Stop motion at the Finders Keepers

I've been meaning to show this video for a little while, it's a stop motion animation  of the Finders Keepers back in May, and it's pretty awesome. It also happens to show my stall perfectly!

 
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12484731&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

The Finders Keepers - Making It Happen from kodamapixel on Vimeo.

If you take your eye to the big vertical finders keepers sign in the middle, move it left and look at the table on the corner with the doll bunting-- that's me, right near the red doors and 2 big polls! It's so cool to see all the hard work condensed into just a couple of minutes.

B.

P.S. I am the girl in the black and white striped top!

Where have you been?

Well, I wish the answer was an interesting one, but alas... it wouldn't satisfy Lady Catherine, although I don't know if much would... I've been around. I've been a little bit fluy and gross again and my head has been all over the place, and every time I sat down to write a blog post, I would run out of things to say... and decide to go rejoin the couch, where something fabulous was actually taking place, and that was the third season Mad Men... which is EVEN better than the last two put together... OMG OMG OMG... since it hasn't aired here on Australian television yet I won't spoil anything, but wow! I actually started to like Joan this season, although Peggy is still without a doubt, my favourite character.

 

And when the fluyness subsided, the sewing had to begin again, and then I didn't have time to do anything else! I took a nice big batch of Japanese fabric blinkies up to Monsterthreads in Newtown on Friday, and they may be my best lot yet. I've used all these awesome fabrics from Matatabi's Etsy Shop.

And... in really big news, I've really stopped doing the markets. I've given up my spot at Glebe, and I'm not going to be making an appearance at any of the village type markets that I've been slogging it out at for so long now... maybe when things warm up and when people have more money to spend I might reconsider, but it's really been a drag on my time lately and on Joe's too. So now, people will have to buy my stuff through stockists or through my online shop, which I will try and update more often!

And thank you to all the people who read this blog! I was just looking at my stats and it's really encouraging to know that people do read my ramblings! And thank you to Abby, whose comment this morning made me feel inspired to sit down and blog!

Hope your Monday Morning isn't too cold!!

B.

Bondi Markets this Sunday:

Now that I'm not booked into Glebe every Saturday, I can play around a little, and I so I decided to book myself into Bondi Markets this Sunday... the problem is that after Finders Keepers, a shop update at Monsterthreads, and a wee little online shop update, I'm running low on all matter of sewed things!

And thanks to a crazed cleaning frenzy yesterday, where I spent 10 or so hours looking for a tiny small plastic box that accompanies my Grandmother's sewing machine, and contains all of the her extra sewing machine feet and the like, and which was completely fruitless, yesterday's planned sewing extraordinaire did not occur... therefore today will be all about sewing, sewing, sewing, and hopefully some stuffing too. And, fingers crossed, it will occur to me where I safely stashed that little plastic box. I have explicit visions of tucking it into a corner, safe and out of the way... I should know that that is the silliest thing a person could do...

The clean did however locate some screen printed fabric panels that I knew were around the place somewhere, and which I am keen clear out, so for the very first time, I'll be selling them at my stall this Sunday. There aren't very many, and they have been notoriously popular with online customers, with friends, and so have the toys made from them... so if you're interested, I expect to see you at Bondi!

Also, whilst on the topic of markets, have you heard about Winterland?? A new wintery-festival put together by the Finders Keepers girls and the Carriage Works this July... ice-skating people! they will have a rink!!

Happy Weekend!

B.

Some inspiration from my weekend:

Well, I loved lots of things at Finders Keepers, but I think this was my favourite stall, not that I had a lot of time to look, and not that I could get all that close when I broke free from behind my counter... there were lots of people crowded around...

Nikki Catalano: too pretty for words, but just one of a million amazing illustrations! I can remember feeling a little bit dazed by lunch time on Saturday, but seeing all these beautiful pictures calmed me down & lifted my spirits.

I also loved Boniko but I can't seem to find a good picture to plop over here, so you'll have to check it all out on the website. Soft and cuddly and uber quirky!

I got to meet Penny from Pocket Carnival who informed me that she reads my blog, which is funny, cause I've been looking at her designs on Flickr for so long now, they are really inspiring and right down my alley, taste wise! They actually really inspired my little 'I love rain' gal up there in my header (also known as Darla around these parts)... but I'm sure she has no idea! And I now have a whole bag full of Pocket Carnival goodness which I'm sure will make its way on here sooner than later.

And I had a lovely stall neighbour, and lovely stall neighbours are very important as I'm sure you can imagine. Being a completely non-fashiony-type of girl, it was really cool to be next to someone who is, Jen from South for the Summer makes really beautiful headpieces... like really beautiful, and I was amazed as I stood there for so many hours watching women of all sorts and ages try them on, and I can't ever remember thinking 'eeekkk, take it off'... I worked in ladies fashion stores in a former life, and I can remember thinking things like this all the time back then, but seriously, these pretty things were making people prettier by the minute!

Now I get to finish cleaning my house! Oh Yay!

B.

In awe...

Finders Keepers was seriously amazing! I don't know where to start or finish with the praise... the organisation was impeccable, it looked and felt awesome, it sounded awesome, and when the farmers market was running on Saturday morning, it even tasted awesome... Joe returned with a big grin on his face and some amazing chocolates made with native ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattle seeds... and coffee and passionfruit... so good!

Friday night was particularly fast paced, and whilst Joe managed to get some photos I don't seem to be standing still in any of them... luckily I had Riyo helping out, who described the experience as an intensive language lesson, which I think is good since she's studying to be a Japanese/English translator!

The theme was woodland, and the decorations were fabulous, this was the view from my stall, and I could see little people playing in the mushrooms with the caterpillars and butterflies all day long. Also note the funky knitting decorating the concrete polls in the background. I always naively thought people knitted around the polls and trees and stuff, but it turns out that they knit big squares and sew them together onto the polls and trees and stuff-- of course this makes much more sense now that I know...

For now, I'm exhausted, and I know that I must have looked bleary eyed all day yesterday, but it was just such a big event, and I'm a lounge dwelling, homing pigeon... I'll post more about all the cool people and stuff I saw during the week... so much to tell, and a big thank you to all the online people I've been dealing with for so long who came and said hello! :)

B.

a sneak peak:

I've been sewing quite madly here for a full two weeks now, and I think I'm almost done. Amongst the mass of new dolls piling up in boxes, and on my lounge are these babushkas which I am really happy with, they have been made from scraps and scraps alone!

The reason I'm so happy with them is that the first 5 or so that I started remain unfinished, I just couldn't get into the right babushka making mood, and the fabrics didn't work together so well. But after realigning my zen with walking and running, watching lots of Moving Wallpaper & Echo Beach (new fave tv shows), and perseverance I managed to pull it off-- thank goodness!

And the next peak is at this newish little critter, who is similar to my Spring Lamb, but about one tenth of the size! This little fella is smaller than a blinky, so I'm calling him and his siblings Little Lambs-- they are perfect baby sized friends! And they make me smile when I look at them...

I hope these pictures entice you to come to Finders Keepers if you can! I'm just hoping that I get a good look at all the other stalls... *fingers crossed*. The info about getting there can be found here-- please don't drive, parking is difficult, and it's really close to Redfern & Macdonaldtown Stations, and from Newtown itself. The stall map is here too, I'm in the foyer area right near the bar, and opposite Made 590.

Well I'd love to stay a while, but back to the grind I must go!

B.

hello little blog!

It seems to have been a whole entire week since I wrote anything to you. I've been a very busy person this last week, having recently decided to embrace my whole personality as opposed to continually fighting all my short comings, I figured that the best thing to do was to leave all the sewing for Finders Keepers to the last minute. You see, I would have left all the sewing to the last minute anyhow, but I would have wasted an additional 2 weeks pretending (to myself and everyone around me) that I was doing other things for Finders Keepers, that is, a bunch of completely unnecessary stuff in the name of stall presentation, in designing something new without enough time to actually make enough of the new design to sell, and so on and so forth. I need a deadline to make things apparent in my mind, and now I have one! One week today, I will have to be completely finished all the sewing, the stuffing, the counting, the packing, the cleaning of the stall stuff, and the name tags too... and its starting to look like I will be, and like practically everything will be brand spanking new, and never seen before by anyone except me... and Joe who complained 'I can't have an opinion on every single one' when I took the time last night to show him 30 new blinkies, 10 new drop girls, and 4 new meekoos. He's right, but they take so darn long to make that I have an opinion on each and every one of them.

So, if in Sydney, you MUST come to the market. Below are the details, and if you like my stuff, I guarantee that you will love all the fabulous stuff there, it only happens 2 times a year and its definitely worth the effort! Check the designer profiles here, and I will post some more details about how to get there and my prices during the next week.

Happy Thursday! Almost the weekend for you folks out there in working-away-from-home-land!

B.

Finders Keepers!

Some people have been asking me 'what's with all your mouth-less dolls lately!?', and I was thinking that it was just a cute, expressionless thing to do, but maybe there was something subconscious going on! I've had to keep a bunch of secrets lately, and those people who know me well, would know that I'm not very good at that type of thing... especially when the secrets are exciting! Some are simply custom made dolls, which means uber-cuteness that cannot be posted about on the blog, but one of my big secrets is that I'm going to be doing Finders Keepers this May, and I'm super excited about it... and now that the designers have been announced on the blog, I'm allowed to announce to you all!

The list of stall holders is fabulous, and I'm not going to be the only softie-a-teer there either which is nice, the lovely Torunn from Herbert and Friends will be there with all her kooky, adorable little creations-- who all have stories-- my toys might have name tags people, but Torunn's have entire stories! And the neatness of her hand stitching will blow your mind!!

The market will be the second weekend in May, from 6-10pm on Friday, and all day Saturday... I have my volunteers booked in to help me, now all I need to do is... SEW!! :)

B.

Handmade?

Yes. Handmade... Gosh I get a lot of people asking where I get these little fellas made... who I import from and such, so when I was sharing a stall with Riyo last week and noticed her little stamp, I thought that it might make a great addition to my supplies... I also hope it stops people advising me to get them made offshore in dirty little sweatshops... (I'm reading No Logo the moment, so outbursts like this could go on for some time).

This little girl is actually a display item, she's modeling the new 'Blinky Making Kits' that I've been going on about on twitter and facebook during the week, they are 85% of the size of the regular blinky pattern from Notebook & my shop, and there are 2 styles of face and ears in the kit, one a little bit girly, and one a little bit boyish, but both easily enough turned unisex if desired. The kits are time savers, they contain the fabrics, mostly vintage op finds, but some super cool Japanese prints, 80% wool felt, the embroidery thread and a BLANK name tag with a space for the maker to make him or herself known! And of course instructions because I find they come in handy sometimes!

These kits are part of my 'make less blinkies' campaign. They'll be $20 each, blinkies will be $35 each this week, and next week they will go up to $40 each, so it's all part of the restructuring I'm attempting... I just can't keep it up, and if I'm honest about the time I spend on each one, $40 is still quite reasonable. Fingers crossed that it all goes to plan...

I'm hoping this nice in between Autumn weather keeps it up over the weekend!

B.

Even Better!

Picture by Pocket Canival

Wow! After some tummy churning decisions and serious negotiations with friends, market neighbours, and market organisers, I have a new plan. I'll be doing Glebe every second week in my regular spot under the COLA (covered area) for the next little while just to see if this extra time allows me to do all the other things I want to do. I must say, I am a little relieved, I have come to love all my new creative friends, and I really love treats such as the one I had yesterday, which was being opposite the most beautiful fabric I've seen in a long time-- it was from Senegal, and it came in yardage, it came in dresses, shirts, baby clothes... it was lovely! And things like that inspire me.

Funnily enough, instead of having the next weekend off, I'll be doing Surry Hills Market with Riyo, which I am very enthusiastic about, and I always like spending the day with Riyo!

So this is the schedule for the next little bit:

April 3: Surry Hills Markets
April 10: Glebe Markets
April 24: Glebe Markets

Hope your Sunday is good to you!

B.

A New Chapter

picture from bubbo-tubbo.

I've been doing lots of thinking lately, and the truth is that doing the markets every week is driving me slightly mad. I'm caught in a never ending cycle where all I really do is make blinkies, which I like to do, but frankly, I like to do other things as well. I have numerous half-finished projects, which I begin each Monday, and have to put aside each Wednesday because the Friday night deadline is always looming. My Fridays are dedicated to odds and ends related to the markets, my Saturdays are the markets, my Sundays are simply spent recovering from the markets, and balancing the books, which don't always balance.

The markets and associated costs such as petrol and all that unavoidable snacking-- which I promise myself each week that I won't be doing-- is my biggest cost. It's about 30% of my expenditure, and I'd rather be giving that 30% to shops who can sell for me despite the weather conditions, who have a larger window of opportunity than just 10am-4pm on a Saturday, and where I don't have to be the one doing the selling.

So, things are changing around here! I'm not going to be a regular at Glebe anymore. In fact after tomorrow, I'll be going pre-paid, which means that I'll just book ahead for when I want to show up, and pick a stall number on the day, maybe once a month. And I'll be doing some big markets here and there along the way, but regular markets where I'm competing with loads of imported items are just not so viable, and neither are craft markets where I'm competing with drastically underpriced copies of toys from the Softies books.

On the up side, the markets were GREAT for me. I made friends and contacts, I got to learn lots from those people, and from my customers, I got to see what people responded to, and what they didn't, and I got to practice my skills, and I must say, that I'm a pretty confident doll making lady these days. A year ago, I would have been too modest to say that, and when people complimented me on my skills, I used to think to myself 'wow, she must be a bad sewer if she thinks I'm any good', but I've come to see that growing up around people who sew things with as much ease as the rest of drink water, might have confused my idea of what good sewing was!

Anyway, I feel like an infinite number of good things came from the markets, it's just time for me to move on!

Hope you have a great weekend!

B.

Doll Fabrics:

I've been making some custom dolls over the last few weeks, and decided that it might be a good idea to have a fabrics set on my flickr page so people know what I have. I'm not sure how it will work in terms of when I run out, but it will provide a good place for inspiration and ideas, I will try and update it each week. The little doll here is named Ursula, and she is made from a machine embroidered pillow case I picked up at the op shop recently... I have a bunch of pretty things like this here at the moment too & they work really well with modern fabrics.

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My market highlight from this weekend was when a very serious girl, about eight years old, took one of my cards and asked if I was at the markets often. She told me that she loved my dolls and fabrics and that she was going to save up. Very sweet and made me smile.

I can't believe it's Autumn already... jeepers!

B.

Something nice.

I've been meaning to show this brooch off for a little while now, and I finally found it, my camera, and camera chord all at the same time today! I bought it at Glebe a while back from Elyse, who will be back on the first Saturday of March. I love it, and I loved almost everything she had that day, so I highly recommend you come and check it all out!

You'll also notice the chenille background-- that's right, my persistent op shopping adventures finally paid off last week. One white chenille bedspread, complete with tassels! :)

B. 

 

About Tomorrow...

1. The Declutter Sale is going to happen over 2 weeks-- I simply have too many things clogging up my cupboards and as much as I love them, I'm taking an anti-hoarding stance on this craft habit of mine. This is what I have ready to go for tomorrow:

Penguins, cats, monsters of all possible descriptions, dolls and birds... all waiting for new homes.

2. I won't be in my usual spot-- due to some construction at the school, my area is off limits for 5-6 weeks, and so I will be closer to the front gate area, as you head in off Glebe Pt Rd, turn left, and I'll be in there somewhere... on a corner. Hard to say what I'll be near since there are always so many casuals around that part of the market, but look for my white umbrella and Millicent bunting.

And completely unrelated to tomorrow, but completely related to my decluttering, I'm going to write up and post a pattern/tute for these little critters, they are rattles that I just re-discovered, so stay tuned, they are really easy to make, and good for using up little fabric scraps, hopefully I'll post it next week.

Happy Weekend! Weather man says Sydney will be lovely tomorrow!

B.

Pretty things at Glebe...

 

I mention Riyo on my blog sometimes, and some people may be wondering who she actually is... well, I had my camera at Glebe on the weekend, and I whilst I didn't manage to snap up a picture of the girl herself, I did get lots of shots of her lovely, vibrant work--

So soft and fine!

I spend any spare time I can find loitering around this stall-- it's all so interesting to me, all so different from what I do, and fascinating! But this isn't everything... Riyo shares her stall with Ako, who I watched doing some of her felting on Saturday, and this is what she makes:

I LOVE THE MARSHMELLOW EARRINGS! 

And because wool is such a slow burning product, you can do all kinds of things with it!

I hope you enjoyed my tour of the stall! :)

B.

Mathilda's: my verdict

Well, I have no idea where to begin with how to report on Mathilda's Market in Lane Cove this weekend... so I'll just begin by saying it was a huge disappointment in so many ways. I have no idea whether I'm supposed to remain diplomatic about the whole thing, but I really couldn't care less at this stage.

Firstly, I shouldn't have been allowed to retail there, because I did not 'fit in', and yesterday was all about fitting in... about pink for girls, blue for boys, about piggy tails on dolls and not giving boys anything that resembles a doll.

The one recurring comment I heard all day was 'they're weird'. I heard a lot of 'but what is a blinky?' in a somewhat disgusted tone, and watched as one potential customer was talked out of a sale by her friend, because a blinky would un-categorically scare the baby (it was little Matthew... he's the blue and white checked one in the basket with the big polka dot ears). Oh, and did I mention the word 'freaky', I heard that quite a bit too... Lucky I have thick skin...

There were of course some really cool people there, and I met blog readers who were super enthusiastic and supportive, crafty types definitely understood what I was doing and I had some really nice conversations with other textile addicted peeps, but on the whole, it was a flop... a massive flop! The atmosphere was generally unfriendly and stuffy, figuratively and literally-- made worse by the lack of air conditioning, lack of air flow, the fact that you were not allowed to eat or drink anything inside the market-- customers were held back if they had food, and made to finish it outside-- there were lots of very pregnant stall holders looking utterly exhausted in the heat, and I have no idea how I lasted that long, let alone how they did.

I did meet some really wonderful stall holders with some really wonderful products/creations-- and Sophie (who is lovely!) was very happy to pick out her free blinky-- she picked one of the ones with the hand holder fabric. For now, I am so worn out, and have so so so so so much housework to catch up on.

Hope Monday is good to you all!

B.

A Giveaway: now closed

How this works:

I will be giving away 2 blinkies-- not the ones pictured above, but as follows:

1. a lucky blog reader will win a custom blinky. You will be able to pick a general theme/colour/fabric style, a sub species-- cat, bunny, sheep, dog, the gender and the face features (eyes opened, happy, sleepy), and select the name, age and likes and dislikes. International entries welcome! :)

2. an even luckier reader who is attending Mathilda' Market on Sunday will also have the chance to select a blinky of their choice from my stall... and therefore could potentially win both prizes since they will be separate draws. For 1 extra entry, facebook, twitter etc, but I need you to tell me so I know.

To enter, just make a comment below, make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you. If you are attending Mathilda's, be sure to tell me so that I can pop you into the second draw. I will announce the winners on Friday evening, and will email the Mathilda's winner a special code so as to claim your prize on Sunday.

Good luck-- pass on the message, especially to Sydney siders and I'll love you more!

B.

Busy... me?

\

I'm still here. I've been up at 6 most days and still at it until very late. Housework has been neglected, blog has been neglected... but still checking emails and reading everyone else's blogs.

Going to be announcing a giveaway very soon-- in relation to Mathilda's Market, which will be on this Sunday... these are some of the toys I'll be taking along!

B.

The picture says it all...

Need I say, that last night I was the happiest I've ever been to just get home and have a shower, and breathe in some undustry air, eat some undusty food and drink an undusty drink. Everything is in the washing machine right this minute! Hope you all had better luck staying inside yesterday...

B.

My Glebe News

My good news about Glebe is that I've been at it long enough now that
I'll be able to book my stall monthy, and I'll be in the same spot
every week! This is fantastic because it means a 6am alarm wake up
instead of a 5am one... which means a little less stress the night
before, and it means that packing the car won't have to be such a
stealth mission, we try to be super-quiet, but everything echos in the
stairwell, and I think we've probably woken more than a few
neighbours... It also means that I don't line up each morning and wait for my name to be called, and hope that there is a good stall number left. This is good!

And speaking of Glebe, I thought I'd show off some of the cool stuff that Denise has been selling her daughter Bella over the last few weeks. Bella is away on a trip but is about to return with lots of fun stuff to add to her collection. My stall has been next to this one for the last 3 weeks and I love watching how people react to this jewellery! Especially the older folks with the scrabble tiles-- they need to have them!

Find Bella's blog here!

And whilst I've already used the segway 'speaking of', speaking of lego, have you seen this??

James May from Top Gear is building a lego house?!

Happy Tuesday! I have to go fabric shopping today... something I'm really dreading... NOT!

B.