in other news

I've been mentioning it here in little snippets, but it's all official now (well, it was last Friday - but been a bit busy since then doing other stuff). So, we have SOLD our house. In less than a week, how amazing is that. We had the first open for inspection on a Saturday, and an offer in on the Thursday night.
A lovely young(ish - you compared to old 35-yr Sam and 31-yr me!!) couple, who have lots of ideas (and the funds) to do this old (at least 70+ yrs old) house some justice. We already told them that we'd come and check it out in a year or so.
So, we have to be out of here in about 7 or 8 days. Have we started packing. As if, no way! Why would we want to start doing something like so early. We want to do that at the last minute, hey. We did already pack up half our stuff and move it to a storage place (to make the house look less "cluttered" for open inspections). But, we still do have a lot a lot a lot of stuff. We've been living here for about 7 or so years (more, can't remember now), and have the accumulated junk that comes with not moving too often.
In our new house I will have my own little sewing studio. I'm calling it a studio, rather than a sewing room - sounds much more fun. It is little, but I think it has lots of good light. I'm dreaming about it. Oh, the possibilities. The excitement.
Currently I have my sewing table in the corner of our living room. And it's simply not enough for me to have my thinking space and creative space and try and run a business in as well. So, good things ahead.
Please help me out with dreams for my new studio. I'd love thoughts and ideas on what works for you in a smallish space, for multi crafting, and to accommodate kids, and a guest bed. I'd love links to inspirational photos. So, if you have a great room yourself, or have been dreaming similar dreams of your own room, please speak up.
I took these photos the other day, when the kids + I had lunch in the backyard. Despite all my wishings it was different, this house has been good to us. And I know how lucky we have been.

For those of you in Brisbane, make sure you get to the Portside Boutique markets on Sunday. Peppermint will be there, selling issue 3 and subscriptions. As well as many of the beautiful BrisStylettes with their wares. At last I'll be able to look around and see it all, being on the other side of the market table will be nice. Oh, and did I mention there'll be a coffee + chocolate festival too.

I'm sure you're all hanging on the edge of your seats waiting to hear about my market weekend marathon.BrisStyle Indie Designer's Market, on Saturday, was so so lovely. What a glorious, friendly, smiley and talented group of women. The weather was almost perfect (bit too windy and standing in the sun all day took it out of me). The customers started before we'd even properly set up our stalls and continued until just after lunch time - when we were allowed to pack up and go home.The location was so perfect - the grassy grounds of a church, and inside their hall. We missed a bride, but did see the groom and best man as well as some well dressed guests.Unfortunately I didn't get around to see all the stalls. I did take one extended (chatting along the way) toilet break, but apart from that missed out on the great set ups and amazing crafts and wares that were on offer.Check over at the BrisStyle blog to see all the other Stylettes, and read a great little round up of the whole glorious day. Also, thanks to the ever-smiley and beautiful Steph Bond for taking a photo of our skateboard buttons before they all sold out. You heard it - Sam had to rush home and make more for the Southbank YDM, for Sunday. Still didn't get to see her little one - fast asleep in the pram.The biggest thanks must go to the amazing women - Helen, Sophie, Chris, Bel, Ali, Robyn, Bec & Rebecca - who put so much into getting it all organised and together. For working tirelessly, during your "normal" jobs, your own crafting and parenting and general life. For putting the word out there, getting promo spots all over the place. And for having all sorts of customers come along and support the handcrafted movement.Kelley and I had a fun, exciting day - meeting people, and smiling and saying hello (many faces I know, but not always able to put names to! Please forgive me if I didn't remember you....).
Southbank Market wasn't quite as sunny or warm. But I did get to spend the day with Katy, from whatkatydid. I met her at Brown Owls, where we chatted over granny squares. And when I put out the call for help, she offered. We chatted all day (seeing as how there were basically no customers... poohy) about all sorts of things. Katy is so much more mature than her years (ok, I don't know how old she actually is - but she looks like a "spring chicken" to me. like I'm some old-fogie). She's one of those people that tries all sorts of things and has skills and talents in so many different crafts and arts. Check out her new machine - can't wait to see that and have a play with it. Thank you so so so so much Katy for spending your day with me, and helping. It was fun and I learnt so much from you. Can't wait to catch up again.
Also, she wore her world's coolest skirt. I forgot to take photos. I think we were chatting too much!
********** I'm sorry about the quality of my photos. Not sure what's wrong with them, hope my camera isn't starting to do cheeky things.

help needed

So, I have crazily, stupidly, crazy-crazy-crazily only just signed up to do the Southbank Young Designer's Market (YDM). It's on this Sunday! ummm, yes, I'm doing the BrisStyle Indie Designer's Market (BIDM) on Saturday. So, only two sleeps to finish off everything on my list. And, then double it for two markets. I'm not sure it was the best of ideas to sign up for a market only 3 days before it's on.
Oh, well. I'll have lots of smiles to offer my customers. If I sell out of everything, then I'm quite alright with that.
What I'm needing is a little bit of help. I'm going to be joined on Saturday by my dear friend Kelley and her sweet mag. But I'll be all alone at the Sunday market. Wondering if anyone out there (ok - anyone in Brisbane) wants to come along to Southbank this Sunday (5th July) and hang out with me for a few hours. In case it gets busy, or it's totally boring and having someone to chat to would be good, or if I need to run off and have a toilet break.
Do any of you lovely lovelies want to be on the other side of the table, and see how a market happens. You'll need to bring lots of water, and a packed lunch is a good idea, and be ready for lots of chatting and meeting so many friendly people. I've met some great new friends at markets.

Please do let me know via email (redseedstudio AT gmail DOT com) or leave a comment here, if you feel like you could help me out.
(Must admit that the pay is zero, but the perks are pretty good!).

in my hands :: reworking :: remaking :: remembering

Market prep work today. Kids were at Sylv's. After pancake breakfast (yes, third day in a row - no bread in the house*).
Sam went downstairs to his little room, and measured and cut and then sanded. He kept running back upstairs to show me the newest piece. Each one beautiful and unique and fun. I'll show you tomorrow the buttons and little pieces he's been making. All from used skateboards. They have such colours and graphics.
He's been using a big sanding machine, of my dad's. It sounded like there was a steam train downstairs!And me, upstairs. I've been slowly unpicking some special treasures that some dear dear friends sent to us a little while ago, from Japan. Thank you Dan + Aya. We treasure your friendship so dearly.The kimonos and obis are sewn with care and tenderness. I've been thinking about who sewed them; those tiny, invisible and accurate stitches. And who wore them; the stains along the bottom as it dragged on the ground; the extra piece patched in that was possibly from another family heirloom. And thinking about where they will go once I unpick and then resew them into new pieces. For other people to take home. To add their memories and stories to the material.
So. That's what we've been doing today. Taking apart and reworking pieces of life, of memories, of thoughts, of feelings, of adventures.
Sam with those skateboards that have been ridden** and jumped and snapped (with excitement and joy and sometimes fear).
Me with the fabric and material of everyday cottons or special day silks.

Please do come and visit us at the BrisStyle market, if you live round these parts. Otherwise, I'll be sure to have some photos here, or flickr or even on our website soon.

*I am sad, sorry, embarrassed to say that I have not made any bread this whole entire year. I could be a bit wrong, but I really do think that it's been all this calendar year that we have not kneaded or risen any bread in this house. I guess I should make one last loaf before we move out.
**Some were ridden by him, some by other skaters that he knows.

Ms Peppermint :: she's one pretty crafty girl

The cover of the newest issue 0f Peppermint is a beautiful purply hue. It's such a nostalgic cover image, the whole feel. Very Wintry indeed.
I received my issue on Friday and wanted to devour the whole thing instantly. Instead I visited the Avid Reader Little Market, and then the Vintage Fair, and then chocolate mud cake and tea. All with Ms Peppermint herself.
I am slowly reading through the stories. Life is getting in the way!
I so love the handcrafted story, written by Tess Curran. She is the talented features writer for Peppermint - and such a sweet and lovely young woman. It's a must read for every-single one of you. About blogging and crafting and work-at-home-mums. (If you look very closely in the corner of this page, you'll notice that I made these little letters - it was such a fun project, and I feel proud to have been asked to help.)The fashion pages are beautiful. I may be a tad biased, but I do believe that the model on pages 32-39 is something a whole lot of gorgeous and especially beautiful. I showed a sneak peek here, but sorry you'll have to get the mag to see the rest. (okay, okay - just a couple more). There's a lovely little story on Justine of MixtapeZine and also the Kiwi World Sweet World.
As well as a crazy amount of anything else handcrafted, eco, local, realistic, interesting, current, fashionable.......Peppermint has the latest on all that you want to be reading. Printed on 100% recycled paper, with a waterless printing process, right here in Brisbane.
Check out the website, facebook or twitter. For you Brisbanites, we'll be selling Peppermint Issue 3 + subscriptions at our stall at the BrisStyle Indie Designer's Market. This Saturday. 9am - 2pm. St Augustine's Church, Racecourse Road, Hamilton. It will be at newsagents on Friday.

*photos from Peppermint facebook page, have a look here for more sneak peeks.

weekend

A lovely weekend was spent with my family.
With the raggle-taggle-pell-mell-tumble-bumble pile of kids, and the worn out though contented mummas.
I did not get any crochet done. I sat, once the kids were all in bed, but the crochet counting didn't happen - too distracted with girly talk.
Thank you my sisters three, for a lovely weekend. For understanding looks, and knowing glances. For not having to explain anything about anything.
For sharing conversations around the bath and the fire.
For working together to have a lovely memorable weekend for all the cousins.
And thank you little ones, all seven of you, for being the terrible beautiful - beautiful terrors that you all are. And for laughing and jumping and playing and riding and running and screaming and talking.
Yes, you may ask who was the silly crazy mum to give them ice cream and sprinkles - but we like to be nice occasionally. Just so you know, the cake and ice cream were on different days. We do like to extend the sugar-highs out as best we can!
I will upload more photos onto flickr when the new month starts. We have all but used up our upload quota and I am NOT paying some crazy extra fees.

my creative space

Things are happening here in little spurts and bursts.
Time and inspiration seem hard to come by this week.

This book has been so helpful and instrumental in me not only learning Granny Squares, but also in learning some new stitches and shapes. Have a look at my crochet woolen flower - oh, well umm that's just the start of it. I'll show you more photos another day, just to prove that it does actually look like in the book. More flowers and snowflakes and spirals in the book, to give me more ideas and dreams.
I am planning (hoping) on making at least a few of these little shapes to sew onto some bags (hemp / organic cotton, of course) for selling at the BrisStyle Indie Designer's Market.
Okay, don't remind me that the market is in only one more week. I have a whole weekend ahead of spending with my sisters and the clan of kids. I'll be the one wedged into the corner of the couch surrounded by yarns (fingers crossed).

More creative spaces over at Kootoyoo. I'm going to try and play along with this game fairly regularly.
And this little fairy princess was playing in the garden while I over looked from the balcony.

just to prove she loves me

Mishi had to go to the doctor this morning. Sam took her, plus Ari. I went to Contours - I'm just joining up (not much of a gym girl, but have to do something to counteract all the chocolate + sitting around crocheting).

Mishi asked, in her sweet little sing-song voice "the girl doctor?". She's at an age where girl / boy things are quite distinct; ie - this is a girl song, that's a boy show, girl book, not for boys, etc. Honestly I don't know where she gets it from, but she's a pink and fairy princess sort of girl. She very much likes that she has a girl doctor.
While I was washing up this morning, she came in and quietly mumbled that the girl doctor was prettier than me. It took me a moment to work out what she'd actually said. And when I asked her to repeat it, she didn't want to. Saying "nothing, nothing", in a mysterious little voice. But I finally got it out of her. And simply had to laugh, and run and tell Sam.
The girl doctor is prettier than me. She's very funky in her clothing choices, and tall and blonde, well built. She's a grown-up, mature woman, she has 4 almost grown-up kids. Very striking woman.
I did think it very funny that Mishi said that. Little bit worried what it may turn into in a handful of years of peer influence.

Just to prove that she really does love me, she brought this bright yellow flower home from her walk to the doctor. I do know that even if other people do surpass me in her eyes of impressiveness, that she will always still love me.

inside :: outside

outside ::

It's raining today. I couldn't help but capture this image of the beautiful Chinese Elm outside the window. It's turned the most vibrant glowing yellow. Perfect against the rain-sky. And the red roof of the next door neighbour's garage.

inside ::

A boat train from some boxes we brought home today from the fruit shop. Enough space for two little creatures, and some friends. The new robot friends we made at our workshop (mini Mondays at Reverse Garbage). Ari's robot is called Ari and Mishi's is called Ari, guess who named them both! I'm sure you can work out who made which one; let me just say that Mishi did her's ALL on her own. Because she wasn't officially booked in (and paid for) the lady wouldn't hot glue it (even though Mishi kept asking when her turn was), but sweet little creature that she is (can be), she made her own without any help at all.
They are great new friends. Ari-bot has a mouth that can change from smile to frown, very convenient I think.

(face) book list

Just found this on someones facebook - you know a link from a link. That sort of thing. Not that I'm over there too much, don't care at all for the whole facebook thing.

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Put a % after those you've read a portion of.
3) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
4) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
5) Tally your total read and put it in the title.


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ()
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien ()
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte ()
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling ()
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)
6 The Bible ()
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte ()
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (X)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ()
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ()
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ()
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (%)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (%)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ()
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien ()
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ()
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger ()
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (?)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ()
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell ()
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald ()
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ()
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ()
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (x)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ()
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ()
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (X)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (X)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (X)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ()
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ()
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (X)
34 Emma - Jane Austen ()
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen ()
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X)
37. Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (X)
38. Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ()
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ()
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (X)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (X)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown ()
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (X)
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving ()
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ()
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (%)
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood ()
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (X)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ()
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ()
52 Dune - Frank Herbert ()
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons ()
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen ()
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ()
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ()
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ()
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (X)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon ()
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (X)
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck ()
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov ()
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt ()
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ()
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas ()
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac (X)
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ()
68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding ()
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie ()
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville ()
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ()
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker ()
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett ()
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ()
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (%)
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (X)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ()
78 Germinal - Emile Zola ()
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ()
80 Possession - AS Byatt ()
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens ()
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ()
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker ()
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ()
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ()
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ()
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White (X)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ()
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (X)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton (%)
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (?)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ()
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (X)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Toole ()
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ()
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (X)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ()

Hmmm. There's some on that list that I'd like to read; some that I'm pretty sure I have read but couldn't tell you what they were about; some that I read in school (because I had to - but loved all the same); some that I know I'll never read; some I've read but want to read again. And, I can't even think about what ones I love, or what I would read on that list. Oh, and I know I've read at least a few of the Jane Austen ones, but can't remember - you know they all sort of meld into each other after a while. (And one can hardly get Mr Darcy or Miss Elizabeth Bennet out of their minds, hey :: photo just for fun; don't know where it came from, sorry).

I'd love to hear your favourite books; either on this list or not. Tell me what I should read. In my small moments of quiet time. What's your most loved book of all time.