Bring, bring

These super cool vintage telephone brooches are now available in my Etsy store.

Parisian Inspiration

New Summer Paris brooches in store now. Notice the new packaging? I can't stop myself from tinkering. 

Simplicity, my arse!

Six weeks into this semester's dress making classes and I'm still working on the same dress! It is becoming a very frustrating project. It's not my fault, I swear! It's the pattern! I'm using Simplicity my arse pattern #2403. This is a more complicated pattern than the previous ones I'd used. The tunic pattern had 5 pieces. This one has 24 and 94 steps! And the instructions are not written for a beginner. Last week I managed to skip a whole step, which, luckily, was caught in time.

Despite this little set back,  all was going along swimmingly until last night when I tried on the top of the dress (minus the sleeves- I haven't gotten to them yet) and there was no way that the top was going to button up. The other girls told me that it was 'very fitted'- which I took to mean, 'You look like a $5 hooker'.

I'm making a size 12. I'm usually a 10-12 and before I started we did all the necessary measuring and the finished size 12 should have been slightly too big...which to my mind is better than being a little too small. There is no way that the finshed sizes resemble anything close to what the pattern said. So I thought that I'd mistakenly traced off the wrong size. But, no, I went back and measured my pattern pieces against the original and they are definitely size 12.

Nonetheless I am persevering and I carried on and started on the skirt half. The pockets were easy and turned out really well. Fingers crossed that all will be okay in the end. If not, then maybe it will fit my sister or niece. 

New Arrivals

Today I'm excited to share with you these images of new stock for Notions. I love these little flowers and the colours work so perfectly with my Spring brooches. These sweet little acrylic earrings will be for sale at upcoming Christmas markets. I have listed some in my Etsy store and I'll be adding more in the coming days. I also have some pretty new acrylic hair slides, but I haven't had time to photograph them yet.

Make Do & Mend

Make Do & mend brooch sets are now in my etsy store...limited quantity, so be quick!

Pretties

credits here

Winner

And the brooch goes to....

Miss Mel of Zinga's Zoo...congratulations Mel! Can you email me your postal details?

I had to share Mel's blog banner with you...what fabulous bunting!

Studio Makeover

The other morning I awoke all inspired to revamp my studio (a great excuse to ignore the ever growing pile of dirty dishes for a little while longer). Although the revamp included rearranging my storage shelves and their contents the fun part was playing with the display on the mantle piece which is the first thing you see when you open the door and the main focus of the room.  I've hung some of my vintage aprons over the mantle piece (who doesn't love an indoor clothes line?) and displayed some of my balls of twine and other bits and pieces that 'speak' to me at the moment, including some mini mannequins, some little red apples that I scored at an op shop some time ago and some of my favourite vintage children's books.  What do you think?

Blink & You Might Miss It

Did you blink and almost miss it? I did. Yep, there is a photo of Notions 'Recess' brooches in the latest issue of Frankie Magazine (38).

Pretty Pinks

All credits here

Evening Stroll

Giveaway

I found the perfect fabric for my new packaging and to celebrate I am giving away one of these sweet pink floral brooches. To enter simply leave a comment on this post. The winner will be announced on Monday (Oct 25th) night.

My Creative Space

 

Once again, my creative space has been less about crafting and more about packaging and computer-ing. Thus week I've become obsessed with making pretty packaging cards.  I don;t really have any new stock to put on the cards so I may have to re-package some of my Spring collection.  It would be a shame to not use these designs. 

So obsessed am I that I made a virtual folder to keep all my receipts in (I had to visit the accountant to today to do my taxes...bleh!).

For my creative spaces head on over to Kootoyoo.  And don't forget to drop by tomorrow to enter a give away. 

Down the Rabbit Hole

I've been on a bit of a packaging re-vamp binge this week. Here are two new packaging ideas for the Alice in Wonderland brooch series. 

Sweet Ride from Simply Hue. Too cute.