I'm in a geeky mood at the moment, I have been making cute little things with computer robot fabric for my market stall on Saturday.
If you know me, you will know that I am an IT teacher and was pretty active in the teachers association for a few years, contributred to a Year 12 book and have done a stack of "other" stuff. In the last year or so, I sometimes I feel I have lost part of my geekery as my attention span for programming and general futzing around on the computer just isn't there anymore. Over the last week I have been busy preparing a poster for a "special project" I am working on, so I am feeling quite geeky again ....
... so my friday finds for this week are all of the wonderful geek inspired handmade stuff on etsy.
1. Floppy Disk pen holder by Geek Gear. I have a box of floppy's sitting there, thinking should I bother transfering the information onto a CD or just chuck?
3. Ms. Pacman Pillow Set by Modernality ... these guys also have a star trek pillow, but I like the pacman ones better. I can imagine these on my back couch.
5. Twitter Jewelry .."follow me" by Punky Jane. I liked the idea of this, social networking slipping into reality and everyday life. It worries me that our PM has a twitter account, as it probably is not him entering in the twits ...
I've taken to listening to the iPod again in the car. I have one of the ultra trendy third generation pods that my students refer to as "the brick" .... Normally I have a definite musical need when I plug in the iPod, but today I pressed "shuffle" and she took me on a musical adventure with an artist I had not listened to in a while. So I thought I would share.
We discovered Metisse (Irish/African Soul/Electronica band) when we first discovered Dead Like Me many, many moons ago. When we originally discovered them, their first few songs were downloadable for free from their web site. I liked the eclectic style and the vocals are quite haunting.
Here is a video of one of their songs to some Dead Like Me Footage (here is the link if it doesn't load). There seems to be a whole lot of Boom Boom Ba alternative video's on youtube. It looks like a teacher might have used it as a media exercise. Sadness is another one of their songs on Youtube. If you go to the MetisseMusic web site you can listen to their new album. Enjoy!
I have been having battles with my beloved embroidery machine. I have a Janome Memory Craft 350E that I just love, but lately we have been having challenges. It is not the needle or the fact that it sits in a layer of dust and offcuts, but rather I have been using inferior embroidery threads.
One piece of advice that they gave me when I purchased my baby last year was to use good quality threads ... always. But sometimes that is not possible and a few weeks back when I desperately needed white thread to do some embroidery for my lovely friend Jennie, my only option was buying a three pack of QA 100% polyester Embroidery Thread. I was in Spotlight and as per usual they had run out of the Birch Viscose Rayon Embroidery Thread that I usually buy and the QA value pack promised "value".
The culpret ... crappy product, guilty as charged.
The first lot of embroidery went well, only two breakages .... then the next job was worse, 3 or 4 breakages .... then last night I tried to make some labels and it kept on breaking every 30 seconds.. grr. When the polyester thread breaks it goes all fuzzy and you have to carefully trim it away, take the machine back 30 or so stitches, re-thread and try again. Sometimes I can get away with it, but I don't like my embroidery looking crappy ...
The job that I was doing last night was my labels. Yes I am crazy for doing my labels ... but I like the effect that I get with the viscose rayon on the cotton heading tape.
My baby in action, heading tape is thick enough to go in the hoop without interfacing.
The only thing stopping me from being more productive last night was my labels. Consequently I changed my construction method on my Lunch Bags to accommodate my lack of labels.
The dodgy labels, the third from the bottom is with Silco Thread... which ended up being too thick.
Running out of time before heading off to work at lunchtime, I rang around the spotlight stores to find my Birch thread, South Melbourne Spotlight had it. So I rang my hubby who works in Port Melbourne to pick them up. I have already done about 10 labels since I have gotten home - yeah!
My only decision now is what do I do with the QA threads? I am tempted to take them back to Spotlight and let them know that they are selling crappy products. Or do I send them back to QA with a nice letter letting them know that their product did not live upto the "value" standard I had hoped for?
Most of what I do comes out a need in our household. I make something and think, what a good idea, I'll make a handful for the Sisters Market.
The little Lunch Bag or mini tote is an example of this ... when my hubby goes off to work he generally takes a plastic bag with left overs, fruit and sometimes a can of something. Inevitably the plastic bag finds it's way into the bin and the plastic containers tend not to find their way home. So I made him a black lunch bag with Chilli fabric (I thought it looked manly).
It is a three panel tote with Cotton Drill on the outside and high quality cotton full lining so it sits quite square when there is nothing in it. But it is not too stiff. And the thing I like about them is that they are washable. So if you spill something in them, chuck them in the wash with your jeans.
My daughter yesterday quite liked the size and wandered around with it on her shoulder and put her teddies into it ... so I thought I would make a few for Saturday's market.
My daughter is starting to get so independent. She is approaching two in September, and over the last month her comprehension and communication skills have exploded.
The other morning as I was putting on her coat, I explained to her that we were going in the car .... 5 minutes later she was in the hall ready to go in the car ...
Wearing a vintage 1950's bonnet and tracksuit pants ... so classy!
Kanzashi refers to elaborate hair ornaments worn by women in Japan. They originated around 1600. Wikipedia has an entry about them. But of course we can put them on scarfs, bags and other crafty things that we make.
Just a reminder that this Friday is the deadline for my July Give away! So leave a comment on this post or on my giveaway post and good luck!
The rules are ...
Tell me 1) where you in the world and 2) what interests you about my blog, and you will go into the draw for a longitude/latitude pencil case with your custom co-ordinates on the front and map fabric on the inside. Easy!
Entries into the prize draw go something like this ....
One entry for every comment on this post.
PLUS, if you comment about my giveaway on your blog, I will give you two additional entries! But you have to tell me about your post in your comment.
The draw closes 31st July 11.59pm Melbourne time! So there area few weeks to enter into this draw!
I must admit that whilst I have really enjoyed reading and watching Harry Potter, in past years I have grown tired of it .... Stumbling across this post "Mad about Harry Potter" via Craft Gossip this morning, reminded me how much fun some of those earlier Harry Movie moments were and it makes me want to wish that I had the energy to hold one of those large fancy dress parties we used to do so well ....
I have been wanting to read the complete set of books consecutively, and now I have a complete set of Harry books sitting on my bookshelf. Another book I am quite enjoying is Trudi Canavan's latest, "The Magician's Apprentice". I loved her first set "The Magician's Guild" it had me hooked. By the time I got to the last book in the series, I was revved up and I read it in 2 days (nothing else got done!). I have been busy with school to get as hooked as I did with TMG, but TMA is still very very good.
The panic always kicks in the weekend before a market. Will I have enough stock? Have I filled in all the gaps from the last market? Do I have the energy? Is my stuff good enough?
Next weekend I have my first stall at the Sisters Market in Brunswick Town Hall on the 1st of August. Many of my fellow crafters have done this market time and time again, but alas, this is my first go! So nervous, I am!
So come along ... take a peep at my stall ... give me feedback ... bring me food ... but most of all, enjoy the market and all the craftiness it has to offer. Finki Handmade will be there, along with Lauren Williams, Rabbit and the Duck and Printspace. Hopefully I will see you there?
If you are not familiar with Craftypod podcast then you need to check it out!
A great podcast that I listen to when I am doing non-machine work in my workroom. This weeks interview is about Needlepoint and how it needs to get it's sexy back .... previous podcasts have talked about indie craft, how to run a crafty business and even copyright.
I am not sure what is more disturbing about this documentary, the fact that there is evidence of the damage hyper-commercialization does to our children and the way their thinking develops or that as an educator I knew it all along and I have subconsciously ignored it, or told myself that it is was an over reaction. In Australia the hot topic at the moment is the hyper-sexualisation of children through advertising and the concept of the "tween" market, I see it every day when I teach.
Watching this documentary, I am pleased that we limit the amount of time I take Tori to the shops and that we don't religiously allow her to watch "free to air". When Tori gets old enough to make her own things, I want to encourage her to be a maker and not a consumer. The Future Craft Collective Blog has lots of ideas on what you can do with your kids (other than watch TV and play video games).
People that market to the "youth market" work hard at creating opportunities to manipulate, the fact that "kids under 8 cannot understand the manipulative nature of advertising" means that it will be harder for us Tori gets older. It scares me that in America, it is ocially acceptable for 5 year olds to have manicure/pedicure parties. *shudders* I wonder how long it will take us
The one area that the documentary did not touch upon was the presence of Technology in schools and the fact that companies such as Microsoft, Toshiba, IBM and NEC have known for years that if they get "into" schools early, then students will be "branded" at an early age. They did talk about "educational technology" products for toddlers and young children, the decision is basically another branding exercise disguised as educational claims that don't stick. Companies such as Baby Einstein sound great, but this documentary claims it is a scam. There is no solid scientific research to support the use of media with infants and toddlers. It is more effective to read to your child rather than get them to watch a Baby Einstein video.
Schools do not think twice of putting Microsoft products on their school computers or accept funding from Intel to run programs, but they question McDonald's if they want to run their tuck-shop. Schools need to expose kids to different operating systems, software packages and "teach them to be makers", teach them to evaluate, teach them that they have choice in what they use and how they use it.
As for parents, what sub-conscious branding statements do you make to your children? Most of my Year 7 students turn up on the first day of school with iPods, mobile phones and on casual dress days you see the brand jeans, make-up and handbags. It is not unusual for Year 7 students (12,13 years) to be watching R rated movies (generally bootleg movies) with their parents blessing. We often say that at the start of the year we start with a class of Grade 6 kids and then at the end of Year 7 we are luck if half the class are still Year 7's. Most have grown up so fast during that first year and have been exposed to so much "older" material then they really should be.
This topic is not new. A few years back my husband read a book called Growth Fetish by Clive Hamilton, similar subject, scary research. Another documentary that I want to hunt up is Affluenza by PBS.
I have finally started my Crochet Zig Zag blanket. I bought three balls of colour from the Yarn Barn to start with to see how it would look. The length of the blanket is 1 1/2 metres x how ever many balls of wool I end up using. 3 balls makes about 10cm.
What do you think of the colours? My sofa is grey, so I am hoping that purple will go nicely with it. And the zig zag pattern is a bit more refined than the crochet granny squares.
You know you are a frequent buyer when you wander into your favourite patchwork store and the owner wanders up and shows you a pile of fabrics that she has put aside for you in their sale *giggles* Made my day! I had spent the previous hours on the couch sleeping. Sore throat, but really exhausted.
I came away with a modest purchase of fabrics; Alexander Henry Snuggle Skull, some really cute Kokka fabric that will become cute mini lunch totes, some standard skull fabric and some purple skeleton fabric. All good! I was hoping to make a quick stop at GJ's on my way to the Yarn Barn to get more Merino for my current crochet project ... instead I went and looked at VnV Boutique on Lygon Street. From the outside it looks like your average goth shop, but their range is probably more alternative and from next week they will have gallery space opening up for alternative artists. Interesting.
So, just incase you didn't pick up this interesting fact from my post ... GJ's in East Brunswick have a 25% off sale for the next week until next Wednesday. Enjoy!
It has been such a busy week, the first week back teaching। I was lucky enough last Thursday to score some emergency teaching work at my school and the first class I had was Food Tech.
One group of students were making Choc Chip Cookies ... yummo। I was so impressed with the ease of the recipe and the yumminess of the result that I thought I would post it.
Ingredients
125g butter ½ cup castor sugar ½ cup brown sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla 1 egg 1 ¾ cup self-raising flour 125g chocolate chips (or in my case 125g of dark, milk and white chocolate all chopped up with a knife)
1. Preheat oven at 180°. Line 2 baking trays with non stick paper. 2. Cream together butter, sugars and vanilla. 3. Add lightly beaten egg, beat well. 4. Mix in sifted flour 5. Add chocolate chips and mix well 6. Shape mixture into small balls and place on lined baking trays, allow room for spreading. You can pop the balls into the fridge while the oven is warming up. 7. Bake in moderate oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
Leanne has a beautiful blog talks about colours and what they mean. She is a talented lady who hand dyes wraps, check out her etsy store. My favourite scarf in her store is the Violet open weave scarf. I'll have to put one of these on my Christmas list!
Here are some other lovely colour sites you might want to look at ...
I came across this blog and I thought what a great idea! Caroline talks about the idea of writing your 100 dreams and that anyone can do this if you break it down into categories.
"10 professional goals, 10 family goals, 10 financial goals, 10 creative goals, 10 places to visit, 10 skills to master, 10 books to read, 10 events to attend, 10 subjects to research, 10 things you've always wanted to do (e.g., bungee jumping)."
A few weeks ago I was fortunate to have attended the business Mum's Network Conference at Holmesglen. The conference was worthwhile and I came away with so many good ideas and business contacts.
The conference was organised by the Business Mum's Network Their joining fee is $85 which is comparable to other association memberships and they have mentor groups and other groovy things that happen. If I didn't have to renew my Craft Victoria membership then I would have joined them this month. Hopefully my Sisters Market Stall in August will reap enough rewards to be able to join them.
Well, school term is about to start back for me and I always find that I am a touch anxious the weekend before. I have to go through and check my diary, check my time lines and calm my nerves by becoming obsessive compulsive for a few days.
As a result I came across a good article on Meditation via the Organize Your Life Now blog. I used to be an avid Gym/Yoga attendee and then life got too busy and managed to think up too many excuses. Perhaps I need to go back to doing Yoga that a bit more regularly. Make time to re-set ... searching through the Organize web site, there was also a link to Organize your toddler - are you kidding?. Bedtime has changed into a negotiation ... even more so when we are away from home!
Last week we disappeared for a few days down to Phillip Island for a few days of rest.We got to walk along the beach, even though it was FREEZING and Tori got to collect stones for Macka Packa.
We even got to see a Humpback Whale frolicking off the coast of Cape Woolami. My husband got a few good pictures, but I am sure they will appear on his blog at some point in time.
There are lots of great giveaways happening out there in blog land at the moment.
Of course, the Konstant Kaos Longitude/Latitude Pencil case (closing date end of July). A cunning plot to find out where my visitors are coming from (and perhaps discover a few more blogs to read!).
It is hard to run a business from home AND work part time AND take care of a demanding 2 year old ... so hopefully if I document some of my goals I will be accountable. So here it goes ...
Konstant Kaos Business Goals for July
An up do date Etsy shop. My products are not going to sell themselves sitting in my front room. I don't have to put *everything* on etsy, just a few key items to make sure that my bases are covered when people look me up. Of course this means taking pictures, cropping, uploading etc. No wonder I avoid it!
Use scheduling more in blogger to manage my blogging time. That means writing posts a head of time (*shock* I hear you say).
One dedicated sewing day a week. Not to say that I am not going to sew at other times, but if I put aside a "work day" then I can schedule my time around that.
Work on Pin, Cut, Sew a bit more and the ideas that I have in that area. Yes I have another online shop where I sell material that I can't use. But I have other ideas for this business name and I need to find some time to sit down and "just do it".
Do my books for Tax Refund. Another "just do it" goal.
I stumbled across this blog (as I do... ) called Towards Sustainability. I was first taken with the article on harvesting ginger, we have some rhizomes about to burst through a pot and I eagerly read about Julies adventures with Ginger and Turmeric.
As I read on I was inspired by her recipes, adventures and tips and hints about living a sustainable life. Here are a few of her recipes that you might like to make ...
I have an interesting collection of Friday Finds, rather than objects, rather shops that are doing some fabulous things with Screen Printing. I am currently lusting after the skills and equipment to do some funky things, but until then I will lust after what others are doing!
So here it goes ... my Top Etsy 5 for this week ...
Fabric Insects by Droptine. These are just gorgeous. The shop also does some nice Screen Printed Totes as well.
Bold and Noble have the most exquisite hand pulled designs on paper. I love this numbers piece and I can imagine it on the wall of Tori's bedroom wall. The robot alphabet is gorgeous as well.
When I think of Gingham, I cast my mind back to a bag that used to hang over the back of my chair in Primary School. The chair bag was Green and it had my name embroidered on it. In the bag I kept pencils and a book. There are other memories of Green library bags, school uniforms and table cloths of Gingham being used on Shrove Tuesday.
Recently, I have been re-igniting my love with Gingham. Stars are being appliquéd, lining for bags made with beautiful checks, and cute little pouches ... lots of loveliness to be had!
So what is Gingham?
A quick search reveals why Gingham has such a "common" reputation. It started off as a striped fabric and then in the C18 the design changed into a check. Gingham, like Calico, has been used in the past as test fabric for designers. Many of the web sites state that Gingham has it's roots in Indonesia.
Recently I have noticed different grades of Gingham appearing in stores. In particular, a quilting weight Gingham looks great when used as a backing fabric. When I pointed out my observations to an assistant at Spotlight the other day, she commented "What is Gingham?" Bahh!
Yesterday was my second stand at the very new Sonny and Coco in Preston Town Hall.
It was a pity that the market was on a day when a) it was freezing b) the middle of school holidays and c) one of the most popular footy matches was on. So the market was very very quiet. I did about 80% of my sales before lunch and spent after lunch pinning a quilt to the backing fabric. Mum came in to do the lunch shift for me so that I could go around and buy some goodies and chat to other stall owners (thankyou Mum *hugs*).
My wonderfully patient husband who puts up with all my pre-market anxiety crap, painted the two Ikea draws red and black to use on the stall. The draws added a bit of height to the stall and allowed me to do a bit of display work, using the draws to create interest and they were heavy enough to rest things up on. I was pleased with the look, but a few functional improvements need to be made to the next stall layout. I grabbed some of the japanese laquerware bowls that we had to put my hair ties and clips into.
I ended up doing the screen printing that I wanted to do this week onto the American Apparel baby/toddler tops that I bought online (sizes 3-6months, 6-12 months, 12-18 months 18-24 months). I opted for the American Apparel tops as I know that they wash up well and last.
In addition to the baby/todder tops we also had cufflinks and the little notelettes that I made from groovy out of copyright movie posters.
Despite the slowness of the market, it was a good exercise in getting things organised and making more stock to sell. My next market is the very busy Sisters Market in Brunswick Town Hall on the 1st of August. This market lands in the middle of the teaching term, so it is good that I have all my stock made and ready to go.
Will I do Sonny and Coco again? I am not sure. My market calendar is looking very busy from now until Christmas, so I am not sure if I will have the time. It is within my best interests to have stalls at markets where I know I will sell.
It has been a busy sewing week and one of the activities that has occupied me, has been my appliqué bibs. I first started to do some appliqué when I was making some rainbow pack bags earlier in the year.
I cheat, because I buy the bibs pre-made. In the beginning I was making bibs, but I wasn't getting much enjoyment out of that ... so I had a bit of a play with interfacing, pellon and the zig zag stitch.
Instructions, how I do my appliqué:
I generally iron the material I am using and then iron light interfacing onto the back of the material.
Then I draw my image freehand onto the back of the interfacing with pencil, be it petals, a star or love heart and then cut out the shape with sharp scissors.
I then iron on some Pellon (double sided interfacing) around the edges and then press the shape onto the bag or bib where I want it to sit. You don't have to use the pellon across the whole back, just the edges. Using double sided means that I don't have to negotiate pins when I am zig zagging around the outside of the shape. However if you don't have any pellon, use pins and sew carefully. With pins I generally sew a straight stitch around the shape to secure it and then zig zag.
Then set your machine to zig zag or blanket stitch. Sometimes I go twice around to make sure that I have all the raw edges of the material secured. But after a few bibs and adjustments I know what the settings are and I only go around once!
Here are some sites to check out to do with Applique. It really is easier than it looks!
I came across this web page and had to share. Words and Eggs is a very interesting web site with lots of links to wonderful Etsy crafters who are producing some lovely creations.
Generally when I create something new it is out of a need that I have. I started playing around with an idea last night for a little notepad that can go in your back pocket or in your handbag when you go out. You always look for paper to write things down on. But of course in true Konstant Kaos style, it needs to be a bit quirky.
So I had a play with a colour printer, laminator and my sewing machine and voila!
My only problem is Copyright. I do not wish to be one of *those* crafters that breaks copyright.
So my question to the blog world is, how do I go about finding out who owns the copyright for this image? It is such a lovely image, I would love to do more with it!
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