Olive Tree Markets

Here are some lovely lady crafters from the Olive Tree Markets.

C'mon Kevin get those cheques out - toot sweet. It was a bit slow at the markets on Saturday. It was hot, but I think more than anything people are holding on to their money fearing an impending recession. Kevin (Our PM) has proposed a recession busting cash bonanza giveaway, but the money won't be coming out until March. Hopefully business will pick up after that. Anyway, I had a lovely day regardless of slow sales. I met the lovely Julia from rudy and the dodo and she bought some of my wares for her online shop, so go over here and check out some new items that aren't even on my madeit shop yet. Top pic is of my stall which I'm slowly perfecting and some other lovely lady crafters. My 6 year old niece came to the markets with me as she is a mad crafter and set up a table of questionable crafts and the lovely Natalie pictured 4th pic down bought one of her rock/softies. Thanks Natalie! And for those wanting to check out these ace new markets the next market is scheduled for the 7th March, 9am-3pm. Hope to see you there!

Bertie Beetle Comes to Stay

So our car broke down on the weekend. Nice one! It was a hot day and we had to walk the rest of the way to our intended destination. Forced exercise in the heat is not nice! When we broke down we assumed 'little red' (our bombie, but little goer of a car) had ran out of petrol, but nay as big man in flourescent overall later confirmed. So as I wasted my time traipsing to the nearest servo to buy outrageously priced tin, funnel from another shop and then had to fill the stupid tin with even more outrageously priced petrol only for the car still not to start - Ahhhhhh. And remember this is all in the stinking heat! I then rang the big man in flourescent overall (NRMA - breakdown service) and he informed me, with a dire look on his face, that it will all have to be pulled apart - cha-ching. So poor little red had to get towed away to a better place or more expensive one anyway.

So meet Bertie beetle, as her owners call her. Bertie has kindly been lent to us as an interim car by our kindly friends Ruthie and Tim. How funny is this? So I finished my VW beetle linocut on Friday and by Sunday we had the exact beetle and colour in our hot little hands. Bizarre I know!

Maybe I should knock out a linocut of the car or sewing machine of my dreams and see what happens.

The heatwave has broken

The heatwave broke last night. After a 40 degree day the storm broke and revived the melting people around Australia. Apparently there is more in stall for us next week. When I was sweating it out yesterday, I couldn't stop dreaming about laying down in a snowdrift to revitalise my limp body.

It's too hot - What's a crafter to do?

Some revamped Christmas cards, made into birthday cards and other greeting cards. These cards can be found at Love Miss Luck on King Street in Newtown. Pop in and browse this ace shop and chat up the even more ace shop owner Sarah, otherwise known as my little sister.

So, I'm back after a bit of a hiatus, went on holidays and had myself some swimming and reading relaxation- mainly interior mags, but that counts doesn't it? Also read the 'Slumdog Millionaire' that apparently they've made into a movie. Was a bit sad and confronting in spots, but a good summer read. I love the heat, adore the heat, but jingies I'm a little over it at the moment. Being a sticky hot crafting mess 24 hours a day isn't so pretty. We had some absolute corker days this week and last. Last week we had a 43 degree day, celsius that is crafters, in fahrenheit that is about 110 degrees - insane I know.

In other news I've re-branded myself (as you may have guessed by the new banner) and have actually registered my business name with the big wigs in New South Wales - serious business! So welcome to sketch&jones. Being a piscean I feel, at times, I'm a split personality fish swimming both up and down stream confusing all and sundry. My name reflects this, hence the double barrel, and also the fact that I'm sewing like a two person operation at the moment.

So to kick off this year I'm going to go full tilt into getting my stuff out there. So far I've got some lovely people who have helped me get it out there thus far. One of my latest stockist's (of my dolls), Leonie of tippietoes , has opened a sweet online store called tippietoes - petite couture, which I've been perusing lately. Go check it out here, all in Aussie dollars, yay! The US exchange rate is killing us here so it's much better to buy local. Please peruse my new sidebar for all my stockists and hopefully I'll be adding some more very soon.

How cute is this crochet sleeve russian doll top from ivy designs and featured on tippietoes ? The cutest. I love crochet and intend on stepping up my crochet production once Winter hits.

And to finish up. How about Obama's speech? Very inspirational and even included a warm inclusion of the heathens, yay for the heathens, very funny! Maybe it will be the heathens who will bring America out of it's troubles? Apparently no American president has ever addressed the heathens before - the times are a changing my friends!

combi cushion combos

Combo 1: Red combi print on Linen bordered by textured red cotton with a stripey cotton back.

Combo 2: Red combi print on Linen bordered by stripey cotton and stripey cotton back.Combo 3: Blue/Green combi print on Linen bordered by red textured cotton and stripey cotton back.

Combo 3: Orange combi print on Linen bordered by blue textured cotton and textured navy cotton back.

And I'm back on the sewing machine. Here are my latest combos for the combis. I'm thinking these would look great in a beach house or the stripey ones would look fab on a little boy's bed. What do you think? When I have a bit of time I'm going to knock out a beetle cushion to match the combi. Michelle from the royal sisters suggested this as her little boy would like one. Thanks Michelle I'll get on this asap.

Happy New Year - Bonne Année

I'm a bit over the whole New Year thing. I'm still getting over Christmas for goodness sake. Copious amounts of chocolate peanuts and stinky cheese has left me much too sluggish to rock on into the New Year. The New Year hype just never lives up to expectations either. This year we went to the harbour at 9pm, watched the crackers, went home and were in bed by 10.30pm. This is my idea of a great New Year. Hope you had a good one rocking it in or sleeping it in.

Combi pants are Here!

So I knocked out the combi pants/shorts today for a special friend's baby. Got up at the crackers and started printing and sewing. Nothing like a new year to get going on things. I made these in a size 0 in a lovely natural linen and cut them on the selvedge, hence the cute fray look. The print on them is orange and plenty big enough for those enormous nappies. The baby was a bit grizzly so couldn't get a pick of him in them, so I'll try and get his mum to email me a pick. The combi print is a screen print, whereas the combi cushion cover is a linocut print. Cuuuuuuuuuuuute! I'm thinking I will do some girly skirts with the combis on the edge. I've got two cutie pies I'm going to make them for and hopefully they will model them together- finger crossed.

Taking on Martha

Christmas Day was fabulous and exhausting with a gathering of 23 people! Although trying to stick to my theme, you know tasteful, my Dad had other ideas and strung up electric blue flashing lights up one branch and some hideous baubles up the beautiful liquid amber tree. Gritting my teeth and only just avoiding pushing him off the ladder, I ignored these very festive decorations. It was a beautiful warm night and we surrounded ourselves with a perimeter of mozzie lights which thankfully kept the mozzies away. Our overseas guests enjoyed themselves throughly and we all went home exhausted after swimming races, tennis matches, possum spotting, night star watching and a singstar sing off. I can't believe how hard it is to sing, Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. What about you, what did you guys get up to?