Kickin' butt in 2013.

I've been keeping myself busy of late with little bits here and there for Finki ..

Making gloves,

Skirts,

 

more skirts,

experimenting with punch cards,

and some machine knitting.

Mum has been gung ho on the machines too, making some awesome new styles.

Amidst my time making Finki stock I've packed up my studio at Olive Grove and brought it all home. Little man was my awesome helper getting all packed into the car. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to the studio, but I could never manage the time to get over there anymore, so really it just became storage.
It sort of had me split in two as far as productivity goes as half my supplies were there and half at home.
So I actually look forward to a concentrated effort in making stock now that I'll be saving time travelling and saving money on studio space too.
So it's sad to have left, but I'm excited for the future too.

In other parts of life I'm going great guns with my health and well being. I'm eating really well and have maintained gym going for 5 months now. My longest stint yet. A big part of me has accepted that the way I'm living now is not a fad to get fit but rather a life long change for the better.

I totally struggled for the first 3 months. Having to force myself to overcome tiredness or a sense of needing to be working or cleaning the house instead of going to gym. But I pushed through and when I hit a wall and almost gave up, instead of walking away I reached out and asked the gym for help.
They were so reassuring.
We did a new program, assessed my nutrition and I took the plunge and started group fitness classes.

Yes I was the sweaty fat chic at the back with the beetroot red face. But I soon realized that everyone had there own struggles and reasons for being there. Everyone was a sweaty beetroot focused on improving there own health.
So I pushed through those first few awkward sessions, made a bunch of new friends and actually look forward to going to gym. Woohoo.

I've lost 12kg to date and finally have started to feel my energy levels come back to normal. Thank god for that.

All I need to do now is spend less time on FB, Pinterest and Instagram and start being a whole lot more productive in the field I love.
The arts and crafts.
Hope your all well and kicking but in 2013.
Jay xx

Craft with Heart.

It's been far too long since I've done a market and mingled with my crafty peeps, so when I saw this flyer on FB recently I decided it would be a perfect foray back into the market scene.

I love that it's all about raising money for the church building project, as a lot of the people in the local community use the church for there clubs and meetings. So your gold coin donation is going to a good cause and who doesn't love some home made cake and a white elephant stall.

There is more info: here

It's on tomorrow 10-3, so if you're up for a drive on the first day of school holidays, bring the kids down and explore Williamstown.
Jay xx

Makin' cakes

Recently the house turned into a party venue for miss turning 13.
Officially a teenager now and no longer the much hated title of being a tween.

She had chosen a steampunk theme asking friends to dress smart casual with a steampunk twist. So there were aviator goggles, mini top hats, pocket watches and vests galore.

I decided to make a bronze cake with cogs and a pocket watch on it and of course headed into it with no cake decorating experience what so ever. I knew enough to know that I wouldn't get the look I wanted with frosting so googled a bit and learnt I needed something called sugar paste. A friend recommended I visit 'Cake Deco' in Port Phillip arcade in the city and my visit proved to be very fruitful.

Cake Deco for cake people is like Gj's patchwork section for patch people. Positively jam packed with cookie cutters, shape makers, boards, impression plates, piping, gels, colors, lustre's....the works.
The guy behind the counter was so helpful in showing me everything I needed to achieve my look.

So I headed home with my edible lustre, sugar paste and shape cutters, set for a cake making adventure.

Some of the cogs were made using a flower shape cutter and others just formed out of using the right size lids and glasses to get the size circles I wanted. I used Bronze, silver and gold edible lustre which is just dusted over the sugar paste shapes to get the color. Little screws were made using balls of paste flatted and pressing a knife on top to create the look of a screw top.
My pocket watch was a cake base covered in gold paste, with a circle of white on top, then ... can you believe it, edible texta to write the numbers on. The 13 was just cut out with a knife and miss Kizz made a little steam punk mouse to sit beside the cake.

Whilst it was fun to create in a totally new medium, it did take a while and was very messy,

or maybe it was just me being very messy...
I sorta thought using the paste would be like using clay, but nah. It was quite fragile and didn't really like being too thin, too thick or bent to much. So a bit of a learning curve.

But alls well, that ends well.

Apart from that I'd whipped up some name cards,

 filled balloons with helium and glitter,

 and collected fun metal bits and bobs from the local oppie to create a steampunkish table center to cover with tea lights.

A fun night was had by all and what can I say, you only turn 13 once. 
Jay x

School Fete ...

Oh I do love this time of year for school fete's, they are everywhere.
Such an easy way to entertain the kids for a day at a place walking distance from home.

This will be my first year helping out at the new school, so I have put my hand up for the craft table.
Stick with what you know hey!

If you are in the neighbourhood, pop by and say hello.
Jay x

A piece of cloth ...

Lovely Liz of Gleaners, was nice enough to invite me to take part in her current exhibition 'A Piece of Cloth'
I had to be secret squirrel about my creation till the exhibition had begun, but we are in full swing now so I can show you what I made.

The fabric we all received was of the retro brown orange and green variety which didn't appeal to me at all color wise. So I started planning black and white designs. Just outlines and petals, as I did love the flower shapes.

But somewhere along the line the colors and I made some peace and I was able to put something together that was an item I would love enough to want to wear it my self.

The exhibition runs all through March so if you haven't been over to see all the great pieces on show yet, there is still plenty of time.

Jay xx

Flying kites ...

This weekend a lovely little kite festival was happening down the road at Edwardes Lake.

The wind factor was spot on for kite flying, and the weather was 30 something...
which seems to be a theme of late.

 Once upon a time Melbourne Summers used to have  heat waves for 4 or 5 days peaking at 40 something then have huge thunder storms to wash it all away. Instead this year, we are having really long stretches of 30 plus everyday.  Almost how one would imagine a normal summer to be. Go figure

But weather aside, we made our way to the park for some kite flying and some rather sticky gelati.

The rest of the festival was stall after stall of community organizations, Councillors and such with info booths.
Good on them for getting out there and spreading the word, but you know me...I wanted some crafty stalls, gourmet foods and homegrown grub. Oh well maybe next year.

 

Alas my needs were met the very next day,
when we had to set up our marquee and be a part of the Sydney Rd street party.

It was huge. Positively thousands of people, 30 + again, no wind, awesome bands,
lots of good food and a great mix of community and craft stalls.

An awesome day out, hopefully introducing a whole new crowd of people to Olive Grove and what turned out to be one busy weekend.

Hope you all had a good one too.
Jay x

Health and Happiness ...

Hooray for 2013, so far it's turning out to be a winner. I've decided my focus this year is health and happiness...isn't it one's focus every year, one might wonder. But I guess a lot of the time I hope it's a side effect of my focus on home, family, work etc ...

But I have learnt that, you know what! It doesn't just happen as a quirk of fate.
It takes time to be made for it and focus to be placed upon it.

So in a nut shell, this is where I am at presently. Eating nutritionally, growing veggies, walking to school with Finny daily, back at gym to rebuild some long lost muscle, back at yoga to try and bring some mind and body alignment into play, enjoying the mans new roster of weekends off for the first time in years and most recently, I've cut down my commitments at work and changed the way I fit in at Olive Grove.

Its all very new and all a work in progress, but for once I feel in charge of my life and the direction its heading.

Creatively I have been on hiatus. Sort of de-cluttering, clearing out everything at the shop and making space in my head and home for new ventures. Can't say I'm 100% on what they are just yet, I just know I needed to get back to basics and start again for it all to come out just the way I want it to.

So I'll make sure to keep you posted on my progress.

Big thank you to Sister Outlaws and their thought provoking post on why we blog. It reminded me that I enjoy sharing what I do and make with you all.
For a while I felt that all I was doing was bragging or boasting about me, my business and I, which didn't sit well as I'm just not that sort of person.
So getting a reminder that creativity is a process, something we share for gaining clarity in it's explanation or something we share for sharing sake, hoping that someone in our crafty community might be inspired, intrigued or interested in it, is a lovely reminder of all the right reasons to keep up with le' old blog.

Also I gotta keep mum up to date with my life as we are a few states away from each other. Hi Mum.

So from me, I'm doing o.k and I Hope you are all doing well too,
Jay xx