Brisvegas ahoy

So we're off. It's been another mad week of last minute preparing and packing and packaging, and again we vow to be more organised next time. Myself and Teegs are heading up tomorrow with 6 overstuffed bags between us (eep) and Bianca will be following us up on Wednesday.

We're excited.

Amidst it all I managed to design some new packaging, and some new kits:



Here's the rest of my fabric that I couldn't fit in our bags. Instead I'm putting it up in the shop. It's all up there right now actually! Except for the new new stuff, like the charcoal & black Birch & Bonsai and the red on cream Bonsai. I'll put them up when I get back and have two seconds to take pics.



Anyway hope to see you at the Brissy show if you're a local (do say hi!!) and otherwise I'll be back on the 5th. I'm going to be internet-less for a week, I don't know how I'll cope ;)

xx

Second chances

After such a dry spell I'm finding it a miracle that here I am blogging away with multiple daily posts both here and on Ink & Spindle.

Whilst galavanting down South East Gippsland way I bought these two lovely old dining chairs from an Antiques barn. The selling point for me was the fact that the cushioned seats just pop out of the frame making for a super easy reupholstery job. Something so easy I will actually find time to do it!

The best thing is that I can quickly prototype different fabrics before having to commit. Like this piece of Chocolate Birch I had floating around:


Dining chair reupholstery prototype


Dining chair reupholstery prototype

I was so chuffed with the result - it feeds the growing upholstery 'thing' I've got going on.

On the fabric front, here's two large stacks of fabric we've been printing for the Brisbane show. All my favorites basically. I'm really liking the red, chocolate, white, charcoal and teal colour scheme.


Textiles for the Stitches & Craft Show

I'm not sure these fabrics will be up in the shop before we leave for Brissy. Well I might put them up but won't be able to post them back till after we get back. I'll keep you posted :)

Karin's giveaway

Leather pouch with Japanese fabric cover by Kayi Dreaming

A good friend of mine Karin has recently started getting quite involved in the blogging world. It's great - having a 'real world' friend who understands both sides of my social life.

Anyway Karin's been feeling the creative urge for quite some time now, and has been experimenting with all sorts of different crafty pursuits in order to find her thing, which I think is great. It's not always obvious what your true calling is, and it doesn't really matter anyway so long as you're having fun!

Anyway Karin has recently started working with leather and vintage japanese and screen printed fabrics. Two of my favourite things, and I can tell she has a great eye for it!

Aaand, Karin's doing a giveaway on her blog! She's giving away this lovely little leather pouch, which I think is gorgeous. So do head on over there and leave a nice comment to go into the draw - she'll really appreciate it :)

Leather pouch with Japanese fabric lining by Kayi Dreaming

The house on the hill

The house on the hill - kitchen & dining areas

Over the weekend I went down South East Gippsland way and visited a dear friend who moved there a few years ago. 'Moved' doesn't even begin to describe it, not only has he established a very successful cafe in Leongatha, but he also personally designed & built the most amazing home I have ever set foot inside.

The doors - all salvaged. The windows - all north facing, with sun warming the polished slab floor in winter but sheltered by the cantilevered roof in summer. The kitchen - featuring a wall of recycled weatherboards and bricks, and benchtops made from the offcuts from the rafters. The water & waste system - all self sustainable. Water is collected from the roof and ends up in a worm farm waste system along with the food scraps.

And as you can see from the photos - such a homely space. Look at all that art, all those books. Books books books. It's the sort of home you can just relax in and not have to feel too precious about (although everything had its place).

I was so very inspired by this house. How, with careful thought you can create a beautiful space with genuine minimal impact on the earth. I hope to one day be able to create something similar.

Photos below, more on my flickr.


Entrance hall through to living


Living and dining areas (spectacular hilltop views from those windows)


The kitchen


The kitchen


Living area (with familiar lamps!)


The bathroom

Naomi's lamp

My blog posts are becoming fewer and further between of late! The other day I was looking back over photos of my old projects and it felt like I had so much more time to just experiment with things and take pretty photos and write about them. At the moment it's all just print, print, print, in preparation for the Brisbane Stitches & Craft Show.

Fortunately, other people are out there making pretty things that I can blog about instead! Like Naomi, who commissioned a run of large scale chocolate Birch for a lamp project. Now bear in mind this is the LARGE scale Birch, so the lamp is really quite big!


Large Birch lamp in Naomi's stairwell


Large Birch lamp in Naomi's stairwell


Large Birch lamp in Naomi's stairwell

I love the way the colours & form of the pattern match the balustrade.

Thanks for the pics Naomi!

Freshly Blended collab!!

Oh my gosh, I'd really better get on to bloogging about this before I'm the last person to do so!

It's been a veeeery long time in the making, but finally they're ready to show: lovely handbound limited edition Journals made in a collaboration between myself and Nicole from Freshly Blended!

In Nicole's words:

"These heavy duty journals are bound with the original illustrations of lara cameron and hand silkscreened on 100% organic fabric. Adorning the interior of the books is a custom bookplate and an italian cotton ribbon book marker from angela liguori at carta inc. The books measure 5x7 inches and holds a 1/2 in. of 100% tree free white blank paper...perfect for travel!

There are only a limited amount and will not be reproduced, so head on over to the shop and check them out!"

Ooooooh, pretty :)

Gorgeous work Nicole - it's been great working with you! Now onto the next collab... ;)