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.

seven things:

I just won a blog award from Kim, and part of the deal is that you tell everyone 7 things about yourself, and pass it on... so here goes!

1. I'm 29 and I'm just learning to drive. I have had my L's twice before now and let them expire, and had them a year before I decided to start taking lessons this time. And I only 'decided' to start lessons because of an intense and prolonged campaign by my grandmother which involved emotional and financial blackmail. She got her license at 69 after my grandfather told her her whole life that she wasn't allowed to drive.

2. I don't really have a hometown. I lived here in Wollongong until I was 14, then 4 years in the country, and Sydney for 8 years, and then here again. And although Wollongong definitely is mathematically my hometown, I moved away at a really pivotal age, and I don't feel very attached to it, or to anywhere. Don't feel bad for me, I think its all a good thing.

3. I pay a lot of attention to politics. I watch the SBS news, then switch over to the ABC news at 7pm, then I watch the 7:30 Report, I always watch Media Watch, I had to ween myself off Lateline because it's on so late, and it usually just regurgitates the 7:30 Report except for the interview. And I periodically check news websites throughout the day. I watch complete election coverage from start to finish. And I follow American politics too, I cried when Obama was elected, and I have a poster of him in my loungeroom.

4. I go on food benders all the time, always based on my mantra of more water vegetables. At the moment I'm on a fibre kick, and will be making a huge pot of homemade baked beans this afternoon.

5. I can be quite disciplined with sweet foods until something goes wrong, or until I have to do something by a deadline. I can go a whole week with a chocolate bar in the fridge, but if I need to fill out complicated paperwork or write a submission, I've chowed down that chocolate before I've even thought about it... seriously!

6. I'm very bad at keeping my sewing mess contained, I'm sure you all think 'me too', but let me assure you, I'm far, far worse than you could possibly imagine. Part of the charm of my ever evolving softies is that they are all slightly different, which has more to do with me constantly loosing/misplacing the original pattern pieces than anything conscious or considered...

7. I watch The Bold and the Beautiful everyday if I can. I love it, it's so wrong, but oh so right. And Bill Spencer is definitely my fave character at the moment, and not because I think he's hott-- just because he's sticking it to that spoilt cry-baby, Ridge!

  

Now to pass it on, I choose Virginia, Stacy, Torunn, Mitsy & Nicky, so please go read their blogs!

B.

hopey, changey stuff:

There are so many great blogs out there about being eco and ethical and green, and I've started reading them, like really reading them-- not just looking at the pictures! And the lovely thing about the internet is that whilst a suprising amount of people in my day to day life are quite resistant to change, it turns out that lots of people around the world are thinking the same things I'm thinking... and that's that something has to give... we can't keep living this way...

Aside from the whole sustainability problem, the carbon footprints, and all the environmental arguments for consuming less, the basic human decency argument has to be enacted too... unfortunately, my high standard of living is paid for with the poverty of the third world... if we're not ripping the guts out of resources in Africa, we're getting super cheap labor in Asia... and I'm over here, living like a queen in comparative terms, I have running water, a telephone, and a 2 bedroom flat! It seems meagre compared to what a lot of other people I know have, but it is massive compared to what most human beings around the world have.

I'm certainly not perfect, or above judgment, I have coke in my fridge, I have reeboks in my wardrobe, and most of the stuff in my house was probably made in a sweat-shop, even if I obtained a lot of it from the op-shop, but anyhoo, I'm going to try and be better at this whole thing, and marry my ideological commitments with my everyday life.

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for this pledge at Isis' blog, and I'm really digging it. Already I've noticed how those cute, cheap clothes I see everywhere are just off limits, they might be cheap, and cute, but they are not worth having. I should also confess that I've been watching an this doco on ABC2 each week, and it's bringing the reality of sweat-shop life a little too close to home, this and reading No Logo by Naomi Klein, are all making for a pretty heady mix of anti-consumption-for-consumption's-sake sentiment around here...

This is the pledge, as copied from Isis' blog:

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E T H I C A L  C L O T H I N G  P L E D G E

I pledge to only wear clothing that is one or more of the following:
1. Pre-loved
2. Handmade (preferably by me)
3. Reconstructed
4. Made with ethical / environmentally friendly materials
5. Made by a company with strong ethical policy & workers' rights

* Companies with environmentally friendly practices (such as cutting down on waste/energy/water) get brownie points
* If I get one little inkling of sweatshop labour, I'm outta there!
* Above all though, I think the most important thing is reducing the amount of things we use in the first place. Not purchasing ANOTHER piece of clothing just for the sake of it is the biggest statement we can make.

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This all leaves me in a bit of a pickle about where some of my doll fabric comes from, whilst the majority is made in Japan and the US, and a lot is second-hand... I do buy the occasional Spotlight fabric for half the price of my other fabrics, and it does clearly read 'made in India' on the roll... I'd love feedback, suggestions!!

B.

P.S. picture via here.

P.P.S. my title is poking fun at Sarah Palin, not Obama!

I call them egg dolls!

Well actually Joe called them Egg Dolls because of their shape, nothing to do with Easter or chocolate or chickens or anything else to do with eggs, and since I really don't like thinking up new doll names, I think this one might just stick. I think they are pretty cute, and I'm making them all with red heads and blue hair for now-- I find that when I'm making something new, narrowing my colour palette really helps me a lot! And it seems I'm completely over sewing mouths... they are so last season... or something like that...

And speaking of seasons, it's getting to that time of year when snuggling and sleeping on fabric is far more fashionable than it has been in a long time... 

B.

House Keeping:

picture available here!

1. Now you can download patterns as soon as payment is complete via my Big Cartel Shop! :)

2. Now you can buy my dolls in Wollongong-- and not at my house, but at Emma-Lee's little shop in Crown Street above Flight Centre, just near the stage in the mall. It's called The Milk Thieves Art and Design Shop, and you can buys things like Mixtape mag there too!

3. Dolls are still available at Monster Threads in Newtown, and will be available in the soon to be opened Paddington Store, which will be just opposite Paddington Markets, so make sure you wonder across the road and check it out next time you are there!

4. No more custom orders for a little while, after the Notebook article, I've been a little overwhelmed with custom orders, and need some time to make my own style of thing especially with Finders Keepers coming up. I have removed the custom info from the sidebar, I will consider starting it up again in the next few months.

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.

Farewell Mitsy...

Sometimes I make dolls that I love a little bit more than the rest, I know I'm not supposed to, but it just happens, seeing how I already have 2 dew drop girls, 4 blinkies, and a Russian doll... and Joe has a special bug named Sylvie that he loves, and a meekoo named Sash, keeping more of them could result in us living with far more dolls than would be socially acceptable... so even though I loved her, I put little Mitsy out on display yesterday, and I took some photos just in case someone else loved her too... I went to buy some coffee mid-morning, and came back to the stall only to notice a little bit of a gap in the display, and a distinct lack of red...

Joe said that the lady who bought Mitsy loved her, and didn't even consider any of the other dolls, apparently she was very nice and didn't even need a bag, she was happy to just hold her new little friend.

I just hope Mitsy knows, I love her, where ever she is now...

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.

Tutorial: How to make laminated earrings

Laminated earrings are very easy to make, they are also very cool, and a fabulous way to use up little drawings that you may have lying around, so I thought I'd share my very simple method of making these totally contemporary and totally lightweight earrings-- and don't forget, they can become pendents just as easily as earring!

What you need:

- drawing (optional)
- Photo Shop (optional)
- scanner (optional)
- printer
- copy paper & cardboard
- laminator (or access to one)
- thick sewing needle
- pointy nose pliers
- earring hooks, available at most craft stores!

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1. You need a sweet little drawing (about 2" tall) that you want to wear- find Shauna here in case you're stuck for ideas, or for image manipulation programs, which also means you can skip the next step too!

2. Scan your image at a resolution of at least 200 dpi. Open a new document in Photo Shop with the same resolution as your scan, and copy and paste your image into the new document. Paste another copy of the image, go to the edit menu and select transform flip horizontal. Now you'll have have 2 mirror image drawings.

3. Print your drawings out on regular copy paper-- I use an ink-jet printer, you could go to a copy shop and use a laser printer, but I think the coloured pencil look is better on ink-jets.

4. Paste your drawings to some cardboard (which I think North Americans might call Bristol board from memory!). Wait a few minutes for it all to dry, and very neatly cut around the perimetre of your design, leaving a small boarder of white.

5. Use a laminator to laminate the designs, once the plastic has cooled down, cut around the designs, again leaving a small boarder.

6. Using a thick sewing needle, or even a sewing machine needle, pierce a hole in the top of each of the designs for the earring loops to go through.

7. Using pointy nose pliers attach the earring hooks to the designs and voila!! you have yourself some very cool earrings!

ENJOY!

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I've been a very busy person these last few days... between attempting to clean out my wardrobe and rid myself of clutter, I've been trying to keep up driving lessons, develop some new and exciting products-- I've almost completed my first 'Blinky Making Kit', which will contain a new sewing pattern with a couple of different styles of blinky, the fabric (most will be vintage), felt, thread etc. I've also taken a new batch of toys to Monster Threads, including some Winter Dew Drop Girls, which are sweet, rugged up little things, and I did Surry Hills Market on the weekend, where Autumn made itself well and truly felt, and where I needed to be out of bed at a shocking 4:45am... not sure I'd ever gotten up that early in my life...

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter, we're down to our last chocolate bunny :(

B.