Latest Market

Magnus and Mathilda is a collaboration between myself and my good friend Louise - some lovely things for kids and for the kids at heart. Check out our etsy shop here. I sell my cushions through Magnus and Mathilda too, but I have a separate etsy shop here.

Louise and I had fun at our 2nd market last weekend in Yarra Glen. We met some lovely folks and people were very excited to see us there. We are going to try and do some more markets closer into the city next year. Here are some photos of our stall at the Yarra Valley Food, Wine, and Craft market.

Nice buttons!

As you probably already know I love to recycle and reuse different items and make them into re-visioned works of art. So I made some little ornaments for the tree in the guest room from recycled cardstock and Juniper wood buttons I bought in Estonia. The cardstock came from a "fat quarters" of fabric that I bought and I've been saving them up for something useful.

I made a heart template and traced a heart onto each of the pieces of cardstock I had

I sewed a straight stitch around the perimeter of the heart with red thread

And hand-sewed the buttons to the cardstock heart. I sewed the buttons instead of gluing them on because after Christmas is over I want to reuse the buttons for something else. I can simply cut the thread and the buttons will come off easily

Then punched a hole with a hole-punch and thread a piece of yarn through the hole

Voila! Recycled loveliness

Disaster zone

I've been working like crazy getting ready for the market this weekend and getting ready for Christmas that I had neglected the cleanliness of my workspace. I really can't stand a messy space for long.

So in an hour it went from this...

to this...

and Yes those are nicely wrapped Christmas presents - just waiting for some

cute gift tags from our Magnus and Mathilda shop.

On the wall I hung the apron that I use when we're at the markets (I made it from IKEA fabric) . It's on the cutest hook from Zakkaya in Melbourne and also features a

toadstool ornament from my etsy shop.

Here's a fresh to-do list of things that I need to get done before the weekend. To fasten the list together I used a bird clip from Lark.

New Matryoshka

I found some amazing remnant tweed fabric the last time I was at the remnant shop and decided to make a Matryoshka (Russian nesting doll) cushion out of it. It features three matryoshka dolls in polka dot cotton with three different expressions on their faces - hand embroidered by me. On the backside of the cushion is a love heart in red polka dot cotton fabric. This is a big oblong cushion that is just divine to cozy up with.

It will be up for sale at the craft market this weekend. I hope this little diddy goes home with someone special ♥

To market I go

I'm doing another market this weekend. Come along if you're in the area!!

Birdie

I sold a Birdie cushion last week at the market and realized that these little birdies are still as popular as ever - and I'm glad because I love them! New Birdie cushion in my etsy shop.

Market success

My lovely friend Louise (and partner in crime with our little side business called Magnus and Mathilda) and I did our first market this weekend. It was wonderful to see our creations come to life and all of it looked so different set up and decorated instead of laying in bunches in my spare room. We met some lovely people and got a lot of good feedback. We're doing another market this weekend - it should be packed! I'm really surprised that my little mushroom ornaments were selling like hot-cakes. I'll be making more for this weekend's market and some NEW little goodies.

Here are some photos of us and our stall. Our etsy shop will be up and running on Monday - we're taking a little break :o)

this little Piggy went to market...

... that's right, I'm going to be selling my wares at a craft market. When? This Friday. See photo for details. All those in the Melbourne area come and see me!!

blog love

Big thanks to Chrisy of artdecadence for mentioning my LOVE cushion on her blog. Check out her etsy shop - it looks like she's closed up shop for a little while but check back soon!

The top left is my LOVE cushion cover in my etsy shop.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning when I was having breakfast with my husband I suddenly realized that today is Thanksgiving - it's not like I didn't know it was coming but it feels like it snuck up on me! It's my first Thanksgiving in Australia and we're going to fore go the traditional roast turkey and mashed potatoes and we're going to have friends over for a non-traditional feast. On the menu is: bbq roasted turkey sandwiches on Ciabatta, with rocket lettuce, cream cheese, and cranberry sauce. On the side is potato salad and for dessert orange and polenta cookies, lemon sorbet, and (I'm going to attempt to make) pumpkin cupcakes. Costco just opened here in Australia and we went down to check it out last week but I was sad when they didn't have pumpkin pie mix and cranberries! They did however accommodate for all the Americans living here and they had huge frozen turkeys (that's rare here).

I made some little fabric pumpkins to adorn the festive table. I got the how-to here. You can see other pumpkin ideas here and here.

Christmas wish list revised

I try and make Christmas shopping as easy as possible, so I've made a list of things that I would like and give it to my husband. You may remember me posting my wish list as far back as August and now I'm making my final draft before I hand it over to Cam.

Here's what's on my Christmas wish list.

The Proud One - print from Amy Blackwell $16.00USD. Or this one for $9.00USD

get the book $45AUD from Hardie Grant Books, or through Amazon.com for $40USD

Owl in the Attic - print by My Folk Lover. $18.00USD

Honorable mention for Revision Design - Australia

The lovely Melanie of Paper Mango mentioned one of my hair fascinators on her blog in an article she calls Sustainability (number 4 is me and my Bloomers hair fascinator!!). The other items featured are very cool and I encourage you to check out her etsy shop and her blog.

Thanks Melanie!

To see my Bloomers hair fascinator and the other etsy products in my shop, click here

Spotty for dotties!

It doesn't matter how hard I try I still go nuts over polka dots. And there's nothing better than a balance of red and white with hints of light blue and light green for Christmas decor. I love natural colors as well, like brown, white, and oatmeal. These are the colors that I've chosen for this year...

this is a clipping from Bo Bedre Danish magazine from December 2007

I picked up some spools, once used for industrial thread, at a remnant shop.
I put some Christmas ribbon on it for easy wrapping.

The blue with white polka dot ribbon is from our wedding 3 years ago.
I have heaps of it and I'm still using it for gift wrap. Love it!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

... YOU KNOW WHAT! The holidays are fast approaching and I'm trying as hard as I can to get caught up already. Today I'm going out to order 30 pillow inserts in preparation of the Christmas markets that I will be selling at in December. I'm creating some new inventory including Christmas decorations. I've made some toadstool ornaments, which I love ♥, and I might have to make some extra for my own tree - and they can be hung around the house all year round.

I have to confess, the Christmas tree is already up! I don't like decorations that look too "Christmassy" so the toadstool ornaments are a relief to the traditional decor.

here's a sketch that I did. I put it on the tags for the mushroom ornaments

new Knit Wit clutch with Love Heart

Over the weekend some girlfriends and I got together and made oodles of pouches for a group little kids in India that one of our friends has connections with. We were decorating, stitching, and sewing the whole day and made some really cute little things.


On other note, I made my own little clutch today - something that I had been planning to finish for a long time. I hand knitted the sides and used remnant upholstery fabric for the liner. I used upcycled leather for the heart applique and the handle. It's in my etsy shop now!

Afternoon Tea

My afternoon tea was extra special today with cut roses from the backyard, Russian porcelain, Early Grey tea, and Hungarian lace doilies.

Doodles

I haven't drawn for a long time. Sure, I draw up little ideas and patterns all the time, but I haven't sat down and drawn anything that I wanted to display for a while... so I'm a bit rusty. But alas I've doodled some little creations and I'm colouring them in with my free graphic design program and I'm trying to figure out what to do with them next. I'm thinking greeting cards, badges, and possibly prints. The following illustration is a draft :o)

original illustration by Sonja Barrett - Revision Design

New Blooms

I've got loads and loads of beautiful fabrics that I've picked up from thrift stores (op shops) and remnant shops and I'm working on different ways to incorporate them into designs. Because some of the fabrics are silky they aren't the best to put on a cushion where they might get food or drink all over them. So I'm stretching my creative roots and I'm trying new things - I've created these little beauties called Bloomers. They are hair fascinators but not the frou frou ones that you see near the race tracks - these are everyday casual and cute fascinators. Two designs are in my etsy shop here.

Celebrate 'Movember'

Movember is a celebration of Mustaches and men are encouraged to grow their mustaches (or just not shave them) during November. I had to look up the origins of this kitschy holiday and it seems that it was started by the Australian blokes in 1999 to raise awareness about men's health issues such as prostate cancer and depression. I know that Americans celebrate it because American men love any chance they can get to grow facial hair and live out their Paul Bunyan dreams.

Check out the official Movember website here and the Movember International website here.

I've created a design called Mister which will be featured in my etsy shop (here) for the month of November.

Get your Mustache on boys!

The new Roo

New cushion designs in my etsy shop, here.

Recession buster Christmas

We're making sure we're extra good this Christmas because we don't want to miss out on any of the goods. This year will be a recession buster Christmas for sure with a smaller budget even though the Aussie dollar is really strong against almost all other currencies and the economists are telling us to buy, buy, BUY! Cam and I picked up an artificial Christmas tree (sad I know) for $10.50 on ebay.com.au. Shipping was nearly $30 but it was still cheaper than what I've found in stores so far. I'm making some homemade decorations and created these little Swedish Dala horses out of felt and string.

I'm thinking of putting some up in my etsy shop here and taking them to sell at craft markets - here's a packaging idea.