Where does your creativity come from?

I stumbled across this while looking for another TED video. I need to watch myself when I go onto this site, as I get caught up in all the wonderful talks and find that several hours have disappeared!

Isaac Mizrahi on Fashion and Creativity
If you have never seen "The Fashion Show", hunt it up, it is a great fashion/creativity series and Isaac is the key judge. I just loved his description of where he gets his creativity from and what he does to facilitate it.




Click here if the video does not load up

Beautiful things

This post has nothing to do with craft ... well, I did create her, didn't I? (with a bit of help)

Picture slightly out of focus, so I made it sepia ...We had her hair up in Princess Leia buns all day yesterday and when she undid them, she was Shirley Temple!

Also took a few snaps in the garden today ...

Good to see my roses responding well to the dishwater they get given each day ...

Good to see the bee's enjoying themselves, rolling around in the little purple flowers, soaking up the pollen.

Kreativ Blogger Award

Somewhere in the depths of my inbox, I came across the comment by MissyMaoMao on my Thea and Sami post ... I had won an award! Very excited my first ever!

The deal with this award is that you have to spread the love around!

To keep it growing I have to follow 7 rules:
1) Copy the pretty picture and post it on your blog.
2) Thank the person that gave it to you and 3) link to their blog.
4) Write 7 things about yourself we don't know.
5) Choose 7 other bloggers to pass the award to.
6) Link to those 7 other bloggers.
7) Notify your 7 bloggers.

So ...

7 Things about me you don't know

1. I can tap dance. Started when I was about 5 and did it through to when I was about 18 and then I tried unsuccessfully to return to it during Uni and then during my first few years of teaching. Every once in a while I pop on a vinyl record and tap away for a song or two ... If you want to see me tap, buy me a martini!
   
2. I was born in Scotland, UK and came to Australia when I was three .
3. About 7 years ago I took lessons to learn how to play the piano. I learnt a few songs, bought a second hand piano and every once in a while sit down and have a tinkle with the songs that I still remember.
4. I fear being underwater
5. I fear large crowds
6. I love salt and vinegar crisps (not chips but crisps)
   
7. I have a strange way of saying "film", blame my Scottish upbringing for that one.
   

Choose 7 Bloggers to give the award to and link to them

1. Elizabeth from Oh Fransson
   This blog I guess inspired me to get started on this journey of crafting and blogging. Her creations were just beautiful and inspiring. I spend hours going through and tracing her journey before deciding to start my business. I love her paintbox quilt and hope to make it for my daughter one day.
2. Rashida from I heart linen
   Another inspirational blog which fired me up and got me up off my butt and in front of the sewing machine. She has just released a new book and probably won't have time to read the email that I send her, but her work is just lovely.
   
3. Beky from Pivotal Xpressions
   She is just starting off on her crafty journey, but hey, look at what she has achieved in a very short amount of time. Every time I see her market stall I am in awe of what she has created.
   
4. Jennie from Mrs Beckinsale
   Another craftey WAHM that part of the Northside Makers crowd. Jennie has a very analytical way of looking at things and you can see from reading her blog that she goes about her craft in a very methodical way. What she produces is inspiring to others.
   
5. Jay from Finki Handmade
   Jay needs to blog more about what she does! I was fortunate to share stall space with her at the washed out Northcote Kris Kringle Market, so had some real-life time to get to know her a bit better.
   
6. Melanie from Kimono Reincarnate
   Melanie makes the most exquisite things with old Kimono's. Not only have I enjoyed reading about her creative process, but also reading about how she copes with it all being a Mum.
   
7. Karen from House of Wilson
   A newby to the blogging world but Karen has shared so much in her short amount of time. Years ago I was blessed with the opportunity to join her in a costuming adventure for the Australian Costumiers Guild Ball. We collectively submitted a range of costumes based on the "devil and the seven deadly sins". Karen does the most beautiful costuming work, creative and meticulous in execution. I am looking foward to seeing what Karen does with her blog and crafty energies.
   

Shade Sail

My sewing a room is in the front of the house and it gets quite hot on days like today. I didn't want to spend $45 buying a shade sail, so I I figured, given that I have made bags, quilts and the occasional corset, that I could probably tackle a shade sail.

I bought one metre of shade sail material to make a sail for my front window. The material cost me $15 a metre from Bunnings, it was 180cm wide. I finished the edges in calico (hey, I am doing this on the cheap) with my new 2" bias maker that I found in Lincraft. If I could be bothered driving off to spotlight today, I would have bought some 2 " heading tape.

I double stitched all seams with polyester cotton. The shade sail was attached to a pine post which we scored from my parents.

The front sail has industrial D rings at $8 each from Bunnings, carebena's and D rings to adjust tension. But by the time I got to making the side of the house one, I was lazy and Andreas just screwed them into the house and post!

I cut the front one out of the material making a G string shape (if you can imagine that) and then for the side of the house one, I attached the offcuts together to make another sail. I probably should have trimmed it up a bit more, but it was late in the day and I was tired ....

When we were attaching the back shade, I noticed that one of my roses was in bloom and not singed by the heat.

The C word

I stumbled across this little gem via the Conceptual Metalsmithing web site.




Click here if the video does not start.

I'd love to see some advertising in Australia via Craft Victoria or Australian Arts ... the C word!

Flower Press Screen Printing

I love to support local designers, one that I stumbled across was Flowerpress.

She does a lovely Ric Rac inspired design that would just look fabulous in your next quilt. She has an etsy store with some lovely prints in it as well! I am waiting until she re-stocks in the new year before I place my order ...

Her blog is pretty interesting as well .. check her out!

Happy New Year

I guess I am pretty glad to be seeing the back of 2009. Lots of highs and an equal amount of lows. Hubby and I have ended the year in a flurry of activity, de-cluttering the house and either re-assigning or chucking out the crap that seems to accumulate where we don't want it to. In true Flylady terms ... hitting the hotspots.

I don't have many New Year's Resolutions except to keep balance in my life and to focus on what is dear to me. Make sure that I don't ignore my friends when I am in that crafty zone!

2010 finds me back in the classroom in a part-time capacity again (teaching 60% of the time); Year 12 Information Technology Applications, Year 9 Humanities and Year7/8 Body Mind Spirit (RE). That equals 4 days at the school per week and hopefully the equivalent of 2 days off a week.

My first Market appearance for the year will be the Northside Makers Market on February 6th. I am looking forward to keeping my etsy store upto date and to again, try to develop something new for each of my markets each month.

So I hope that you had a great New Year and to my fellow bloggers I look forward to reading your blog entries and sharing your crafty journey.

And the winner is

It was wonderful reading about the quilts that you keep special and also checking out some new blogs that I had not seen before!

It has taken me a while to get around to doing this, no excuses other than life got busy very quickly leading up to Christmas .. but we are back on track and slowly making our way through all those "draft" blog posts that sit there incomplete.

A big THANK-YOU to all that entered!

The winner is .....
Anna from Quilt Mom's Journey

She has a great blog which talks about her quilting adventures. Email me your mailing details to and it will be in the mail tomorrow!

New Handbags on Etsy: Monsters and Cherry Blossoms

It is sweltering here in Melbourne, but for some reason I am sitting in a non-air conditioned room updating my etsy store.

I've put up four bags into my shop with a range of fabrics ranging from Monsters to Cherry Blossoms. I'm rather proud of the Wizard of Oz bag ...

All fabrics are high quality quilting fabrics and the bags are 100% cotton and therefore machine washable (which is good when you have kids).

Straps are extra long and slides are nickel plated.

My Year in Craft

Northside Makers are doing a Crafty Meme to wrap up the year. Get involved!

1. In my twelve months of crafting, my crafty self made all these...

Bags, bibs, shoes, wallets, pillows, coasters, pendants, pencil rolls, crochet blankets ... and attempted soft toys (not successful). I've been very pleased at my bags and have been enjoying making bags a lot more than the baby shoes that I started off making.

2. If my year was a colour it would be...

I don't think I can give this year a colour, although I have been leaning towards purple as my "colour of the moment".

3. This year I spent way too many craft hours...

un-picking things! I have this basket of things that get un-picked when I am watching things like Glee .. I should really not unpick and just have a seconds sale!

4. This year I wish I'd had more craft hours for...

"no pressure" sewing. Just mucking around for the sake of mucking around. I need to do some skirts for work or re-fashion some old ones, so my muck around time will have purpose. I am quite happy not to have any markets on in January and my husband on holiday, so that I can do this!

5. My proudest craft moment of the year was...

my first quilt for Lexi ... or Wigglesworth!

6. My biggest craft disaster was...

My attempt at a women's wallet. It stills sits there and mocks me ... but in 2010 I will be successful. Hoping to develop some cute Kaos Purses and wallets for my market stalls.

7. This year I had stalls at/visited this many markets...

Sisters Market, Sonny and Coco, Made n Thornbury, Northside Makers .. lots of them!

8. My most enjoyable market was...

definately "our" first market. God it was hard work and stressful, but when it was finished it was so satisfying! On top of organising a market, we three girls decided to also have stalls at it ... crazy women!

Northside Makers; Jennie, Jay and Margaret

9. My best handmade purchase/present/swap/acquisition was...

I swapped something for one of the finki handmade brooches with the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland on it. I also swapped some embroidery for a Mrs Beckinsale Tram Cushions which will arrive sometime next year (no stress).

10. After this year I swear I'll never again...

do 7 markets leading up to christmas .. maybe 3 or 4 MAX ... even though there were more markets, there wasn't more money to go around. Was it worth it? Maybe, it made Christmas less financially stressful but the physical and emotional stress was not worth it.

11. Next year I'm determined to...

Make more crafty things for me, spending more time with friends doing craft and doing craft swaps. I'd like to learn some more practical skills like screen printing or silversmithing, but I probably don't have the time! I am also determined to finish my daughters quilt for her bedr

12. But I'll probably do this instead...

developing things for my markets ... building my business.