Make-a-Long with Felt! I made Baby Bunting!

You can join in if you would like! There is a prize... and you can find out more over here.
You could make felt bunting, felt bags, felt purses, felt brooches, felt toys... felt anything!
Get Felty in February and Make-a-Long with Mike's! It will be F.U.N.!!

xx Pip

Just Crafting, You Know?!

COLLAGIN', originally uploaded by tonto--kidd.

We Salute You...

I give you Frosty Fruits and Icy Poles! Round of applause people! Hurrah!

Okay... I just want to say that, from all accounts you guys made a huge difference during Melbourne's 3 day 40plus c heatwave... You've touched a lot of people with your performance, truly you have. Thanks for the sugariness, fruitiness and crunchiness... and the drippiness too!
It was all so helpful and RIGHT on the money, it really was.

But gee, I didn't know Peter's was owned by Nestle. Sheesh. Is nothing sacred? Anyone got a good Frosty Fruit recipe?!

xx (cooler) Pip



----------------
Listening to: Erlend Øye - Prego Amore
via FoxyTunes

Things I Want To Do This Year. A List.

you should go to this

• Get my eyes tested and get some freaking glasses
• More embroidery (reliant on above point!)
• Start writing for a couple of magazines
• Get a more practical car - or a volkswagen - or a combination of both
  
• Write another book
• Keep learning to draw
• More printing with le Gocco!
• Get a filing cabinet. Papers don't go in BOXES, Pip.
  
• Get my house in order and DECLUTTER (eep. help.)
• Make Brown Owls the super-funnest with my owly helpers
  
• Write more stuff over at Craft City
• More family time and a holiday at a shack
  

Okay. That's the list. It's not totally undoable. It's more a focus list, rather then a list of must-dos. I am going to write this in my little notebook with the graph lines in it. I take it everywhere and it's got all my lists of things in it. So then I'll look at this list all the time and remember where I'm going! Kind of like my own little street-directory de Pip. Except the streets are paved with ric-rac and the houses are made from gingerbread. It's a good town, my little town.

Do you know it's very hot today in Melbourne. The third day of a totally awful heatwave. We're aircon free here, so I'm sweltering and looking at my computer quietly and listening to some nice music. I'm trying not to move my limbs too much. I have to go and get Ari at 3.30 from his friend's house. It was 44 degrees Celsius at 3.30 yesterday - and it will be similar today. I am not looking forward to that, I can tell you. Our car has no aircon either. Gosh we are living in the dark ages, I swear. And it's hot. And not that dark. But at least we have our health. Unless our organs melt. Organ melt anyone?

On another note.... say hello, would you?! I'm bored and trying not to move. Perhaps you could say hello and it would spur me into activity?! Go on try it. I know you are out there... I can see your lips moving as you read this. And you do look cute today, I must say!

xx

Pip



----------------
Listening to: Nicole Willis - Feeling Free (Hoop's JuJu Gumbo)
via FoxyTunes

The Teetering Domino DID Fall...

image via domino magazine

News via the uber good Girl With a Satchel...

Confirmation of this post (as predicted by The Observer in early November 08) - it's all over for Domino Magazine, following in the steps of Blueprint, the March 09 issue will be the last ever.

Darn.

But I liked Blueprint the best.

xx Pip

Ta Da! Told You I Wrote A Book!

1. Upside Down
2. Askew
3. Side On

Look! I got a sample copy of my book before they start arriving by the BOXLOAD in late March! How lucky, I am....

Definitely judge it by it's cover. Its actually WAY cuter than its cover, if that is possible!

Buy yours here, if you would like to keep me and my family in sensible shoes this year. Support little businesses like mine and those of the crafters betwixt it's pages! Because there's a credit crunch, dontcha know, and you wouldn't want us all to get munched up like cornflakes by the BIG businesses, now would you?! PLUS... you get to learn to make heaps of good things that will save you HEAPS of money and make you HAPPY!

xx Pip

Look How Cute These Guys Are!

I found them today - and I'm adding them to the prize pool for the February Make-a-Long!
Be in it to win them!

xx Pip

Magic Faraway Tree Wallets...

At Mike's NOW - and online in about 1/2 an hour!
And YES! There is Dick and Fanny in the text! None of that PC crap at Mike's.

xx Pip

Melbourne Girls : Vintage Fabric and Pattern Sale!

Make-a-Long with Mike!

Tree collection, originally uploaded by Kup, Kup Land.

February starts the beginning of a year long craft project on this very blog! You can join in each month - or all year - or not at all - just do what will suit you!

Look at this lovely Felt piece from Kup Kup Land on Flickr! How beautiful is it? Do you wish you could get Felty like Kup Kup did? Well you can, because luckily, this month's Make-a-Long theme is FELT!

So, to take part, you need to make something with FELT! Anything you like! Post details of your felt project on your blog - and link back to this post when you have FELTED UP! So then we can all see! Your project could be 2D or 3D, for wearing or looking at, cute or scary... or whatever!

You should add the little badge - (above) - to your blog if you are going to Make-a-Long with felt this month - (and make it link back to this post). I'll be putting a list up there of FELTY people who are playing. You can join in ANY TIME during the month of February.

You can upload images each month to the Flickr Pool - could you please tag any images you add to the pool with the MONTH and the THEME (eg February, Felt).

And last of all - COMMENT on those uploaded Flickr Photos! The image that receives the highest number of positive comments will win a Mike's prize pack (to the value of $70) each month.

Edit - TOTALLY OPEN TO INTERNATIONAL READERS! Join UP!

Edit - You can win these too!

Awrighty. Hope all that makes sense! Join in when and how you like! Looking foward to seeing all the Felty good stuff!

xx Pip

Illustrator : Aliki

Aliki Music Book, originally uploaded by redcoulter.

Happy.
Stripey.
Spotty.
Cute!

Illustrator : Leticia Tarrago

Crucita and her piggy bank, originally uploaded by letslookupandsmile.

Oh my.
Oh goodness.
Oh golly gee.
Quite lovely, don't you think?
Via the Flickr of Letslookupandsmile!

xx Pip

Shutter Sisters - One Word Project

I'm joining in - perhaps you might like to. Go over there and see, why don't you?!

xx Pip

PS - my word is NOSTALGIC!

We Made Our Own Cute Party Bags!

Yes we did. Ari and I and our friend Gocco got printing onto little sandwich bags! As you can see, it's easy as pie! (I really will show you how when I get a chance!!) We had a really cool motorbike pinata and the kids scooped up the freshly spilled lollies and filled up their bags with them!

We also printed party invitations and some extra bags - Ari's having a party with his school friends once school starts again. One of the benefits of having January birthday, I guess, double the party fun!

Hope you are enjoying your Australia Day!

xx Pip

Lily's Big Adventure - My Favourite Blog Post Today!

I can't tell you any more.
Go here to read a very sweet story!

xx Pip

ps - back to the birthday baking now!

How To Make Dead Of The Night - Night Before Birthday Morning Bunting!

excuse late night photos...

Easy Peasey No Sew Bunting
Perfect for birthdays, or just for above your desk or bed.

• Take some sheets of colourful cardboard or nice stiff card of some type.
• Cereal packets would look cool.
• Cut into fairly uniform triangles - a bit dodgy is fine.
• Punch holes in the corner of each top edge.
• Take about 7m of bias binding, ribbon or string.
• Tape the end with sticky tape so it looks a bit like a shoelace.
• Thread it through each hole of the triangle and shimmy the triangle along the string (or whatever) as you go.
• Continue threading triangles until you have lots of bunting.
• The end.

Go to bed and get up at 5.30am to open presents and drink big cups of coffee.

xx Pip

ps - Happy Birthday for 30 minutes time, Ari!

What Is It With Swedes?

These Swedish bands are GREAT. Seek them out on YouTube or LastFm and have a listen. What do they do, in Sweden, that it makes such cool musical geniuses? Is geniuses a word? We're raising the big issues over here at Mike's. Let's begin....

Shout Out Louds
The Radio Dept
Hello Saferide
Jens Lekman
Lykke Li
Peter Bjorn and John
Jose Gonzales
Hakan Hellstrom
The Knife
Stina Nordenstam
El Perro Del Mar
The Concretes
Lo Fi-Fnk
Those Dancing Days
Jenny Wilson

Um.... and Astrid Lindgren. OK.. not part of the rock n pop theme, but worth a Swedish listen!

Also. The vegetable SWEDE. I don't really like it. I don't even know what it's about, to tell the truth. Do you know? It's not pretty, but I don't mind that. It's just not very nice to eat. In my opinion? Am I doing SWEDE wrong? Perhaps I am. Do you have any bright ideas about SWEDE? Do you like it? Do tell me, lovely reader.

It's Ari's birthday tomorrow. We're holed up for a night of chilled drinks (it's HOT!) and wrapping presents way too late and last minute. What are you doing? Cooking SWEDE perhaps?


xx Pip

Arrive Early and Read...

carnations de Nanna from The Queen Victoria Market on A Friday


I KNOW I said 'No Memes this year....' but I just can't help it! Send me your Memes! Oh Do! Here we go...

..................................................................

Love Fridays:

Dear Tinniegirl,

I love Fridays. I really do. Usually for a variety of reasons. Today I love Friday because it occurred to me that Ari's birthday tomorrow would mean a present-fest in the morning, rather than our usual trip to the Market. Loving the having cake and eating it too idea, we got up early and went to the Market today. On Friday. Radical, I know.

I love the Market. You get to see all types of people and pets. And the fruit and vegetables are so colourful, blushing apricot, peach and yellow at this time of year. The deli hall's filled with the garlicky perfume of all things good. And the fish hall smells fishy. But what can you do?!

This morning while I was waiting for Cam to come back with a coffee and Spring Harvest Pizzette, I noticed an old man sitting alone, reading. And I kind of wondered if he was just sitting reading, or if he was waiting for someone. Then I wondered if that someone was late. He wasn't looking around furtively trying to spot someone, though. No, he was enjoying sitting alone reading in public. Then I decided he had deliberately arrived half an hour early for his coffee date, so that he could sit and read alone in public. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I took out a scrap of paper and wrote 'ARRIVE EARLY AND READ'. Seems like a really good thing to do, I think. I'm going to try it. Even if he wasn't doing that. It's still a good idea, right? And Fridays are as good a day as any to have good ideas.

Yours truly,

Pip



A Doll A Week (below)

Brown Owls... Or When Stitching Night Grew Up!

image from craftlog

Did you ever come to Stitching Night at Mike's? In 2007, I decided it would be ace to have some crafty get-togethers amidst cupcakes and champagne, and to teach some girls to stitch... and to learn from other extremely great stitchy girls. Well. Demand grew - and grew - and GREW! Everyone wanted to come and play! We were knocking people back all the time and it didn't feel like nice manners.

So, from Stitching Night grew Brown Owls in 2008 - and we now have 190 (for 2009) members (Australia wide and Internationally) who are all committed to crafting nicely together and sharing stuff and making new friends and learning things too.

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported the idea - especially those of you that came way back in 2007 when it was just my crackpot way-to-make-friends idea and certain people used to lie on the floor complaining of 'Stitchers Back' and I spent half the night ironing on Sublime Stitching transfers in a giggly state!

Local Memberships for Brown Owls will close off tomorrow afternoon at 5pm Melbourne time. Interstate Memberships are still available - but will be closed off if numbers get too huge. We have talk of a Central Coast NSW Brown Owls forming - and it's possible that Adelaide and Tasmania may launch soon. Go regional gals!

For more details go to the Brown Owls Blog.

Love Letters, Cupid's Bows and Sticky Zines - But Not In A Sordid Way...

Perhaps on Valentine's Day, you're tempted to stalk those people who sell roses wrapped in plastic betwixt the tables of tourist restaurants? Perhaps on Valentine's Day, you're tempted to take a bottle of gin to bed and watch 'My Best Friend's Wedding'? Perhaps on Valentine's Day, you're tempted to sit at a table for two with your beloved whilst he watches the tennis under the table on his iPhone? Do none of these!

Instead, plant a smile on your face, pack some lunch and go to the Degraves St Subway (under Flinders St - also known as the Campbell Arcade). The clever people at Sticky are holding a huge and excellent event, as part of their first ever International Literature Conspiracy Week - with zines from all over the world - and cupid taking love letter dictation... and heaps of other cool stuff! Check this link for the full festival program - and go meet some people and check out how great the DIY Artsy Crafty Culture is in Melbourne (and beyond). If writing or illustration are important to you, you will love this.

We salute you Sticky. You always do great things. The following details are from Sticky's website. I just borrowed them, so don't be cross.

..............................................................................................................................................


SATURDAY 14TH FEB

Zine Fair and Festival Launch
12pm – 5pm – Degraves St Subway

Launched by Minister of the Arts Lynn Kosky at 2pm, the Zine Fair will take over the subway underpass with hundreds of local and nationally produced zines, comics and independent press, as well as featuring Sticky’s inhouse official Valentines Day cupid (complete with bow, arrow and typewriter) who will take love letter dictations on Sticky Institute stationary to be instantly issued to your Valentine.

The zine fair will also be launching the efforts of the Target144 initiative, where zinesters and comic artists will release their creations made in the last 144 hours, and be host to the legendary ‘You’ zine bag making marathon where the aim is to create as many YOU bags as possible, to package the zine, in the one afternoon. The bags will go into circulation containing the following week’s zine. Everyone is welcome to come along and take part. ‘You’ is a free, Melbourne anonymous zine issued weekly since 2001

2pm – official launch of zine fair, Sticky’s new back wall, and speeches
12-5pm – Fair & You bag making marathon

Moi Creative Space

Thanks to Kirsty for this theme. I said 'No memes for me this year'. But I can't resist Kirsty, can I. She's da bomb.

Our work room is also our dining room. We have one long table (about 8 feet long, actually). By day it's a cutting table. But it's sometimes a breakfast and dinner table too. Oh and lunch. Sometimes you get lunch on it. Yep.

Here's what's on there at the moment. Wallpaper that Cam's been cutting up. Vintage Contact and Wrapping Paper. Some books from le Op Shop. Texta Stubbies. Vintage exercise books. Scissors. Cutting Mat. And....







A mug for a friend. And Nibbles. Do you see her? She's very quick, but she's there. See?

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Jess's Desmond (above)


More book contributors for you to visit! The latest reveals are.... (drum roll):

The deliciously clever Carly Schwerdt from Nest Studios and
The florally goodness that is Mum of Four and Quilty Genius Jennie McClelland
Plus... Jess McCaughey, the only person I know who can make super-bears

Ta Da! Such great girls!

xx Pip

Lucy Dyson's Latest Loveliness!

The Wealthiest Queen - Luluc from 1Dovetale on Vimeo.

Good on you Lucy Dyson. You are clever and really good at making videos. And I love your sister a lot.

xx Pip

Best Of The Day!

Local Artist and All-Round Kutie-Pie Gemma Jones' upcoming exhibition at Outre Gallery - 10th April 2009

Local Mum and Designer Deluxe Beci Orpin's neat, cute house on Design Sponge



Someone you might know is building a house (or at least trying to!) over here.

New printables just listed today from The Small Object - find those here.

Gorgeous Lal Meri's new is video over here - weird and pretty vocals over a Summery Jazzy track.

Lucy's Kitchen Notebook is podcasting the sounds of a French Boulangerie over here! It's charming!

Short about a book someone nice suggested I read...

Soulemama on Martha Radio tomorrow - you can trial it for free for 3 days here if you want to listen

Do you have any 'Best Of The Day' links?! Post them in the comments and we can all check 'em out. But no crappy spammy ones, okay. Or you'll be in deeps with me.

xx Pip

Wist-fully Showcasing Favourite Handmade Things!

Kootoyoo Swizzle Ring From
Arthur's Circus via my wists


I just wanted to tell you about Wists. I know you are probably sick to the eye teeth of fancy schmancy widgets and bookmarking sites, really I do know that. But this one can be used for good, I promise. See the little scrolling box at the top of the middle column on this page? That's my Wists. It's showing you stuff I like and think you might like too. I'm trying to focus on vintage and handmade things - to keep it nice and sustainable.

Do you want to do this too? It's easy. All you do is go over to Wists and register. Then you drag the 'Add To Wists' widget onto your toolbar (under the 'address line' of your internet browser) in the way that they describe on their most helpful site. Next you install the Wists Widget on your blog (by adding the html code) - and voila! It will act as a little showcase for all the things you covet (and think others should too!) It will be empty to start with - so you need to add some Wists before you choose your Wist Widget - that way you can see what will look best on your website!

When you are browsing someone's online store for their excellent handmade stuff (be it an etsy store, big cartel, madeit, dawanda or their own online setup) you just click the 'Add To Wists' button - choose your favourite image of their lovely made-by-them item and add it to Wists. It will file it on your Wist page with a link, description and any tags or comments you have added. And it will add a little image to your blog (if you've installed the widget on your blog!)

This is a great little widget, because it means that you don't have to have an Etsy store to be featured as a 'favourite thing' on someone else's blog. (Previously Etsy had this kind of 'Things I Love' application where you can add other people's stuff to your favourites). What I like about Wists is that you can add items from any online store or website - and they all appear in the same cute little box (or column). You don't need to have multiple widgets from multiple websites. Which is cool, I think!

I set up two Wists (with 2 different email log-ins of course) - one for handmade and vintage favourites - and another for things I want to make (foodie and crafty too). But you should do it the way YOU like... or not at all. Which is just fine too!

xx Pip

The Word Is Out! I'm Excited!

It seems that Craftzine are excited too (thank you Craftzine)! And project contributor Kristen's posted some extra exciting details today over at her blog! I thought I'd let you know, straight from the source, some of the other extra good gals who submitted their fantastic work to the lovely book we all made!

Betwixt the crafty pages, you will also find....

Lara Cameron of Ink and Spindle and Kirin Notebook
Shannon Lamden of Aunty Cookie
Alison Brookbanks of Six and A Half Stitches
Kate Henderson of Never Enough Hours/Two Little Banshees
Claire Robertson who is lovely Loobylu, of course
Emma Greenwood of Emerge and Aprons and Hammers
Kylie Robson of Kgirlknits
Marianne Horton of Applehead
Erin Lewis of Little Elves and Frankie
Tiel Seivl-Keevers of Tsk Tsk
Jhoanna Monte Aranez of Softie Making and One Red Robin
Angela White of Three Buttons and Sew Your Own

Other contributor details can be found here and here too! There are 26 contributors in total - so this is not the whole list - but enough to give you an idea of the excellent crafty mettle of the people involved.

Have fun clicking around!

xx Pip

Make Your Own Vanilla Extract! Really!

You know I love to make stuff that it's easy to buy, right? You know I get huge pleasure from spending hours, sometimes even days or weeks making things that I could buy at the grocery store in 3 minutes flat? You know that right? That's just me. You know that, don't you?!

Well then you'll know how excited I was to find this very excellent blog! Check out their fantastic, amazing, super good tutorial! Big ups to Bethany Actually and her amazingly crafty cookery - How To Make Your Own Vanilla Extract.

Ms Bethany Actually wrote a really cool how-to. It has gorgeous photos. Be sure to keep an eye out for the super-good kid's party pics too - esp the lollies and the green bunting. Awesome!

xx Pip

Sneak Peek with Three Buttons

image via threebuttons

Angela White is my friend and a photographer too. You might know her as Three Buttons or the Mother of Miss Buttons via Sew Your Own. Last week she did a little photo shoot in my messy house. She tripod-ed about all over the place with her whizzbang digital SLR and a big smile on her face. We had lots of fun, followed by a impromptu glass of chilled rose at the Black Cat with Brooke and Jess. You can pop over to her blog and see the results, if you would like to!

Today it's bleeding hot in Melbourne. I went into the city and picked up a few little things for Ari's birthday - he turns NINE on Saturday. Cam took the boys down to the beach to keep them far from gift buying's way. They went snorkeling and saw the big Stingray that hangs at the beach most days. Fish and chips on the way home and videos (Ari is totally analogue!) in bed in the late afternoon. Divine.

Over the last couple of days, we've been bike-riding to the pub to have cold drinks and play pool. We had the neighbour over for a lovely dinner. We've been making delicious lunches from delicious leftovers and playing in the garden. I planted a big pot of parsley and another of oregano so we can have oreganoey parsleyish pizzas in a month or so. The orange picnic table has turned into the potting table - which is REALLY NOT it's intended purpose... and yet it works a treat!

We have snow peas and sugar snap peas and bok choy and beans and sunflowers and broccoli and carrots shooting up all over the place. Mike's organic produce could be coming soon! Or we could just eat it all ourselves (which is highly likely, although I might offer you the odd pea pod when you pop in!) Some sunflowers and beans are growing happily in the shop window as planned. Gemma and Cam and the boys and I went to Ceres yesterday and had a lovely time drinking Chai and raiding the bike shed.

I got a Chamomile plant to make Cam Chamomile tea.... (even though I think Chamomile smells like wee... I'm the sort of girl that can put her wee-smell issues aside and bestow tea on others. Yes I am.)

This month I've set myself the goal of getting my house in order, before things get too busy in the shop and with Brown Owls and other projects. Okay, the month is admittedly nearly over, but I mean a month from today, not the calendar month. Today I did absolutely nothing to achieve this goal, apart from wish for a little bed that I need. But I will start tomorrow. I know that sounds like I'm putting it off - but I'm not the kind to put things off - and I promise I will. Oh yes I do!

And about the bed- I am looking for a 3/4 size cute single bed, a large skinnyish cot or a small chaise lounge - hopefully in overloved condition. If you have one that you don't need and you live in Melbourne, let me know!

xx Pip

One Year Ago : I posted this
Two Years Ago : I posted this

Behind The Scenes - Meet Me At Mike's - 26 Fun and Crafty Projects

Hope your Sunday is panning out beautifully!

A wee update on who else is featured in the book! Kara and Nichola! I am sure you know all about them already - but you SHOULD pop in on their lovely blogs and see what they are up to! They make beautiful things, by hand - and often with re-cycled materials too. Which is important in these times of Credit-Crunch and Make-Do & Mend, now isn't it?! Drop in on them and see.

Here are some more (not too revealing!) shots of the three days of shooting images for the book! A large team of people worked REALLY hard to make sure that it would be really lovely and crafty.

So I thank:

• The 25 amazing, clever, crafty contributors who made the book as special as can be and designed wonderful projects that every one would want to make and were patient throughout the long process that compiling and writing a book can be.
• The super-pretty, super-smart gals at Hardie Grant (mary and ellie) who knew that it was a great idea to get all these people together in one place and were just so nice to know and still are.
• Tim the photographer with great taste in music and his non-nailpolish-wearing-lovely girlfriend who modelled one of the projects and talked about food a lot!
• Sim who completely understood the idea from the beginning and designed the book and did the world's best job at it too.
• Sammie G the brewing queen, and also thanks to the amazing editors we worked with who did all the checking and double-checking.
• The Lovely People who lent us their house for two days.
• The Lovely Mike's customers who put up with us either being closed or tired or over-excited due to book commitments.
• The Lovely Mike's blog readers who endured endless tales of 'I'm working on the book' last year!
• The People who came and worked in the shop (sometimes for free!) when we couldn't because we were doing book stuff.
• The kind friends who supported me along the way and helped me with Brown Owls, Mike's and other important stuff in my life.
• My boyfriend, Cameron, who helped co-pilot the whole thing (and my nice family too, thank you).
• My adorable and clever children who put up with heaps of girly, crafty mess in their house for well over a year while I tested the projects and did the drawings and wrote, wrote, wrote!

Of course there are so many more thankyou's! But I saved them for the book!

xx Pip