mr moustachio

Who is this exceedingly handsome young man who came into the shop yesterday?

I'm not sure he is a natural blonde with a moustache that dark but he is incredibly dapper all the same.

If you know him let me know.........

from here to there

Sometimes in my life I wish I had a map or someone who would quietly take me aside and say 'it's going to be OK'. Perhaps part of my quandary at the moment is that the shop is about to turn two and I need to look at the next stage in its evolution.

For the last few years I have been supplementing my income by teaching and this year I am not sure whether it is going ahead and, on the other hand, whether I should be take it if it is offered. It all comes down to the money/time equation. When I teach I have extra money to plough back into the shop but I lose two days of the week. When I don't teach I often feel the pinch of lack of cash flow but then I am less frustrated by those missing two days. I seem to spend most of my life promising people stock that I often can't get done, coming up with ideas I have to shelve due to lack of time and falling exhausted into bed at the end of the day. 

Round and round the mulberry tree.

I think I know which path I have to take but I am finding quite difficult to step out on it. Hell- by tomorrow I might have changed my mind again. 

As I just said...... round and round the mulberry tree.

lottie, lettie and hettie do the washing

It was time for a window display change so Lottie, Lettie and Hettie, the window mannequins, washed the bag of old aprons and hung them up to dry.

Ok it was actually me who washed them and ironed them and hung them out but I really can't be bothered standing still in the window 24 hours a day so I am quite happy for the 'girls' to take the credit. The Cottage looks like a Chinese Laundry at the moment which is kind of apt really. If you can get your hands on a copy of the Fitzroy History Society's fascinating little book about Gertrude Street (I think Dan from Artisan Books down the road has a few copies left) and turn to page 71 you will find that 67 Gertrude Street was a Chinese Laundry from the 1880 'til the 1960s and, on page 16, you can check out the list of Gertrude Street women who signed the Women's Suffrage Petition in 1891, including Mrs Coupland from #67. Nice huh? This is one of the pleasures of living in an old (for Australia) area, checking out the history of place.

24 hour party people

So my writhing stomach 'kittens' (see yesterday's post) was a simple 24 hour gastro by the looks of it. After a lot of sleep and lolling about the cramps and fever seem to have left the building. Thankfully. So I am up and about and getting ready to head out to do errands and then hit the studio. 

I was having trouble choosing a photo for this blog so opted for the picture above of a very large tapestry I scored a couple of weeks ago. It is about a metre in length. As I said very large. Now on first glance it look like a nice little picket fence weatherboard..... but look closer.....

the perspective is so hilariously skewed that you start to feel like you are in an Escher picture!

It has amused me no end in the studio as I walk passed it. 

4am

I woke up, at 4 this morning. out of dream that I was wrangling a shopping trolley full of kittens to realise that the squirming feeling was actually my gut and things weren't 'right'. 

A nasty bout of gastro that I am really hoping is of the 24 hour variety. 

I almost passed out at the chemist this morning and the short walk home was shaky and sweaty. The day has been sleeping and moving slowly and this evening vegemite toast.

Apart from being perpetually tired and often in pain from old injuries I don't often get actually ill so I'm sure I will be grumpy and frustrated by tomorrow and hopefully over the shakes and can get out to run errands and sort a few things out. 

I managed to get half of the new blue Agathas done yesterday but if I get into the studio tomorrow I have a huge list of other things to start. The shop is looking a bit empty.

agatha does a melba

Well TPGi's internet connection was crash-and-burn last night so I am finally catching up on my emails and posts this morning. Annoying and boring.

Yesterday I managed to finish the first new batch of Agatha dresses- due to popular demand Agatha is doing a Nellie Melba and is back for a return season. The Agatha was the drawstring neck and waist cotton voile dress we did last summer and I'm speeding through a couple of new batches while this hot weather is hovering over us. Even though they are saying that the February forecast is looking mild I'll bet you it will still be summer frock weather right up until April and autumn hits. So there is a black and white version ready now and hopefully a few blue ones tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

two years

It's two years today since I got the keys to 67 Gertrude Street.

I can't believe it.

What a crazy time it has been. Exhausting, exhilarating, exfoliating...... no sorry that's not right..... ummm........ extreme, exciting......

Thankfully January is over and hopefully February is going to be a bit more on the up. Today has been strange though, in a kind of topsy way (my neighbours and I ended up 'removing' an illegally parked car in our private parking area with a winch, a tow rope and much laughter and feelings of being very naughty- but hey the driver got arrested by the police two weeks ago and he's not coming back to get his vehicle so....) and I found out that something I usually count on throughout the year may not be happening (which could be bad or good depending on how it pans out- one of those 'out of one's hands' things that may in the long run be a good change- I'll just have to wait and see) and other exciting things that I am sworn to secrecy over at this point in time......

Sorry I am being all 'hush-hush' just it has been one of those days where nothing is sorted yet and I am as up in the air as I can be but it has the feeling that perhaps things are slowly starting to move. Not necessarily as I may have anticipated but sometimes that is a good thing. Sometimes the paths you take are not the ones you would have chosen.