Crafty Girl with Ruffle

A Hot, Sunny Afternoon on Map 29

 

There is nothing like an almost autumn sky and 35 degree temperatures, a big, fat sunflower that reminds me of Jack and the Bean Stalk and luscious ripe tomatoes.  All in my own back yard!

Not to mention the Chookies keeping cool under the lemon tree.  It is beyond me how they get clean whilst bathing in the dirt, but it seems to work ... B-Gerk!

Where Did This Week Go?

I don't know!  I just know that it is nearly over.  It is a bit like driving home,  but not knowing how I got there.

I've been wanting to blog all week about the fabulous weekend away our Craft Group had in Ballarat.  It was so nice to get away and just craft our hearts out.  Simone brought the first half of the Project Runway Australia .  That was seriously addictive with lots of big personalities.   I can't wait to see the rest.  Of course, no weekend away would be complete without a trip to the local Patchwork Shops.  We ran into Jodie and  Annie at  Ballarat Patchwork who very kindly took us to Gail's Emporium.  What a fantastic shop. Look what Jodie found.  Thanks Jodie and Annie for such a great time.

The accommodation was fantastic.  There was lots of room for crafting .

 
However, there was one thing I couldn't get my head around.....


The house had a lock on just about every door except the toilet!  The toilet had a switch system.  I was so fascinated by it, that I had to share  it!  The system is pretty self explanatory, however you have to do the switch flicking yourself.  It was very important not leave the red and green lights on at the same time as this could cause confusion!


There was also time for procastination.  The cunning plan was to sew up these squares over the weekend.  We got as far as this.....

As you can see, we are brimming over with enthusiasm at the prospect of putting this blanket together.

Is This a New Magazine?

or am I living in my normal vacuum?  I was looking for the latest issue of Sew Hip and found this one.  It is Australian and looks a bit less Nana than some of the other Australian Sewing Machines.  I haven't had a good look yet but I think it has potential.  I'll save it for a pre bed time read which means it will take me a month to get through it!

Where I Live..... Beautiful, Vibrant Brunswick

I have been wanting to do one of these photo collages for ages.  The talented Joanie from Nini Makes has pointed me in the right direction.

What can I say?  I just love living in Brunswick.  It has a lovely, vibrant community of many cultures.  Brunswick is also full of creative minds, fantastic eating and you don't need a car as it is well serviced by trains, trams and buses.  Brunswick was founded in approximately 1850.  There was a huge influx   of Greek and Italian migrants in the 1950's, Turkish in the 70's and more recently Middle Eastern and Somalians in the 90's.  It makes for a wonderful multicultural melting pot.  It is said that Brunswick is such a friendly community because everyone has come from somewhere else.

1. Bluestone Lane that runs behind our house.  It used to be the laneway for the "Dunny Cart" before sewerage systems were available.  You would leave your bucket of ummmm waste on the laneway and the Dunny (Toilet) Cart would collect it.  Now the laneways serve as an access lane into  garages.  Some councils have sold the laneways to the house owners so that they can make their backyards bigger.  Thankfully they haven't done that to ours.
2. Don't Tell Tom Cafe and Bar   A fantastic live music and eating venue on vibrant Sydney Road.  This building has had many "lives".  It was originally a Post Office, then a Childcare Centre (it still has a sandpit for the kids in the beer garden).  Don't Tell Tom also serves Breakfast and Lunch.  Our Brunch Club meets here once a month.
3. Brunswick Town Hall  - Isn't this a stunning building.  Situated on the heart of Sydney Rd.  Built in 1876.  This Hall serves many purposes including the Sisters Market  where local designers go to sell their stunning wares.
4. Australia Post Letterbox
5. A Bronzed Vintage Ticket Stub - Set into the footpath at Brunswick Town Hall.  I've always found them fascinating.
6. Our Street!
7. Brunswick Brickworks Chimney - Brunswick is set on a clay bed and until recent years was home to a number of Brickworks factories.  This is one of the old chimneys.
8. A Stall at the Northcote Artisan's Winter Markets - I have a stall here for the next three weeks.  As you can see by this picture there are many talented designers here.  Why not take a peek.  The details are here.
9. Spotlight - The most disorganised craft store on earth - but it does the job.......if you know what you want and where to find it.
10. Plaque at Brunswick Town Hall
11. Feature work of Brunswick Town Hall.  Isn't it stunning?

The Office

I am currently on Long Service Leave from the Commonwealth Public Service (hope to turn it into even longer service leave).  I went to visit the Office I work in last week to do tie up a few loose ends.  I had forgotten the disgustingly, fascinating behaviour that occurs in the workplace.  It was enough to make me want to blog about it.  But I really think that there is a David Attenborough documentary to be made or at least a Leunig Cartoon.   I am an Executive Assistant, so I get to see people at all levels and have grouped them into the following:

• It's Not My Job - Is the person who makes a career of not making things his job.  This individual is a very cunning speciman.  You aren't often aware they exist until they have walked away and left you with their workload!  This is achieved by a lot of rambling about nothing and you will do anything to get away from them.
• The Flex Time Builder - Thinks that he or she is clever but in actual fact, everyone is onto them.  These annoying individuals stay back at work late after spending their days distracting everyone else from their work by talking to them about what is happening out the window, what happened in the Government 20 years ago (war stories and it was always better than now).  However, when Management appear which is usually around 5ish after a day of meetings, they are diligently pretending to work away and of course are so dedicated to the cause that they couldn't possibly leave before 7pm.  The Flex Time Builder also takes great pleasure in wanting to have a huge chat about the time you are racing out the door to get your train. Hint:  Say goodbye, don't make eye contact and keep walking.
• The Career Serial Departmental Pest  (CSDP)- These people are very unique animals in their own right.  They are slowly becoming extinct but as management will tell you, they are still alive and well.  The CSDP have a life long goal of suing the organisation they work for, and spend all their time making their case.  The CSDP works long hours working on their cause, often well into the night printing the fruits of their labour under the cover of darkness.
• The Climber - Fairly self explanatory really, but there are alway a menagerie of these in any workplace.  The ladder must be climbed at any cost... they have a lovely set of sharpened knives at the ready at all times just in case a stabbing needs to take place (from behind of course)....
• Royalty - Mmmmm I think that is why I went on Long Service Leave.  These very special human beings are above doing anything that they consider beneath their station.  They don't think twice about taking the paper out of the printer and putting it into the photocopier that have run out of paper (or vice versa), not replace the toilet paper or in some cases not even flush the toilet!  When the next person goes to use the toilet,  print or photocopy, there is no paper.  The all time classic for me was when the Printer ran out of paper and the Princess left the tray open as if to say "FILLLLLL IT"!  Hence causing a serious SIUYA moment on my part and the birth of the "10 Commandments of Printer Ettiquette" being posted to the wall that I will save for another post.
• Ms B-Gerk - Well, that would be me.  A great way to instill good humour in most people is to sidle up beside them and utter and enormous "B_GERK"!  Even the grumpiest old bum will chortle at this one.

Craft and Bag Bliss!

What a wonderful weekend!  On Saturday was the Debut of the Sister's Market at the Brunswick Town Hall in Melbourne.  What a feast for the eyes - not so for the pocket, no self control on my part.   The Sister's Market is such a welcome addition to our handmade community.

Today I attended the pattern launch of the Nicole Mallalieu Design Beach Bag. 10% of all pattern sales went to Ovacare who are dedicated to raising the profile of ovarian cancer and awareness of the disease throughout Australia.  It was a great day with heaps of cool door prizes donated by the local crafting community.  Check out my purchases :).  I also received a goodie bag from Living Creatively that had heaps of good stuff in it.  Thank you Angela!  Living Creatively is a fabulous Website, keeping crafters informed of what is going on in the craft world and to inspire the creativity in all of us.  It is free to join the Living Creatively Website and you also go into the the draw to win a Brother Computerised Sewing Machine. 

I've also spent time working on another Oswald and have been sewing bits of fabric together and using the side where I've pressed the hems open for a bit more texture. I have to admit I've got a bit of "sewing block" at the moment.  Maybe I should go and knit a dishcloth or two instead!  I've also sworn off cake, maybe that has something to do with it?  Rice Cakes just don't cut it!

SIUYA

What's that I hear you ask?  It is a very useful tool if not used too often.  To cut to the chase, SIUYA means "Shoveitupyourass".  Not noice I know.  For those of you who know me, I am a fairly mild mannered individual, very friendly and approachable individual.  This works for me about 98% of the time.  But occasionally I need to put SIUYA into play.  For example, when the Fax Machine Technician comes to fix the fax machine at work.  Was very rude and asked me if I had actually switched it on ???!!!*  I may be blonde but I ask you....  Very effective.  The fax machine was fixed in five minutes.

SIUYA was born one afternoon about three years ago.  I wanted to buy my Little Miss Ruffle a pair of shoes.  I parked in a car park across the road from the shoe shop.  I tried to put money in the parking meter, but it was broken.  I had no joy at the shoe shop and when I returned there was a parking ticket on the windscreen.  Noice!  So Not!  There was a building construction site next door to the car park and the guys on the roof called out to tell me that the parking inspector had been booking people all week even though the machine was broken!  I asked the guys what he looked like and I was on a mission.   The description was apt and I located Mr Parking Inspector himself.  When I asked him why he had given me a ticket when the machine was broken, he laughed.  At that point I ripped up the ticket and told him in to SIU his A and roared off.   The look of bewilderment on this guy's face in my rear vision mirror was priceless.  I had forgotten I had a passenger until 4 year old Little Miss Ruffle piped up in the back seat, "that was funny mum".  Oops!  We found another shoe shop that also sold gold sequin tote bags which I just had to have and has since been christened my SIUYA bag.  I never got a parking ticket in the mail by the way.

Rules of Applying SIUYA

1. SIUYA should only be used twice a year MAXIMUM  otherwise its effectiveness is reduced and someone will tell you to SIUYA.  The following criteria apply: 
   1. The person on the receiving end is totally unreasonable,  rude and not a nice person.
   1. The person laughs in your face when you are mad already
2. The rest of the time the Sensible Woman Check* applies.  Friendliness and courteousness to others are essential 98% of the time (this does not count in the last two weeks of your cycle).
3. SIUYA should be said as one word with a slurred intonation.  This gives the person on the receiving end a moment to register exactly what has been said and the dumbfounded look on their face when they do.

*A Sensible/Reasonable Woman Check is standing back and taking a look at your behaviour.  If you aren't sure, consult a trusted friend or colleague.

Let me know how you get on.  But remember, less is more :)

Where's my Hankie?

An unusual question in this day and age?  It must be if the looks that complete strangers give our family is anything to go by.

Hankies or Tissues?  This is one of my favourite topics mainly because it evokes such extreme reactions.  I put it up there with the cloth nappy, disposable nappy debate.  People ask, How could you use those disgusting things?  Quite easily really.   Tell me, what is nice about a tissue that won't accommodate the world's biggest blow?  Chances are you only have one tissue and I'll leave the rest to your imagination.  Another pet hate of mine is a tissue going through the wash.  If you leave a hanky in your pocket, it doesn't matter.

Hankies have an interesting history and are thought to go back as far as 3000 years ago.  By the 19th Century, hankies were considered a sign of wealth.   19th century ladies regarded the handkerchief as an indispensable accessory for an elegant costume. It no longer disappeared in the bags that they carried but were artistically decorated articles to be displayed. Ladies carried them openly in the hands, even in the streets. The custom made it easy for young people while chaperoned to evolve a system of signals that enabled them to carry on a discrete conversation across the room. For example: drawing a hankie across your cheek meant “I love you”, a hankie held to the right cheek meant “yes” but if it was held on the left cheek it meant “no”.

I am a third generation hanky lover and I've passed it on to my 4th generation.  My mother's partner reckons he can always find mind mum, just follow the trail of hankies.  Erk! You say?  We never thought anything of it. 

The Eldest Ruffled Crafty Offspring's girlfriend expressed her disgust when she discovered that ERC keeps her hanky up her sleeve.  How disgusting she says ....  Where else are you supposed to put it where you won't loose it?

There is something so charming about hankies.  They can be big and functional or small and dainty.  I spend lots of time in Op Shops finding the most stunning hand embroidered hankies that have been discarded from people's estates by tissue loving relatives.

Do you have hanky love? The first three people to declare their hanky love will receive a bar of handmilled Maia Rose soap made by me!

A Rainy Day Makes Me Happy :)

It was so nice  to wake up and hear the rain this morning.  I can't remember the last time I heard that sound in Melbourne.  It is really starting to feel like winter.  It was the perfect excuse to stay inside, bake and do a bit of craft with Little Miss Ruffle.

I was so excited by MixTape yesterday that Miss Ruffle and I made the Birds on the Clothes Line Kid's activity.  What a cool project!  I also had some fabric kissing birdies that I'd designed for the bottom of a skirt I was making.  She did a good job don't you think?

 

At Last! A Zine with Everything a Hip Crafter Could Want

My four issues of MixTape a zine  arrived in the mail today.  I can't begin to tell you how excited I have been about receiving them.    Nikkishell  and Justine Telfer  have created the most delicious publication with everything I crave to read about and do.  I can't begin to tell you how sick I am of those crappy, repetitive craft publications that exist in the mainstream magazine world.  Thank you!  It is so nice to know that there are other people out there that are interested in the same things that I am - the little things that make a big difference.  I discovered MixTape when responding to the invitation to talented handbag designer  Nicole Mallilaeu's invitation to the launch of her new Beach Bag pattern.  10% of all Beach Bag patterns sold will be donated to the National Ovarian Cancer Network.    Keep those  Zines coming.  I just  LOVE them!