:: love bunting ::

about six months ago i decided my market stall need to look a little more funky, so i made myself some vintage style bunting using the fabric that I had printed to sew onto t-shirts.  well ... the bunting turned out fabulous (evidenced below) and i have been inundated with people wanting to buy it.

quick & quirky quote no. 6

ghostly designs

i have seen the most beautiful simple dismantled lamps shades over the past year or so and loved and coveted them, but have never taken too much notice of how they were made.  then a week ago i decided that i just had to have couple of them for my market stall.  the hunt was on to try and locate one so i could see how i could create my own. google to the rescue with a weird combination of words and surprise surprise i came up with some beautiful photos in a wonderful blog that i read very (far too often) regularly  ... dotti angel ...

apparently they are called ghost lamps ... who would have guessed that?

so here are my attempts at a couple of small lamps for decorating my market stall.  lets see how they go on the stall.  will post photos of the stall soooon.

the photos are not good ... my apologies ... but you get the idea.

reversed canvas

look at these .... just look at them.  i can't believe how simple yet amazingly fantastic they are.  they are just a reversed canvas.  think of all the possibilities and all the sizes ... and all the colours!  wowee my brain is in overdrive.  and how easy would they be to make????

I found them, along with lots of other goodness, over here.

more more and more paper

as i constantly mention,  i love colour and i love paper.
i recently acquired some wallpaper samples in the most amazing colours and designs.

they are the most fabulous papers that, although i want to use them in artwork, i can't bear to cut them up as they are so special and delicious.  is anyone else like that?

a little aside story .......

before i started selling my own cards i always had a huge stash of cards in an attractive box so i always had an appropriate card to hand for whenever i needed one.  my challenge with having this stash of cards was that when i needed to choose one i would question whether the recipient was worthy of the card.  seriously.  mostly i would say - no - i don't think they are worthy and that divine card would be sent back to the stash.   so, now that i am selling my cards and prints of my designs i get a lot of comments from people saying that they like to keep a stash of special cards so, like me, they always have cards to hand.  well i told a customer one day of my feelings that my recipients were often not worthy, and this person said they were exactly the same in parting with their card stash. yay.  i now mention it alot and guess what ......there are lots of card crazies out there that hate parting with their fantastic cards.  lots. love it.  although not good for business if you sell cards like me is it.


anyway, back to wallpaper ....... here is a selection of some of the samples i obtained from this most fantastic wallpaper outlet.

paper paper and more more paper

this may seem a bit odd to those that love art, craft and colour (as I do), but my first visit to a scrapbooking shop was just a year ago.

when i entered i had such an overwhelming feeling of bliss that i thought was going to hyperventilate.  it was the papers. the designs on the papers.  the colours on the papers. the papers. all i could think of was how long have these shops been around and why didn't i know about them sooner (still don't know the answers) it was a revelation to me.   i had been into paper shops that sold A4 sheets for invitations and those beautiful japanese papers, but never anything with such an array of colour and design.  I now am obsessed and have a stash of hundreds of sheets.

having such beautiful papers also causes a challenge when I go to use some in my art.  i worry that if i use up the sheet and can't replace it then what will i do as i so love every (well almost every) sheet.  i am the same with cards.  i go through my stash of cards in search of the right one for the right person, then ponder as to whether the intended recipient is worthy of the card.  Usually the answer is no, so the card is replaced and my stash of exceptional cards remains intact.  honestly, i can't believe i do that. i really must get over myself.

here are some that i bought recently.  the papers in the last photo below were from a stall at The Olive Tree Market, the lovely stallholder imports beautiful wrapping papers from india.  i don't think she had a card so i can't tell you who she is, but i will ask her for one at the next market and update this post with her details.

just remembered that i also recently bought a heap of wallpaper samples. amazing.  i will get them out and photograph them.  they are too stunning for words, and will cause a huge dilema for me when i go to use them. if i ever use them.

"knitting with dog hair" ... yes, yes, you did read correctly

i found this book in a second-hand store and had to grab it before some other pathetic dog obsessed person did.  it is just too funny isn't it? it is a serious book though - with actual patterns and advice. really.

don't you just love those tag lines .... 'stop vacuuming and start knitting'.  

i have a small problem though.  she has descriptions of the hair/fur of each dog breed and apparently my cross Ridgeback does not have a suitable coat for 'spinning'.  heart broken.   all is not lost though - perhaps i could pass my pooch's fur to other dog fur knitters, her advice to me is '....not suitable for spinning, but it would add a sprinkle of distinction to less courageous fibers'. that's my girl - distinctive.

gosh, it gets better. i just read the introduction - it starts .... 'when we began "knitting with dog hair" most people thought we were a few puppies short of a litter'.  hee hee.

wouldn't you love to meet Kendal Crolius and Anne Black Montgomery the two kooky people that thought this would be a great idea for a book?  i certainly would - i think they'd be my kind of people.

please feel free to contact me for information on the suitability of your dogs coat for spinning and knitting and i will consult the book for you. bliss.