My first 3 day event

I have really taken a back step from markets over the last 12 months, and have decided to only do one a month which is my usual at Felmington market. However via one of my consultants that sell in my Quirky business, told me about this fab event that is held all over Australia called CRAFT ALIVE. 

I have done a lot of markets and have never heard of this before. I made an enquiry and was blown away by how exciting it sounded. It has been going for over 20 years, and is more predominantly known to the regional country towns in Australia. Regional towns around Australia have known all about this, and I am thrilled to be taking part in it. 

It is a 3 day event, and I will be honest to say I am quite nervous. Ninety percent of my business is personalised, so I know I will definitely have to take several look books for customers. I also have to consider the space. I have a large booth, but I do not own a truck so my car will only take so much. Fortunately the event is only an hour away from home, but I don't think I will have the energy to come home and make anything if I sell out of it.

Time to make a plan!! 

I will be sitting down over the weekend and working this out starting with these questions to myself. 

There is so much to think about and it's only around the corner. The date of the Craft Alive event is from the 15-17th Feb, you can click here for location details. I am also lucky enough to have a friend beside me the whole time, Aileen from Lime Daisy Design will be my neighbour. This is not coincidentally and completely planned. It will be great to share this experience together, and have a back up support. I am really hoping it's successfully for both of us.

Stay tuned to hear more about my planning progress.

Back to school and stationary love

While eating dinner tonight I sat in front of the news with anticipation waiting for the footage of all the little kiddies out their starting their first day of primary school. Every year it takes me back to when I was at school, especially primary school. I loved school, I was a good student, and also known as quiet a chatterbox. Every year at report time it was the same issue, "Kylie is a great student, she just needs to stop talking and listen more, and she could become an even better student". Blah blah blah I used to think. My son doesn't start primary school until next year, but I just know, I could put my mortgage on it, that he will be the same as me. I love my son more than words, but man oh man the kid can talk.

My most favourite part of school for me was when mum would take me to K-Mart or Target to buy all of my new stationary for the new school year. There was something that absolutely rocked my world about a fancy new eraser, pens, pencils, textas, a pencil case. Even more exciting was buying my clear contact ready to cover my binders and note books. It was very important to cut the images I loved from my magazines,  Dolly and Smash Hits, to cover them. I also remember how upset I would get if I left a bubble in the contact while doing it, it was so frustrating and almost heartbreaking. I wanted it contacted smoothly, it just had to be perfect.

Today is a whole knew world of stationary, and I often think to myself where was Smiggle or KikkiK then? Oh my goodness I would have been in my 10th heaven. So I put my 10 year old hat on tonight, and decided to have a look around to see what I believe, I would select for myself today. 

So what do you think? How much fun are they? All of my images came from Stationary Board on Pinterest of course. Everything on their makes my heart sing with excitement. Lets be honest I think I would still be happy to have this superb collection right now in my current work space. 

If you had a little one start school today I hope it was a fabulous experience for them.

Australia Day 2013

Happy Australia day everyone.
A nice light hearted post today on what I love about living in this great land.
I have travelled quite a bit and from what I have seen and experienced elsewhere, makes me appreciated the place I call home.

Have a great day however you may be celebrating.

Some new designs to show

It is only a week before my kids head back to kinder & occasional care. Can you believe we are at the end of January already? My goodness 2013 how you have so quickly approached the second month of the year already?

Amongst my school holiday activity chaos, I am still drawing away here in every spare minute I have. I am nearly finished, and feel like I am reeeeeeeeally stretching myself, i have kind of hit the wall. At the beginning of every season I start with numerous ideas, more than I need and generally I lose interest in some half way through, & create even more new ones mid through. I am really looking forward to getting some of the new designs into lovely decor products.

I have a couple more new designs that I would like to share.

These 4 new designs are a result of a sudden bursts of inspiration teamed up with existing drawings I already had filed away. It was time to drag them out and update them. To  be honest I would be really surprised if you recognised them, if you do let me know.

UNICORN LOVE

Good morning I can't believe it's Monday already.

How was your weekend? Mine flew as always. It wasn't very eventful I must admit, as consisted of trying to get a little more organised as we head into the new year.

Saturday night consisted of a few hours of feet up and some personal surfing around on the net. Oooh how I love it when I get the iPad all to myself!!! While relisting some of my products on Etsy, I decided to create a Treasury on there.

The theme UNICORN LOVE....Why? Because Charlotte lately has become quite obsessed with the show "My Little Pony". I bought her the unicorns from the show Princess Celestia, and Princess Candance for Christmas which she just adores, especially when their wings sparkle & light up. On top of that she carries her other my little ponies everywhere she goes. Becoming inspired through her love I created a gorgeous collection of unicorns inspired completely with colours of the rainbow.

My favourite items would definitely be the unicorn hat, from the image it almost looks like a soft toy which I though it was. The hat is great! And also the unicorn necklace, bottom row. I would love to buy this for Charlotte but she is a little too young still & I know it would be broken very easily.

Have a lovely week, and I hope it's filled with rainbows.

A snippet of new designs coming soon

Here is a quick look at some of the other new designs I am working on that will be released over the course of February. I am VERY excited!! 
I haven't confirmed everything as it's still possible some colour changes need to be made, and a tweak here and there, but it's nice to show something new on the horizon. Overall I am very happy so far.
When I create I do so, close it away for a couple of days and go back to it then. If I stare at what I do to much, I tend to get very over analytical, and fail to see any improvements that potentially could be made.

I hope you're having a lovely Sunday.

Bye for now xx

Valentine Love Bird Personalised Cushion

I have finally finished my Love Bird Design and created it into a decorative cushion. With the kids home constantly distracting me, unfortunately this is about all I have managed to do when it comes to sewing and cutting.

It is definitely Valentine's day inspired, created with the very pink love bird fluttering around a heart felt garden. Don't forget although the word LOVE is there it can definitely be changed to another special name instead.

Available now in my web store, etsy, and madeit stores.

Have a great weekend.

Mosaic inspired pattern repeats

I have been really interested in mosaic designs at the moment, after having a chat with my sister in-law the other night. Our conversation was purely in relation to gardens, and how I would love to create some stepping stones outside in my garden beds with a mosaic design on them. She has some she  made for herself in her garden and they are super cute.

With this inspiration I have been working on some new pattern repeats. Using the mosaic inspiration I wanted to create little squares with a design inside, imagining each one was a pretty glass tile.

I kept everything very abstract because I wanted to design something that naturally looked great on fabric. My intention was simple and rather ageless, when I say that I mean babies to pre tweens. Not to cutesy and without any specific theme involved. This is a favourite boy classic colour palette I used quite a lot navy, sky blue, red and gray. 

A very girly and pink version for the girls with a minor change. Stars to hearts. I am a huge pink fan, I just can't help myself and I particular love it with white and fresh apple green.

I can really see this fabric on soft furnishings & decor. I am seeing cushions, bean bags, lamp shades, even a blanket of some sort. I am looking in the very near future of creating some fabric via spoonflower, so you just never know this could be one of them.

Hope you're have a great day :)

Playing with Mod Podge

Ever had one of those things you have always wanted to do, but struggled to find time to just do it? Mine is experimenting with Mod Podge. I see hundreds of things I want to create with this sticky sealing substance it gets me so excited. I finally made time, and decided to jump in & have a go myself.

I am in the midst of creating a new product. Sorry can't spill any beans as I am purely testing. My plan is to use my designs of course, and to see if I could print them out on my paper, and Mod Podge them onto a wooden surface. I had an MDF style blank coaster here for testing, and thought I'd put one of my newest designs (which eventually be a cushion & other things), on it to see what happened. I was a bit nervous with excitement, and in fear hoping it wouldn't be a flop!

Ready to go...brushes a plenty, as I wasn't sure which to use, a coaster,  my design, a mat to work on & the star of the show...."Mod Podge".

I watched a you tube clip so I could be very sure what to do. When I watched it I had that, "is that all" moment. It was so simple actually, I don't know why I thought it would be harder. I coated to coaster, applied my image, pushed out any bubbles with a ruler, & flipped it over to cut any over hang. Done!

I let it dry for 15 mins, just like the you tube experts suggested, painted another coat over the top, making sure all edges were covered sufficiently, and I was done. I let it dry for a couple of hours and I couldn't believe just how hard, and sealed it was. It dried very clearly. My main criticism to myself, would be I will invest in the foam brush they suggested, as my brushed left some brush stroke lines. I am note sure if that's "OK", but I would like to eliminate some.

 All done and very exciting, now I am going to have a go at something else.

Have a beautiful Tuesday.

New drawings - A Love Bird & a Sausage Dog!

I kind of have my mojo back a bit for drawing. Still getting back into the new year I don't completely feel in full force. I think it's also because the kids are home and all the kinder, and other activities are still yet to begin.

I have finished one of my prints and I'm quite happy with it. I posted a couple of days ago my hand drawing so you can see the initial stages of it. True to my nature, after redrawing it I have changed a couple of things. Mainly the proportions and scale of it. I gave myself a challenge as I only wanted to use minimal colours. Normally I use a rainbow of colour, but felt like a change. I just wanted to experiment with using predominantly 1 colour, and using it's different strengths. I think its has worked well, with the little bit of white and very soft grey.

My next drawing just happened, a surge hit me and I just went with it. I was so happy with the above drawing I wanted to create another version, but in blues. I have this thing in my head, what every girly illustration I create, I must do one for boys and visa versa. I drew it straight into illustrator and coloured it up, and admit to be very happy with it. Without it being intended this way, I kind of has a wintery feeling to it. Which is completely opposite to heat heat waves at home at the moment.

Now I have the illustrations completed, the fun part begins with making it up into some lovely decor items.

I hope you're having a great Saturday wherever you are.
Have a fab day!!

Surface Design Inspiration

While working on new designs I search everywhere for inspiration. it can be a printed mug or a glamourous kaftan, a bed spread or some wrapping paper, a magazine page or a floral arrangement. Basically anything goes!

I just found these lovely inspirations on pinterest, and they can all be found and referenced under my Surface Design Inspiration board.

Beautiful.

Have a great night.

Love is in the air

The year is travelling so quickly already. I have siting down doing the planning on my large desktop calendar as mentioned here on my last post. Which I might add quickly is brilliant!

I have also been doing some sketching, joyfully working on some new ideas, and I am also not sure if you realised it' just over a month to Valentines day. I love creating drawings for special events to celebrate. After much thinking I got my pencil out & got started.

This is the beginnings of what I will be working on. They are only scanned pen drawings, which I will then redraw in illustrator & work some colour magic into. At times I do this & what I start with can potentially look completely different when they are complete.

New idea Love Bird. I am dying to get in the and colour her up. Some lovely pattern fills in, exploding in reds and pinks. Not sure what else yet, you will have to wait and see.

Vespa Chick blowing love hearts from her exhaust. Wouldn't that be lovely?

I look forward to colouring them both and sharing with you very soon.

So here we are......2013

It's been a month since I blogged! Yikes!!!

I have come to accept that I am not the most frequent of writers.....boo hoo.... I go through motions when I am loaded with things to write, & then it stops. This usually happens as I get distracted with other moments in life. This Christmas was a crazy busy period to say the least. Keeping myself afloat was a challenge, not just with online & wholesale orders, but I had order demands from my lovely girls who work the Quirky and Quaint business for me, amongst kids Christmas events & all of the other social festivities we go to.

But like every busy work mother I survived it and proud of myself for doing so.

Christmas has come and gone so quickly, all of the time thinking & sorting Christmas gifts. The there is the actual day, I hosted Christmas at my house this year, just to add to my pressure, so there was lots of planning to to also. Luckily for me I have a great family & great in-laws who all contributed by bringing along their plate of Christmas loveliness for us to all feast on.

Below are some family snaps of my kids and and I, and my hubby Daniel with the kids on the day. Would you believe that's about it?? I was so busy I hardly took any photos. Life of a mum hey? Luckily my bother in-law took many, but he is away in England right now for work so I'll have to wait for those.

So here we are in 2013......

Like all of us I have had a few quiet moments to think about what I would like to change and improve within myself, and my business. Late last year I talk about some intentions for the new year here. However, can I be quite honest with you about it? I haven't thought a lot actually. Not that I haven't wanted to, but I kind of just needed to be with my family, have a break away with them, hang with my kids, jump on a trampoline, swim carelessly, try my hand at fishing, eat ice cream, and have a nanna nap when I could. I felt like my brain had to "download" a bit. Get rid of the busy-ness inside, and let it slip away for a while and feel empty. It's actually been the best thing I have done. Normally when I am away I am constantly on my phone, or jotting down information and ideas, but this Christmas break I did nothing of the sort and it was BRILLIANT!

Again....here we are in 2013.....With a generally clean mind, my thoughts are ticking away slowly with intentions and goals for the year. I know my biggest goal of all with be to try and simplify my working week a lot more. This week is my week to plan. I have bought a giant size monthly calendar  like the old school ones you pop on you desk, so I can fill in dates, deadlines, events, and plan a lot better. There will be a grey lead pencil, an eraser and lots of sticky notes. It's seems slow and regimented but I think it's exactly what I need to make a great and positive start to this new year. I also look forward to sharing some of those with you, I love doing that as I believe if  I put it out there, you tend to feel so much more accountable, as you never know who may be reading!!

I hope you also had a fab Christmas and playful new year, and I wish lots of success you way too.