Shadow Shot #30

Last weekend I visited my grandad. With my mum and kids, we drove the 9 hours to visit him for a few days. He is 94 next month and still lives by himself.

While he didn't really know who I or the kids were, due to his dementia (and his general forgetfulness that has nothing to do with dementia, and everything to do with him being who is is!!) he really enjoyed the kids' company.

His favourite pastime, particularly in the winter, is to sit in the sun on his verandah, feeding the birds and watering his geraniums; he gets very cranky on cloudy days! This shot was taken of him sitting in the sun - you can just see some of his geraniums in the background.


The 'fluff' at his chin is actually my little girl's hair, so not a perfect pic, but I love the shadows, reflections and wrinkles on his face. You can see that he is happy.

Head on over to visit Hey Harriet for more Shadow Shot Sunday pics.
Happy Sunday everyone! :)

'BiDM' books and lovely friends

BiDM = BrisStyle Indie Designers Markets (cool eh?!) and they are just around the corner!!! oh my, I think I'm starting to get a little stressed ... and super excited!! Oh, and I'm also on holidays for the next 2 and a half weeks ;)

Here are some lovely ladies ready for their big day at the BrisStyle Indie Designers Markets.

I really love making books and journals, and get so inspired by the fabulous things the BEST members make too. These journals have a stab-bound pad inside as well as a little pocket for goodies.


I think these little note-pads (below) are my favourites; they're nice and small, simple and have lovely images from old story-books on the cover. I'd like to make more of these!

My problem is I flit from thing to thing; while I was making some new brooches for the market today, I felt the sudden need to abandon them and go and make some more books! Oh dear, my attention span is on the small side, methinks!


In the past couple of years, I have gained many 'bloggy' friends and lovely, crafty BrisStyle friends too. I was so chuffed to receive the 'Love Ya' award recently from both Helen from Ruby2GoGo and Amanda from TwinkleStarArt - two very lovely BrisStylettes - thank you :)

This award is bestowed on the blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award. Then let everyone know seven things about you.

me:

*
I don't get anywhere near enough sleep - too many things I want to squish into my days!
*
I am currently in the 'twilight' zone - lost in the world of Edward and Bella (and I wish I was a vampire to solve my problem above!) After having countless students (10 -13 years of age) recommending the book for me, I was finally convinced when Helen raved about it ... I figured I was going to hold a lot more weight to a grown-up's view of the series, rather than a young girl's!!
*
(I think I may have mentioned this one already...) I am on holidays at the moment!! :D
*
I wish that there was one thing that I was really good at, instead of being ok at lots of little things
*
This month, I taught myself to crochet and am making granny squares to make into a throw for our (electrifyingly) blue lounge; I calculated how many I'm going to need - I'm hoping to finish before next winter!
*
Not a secret, but I really love making things - really love it. I guess I am lucky to be an Art teacher to small kids.
*
I used to be a waitress for 7 years while at uni - I never want to do that ever again (this desire, therefore, prevents me from doing any further study!!), but I do still enjoy carrying dinner plates up my arm!

I am passing this on to the following friendly, funny, self-effacing, inspirational and fun blogs ... I know that this is a double-up of the award for some of them, but I think they deserve it! ;)

1. Hey Harriet: Tracy inspires so many people to chase shadows every week as well as sharing her own beautiful images and adventures. (and I always have a little chuckle at the random surreal generator too ... hee hee!)

2. HotFudge: I love hearing Robyn's adventures, listening to her sage advice, and of course, cracking up at her little jokes!

3. edward and lilly: Rebecca has so much style and grace in the beautiful things she makes. I enjoy her 'shopping lists'.

4. Lisa's RetroStyle: I love reading Lisa's blog and discovering (and getting mighty envious!) of her new vintage and retro finds!

5. littlechrissy: Chris is very good at reminding me to appreciate the little things in her 'grateful Monday' posts.

6. The Small Stuff: Bec's blog was one of the first ones I found in bloggy land - I love her writing style and enjoy her stories about her kids ;)

7. Ruby2GoGo: Helen is such a wonderful, thoughtful gem with an eye for glorious Brisbane retro! :D oh! and she's pretty good at organising the best markets too!;)

8. TwinkleStarArt: An amazing illustrator - I love peeking into Amanda's sketchbook on her blog and amazing that her stories about her 2 year-old sweetie are exactly the same as my stories about my 2 year old!! hee hee!

Back to my brooches for BiDM now!

BEST book swap

It was book swap time again recently and I received my book this week. I look forward to the BEST book swaps as it gives me a chance to make a new, and different book. Oh yeah! and I also get a gorgeous book in return!! (BEST is the Bookbinding Etsy Street Team)

Look at this beautiful book! It is from Anna from PurplebeanBindery and is so cleverly made. The paper is quite special too. This is the little gem that arrived this week from the swap - lucky me!

(photo from the BEST blog)

It has a nice tall format - a bit bigger than a cheque book - it sits nicely in my hand.

Lovely Rhonda from MyHandboundBooks coordinates our BEST book swaps every time - she does such a great job - thanks Rhonda!

Here is my little offering for the swap: it's an accordian-bound book with pockets and three little stab-bound journals. I made a little 'paper bag' for it too.


I used cartridge paper and bits of ephemera for the pages of the little journals. My favourite bits are the coloured squares of book pages. I also like how it wraps up on itself. And, like a lot of the things I make, it is all rather small as you can see in the photo!

EDIT: I've just discovered my book went to Buechertiger (I received her little books last time!) and she's blogged about it too - her pics look a lot better than mine!!

I've also been making a few more stab-bound journals for the BrisStyle Indie Designers Markets (not long to go now!!), but these are slightly bigger and feature lovely vintage ladies, I'll post photos of them soon.

Shadow Shot Sunday #29

Happy Sunday everyone!

Here is a shadowy shot taken at South Bank last Sunday. It was taken 30 minutes after it had stopped pouring with cold, windy rain; the clouds blew away and the sunshine came out for perfect picnic weather!


The shot is of the 'arbor' at South Bank; a long avenue of bougainvillea, climbing on tall sculptural trellises, that runs through the park. I think Hey Harriet used it as one of her shadow shots before?

Pop on over to Hey Harriet for some more Shadow Shots and some really great piccies.

What a happy Sunny Sunday .. I'm off to a BrisStyle crafty swap meet-up today ... hopefully I don't bring home too much stuff to fill the space I made in my de-stashing :)

BrisStyle Markets Prep

Only 4 weeks to go til the BrisStyle Indie Designers Markets - time to start getting ready! And I am rather excited too - it promises to be a super-great event: fantastic stalls, lovely location, yummy food, drink and music ... all on a glorious Brisbane winter day! (let's hope it is warmer than it has been the past couple of days brrrr!)

I went to the Young Designers Market last weekend for a 'market fix' and some inspiration. There were SO many gorgeous, excellent quality wares there, including a good contingent of BrisStylettes! Included in the BrisStylettes on show was the lovely Helen, from Ruby2GoGo (who is also our very special BrisStyle market co-ordinator). Her spot was celebrating vintage swish and sharing the Brisbane-retro love. How wonderful is her set-up?! All red and white .. and I love her little scooter girl! Brisbane really is a lovely, crafty little place!


Being a "list-lover", I've made myself a list (numerous actually!) of the things I need to do in the lead up to the market - making more stock, getting more business cards, signs, displays ... One thing at the top of my list was trying to resolve the problem of display; a range of heights, continuity in appearance and effectiveness were all criteria I was trying to fill.

I wasn't happy with my current market set-up that I have been using at the local church markets; my naughty Little Jellies and Little Loxies just don't like sitting up straight! and my other stock often looked quite jumbled.

I have come up with a combination of boxes to help with my market display as well as the cork board that I already had.

This box I made from an existing one by cutting and re-taping it so that it is now a 'step'. The tops of each level are shallow enough to display my items properly as well as having three (including the table) levels of display. I'll give it a nice coat of black paint, I think.

These boxes I picked up from Reverse Garbage and fold down flat (great for carting them around!). I like the way I can stack them differently to accommodate my little softies. (Chi Chi Chookie was being very obliging today and test-driving all the boxes for me - what a sweetie!!)

Finally, this one doesn't really fit with my black boxes, but I think I will put it on the end of my tables. While searching desperately in the garage for something - anything! - that I may be able to use, I found this little cutie that I have never been able to throw away. It is a little cabinet that my brother made at school (I'm glad I rescued it from the throw-out pile now!) and I think my Little Jellies will look especially cute peeking out from it! Again, Chi Chi checked it out, but she was getting a bit tired by this stage

So! First problem solved! :D Now back to my lists!

congratulations to....

May Giveaway Day was so much fun! I spent a great deal of time exploring new blogs, finding new things...

And so, to the winners of my giveaway! I chose the 2 winners via Random Number Generator ... and the winning comments were:

Stephanie whose favourite was Dashie

AND...

JJ who commented "I love the Dashie Dog pattern, although the other two are cute as well!"

Congratulations to these two lucky winners of my new Little Loxie pattern kits - I hope you find them fun!

I had so much fun discovering new blogs (and crossing fingers for being a lucky number too!!) and I am still quite overwhelmed by not only the amount of comments my little blog got, but also the happy and kind things people said!
... So, I'd like to continue the good feelings a little longer and offer all readers of my blog (that's you!) 20% off all of my new Little Loxies PDF patterns and kits in my LittleJellygnite Etsy Shop until the 30th June! wow! Just type 'Charlie and Grace' in notes to seller when you purchase and I'll refund you the difference via paypal :)

Thank you to everyone who left lovely comments, and thank you to Sew Mama Sew for hosting such a fun giveaway!!

I hope everyone has a happy week!