jewellery storage

A while ago I found this old broken cupboard door and have been using it to pin up photos and things. But now it's much more useful. I just put some nails in it to hang up my necklaces. (I culled about half my collection first.)

I've been searching for a storage solution for my necklaces for a little while now. They've been jammed in a drawer in individual plastic zippies for a few years, but I usually forgot about them there, so I never tended to wear much jewellery as a consequence. I'm sure I'll be wearing necklaces much more often now that they're on display. And they're much easier to choose between.

I was planning to make a jewellery tree, but I much prefer this, plus I didn't need any new materials. Yay for being creative with stuff you already own.


Speaking of jewellery, I'm a little in love with an Etsy shop called Moth House. Particularly these three pieces.




And especially particularly the bracelet. My birthday's coming up in a couple months...

writing a sewing book and tutoring

I want to write a book. Or I should say I'm going to write a book. The idea has been swimming in my head for ages and I keep coming back to it and thinking of more reasons why I want to do it.

It will include everything I know about sewing and pattern-making in knit (t-shirt) fabrics. I took the hard road in my learning by taking a little bit from books, a little bit from online tutorials, a little bit from my fashion course, and a lot of trial and error.

I want to empower people to think outside the box, to express their own style rather than the looks of the magazine stylists, to never have to rely on made-in-china cheap finds in the shops, and to have clothes that fit you exactly as you want them to.

I need your help.
Have you tried sewing? Have you tried sewing knit fabrics?
If not, what's stopping you?
If you have, what info out there do you think is missing that you want to know?

I'd love to hear from every one of you! It would be a big help.

tutoring

In the interest of experiece (and because I think it'd be fun) I'm looking to tutor a few local girls everything I know about sewing and patternmaking in knit fabrics, and I'm letting you guys get first dibs! If you're interested and live in Surrey Hills or surrounds in the Melbourne suburbs, shoot me an email for more details at hayley [at] heidiandseek.com. Those who have never used a sewing machine before are very welcome (in fact, I'd love to teach someone from the start).

cutting down on spending

I've been working on a Mod Podge craft project for the past few weeks, doing one bit at a time while watching True Blood or Grey's Anatomy online in the evenings. It's not the finest craftsmanship, but I'm happy with it all the same.


I bought the drawers second-hand from the Camberwell market ages ago and started painting it red. I wasn't feeling that so I used found papers to decorate the drawers instead. The top left and right are layers of vintage pattern paper. The diamond blue pattern was part of the packaging for something I bought. The blue is from the cover of a vintage book we were going to give away, and the bottom drawer is covered with pages from another vintage book.


It's going to be a totally new thing for me to actually have desk storage. Not sure how I'll best use it yet.

I've just realised how much I've bought online in the past couple of months. Books and stationery and tape and things.

mouse pad from My Favorite Mirror

tape from Nothing Elegant

Pricing Your Craftwork from Fishpond

lacy bird bowl by Prince Design UK

And that's only a portion of my purchases. I thought I was doing well because I carefully considered each purchase, and nothing I bought was a waste, but that's not good enough for me. In the interest of saving money and reducing environmental impact, I want to do better. I've been reading a book called Budget Wise, Dollar Rich, borrowed from the libary like a good little saver.


Looks a bit spammy, doesn't it? Despite that, it's really helpful. Now that Tim isn't working (for money, anyway) I'm paying the large bills, so I've made a budget for Heidi & Seek and for home. It's all well and good to make a spreadsheet with the best of intentions, but although I've done that in the past, I haven't enforced what I've written down or monitored how I was doing. I've never been in much debt, and I always pay off my credit card during the interest-free period, but I've never consistently put money aside for savings either. Except when I was saving for a holiday, but that was different. Single life living at home with your parents is so different.

Anyway, my plan of attack now is this:

• I withdraw in cash a certain amount at the start of every week, and must only use this to pay for things. Just before I withdraw the next week's allowance, I put the leftovers of the previous week in a jar. Any additional money I get, like gifts or random cash goes in this jar too. My motivation for keeping my spending within my allowance is seeing this jar's contents grow. It'll pay for extra more expensive things, or is there if I feel I deserve a treat. I might allocate 20% of the jar to 'treats' and the rest to savings, and then deposit it at my bank when it gets big.
  
• I've made my allowance quite low because I want to try to make do. Since we're vegetarian our meals don't have to cost much. Our pantry is full of things we keep accumulating but don't seem to use, so I want to see how far I can take what we already have and only buy the basics week to week. They will easily fit within my allowance.
  
• I'm doing a similar thing with Heidi & Seek, because sometimes I can get carried away with buying supplies or whatnot. Some months my expenses are sky-high and some months it's very little. I'm setting a monthly allowance for Heidi & Seek, except at the end of the month, the money left will be topped up instead of taken out, saved and completely replaced.
  
• For Heidi & Seek purchases that I don't need immediately, like certain books and equipment, I'm putting aside some money each month into a linked online account, and I can only buy them when I have enough in that account.
• Then of course I've made the standard annual tables of bills and other required expenses, but there's not much I can do about most of those. I cut my mobile phone plan from $50 to $20, and I'll see if there are cheaper options for the rest, too.
  

The good thing about this cash system is that I can see how much I've spent that week without having to keep a tally (although I'm being anal so I'm doing the tally anyway). And I can still buy the things that mean a lot to me, but not just 'when I feel like it' and not all at once. I have to save up and to really consider where I want to spend my money.

Do you budget or have system that works for you?

an little organisation tip for non-schedulers

source: Flickr by oclaire

Originally posted here (but changed up a bit for the blog).

I'm quite a procrastinator, so it has taken me a long time to get to this point. (Well, I'm not really sure what 'this point' is, because I've gotten much better since I started Heidi & Seek, but I still procrastinate.) I find that I'm a big workaholic when it comes to being online and promoting that way. But when it comes to making things, I've built it up in my head that's it's maybe more effort than it actually is, so often I have to use some strong willpower to get away from the computer, head over to my studio space and start making.

I've tried making timetables to schedule blocks of time, but I can never stick to them. I guess they just don't make me feel very in control. They don't cater for creative types like me, where sometimes I get an idea and just want to run with it, regardless of what I'm 'supposed' to be doing at that moment. So lately I've been working without particular goals, and not getting very much done consistently. I have spurts of making and spurts of procrastinating.

So I made a little notebook to help me instead. It's filled with weekly charts of blocks of time that must be completed by the end of the week. I don't schedule time, I just have a weekly goal that I can work on at any time. I colour in each block as I complete it. So far it's working better than any other system I've tried. Here's how to try it for yourself.

1. Firstly, work out how much time, on average, your items take to create. Then place them in a box, using Word or Photoshop or whatever you prefer. It might look like this, for example:
2. Work out how many of these you can realistically complete in a week. Then subtract a few, because we're going to start small. I worked out how many days a week I have to work on my label (4), then how many items I want to make each of those days (5). I'm using a conservative estimate to start with because I don't want to feel too overwhelmed. That's 20 items per week. That's my goal. Yours will probably be different.
   
   
3. Put all the blocks in rows and columns on a page each. (I printed three weekly charts to a page to save paper, then cut them out). If you want to work four days a week and make 3 items a day, and your items take about 25 minutes to make, your chart will look like this:
   
   

   
   I've purposely not written the day dates at the top of each column, beacuse I don't want to feel 'behind' if I've not done all the day's work or too boxed in, just that I have to make some more by the end of the week.
   

4. Paste the chart into a notebook with a week to a page, and write the week dates at the top of each page. For each item I make I will colour in one block, until all the blocks on the page are coloured in, hopefully by the end of the week.

5. I've come up with a reward (mine is a visit to an op shop or second-hand market), which I may only happen when the week's blocks have all been filled in. I can then 'cash in' my week's chart for the reward.

I'm treating it like homework. If I've been slow making during the week, or even if I have to take a day off to do something else, I have to catch up by the end of the week and make sure all those blocks are coloured in. Whenever I have a spare however many minutes, I'll make one thing, and these will add up. This is why I recommend you don't try to push yourself too hard when you're starting this. If it seems too overwhelming you might give up.

Make it fun! Use a cute font for your charts and colour the blocks in with your favourite colours. If you're using a plain notebook, dress it up by making a collage on the front or covering it with fabric. I haven't decorated mine yet, but I'll post it when I have.

The benefits of this method are:

• It encourages you to set goals. Most successful people set goals for themselves.
• You can track your progress in a fun way. You can see exactly how you are or are not meeting your expectations of yourself.
• Writing how much time it will take puts the task in perspective and makes your creating seem more achievable. Sometimes when I have an hour or two to spare I don't think to make an item because it seems like a bigger committment. With the blocks you can see right there that it's really only about a ___ minute committment.
• It's not just for makers, you can apply it to any project if you can accurately estimate how much time it will take you to do, then break it down into small pieces.

progress

Aren't these tags adorable? They were made by Carolyn from leftover card and paper and inspired by my recycled hangtags. I can think of a bunch of uses for these. Nice work, lovely!

A few weeks ago my clothing rack broke because I piled too much stuff on it. (Avoid the ones from Freedom, guys!) It was handed down to me so it was less frustrating than if I'd bought it new myself.

Anyway, after checking eBay consistently since then, I still hadn't found a replacement. I was after a double rail one. So I decided that today would be the day! (Because do you know how annoying it is trying to hang more clothes on a crooked rack that would fall to the ground without the support of the wall and a carefully-placed piece of furniture.) I went to a used shop fitting place in Dandenong, and they did have what I was looking for... unfortunately it was new. I bought it because there is only so much energy I can spend looking for a single necessary item second-hand. While I was there I picked up a used metal basket that I liked the rustic look of, for storing my shipping supplies.

I took apart the old rack to drop off at a local recycling centre, along with my old computer. I read recently that only one in five computers are being recycled, and the rest are going to landfill. I had no idea these recycling centres existed until today, but they're such a great idea. Have a look online to see if there's one in your area, and tell your friends not to throw their computers away!

On the way home I noticed an ex-display furniture place across the road from where I used to work. They were having a sale on antique furniture and I found a few pieces I loved. But Tim would kill me if I brought more furniture back to our already packed place, plus we didn't really need any of it. But if anyone in Melbourne wants to check it out, it's in Clayton near the corner of Blackburn Road and Princes Highway.

I did find part of a cupboard door huddled in the corner among bed heads, and I thought it had potential. Five bucks later and I have a cute inspiration board hung above my computer.


I got these tiny pegs a little while ago and now finally have a use for them! Knew they would come in handy.

I donated 16 shopping bags worth of items today - what a relief to have them out. It was cleared from mine and Ellie's closets, with some fabric in there, but I haven't gone through the majority of that yet. I already feel much better. I tried to just get to sewing this morning, but I was a procrastinate-y mess because I wanted to organise. Once I have an idea in my head it's probably better just to run with it. I got a lot done today, once I got over fighting with myself.

etsy featured seller & recycled hangtags

I'm the featured seller over at Etsy right now, how excitement! Click the link to read the interview. What a crazy press week or two, with Frankie magazine, the Handmade in Melbourne book and now this.

Anyway, yesterday I planned to sew up a bunch more stuff to list before the Etsy feature went up, but since I'd gone to bed at 1am the two nights before, I was completely buggered and couldn't bring myself to crank up the sewing machine. Since I'm up about 7am every morning, late nights don't work for me too well.

So instead I spent the day fretting about not being organised enough, arranging to rent a space at Incube8r (scored, starting in August, woo!) and designing my new hangtags while watching How I Met Your Mother online. I'm not completely sure on the final hangtag design yet, but I've come up with this to start.


They're waiting for a coloured stamp (I have these cute faux button ones from scrapbook.com) or machine stitching or some other kind of adornment, I'm not sure yet. I'd like to incorporate fabric, but I'm not sure how. I like their simplicity and handmade-ness and that they're completely recycled.

I made them by punching large circles of Ecocern reycled card with my big circle punch, printing the text on the blank side of used copy paper, cutting that into strips, then putting them through the circle punch. Then I glued the pieces together.


I'm planning on using the same process on the back for a chunk of text I wrote to inspire people about ethical buying.

Even though these are taking me a while to make, I think it's worth it for the impression that people get of my work when they see them. That they're obviously different to mass-produced ones, and that I take care to make things. And due to the process, each one is a bit differently placed. I'm starting to realise the value of the small touches that distinguish handmade sellers from large companies.

One more thing! I was tagged by Renee Anne from art4friends to post what I'm wearing today. It's this, plus skinny jeans.


I stole the cardi from my Etsy shop because it's really warm and simple and cute and has handy huge pockets. This has been my uniform for the past week or so, because it's way too cold here in Melbourne to be trying anything creative - I just put on a bunch of layers, chuck this cardi on top and rotate my scarves. Here's a better pic of it.


It might have sold if the pictures were better, not so yellowish. (I'm keeping it, though. :P) Can anyone fill me in on why that happens and how to prevent it?

the downside of new crafty things

I feel like a bit of a crappy frugal buyer at the moment. My order just arrived from Scrapbook.com and it is rather large. But I did look for quality, study things that will hopefully last for a long time. Spotlight has a really, really sucky range compared to these guys.

I had never delved into the scrapbooking world before and I was boggled by the things out there. I arrived at Scrapbook.com because I was looking for a circle paper punch for my new hangtag designs (and overstock.com was way overcharging for them), and then I discovered all the other cool stuff there is. I'm not going to start scrapbooking, but I am interested in paper goods like notebooks, journals, cards, calendars and whatnots.

I spent like a day figuring out what I wanted - really wanted - and what I could do without. Mostly I bought tools. Like the Crop-A-Dile eyelet and snap punch tool, which can punch holes in almost anything that will fit between the blades. I'm not so interested in the eyelets, but I bought it for the durability of the hole punch. I want to make reclaimed, altered journals and notebooks with this, as well as punching holes in my hangtags.

I got the Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper Tool, which is a punch that rounds off corners by cutting the excess.


I think rounded corners makes things look much more professional, so I'm going to attack my business cards with these, and use it for other paper/card projects too. From all the reviews I've read online, Crop-A-Dile tools are very sturdy and work really well, so I went with this.

I also got the Marvy Uchida Clever Lever Extra Giga Circle punch for my hangtags, which punches out a chunky 3.5 inch circle.

I'm still trying to figure out what design to use, because the recycled Ecocern card I have won't go through my printer. I don't have forever to make hangtags, but I do want them to be unique, recycled and obviously handmade (in other words, with more care taken to make them that the plain printed card ones at every department store). I'll post pictures when I've worked on the design.

I also got some stamps for Heidi & Seek packages, stamp pads (I looked EVERYWHERE for vegetable based stamp pads, and even plain veg-based ink, but found nada), date stamps for making calendars, mod podge for upcycling some of our boring furniture & homewares, a paper craft knife and some craft scissors. Thus begins my adventures into recycled paper crafts.

Now I'm off to go buy more new things off the equipment list for my course. Crap. (But I'm excited regardless.)

new clock and diy pyramid pouch

I was just looking at an Etsy shop that said something like, "we only use the finest quality cow skin. You'll never want to stop touching it!" I'm not sure if I found it gross because I'm a vegetarian or because it is actually gross. I'm suddenly really uninterested in leather now, even vintage/sustainable leather. Almost all of my shoes are leather, but I'm not going to replace them all. I guess I'm used to them and I'll try not to think about it. But I won't be buying anything leather any time soon, new or second-hand. This makes it even more difficult to find a backpack, because the ones on Etsy that I did like were in leather, and the sellers aren't interested in making them in anything else. Back to the drawing board...

Here is my first attempt at making something bag-like. (Baby-steps.)


It's squashed from being at the bottom of my bag and because I forgot to put interfacing in it, but let's just ignore that. I'm vaguely happy with the sewing, despite the fact that my machine is completely uninterested in sewing zippers (I broke two needles in the process). Looking for a decent second-hand Bernina. Also not so impressed with the colours I chose. I looked at it as a test piece and didn't want to waste especially cool fabric if I buggered it up. I found the tutorial here at LivingCreatively.com.au, which is such a great site. They have a bunch more quality DIY tutorials there.

I'm going to use it for Heidi & Seek petty cash and receipts, because I'm currently horrendous at keeping my money and business money separate.



By the way, I adore my new upcycled clock from pretty green. I used to have to keep my mobile phone in this corner to check the time and I still sometimes forget that I can just look at the wall now!