Category: General

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Market last Saturday was great! I always love going to markets, poking around the stalls, and this time as a seller I managed to sell some of my tote bags. Happy, happy! It was great to be able to see in person the reaction from people as they see the bag, and what a thrilling experience it was to see people love the bags enough to buy them! 🙂

Here’s a picture that I took, with Corrie there tidying things up.

market stall

Belinda and Jade did a great job setting up our stall. In the picture there you can see Belinda’s cushions, Corrie’s Japanese fabrics, Jade’s smocks and pram blankies (a bit out of the picture there, sorry), and my bear softies and tote bags. We also had some bloggers visit us, hi ladies! 🙂

You can see more pictures and market reports from these three ladies who were there with me at the stall. All of us did pretty well at the market, and there’s sure to be more markets in our future. Look out for Belinda, Corrie and Jade at Kirribilli’s Art and Design Market in a few weeks time. I’m going to sit this one out and take a breather, and perhaps join them again later down the track.

Next up, some knitting.

Eye Candy

Yesterday I shipped Annette off to a friend who kindly looked after her for the morning so that I could spend some child-free time at the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair. It was so good! I was like a child in a candy store, with so much crafty goodness all around. I’ve never been to a craft show before. I’ve read other bloggers who wrote about going to this and that sheep & wool show, or something or another quilt show, etc, and finally I get a taste of Sydney’s craft show.

For me it was a great opportunity to see and feel in person the yarns and fabrics that I would not get a chance to otherwise. Things that I’ve only seen in online stores but not knowing how the colours actually look or how the yarns actually feel. The yarns that I ended up buying could easily be bought online, but I probably wouldn’t have picked these particular yarns or colours if I were just looking at them online. Plus it was great to support the Australian businesses and meet the lovely people at the booths.

So here’s what I got:

Colinette Jitterbug

Colinette Jitterbug, from Sarah Durrant booth. Velvet plum (left) and Mist (right) colourways.

Kaalund Yarns

From Kaalund Yarns booth, one ball of Classic Two laceweight yarn in ‘Pacifica’ colourway down the front (bigger pic here), and two bags of mill ends. The mill ends bags contain little balls of laceweights, boucles, and thick ‘n thin yarns in various colours. I just love the vibrant colours.

Bendigo yarns

And finally we have 3 balls of Rustic 8-ply yarns from Bendigo Woollen Mills booth, in the ‘Carnival’ colourway (close up here). Each ball is 200 grams, they’re huge! I’m hoping these three balls will be enough for a jumper or cardigan for me.

Oh, and I also got some fabrics from Patchwork At Central Park booth.

New fabrics

The night before I went, I had looked up the exhibitors listing and noted their locations so that I could look them up. But even so I didn’t get to visit all of them before I had to go home. Probably a good thing, otherwise I could’ve spent way too much money! If you’re in Sydney, the craft fair is still on until Sunday at Darling Harbour.

Tagged and tagged

Tagged #1

First, Sarah tagged me for the five favourite blogs meme a while ago. This is so hard! Which is why it’s taking me so long.

  • mollychicken — Lyn’s softies are simply to die for and they come very well equipped! And her japanese craft books collection leaves me weak in the knees.
  • yarnstorm — I really enjoy Jane’s writing on just about anything. And her gorgeous photos and creations don’t hurt either 🙂
  • tutti fruiti — I love the stuff that Belinda makes, she’s very creative with the fabrics. Also she’s very good at finding good links, whether links to shops for me to buy stuff, or links to fellow crafters 🙂
  • grumperina — Kathy’s knits are very inspiring, and I like her nothing’s-too-hard-to-tacke kind of attitude that makes me want to stretch myself further and further.
  • whip up and craftzine — Yeah, that’s two, but I guess they’re a bit similar in a way. I love these two blogs because they have an abundance tutorials, book reviews, links to crafters, and other crafty resources.

Okay that’s five already, but I just have to give a special mention to Loobylu. Claire doesn’t blog anymore, but it was her blog that got me interested in knitting in the first place and then sewing, and introduced me to the world of crafting blogs. I started reading her blog when I was pregnant, with no interest in crafts whatsoever. Then she mentioned knitting one day, and linked to the Stitch ‘n Bitch book. I was intrigued, and the rest is history.

Now I’m supposed to tag people, so I tag Belinda, Corrie, Jade, Michelle, Meg, and Donna, if you would like to play along.

Tagged #2

I’ve also been tagged by Jade and Belinda for the random things meme. The rules are:

1. Start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself
2. People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog
3. Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names

Ok here goes:

  1. I like to have coffee in the mornings, and tea in the afternoons. And I don’t mind whether my coffee/tea is instant or brewed.
  2. I like a lot of milk with my coffees. A friend likes to joke that I have “a bit of coffee with my milk”.
  3. So far I have met only one other person named Claudine. I was in the hospital after giving birth, still dazed from the painkillers after a C-section, and a midwife came in and said, “Hi I’m Claudine”. I thought that she must have said “Are you Claudine”, so I replied, “Yes I am”. And then she looked at my chart and said, “Oh you’re Claudine too!”.
  4. I actually like airplane food and hospital food. I guess I’m just happy when someone else is doing the cooking for me 🙂
  5. I have a morbid fear of caterpillars and worms. Even just looking at pictures of them would fill me with fright. In junior high school once I shrieked loudly when turning my biology textbook to the page on worms, to the alarm of my classmates. I have no fear of spiders or most other insects, though.
  6. Before motherhood, I used to work as a computer programmer, where my biggest pet peeve was manual repetition. If there was a task that required me to repeat it over and over again, I would try to write a little program that can automate it. The irony is not lost on me that now I like nothing better than making stitches after stitches repeatedly. I still wish, though, that house cleaning could be computerised.
  7. I have been on the cover of a magazine. Oh yeah! I wish I could say that I have the looks of a supermodel (those who have seen me in person must be giggling right now), but no. I was three or four years old at the time, and our family was holidaying together with Dad’s close friend and his family. My dad’s friend, a professional photographer, took a really nice photo of me and submitted it to a photography magazine, and it was printed as the front cover! My parents still keep a copy of that magazine in their home. So now you know that Annette inherited her cuteness from her mother! Hahaha! Yeah right.

Okay now it’s your turn. I’m probably just about the last blogger to do this, but if you haven’t done it and would like to, please join in!

It’s good to be three

Look who's three!

(Magazine cover generated via fd’s Flickr Toys.)

Annette turned three last Sunday. I had grand plans to bake and decorate the birthday cake myself, but I chickened out and bought one instead. I felt bad, but at least the cake was yummy and the birthday girl was very happy.

Cake!

Three

Goodies

Last Friday Belinda, Corrie, and I had a little get-together. We talked about knitting, fabrics, and blogs — topics dear to my heart. Corrie gifted me a lovely Hello Kitty fabric, and Belinda gave me this adorable pouch that she made.

Tutti Fruiti Pouch

How cute is that! She said this pouch is one of her “seconds” as it is a bit “flawed”. I don’t know what she’s talking about, as this is gorgeous. I looove the fabric (close-ups here and here), I have been admiring this fabric ever since I saw it at Superbuzzy. It’s very well made too. If this is the quality of her “seconds”, imagine how good the pouches that she puts in her shop. Go there and check her out, she will be adding more pouches in the next few weeks.

This is one roomy pouch. It can fit two skeins of sock yarn comfortably, and even my Here And There Cables scarf in progress (almost done, just one more ball to go), complete with the 30cm long straight needles that I’m knitting it with.

Here And There Cables scarf in progress

Thank you very much for the pouch, Belinda! I love it. Even just looking at it makes me happy 🙂