Sample Sale Tonight

I wanted to let you know about a HUGE sample sales I am having on my facebook page tomorrow night.



























It's so easy to snap up a bargain all you have to do is be the first to comment sold under the items you would like to purchase. Please advise your PayPal address so I can send you an invoice.
Registered postage is not included on all items.

These samples have been used for photo shoots and displays. 

A lot of them are brand new, & I am selling them because I have made an error on spelling, or printed the wrong design, or I have accidentally made duplicates. Lots of human errors.

There are also samples & left over new stock from my other business Quirky and Quaint.

This sale is open to everybody, for those who do not live in Australia the time is 6pm-9pm Australian Eastern standard time. I live in Melbourne if that helps you search for time difference, or you can search for Sydney as our times are the same.

I really do hope that you find something you like.

Enjoy,

Finally following my nagging dream

As long as I can remember I have loved surface design. I have always been in love with patterns, what makes a great patten? What doesn't? To me they also have a certain element of puzzles to them. Placing them perfectly so they look beautifully seamless. I used to to a few of these when I worked full time, they were not always what I wanted to create, but dictated design briefs. Regardless they were still fun and always a challenge.

I have always dreamed of seeing my designs on fabric, you know the kind you see on a bolt of fabric. On a note pad, a mug, wrapping paper, bed linen, you get the idea. I have design envy when I see artists beautiful work placed perfectly across fabric, and I love even more seeing an end product when it's been created into something magical. It literally gives me goose bumps. I will be honest and have seen some work on products, and have had those inner thoughts of, I could do that, or my so and so design would have worked perfectly in that collection. To date I had never gone down that path of investigating on how to actually accomplish this dream, mainly because of the fear of the unknown, doubting confidence, or just being so incredibly busy with my current workload, kids and life in general, I have popped it on the back burner. At the moment I don't believe things will slow down in any aspect of my life anytime sooner, and I keep being told life will get busier as the kids get older.

print

After talking, and thinking, and researching, an talking, an thinking, you get the drift? I have finally taken the plunge into the world of surface design to find out the who, how, where, what, of this industry and have a go at it. There are a few online courses out there, one in particular I am dying to do but I cant afford it right now. I found another one instead, The Sellable Sketch, which suits exactly what I am after.

It's a portfolio course which I think will be there perfect start. I obviously need one of those, and have no idea how to put together an online style one. My last design folio I had was when I entered design college to long ago to remember, and it was not the online variety. It was a large black folder full of actually drawings, nothing digital. There are also lots of other elements of the course which are great like finding my true style. I don't have an answer for this yet as I have been drawing directly into illustrator for so long, I have completely lost the feeling of just drawing. To be honest I am finding it really hard, daunting even, and a little scary. I feel like I am giving myself stage fright as I stare at the blank pages. Michelle, the instructor has a sketching once a day for at least 30 minutes, which again is killing me. I just need quiet time to do this, but I am going to have to somehow incorporate this drawing time in with the kids. I have just started and have so much to learn, and look forward to what results at the end of it. One relief is that, I AM FINALLY DOING IT and it feels great.

Feeling stuck the other day, Charlotte came into me with a feather, who knows where it came from but it was enough to get me moving, so there you have it my first sketch in AGES!! Pen and coloured pencil, it was a lot of fun.

The course has also taken to to other places like what I am naturally drawn to. This was also a challenge but it's a liberating feeling literally extracting the natural elements of my design style out of me. I feel like I have made some progress it's all baby steps, and that's OK these things take time.

It's just such a wonderful feeling, moving towards a massive goal of mine.

Autumn Love

Today I am dreaming of my favourite season of the year Autumn.
I have always been in love with the colours, the warmth of it, and have always adored the way the leaves change colour. There is something about it I find so comforting. I love the tail end of summer, the stinging heat has past, and the air feels cooler, even though the sun seems to still shine just as bright.

images & references found here.

How beautiful are the images above?
The colours are so warm and rich, the shapes of the leaves, the feeling it gives me, and the mood is so comforting. I am feeling quite inspired by them and thinking about what I could create in such a lovely colour palette.

I am not really a cat person, but that little kitty on those amazing leaves is just the cutest, and looks just divine.

Although it's officially Autumn here is Australia,  if you live in Melbourne like me, I have to say it has been anything like the 'traditional Autumn', you would expect to be having. After 10 days of searing temperatures around 35 degrees, then a shock wave of 2 days of winter like temperatures of 20 degrees,  and today, we re back again to 30 degrees.  It's CRAZY!!

What can you do? Smile and carry on!

New Updated Pattern - Garden Party

Monday is here already & my weekend was a shocker. I finally caught my kids sniffles, & it hit me like a tonne of bricks. There is nothing I dislike more that being down and out with a cold, not just for the obvious reason that I feel like crap, but I am a rather productive person & hate to sit around doing nothing. Yesterday I had a golden opportunity to work on a few personal projects that have been in the "pending" basket. Hubby was at golf & my parents to the kids to Scienceworks. Instead of me revelling in the 'aloneness', I was on the couch, sleeping. So frustrating!!

Anyway today I am feeling a little better, but with kids to collect & look after, there really is no opportunity to be feeling sorry for myself.

One super exciting project I did manage to get done was a new design repeat. I have been playing around with these a lot, as part of my new online course I am doing. I am working on building up my portfolio so I can look into some streams of work I have been passion about for a long time.....actually forever. I will fill you in on that tomorrow.

But here is my new print collection. The print is based on my Garden Party cushion. I have already completed a version of this but when I looked at it gain I wasn't happy with it. So here I have fixed it up.

Here is my NEW sketch.

Here it is in a dreamy repeat hopefully one day to end up on fabric.

Besides the obvious choice to be used on a quilts, I thought it would love in a little girls dress too?
What do you think?

I am playing around with lots of coordinates, which I will share also when I get them complete.

Easter Bunnies

It's getting so close to Easter, I am loving constantly seeing the hot cross buns, and chocolate eggs everywhere, it makes me hungry!
























Bunny Love

Its a lovely time of year as we get to spend time with friends and family, relax over a long 4 day weekend, some of us use it as an opportunity to catch up on some DIY, for others it's a religious event, and finally an opportunity to over indulge in some yummy chocolate. Easter today is so different from when I was a kid. We had a few chocolate eggs, dinner at my Nan's on Good Friday (fish), an Easter bonnet parade at school, and that was really it.

Today we are spoilt with beautiful Easter decorations for the home, for the kids, and for the table. It kind of has a Christmas feel, doesn't it but definitely without the anxiety. The colour palette of Easter feels so different to, so much softer, lots of lovely pastels, and generally soft and whimsical. It' really is a pretty time of year.

Easter inspiration images taken from my mood boards on Pinterest. 

This Easter I am hoping to get away for the 4 days but it's still to be decided. We unfortunately have had a few things go wrong on my husbands truck which is a right old pain in the butt, but what can you do? So if we can get away it will be a trip to Sydney. Fingers crossed. If not it won't be the end of the world, there are a million things to do here at home. 

Maybe I might even be able to do some lovely Easter decorating with the kids.

A GREAT long weekend

So how was your long weekend?

Mine was great.

Saturday I had a blast! With the weather so damn stinking hot, I thought I would have friends over and a BBQ, it was just what I needed. Lots of rest, fun, and relaxation. I invited one of the gorgeous ladies I have met through kinder over, (as she lives up the road), her husband and 3 adorable kids. My sister in law also popped over with her husband and 2 kids, so needless to say it was a full house. It was such a great feeling having a full house, the kids were laughing, squealing and running a muck, and I was sitting, chatting and letting the gin and tonic flow freely! We ate, and ate some more, and I made one of my favourite deserts, Pavlova. YUM!! YUM!! YUM!!

Sunday was certainly a recovery day. We all got to bed very late, especially late for my kids 10pm! Charlotte was out like a light when her head hit the pillow, and Hudson took a little longer to wind down. So the four of us all just hung out but first we had to go to Harvey Norman to return a SD can that was not formatting correctly in my camera. While we were there we thought we would check out some beds, as Charlotte will be need one sooner rather than later. Eeeek the kids were climbing in them, literally testing them out. Is that allowed? I guess so as the sales assistant came over her was fine with it, and maybe cursing us as we left...oops!

As it was so stinking hot, we ran into JB Hifi and let the kids pick a new movie/cartoon to relax and watch. Their choices (below), are becoming too predictable, oh well it guaranteed some peace and quiet for the afternoon!

Monday was a working day for me. Normally Hudson is in kinder, and Charlotte occasional care, and that's when I work like a mad woman at home. Cramming a weeks work into 5hrs. But today Daniel was home so he watched them and I worked away. I caught up on some mundane things, I have started an new online course to help me set up an online folio, more about that later, and I started planning some mother's day items for Quirky and Quaint.

The rest of that day included some swimming.

And lastly my mum and dad came over for dinner. I made a tray of lasagna and we sat outside with a drink and chatted for ages. It was really good as I hadn't seen dad for a couple for weeks. Dad play cricket with Hudson, which seems to be his latest passion, and Charlotte tried to get involved, which really bugged her brother!

Overall a really great weekend, no complaints ere this morning.
I hope your weekend was a lovely as mine.

Sitting down & breathing

I have been so busy lately and I have to confess a bit, before I lead into what I want to write, is that I am a bit of a workaholic. I really do love what I do, and struggle to wind down and stop. I always have such urgency within me, I strive for perfection, and always have on mind that I need to do this, and I need to do that. To be honest it's not very healthy, and my husband always is saying, Kylie sit & relax. I manage to get everything done around my kids, they are never unhappy or miss out on anything, and I somehow incorporate my daily work, house hold chores, their activities & time with them. At the end of the day I am exhausted, & lately I have been thinking differently........

You are amazing

It's been a few days of intended soul searching, and it came to me while I had been reading a few of my favorite blogs, (this one & this one) which completely inspire me every day. They are almost like food for my soul, their success keeps me going. What I love most is their inspired ways with life, their gratitude, and how they allow themselves to be kind to themselves. I too have just realised that I just need to slow down and be a little kinder to me. I have realised in quite an enlightening way, that I don't have any time for me, well I do have time, I am just not giving myself any. I never sit and just be. I rarely sit and read anymore just for the sake of it. I dream of getting stuck into my house and redecorating it as I want, but I never give myself time for that. I cant remember the last time I went shopping alone. I have so many creative ambitions it kills me, I don't give myself that time to explore them.

I have decided it's time to change, I cant go cold turkey, but will be focused on positive changes bit by bit. A permanent change for me, needs to be gentle, I just can't change the switch over night. I am very excited about this personal revelation, and amazed at just how lighter I feel knowing I will be a little less highly strung, it's quite refreshing.

I am also making a few small changes within my business, nothing drastic, but little changes that will have me exploring other creative avenues. Avenues I am HIGHLY passionate about that make my heart sing and flutter. Please believe me I am not complaining here at all, not a bit, I do look at what I have done over the last 18 months, and I am very proud of what I have achieved. I get to work from home and live my dream of working for myself, and creating art every single day. I just haven't really given myself time to explore new creative changes, and I feel I need to as I have been having that nagging stale feeling. It's time for me to get excited, and time to stop feeling like the repetitious working robot I have been, and have some fun.

I look forward to sharing this journey.

Display your Instagram photos on your blog

I have been meaning to finish this little job for ages...Adding my Instagram feed to my blog. I am not very tech savvy when it comes to plug in, & my world relies solely on google on how to do anything. I sometimes wonder, if I was ever in trouble, surely I would be OK as long as I could google my way out of anything? Right?
Anyway....it was a simple little process I thought I would share just in case it's one of those jobs you haven't completed yet either. I guess I have just saved you some time.

I used SnapWidget

Filled out this

When I hit get code, which looks like this I copied it.

Then went to my blogger layout & went to add a gadget.

 I selected this option below

I then pasted it in here

I hit save & voila.....done. 

I know this may be something so obvious to most tech savvy people, but personally I love a good idiot proof tutorial haha!!

Have a great day,

BRAND NEW CLOCKS

As bold as I can write it, CLOCKS are the newest addition to my range. I am so excited to share this with you.

The inspiration behind the decision to create these, was to work on a totally different medium. I have been working with cotton, pillow inserts & zippers for so long, something inside was crying out to try something new. I was getting a little restless, is the only way to describe it. I know those who create for a living will know exactly how I feel.

Late last year I started my research journey thinking about what to create. I browsed the web & endless hours on Pinterest, I mean endless. I wanted to work with my illustrations, so they coordinated with everything else in my collection. Then....there it was right in front of me clocks. Every time I opened a catalogue, there were always plenty of clocks to buy for kids, but the majority of them were licensed. I don't have an issue with those, believe me, my son loves "Ben 10", & my daughter "My Little Pony". But I also know these characters are outgrown quickly, & I am also learning not a lot of parents like them, instead they prefer something more unique.

So after a couple of weeks playing around with sizes, perfecting the art of mod podge, and looking for quality quartz clock mechanisms, with an ESSENTIAL quiet ticking sound, I have finally completed them.

So here they are.

To celebrate the launch of my clocks I would love to offer my lovely readers a 20% discount.
The coupon code is CLOCKS2013
This discount only lasts for 48hrs & will finished 6th March 2013.
This discount is for clocks only.

Have a wonderful week.