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Photography Adventures

Jag and I spent Sunday and today (Monday - public holiday) in Colac and Geelong. We went on a little adventure to take many pictures of Lake Colac (now almost completely dry due to the drought) and its surroundings.
Below are the best of our shots. Jag "stitched together" a panorama of the lake as well, it's excellent. In total we took nearly 370 digital photos and I took some Polaroids as well.

To see the captions on a photo, hover your mouse pointer over it.

PHM08 LAUNCH

I recently went to the very cool launch of a space called PenthouseMouse in Collingwood. It's a mix of fashion, design and installation art. It's a huge factory space that has been gutted and fitted out by the artists, and is only open for a month.
Below are the pics I took on the launch night...

Valentine's Day Polaroids

Ah what a lovely Valentine's Day!

ALOHA: Dashboard dancer broken... uh oh

MY STREET: Richmond. Slade Knitwear

ABOVE: The flowers I got for Valentine's Day

ABOVE: Me

ABOVE: My first Polaroid ever - Jag and I on Valentine's Day

ABOVE: The card I made for Jag for Valentine's Day. Machine-sewed vintage swap card and sheet music.

After months of talking about Polaroids, dropping hints about Polaroids, admiring Polaroids, researching Polaroids... I finally got one!! I have the greatest bf ever!

Ever since I was flowergirl at a wedding when I was four, I have wanted a Polaroid camera. Someone at the wedding had one and I was fascinated.

A week before Valentine's Day, Polaroid announced they would be stopping production of Polaroid film. There is only enough (estimated) to last in regular retail outlets until next year. Currently Polaroid users all over the world are signing petitions and discussing how to get another company on board to take over film production for Polaroid cameras.

If you would like to sign a petition, (please do!), click the link below:

"Request that Fujifilm manufacture Polaroid instant film types"

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/LicensePolaroidTechnology?e

New ideas... New design

This bag was made for my lovely friend Angela as a birthday and farewell gift. She has just flown back to her hometown of South Queensferry, Edinburgh, Scotland, for 9 months.

The fabric is all new (from Spotlight) and I made up the pattern as I went along. I have never unpicked so many stitches - I made the same mistake twice! The logistics of sewing still baffle me sometimes.

I spent WAY TOO LONG making the little belt loops for it. I have now worked out a better way of gathering the bag with a 'belt'.
The inside pocket on the lining was so easy but such an essential thing for a handbag these days!

I learnt heaps making this bag... Can't wait to find time for another one with modifications... Spare time... what's that again?!

All in Moderation, unfortunately...

Recently, my blog has had a lot more traffic than ever before. For this, I am grateful and excited - I love the feedback I have been receiving from people all over the world in the craftster community.
However, in the past 2 days I have had some spam comments left, which make me mad. So I've added the 'comment moderation' thing - I'm sorry, but it had to be done. It was lucky that when I clicked on the link left by a spammer (unbeknownst to me) I was at home and not at work or I would have been sacked for sure!
Anyway, when you leave a comment, just know how much I love them from people who have something constructive to say, and that they will all be accepted once I have worked out who they are from and what they say!

Thanks for the feedback, I love it and it inspires me to keep going! x

Message from across the seas...

OK, so the story goes that when I was in Paris in September/October, I came across this street performer. So impressed was I to see a French mime artist in Paris (on stilts too!) that I gave him some coins and he kissed my hand, then I took this picture.
Months later, once the photos had been posted online, the performer found this image on Flickr and left the comment, "cest moi!" (it's me!).
I wrote to him via Flickr mail, "Hello, How did you find the picture of yourself in my flickr collection?! It was great to see you performing in Paris - you kissed my hand!"
And today I got this response:
Désolé de répondre en français mais mon anglais est trop faible.
Je trouve la photo magnifique et suis content que ma performance vous ai plu.
I kind of knew what he was saying but I had to run it through a translator to check (which is always good for a laugh...) and got this:
Afflicted to answer in French but my English is too weak. I find the photograph splendid and am content that my performance liked to you.

The wonders of modern technology!

Keep your knickers nice!

I made this little underwear travel bag for my lovely friend Kate who does an awful lot of jetsetting about to see her fiancee & family. I wanted to make her something pretty and useful because she is only recently engaged and her fiancee is in India for work, so she is always living out of a suitcase!

Above is the bag stuffed with fabric - I guess this is what it will look like with undies in it! The sewing machine is my $1 gem from Jag's mum, who found it at a garage sale. I love it!

And this is my swing tag with the Spices for Violet stamp that Jag had made up for me as a surprise last week! I was so thrilled that it fits perfectly on the tags I got from Officeworks for my last market stall (which I think was 2 years ago...) The back of the tag reads "Keep your knickers nice - underwear travel bag, made for Kate with love".

... And this is how I packaged it up for her.
She was thrilled and her sister has put in an order for a handbag!!


Below : The mess of experimentation & excitement!

Cutting up books! What?!

This is lovely.
I like that she hacks up books like I do!!

Snip-happy

After the recent interior-vine-removing episode, I was a bit snip-happy with the secateurs and went into the scary backyard to prune the iceberg rose that had grown outrageously criss-crossy and silly. I am always amazed at roses, how they just grow back after vicious, ruthless & unskilled pruning. I cannot take any credit for looking after this poor thing, beyond the occasional snip and a bucket of washing water here and there. It is the only decent plant in our entire backyard and seems to grow and (even flourish sometimes) without a problem.
Unfortunately the lovely pink rose my Mum gave me one Christmas has well and truly died after a hot summer of neglect in said scary backyard. She assures me she is not offended and that "at least I still have the pot" (and indeed it IS a lovely pot, on a beautiful stand no less). I guess this means I have to dig the poor thing out and lay it to rest, and perhaps start again with something new.
Anyway, after pruning the white rose without reservation, I realised there were some pretty rosebuds still intact, so I rescued them and popped them in a vase. They are now on my desk at work... cos everyone knows that all teachers need flowers on their desk!!

Mag Racks Galore!

One of my lovely vintage magazine racks (a Christmas present), filled with unopened newspapers... oops...

... and the OTHER vintage magazine rack I got for Christmas... it was strange, believe me - two different people gave me these. But I love them both and they serve different purposes.

Oh Sew Cushy

The cushion covers (above) were made by moi, from vintage sheets. They were inspired by the ones below, which were a Christmas gift from my cousin Ryn. She made them from vintage curtains. Ryn is MUCH better than me at these things and most weekends she's at Camberwell and/or St Andrews Markets selling various creations as well as bits and pieces from op-shops that she has scrubbed up nicely. My old cushions are exactly that - old - and flat, not nicely plump, but that cotton is SOOOO soft and lovely to lie against after a long day at work.

I learnt a lot while making cushion covers -

1. I can't cut in a straight line, even if my life and that of others depended on it.

2. Old sewing machines are temperamental and have issues with regulating their speed no matter how steady a foot the driver has.

3. There are a number of ways one can 'close' a cushion cover and I am not very good at any of them.

4. I like making cushion covers because they are quick & easy and they totally change the look of the lounge room in a few hours!

5. My olive green velour lounge suite (thanks to Dad & the Trading Post, $40) is a wonderful old thing and strangely, many colours complement it. Plus the couch is the BEST EVER to lie on.