Balmain markets - this Saturday!

Here's a little teaser for what's literally in store this Saturday at Balmain Markets!

Pop down and say hello; we'll be under the gazebo, selling crocheted cushions, baby blankets and brooches. We can do bespoke pieces in a variety of colour choices as well - just ask us! Makes a great christmas present...

Prices start at $10 for a rose brooch, $40 for a cushion, and go to $70 for a baby blanket. They are one-of-a-kind pieces, with a lot of time and energy (and love) put into each creation. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

If you're not in Sydney, we'll have all our wares on our Etsy store this week. Another post shall follow with URL and details.

Bike ♥

This is just so darn cute, I thought I'd share it.

bike ♥ from Rick Darge on Vimeo.

I think I'll go buy that second lock. Paranoia set in from living in London, where stealing bikes was a common sport. Those bastards were so brazen! Now that I'm back in Sydney with my bitchin Toyko wheels, I've become more lax. Big mistake! Both of my wheels are quick release, as is my seat. I would cry my little heart out if anyone stole my bike.

Anticipated film of the summer...

Quiet Ryan - watch more funny videos

Good Stuff Holiday Guide

One of my favourite stores to visit in Melbourne was Meet me at Mikes. Now no longer, the owner Pip Lincolne is concentrating on her writing career (check out her books here) which to my benefit, is fruitful and oh so helpful.

I really do want to be Pip's best friend, though because we live in different cities and aside from the minor detail that we don't know any of the same people to meet to become besties, best that I just follow her online activities.

Pip's done us all a wee favour this Chrissie. Good Stuff Holiday Guide is just what it says on the tin - pretty awesome shit to get for your loved ones this present season. It's got 127 pages of things for your table, things for your feet, things for your mouth (corn fritters, yuuuummmmm), things to make, things to do, and things to visit. C'arn, get it in ya.

Updated: I realise that this is a flash file so doesn't come up on your smart phone. Here's the direct link, go forth.

Open publication - Free publishing - More craft

Balmain craft stall, 19 Nov

Feeling so ridiculously happy of late, I think due to being purposeful.

I have a new job starting very soon in my dream company.
I have a new bicycle that is so beautiful to ride.
I have a spanking new MacBook Pro transferring info from my 'cough' PC 'cough', as I type.
I have a couple of new projects, one of which I'll happily discuss...

Housemate and I will be holding a market stall at Balmain Markets on the 19th Nov. We're been busily crocheting and sewing cushions, necklaces, brooches and table runners to sell in a variety of beautiful colours. Off the back of this project, we'll be selling bespoke pieces though our Etsy store (details to follow).

So if you're free, come down and check out our little stall. We're also raiding our wardrobes and being RUTHLESS. I'll be selling things from Zimmerman, Sisley, Topshop, H&M, Reiss (the posh UK store, not the cheap Aussie one), Uniqlo, plus loads of vintage.

Christmas is coming up too, and that means summer, which means margaritas and BBQ's by the kiddy pool in the backyard with 2CH providing the tunes.

What is not to love about this time of year?

Tessuti Fabrics sewing lesson

A while ago my housie told me about an amazing urban sewing legend place, whose waiting list extended beyond the new year. Apparently there was a waiting list to be on the waiting list, or some shiz like that.

Unperturbed, I logged on to said urban sewing place's website and yep, she was right - Sydney = SOLD OUT. Seems we all want to sew our way into our granny's good books.

A couple of months later, I browsed the website again. Like the shining sun coming through a grey cloud, there it was - an opening for a beginner sewing class the following Saturday. BOOKED!

Tessuti Fabrics sits aptly amidst the hipster-scum-cum-crafty-bum suburb of Surry Hills. My first introduction to the shop was only to be told to wait outside as they weren't open yet (I was seven mins early). Then, the owner and his baby son came along and asked if I was waiting for the lesson? Yep, well come on in then!

Customer service pays dude. If he hadn't of overwritten what the old bat had said, this little post could have been different. Be nice to your paying customers.

Onto the lesson. There were seven of us around our oldish Bernina and Janome machines. They were perfectly fine and in good working order, though they had already been threaded. I am a BEG-INN-ER. Let me thread my own damn machine after you TEACH me how. My thoughts at this was 'Here we go, I'm going to be way out of my depth again, and get frustrated and wield that roll of dusty pink duchess satin around in unfulfilled crafting angst'.

Except, it didn't quite go all She-Ra in Tessuti. The lesson progressed nicely and at a pace where we could all grasp the basics. I'll admit, my quizzical eyebrows were getting a workout though like the dag student I am, I promptly raised my hand and asked questions. I have no patience for teachers who assume knowledge cause once again, I am a BEG-INN-ER. Sound it out, cause that's what I am.

So we learnt this stitch and that hem, and how to sew waistbands into skirts. I came out of it thinking yeah good start, now i'll just have to book continuous classes. For $75, it's more expensive then your tech/college courses (that are a couple hundred bucks over several weeks), though it's a taster plate if you will. If you want to do cushions, napkins, table clothes, you're covered. If you want to sew a summer dress, best book a longer course.

Overall, the teacher Georgia was exceptionally lovely and positive. She mentioned the adjective 'perfect' a few times about my work. I was glowing like the girl geek I am, and then overextended my abilities to the point where I ruined what I was working on. I patiently unpicked, re-pinned, re-sewed and still managed an ok job though. Star.

Negatives about the class was that it didn't start from the beginning (how to thread the bobbin, names of the machine parts) and it perhaps didn't quite give adequate notes to take (I would have liked explanations for what the parts do, because I don't remember). There was also only one iron, and that chomped into a lot of time.

Positives about the class was that it was an overall experience and was fun to dive straight in and challenge my abilities. I may have been messy, or cause the bobbin to spaz a few time, though Georgia was always there to help.

Tessuti Fabrics
110 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills
Also in Melbourne and Chatswood (NSW)

Bikes bikes bikes

How exciting to see all the bicycles out on the streets of Sydney! The fixed view that cyclists should be wearing lycra is out; step forward into the global city chic movement, and you'll be onto something.

My bike has been out of action for the past six weeks, and I miss her. More accurately, the little Tokyo Bike that could will be out of action forever. A car caused major damage and it's beyond repairs; suggestions for what to do with the amazing red Bisou frame are welcome. I'm thinking garden sculpture; the wheels would make excellent climbing plant stakes.

Last night was the first time I stepped on a bike, although I wasn't riding - I got a dink from housemate! It was slighty pissy and irresponsible, but fuck it was fun. I was terrified as housie's brown locks licked my face and I couldn't see the road, but it felt like we were time warping, back to school days of 1992. Sorry about the incessant snorts of laughter Gowrie St, Newtown, we just found it so funny that we couldn't steer straight and almost stacked it into your cars (several times).

I'll be heading to Tokyo Bike to order my spankin new wheels this week (below). What do you think? Imagine a basket like in the above picture, and I'm good to go, right? I feel like I've taken ten steps backwards in cycling confidence due to the whole 'two car's hitting me in two weeks' thing, but that won't beat me. Something has to give Sydney, and it won't be me.

Tokyo Bike CS in Mustard

I'm going social.

You should warmly congratulate me. It may have taken years, though I have finally opened up a Twitter account.

I've been in marketing for the best part of ten years now, and know all about the power of the brand. Suffice to say, I never wanted to shamelessly promote myself to hundreds of strangers who didn't give a shit about whether I'm having toast or porridge for brekkie...so what's changed, eh?

Let me give you some insight into the situation. Bear with me.

Last night my housemate, gorgeous older sis and brother-in-law tottered down to Taylor Square to watch the MC Cyclery Goldsprints as part of the Bicycle Film Festival. I've been psyching my sister up for a while now, so when she got up there on the stage (the very first competitor no less), I couldn't be prouder! I was like a shrieking maniac, yelling that she was winning, Winning, WINNING. I may have looked like a retarded tiger mum, though I didn't give a shit.

So as the Goldsprinter's took their place, the projector next to the stage was following tweets from the crowd. I mean, as well as the TANK commentating, we had everyone in the room who was on Twitter taunting or supporting the awesomeness. Housemate and I jumped in on the action and commented on the very good boy/gal ratio there was at The Standard (my first husband could have been there, there was plenty of potential), and even got a bit cheeky and applauded the dance moves of one very fine young MC Cyclery gent. It was interactive engagement at its best!

So the conclusion is, Twitter has finally teased me into submission by way of commenting anonymously on hot babes. I'm tweeting to improve self-esteems you could say. I'm a self-esteem fairy.

If you want to see your self esteem rise, follow me here and I'll tweet how hot you are.

And if you ever get the opportunity to view Goldsprints (happens worldwide), jump at it. Best night out in ages!

What's going on...?

Well in the lull of life, I've decided to take back my little corner of cyber space and claim it once again for my musings.

I'm not sure what the direction will be, though I note in the past few years my passions have evolved and honed themselves. My previous entries have revolved around the arts, fashion, craft, music, food, and my own philosophies. I guess that what's a blog allows you to do; assume that anyone and everyone who is reading it actually gives a penny.

But that's OK if you don't, because blogs are clothed in anonymity. Those that aren't want something more - press, adulation, free clothes. Truthfully, I could do without the pressure and frankly, I would be coming down on myself for not being as good a writer as some wonderful people I know. So it all works out. I get to practice my communication skills, and you (whoever you are), get to read about whatever takes my fancy that day and the next.

Aren't you fantastically lucky?

OK, so buckle in babes. We're in Sydney town and who knows what adventures will come our way! Maybe I'll even let you into the secret world of the single ladies...I know a few of them and my God we have some stories.

Stephen Fry on self pity

If you're British, you'd need no introduction to Stephen Fry.

If you're not, this man is on another level of celebrity in the UK. He is famous for being a personality of television, film, theatre, comedy, etc etc though probably on equal measures, his fame resides around his health, that being his mental health. Fry is a manic-depressant.

I could rattle on about Fry for a while, though I think he is a niche subject, albeit one I am extremely interested in. He is a former juvenile delinquent, a Cambridge graduate, a brilliant man, a Jew against the state of Israel, a complete anomaly.

Instead, I just wanted to embed this one-minute opinion piece where Fry speaks of self pity. I abhor self pity, and I try to live my life avoiding it; this is turn makes me somewhat unsympathetic towards other people. Not the best trait, I hasten to add.

YouTube is refusing to allow me to embed the video, though do click here to hear it. See what you think.