Christmas markets coming up....!

Yeah ! , I have been accepted to have at stall at the fantastic Mathilda's market coming up at Caulfield Racecourse, the place to do your children's christmas shopping.

 And also for the first time Mathilda's hits GEELONG and i have a spot there too.

new petal neckline

I have been working on this idea for a while in a few different guises, putting petals around the neckline on cardigans and playing around with a few different things. But now I am really happy with it and are going to make a batch of these. I also have done the same on some baby onesies. I think they will be so sweet when they are worn as the flower petals will frame the child's face.

And for the boys, or less girly girls.....MR FOX.

Yarn bombing

Yes , so Melbourne has gone crazy with knit-grafitti , there was even an article about it in the age today. This one is near my daughters school and it makes me smile every time I go past there ( usually when she has slept in and is late for school and I have to drive her ) So thank you to whomever did this and made this tree so cozy for winter.

YELLOW !

When I was a child my favourite colour was yellow. My whole bedroom was yellow, the furniture and everything...it was the 70's. Anyway I am going crazy for it again in a big way, it is just so sunshine-y and happy. It a lll started with buying yellow saltwater sandals last summer , now I'm getting yellow everything. And lots and lots of yellow for RETROBUB summer range.

Summer sneak peek

The fabric has arrived, yippee, and I am starting to get my new summer designs together.

I am going very fresh and modern, and totally getting on board the chevron craze.

maybe I should get one off these as my market stall.....

Octo-mum's washing line...?

Octo-mum's washing line? Some Italian Nonna with a stack of grandchildren? No actually it is an art installation outside MAXXI in Rome. Recycling art at its best, it is actually inspiring in the way it looks like lots of people holding hands as well as referring back to the sight of washing on the line.Great piece. MAXXI is the museum of art of the twenty first century , so in other words contemporary art , in Rome and is great for when you can't stand to look at another roman or renaissance thing.

Best Coffee I have ever had in my life.....

OK, so it is a big call, but this coffee is divine, maybe literally speaking even. St Eustachio's ,which is in a little piazza of the same name opposite the church of the same name ,in Rome. I googled to find out the story and the church is named after some guy who turned into a deer and became a saint or something, thus the deers head on the church which is used as the logo for the coffee bar. Anyway, they have been roasting their own coffee beens without any chemicals over a wood fire , with the same equipment since the 1930's. And the entire cafe , coffee machines , stools , bar and everything is exactly the same as well. I stumbled in there on our first morning in Rome just after a caffeine fix, as it was just below our hotel. OMG , I stood at the bar surrounded by Italian business men in suits and had the best latte i had ever had. I googled it later to find lots of reviews and people raving about it . So we had coffee there everyday, sampling the menu from expresso to iced coffee , and as our hotel was above we went past at all times from early morning to stumbling home late at night and it was always open and always had people there, so i gather it must be a bit of an institution and I don't even know if it ever actually closes.

Gelato !

So far we have tried limoncello, ricotta and fig , creme brûlée , basil ,rose petal and tiramisu but the winner is the fresh peach gelato , which is homemade and  only when peaches are in season , 

at Alberto Pica's gelato shop in Rome. 

Italian Vending machines

Now this is a vending machine ! Cheeses , biscotti and paneforte from the local area of Siena,

this should definitely what we should have at Melbourne  train stations......

Paris , the city of LOVE and LOCKS....

The craze of lovers locking a padlock to a bridge then throwing the key into the river as a symbol of there unbreakable love has taken over every bridge in Paris . Looks gorgeous and so romantic but if they break up are they going to come back and take it off ? and can the hundred year old bridges take the weight ? Sorry to be such an unromantic, but I loved photographing them and watching lovers lock them on all the same. And the locks do make the bridges all sparkly and pretty as the light glints off the metal.....

This time its SEASIDE bunting......

Ohhh, LOVE , after writing about the union jack bunting madness in London , and of course i have had my own bunting madness LOVE going on for a while now, making bunting for all my friends new babies and for the market stall, and then we where lucky enough to go to the Cinque Terre in Italy and stay in the first village for a few days . Bunting all over the little harbour , just divine , and amazing seafood too. If I disappear I've run off to live here..............

Studio search

Put out the positive vibes for me , I have been searching for a studio for the last 8 months as I am literally about to be buried alive under fabric............anybody know of anywhere around the northcote area in melbourne please let me know.......


HOT AIR BALLOONS  early sunday morning

WINTER 2012 cape coat

New style for winter - the 'cape coat'. Pure wool one side and fully lined in cotton print fabric. The style is great for adding a layer of warmth without restricting little ones, making them easy to pop an and play in. They have a line of sitting down the side so that they stay on around the body, creating little fluttery sleeves. They then do up with a button and loop, I have made the covered buttons using vintage embroidered doilies . This one is sooo cute, the little house scence embroidered on the button is gorgeous , I was actually sad when this one sold as obviously they are all one of a kind, but I hope that some little one out there is enjoying wearing it as much as I enjoyed making it.

English Afternoon Tea....Alice style...

While in London , my darling friend Tess took my daughter and me out too have afternoon tea at this amazing Phillip Stark designed hotel in Soho. The afternoon tea came served on a 3 tiered cake stand made of vintage crockery ( I have collected plates to make one of these myself...must get around to it ...) At the top where ice-cream pops and cake pops with popping candy , then scones , then amazing cakes with "eat me " written in icing and little smoothie drinks in old fashioned brown glass bottles with drink me tags. All very Alice in Wonderland, and the setting matched as it was in a courtyard garden that was very quirky with cut hedges , and hanging chairs and even a stream running through it.

yeah !!! COLOUR !

London really is so cute , and all the colour this summer yeah , bought very cute super blue satchel ( they also had flouro colour ones and ones in liberty fabric prints ! ) and have overwhelming desire to paint front door a bright colour and plat geraniums everywhere.......

they have gone mad with the union jack bunting...

Little trip to London town to visit some friends and family. 

They have gone mad over there with the bunting re all this 

queens jubilee / olympics hoo-hah and well i just have to say it is just too cute. Even the biscuit tins in Marks and Sparks had me, and there where lots of different ones and i wanted them all, but really how many biscuit tins does one need?...really.....

Should I be inspired to do a little union jack something myself?

Winter Blues

Photobooth fun

Everybody loves a photo-pooth and they are great to have at parties. I looked into hiring one for my daughters 16th birthday but it was a bit too expensive so i made one and it actually was excellent.
We used a built in cupboard as the booth, we propped the doors open at the top with a piece of wood that i then hung a curtain from.We used an iPod as the camera inside the booth on a little table , propped up in place on a little stand. The iPod  had an app that we downloaded on it called "pocket booth " which prompted the people in the booth to press a button and then took 4 timed photos. It then sent the photos wirelessly to the printer that was outside on another little table. So all the guests at the party had fun going into the booth and taking photos which they then had the print of to take home.

 At the end of the party my daughter had a copy of all the photos on the iPad which we plan to print out into an album. We also put some props , like wigs and moustaches in the booth for people to dress up with, and some paper and pens so people could make little signs to hold up in the photos. Even the adults went crazy in there....

Winter 2012 scarves

Beautiful double sided scarves, plain our wool on one side and printed cottons on the other, soft and warm, I will be selling these at Piccadilly market in march and at shirt and skirt markets through winter.

Great for adding colour to a basic black/grey winter wardrobe

Finder's Keeper's blog
The lovely people at finder's keeper's wanted to do a little profile on me for their blog, so I had to take some photo's of what I was working on ( and tidy up the studio a little ! )

My dog Cookie

It was such a lovely day and the park is sooo green at the moment so I decided to take the camera with me while walking my dog Cookie and his friend Leni. The shots have come out so good, they look like professional photos, ha. My dog is such a poser for the camera.

My daughter is 16 arrrghhhhhh

So for her party we decked out the carport with bunting, I made one that said "happy sweet 16 " with the letters in denim on one side, she can hang it in her room after the party.
We also made a whole lot of paper bunting, cutting hundreds of hearts out of printed scrapbooking papers using a cutting punch from spotlight. I then just sewed them together with the sewing machine into long threads.They looked so good that even though they where meant to be only temporary i may hang them up somewhere inside.

My daughters amazing friend Bella ,( who is only 16 too !) made this cake for her.Look at all the rainbow layers inside ! it looked amazing when cut with all the layers in ech slice. And Bella also made by hand herself the icing roses decorating the top. Truly amazing , she should open a bakery or business .

Sparkler photos

more fabric love.....

My fav's - Denyse Schmidt , Amy Butler , Lotta Jansdotter

and my fav places to buy are hawthorne threads and etsy

good stuff to come out of the United States

Abbotsford convent

It really is soooo lovely , I do a market there every 3rd sunday of the month ,shirt and skirt markets, and it is just gorgeous surrounds and great food at the japanese place, lentils and the bakery. The bakery is always a buzz, they cook everything in the original hundred year old ovens that the nuns in the convent cooked in.They even have a nice set up with beer and music later in the arvo. Accross the road from the market is the Collingwood children's farm, which is an oasis in the city, unbelievable really. Park in the carpark at the farm, walk along some of the yarra trail, go to the farm ,feel like you are in the country rather than a few km's from the city, do some shopping at the market and get some great food for lunch...its my idea of the perfect sunday really, its a hidden gem