Sharing my stash with Mikes- Day one

Fabric stash sharing with Mikes!
THis one would have to be one of my favourites. It's not new but I'm not sure it's really vintage as I bought it as new 11 years when I was the tender age of 17 just starting out crafting and bear making. It was from Lincraft ( back when it was good) and they had many different Winnie the Pooh Fabrics, which I bought them all, but this one would have to be my favourite of the Pooh fabrics. I recently made a bag with it, , but because I loved it so I bought heaps so there is still quite a bit left, and as with all my favourite fabrics I tend not to use them, and "save " them for something really special....

Jess joins the 21st century.

Yesterday I got my first Ipod. Never to be one to get the latest gadget, tending to wait to be possibly one of the last remaining people in the western world without one before the desire begins to hit. Anyway it is sooo good. I mean really good. and know I don't know why I waited so long. With a bit of help from BRooke I was up and runnning. I usually listen to radio when I walk ( through my mobile , another very waited out purchase) , but with that Ipod, my god, I can't get over that I now can listen to anything I want. I'm sorry I know it's obvious, but I literally can't get the smile off my face as I love EVERY SINGLE song and I can repeat ( one of my favourite buttons in the whole wide world), rather as it was a bit of pot luck with the radio. So I'm walking around looking like some grinning ( and sometimes singing when I get carried away in the moment) idiot. it's just too good.

I am totally in love with this song!

GO Cats!!! A day of two Grands.

Geelong Football Club Logo
Originally uploaded by orukasan

One guess what I'm doing today. And to keep in the theme of Grand  , I'm going to see the lovely Grand Salvo tonight. But the fact that they both have Grand in their name is their only connecting factor. 

Currently Loving...

Luluc. Unfortunately there are none of there tracks on mixwit, youtube, so the best I can do is give a link. Click over here  and here if you'd like.

On my desk

Bears from left to right are, hidden by Barry sort of and sitting in the ramekins are Scooter and Peanut, In the foreground is Gus and Ferdy two of my old bears, I mean vintage/antique by old, not made by me, but very very loved by me!
For more on my desk. click over here.

the problems of working at home

Yesterday  a customer had ordered a bear as a gift so I had to wrap it and send it off asap.

Turtle had other ideas. First the essential clean, then turn around and check out the danger under the desk, and then ready for bed.

An award.

I'm a quite chuffed and very grateful as lovely Jesska has given me an award. I really feel quite humbled, and super surprised as I think well my blog is rather lacking, to put it politely.
The rules of this award are:
1. Choose seven of your favourite blogs to nominate and link back to them
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Leave a message on the blogs that you've nominated
4. Post the award on your blog (optional)

So here I go  ( the order is not meaningful)

Meet Me at Mikes

Boobook

Kootoyoo

kaotic kraft kuties

Gotye ( altough i'm not sure about leaving on comment on his blog about this)

pigeon pair

the lark

But there are so many more really you know it's hard to pick favourites.

High Vibes

_MG_4891
Originally uploaded by sevimd

Yesterday I went High Vibes. Not only did I hear some great music and bands and there was a wonderful atmosphere, with some really good buskers as well, but there was a guy selling badges, need I say more, and at buying three I was very restrained. THen when I was finished with vibing it up, I headed down High st and found the MOST amazing shop, a secondhand one, with so much stuff it was hard to move, the kind where you know that even if you spent a whole day there you would only see a 10th of the stuff, you know the best kind of shop. I'm sure many of you know the one I'm taking about in the Westgarth  area, and I'm possibly way behind . And And it was open even at that late hour, and I got a beautiful old different sided crochet pillow, and some cute vintage ramkins. Good Music, badges and old stuff what more can a girl ask!

Mikes Mixtape Monday

THis is ... what I want be when I grow up.

I feel very lucky because in terms of my work, my little bear business, I am living my dream.I never thought when I started making bears and selling them, that well I have as many shops and sales as I do. I love making my bears, and I never get tired of it, even if I have to make the same bear ( usually Ned) 5 times in a row. And it's funny I was just thinking yesterday  I feel pretty blessed to feel that way about it and them and it's funny the way this week's theme has coincided with it. WHen I was 5 I asked mum if owning a cat was a job, and disapointed it wasn't it still was a dream of mine, and I now I am too living that dream, and again feel super lucky as i couldn't ask for a better cat than Turtle.

I couldn't really think of anything I would rather be doing with the majority of my work time. SO I can't really ask for more. I guess though one of my short term dreams is to have an exhibition of my bear and work, it's been a dream for a while, but i have found it really hard to balance that with orders, enough stock and cash flow, so it keeps being put on the back burner.

In terms of silly little other dreams or fantasies, sort of as an added extra, because of my love of music, one of my little part time dreams so to speak would be to work at Polyester Records, and equally be a runner for the Sydney Swans, you know the person who runs up to the players during the game, gives them a drink and a words of encouragement and stuff from the coach.

Thanks to Bug and Pop for this weeks theme, and for Handmaiden for looking after us and this is while Angela is away.

Remember me?

This rather primitive guy I made is up on ebay for the wonderful SOfties for Mirabel appeal that Mikes is running, along with some other gorgeous softies ( I'm very partial to that softie steggy). Its for a wonderful cause and you might get that softie friend you've been looking for. Check it out over here.

Good bye Spida I will miss you

Spida comes back to the G - He's surprised to see me
Originally uploaded by the Red Right Hand

Okkervil River

I just love love these guys. And it's nice when you love a band alot that when they have a new LP come up , you just want to go buy without having to hear it.

And I think he's sort of spunky, in a sort of deranged way.

ON my desk- a day late.

On my desk thanks to lovely Kirsty. A whole bunch of random chaos some of no real logic at all-THe best Bubuskha i've ever seen kindly given to me my this special person whose name is Wonkuskha ( the doll not the person), a purse full of special beautiful old embroidered stuff from this super beautiful  lady, a legless Ned, an umbrella(?), masking tape, blank Cds, the first Donald I made, reject heads, some very dead violets and some stockinettes ( great for using when repairing old bears paws i mean before hand to hold it all together so no more stuffing comes out like a bandage)

I've been very spoilt this week, I'm super lucky, i'm not at all sure I deserve it.

Mikes Mixtape Monday

It's not the nicest smell beer.

when you go to a gig and you've got a glass of beer in your hand and it's time to clap? Because if you put it down on the ground by the time you're back up again it's no longer time to clap, but to not clap feels rude. WHat i do isn't so good I try to balance the glass between my  forearm and boob and clap, but the problem with this method is you tend to sometimes spill beer on yourself and then spend the rest of the night sniffing yourself and used you little perfume stick a lot to try to get rid of the smell. ANy ideas?

thrifty finds

                                            a chinese bowl and plate
                                            japanese bear mug
                                                some essential reading (  the little book of hugs)
                                                     crocheted Skipping Girl bambi scarf

Track your life

This one reminds me of being  at Meredith Music Festival, and really liking the boy I had gone with. i was 16 or 17.

THis one reminds me of dancing around with my sister in her room at home. I was 10.

This one reminds me of when my friends and I had a party in Edinburgh gardens. I was 17.

thanks to Pip for all the ( mostly drunken ) memories.

On my desk

Bears. Two bears I didn't make, one I did and one that's not quite really realised yet
from left to right - the star of the Week of Wonk- Wilbur, bits of Peanut, Eric and the Pipe ( stay tuned to my wonky guest blogging for more about him.)
Thanks to our lovely special and sweet hostess,Kirsty, for on my desk.

this is my other favourite band of all time.

The Magnetic Fields.Sory but I found it so hard to choose one band, as I really love this one too just as much ) 

THis is... my favourite band of all time.

The Lucksmiths. Some of you may know them and some of you may not. Some of you may not like them some of you do or might. They are a local Melbourne band who've been together about for about 14 years i think and I've liked them for about that long too. They met at high school.

I first heard them on Brunswick St, the festival they used to have there? when I was 15 .( i can't remember) 13 years ago and have loved them every since. I think I've got everyone of their albums and in some cases two copies, because one got scratched and I couldn't cope. In a nice way without wanting to sound wet, i've sort of grown up with them.  It's funny actually the other day I looked at a picture of them on an older album cover and was shocked by "how young they were" yet I hadn't really noticed that they've aged ( like me I guess too, although I know most people unfortunately would argue with that. I still look 15)

Orignally there was  Marty ( guitar and writes most of the songs) , Tali ( singer and drummer, harmonica) and Mark on bass, but a few years ago Louis ( another guitar joined.

There songs never fail to make me smile, or sometimes actually move me. I think some of the lyrics Marty ( and the others too)  write are amoung the best. SOme people find them too poppy, happy, twee whatever but I don't care. In my opinion and taste, they've got better and better. I'm a bit excited actually because they've got a new CD coming out in November

They are fabulous live, have great onstage banter, and generally just  likeable daggy boys.

Thanks to Curly Pops for the great theme this week and for Handmaiden for looking after this is while Angela is away.

Wonk wonk wonk

For the next week I'll be doing a spot of guest blogging on one of my favourite blogs of all time Meet me at Mikes. ANd to be honest I'm super honoured and a little nervous too.

It's my turn " A week of " and I've chosen the theme " A Week of Wonk". So I'll be wonking it up over there, and I'd love you to visit me there! If you want to join along please do!! You know how much I love all things wonky and the more wonk the better.

Fridge and football love

who thought the two could work so well together!

PS BK stands for.... you guessed it Brett Kirk.

Friday Archives- Hugo

Friday Archives, thanks to Loobylu.

Hugo harks back to my ( psycho) doll making days. He's like Raggedy Andy really, had stripey legs which you can't see in the photos. The design, like all of the dolls I made was not my own, was by this clever lady, who you can buy the patterns and kits off. Once again like my other dolls, he was a lot of work, the body was sew, stuffed, dyed, sanded and sprayed with spray starch, all clothing fabric was dyed too, to make him appear old. To be very honest, he was one of my favourite dolls I made.

Sorry again about the quality of the photo, another photo of a photo.

On my desk

Ferdy, Gus and Peter keeping me company, my Barry mug from someone super special and gum, oh and in the background fabulous old  yellow electric kettle.
Pingpong, mess , the beginning of Eric and more gum. I like gum alot.

For more on my deskness check it out here.

A song from Kermit.

Remember this?

this one's for Pip.

LOVE

for 50c, at the Oppy. His name is Felix, the lady who's son he belonged to ( whose name was Felix hence the name) told me he would be at least 40 years old. I think he is trying to be a koala, but it doesn't really matter what he is, he is totally fabulous.

THis is my favourite craft supply shop

lamb and ewe
Originally uploaded by Essjay in NZ

My favourite craft shop no doubt would be Wool Baa in Albert Park. I would go there at least 2 times a week. THey have a wonderful range of wools and it is like a little community drop in knitting centre. Leonie and her staff are all lovely, and know what they are talking about.
For my traditional mohair bears and stuffing, I like Gerrys best, but also Beary Cheap, and Bear Essences but they are all online stores so I am not sure if that counts. ( Gerrys and Beary Cheap are located in Brisbane)
I also am quite fond of Clegs, for the more mundane sewing needs, needles, pins felt etc. It has a wonderful old fashion feel, you never have to wait too long, and one older gentleman you works there in particular cracks me up.
THanks to Angela our wonderful host- have a fantastic time over seas, and Handmaiden for this weeks theme.

Found today

FOund on my walk today. 

Isn't it amazing? Made with such love and care. Yet they move on and will build another one, and keep doing so. It blows me away.

Mikes Mixtape Monday

For more quality tunes jump over here.