saturday morning coming down

Here finally is a gratuitous watermelon granita picture. (Don't tell Dell, I had one on Friday without her.)

It's still muggy here in Old Melbourne Town even though the 'cool change' has come through. The birds are singing. All yesterday evening and this morning it has been like they have let out all their pent up songs, that it was too hot for them to do their singing and now they are letting rip.

This week has been physically draining with both the heat and the amount of sewing I have been trying to catch up on. Lugging rolls of fabric and mountains of stuff around, cutting and drafting, hunched over the sewing machine. My whole body feels achy and breaky and bone weary, and sadly this is only the start of it. Wholesale has fired up and poor Thursday girl Anna had to put up with my venting with annoyance because of it. People just don't realise that a very large (VERY large) percentage of our stock is made by me, physically and emotionally by ME. I don't have a team of minions, lackeys and the only person in the sweat-shop is me. (OK sorry as you may have guessed I am a little stressed and tired- apologies.) 

Someone I know always pesters me that I should have everything made  in Bali, as she does, but I really can't bring myself to go down this line. To me that defeats the whole ethos of what I am trying to do. If I did then I would be simply making another mass (even in limited quantities) produced, disposable, high mileage consumable. Products where I would be paying the lowest possible price and selling it at a killing. I would like to have money in the bank, a hammock of safety but really paying the bills and creating something I am proud of far outweighs all this. 

This time of the year is a bit like going into training for a marathon. At the moment I'm all unfit but the stamina will come and I'll be able to do those long, long days soon enough. It'll be head down and I'll be in the making zone.

 

And then comes Xmas Day and I will sleep for a week. 

kiss here

I waited here but nothing happened.

addiction (variation)

Watermelon granita topped up with Bunda-beer.

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

(Photos to come.)

(OK- no photos today..... we slurped it all up! Maybe tomorrow.)

carole king (4 and 5) comeback

I managed to get these two finished yesterday- which may explain my aching back and difficulty moving. They are quite tiring to stitch together (especially when you are tired anyway). You have to sort of wrestle with them. But they are done and now I have to start hunting tapestries again. And yes the one at the top of the photo does include yesterday's tapestry porn, it now has a seam running down through the middle of the couple so it looks a little less..... ummmm..... wrong, now they look like they are kissing....

in the worst possible taste

Oh really!

Who would have thought that this design would have been created as a tapestry?

Who would have thought anyone would have bought it?

Who would have thought someone would have actually sat down and embroidered this?

It's kind of like tapestry porn.

And really really bad.

I mean what is he doing with his hands?!

helpmate

I've been meaning to change the window display for weeks. 

I was hoping to hold out for at least another week before we went all Xmas-y but there seemed no reason to do a new window then change it all again in another week. So welcome to Xmas.

Jethro of course needed to oversee the whole set up.

(Much to the amusement of passers-by.)

That was exhausting (and perhaps boring) so after trying to get me to move the piled up quilts that were on the top of the tea-towel shoppers, his preferred sleeping position, by knocking half of them on the floor, he retired to a basket of gloves.

Then there was the exciting opening up of the boxes of vintage Xmas decorations. And sitting in a nest of shredded paper and running through bubble wrap.

So Xmas has sort of arrived at the Cottage. The shop looked/looks like the Mongol Hordes have come through on a shopping bus tour but things should be sorted by Wednesday. The window is doilied trees and crocheted snowflakes. I like the whole northern hemisphere Xmas thing, all dark and cold and glittery and smelling of spices- it all makes much more sense than sunshine, heat and blowflies.

best laid plans... something about mice and men.....

Here was I thinking that I had a handle on my Saturday morning. All it takes is running into a chatty friend on the way to pick up raspberry danishes at Babka and there goes my plans!

Well that's my excuse for the somewhat dodgy photos today. And not getting to the post office.

The 'Lisette' dress at the top is really very, very pretty and the 'Daisy' drawstring lightweight denim pants are a stronger, more seventies, blue than the grey colour they look like in the pic.

I had washed the pants up last night and needed to run them up to the studio to use the master-blaster-iron. The problem with steam box irons is waiting around for them to get a head of steam up. Bit like me really. (That sounds really wrong somehow...)