic.  About a quarter of the time it’s really yummy!  (Let’s not mention the other quarter.  Usually it involves distraction and smoke alarms)  Today it was a success, yippee!  They looked like tiny loaves of bread when they came out of the oven.

Even the icing seems to be ok, which is very unusual for me.  I’m very good at making bad icing.  Love this colour!

We just used a standard honey jumbles recipe; ours was from The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits by the Australian Women’s Weekly.  I cooked from this book with my grandmother when I was little, and then we were given a copy as a wedding gift.  That’s probably the thing I love most about baking…it’s such a tactile was of keeping memories alive, and of creating new ones.

haberdashery

Do you have favourite words?  Ones that give you a little tingle of delight every time you roll them around your mouth?  (Or is that just me?!)  There are a few words that I love to use…marvellous, pernickety, serendipitous, particularly, splendid…but my absolute favourite is haberdashery.

I think Jasper may have inherited my love of words.  This morning he told me that his name was Ben Bickersnaff and that he would be back in a moment, “I just have to find a suitable hairstyle.”

Anyway.  Back to haberdashery!  (Or had-a-brash-er-y as Toby says)  Just the word immediately puts wonderful pictures in my mind…lots of small wooden drawers filled with jewel-coloured threads, baskets overflowing with ribbons and trims, boxes and tins crammed with zips, and patchwork pincushions stuffed with vibrant glass-headed pins.  And of course, buttons, my favourite item of haberdashery!

Most of the vintage haberdashery that I have came from my grandmother, who was given it by her mother.  Those connections make it so special.  I think of them every time I use a piece of ric-rac or pull a zip out of the packaging that has held it for the last three or four decades.

And how gorgeous is the packaging?!

Glorious colours!

I can’t write a post on haberdashery without mentioning a little shop which epitomises all my needlecraft daydreams…l’uccello, in Melbourne.  It’s tucked away behind a fabric-covered door on the second floor, overlooking Swanston Street.  It has a breath-taking array of ‘vintage haberdashery and fancy goods’ - gorgeous fabrics, threads, buttons, trims and all sorts of other splendid goodies.  Even their business cards are beautiful!