Tuesday, October 28, 2008

sales and studio and 7 random things

Another delightful treasury, beautiful in it's bleached hues...

The Cold Fall, featuring Havisham... (which made it to the front page yay!)


I've started a sale in my shop- technically a November sale but I couldn't wait! I'm trying to clean out a few things to get the shop a bit fresh and ready for the new year, as well as making holiday shopping a bit easier for people. The dollar to dollar conversion is rather dramatic now, and I realised that some of my US prices saw me getting much more than I'm happy to get. So for November (or until the dollar levels out!) everything is reduced, some by as much as half. The supply shop is all half-price, with free shipping over $20.

New thrift scores- old sheet music (virtually impossible to find around here, you have no idea.) and some 1920s-30s deep frame Chinese pictures, with little buildings made out of cork. Moths and water have got to the insides at some stage, and I'm wondering if I shall leave them as is or pull out their guts and use the frames for box assemblage.


I just love how cruddy and decayed their backs are, they must've been in a shed or abandoned house or something. Re-discovered joy!

The music sheet paper is nice and crumbly too. Great for collage work!

I've been tinkering away in the studio, making more brooches, finishing some 'almost done' wrist cuffs and I started my first belt! That should be finished by next weekend. (It doesn't actually take that long, I'm just off for a few days holiday in Melbourne!)

And now- a tagged meme! Michaela over at Little Sparrow's Nest tagged me to list 7 random or strange things about myself, with the additional instructions to tag 7 others to do the same. So here we go!

1. I hate summer. Like everything in my life I just have to be different, and when other people are getting excited about the sun coming out, I'm stocking up on ice packs and making sure no one expects too much of me. I get very depressed, lethargic, emotional and manic in the hot weather - over the years my epilepsy medication has given me light/heat sensitivities which has served to make the situation worse. Hopefully this year won't be too bad as this house keeps nice and cool.

2. Back in 1999, I died in the E.R. -I then decided being dead was boring and hadn't finished here, so I came back. :)

3. When I was 14 my biggest fear was Spontaneous Human Combustion.

4. When I pull the newspaper out from the mailbox, I have a compulsion to wack it on top of the fence post. Which I do.

5. I am the only person in my family to attend and graduate university.

6. I believe in past lives- I have ideas that my father was once my little brother whom i had to walk to school with to stop the older kids throwing rocks at him, my mother was a dancer who worked at the same theatre as me, and my best friend has been my husband, brother, sister, brother-at-arms, son and many others. The instant we met it was as if we'd known each other all our lives.

7. I like weeds. Blackberries and Dandelions are two of my all-time favourite flowers. Throughout my history as a 'gardener' (person who is responsible for a patch of nature) people have always exclaimed loudly about the terrible weeds' in my garden. I say to them 'it's green ain't it? What's the difference!'

I'm supposed to tag 7 people but I've run out of time to do this- so if you want to do the meme, go right ahead! Next time I update I'll give you a list of 7 new blogs I've discovered- but now, I leave for the city!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

She wishes she sewed by the seashore...

Two new treasuries!

Tickets Please...featuring my vintage Admit One tickets in the Magpie store...

...and Biographical, a wonderfully evocative treasury featuring my Havisham maid.

I'm really getting around, aren't I? ;)

Having a tea-break in the middle of a great studio day today I became obsessed with the juxtaposition of some new pieces I'm working on, and my favourite bread and butter plate.






I love the pattern on this plate so much that I'm considering getting it as a tattoo!

As you can tell by the collage words on that antique button there, my fixation on the sea is growing. I've never held much of an interest in that giant puddle before- I don't even like goin' to the beach! Never-the-less, I've been hankering after some seaside time, when the weather's bad. Trouble is that Australia's summer is looking over my shoulder, and there's scant chance to get to the beach alone, let alone without clouds to shelter me and bring the storms over the water.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Tuppeny sweets

A lovely treasury found this afternoon...I'm not in it, it's just lovely!


And some random studio shots...

Red scraps and lace on a book page. I'm working to incorporate my collage, textiles and jewellery into singular pieces, I feel ready for my work to evolve.

The results of said experiments, so far. This brooch will be listed on Etsy later, and the last brooch I listed lasted about half an hour, so if you want it- be quick!

Mixed media laying around- I've become attached to bleached-out snail shells, and the ocean. Possibly due to the recent trip the beach I took wherein I found sea glass, but before then I've been drawn to that real stormy, rough seaside that you get on the cliffs. Cornish seaside. Old sea captains and Cape Cod architecture. I feel a Flickr Mosaic coming on. :)

Dye bath- porcelain blue which delightfully turned out to be more of a ashen hue (or is that Cornish seaside blue!). These will be stained and over-dyed for my Yuletide collection, inspired by Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Blackbird- ash, ruby and garnet


Another gorgeous treasury I am lucky to be a part of! This time my Drifting Ashore necklace is featured, along with some other seriously beautiful creations.




Friday, October 17, 2008

Lost and Found


I have quite a large collection of images on my hard drive. Some of them are from a long time ago when I happily clicked 'save as...' and didn't bother to put a note where I'd found it, and others are random images I came across in such lovely communities as Lace and Flora on LJ - places where the darlings have -like my old self- neglected to name/remember the source.



Usually I refrain from posting that stuff here because I know how frustrating it is to see something divine and not be able to get any info on it. I also like to give credit where due and would hate anyone to think I was trying to pass off their wonders as mine.




However- this post is different.
It's made up of all those images that I have no idea about. Perhaps one of you will recognise it and share with me, and then we can all benefit once again. (And how embarrassing for me if any of them are yours!)





I'll have some shots of my own work coming soon- I've not been very happy with the way things are moving in the studio and as such haven't made alot. But I do need to do some photography tomorrow, so I shall share along with what will hopefully be a shop update.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

A MeasureyTreasurey


Another wonderful treasury, this time from erg5 who featured my Scattering thoughts greeting card in this clever little anthology of measuring tapes.

"All my scattering thoughts are taken up with my needle." - Eliza Birdseye Wheaton, 1851.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Margaret for you again

Hello there poppets, I'm back from the city, and as it was such a lovely day today I took some house photos!

Front porch


The backyard, down the side of the 'mess' shed -the original 1930s garage that we're keeping for the messy jobs such as gardening supplies, chicken feed and rogue furniture building. Not to be confused with the art shed, which is bungalow (behind me in this shot) that we'll be renovating for the studio.

A shot along the art studio wall, showing the wildness of early spring.

Froots! This is a picture from 2 weeks ago. They have since swollen:


...picture taken yesterday. :) They're apricots I think, and there's a mountain of them! We also have an apple, a peach, a necturine, figs, oranges (which is bursting with blossoms that smell diviiiiine), some sort of bramble I am hoping is rasberries (but blackberries are just as lovely thank you!) and the most exciting of all...


CHERRIES!! I have never had a cherry tree, I am so looking forward to plucking it's rounded rubies.

We set up the compost today as well, and hopefully should get those veggie beds dug as the earth is starting to warm. The roses are all going crazy, especially in the front garden. I've another front garden shot for you now, taken this afternoon. First let's remind ourselves of what we moved in with...


...not much fun, all dry and dead and looking a little unwanted. Soon into moving we'd cleared it...


...though that left it neat, it was a little bald. But now things have a foothold, and spring has coaxed a few weary heads....


Admittedly the golden afternoon sun is helping (and yes a few green spots here could officially be classed as weeds to those gardeners of the non-chaos school), but there's no denying how much lovelier the place is looking. here are a few detail shots:


My giant rabbit nestled under the white Japonica...


My housemates fairy toadstool...


Tulips in the afternoon sun...


The birdbath hidden in the roses. I love this, it reminds me of the Secret Garden!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Royal Tea Rose treasury

So thankful to be a part of another wonderful treasury- my Tanglewood Tales collage featured in 'Royal Tea Rose' by the sweet-hearted Redheart13 of Red Heart Cult Relics.