washing up

i popped some of the tea towels i have been working on into the shop last night...

including these ones, entitled "melbourne days", a great gift for everyone who loves our ace city despite its sometimes fickle weather.

 

and this special holiday edition towel in perfect red and white - a nice accent for your festive feast, methinks. they are all 100% linen, heavyweight and sturdy enough to last through years of washing up and, if you're a member of my family, you're probably getting one for christmas : )

lemonade

so the one market i was really, REALLY looking forward to this season was rained out. boo. big time. if any of you very kind folk braved the downpour on saturday and looked for me at maribyrnong maker's market, i apologise. but setting up a table outside without a gazebo (i have one but there isn't space there to use it) really wasn't an option and i am sure i was as disappointed as one little maker can be.

boo.



the bright side, however, is that i don't need to rush around making stock this week for my last market of the year in north melbourne this sunday and i have time to pop some things into my etsy shop. so that is nice.







six new little oobees in handprinted linen/cotton and stuffed with snuggly soft, natural, wool fleece stuffing, looking for new homes. good for hugging and snoozing and dragging about by one arm. trust me.


{and two more days of free shipping within australia so get that holiday shopping done pronto.}

advent ideas

with the start of advent looming (less than a week!), i've been making a list of activities to put in my yet-to-be-created advent calendar. here's what i've come up with so far (in no particular order and some of these could be used more than once):

• read a new christmas book (i have a stash of vintage ones put away)
• make ornaments from sculptey or air dry clay
• make felt ornaments
• cut paper snowflakes
• make snowglobes (like these)
• make collage christmas cards and send to family
• make christmas cards for friends
• write a letter to santa
• take a train into the city to see the myer christmas windows
• learn some christmas carols
• bake gingerbread people
• bake shortbread
• bake sugar cookies
• decorate the christmas tree
• make wrapping paper with potato stamps
• make yarn pompoms and string together for a garland
• make collage paper snowmen and christmas trees (decorate collage trees with stickers)
• collect fallen eucalyptus leaves to make a wreath
• decorate a gingerbread house (kit)

plus i have a couple of holiday themed craft kits stashed away and there are local activities like carols in the park to fill in a few days. any other ideas?


and there is still time to pick up an advent panel if you decide to do some last minute creating (like i will be doing). i'll be at the maribyrnong maker's market on gamon st in seddon this saturday from 9:30am til 3:30pm so swing by and snap one up (or a teatowel or a quilt or an oobee or some fabric). i'll be set up in the church yard, across from the entrance to the hall but make sure you pop down the street to the rest of the market in the park, too. for this special christmas event, the market spans two sites and the park has some awesome kids activities like a petting zoo, playground and face painting. a fun day out for everyone! 

day vs night

the {many} hours of the day that i'm not designing, printing or sewing are spent doing things like making homemade, mango-berry, frozen smoothies and decorating paper crowns.








 
and no, neither of my kids are very shy of the camera : )

linen for christmas

hale and hearty, classic stockings, made from 100% linen and large enough to hold goodies aplenty. heavyweight off white and oatmeal linen handprinted with my many moons design in perfect red or alabaster and with a contrasting linen brim (the perfect spot for embroidering or stamping the recipient's name if you are that way inclined) and a sturdy leather loop for hanging. super fun to make and i'll definitely be creating some for my little family, they are available in my etsy shop right here. (and remember - free shipping within australia until december 1st so it pays to get in early!)

glimpses

this teak wall unit lives in our hallway and holds some of my favourite little treasures. it's opposite the door to my sewing/printing room and near the front door so i only really get glimpses of it throughout the day. but they are lovely glimpses, anyway.

handprinted: a fabric swap update

seeing some seriously amazing stuff come out of the swap this past week:

{block printed by yardage}

{stamped by flowerpress}

{screen printed [literally!] by kootoyoo}

i guiltily admit that i still have three swap packages to send out (i joined two groups so had eight partners in total). this week of illness threw a wrench in my plans to get them out by tuesday at the latest but i WILL get them out today. i will! i haven't even had a chance to get over to my post box to see what goodies are awaiting!

what a week

*

sick kids, sick husband, sick mama, so many loads of washing, so little eating, hydralyte icey poles, slowly recovering, trips to the post box, printing advent panels, unpacking market stock, trying to get swap packages together, making so many lists, playdate, trip to the zoo to see new gorillas, evening meeting for mae's awesome-sounding, next-year kinder... and it's only thursday.


*photos from a little excursion to heide museum of modern art last week with some buddies for playgroup victoria's open day.

deadlines

just popping in to show a very badly lit photo of my work space this afternoon - some special edition christmas teatowels (teatowels!! fun!!) waiting to be heat set and lots of lovely little packages containing swap fabric and advent panels ready to hit the post office. and also to remind everyone that i'll be at north melbourne market this weekend, on sunday the 13th at the lithuanian club in north melbourne, with my onegirl stock at sale prices and a few new maze & vale bits and pieces (teatowels!! cushion covers!! fat quarters of fabric!!). and ALSO to remind all handprinted: a fabric swap participants that the deadline for posting your swap pieces is this monday, november 14th. get crackin'!

diy advent

so it came to pass that last saturday i was musing on advent calendars. specifically on the advent calendar that i knew i wanted to create for mae and soph this year and how i wanted it to look and the age old question that stumps me every year - how was i going to get the numbers on the pockets or bags or whatever i decided to sew to contain the goodies? except this year i actually had a solution other than stamping (although, ironically this year i actually have a number stamp set and a fabric ink pad) or embroidery (which would take me FOREVER) - i could screenprint them! and so a frantic design took place and files were rushed to my screen making dude and voila! a set of lovely numbers, printed in perfect christmas red on a naturally coloured linen/cotton blend. of course, it's not very cost effective for me to get a whole screen made just to create an advent calendar for my kids so i've printed up a couple and have them available right here in my esty shop to help you with your last minute, panic fueled (as mine is sure to be) advent calendar making : )







so the idea is that you trim around the dotted lines and then sew the circles onto the bags or pockets of your advent calendar but you could trim them in closer if you didn't want a border around the red. next year i hope to offer a complete kit for an advent calendar with these numbers, a pattern and the linen to make it but there just isn't time to pull it all together for old 2011. for this year, i've compiled a bunch of advent calendar inspiration on my holiday board on pinterest to help with design ideas, here are a couple of my favourites:

{a gorgeous one by lisa}

{love this great idea by christie}

{classic pocket style by the long thread}

 

{this was on a tumbler site with no link but i think it might be from a magazine..?}

all of these would work super well with my diy advent numbers, i think, even the last one with the clothes pegs. the trimmed out numbers could just be glued above each peg instead of stamping as shown here. i haven't quite decided what we're going to use yet. i'm leaning towards pocket style but we're going to be putting a hanging line across one wall in the playroom anyway for hanging the kids art on so it would be perfect for little advent bags... and i think we're going to steal this great idea i saw on pinterest and just do little cards with activities on them instead of small toys or candy. i'll post the list of activities i come up when i get them done, probably november 30th at 8pm....

handprinted: a fabric swap update

aw, thanks so much for the kind and encouraging comments on my last post, everyone! i've had an excellent first week as maze & vale and i am so ridiculously excited about the future of this hobby o' mine. things are pretty busy around here (i literally ran around like a crazy person on my childfree thursday to try and accomplish HALF of what was on my to do list) but i've had a few moments to pop into blogs and i've been seeing some great stuff for the handprinted fabric swap:

 

{block printed by lisa}

{block printed by riyo} 

{screen printed by rebecca}

i haven't had a chance to get around to everyone so please leave a link in the comments if you've posted your printing results, i'd love to check it out and share with the group.

maze & vale

 big news, my friends, big, big news. after oh-so-many years, i am hanging up my onegirl apron and moving on. i've craved a change for a long time now and as each year passes i feel less and less like onegirl is a good fit for my work, the quilts and fabric designs i've been working on this year especially. i've been hesitant to list them as onegirl and last week, with my thirty sixth birthday looming in early november, i made the solid decision to change. a new name, a new logo, a new webpage, a new shop, a new facebook page. and it feels so GOOD to finally commit! now, not to worry, onegirl isn't going away entirely. i'll be closing my bigcartel shop for good in january but my onegirl etsy shop will remain open for any future onegirl pattern sales. i will be clearing out all my remaining onegirl labelled stuff at north melbourne market on november 13th and december 4th and maribyrnong makers market on november 26th (and i'll have a selection of the new goodies, too).

but now i am super excited to introduce you to maze & vale, named after my two crazy, sweet girls. my original designs, handprinted in small runs of custom mixed colours on linen and cotton cloth. improvisational and beautifully organic quilting. toys that are as unique as they are cuddly. that is what maze & vale is all about. my new little shop is just stretching its legs with a few fabric listings but soon i'll add quilts, quilt kits, pillow covers, oobees (yes, there will still be oobees!) and whatever else i can dream up to create with my own fabric.

and as a huge thank you for all of the love and support you have shown me as onegirl for the past six years and to kick off my new identity, i am super happy to offer FREE SHIPPING within australia for the entire month of november in both my maze & vale shop and my onegirl shop! no coupon codes needed, just shop away and have it arrive for free. and if you could pop over and like my lonely new facebook page, that would be ace : )