design

Family frolics

| poppypeach

Back with my family in Redcliffe on Sunday as we took the train from the Sunshine Coast to the new train station at Kippa-Ring, it was very exciting and so picturesque with the pineapple fields and sugar cane. Very different from the slow Caltrain back in the valley. I have been eating a lot of fish and chips and my good food diet has gone out the window but hey I only visit here once a year and this food is so good!! The walk to the beach from the Air Bnb is only 15 minutes through the back streets leading to a beautiful boardwalk along the entire beachfront.

What I enjoy is visiting with my family when I am here – here is my aunty outside her place with us and the kids with their great aunt. Every time I go to my aunty’s place I check out her collection of retro housewares and she is happy to give them away, this time the glitter seahorse caught my eye!

The kids have been wanting to go for a swim at the lagoon by the beach so why not on a beautiful Queensland sunny winters day we took them out and enjoyed more chips and a delicious fava bean burger from the Suttons Beach Pavillion.  The playground was a lot of fun with a giant pink cage and the gran and grandad enjoyed spending time outdoors with the kids where they could see them in their element.

The weekend was a lot of fun starting with a big night Friday of big Australian wines, a Shiraz or two and a delicious dinner at home with the kids. Saturday we met some friends at a local handmade market and came back for a cuppa and biscuits at our Air BnB. The market was super cool with some wonderful local designers that I loved especially a woodworker who made these stools that fold and can sit together they were so functional and beautiful in design. I am on the lookout for furniture for our house in Melbourne but I will not know what we need until we build, my hubby and I are starting a Pinterest board of ideas for when the time comes. Oh and the added bonus of this market was the food trucks and they were both vegan, so I had a vegan sausage roll which was delicious – oh the food memories I am making on this trip. My sister’s man made a beautiful farewell lunch of potato rosti with poached egg and smoked salmon, sour cream and dill that I truly enjoyed! Until next time my friends.

And to wrap up our weekend we celebrated Christmas in July with the family which was so much fun and of course, I did not eat the roast but scored the grilled barramundi, chips and salad – oh those chips again! At least I know when I go back to California I will not be eating them as I do not like fries. I drank a couple of glasses of NZ Sauvignon Blanc and felt very happy but it was a sad afternoon as I said farewell to my sister, nephew and her cat Millie, until we meet again we love you all!

 

NaBloPoMo – Day 6 – A day all over the shop…

| poppypeach
Today just started off just fine with the usual drop off and exercise class. This is usually my day of working a nice shift of 6 hours of solid work but due to the madness that is out of my control with the car bizzo that got in the way as well as an appointment at my eye doctor. I spent a good couple of hours there working out that I need a new prescription on my left eye, which means new lenses! Yay it is usually a lot of fun but when my eyes are dilated it is very hard to see anything so the guy who worked at my optometrist offered to take photos of me in these fancy glasses. It was a bit of fun to try them on and it seems that I really like the style that I am currently wearing so I am gravitating towards the same. He found these funky red frames though I don’t know if I could live with them every day. The other colour I was attracted to was ultra violet – who knows what will be the final choice??

Red frames – maybe something different for the future?? 

The rest of the day was spent trying to get some work done I managed to make a couple of scarves though not finishing them. My main focus was making a farewell gift for our school librarian which I completed – whew! She leaves us on Friday and we will really miss her at our school. Other time sucks at the  moment is that I am trying to see if I can upgrade my house to be more energy efficient – mmm you really need to factor in time do any house stuff but I am sure it will be worth it in the end, this house is so cold in the winter! At least when I was at the optometrist I was inspired to paint my stairs like this… Oh that font looks interesting!

May one day I will paint my stairs – oh I have to find some time first! 

The culmination of creativity happens this weekend at the Textile Art Boutique

| poppypeach
Time is closing in and it is my last week to prepare for the show this Sunday October 27th. I have been working like a busy little bee since the kids went back to school in August. The last couple of months has been intense and very challenging with crazy things happening like a power black out (therefore time dedicated to sew could not happen and I lost hours), my iron giving up the ghost (all fine till I could head on over to Target and grab another one) and a whole week of minimum days for the kids. Even with these time sucks I have managed to create an inventory of over 35 items (13 of which are small hair clips / lapel pins). So here are some highlights of my collection – more can be seen here.

I have loved the organic unfolding of the creations and just working randomly with the fabric. Knowing how many pieces of each item I wanted to create and letting the fabric and colours come together. It has been an incredible experience to be working with colour and experimenting happily. So here goes the following pics are some of my faves!

The colours in the bag are so vibrant – I would be a happy market shopper with this tote

This is a linen fabric by Jim Thomson and it is just beautiful 

The fabric on this reminds me of pixels and the pocket is a cool contrast to the colours

What a sweet little handkerchief embroidered onto a pillow

I used to do a lot of patchwork and my husband said do more so I came up with this with these incredible fabrics

More of the patchwork in a linen fabric

The handbag I have been road testing – oh my I love this fabric so much, it is vintage from the 1930s

This fabric was from a 1970s skirt and now it is a super cute hat – perfect for the beach! 
I love these and they are going to be hair clips or lapel pins as there’s an alligator clip on the back

It is time for a holiday sale!

| poppypeach
a new apron for holiday cooking?

It’s that time of the year again – shopping for gifts for your family and friends. From now until the 30th November (a 10 day sale) I will be offering 20% off everything in the store. Yay so click on nerdwallet link on this page or my etsy page and enter this code HOLIDAZE2012.

The Domestic Goddess

| poppypeach
After much deliberating about what to name the collection of pieces for the FabMo Textile Art Boutique I realised that Domestic Goddess summed up what my collection was all about.

With the inspiration of hanging out in my kitchen most of the time – initially aprons came to mind. Not too long everything else came together with mamas being crafty there is a vintage style pincushion and we all like to relax on the couch with cool cushions so I made some of those too. I have also some market bags for shopping at the Farmers Market and smaller Totes for all those goodies when you BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag – not Booze!) out and about. Oh and of course how can I forget looking good with some silk brooches to wear on your jackets and tees.

It is very exciting to have a cohesive collection finally coming together – there are a few more things to make and then it is time to prep for the booth, yikes! Lucky I have bought a mannequin called ‘lady’ from craigslist this week to help out with the photography and the booth for the day. Well I will be by myself but it will be great to have a mannequin wearing the apron instead of draping it over a table. Without further ado here she is, apron and all…

‘Lady’ wearing an apron from the collection

And yes I have been playing around with filters – I suppose I can’t help it as I am taking pics with my phone! There will be a real photo shoot happening soon so I’ll post them when I have the shots all done. What a terrific process it is with only one month to go today!

Sewing away…

| poppypeach
Since the kiddos went back to school I have been hard at work creating my range of goodies for the FabMo Textile Art Boutique on the 27th October! Anyhow for those of you that are not familiar with all the goodness FabMo do for the community here is the lowdown… FabMo (a non-profit) collect interior design fabric samples and other bits and pieces to distribute to the public once a month to purchase by the bagful! You are only limited to your imagination as to what you can make.

Talk about getting organised… Here are some pics of my Domestic Goddess range that includes aprons, cushions, pincushions, totes and bags – whew! There has been a lot of cutting and sewing going on in my little craft room.

A work in progress – this may have been a curtain in a previous life!

Here are a few of the bags and totes that I have made from cotton/linen samples and even a sample from Missoni, super special indeed.

The finished tote bag lined with cotton

A tote bag made from a stiff exterior fabric embellished with a pocket

A linen/cotton tote with Missoni fabric pocket detail

These bags are amazing – I could only make a couple as the raw silk was the size of a curtain length and these bags are quite large, perfect for the market.

Superstar raw silk bag with a gorgeous patterned pocket

Side projects

| poppypeach
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish! 

A friend recently loaned me her sewing machine to play with for a while and I rediscovered my love for instant gratification sewing projects. Unlike knitting which takes a lot of time, sewing is a craft I have been doing on and off for a long time so is easy for me to work on! Coming this spring (right nowish) is the launch of my home wares collection using up cycled fabrics from interior designer samples. Still working along in my free time so it is a process… The inspiration for home decor came with the desire to decorate my couch with cushions – so here is one and there will be more!