things i'm loving & i'm grateful for 'Spring giveaways'

Greetings all,

As a take a blogcation to rock my fluoro socks off at my niece's 80's themed 21st this weekend . . . i'm leaving my blog to host a giveaway.  Things I'm Loving & I'm Grateful For . . . are being able to offer lots of giveaways . . . sponsored/ Lego/ IKEA/ handmade from my own hands. Take it away blog.

While making a bunch of patchwork pencil rolls for last weekend's Handmade Market, i made a special Babushka fabric one for this Spring giveaway with tiny bunting flags.  Ahhh.  Fancy the latest copy of Mollie Makes magazine??  I'm so delirious, i picked a copy from the newsagent & my subscription issue came in the mail, so where better to share (including linen pouch project)??  Toss in some stitching & mending books + gift tags & you've got yourself a crafty giveaway. 
Just follow this blog & leave a comment, to win Mollie Makes, 2 craft books, patchwork pencil roll & gifts tags.  Entries close midnight on Halloween, 31st October 2011.  Extra entries if you share on your social media, go nuts.  Random draw, good luck!! 

 Spring cleaning my September giveaways, i have some winners to announce!!
3 lucky randomly selected followers have each won a Lego Hero Factory scary dude.  Congratulations . . . Rachelle from Prim & Pretty blog,
Mel from Loved blog & Ally from Everyday Miracles blog.

 The latest Riley adventure in Tania McCartney's exciting series of children's book is Riley & The Grumpy Wombat in Melbourne + a coordinating pencil roll . . . the hand picked winner is . . . Greta from Topography & On Top of a Lilypad blogs in NZ.  Yay, lucky girl.  Let me know who Tania can autograph it to.

I have a few more giveaways up for grabs, from Wii games to more handmade goodness, follow & enjoy the ride.  Good luck, love Posie

market wrap up & school holidays begin

Greetings all,

What a weekend!!  A double Handmade Market, mercifully indoors (it poured with rain) & due to weather/ football finals/ long weekend/ school holidays . . . crowds were down.  Ditto my effort, as i am still suffering from exhuastion & woke up both mornings vomiting, not a good sign for something i used to love doing!!  Bless Rosalind from Grace Designs who saved me with some drugs. 

I set up my stall on Saturday morning, with my twin girls & we had some fun meeting new designers & bloggers + selling lots of brooches, fabric, buttons & bloomers.  With my stall already set up for Sunday morning, i did some shopping.
First stop, Mookah.  I love those ladies & their stylish screen printed goodness from country Victoria.  I bought a beautiful skirt from Leisa, so happy with the colours.  I was in love with the large moose floor cushion (it's not our first Mookah floor cushion, i know they are bloody fantastic).  Let's just say my son's dimples = discount!!  Thanks Margaret. 

 On our way to Heidi's The Curious Chocolatier's macarons for brunch . . . we stopped by the uber clever Gillian at Look Mama, her cards are wet-your-pants funny with her devilish sense of humour.  I collected some badges & 6 packs of stickers. 

 My darling boy was so brilliant, ALL day, he looked around, winked at the ladies nearby like Miss Haidee (she's a twin, vintage lover, living in Tasmania) & Red Parka Designs (hi Jen, a sweet Tasmanian living in Melbourne, dreaming of home).  My son brought me hot chocolate when i could barely stand & only asked for $2 for a balloon animal.  As you know we're not an electronic gadget kind of family - he played with business cards, pencils & my cash tin.  He carried my baskets back to the car, even dragged a trestle table into the rain, muscles!!  Bless his heroic heart, i was waiting for a trolley. 

Markets are funny events.  I didn't like my neighbour.  I know that is horrible & unprofessional to mention, but i know they are too superior to read my blog.  Let's just say, if the stall next to you offers to shift over if you need extra space (i paid extra for a corner, i had room to wiggle) & they don't even look up, just mutter "no, we won't" . . . you wonder why bother to be nice at all??  Then they glared at me for the rest of market, especially when customers stood in their stall space to reach my products!!  

Thanks so much for your 80's dress up tips in my last post - so funny to think people dressed like that seriously . . . shoulder pads, high hair, fluoro & eyeshadow . . . as daily business attire, now it's 'dress ups'. I'll let you know how we go on the weekend at the 21st.
Now it's time to kick off the school holidays - i've already washed the dog, done the garden & back verandah, sorted my high schooler's room out . . . not bad seeing i was still vomiting at midnight.  Let me at that linen cupboard, love Posie

things i'm loving . . . 'printed crochet'

Greetings all,

What a week of howling stormy weather, super slow internet, high school athletics (next stop: state finals) & market sewing panic.  Not a lot of time for blog reading.  Bring on school holidays i say - 3.25p.m. can not come around fast enough for me today!! 

Then i catch my breath to find Queen of Handmade Market has left flowers on my doorstep.  I haven't had a chance to say how much i appreciated your comments about my mummy & her Alzheimer's, it's still raw, i'm unsure how i feel, beyond sad.  It's lovely, heart warming & so kind of you to care.    

 Busy with new fabrics & products, these Kristen Doran crochet screen printed beauties will be on my Market stall this weekend, loving her style.  Buy a cushion, purse, brooch or the fabric panel to make your own handmade goodness.

While i'm still learning the yarn version of crochet, Paisley Jade is quite the amazing crochet queen . . . Things i'm Loving this week with my hot little hands, will have to be the screen printed version.  Wish me luck here in Canberra this weekend, Saturday & Sunday, it's going to be huge!!  Plus Floriade, then school holidays, it's all super exciting!!  Love Posie

it's the long weekend of bedroom swapsies

Greetings all,

So it's the long weekend, how many households got out their cordless drills & fixed something??  Me me me.  Remember how my 3rd daugther's bed broke & Harvey Norman replaced it a couple of weeks later . . . well another couple of weeks later i put the replacement together & finally spread the children into their own 4 bedrooms!!  I wasn't too sure/ capable/ game to pull apart our eldest daughter's fancy heavy French scrolly provincial bed so . . . i left that in her old room & put the new bed in her new room/ other half of my studio.  My husband can swap the beds over to the proper owners when he comes home in a month, our hero & he won't damage anything either.

 With my 3 trusty girls keen to get drilling, it took opening 3 boxes to find all the 'bits'.  Meanwhile, i had questions fired at me like "did Mr Allen invent the Allen key" & "does he know Mr IKEA??"  Oh honestly, thank goodness for Google, as all those questions were answered, or not, i just wasn't interested in the history of the Allen key or flat packed beds today, i'd already put this exact bed together twice, as bunks!!

 As they were bunks, now seperated into two single beds, there are extra side planks & ladders, all begging to be made into something amazing, hmmm . . . i have a vision (day bed, fancy chicken house, plant boxes) it might take a couple of years but they will be repurposed!!

 I decided to put the slats this way, so the black grippy part is close to the mattress/ stress, to see if it holds better??  Thank goodness my children are light or slats might be a disaster.  We've done ensemble bases before, i loathe how you can't vacuum under them.

 Our puppy likes to lie in the hay outside this window & the lunchtime sun pours in, it was quite toasty.  He watched on the whole day, from construction to decorating.

 Then the transplanting of wall decorations from one room to the next.

 The little touches like her Frenchy calendar came too.

 I twisted soft rose fairy lights around the bed head, they look so pretty lit up tonight.

 The pillow case is a Denyse Schmidt circa 2004 & doona cover is Quaker or Shaker style (no idea of the difference, i just like it) from Country Road in 1999, still in great condition.

 This is her real bed - it's soooo heavy & held together with serious bolts.

 Et voila, le chambre is coming together nicely, just ask our puppy.  It's a huge long space & by dinner her desk was set up too, but it's still 1/3 my 'stock room' for bulky materials like batting, tulle & cushion inserts, so as i use them up she'll get 100% ownership & spread out.  When my husband moves back to Canberra late next year, he'll bring his gorgeous King Delta II lounge & our teenager will score it in THIS room, how totally cool will that be for when she has friends over??

So what a weekend - a huge Handmade Market Saturday; a day on the lounge watching movies with the children Sunday, i even dozed off mid afternoon, ahhhhh, recovery . . . then 3 bedroom swapsies today.  Phew, thank goodness long weekends aren't every weekend.  Wishing you all a lovely short week, love Posie

social commentary Sunday . . . 'honesty'

Greetings all,

This is not a shop lifting post or clepto confessional, but . . . in my handmade world, i've experienced ladies coming back to my stall to say "oh my goodness, i just walked off with this accidentally, so sorry" to which i've said "thank you so much, i really appreciate your honesty" & i've had this reply more than once . . . "it's handmade, you're small business, if you were a big retailer i wouldn't have cared".   

On Saturday at Handmade Market, i had two experiences . . . one lady poured her coffee into my beautiful new French linen lined basket of Liberty of London hair clips.  Gulp.  But . . . i didn't see it happen, she had to catch my attention to say "i'm SO sorry, i just spilt coffee on your hair clips, what can i do to help or fix this".  I calmly said "i'm sure it will be fine, would you be able to grab some napkins for me".  Add to this, i had about 30 ladies at my stall, bad timing, nightmare experience!!  Anyway, she came around & we carefully wiped each product card & amazingly not one drip of coffee touched a single piece of precious Liberty fabric (thank goodness).  She stopped & looked me in the eye after we laid out all the dry clips & removed the lining from the basket . . . "why are you so calm about this??"  I said "if this is the worse thing that happens to either of us today, we're pretty lucky, i have 4 children, my husband is a soldier & goes to war, this is just a basket of hair clips".  Her response "oh, no wonder you're so normal, i have 5 children, it's a bigger picture thing".  Her mother was also with her saying "do i need to pay for the whole basket of hair clips, i will, i have plenty of granddaughters".  I said it was fine & off they went, still embarrassed.  I was so grateful that she told me as many people would have thought "oh no, will i have to pay for this mistake, did anyone see" & walked off, i would have been none the wiser & no doubt the coffee would have soaked through & ruined the fabric.

Now i've had an ENTIRE basket of pencil rolls taken off my stall, yep, the whole basket with about 20 x $35 pencil rolls, basket, price tag, the lot, stolen from a Mathilda's Market.  That totally sucked & really upset me that someone would even think to do that.  They also stole all the shopping i had done that day, softies & fabric, i lost $1K worth.  Furious.  Deflated.  I've also done a market with arbitry parking conditions & scored a parking fine when all the other cars around me haven't.  Sometimes life just sucks!!

I remember at the end of a long, busy & successful market around Christmas time last year, i undercharged a lady $10.  I was so drained, i just lost my ability to count to $28 & didn't 'carry the one' in my head & said "that's $18 please".  I remember her face, smug & smirked, she had $30 in her hands & passed me the $20 note, i gave her change & she rushed off.  For the next 5 minutes, i recalculated in my dizzy head & thought, hang on, that was $28, no wonder she had that expression on her face . . . "what a liar".  Sometimes people just suck!! 

The other situation at the Handmade Market on Saturday . . . one of the last customers of the day "that's $15 thank you", she handed me a $20 note & i handed her $15 change.  Her daughter piped up "wasn't that $15, you just gave my mother an extra $10 in her change" & in her mother's defence, she wasn't watching & hadn't the chance to say i was wrong.  I said "thank you so much for your honesty, i really appreciate it, it has been a very long day but every $10 counts".  They thought nothing of it, but i was thrilled.  Faith in people, restored!!

Look at the faces on these handmade softies i've bought along the way, i could not look at them if i knew i'd pinched one or been undercharged, i'd feel like my children had evil in their bedrooms.  I know i've been undercharged at large department stores before (i add things up in my head to ensure i'm not overcharged) , i have not piped up & corrected them, telling myself there must have been some 'discount in the system'.  With the retail situation at the moment, there are sales left, right & centre, who knows what you are paying when you get to the cash register after a further 25% off already discounted ticket prices??

When it comes to small business or handmade . . . one off, unique, hand crafted original products, do you think it brings out extra effort, honesty & faith in people?? 

Enjoy your long weekend & hoping it's an honest one if you're shopping, love Posie

i'm grateful for 'Maxabella Loves'

Greetings all,

Exhaustion, elation & adding a bloggie friend to my real world life - that was my Handmade Market experience yesterday.  Exhausted from huge preparation for the market; elation it was it's usual amazing success with the 10 000+ strong crowd of handmade lovers; & the fabulous Maxabella Loves herself came to visit, with her gal pal (new to blogging & too embarrassed to name her blog, i'll hunt her down!!)  While their families watched the Trooping the Colour Parade around the corner (Canberra is ace for entertainment opportunities) the ladies went a shopping at the market & played with me.

My day didn't launch well, my 3rd girl woke with a migraine.  She had all the typical symptoms - headache, nausea, sensitivity to light . . . so i left for the market as late as possible after treating her with what my mummy used to do for me as a 10y.o. migraine sufferer . . . & carried her into the market in her jammies to rest while i set up.  The hero of the day is her best friend's mum who was taking the twins out anyway but insisted on caring for my unwell child at her house.  I packed her clothes just-in-case-of-instant-recovery-when-seeing-bestfriend & she did sleep, but also trampolined, ran around, ate 4 bread rolls & 2 sandwiches on top of morning & afternoon tea + milk shakes (nothing NOTHING puts her off her food).

Then the doors flung open & the crowds poured in.  A couple of hours later Bronwyn from Maxabella Loves quite literally leaped over my stall screaming "Jennie Jennie, it's me, i'm here" & we hugged, giggled & acted like old school friends.  There were 20 ladies around my stall laughing with us.  I knew we'd get along like a house on fire but she's so much larger than life, talks a million words a minute & well, is JUST LIKE ME!!  I think we actually hold back a bit on our blogs, perhaps frightened we'd scare you with our over enthusiasm for absolutely everything we embrace in our lives.  It went well, we've made another date for the school holidays, where we'll throw our children together & i get to show off my handsome soldier.  Thanks so much for coming Mrs Maxabella, it was sheer delight to meet you, cloak your jackets & share my handmade world with you. 

 I was tagging & setting up my display baskets up to the last minute & of course, forgot to take fabulous images of my pretty stall.  I took these after i had packed up half my goodies, argh!!  Check out the Handmade blog for amazing photos of the stalls by Tania McCartney.  Jealous, wish i had 'help' & could cruise around, shop, chat & take snap shots too.  Tania cleverly didn't have a stall, that's the trick!!

Oh yum, this hit the spot . . . Belgian waffles with homemade icecream & chocolate sauce, sprinkled with nuts & icing sugar.  I'll admit this was round two, round one (witnessed by Bronwyn) included a good dose of strawberries & was divine (i inhaled it); this deliciousness was just for my girls.  Mmmm.
So after the Handmade Market organiser's father (bless his sheep farmer's big heart) wheeled all my gear to my car & his granddaughter entertained my girls, who had been returned at the market end, i journeyed home.  No idea what was bouncing on my EFTPOS machine in the back of the car, but it sounded like we had a stowaway processing sales, beep beep beep, it was freaky!!  I unpacked the car, my no-so-well daughter showered & then we started on the trip to collect my son (at home of Shop Handmade owner's family, he told me i ruined his day by picking him up just as they were about to eat Chinese).  Last stop (after 7p.m.) . . . my eldest daughter, who spent the day with her friend-who-is-a-boy, after movies in city, they were at his place in Murrumbatemen - we were invited to stay for dinner, wood fired pizzas, i collapsed into a big leather chair & barely moved. 
By the time we got home, i had a huge headache (i do put pressure on myself to make the most of these amazing quarterly Handmade Markets, with 4 children & a husband away) so i went to sleep early - with 3 littles ones tucked in with me (??) & left my high schooler to do the evening rounds (lock doors, let puppy in, wipe down counters, blow out candles, tuck us in with a goodnight kiss - she's terribly reliable when she wants to be, she enjoys a bit of power!!) 

So grateful for my fabulous opportunities, children & friends, including hostess of 'I'm Grateful' Maxabella Loves.  Love Posie

things i'm loving 'baskets of happiness' & my Gifts of Serendipity 'Six Senses Tour' feature

Greetings all,

Phew, what a week of market preparation.  If you could imagine the most fantastic market, only on once a quarter, 12 000+ people come-a-shopping in a massive, highly anticipated surge of handmade & handcrafted passion . . . well you'd understand the time i invest in production for such an event. 

Playing along with Paisley Jade's Things I'm Loving this Friday . . . basically it's 'basket porn'.

Mid week i picked up some new baskets from Provincial - picture French Provincial style at affordable prices, then 30% off this basket range = shopping spree!!  You can't present handmade goodness at such an upmarket event in broken down old baskets.  Ok, i might have broken/ stepped on a few baskets to make way for new ones, shhhh.  Presentation is everything, right??

 There are bread baskets, laundry basket, fruit crates, caddies & even a bicycle basket (with actual leather & brass fixings for your bike but i saw beyond that - i saw the perfect basket for my Liberty of London brooches).  All in that French-country-living shade of grey & linen, what is not to love??  Better yet, not a single thing i wouldn't use in my home, after market use.

 The charcoal tissue had these wrapped up inside - tea light caraffes.  I lit them tonight with some of those IKEA smelly fruity tea lights, quite pretty. 

 The glass carafes remind me of the wine my mother would buy in America, it had a jam jar kind of pull off lid.  She'd bring the carafes home in our luggage, they are EXACTLY like this, only with a base - these ones are bottomless & you place them over the lit tea lights.  Clever.  Just don't hold the wire holder by the handle, it's a bit, er, drunk, unbalanced & tipsy.

 I couldn't resist checking in on Revolve at the Tip just in case they had any decent baskets for my market wares.  Et voila, check out this bundle - one is even in the shape of a heart + another wooden caddy, perfect for my badge display.

 You see correctly, $10 for the lot, ten buckers!!

 Now i can't think of a single thing my husband will like in this post, he loathes my basket obsession, yet happily tosses his keys in them, socks in another, boots in the garage one . . . he'll come around.  To him they are like Tupperware, he insists he'll bury them with me. 

Have a gorgeous long weekend if you're in Australia, celebrating the Queen's April birthday in June, because that is when it suits us.  

If you're in my 'hood, join us on Saturday for the amazing Handmade Market at the National Convention Centre 10a.m. - 4p.m., which is just a short walk from . . . ANZAC Parade where at 10a.m. the Trooping the Colour is on, open to the public for the first time (it's a wonderful historic Royal Military College Parade honouring our Queen, normally at RMC by invitation only).  Oh that's a point, watch out for road closures around ANZAC Parade & Constitution Road Saturday morning.  Community Service Announcement over.
For those of you at the Handmade Business Summit, i'll see you at lunch.
Special mention that darling Felicity Serendipity has featured my Six Senses Tour of Canberra, check the post out, check her blog out, check out how wonderful Gifts of Serendipity makes you feel about your own dollups of lovely in your own life.  Thanks Felicity!!
Have gorgeous weekends everyone, love Posie

our creative space 'climb every mountain of fabric'

Greetings all,

Another week, another creative space & another Blogger malfunction where i can't leave comments, followers come & go + i can't download images from Picasa, just a limited selection from my computer.  Anyway . . . that won't ruin the sunshine that is the Handmade Market on this Saturday & the mountain of fabric i'm chopping up to sell there.  This is me pretending i'm not in panic making mode of course!!  It's a long weekend in Canberra so i can recover (read: fix the mess that is my pre-market-madness studio & finally switch the 3 girls' bedrooms around, as you do when you need to relax!!)

I've been collecting small selections of colour to brighten up my patchwork fabric-for-sale baskets!!  Considering we're hovering around -4C to 4C at the moment in Canberra, brrr, i like my sunshine & happiness colours, even if it's only inside my cosy studio right now?? 

 I'm going to make these gorgeous Joel Dewberry bird prints into cushions for the Market & Shop.  They are so beautiful, it's an inexpensive cushiony way to bulk out my stall.  I'm thinking of having them on a card table behind my stall, so they don't hog prime grab worthy real estate.

 Such pretty designs & colourways, they'll look grogeous in my huge French baskets. 

 The cutting was the easy part, i have about 400 new FQ - my baskets are a bit empty from the last Handmade Market - restocking is a big job.  I will be very happy to relax at the Handmade Business Summit lunch on Friday, i can rest my aching hands.

My mountain of fabric . . . good thing i'm a speed-folder.  I have my routine: fold, stack & lay books on top to press them flat, then slide into cello & seal with some Japanese washi tape.  Done!!  It's not torture at all, the fabrics take me back to . . . when i bought them . . . what i've made with the same fabric . . . what collection they are from . . . it's like a photo album.  I'm slowly clearing fabrics from when i started my business over a decade ago, it's hard but i'm planning to seriously de-stash for when we move next, thus no new bolts!! 
For actual creativity, check out Our Creative Spaces this Thursday, love Posie

i can sing a rainbow, um, i can make a rainbow

Greetings all,

Well i can't sing a rainbow, i have an awful singing voice (tone deaf & fortunately i know it) but i can see all the colours of the rainbow around me right now . . . which is handy as it's ONE stressful week with major production for Handmade Market on Saturday.  An impressive list of bloggers are coming as new stall holders or visitors, including Maxabella Loves - thanks for your support!! 

Last night i picked up my girls from a sleep over at a friend's farm in Murrumbateman (thanks for all the lovely comments about the last post on twins, yes, i embrace my good fortune!!) & look what they have been busy picking . . .

crabapples in varying degrees of ripeness & . . .  

 quinces, my nightime photography not doing their greeness justice.

 Then home to finish off a rainbow of products for the market, like children's necklaces.

 Just in time, a shipment of amazing craft-enabling Tasmanian Oak knitting needles.

 Lounge craft = hand stitching penny wheels & buttons onto headbands.

 A splash of pastel, i'm thinking of doing up lucky dip jars with pom poms, bias, ric, rac, ribbon & other trim, plus buttons for a basket of fun on my stall.  Brilliant way to share the love & offer up cost price haberdashery i can finally part with.

 Today was spent making . . . 300 Liberty of London badges.  I cut the fabric sitting in the car park outside school each afternoon last week & now i've sorted them into sets, plus some singles.  I have this fabulous 1950s travel case to display all my Liberty printed goodies in, including hair clips, hair slides & buttons too.  Kind of hoping it will be a show stopper. 

 I've made 16 tulle ruffled bottom bloomers, they took ALL Saturday & i'll thread the elastic in the carpark outside school this week (you safety pin the ends together, then do a mega elastic sewing session in one hit when you're next at a machine).  Pricing these is difficult, they use expensive materials & take at least an hour a pair to create (as i restitch the tulle ruffles to the actual fabric).  I've done 3 sizes but want to try to do another dozen, especially in the larger sizes.

 Last market i didn't take headbands, new hair clips, coin purses or cosmetic purses - um, 4 of my biggest sellers, so this time i've come prepared with a tonne of each.  The Hello Kitty fabrics sell well at Shop Handmade & the new hair clips will all be in Liberty prints!!

Another no brainer product i've managed to neglect for a while are simple gift tags, i normally have them with fabric but this time i'm doing stamps - vintage, Euro & quirky - in an 8 for $5 pack, mixed up colours & styles.
Phew, yes, exhausting & a very busy week ahead, but making the most of my rainbowy outlook, or i'd crack under the pressure i put myself under.  I need to cut about 100m of fabric to feel like i have filled up my baskets from the last market.  Have a beautiful & colourful week too, love Posie
PS the winner of the Handmade Business Summit All Inclusive Pass for this Friday in Canberra is Fiona, who is just starting up a small business now, Congratulations, you were randomly selected by Julie, Queen of Handmade, thank you to everyone for entering!!

EDIT: just found this drawing on my sewing machine from my rainbow boy!!  The children were drawing & painting up a storm today.  Bliss. 

our creative space 'keeping-it-simple craft' & Handmade Summit All Inclusive Pass to WIN!!

Greetings all,

Pottering away in the studio with some simple crafts this week, deflated that my husband went back to Brisbane after a week long holiday with us & so very sad that we lost another soldier overseas.  Makes my husband's world all too real, dangerous & our time with him so incredibly precious.  It will be very hard to let him go back there. 

Small details in handmade goods warm my heart, like this wordy ribbon tape from Pepe's which i'll add to a denim coin purse??  My 3 favourite words - LOVE * LIVE * LAUGH.

 Continuing on with keeping-it-simple craft, making a gazillion small tags for sale at the Handmade Market in 2 weeks (gulp).  Loving the new owl stamps from Kikki-K on a basic handmade tag - just die cut, stamp & add twine.

 Um, so i make hot water bottle covers but could not resist this from Bed Bath & Table, i mean, it's a Babushka, forgive me?? 

I feel quite zen with a break from complicated & detailed sewing this week, it's good for the soul & i'm still building stock.  No rest for the handmade crafter in small business.

Now for something totally cool & a-must-attend-event for small business owners - here's your chance to win an ALL INCLUSIVE PASS to the amazing Handmade Business Summit & Expo 2011 on Friday 10th June at the National Convention Centre in Canberra.  It's on the day before the next Handmade Market, making it the PERFECT reason to visit Canberra!!  Oh visit Shop Handmade while you're here too & pick up a copy of Handmade Living!!

The official word . . .
"The Small Business Summit & Expo 2011 aims to bring together designers, small business owners, employees, business experts and stylists to discuss the latest in business strategies in a not-to-be-missed day of practical business building and ideas exchange.

Some of Australia's best corporate and motivational speakers who have built their businesses from the ground up will be providing us with insight, invaluable information, intellectual stimulation and many “light bulb” moments. Attendees will enjoy the opportunity to learn important information about retailing, merchandising, customer service, Social Media, IP and marketing, as well as attending our Small Business Expo."

OK, it says "light bulb" moments, sounds like an event Oprah would endorse!!  I'm going, i can't wait, i'll hold your hand if you're coming along & you don't know anyone!!  

The full day includes . . . Branding & Marketing Your Business . . . Digital & Social Media . . . Morning Tea . . . Small Business Start Up . . . Lunch . . . Retail Selling, Customer Service & Merchandising . . . IP & What It Means in 2011 . . . Small Business Expo . . . giveaways & door prizes. ALL for under $140!! 
These industry experts charge up to $300 each for these talks, so this is incredible value & a wonderful opportunity + you'll get fed & a huge networking opportunity.  All details at the Handmade Business & Networking site, including registration, accommodation & speakers.

To enter, please leave a comment at this post saying a) you'd love to come & b) how you'd like to improve your business/ what you'd like to gain from a summit like this.  If you can't possibly factor in attending, i'd still be interested in what you'd like to gain from the Summit, i can ask your questions for you & post the answers afterwards.  A winner will be drawn on Friday 3rd June by Julie Nichols, Queen of Handmade, so you have a week to plan & get excited or time to book your own tickets!!  Thanks for sponsoring this Julie!!
Enjoy more Our Creative Spaces this Thursday, love Posie 

EDIT: the winner of the Handmade Business Summit All Inclusive Pass for this Friday in Canberra is Fiona, who is just starting up a small business now, Congratulations, you were randomly selected by Julie, Queen of Handmade, thank you to everyone for entering!!

a long weekend, happy birthday Canberra

Greetings all,

Well what a long weekend, celebrating Canberra Day (happy 98th birthday).  I was very good, i ran a school fundraiser BBQ, went to the gym every day & there was a LOT of sewing.  I really believe sewing it therapy for me, it's pretty full on raising 4 smart, social, sporty children & high school is a whole new pressure (for both of us) alas, sewing melts all my stress away. 
Ditto for Yoga - very excited, did a new Yoga class on the weekend with a new teacher, she's American & her voice is like honey, so soothing & encouraging.  She's teaching many new poses i'd never heard of (mind you, i haven't been devoted to Yoga for a good 8 years, but i'm making a come back) like a dolphin, camel & inch worms, yyyeeeooowww!!

Ready, set, sew . . . i loathe spooling bobbins, i get my children to do them.

View from my sewing table . . . television (cooking shows) i watched Eat Pray Love twice, i'm still trying to get into it, either i'm too happy with my life, young or immature, i'm not sure, i'm certainly not looking for the same thing Liz Gilbert was.  I'm not a flighty person, anyway, i'll watch it again if only as a spectator into someone else's life.  Maybe it's because it's Julia Roberts & she's such a personality i find it difficult to look beyond her & see who she is playing.

Out the window, i really should mow the front lawn.

I made 4 dozen baby body suits . . . trying to do them a little different (yes, i know everyone does applique onto baby body suits or onesies) i still enjoy making them 7 years on & think these vintage boys & girls are really sweet.

They're all in the Posie wardrobe at Shop Handmade now!!

These are like dress ups - just add the baby head, tee hee.

Oh hello Hello Kitty, bit of a fan of these new prints!!

I started the weekend by spreading out 3 new patchwork quilt tops onto the floor.

Loving the darker shades & textures of Anna Maria Horner.

Then something a little lighter & brighter.

Spots & florals, stripes & patterns, love!!

A little Saturday night Christmas pudding made by this lovely lady - she runs a Handmade EMPIRE & makes a pretty fabulous pudding gift too.  As always, i'm fish bowl cleaning.

Finally a little giggle, i first met Lisa from The Red Thread when she was sourcing some Cath Kidston fabric 6-8 years ago??  Anyway, i had kept the postcard she sent me with the swatch - tell me this has made your day??!!

"gosh he went well with her drapes"

I chose my husband to match the window dressing, did you?? 
I need a good giggle today, a high school swimming carnival made for a very long day, yawn, love Posie