A little jaunt

Autumn has finally made it to Perth, with much cooler nights and mild sunny days. Yippiee! This change in season always gives me more energy and I just want to get out into the country. This weekend, we finally got our act together and set off on a little jaunt to York.

York is the oldest inland town in Western Australia, just under 100km east of Perth. It has a lovely vintage feel due to a number of well-preserved old buildings. The town hall is one of the most photographed of these, and it's clear to see why. Apparently the clock face was only installed in the late eighties after a substantial restoration. Prior to this, the locals would frequently remark on the 'timelessness' of York.

We also checked out the courthouse as it was open to the public as part of the WA Heritage Festival. The Festival is still on for a few weeks so see what's on in your area. You may find entry fees waived on Sundays or special events going on.

This was a surprisingly moving experience - just looking through the cell block and the descriptive displays of how the prisoners were treated (many were local indigenous men or prisoners of war) was a reminder of how grim our local history is. Here's some graffiti left by the prisoners:

The cells were used up until the early '80s - yes, the 1980s! These buildings were made to last.

Later, we trekked down to the Old Mill, another finely restored building, to check out some local crafts and furniture.

While there, we were treated to yet another reminder of yesteryear. What a beast!

There seemed to be quite a few vintage vehicles being paraded about so perhaps it's a common custom for the locals to show off their treasures on the weekend. I'll go for that custom any day of the week!

 

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Owlish

I finally found the perfect combo: spots and owls. Erm, okay! To explain, I'm desperately whipping up a baby sleeping bag, only the second I've made in my life. This one is for my little sis who might have a new baby any day now, hence the freaking out, pallid brow and procrastination that I've been exhibiting for the last few weeks.


You see, it has to be perfect because my sis is a perfectionist (this is a good thing) when it comes to sewing at least as she's a professional upholsterer. This does make the anxiety levels slightly higher than usual...So I've been spending a lot of waking hours trying to work out the lining fabric to match this lovely flannelette which came from my mum's stash, which makes it even more special:

Anyway, to cut a long story short, Spotlight had the perfect spotty cotton which matched rather well with the turquoise owls. Mission accomplished!

However, when one has a cat as smoochy as mine, one cannot progress with a project:

Anyway, I finally plucked up the courage, cut into the fabrics and whipped up most of it in a day! Now I just have to bind the armholes and neckline and it's done, just in time, I hope.

Sculpey success

 

Like one of my other sisters, I can't walk past a bead shop without popping in to "have a look". I spent some of my early 20's obsessed with beading Navajo-style on a loom with rocailles or seed beads.

Just thinking about American Indian beading makes me want to have another go...pretty fashionable right now!

Anyway, I'm hijacking my own blog post. What I really planned to share was my adventures in Sculpey. This was another obsession of my 20's actually, only then I used a product called Fimo which you can still buy in some craft stores. Sculpey is more readily available for me now as I can buy a large range of colours from my local Spotlight store.

Lovely colours

Blue lagoon

 

I especially like to mix the metallics with base colours to create swirly, sheeny beads with an organic feel.

Green machine

 

What's great about this product is that it's so light. I can create quite long strands of beads and they won't weigh down your neck and give you a headache. Eventually I'll create a whole colour spectrum of these lovelies and you'll be able to purchase them from my Etsy shop.

Sheeny seaweed

 

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Purl Soho baby shoes

Check out these sweet little shoes!

I'd been meaning to try these out for a while. I made them in acrylic only because the colour I wanted wasn't available in wool.  The material usage is so minimal - you could get about 12 pairs out of a 50x90 cm piece of felt.  The best thing is that they are super fast.  It probably took me about 10 minutes from cutting to tying the final knot.

These will be a little pressie for our new little nephew Rhys.

You can find the instructions and template for these little beauties here.

Noromania

...and finally, the reveal. It's so much fun making gifts for the people you love, even more fun taking photos of the finished article. My lovely sister had a very special birthday recently and I thought she deserved some noro goodness. Add a sweet lace cowl pattern from Ravelry and I had a couple of perfect evenings knitting the luxurious yarn on bamboo circulars...mmm bliss.

I was quite surprised that it ended up looking so...well...hippie but my sis assures me that as she was born in the 70's, she's a hippie from wayback anyway.

Going Postal

I'm very partial to postage ephemera and I've started quite a collection for my paper-craft.  Imagine then, how excited I was to find some 'just arrived' decorator weight postage fabric at my local Spotlight.

I diss Spotlight most of the time in favour of Potter Textiles as they have up-to-the-minute stuff that local designers are using whereas Spotlight rarely has anything that I'm particularly looking for.  And I'm always looking for something in particular!  But...this time Spotlight came through with some good buys!

So, back to the postal fabric.  I immediately thought a bit of striped flat piping would go well and luckily had exactly the right colour.  I whipped some up and made a quick and easy zipped cushion.  I hope to sell this one and others like it for about 30-40AUD at some local markets

Pride of place on my radio chair

I'm not a piping superhero either but didn't do too badly with this project.  Practice makes perfect!

Air Mail all the way

The business plan for when you're not interested

Ok so I have lots of bright ideas but they very rarely happen due to my lack of planning.  It's just...all the businessy stuff bores me and makes me demotivated.  This time, because I REALLY want to be successful, I did some research and found support:

Thank you Amazon!  I WILL look inside

It arrived sooner than I thought on Tuesday so I spent most of my free time this week, dipping into the book and gaining some insights about How To Start.  It turns out that the best way to start is to make a nice collage and do some meditation.  That's the plan for this weekend!

Of course I never buy just one book from Amazon - I have to justify the postage or at least that's my excuse.  This one I am thrilled by and can't wait to rip out the stencils (included) and start printing some fabric:

I'm especially interested in this project...I'll try some old cotton pillowcases first.

Lastly, to indulge my new-found papercraft habit, I found this incredible book at Paperbark in Albany (I have to say, this is one of the best bookshops for crafters like me and I always find something new and interesting whenever I visit):

I love how the templates are printed on the inside of the dustcover:

And some amazing but easy projects in here as well:

The look and feel of this book is just spot on, so pretty/grungy and inspiring.

So I have a lot to do, including all the neglected gardening, resuscitating crispy lawns and mulching this weekend but I'll report back on progress!