greenolive

feeling the love

An etsy admin curated treasury that was on the front page recently. Can you spot the scarf? It sold just a few days later and is on its merry way to Sweden.

We've been feeling a bit of blog and etsy love in past week or so. It is so exciting and lifts your spirits when you are feeling doubtful and unsure...you've geared up for the Christmas sales rush and you are waiting...waiting. You all know what I'm talking about!

One of my scarves and a set of tribal coasters both made separate treasuries that were curated by etsy admin and featured on the front page. Inclusion in etsy curated treasuries, featured in gift guide – surely a stint as an etsy featured seller is just around the corner?! LOL!!

Another scarf and some urban type fabric were featured in other treasuries about the same time.

And mr greenolive had his first sale in the designsforhim shop.

Then Lynsey from cuteable blog let us know she'd done a post on crafty couples, featuring us! Thanks Lynsey, always a thrill to see your work on another's blog.

Ok, I'll stop bragging now and get back to crafting, photographing, listing items on etsy, writing blog posts, making LOTS of money...

the art of photography

Aside from finding the perfect natural light just when you want it, the hardest thing when photographing your handmade stuff is making it look as good as it does in real life. Its a real challenge and we're always trying to perfect our photos.

The move to the new place a few months back has got the natural light thing sorted. Our interior hallway is bathed in light during the day thanks to a skylight and an east-facing toilet!

Now I've just got to get the styling part right! I've realised that scarves are one of the hardest things to photograph well. How to you convey the length properly when you only have a small square image size? 

Since we've produced coaster gift sets and totes from our ranges of screenprinted fabrics I've found that these items are a cinch to photograph. You can display them in a range of contexts and use lots of stylish props.

Even mr greenolive's leather pouches and slips are much easier to photograph and style.

 

Maybe I'll leave the scarves for the market stall. You really need to see the colours and feel the scarves in the flesh to appreciate how lovely they are!

stylish protection

coaster sets now available

An Urban Type coaster being put to good use.

Looking for some stylish protection to save your mid-century modern table from water marks?

Perhaps you've got heaps of social events this holiday season and are looking for a unique host or hostess gift?

Maybe you are racking your brains for a gift for a co-worker or your child's teacher?

A coaster gift set from greenolive will solve your problems!

The coasters are made from a patchwork of our fabrics – I have so much fun choosing what fabrics go together – and are backed by a wool felt. The front is them top stitched at add some texture and depth. They are like a mini quilt. Each coaster is truly unique in its combinations of colours and designs.

We have sets of four or six coasters, in both the Tribal range and Urban Type range. Snap them up now before they sell out.

Or, if you are feeling crafty, why not buy a bits and pieces pack of our fabrics and whip some up yourself?

designs for him

mr greenolive's new etsy shop

After quitely and patiently supporting my creative endeavours, mr greenolive has finally branched out on his own. He's opened his own etsy shop. Just in time for the Christmas gift giving season.

He's always had a good design eye. And he loves working with his hands and making stuff. He's had a hankering for awhile to work with leather, and once we found a sturdy metal sewing machine at an op shop, an old 1950s Singer, that was that.

 

I suppose it was only a matter of time. While we work well together - he wanted to have control of the design aesthetic. To make stuff that appealed to him. And to other blokes as well. We've also discovered that while etsy is full of handmade stuff, most of it is aimed at the female persuasion. There's not much out there for blokes. Especially well designed stuff.

It's been very hard for me not to want to step in and take control when I see him playing and experimenting with materials, shape, form. But I have to remind myself that this is HIS design work and I certainly wouldn't like it if he did that to me!

I might be biased, but I reckon his stuff is great. I'd buy it. Its just the sort of thing I'd be looking for as a gift for him. Well designed and made from quality materials. And eco friendly too – he only uses recycled/upcycled leather.

Check it out, designsforhim, the new etsy shop. Would you buy it for the bloke in your life?

So far there are two product lines, but keep your eye out for more...zip wallets, leather coasters, laptop cases.

PS: when you visit his shop to buy something, would you mind "hearting" him? It would make his day. Just don't let on that I sent you over there.

thunder & lightning

very very frightening!

A hint of things to come...

Last night/this morning – the time when we should all be in bed asleep – we had our first thunderstorm of the season.

Loud cracks of thunder. Flashes of lightening that lit up the sky. Heavy drops of rain. Falling very fast.  Deafening noise. The sort of thunderstorm you get in Queensland. More specifically Brisbane on a hot summer afternoon. Almost made me homesick.

Jack, the dog we babysit regularly, didn't like it one bit. All he wanted to do was run around in the back yard and bark at the thunder and lightening. We let him have his wish, but once his barking got loud enough to wake the neighbours, we called him in.

As for me, I tried to sleep but to no avail. Don't know whether it was the thunder, lightening or the energy in the air, but I was all revved up and just couldn't sleep. So rather than toss and turn, I decided to get up and be productive.

Cup of tea made. Blog post written. Now for some etsy uploads. I mean I need to make the most of those cashed-up consumers looking for that perfect handmade holiday gift.

A scarf...?

Some screenprinted fabric...?

Maybe some leather goods...?

autumn on my mind

 

Autumn Harvest Entangled Scarf in shades of pumpkin, squash, maize...now available in the shop.

Its really odd, today is our first real warm Spring day and I'm thinking of Autumn. Twenty-eight degrees and I'm surrounded by the colours of Fall – orange, rust, pumpkin, squash...

I've been knitting (and crocheting) up a storm in the past few weeks and today's sunshine means I can finally photograph the output and upload the scarves to the etsy shop.

That's the lot of an international etsy seller I suppose, to be totally out of the loop in terms of seasons, holidays and special occasions. I mean, what does Thanksgiving mean to an Aussie.

So for now I'm channeling the spirit of my New Jersey Zajacek relatives and thinking about Fall. But don't worry, I'm still thinking about Spring too.

PS: I had a very woe-is-me post running through my head this past week, but out of concern for you my dear blog readers I thought I'd spare you the gory details!!

feeling tribal

the tribal trend is hot

It seems we were onto something when designing and launching our Tribal Range of screenprinted fabrics. Etsy has just released a Tribal inspired Gift Guide and included our Zanzibar design. 

I discovered the Tribal gift guide and our inclusion in it by accident late last night while trawling through Etsy – I was so excited I almost woke mr greenolive up to tell him. But I thought better of it.

As a designer I'd always been drawn to the primitive and graphic nature of tribal and African patterns. Their simplicity and repetition gave them great energy. I love them! It seems it took a little while for everyone else to catch on. 

Now Tribal is hot and receiving some Etsy love.

This is an Etsy Treasury I curated earlier this month – maybe it inspired the Etsy Admin team?

During August the Zanzibar design was featured in a members vote for their favourite fabric promotion. Read the blog post. Our design made the finals and now appears in an Etsy banner promoting the members vote feature. I saw it on the front page and nearly fell off my chair in excitement! 

Maybe now is the time we should take the leap into yardage? What colours would you like to see Zanzibar printed in? I'm thinking hot spicy Moroccan colours...

I need your vote!

etsy's fabric frenzy

The Zanzibar design from the Tribal Range printed in white on mud linen

Sometimes you wake up in the morning and have no idea what the day has in store for you. No idea of what happened overnight while you were asleep.

This morning we discovered that one of our fabrics (pictured above) made the cut for the Etsy Fabric Frenzy. Readers were asked to nominate items that make outstanding use of fabric or are exemplary swaths of fabrics. Exemplary swaths – yeah, that's us alright!

This nominated shortlist is now up on Etsy so you can vote for your absolute favourite. The winner will be featured on Etsy some time in the future. Wouldn't that be exciting!

So go vote now! Vote for Zanzibar. Tell all your crafty buddies to vote too. Spread the love. And if you don't have an etsy account, why not sign up now and then vote. 

Voting closes 12am, 11 August (USA time).

typophiles

is that a real word?

Well if it isn't it should be! It seems that lately our Urban Type fabric design has been the object of desire for several typophiles out there. And their particular focus has been the design printed in grey on white linen.

First it was featured in an etsy treasury (pic above) curated by Lucie from summersville, who was recently etsy's featured seller. Thanks Lucie for including me.

Then I got an email from Adele from modernemotive letting me know that the same design was featured in an etsy hunt on her blog a few days ago. This fabulous selection of greys from etsy sellers was inspired by an overcast day in Toronto. I just peaked at her etsy profile and discovered she is a graphic design too – that explains the good taste and great eye!!

Then, just this weekend, the same design was yet again featured in this treasury by Brenda from bstudio. Thanks Brenda.

Now I know we have grey skies down under at the moment, but don't the rest of you in the other half of the world have sunshine and blue skies?

Anyway, thanks for the love. It makes our day.

an etsy first

well, a first for us!

Screenshot of the promotional graphic for Tuesday's Storque article, featuring one of our new fabrics.

Can you imagine my our excitement when I we logged into Etsy on Wednesday to discover one of our fabrics on the homepage? (You can? I thought you might.)

And not just in any old spot on the homepage, but in a Storque article. All about patchwork. The author, katiearms, is an intern, and she had spied our new fabrics and decided to include them in the related items. I convo-ed her immediately to say thanks and tell her that if I lived in Brooklyn I would run right over and give her a big kiss! (I hope she didn't think I was odd. I'm not odd, just excited.)

Katie's post has inspired me to make some patchwork potholders out of the Tribal Range designs over the weekend. And maybe some coasters, placemats, table runners, teatowels...