December 2007

December 29th, 2007

Astrid’s first year

Yesterday was Astrid’s first birthday. A nice way to wrap up the year. I feel as though this year I’ve tumbled and slid down a steep, dusty, rocky hill, but somehow managed to pick myself up, brush myself off and carry on. Sometimes it’s been incredibly hard, and I’ve had to go head-on through some horrible times, the worst being seeing Astrid after her operation and the following days. Speaking at mum’s funeral was a walk in the park compared with that.



It’s been a strange year for the females in my family – with Astrid’s operation, Mum dying, and Plum being re-homed a month or so ago because of her chronic sneezing.

I made Astrid a special present for the year. It’s a rather large black Windsor and Newton book which I’ve filled with 238 5×7 photos of the past year (and a bit), cataloging everything from the very early pregnancy, birth, early days at home, through the hospital stay with Astrid, Astrid with Mum, Astrid’s fashion shoots, trips to the beach, first high chair sitting – well, nearly one for each day.

Also included are some of my milestones, like the first swap, the growth of my fabric stash, first bag comission, and some especially memorable baking moments. As well as photos to reflect the changing of the seasons around the house and in the garden. Looking back I do miss the late Summer.



The spray mount fizzled out around picture 180, and with Kevin’s back out, I can’t just ask him to go and get some while I bake the cake. I’ll finish it today. The writing will be my project for evenings over the next few weeks.



The cake is absolutely delicious – it’s a raspberry version of Donna Hay’s fruit crumble cake from Modern Classics 2.



My two regrets for the day – which means I need to do something about them – are that my midwife still has the birth notes – and I’ve not yet written about our time in hospital.

Today we are having party number two for Dad, Hamish and Megs who couldn’t come yesterday. They’ll be here in an hour (ooh, now five minutes!) so I might just have to start thinking about getting ready.

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December 21st, 2007

Shop news

I updated the shop last week but forgot to say anything about it. Or did I? Anyway, I’ve bought some lovely fine art rag for my photo prints and printed up some different photos including some of the series from Borough Market. I sold a few of these at Craftwerk which was highly exciting!



I’ve made some new purses from the vintage swedish linens I collect – which I know I have mentioned, but I’ve taken proper photos now, so here they are again :)



And on that subject my supplier has had some absolutely amazing pieces recently and they’re on their way now. Can’t wait!



Especially for the signed linen peacock wallhanging from the 60s. Oooha!



You’ve seen the gocco butterfly series – thanks everyone who’s bought one so far – I hope you enjoy them :)

Off now to take the cats for vaccinations – back again soon with more blogging. And now it’s holidays my resolution is to start commenting again on flickr and blogs. With Astrid having just reached crawling stage and my ideas coming twenty to the dozen time has all but disappeared recently, but I’m going to clear my bloglines and start afresh.

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December 16th, 2007

In today’s paper



Herald on Sunday Living magazine.
Dress – 8 x 6 limited edition signed print. Can you see it?

Alright then, here’s a close up.



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December 14th, 2007

Craftwerk

Twas absolutely brilliant – the skincare was a huge hit! We just went mad. I couldn’t imagine doing it on my own that’s for sure. We got home, purses bursting with money – and lots of people went home with some lovely loot. It really all went by in a huge blur. Tammy – my brilliant helper – had a fantastic time and both of us can’t wait to do it again!!



Next to us were our nice friends Kimberlee and Lies from Anemone, and that’s the ever so lovely Toggle girls on the right.



Right. I’m off to Salvage now I think. There are some new prints (both gocco and photo) in the shop too. New vintage Swedish linen purses coming later today.

Have a fun weekend! This weekend I really am going to weed the garden.

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December 11th, 2007

Oh it’s all a big mess really

I tidied my desk yesterday. It was all getting just too much. We still haven’t painted the walls white. The garden is getting totally out of hand and I have a very steep and urgent web programming learning curve right now. And all I want to do is sew. And watch re-runs of Spooks.

The garden really does need weeding and more planting, but I did other things this weekend. Like printing 20 each of these from artwork that has been ready since, roughly, July – on some very scrumptious paper indeed. They’ll turn up in the shop one day.







Yesterday, being Monday, craft day, I was feeling lazy and wanted some instant sewing. Et voila – I just sewed up these vintage swedish linen zip purses who’s pieces have been lying, cut and waiting, in a drawer for months. There are more but the photo was rubbish. I would hazard a guess they’ll most likely end up in the shop at some stage so you can see them then.



I hit fabric nirvana the other week when I found a dude on eBay who had a bolt of yukata fabric, in navy, with a divine lotus print. Oh my. I am forever in Nicky’s debt for introducing me to eSnipe. So I then discovered his shop, with inflated postal charges, but worth it all, just to find another navy bolt – this time with white butterflies. These are the bolts I have been searching for for months. I am now happy to say I can stop. At least for a while anyway.



And the poor old garden – it really is quite a mess! I am waiting until everything has grown a bit until I take a photo because it looks like an unkempt piece of farmland right now. But the berries are out, and the borage I scattered from seed has grown – very exciting that is.



Inspired by Yvonne’s blueberry muffins I planted blueberries this year and I think I’ll get just enough to make one batch. Here they are (bottom left) next to the borage and the coriander outside my office window.



Babychops loves crawling around in the grass – I just need to watch she doesn’t crawl off the edge and into the potato patch. They’re flowering and big now. I think that might mean something.



So tonight I will eat pizza and drink coke (not very macrobiotic is it? Not that I’m especially macrobiotic anymore – although I wish I was) and sew some more. Or just watch two episodes of Spooks in a row and wish I had some hand-sewing to do.

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December 8th, 2007

Happy days

I’ve sold a tonne of stuff from the shop today – six bags, five moisturisers, five floral waters (that was all one order), another bag and I’ve posted out the Snuggly Bunny and a Onesie as a gift order from the UK. To top the day off (and it’s onlly 11:47am) I’ve been granted a stall at craftwerk on Thursday! Hooray!

The sun is shining so some gardening is in order – and I think I might make some babycord jackets this weekend to take to craftwerk.



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December 3rd, 2007

Shop update

At Little Orchard shop.

Cath Kidston print baby / weekend bags.



Vintage japanese yukata fabric bags.



Snuggly bunny.



Versatile halter neck dress / skirt / tops for ages 1-5 in vintage Japanese fabrics.



Liberty print halter neck tops.



All new pure and natural organic skincare for mums and babies, hands and feet including a fabulous new natural, certified organic preservative derived from oranges.



Go on. Have a look.

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December 3rd, 2007

I have no plan

I have a couple of life mottos. One of them is ‘everything is always over in the end’ and the other I adopted after seeing it on a wall at said author’s house in Milton, Australia.



I have no plan.
I make minute~by~minute my plan.

- Stuart Wilde

So, today is shop update day. I sold three things at the market and sat with bare feet in the mud for five hours. It had started out hot and sunny but the ground was sodden – not ideal for the purple suede campers. I secretly love going barefoot and did it a couple of times in London when certain shoes became unbearably painful.

It was great fun hanging out with Tammy and as usual there was much uncontrollable laughter – particularly when erecting and dismantling an unfamiliar canvas gazebo in the pouring rain. We had a really cool day actually – Tammy and I always have a blast even if we are sitting in the rain selling nothing, with outrageously glamourous looking feet. Which reminds me – I must one day tell you about Tammy’s hilarious dream about me, her, my camera and a cliff.

I might start telling the full story about the skincare products too. There’s more to them than I’ve so far let on. It’s quite a long story – spanning eight years but rather amazing how all the components arrived and slotted into place. I’ve been a little shy about telling that story especially when it involves a part of myself that for most of the part remains completely off limits to other people. Funnily enough the two people who have picked up on it are from Greece. So one day that will no doubt fit into the story as well.

Enough mystery and onto the next subject. Prices! What a hot subject that is for me right now. If I wholesale it makes my stuff too expensive or I make $5 an hour. So, what to do? The business model says large volumes maketh the money. Large volume hand made? Forget it. Delegate? Probably yes, one day.

I do love sewing, but I simply cannot price my work to compete with multi-nationals who make their clothing and bags in india or china. So my things might be a little bit more expensive. Yesterday a lot of people just about sprinted over to the Cath Kidston baby bags but there were no takers. $105 isn’t that bad is it? That’s what a baby bag costs in the shops and that’s with ordinaire fabric.

So I’m putting everything in the shop today. If you want something and think it’s too expensive – tell me! Tammy and I thought my prices were fine – but we’re crazy people who spend a thousand dollars on a pair of shoes (well, she is, I used to be) – so what would we know about the real world?

Anyway I’ll announce the shop update here later and we can just make things up as we go along.

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December 1st, 2007

Coatesville market, this Sunday



Just to let you all know Little Orchard and Anknel and Burblets will be at Coatesville Market at the Coatesville village hall tomorrow, Sunday the 2nd of December from 10am till 3pm.

Take the Coatesville Road on the left off the old State Highway – not far past Albany. It is signposted and easy to find.

I’ve made a heap of bags, skincare, clothing, cards – so will be well stocked to say the least.

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