i'm famous, ya'll

yay! my interview for craft synergy is now online here. all you ever wanted too know (i'm sure much, much more than you ever wanted to know!) about the 8 year history of onegirl designwrks, right there for your reading pleasure : )

bloggers whose goods i covet

::sorry for the one-day-late monday blog treat - i thought i'd posted this yesterday but must have hit "save as draft" instead::



feffakookan
brisbane ceramic artist mel robson makes the most fabulous little porcelain vessels and wall art. i first saw her work at craft victoria's counter and immediately began a huge crush on her work... stumbling across her blog a few weeks ago, i'm now taunted regularly with her stunning images of new pieces. (even her broken pieces look great to me.)

hop skip jump
fiona's soft toys and dolls are beyond compare. the attention to detail and pure character that shines through each one just about kills me. someday. one will be mine.

ashley g
i've been hanging out for an ashley g original for some time now, her muted toned paintings and drawings are right up my alley. just waiting for the perfect one to appear in her esty shop, where she also has extremely reasonably priced, gorgeous prints.

sob story.

so sad.

i've broken my very favourite vintage mikasa mug... the mug that makes me happy every time i see it and sparked my current thrifting love affair with vintage mikasa.

i dropped it. oh, how could i drop it!! i'm a little crushed.

i have a plea to all the aussie op shoppers out there - please help me find another blue mikasa mug. if you could keep your eye out when thrift shopping or garage saling, i would be so happy to reimburse you for the cost plus shipping or put together a lovely package of onegirl treats to thank you. please! i miss my little mug already...

plate = full

now, whilst i recognize that at some point soon i'm going to have to stop whinging about how busy i am lest i find myself with nary a visitor to this here blog (watched a little pride and prejudice the other day, sorry.), today is not that day. there are so many things i just want instantly DONE but of course, i really just need to do them. here's the list i made for myself this morning:

1. post about valentine's oobees. (check. here are in all their cuteness:
each with a little red felt heart stitched to their sleeve. i'm not a "love heart" kind of girl most of the time, but the little red accent really makes me smile.)

2. update my sidebar by adding links to the tutorials i've posted and adding in many great blogs to my reading list (i'm thinking this is a "at work while i'm waiting for super large images to load" task.)

3. go to Officeworks to buy a new printer for printing off oobee tags, after spending most of the weekend trying to get mine to print through it's blocked up ink valves from sitting unused for many months. (note to you all out there: heed my costly mistake and run a few pages off your inkjet every few weeks!)

4. design tags for the valentine's oobees.

5. sew button closures on the 5 bags i have otherwise ready to sell.

6. try to find decent light to take photos of the bags and about 10 pendants so i can add them to the shop.

7. email my pals sarah and tony to congratulate tonez on his new etsy shop. lots of great original art to be had and might i suggest a lovely valentine's gift for a art and/or sci fi loving chap?

8. finish writing my interview for craft synergy and email it back to patricia with some images. (yay! i'm so excited to be asked to do this, i'll let you know when it will be up, probably in the next few weeks if i ever get off my butt and finish the few questions i have left. they have some amazing interviews going on at the moment - most inspirational.)

9. work on my buddy sandy's website. (this has been on my list for, oh, almost two months now so i really need to get crackin' on this one.)

10. get two swap and one present package together and ready to take to the post office tomorrow (more on these once they've arrived at their destinations.)



whew.


next post will not be about how busy i am. i promise.

workin'

there are only two lonely little oobees left in my shop at the moment and, of course, rather than working on the few i already have cut out, i've been scheming a limited edition run of special valentine's oobees - all wearing their hearts on their sleeves. i'm so in love with the four i have on the go and they're not even half done yet, something about the deep red accent is really workin' for me. since shane has a little freelance carpentry job to do tomorrow, i plan to spend most of australia day finishing these four up whilst taking in the triple j hottest 100, which sounds like a pretty great afternoon to me.

i also need to photograph some more resin pendants and get them in the shop. they've been a lot more work than i bargained for, with only about 20 out of over 80 that i cast actually working out. most of it was my own fault/learning curve: many, many of them i overpoured and so the shapes aren't right, then i pulled them out of the mold too early resulting in quite a few imperfections (i mean, they're handmade and have a few imperfections anyway, but these were a bit beyond what i'd be happy to sell). over last weekend i did some experiments such as spraying a few with a clear, thick, triple coat or dipping them in a new coat of resin, with some turning out perfect and others not so much. i also cast a whole new set which i'm leaving in the mold for a few weeks to see if this results in more usable pieces. it sucks because even the ones than didn't quite work out look really fascinating... i might have to do another run of cards with them as the feature or maybe have a clearance sale and sell them for just a few bucks each? don't know...

monday again?

so it's the start of another crazy-busy week but at least it's a short crazy week - it's australia day this friday and so a much needed, long weekend. god, can i really be so in need of a long weekend already? i've really only been back at work for three weeks... but anyway, yes, a long weekend it is and i have grand plans to add many a thing to the shop over the three days. more oobees, plenty of pendants, a few bags and some random odds and ends i have stored away.

also, i'd like to say thank you to everyone who has been commenting lately! i'm having trouble finding a way to deal with comments though as blogger doesn't give me your email addresses so i can't reply directly. although i visit each and every blog of every comment, i sometimes feel like i would be disrupting the flow of your own blogs by writing a comment to thank you for commenting. ya know? so suffice it so say that i really do appreciate every comment and i do visit your blogs. in fact, i've been visiting so many blogs lately that i'm feeling that listing simply one blog a week for monday blog treat just isn't cutting it, so this week i'm listing five! these are a few of the many, exceptionally talented, melbournians i spy on...




kirin notebook
lara is a ridiculously talented graphic designer and a true gocco whiz. every single post is an inspiration and the range of her skill in pretty much anything she tries (and she tries a lot of different things which is also cool) is nothing short of incredible. if you haven't been yet, get on over there and check it out!


blossom's special orange
marianne hasn't posted in awhile (actually, it's been just over a month - where are youuuuuuu?) and i'm missing her gorgeous bright images. she was experimenting with some great resin jewelry a few months ago and made some killer peg bags. hope she's back real soon but head over there to catch up and maybe leave a few harassing comments to urge her back! :)


auntie cookie
i love shannon's blog because, aside from keeping up with her fantastic illustrations, she really gives you a true sense of her personality through her writing. somedays she's bouncing-off-the-wall excited, others she's had a shite time of it - either way, it's the little slices of her real life that i find so fascinating.


soozs
sooz - she's smaht, wicked smaht (insert boston accent) (goodwill hunting?) (sorry...) anyway, sooz is a crazily intelligent mother of soon-to-be two, fantastic knitter, holder of many an justifiable opinion and maker of wonderful toys using all-natural materials. i'm lucky enough to own one of her creations from a swap we did last year and her views on motherhood and womanhood are completely engaging.


nikki-shell
nichola is another great example of a blogger who really lets you see little bits of her life outside of craft. i love that she discusses environmental and money-saving tips (she's even started a new blog dedicated to these subjects: greener by the day), shows pics of her adorable girls and shares her amazing sewing creations from vintage patterns. she is also founder of yet another great blog dealing with refashion, renovate, recycle pre-loved clothing, check it out here.

pretty

so i made the hike to Greensborough this morning to pick up the sewing box i won on ebay. i felt a bit sad for the woman who came to the door, i think she is selling off her elderly (maybe deceased?) mother's things. i tried to be extra perky and she was lovely, telling me to enjoy the box and that she didn't really know what was inside it or if it would be any use to me. i cheerfully replied "that's part of the fun, i can't wait to see what's in there!" and made my way home. little did i expect that when i did get a chance to open each drawer i would find amazing vintage treasure after delightful vintage treat. two drawers were stuffed full of bias binding, all carded or unopened and in heaps of colours:



one drawer held over 10 packs of ric rac with the most fabulous packaging:



the other drawers held an array of fabric scraps (nothing exciting there) and various sewing tools and the last drawer contained these, my favourite of all:



vintage dressmaker pin tins, two of them, nearly perfect. so lovely! well, well worth the 40 minute drive plus i made it extra worth my while by stopping at the Savers up there where i found woolen things i love and don't need:



5 large skeins of this great, red, wool yarn at 99¢ each and a beautiful, pale grey/blue, lambswool blanket for $4.99. couldn't resist, especially after i saw the colours together - beautiful.

5 things

shannon has tagged me in the "5 things" meme that's going along, where you list five things about yourself that you haven't already mentioned on your blog, and i'm happy to ramble off a few things about moi. here goes:

1. i enjoy my own company, almost a little too much. i just really like to be alone. i think it's about being able to do whatever i want.

2. i like to be able to do whatever i want. all the time. my husband is exceptionally understanding of this but still no pushover.

3. i love grocery shopping. really love it. maybe it's some hunter gatherer woman-folk skills from another life coming through but i feel the need to show shane each exciting purchase that is out of the norm from our grocery usuals and proclaim over every bargain i scored. then think up new and exciting ways to use the weird stuff i bought on sale.

4. i had a big, beautiful grey cat named jackson when i lived in canada. he now gains pounds daily and is spoiled to death at his new residence with my mom.

5. i have seriously contemplated going back to school to study ceramics, naturopathy, wood working, silversmithing and landscape design at various times in the last 10 years.


hmm, who to tag? telfair, nichola, casey, tricia, and flossy-p - you're it.

eyes

glass teddy bear eyes, i think vintage, found in a bag labeled "felt & eyes" at a bendigo op shop. sorting it out later, it really was just that, felt pieces and a random array of eyes from various teddy bears and animals. weird but a bit of a bounty as a quick search showed that these sorts of glass eyes sell for about $3 per pair. i'd love to use them to make crazy, disproportionate, japanese style mohair bears but don't have them kinda skills (insert hill billy accent). maybe someday but until then they'll be added to the growing, disorganized mass that is my craft room (the holiday tidy-up didn't last long).

the first pendants are in the shop!

i managed to sneek a few photos yesterday and add the first two pendants to my esty shop this morning. all the giveaway pendants and orders are off in the hands of the lovely folks at australia post and i'm feeling like i might slowly be getting a bit on top of things this week. i have a full working bee weekend planned: pendants to put in the shop, an oobee to make for a special order, a website to work on for one of my buddies and a bit of a road trip up to greensborough to pick up a 50s sewing basket full of loot that i won on eBay for a mere $5.50! i also bought two pair of completely-new-looking, gorgeous, handmade socks at the op shop in bendigo last weekend (i know, socks from a secondhand shop seemed a bit gross to me too but they really are in pristine condition and the most lovely pure wool!) that i was hoping to transform into a beautiful pair of sock monkeys but we'll see. if this crazy heat keeps up (41ºC yesterday and predicted 37ºC today), crafting in front of a fan on full blast all weekend might be the only option.

monday, monday

man, should i really be starting the week feeling this overwhelmed and stressed out? we spent a lovely weekend at my father-in-law's in bendigo but i forgot my camera and missed out on taking shots of ready-to-go pendants, trees full of green parrots and the most incredible red and fushia gum flowers i've ever seen. couldn't believe it. so add photographing the pendants to my list of things to do this week, which already includes a full to the brim workload, and i'm fighting for air. as such, the giveaway pendants will go out tomorrow instead of today as planned... sorry, folks, but they are looking pretty good and i think will be worth the wait!


the glass doorknob
i just started reading the glass doorknob recently and there is quite a lot to catch up on! shari posts interviews with other inspirational women as well as her own thoughts, beautiful photography and, sometimes, songs recorded with her fella.

sold!

off to live in salinas, california


lucky enough to experience the big city lights from brooklyn, new york

i'm almost giddy over having my first two esty sales in the last couple of days. it's funny because i couldn't really care less about the money, my excitement is more about validation that other people, people i don't even know, also see their charm and that i can soon begin making more! i actually have about 4 cut out that i just couldn't justify finishing to add to the pile that was already done. soon, my pretties, soon...

ps. tish and flossy-p, i can't track down email addresses for you two! can you email me at leslie.keating at gmail dot com with your addresses so i can send a pendant out to each of you next week?

updated to add: oops, had the wrong image for the lucky brooklyn bound oobee up and just realized as i packed him up to go! the teal corduroy tan face character is still available here.

monday blog treat

and, of course, my second intallment in the monday blog treat series!


Friederike!
quite a wonderful array of artistic creations to be found here - from soft white dream guardians to printed pirates, blue sheep and the odd studio, artist or book review - all delivered with a jolly german humour that i love.

the big reveal

ta dah! here they are (sort of), organic shapes of clear resin with little wee bits o' nature tucked inside. i still need to let these cure a bit and then wrap silver wire around the fluted bit to make them into pendants. these have been a very long term project as i first made resin shapes with little bits in them back in 2003, when i was living in bendigo and had way too much time to kill. i made latex molds that time and the resin never really set properly. i had all these lovely little pieces in a plastic container, edges too soft to really do anything with, for over a year until they cured. i ended up designing cards using them on the front and they were a great little seller for me at the 2005 vancouver gift show. ANYWAY, i had the brainstorm to change the shapes a bit, make them fluted on the top so that wire could be wrapped around and they could be worn as jewellery (what i originally intended them for anyway, i just hadn't really worked out if i was going to drill through them or what). these are so fun, if a little bit stinky and toxic, to make. i love collecting little bits to use in them - shells, tiny leaves and flowers, broken coral, gum nuts and seedpods... you can see some of my collection of these things here, here and here.

and, as promised, everyone who guessed on the last post (up until flossy-p yesterday at 3:30pm) will be getting one of these pendants in the mail (morsey and prue, you can have yours straight up)! thanks for playing along, everybody! i'll be contacting you directly in the next day or two to get your addresses and i should have them ready to send out next monday. i'll post another photo when i get them wrapped and in better light.

below are the resin pendants in the silicon mold i made (sorry for the fuzzy pics, the light wasn't too great this morning before work):

secret project & giveaway

a sneak peek of something i've been working on behind the scenes. should have something to show by monday...

any guesses?

updated to add:just to make this a bit more fun, let's add a little giveaway to the guessing! i'll send one of the finished secret projects to ten randomly chosen commenters so comment away and you just might be a treat (if less than 10 people comment, you all get one! woo hoo!). hmm, hopefully these work out, nothing like putting a bit of pressure on myself...

bright red zips

well, my etsy shop has been open for a full four days now, i haven't even listed a quarter of what i have lying around ready to go, and yet i somehow managed to convince myself that i could play around with making some new stuff so yesterday i spent a good few hours with a bit of paint and my sewing machine. i had two pairs of jeans that were destined for the op shop but the denim just looked so nice, comfy, soft and worn, i couldn't let them go. i managed to score 100 14cm red zippers at a thrift shop before christmas and instantly i could see little denim pouches with white leaf prints and bright red zips. they turned out almost exactly how i had them in mind, although i thought the white paint would be a bit more opaque, not so ghostly. it's FUUUUUUNNNNNNN to make new stuff! and to have a place to put them while i move onto something else - these are now in my shop.

etsy love

woo hoo! i just clicked on the etsy homepage to the lovely surprise that one of my (favourite) oobees has been "hand picked"! what a great treat and welcome into the etsy community, i couldn't be more thrilled! (exclamation point! exclamation point!)



so yeah, i was planning to do a post tomorrow to say "my etsy shop is open!" but couldn't save my excitement.

happy 2007

one of my resolutions for 2007 is to become a bigger part of the blogging community, invest more in my blogs to hopefully entice more readers to become invested themselves. i spend sooooooo much time reading blogs, lurking, really, as i'm not a huge comment leaver (one more thing to i hope to change) and i appreciate the time, effort, and creativity that is represented by each one. i've also discovered so many new (to me) blogs lately, my bloglines have swelled to over 175, and i want to give shout outs to all these amazing women whose lives inspire me daily. so for every monday of 2007, i'll be spotlighting one of the blogs i enjoy. some of these blogs will be extremely well known in the blog world while others many come as a welcome new treat. may i introduce the first of the "monday blog treats"...


loobylu
melbourne illustrator, claire robertson's, has to be the first on this list as hers was the first blog i started reading regularly. through claire i discovered so many other amazing, creative worlds, she's really to blame for the hours upon hours a week i *waste* online. besides her unbelievably charming illustrations, claire can whip up some pretty incredible dolls and soft toys and is also the founder of "month of softies" - a monthly challenge to create a plush character based on changing themes. beautiful and inspiring images plus entertaining tidbits about a creative life in melbourne with two small girls and a computer whiz husband, loobylu still keeps me enthralled after more than two years.