greenolive

big and blurry

that was my week!

A fabulous big and bold print I got at Spotlight on Sunday. If you're thinking this doesn't look like the greenolive I know, you'd be right. It looks more Aunty Shabby than greenolive. But I do have a soft spot for fabulous design. So I might just look at it rather than wear it.

The week that was. Big. Blurry. Big because of several milestones. Blurry cause it went so fast!

Monday started with a flickr mail from Pip from Meet me at Mikes. You've probably all met her, I'm sure I'm the only crafty type left in Melbourne who hasn't! Anyway, she emailed to say she loved to meet me, she wanted to stock some greenolive goodies and I should pop in and see her. How excitement! My first shop. And what a fabulous shop to be my first. You always remember your first, don't you?

Tuesday was a BIG day. It was Mr and Mrs greenolive's seventh wedding anniversary.

And it started with an early morning email from Alice alerting me to the Etsy Treasury I was in, and that happened to be on the Etsy homepage when I logged in. Omigod! Even more excitement. But, despite all your best wishes, no sales.

And it was the last day of my three-month probation period at Monash University. In case you're wondering, they want to keep me and I'd like to stay.

The rest of the week passed in such a blur. I swear the days/weeks go by faster as you get older. I'm sure they weren't as blurry as this when I was only 39!

Its now Friday night and I've only just started to photograph the stash shopping from last weekend. And I've got at least a week's worth of bloglines and flickr photos to read/look at/comment on. I promise I'll catch up!

The weekend looks like it will be as blurry as the week before. There's a shopping expedition with Aunty Shabby, the trip to Mikes, the usual house chores, a spot of pile-reducing, and bit of leisurely knitting and crocheting (shawl/wrap for someone special and baby blanket) if I'm lucky.

Oh, I must remember to fit in some Mr greenolive time too!

omigod!

I'm on the front page of Etsy!

Or at least I was! How excitement!

I woke up this morning to find an email from the lovely Alice telling me I was in an Etsy Treasury.

Luckily it was still early, 5.45am to be precise, and I quickly logged on to find I was on the homepage. And I even remembered how to do the mac shortcut for a screen shot, took one, cropped in it Photoshop and then hurridly wrote this blog post. All by 6.10am.

Estasketch put the Treasury together so I owe her big time. Checking out her profile I discover she's a fellow Aussie, living in Sydney. Clearly a woman with exceptional taste!

The exposure has already its increased my "hearts" by 10! And who knows, by the end of the day I might have sold out of everything in my Etsy shop!

Green Chair Press

another of my favourite things

Seeing you guys liked the work from Satsuma Press so much, I thought I'd introduce you to another letterpress designer/printer...

Wooden type, letter press and the word green in the name, how can I resist the work by Green Chair Press?

Susan prints the most beautiful type collages on her own press. Since falling in love with them I have bought two, they feature my favourite numbers: 5, 2 and letters: z, y, w. Judging by the collages, Susan must have a fabulous collection of wooden type blocks. I wish I lived closer and could pop round for a play with her type blocks and press!

And, just in time for Christmas she's printed a 2008 desk calendar. Each month features a graphic pattern and a poem. Talk about appealing to both sides of the brain! I've bought one as a present to myself and it will sit on my desk at work. Each time I look at it I'm sure I will smile.

If you like what you see (and who wouldn't?), check out her Etsy store.

And if you ever need to get a present for me, another one of the type collages would do just fine! (Aunty Shabby, can you drop some hints for me with you know who.)

a tale of The Wrap that Grew

ooops, a slight miscalculation!

In the spirit of sharing the good, the bad and the ugly, I'm gonna tell you the story of The Wrap That Grew. (Rena, if you are reading, insert chuckle now!)

Contrary to popular opinion I am not perfect (only 97.5% perfect) and occasionally I do make mistakes (about 1 in a million).

This wrap started out life as several balls of furry silk yarn from Lincraft. With 90% silk how could I resist them? In a variegated pink/warm brown, a generous meterage and a lovely drape, I knew they would an excellent addition to my stash.

Then, the perfect project presented itself and out they came. I started my usual pre-commencement routine: what stitch, what pattern, what needles, what technique? This can take me ages. And I often change my mind. Eventually I settled on garter, none, circular, knitting. No surprises there.

I cast lots of stitches (hundreds) and started knitting. And knitting. And knitting. I soon discovered the yarn had lots of joins in it. (It is too much to ask for some quality control at the mill/factory/ yarn-making place?) And, the furry-ness of the yarn meant you didn't disover the join until you had almost knitted it in. Bugger, lots of weaving in ends later and that's my least favourite bit. Who likes weaving in ends?

Finally, last Thursday night I finished! Ta da! Now I had time to weave in ends and wrap and post on Saturday. This wrap was destined for someone special in America.

But my elation at finishing was short lived. As I cast off the circular needles the true length of the wrap was revealed. (That's the only downside of knitting stuff lenghtways on circular needles. You really can't determine its length as it's all bunched up on the needles.) As I was knitting I think I had an inkling about this cause each row seemed to take an eternity. But I'd perservered. However it soon be came apparent that the wrap was way too long. Over 3 metres or 120 inches to be precise. It's intended recipient would have to be 8 feet tall to wear it. Or wrap herself in it like an Egyptian mummy.

The upside is that this exercise confirmed that the yarn does have lovely drape. It's very light. And lovely and warm. So, back to the drawing board...

I hope that each time she wears the (new) wrap or when I think of her wearing it, we'll both chuckle and think of The Wrap that Grew! And Grew.

Satsuma Press

one of my favourite things

Great design, exquisite paper and beautiful printing – what more could a girl want?

Well, if you haven't trained as a graphic designer you might not get quite so excited, but anyone can appreciate the craftsmanship of the work produced by Lynn Russell of Satsuma Press.

The photo above is of one of her many card designs. Classic, simple and beautiful. My kind of design. I've bought four sets so far. And there are several more I've got my eye on! I managed to part with a few, sending them with a short note to special people in my life. And they too appreciated the quality of the cards.

Lynn has also produced some fantastic 2008 Calendars. Designers love calendars because they offer a great opportunity to showcase their different design and illustrations. So, it was no surprise that as soon as Lynn released her limited edition calendars I snapped up three right away!

I'm keeping one for me and two are gifts. I like the idea that the recipient will look at it every day and also think of me and how much I love them. (That's the theory anyway!)

Each month features a lovely nature-inspired illustration and a simple block of dates.

I've just shown you three of my favourites.

If you like what you see check out her blog and more importantly, her Etsy site. The prices are very reasonable and the postage is fast. And the work is fantastic. How can you resist?

shades of blue

After the Softie episode I returned to the familiarity of scarves. (Note to self: explain scarf obsession in a blog post one day.)

This time silk in shades of blue. The silk part you understand. The blue? Well, after green, blue is one of my favourite colours. But it must be the smudgy, dull and dirty blues that verge on grey.

And if you think this is looking a bit like something else, it is. I'm reinterpretating the Pieced Fabric Scarves in silk. The fabulous silk I scored at Darn Cheap Fabrics. The silk that started out life destined to become Ties. That's why it was so narrow. So instead of Men getting to enjoy this silk, now Ladies can.

Watch out for this comimg to an Etsy store near you. That's if I can bear to part with it. Or, maybe you should make me an offer I can't refuse!

Blueprint & Selvedge

hot off the press

You already know I have a bit of a magazine obsession, so it should come as no surprise that I'm devoting a blog post to two new issues.

Blueprint #7 has a feature on Amy Butler of all people. Now, I've never really got into the Amy Butler craze, I find her fabrics a bit too loud and busy for me. But, I do like her taste in architecture!

Her stone chimney is to die for. And she has some nice green cushions on her couch (sofa, lounge). And, did you know her hubby is a graphic designer?

One week after Selvedge 19 arrived, I discovered Selvedge 20 waiting for me in my mailbox. Yipee! Selvedge now costs me approx A$16 per issue and that includes the postage from the UK. That's almost half the price I paid for back issues in a magazine specialist shop a few months ago. It really does pay to subscribe.

This issue features Scandinavian textile design and includes lots of full-colour images of various designs. Great inspiration! One magazine I'm definitely going to keep.

well, I tried

I really did!

Two posts in one day. Wow! Well, its because I want to put the Softies behind me. Close the door on the whole experience. Cause it didn't turn out quite as I'd expected...

Read this post, and you'll understand why I tried my hand at Softie making.

This was my first attempt, in a rich brown cord without lines in it. And nice buttons. But now I come to think of it, I probably shouldn't have used buttons. Something about kide-safe...but I stitched them on really well. And I learnt the hard way that the hand-stitched opening should not be on the curve of his head either.

I love the star on his tummy though!

Softie #2 is so ugly, I'm only going to show you its eye. And I had such high hopes for this fabric!

An artistic shot of Softie #3. She is made of off-white cord with a very fine stripe. With a patchwork heart on her tummy.

Well, a bunch of ugly Softies. But loveable? I'm not too sure about that. At least I tried.

a bunch of softies

that's all we are!

Now I know this doesn't look much like a Softie, but this is the BEFORE shot, ok. And, cause I'm soooo talented, it will soon become an AFTER shot of a fabulous Softie.

In case you've been living under a rock, or been sick in bed, or have had your internet connection removed because you've been surfing and blogging too much, I thought tell you about a fabulous charity campaign that is underway in Melbourne. Well, truth be told, its almost finished and I'm way late in getting started!

Pip has whipped us crafty types into a Softies for Mirabela frenzy. See Pip's post for more info. The original post is here. And, if you need some inspiration, check out what others have made so far on the flickr group page.

Now, those of you who are regulars wouldn't be wrong in wondering what Softies and greenolive have in common. Very little actually. But its for a good cause and I feel I should do my bit.

Fingers crossed, by the end of this afternoon I should have a quirky, appropriately ugly-but-loveable Softie finished and ready to be posted to Pip. And, if I don't, well, it's the thought that counts doesn't it?

me and my mum

I've been thinking a lot about my mum lately.

She hasn't been well the last few weeks and I've been trying to keep in touch and give support at a distance. She's in Brisbane and I'm in Melbourne. (For you non-Aussies, that's a long way away!)

She's waiting for test results, and I'm sure its something can be "fixed" – you know what I mean, medicine or resting and letting nature take its course. But she just feels so sick of being sick. This latest thing following on from the breast surgery and the radiation treatment.

So I've been thinking of her a lot. And wanted to share some photos. I don't have that many of us together.

This is us cleaning a bed-head on the laundry floor of our first house. I remember this bed, so I think we must have been cleaning it so I could then sleep in it. Do I look like the right age to be moving into my own bed? As for the vintage, I was born mid-1967, so perhaps this is late 1969 or even early 1970. Note the blond curls!

I just love the second shot, Dad must have said something to get my attention. A moment frozen in time.