saturday chatterday

Oh lordy, it is Saturday again!
How did that happen?
It's a bit grey and drizzly outside, hinting at Autumn (I hope) and I think it is time to start planning for bunkering down and nesting..... or maybe that is just what I am longing for. This not-making lark is driving me a bit batty (and I bet you are bored senseless with me harping on about it) and I am looking about the shop thinking 'oh I really must work on those patchwork Welsh blanket cushions this year.... and there was that pile of great tea towels I scored a month ago, they need to be made up.... people keep asking about the recycled canvas bags and that design for the leather ones that has been plaguing me for ages.... and that mountain of wax print that needs to sewn up....'. It's like I have an army of creative ghosts haunting me.
So I find out Monday what I am up for wrist-wise and for the first morning in the last week and a half I feel a little more centred. Although I am trying to stay off the painkillers it is not such a great idea and I must remember to take some before bed if I don't want to wake up in aching agony at 4am and end up feeling sleepless and shattered all day (I forgot last night and only managed a few hours after stumbling downstairs at 6am to take the damn things). And most of all I need to start working on some projects if I am to feel generally better.
I popped up to the studio this morning to hunt something out for a customer and I am shocked by the boxes of stock I have lying about.... that sale MUST happen. Please March give us some nice cool weather that people feel like going to a sale and trying stuff on in! I did go out yesterday and spent money on a new photo cube for shooting smaller product in (thanks to Elise's partner discovering these at Officeworks and fingers crossed it works!) and I am hoping that I will get some enamel and jars up onto the a re-vamped online shop.
Oh! Before I forget... all our fake birds... on sale 1/2 price! In the shop. You can call if you like and we can mail them to you. Don't go to the online shop for this as I don't have time to sort that out before I open the real shop this morning.
OK. Time to get my stuff together and start the shop day.
White Night is tonight, are you going?

a thank you, a moan and another day

Morning/afternoon all.
What an exhausting week it has been. Juggling the broken wrist, a trip to Sydney, trudging about the trade fairs, coming back to a slow shop week and trying to work out how to stretch a little money over everything that needs to be done without it dissolving like a piece of cling film in the microwave. The wrist pain is driving me a little nuts and not being able to do any making is tipping me quite over the edge, hanging out on Insta and watching everyone else being creative is wearing me down.
A huge thank you to everyone who has dropped in or sent messages of support. It means a lot. Truly you are the best.
As someone with a pretty battered body I have never taken my ability to move about and make stuff lightly. I know how much it is a part of who I am and to be put in the position where making is incredibly restricted has made me teeter in frustration. I know it will all be fine in a few months time but after almost 6 months of hand and wrist accidents I am getting a wee bit annoyed. I had plans you know.
I find out either today or on Monday whether I need surgery or not to pin the bone back into place. Let's just say after 10 days it is still hurting like hell and I have a nasty case of 'self employed syndrome'.
The shop is open, we still have piles of lovely stuff in store and if I am going to be a bit out of working order then I should probably get my arse in gear and get the online shop up and running.

accidental accidents

So if you follow @cottageindustrystore on Insta you will know it has been a topsy week. I was all ready to start work on new stock, I'd washed all the new wax print fabrics, I'd even cleaned up a bit of the studio and then KABBAMMMM! I rolled my ankle on the dodgy cobblestones out the back taking out the rubbish on Tuesday night and went down like a ton of bricks straight on my right hand. This time I've broken the end of the radius and the pain is even more excruciating than the last two times (September/hook of hamete, November/base of thumb) and I am doped to the eyeballs on Endone so that is saying something!
Three times since September. Can you believe it?? And no there is nothing wrong with my brain/inner ear/etc, these were just three stupid accidents, yes, accidents, they do happen and in my case apparently in threes. As you can imagine I am pretty teary and feeling very average.... and a bit sleepy from the drugs.

My fabulous GP Lora has sent me off to get a thermoplastic splint fitted and I'm slathering my wrist in comfrey. I'm off to the clinic on Thursday next week to see what is to be done but in the meantime I am heading to Sydney tomorrow for the trade fairs, it was booked and as I am pretty skint currently it seemed wrong to waste the already paid for plane and hotel. Sydney is so not my favourite place to go to and I have just realised every time I go there something goes horribly wrong....

OK I'll stop moaning now.
I'm shopgirl today! This is going to be fun...... Please don't expect any great wrapping skills today and indeed I may not be able to actually write receipts either..... but I can take money, chat and smile (sort of). There are a few new garments in the shop, the 'Alice' top from last week in size 2/10 capsule fabric and the new dress style above which is based on the 'Alice' top with dropped waist, loose fit and gathered skirt, also size 2/10 (this is the size we usually sample in hence why it is always first in store). We had a run on the Oleana cardis last week and this week I think it has been the Slade knits, with this freaky weather these cotton cardis are perfect.
Shop is open at 11, if you find me asleep at the counter just rock me gently awake. I'd love a visit but just be warned I have a tendency to cry if people are sweet to me at the moment.

heat stroke

It's going to be hot hot hot today.
It's been quite a lovely morning but the temperature is rising.
I'm opening the shop at 10.30 and if it gets unbearable and dead on the street I will close the door and go sit in front of a fan upstairs. I'll still be around so the instruction for the day is to phone the shop and I will come downstairs and open up. It seems much more sensible than sitting at the counter cry as there are no customers about.
This hot weather is really hurting small businesses.
Just back from running my Saturday morning errands and Brunswick Street was crawling with people (which at 9am on a Saturday is a very rare occurrence), I wasn't sure whether they were getting out early to avoid the heat or all coming back from the Flour Market.
OK. I better shake a leg if I am opening early.
Jethro will be mighty pissed. I woke up in the middle of the night to find him stretched out on his back in the centre of the bed, paws akimbo and the fan ruffling his tummy fluff.
Remember! Just call the shop on 94192430 and I will open the door to you!
(Of course there is a small chance that I won't be closed at all but really you'd be crazed to go out in 40ºC....)

sweltering again

Just a quick post this morning.
I am back being shopgirl after getting into the studio for one day this week. At least I got to get the ball rolling on a new design to use up the piles of wax-y (wax print) that has started to grow once again in the studio. The heat and the sheer amount of 'stuff' in the studio started to make me feel overwhelmingly claustrophobic.....
There is only one of these tops so far, size 2, contrast binding and facing. I have a stash of very special designs that might just be about ready to be chopped up and made into things and we had a delivery of fabric arrive yesterday in the favourite 'chicken and egg' and 'lima bean and bead' designs. I better get cutting and sewing.
As it is going to be super hot for the next couple of days shop opening hours may vary from our usual times. I hear today might be ok with a drop in temperature this afternoon and I will open in the morning but I may shut early if the heat becomes unbearable and everyone runs for the shade. I will post on FB and IG if I close earlier than normal.
Oh and I forgot! New shipment of Mason jars has arrived. I'll be tripping over them all day until I can find somewhere to stash the damn things.

not done (still/again)

Morning all.
I seem to be moving at the speed of a snail this morning. I blame a weird night of trashy documentary watching right before bed and a hot weather 'hangover' (and Jethro decided to sleep pressed into my back for most of the night, he was obviously in need of human contact). Any plans I had of an early start and a couple of hours work in the studio, as I am shopgirl most of this week, just didn't happen.
I wiped out yesterday with a visit to the trade fair at Jeff's Shed and my hip turning excruciatingly painful, I really need to get back into the good bouncy runners. I am back to feeling like the walking wounded with a sore foot, an aching hip and hand twinges that make me swear like a navvy (I have a foul mouth anyway). I really am quite pathetic.
I still haven't managed to design the wrap for the indigo dyed linen socks, the label for the handmade soap or the logo for the bags of vintage marbles. I spent an hour yesterday afternoon pulling at pattern blocks to work on a simple top to be made in the wax print fabrics and just couldn't click my brain on, it could also have been the studio was a total sweat box. Sweaty heat affects my brain, it does not work in humidity.
I am in the shop today and may even be spending the day making lists and scribbling little diagrams. It is cooler in town today and perfect weather to come sock buying and for trying on of cardigans. A couple of new wax print dresses are in store, there is enamel to ogle and the new wire baskets and glass display boxes to fiddle with.
Time to chase dust bunnies around the shop and wrangle Jethro out of his hidey-hole.
I must eat some muesli too.
And another cup of tea is in order too.

super bowl

Just a quick post this morning before I race off to find somewhere to display the haul of vintage enamel bowls..... this is just a tiny fraction that I scored.
You know I love enamel and it was fun yesterday clean the first mountain I unpacked and sorting them into patterns. We have two styles, 4 sizes and lots of different designs but like anything hunter/gathered I have lots of some and hardly any of others. I love stencilled enamel and at one time toyed with the idea of a bit of enamelware graffiti about town but I am too impatient with a can of spray paint and cutting stencils would probably have lead to a scalpel in my leg or some other body part so I never got around to it.
These beauties are in the shop today as indeed I am too!
It's warming up out there but if you come out early and get home in front of the fan by about 3.30 you'll be fine.