fine feathered friends

I am really enjoying not having a splitting migraine. My brain maybe a bit fried but at least I don't feel like my skull is exploding.
Sadly it is Grand Final day today which means a rather slow dreary 6 hours in the shop, hopefully we will get some footy widows in. Actually it's not too bad in the shop when it's quiet if you know the reason why there is no-one about, you don't feel quite so unloved. Being the GF also means we will hear the drone of helicopters all day too.
We've had our first bird arrivals this week. You can tell when Xmas is on its way, the birds appear. We've got curly tailed birds and their more demure but slightly cheekier mates. Dell and I had great fun clipping them all over the outside of a birdcage on Thursday afternoon, we get a bit silly at times and I think we may have scared off a customer as we both had a bird clipped to the top of our head.
I've also managed to get those pesky hems handsewn on the Stella skirts and I'll pop them into the shop today. I also need to get the four hanks of handspun I did last week measured and they will go in today too, the weather is nippy enough to make you stay in with a good cuppa tea and a bit of knitting! Whilst every other shop is piling their Summer stock in I actually spent a bit of yesterday making 'hottie' wheatbags as we were almost out of them, we sold a ridiculous number of wheaties and hottie bottles a week or so ago. Summer is close but we still have icy blasts coming in and we tend to feel them more after a few balmy days.
Other shop news this week is the departure of Anna. We are very sad to see her go but it's not like we'll never see her again.... she's going off to Craft to work in the shop and to concentrate on finishing her Masters. You might remember Yem from yonks ago, she is coming back for a little while to help fill in until we sort something out.  We only get Yem in to work when she is pregnant (haha) so please be gentle with her.
Also if you are thinking of getting a satchel...... don't dilly dally!
OK, I better go get ready. Vacuuming to be done. Stock to go out. Cat to wrangle.

deep sadness

It has been a sad and puzzling week and the final news last night about Jill Meagher has shocked us all in the inner north. This devastating event has happened on streets we know, it was Jill who was taken but it could so easily have been any of our friends or family. It has been one of those events that everyone feels personally, it smarts and stings and tears at our hearts. Jill's family must pick up the pieces after this shattering event and we send all our love and compassion out to the living and what they must now face.

splitter

I wrote a post yesterday morning all about heading off to the Show blah blah blah but it wouldn't load and then I raced out the door, somehow it didn't save/load/publish and it is now lost to the wilds of internet heaven. When I got back yesterday I ended up with a splitting headache that has been brewing on and off for the last week and discovered that I actually had no internet access and that there was a pile of unsent emails (now also lost). I had to sit on the phone, half of head split open and oozing brain (not literally, that's just how it felt), waiting for TPG to repair the connection. It was mercifully quick this time.
So now the Headache from Hell is still lingering and I have lost all those words of glory and wisdom I wrote yesterday. I do faintly remember the bit about the Show not giving me any awards but I have a ribbon that proves otherwise (see above) and that Tuesday was a bit of a slow day in the studio but I did manage to start work on the new larger digital print 'tapestry' cushions- lush!

Whilst I was at the Show working out what we had done wrong the latest shipment of satchels arrived. It's really nice to have the brights back in, I hadn't realised how much I missed them. I've made a list of what we have in stock now over on our Facebook page. It's not our extra big shipment which has been delayed until October sometime but we have at least got some stock we were desperate for. 

The headache is creeping back.

life is like a pineapple

Kind of spiky, kind of tart, kind of sweet.
Another media snippet, in yesterday's Sunday Age mag, three in one week, all at once or none at all.
I'm trying to work out what I need to do today. Yesterday was a total wash out as I didn't seem to be able to keep my eyes open and had a case of Sleeping Sickness. I did manage to get the washing done only to have it rained on in the evening. Don't you hate that?!
I had lots to say but things have slipped out of my brain today. I'll report back later if I can think of anything interesting to say.

disappointment in showland

The results are in..... we didn't win a sodding thing, not even a measly 'highly commended'.

Heehee. It's rather amusing and will be even more so when we go to the Show next week and get to see the winning entries. If the sponges are the standard of last years then I will feel robbed! I can guess there was a major issue with my sponges, they are about double the depth of the usual entries (although I have just seen this and apparently the entries were poor this year), I can't help it, it's just how my sponges roll. In something like the Show it is all about the specifications and as we had sold out of the CWA Classics cookbook we could check the preserves specs. Being me I tend to use shredded coconut not desiccated, my sponges are too high, blood oranges instead of valencia (bet they thought the dark pulp in my chunky was burnt not realising it was the blood orange bits) and my 70% couverture chocolate was probably a bit to bitter for their tastes. I'm a wanker. If someone has won a prize for a ginger fluff using cocoa I will not be answerable for my actions!

It's been a bit of a busy week- studio, digital printing, skirt making, unpacking boxes, picking up labels, exhibition openings- and I'm looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow! A day to not actually have to be anywhere, anytime, anyhow. I might even bake a sponge cake... hmmm maybe not.... a rest day hopefully with a bit of cleaning tacked on as next week is going to be a busy one. I want to do some bread and cheese reading or rather some reading about bread and cheese.
The ric rac skirts are done and going into the shop today but the Stellas still need their hems sewn up. We've also got a shipment of the cutest tea pots and cups in, they are very retro 70s. The teapots have their own tea leaf cage so no worrying about strainers and the cups are stackable. I'll photograph them and get them up on FB later today. I was trying to hold off putting them out until the Stellas were finished as they go perfectly with the cups on the skirt fabric.

What else? We've had a couple of shipments of Welsh blankets in this week so there will be new colours coming soon and there are new vintage florals arriving in the near future so even more cushions there too. We've printed the 'tapestry' panels ready to make a bigger style cushion  (so there will be 2 sizes) and they are in the pipeline and we will soon be lost under a cushion avalanche. I have a lot of work ahead of me and the first batch of Xmas decorations is about to arrive I hear and we don't have new shelves to put it all on!
Time for a shuffle.

I better get a move on as I noticed Jethro has left piles of fluff through the shop that need to be vacuumed up, there are boxes to pack away and skirts to label. I'm a little disappointed we won't have a Royal Show certificate to go on the wall but really I am more than happy to know my friends got a good week of baked goods and preserves out of it! I know how good my sponge and I may even share the recipe with you one day!

snippet good

Media snippets always seem to happen at the same time, they come in like buses, none and then three. Yesterday it was bits and pieces seen on D-Files and then in the afternoon the latest edition of Country Style came out with one of our vintage linen cushions in a Spring photo shoot. I'm waiting on new shipments of the vintage linens to arrive, I've got some gorgeous florals arriving. My life at the moment seems to be hunting things down long distance then typing and sending off emails and finally waiting on beautiful things to arrive from far away places. I have always dreamed of being independently wealthy and travelling the world finding fabulous things, sending them back and then twice a year throwing the doors to my Aladdin's Cave of a warehouse open and selling it all off to start again. Ha ha.
I worked away in the studio yesterday but kept getting sidetracked into other things than what I should have been concentrating on. Oh look! Bright and shiny idea floating passed! The Stella skirts are almost there and just need to be 'topped and tailed' (facings and hems). I also made myself sit on the couch last night and I only have two more ric-rac-roo waistbands to sew before they go back to the studio for buttonholes and buttons and a good press.
Better bust a move. Have to be in South Yarra by 10am and I still have the two huge boxes of Welsh blanket cushions that are heading to Sydney to label.

stellaaaaa!

Slowly slowly.
The ric-rac-roos still aren't finished but are getting closer, just a lot of handstitching to do (decided against machining part of the waistbands) and buttonholes and buttons. Late yesterday though I got cutting and the Stella skirts are back in production. Of course in my procrastination I had forgotten what a joy they are to make- duh. I've picked up zips and thread and hopefully I'll whizz through the pile today and feel miserable at the end when I see I have even more handsewing to do!
I woke up to the D-Files this morning and a shoot of Lisa and Dean's house. They live around the corner and their house 'Boston Villa' was my dream home for so long, I used to stand at the gate in its derelict days and imagine what I would do with. Then it sold and renovation started, my heart broke (from jealousy, envy, annoyance) but I have to admit they've done a grand job. And I'm lucky to say that if you look really closely you might even see some Cottage product tucked into those images. A Union Jack WWI bunting cushion, a corner of a Welshie on a chair, a stripy linen glass cloth quilt on a bed..... pretty chuffed! And I do love that Bauer Pottery (like I need more ceramics in my life...).