the little things

I thought of this little game for Ellie.


And was so happy to see that she adored it. Since there are two knitting needles to thread, there's one for her, and one for whoever is sitting with her. 'One you!' as she puts it. The wooden beads are from an old necklace I had but never wore, and the red bowl and the knitting needles are from an op shop - for a grand total of $1.50.

[PS. How awesome is her little elephant desk?! I should get a better pic of it. It's from the Melbourne Zoo, weirdly enough.]

The book publishing job fell through, so I'm back to just studying this year.

It seems that I'm not content with 'just studying' though, so I've been coming up with a number of ideas about products to make and ventures to try when I finish my degree. In the short term I'm planning to start up a new blog focusing on eco-minded craft and living. It's my goal to post something every weekday - something new for me, but I really want to push myself and see if I can do it. Self-discipline is usually something I struggle with, but I've learnt a lot in the past couple of years. I never gave this blog my complete attention because my focus was always on the making and selling, so it will be interesting to see what happens when my focus is a blog by itself.

During the last week I've been battling with Wordpress because I'm self-hosting the new blog and doing the design and coding myself. For some reason when I add images, they don't appear in the post... Anyway, when it's done and I've made a couple of posts I'll show you. Hope you like.

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...

impulse buy

Vintage 60s block dress from Bleubird Vintage

I come across lots of vintage pieces and shops online, but nothing usually takes my fancy. A lot of the higher end vintage e-stores tend to have a bunch of 'trendy' going on, and I'm really aware of how those trends date fast.

So I don't think I've bought a vintage piece of clothing since about two years ago when I scored a $9 wool blazer. Usually I'm like, 'Ahh, I can make something I like better than that for much cheaper' and move on.

But I was unable to let this dress go to someone else.

I'm excited.

reorganising

I'm reorganising our space. No longer will clothing, materials, dressforms and such take over the house, hurrah! I joke, but it really does make a big difference to me. As a place to live for Tim, Ellie and I, our unit is a nice size. Not huge, not tiny, just kind of perfect. As a place to live for us three, plus a clothing studio, it's crowded and a bit ridiculous.

Since we've moved in two years ago, I've always been distracted and haven't devoted much time to interior design. Besides that, we have so much stuff that we don't use or need, and I hadn't gone through it all properly before. I'm doing it now, and it feels so good to get rid of things. I can be a bit of a hoarder, but I can just as easily decide to chuck a thing if it takes me more than three seconds to decide. I'm a firm believer in only keeping things you love (or, turning things you don't love into things you do) but I tend to know instinctively whether something is/can be meaningful to me.

Everything has been going to charity or to Reverse Art Truck.

I'm on a ban from buying any clothing to reconstruct, because I've still got two huge tubs worth of the special pieces I wanted to keep for my personal stash.

I love love arranging things, so I'm having a great time making our place cosy and quirky and nice. So far I've only finished with my desk area, so I'll show you that.


Featuring two of my favourite op shop finds everr.

This vintage green magnetic board with a cute leaf border. This isn't the best place for it, but I'll figure out another spot for it later. I just like looking at it.


This little wooden bear whom I've named Oxford. Oxford, meet the Internet.

in 2010

So I know I've kind of disappeared off the face of the Internet lately. Sorry about that, guys. And I hope you all had wonderful Christmases and New Years'. We had a brilliant day.


Anyway. I've been doing some serious soul searching, goal deciding, career thinking. I've decided to take an extended break from Heidi & Seek while I finish off my degree in 2010. My Etsy shop will still be open, but I won't be adding new stock to it.

I used to enjoy making clothes with my hands, but having to churn them out for business and profit has truly dulled the joy. So I'm taking some time to find my direction, to look for that energising passion again, even if I find it elsewhere in the end.

I have a number of ideas about paths I might like to follow. Teacher, editor, writer. I have a persistent idea for another business venture, but I'm going to take my time with this one. I'll let you know if/when it gets off the ground, because I'm sure you'd all love it.

Needless to say, I'm still incredibly environmentally-inclined, and I believe in the superpowers of craft. If I have my way, many more people will come to realise the neverending number of crafty ways to live prettily and happily without exploiting the planet.

possibilities

One of the poop things about being a 'creative' is the grand ideas that you get and are so so interested in seeing through that a) you don't know which to do first, and b) whatever you're supposed to be doing is either resented or ignored.

Here are the things right up there on my 'WANT-TO' list:

• Write a novel.
• Write & publish a making and patternmaking for t-shirts book.
• Learn to draw.
• Start making bags.
• Consume every bit of interesting fiction there is. (I just finished the audiobooks of the Harry Potter series.. I seriously feel like a little bit of me has died because it's over.)

Anyway, here I am in the middle of a pile of flyers that need halving for Fair@Square, orders that need posting, fashion show dresses that need descriptions to be written, and an application that needs filling out. It's not that I don't want to do these things, it's just that - well, think of the possibilities of the next couple of hours. Endless.


Of course there are many more awesome things than bad about running a creative business. I suppose I just always want more. I think that's a good thing, though, in the scheme of things.

savers haul

I just got off the phone with Jo from Frankie magazine for an interview in an upcoming issue. As a teenager I was totally shy, and I'm still kind of getting over it, so I was nervous-but-thinking-happy-thoughts. Near the beginning I had a total brain freeze at one of her questions but otherwise it was a lovely conversation. There's a photo shoot sometime soon and I have no idea what I'm going to wear (I'm such a girl).

Yesterday I went to Savers with Ellie, which is tricky business. She's not content for very long in the pram without it moving, and when I get her out it's all 'Mummy!' repeatedly until I give her my full attention, and then a dragging me in the toy direction, where I must be constantly fascinated with her at various buttons and switches and pictures. If I then turn to look at something else there's a 'Mummy!' again, in that 'and what do you think you're doing?' tone.

Fortunately, she can be reasoned with. I figure that if I give her some of what she wants, it's then my turn. It doesn't always sit perfectly with her, but I think she's getting it. We spent time in the toy section, time in the clothes section, and then wandered across the street to get some lunch, look at the pets, and climb up on the mechanical coin-slot Barney car (yes, me too, she patted the tiny seat next to her each time she sat down). After that she fell asleep and I had some more time in Savers. It was fortunate because I found these gorgeous vintage sheets and fabric bits to turn into pretty clothes.


And this little top for my little person.


Plus I got a couple of gorgeous ethnic woven cushions which are being washed so no photos just now. All this plus a huge load of t-shirts to reconstruct and a Bananas in Pyjamas video makes it my biggest Savers haul. I must go back to Greensborough more often.

flow

I've never before had a change-my-life breakthrough. Sometimes I get really excited about a new idea and hope that it's going to solve my problems (like this one), but it doesn't end up making a huge difference in the end.

I came across The Fluent Self about a month ago. I read a few pages and a bunch of the blog and thought I'd stumbled across something exactly up my alley. I like that Havi is genuine, has a sense of humour, and writes really well. And I'm her right person!

An hour later I wanted to fork over the $108USD for Havi's Dissolve Procrastination package, but I decided it probably would be something I just procrastinated reading - another distraction.

I'd been getting particularly stuck before I wrote my last post but felt a bit better after coming to some realisations:

• Bullying myself made me feel even more like poo (but I didn't know how to stop)
• I felt defeated afterwards (but I didn't know what to do about that)
• It helped to focus on making a choice in the moment without thinking about how much was still to go or all the other items on my to-do list (but I'm actually quite a good planner. I love planning. When I don't feel stuck.)

Penny's comment (thank you Penny!!) reminded me of The Fluent Self and I was feeling motivated enough to work on my problem, so I bought the package.

Thank god.

There is barely a word in the book that I didn't have the "yes, exactly!" response to. I guess I knew about some of the principles in it, such as that the root of the problem is blaming and being hard on yourself, but I didn't know what to do about that. I didn't get the concept completely, but it's all laid out in such an easy-to-understand way in Havi's book and I get it now.

So. I'm being nice to myself. I'm allowing myself to feel that I don't want to do something. How I feel is allowed. I'm in the process of removing the 'shoulds' and blame, and when that bad habit does come up, I'm just letting myself be aware that the blame is there, and then deciding whether I want it to be. I'm reminding myself to keep in mind that my goal isn't about getting to x point, it's about flow. It's not about the end result, it's about being happy with myself. After removing the blame, all that's left is me, without all that blockage and inner struggle. I'm free to make choices about what's best for me and I'm trusting myself to know when I need a break and when I really want to be working. (Most of the time, I want to be working, so I do.) I'm enjoying the process, and I'm really, really motivated to make my business great.

Now that I've starting working with myself instead of against myself, I can work out which techniques will help me work best (there's a bunch of ideas for that in the Dissolve Procrastination package, too). I'm keeping a notebook of little observations about how I work, what makes me more likely to want to procrastinate, and what makes me want to work.

I know I'm not 'fixed', just like that. I know it's something I'll have to keep working on. But I know how to maintain this. I'm confident that things won't be as bad as they were ever again.

$108 is almost too little a price to pay for that.

eco your coffee addiction

I have to admit that I'm a tea-drinker and don't like coffee much at all. But Tim can't start the day without his, and it used to result in an expensive daily purchase of take away coffee because he couldn't stand the crappy instant coffee he'd tried. A while ago he found a brand of tasty instant organic coffee at the supermarket, but it's pretty expensive at $8 for 100g.

Fortunately, when I went looking on the shelf for it at the supermarket yesterday there was none there, so I checked online. The Australian company, Nature's Cuppa, is having an online special on the coffee granules I was after, at $60 for 6 jars of 200g, including shipping. That's $5 per 100g instead of $8, so I saved $36. The coffee is certified under international codes for its organic and environmental protection of forests, birds and wildlife.


I thought a coffee-drinking reader or two out there might like to take advantage of the bargain as well. You could try some at the supermarket before buying 6 jars of it.

I also went looking for a good thermal cup, because the ones we bought in the past broke after a couple of months. I found the KeepCup. They're cute, environmentally-friendly and the company is based right here in Melbourne. It's designed to replace unrecycleable take-away cups when you visit a cafe with it, and is made from the most eco-friendly plastics they could use.

Tim's:
Mine:


Aw.

style number one

The past couple of weeks have been hectic with distractions. Family life has been more stressful than usual and it's amazing how terribly that affects my work motivation and productivity. It's also amazing how having wonderfully relaxed family days can make me feel incredibly energised. I feel like my mojo has returned a bit since Tuesday in the park with Tim, Ellie, the sun (how I've missed thee!) and plenty of fruit.

Anyway. Meet my new friend:


He's a beast, but a tame one when you know how to handle him. I'm a little in love.

I've made up a basic tshirt pattern with a casual fit - it tapers in at the waist a little and has a little bit of extra room at the hips. I think shirts that are tight at the hip are the worst - any size person will display some sort of muffin-top if they're wearing jeans.

My first style is a casual fit tee with contrasting sleeves and a scoop neckline that gets wider at the front. What do you think?


I'm going to be filling my Incube8r space with just these in different colours and sizes. There's not enough room to provide a good selection of more than one style there, I think. So I'll see how these go. By next week I should have enough to fill the shop space and I'll take them in. Then I'll be developing other styles and making some for my Etsy shop. I have to work on the Incube8r stock first, because the rent keeps coming so it costs me money to wait.

powering through

I am sitting here in the midst of reorganising my studio once again, to make room for the industrial overlocker I bought. My old domestic one broke. My new Bernina Activa has been having issues as well for the past month or so. I took it to the local repairs place and was told there was nothing wrong with it, but there obviously was.

So I trekked out to Nick Ciancio Sewing Machines in Footscray after a recommendation and a phone call that assured me they knew what they were doing. They fixed the Bernina on the spot - there was a piece of thread stuck around the take up lever - and I put in my overlocker for repair.

They had one old industrial overlocker for sale that they'd fixed up and I bought it, sick of dealing with domestic machine issues and feeling that I'm ready for that next step. Nick patiently showed me how to thread it, gave me a go, and explained the differencial feed to me (which I'd never really understood until then). Both Nick and his son were very helpful and competent. I also appreciate that they're a small family business and that they specialise in restoring old machines that other dealers won't touch.

It's being delivered today.

This is just one of the issues that have been stopping me from getting Heidi & Seek moving as quickly as possible. There always seems to be something cropping up and getting in the way, and instead of powering through and keeping to schedule, I get frustrated at all the things that aren't going as planned, and that makes me more distracted. I feel like I know where I need to be but it just seems so far away. I've considered quitting once or twice, but I truly don't think that would work. This is my only option because it's the only one I want.

So here I go, trying to move past the distractions and finish making my patterns so I can get moving.

woods and fields ethical fashion & link love

Melbournians, you can now find my work at Woods and Fields Ethical Fashion, a newish shop in Syndey Road, Brunswick. The owner, Elysia, is lovely. She's studying textiles because she wanted sustainable fabrics but couldn't find them - what better idea than to learn how to make them yourself.

I've had some lovely people say lovely things about my blog and label recently so I thought I'd share:

Treehugger put me at #1 for Green Fashion: 7 Australian Designers You Need to Know.

Evolved Fashion awarded me an 'Evolved Blogger' award. There's 50 quality blogs listed here with a sustainable fashion focus, so I'm going to enjoy checking out the ones I haven't heard of.


And the lovely Clare from Pretty Green gave me this blog award, thank you!


I'm among some kick-butt company at all three links so I'm really very flattered.

I need to to list ten random things about myself for Clare's award so here goes!

1. A couple of weeks ago we bought a perfect second-hand car, a 2001 Hyundai Elantra in immaculate condition, with great service history and at a heavily reduced price. Today it got towed because Tim caused a little car accident. (No one got hurt.) We only have third party insurance.
   
   
2. Last Sunday for Father's Day, Ellie and I made this notebook for Tim - Ellie did the sticking and drawing, and I glued and finished it. I secretly wish that I'd made it for myself. Except for the Mod Podge and masking tape, it's made from completely recycled materials.
   
   
   
3. As per my budgeting plan, I've been successfully living off $50 a week for the past two weeks. That includes groceries, food and etceteras that aren't bills. It doesn't include op shop purchases or petrol though.
   
   
4. I bought a perfect blank Collins 2009 diary from an op shop the other day, which I'm going to use for 2010 and just manually (and creatively) alter all the dates. Tim thinks I'm weird.
   
   
5. I'm constantly late. I think I'm still stuck in babyless mode, where I could just throw a bag over my shoulder and walk out the door. Now I have to change a nappy, make sure Ellie's bag is packed, get some snacks and a drink to take, clean her hands and face, and deal with the dawdling that happens when you're 2 and no place to be is urgent.
   
   
6. I just discovered social bookmarking. Well, I'm not as interested in the social part as I am in being able to organise my bookmarks and use nifty features like sticky notes and highlighting on the bookmarked pages. I signed up to Diigo, added the toolbar and I'm surprised how often I'm using it. You can also bookmark sites as 'unread' so you can come back to them later.
   
   
7. I kind of envy makers who can stay up making until late in the evening. I mean, I usually stay up late, but by about 6pm I feel like I've used up all my making energy. I can work late on the computer or something, but not the sewing machine. Weird.
   
   
8. The last movie I watched was Adventureland, which I was drawn to because it has Kristen Stewart from Twilight in it and I'm kind of attached to Twilight, despite not wanting to be and acknowledging how ridiculous it is. (I drew the line at the end of book one, but I will be watching all the movies.) By the way, Adventureland is good stuff.
   
   
9. I've had a bias tape maker for years, but have yet to use it.
   
   
10. Every time I go for a walk I look at each house and think about what it would be like to own it. We are renting and I have major homeowner envy. It doesn't help that many of the houses in our area are gorgeous and/or huge.

I'm passing on the award to:

Tricia from Little Eco Footprints
Adele from modernemotive
Nikki from Nikki-Shell
Gina from clutterpunk
Yana from Supayana
Sarah from forevayoung vintage
Jen from Rejenerating Fashion
Flossy from Flossy-P
Emma from Owl and the Grapes
Ali J from Aussie Patches

franny armstrong and ethical living

I've been getting more and more inspired by the maker of The Age of Stupid Franny Armstrong. Here's a quick interview with her about how making the movie increased her carbon footprint and about her fulfillment in making a difference. I also really like this quote about her, from her Wikipedia page: "When, in a few years' time, Franny Armstrong is being discussed as one of the key documentary film-makers of our generation, you can say you were in there at the start."

I want to get a hold of her previous documentary, McLibel, because I don't know much about the ethics of McDonalds, except that they're probably non-existant. I'm going to try to forego my occasional french fries purchase, but without knowing compelling evidence it's sometimes easy to ignore that nagging feeling.

That's an idea that you're probably already familiar with, but I'm going to remind you about it anyway: positive purchasing. When you are a customer of a company, you sustain them and reinforce what they're doing, whether that's ethical or not. It's our job to find out which companies are aligned with our ethics (or which is the lesser evil, in some cases) and to support them. Looked at another way, it's also moral boycotting.

And it's not just at gift-giving time that we can choose handmade. It's a way of every day living, to try to ensure we're being kind to both the environment and people. It doesn't have to be expensive, often it's cheaper. If I eat before leaving home I won't have had to spend money on drive-through fries. A second-hand piece of furniture costs less than a new piece. If I buy less processed foods, I can afford to buy organic basics. Etc.

What have you bought this week? Could you have made more ethical choices instead?

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?

vote for the world you want to inherit

Tim has started volunteering for YOUth Decide, which is run by World Vision and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. They're hosting an voting week in September that gives young Australians (from 12-29) the power to make significant positive change to help our futures.

The deal is this:
You vote by choosing one of three options online during 14-21 September (register to vote and get a reminder!). The results of our voting will be taken to the crucial United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen this December. They need at least tens of thousands of us to vote for it to have an effect. They're campaigning like crazy, have enlisted celebrities, gotten some major sponsors and they're encouraging people all over Australia to host voting events.

I'm utterly excited.

Just voting isn't enough. Tell your friends, blog about it, add it to your website, tweet it, and post it in your Facebook updates! Attend an event in your area, or organise one yourself! The more people that vote and the more attention this gets, the bigger difference it will make.

To repost, you can use the banner at the top of my blog, or the image in this post, or use their other promo material.

Here's a video about it:

o-check, stationery and focus

Those in Melbourne can now find my work at Incube8r. 321 Smith St in Fitzroy. Hoorah!

With setting up Incube8r, catching up on accounts, organising my space and uni, I feel like I haven't been on track with Heidi & Seek for a while. I haven't been keeping up with my non-schedule, mostly because other things were the priorities, but also because once I feel I'm in a rut I kind of give up and just want to escape making things (self-sabotage?). It doesn't make for good productivity.

So I've decided to give up uni for the forseeable future. It's a Bachelor of Arts degree with an English major and I'm not far off from completing it. For a while I've known that the career path I want doesn't require a uni degree, but I kept on keeping on because it's useful to have one. But it's not working for me. I can always go back if Heidi & Seek fails horribly. I'm an optimist, though. The concerning thing is that I think I'll still be overloaded without uni, because I'm still doing my pattern-making course and looking after Ellie.

I keep coming up with new ideas: new venues to sell at or new products to make. I suppose that makes me impatient. I didn't understand until now that spreading myself too thin means that I won't be great at anything. I need to focus. So for now, I'm going to be exclusively working on clothing for Etsy, Incube8r and the odd wholesale account (except for in my spare time, when I can make what I like).

I've been fixing up my taxes the past couple of days, and I had to use the floor and another chair for more working space. It was terrible ergonomics. I realised that one thing that's been affecting my productivity is my desk space. It's small and unorganised and easily gets its surface taken over with papers and bits. The clutter makes my brain cluttered. It's kind of strange how you just end up with a set-up that doesn't work for you in your space and since you've had it for ages you don't even realise.

I found a wooden box I'd been using to store fabric and used it as a shelf. Going vertical means I have more surface space, plus I've pushed the box right to the wall, where the desk used to end a couple of inches away. And before you think it, yes that couple of inches makes a difference!


I'm starting to envy those with a pretty white Mac computer - I think the black is out of place here. If only I could decoupage it...

Anyway. I'm going to confess something: I'm a big stationery freak. I used to spend all of my pocket money on stickers and pens and notebooks. I still get a thrill from entering a stationery store, even a boring one like Officeworks.


I recently discovered these Bantex Ecoboard lever arch files from Officeworks and I am utterly obsessed. I filed the entire house's papers and important documents in 4 of them. The one pictured contains my tax information. I got rid of the chunky, messy archive boxes and suspension files to save space. I turned the suspension files into hangtags, which I'll talk about in a future post. The boxes might make notebook covers or something. I just love that they've finally made a folder that doesn't look like it belongs in a very uncreative accountant's office.

The reason I'm talking about stationery is because I went on a strange internet journey. Somewhere recently I found this amazing stationery shop on Etsy called nothingelegant, which stocks things from Asia. I went e-searching and found this whole mass of gorgeously styled, unique stationery and homewares from Korea and Japan. But all the sites were in Korean or Japanese.

I finally found a stationery company's website that had an English menu! Score! They're called O-Check Design Graphics. I traced their stockists to an Melbournian online shop, Notemaker. At this point it was late at night, but I couldn't pull myself away because this is the stationery I have been searching for my entire life. O-check is vintage-inspired, but not in a kitschy way, plus they are environmentally conscious. A lot of their goods are made from recycled content and natural materials.







I put about 20 things in the shopping cart, and then whittled it down to the weekly planner and the ruler - "essentials". I want to try making my own repurposed notebooks and things, because it's nicer to my wallet and more environmentally friendly to make them myself.

Notemaker is run by the same people who own The Source newsagent in Melbourne CBD. I haven't been yet but the next time I'm in the city I'm definitely going to pop in. I'm still wondering why I ever wasted my time in Smiggle, hoping to find something nice...

ellie is 2

Yesterday was Ellie's 2nd birthday party and many presents and good company were enjoyed. I forgot my camera but I did take these this morning.


This gift was one of her favourites.

Ellie has grown so much in the past year. She's more outgoing and willing to talk with strangers (although usually, if you try to pick her up and you're not one of her parents, Uncle Jason or Grandbob, prepare for a scream). She's learnt lots of words and is contstantly impressing me with new ones. And she's so, so smart. I can reason with her now a little. Like one morning she got upset with me trying to undress her from her pajamas, and I said, "Pajamas are for sleeping. Do you want to go back to sleep?" and she thought about it, said "no" and then stopped struggling. It's fun watching her problem solve and think.

Then there are the cute things. One afternoon we were at a cafe and Ellie was struggling out of her chair, not listening to us asking her to sit down. Tim showed her the muffin we'd got for dessert. "Do you want some?" She stopped, then said "Sit down..." She's always telling me when things are in the wrong place, picking them up and telling me "away". Or kindly letting me know when she or someone else has spilt something by pointing and saying "mess". She's decided that hairs are "dirty" when found by themselves, so every time she finds one she gives it to me to put in the bin (which she calls "bim").

I don't know if the 'terrible twos' is yet to come, but she is quite a delight and I'm so proud of her.

op shopping and a little creativity

Spent most of today making this to put next to my stock at incube8r.


It doesn't look like it would take that long, but I had hassles printing onto fabric again. After ironing freezer paper onto the fabric then carefully cutting it out to a perfect A4, it jammed in the printer. Then a second time, then a third.

I finally realised that I hadn't set it to heavy paper. Then I printed out a perfect one, but forgot to include my website and blog. So I tried once more with the correct text, but at the heat setting stage the ink ran. I was stupid enough to be doing this on the couch, and got it stained with my promo text and ahhh! I'll stop whining now. It's finished and I like it. It looks better in person!

Yesterday was my day off. I went to a few op-shops and didn't look for anything Heidi & Seek related. I really needed a break. I got these jeans.


Yes, that does say superflare. And no, superflares are not my style. However, they fit perfectly at the top so I will be turning them into skinnies.

I also got these cute things: a mini easel photo frame and a yellow vintage sugar jar.



I'm slowly trying to make my home pretty. Space is a big issue for us so everything I buy has to have a purpose. I'm looking for things second-hand before I resort to buying anything new. However, I was looking for a solution to the notebooks and diaries I like to have on hand at my desk (but that clutter it up), so I bought this rack from Ikea. It'll attach to the side of my desk, so everything is off the surface but still easily accessible.

Walking through Ikea, I was very tempted by other colourful storage things, but I resisted. I'd much rather find second-hand boxes and things.