petrichor

The scent of petrichor* was strong this evening when I went for a walk. Hot concrete and spits of rain.
A bit of a mishmash of a day. I was awake most of the night (damn daylight saving's lag), I went to bed knowing that there was no use in trying to get to sleep so went and sat outside on the thunderbox drinking tea, chatting with Jethro and listening  to the pigeons tumbling off the roof next door in the throws of a Spring Fling. Then back to bed at about 4am for a bit of sleep.
I spent the day waiting for the new batch of satchels to arrive, no show, a waited satchel never arrives, tomorrow hopefully! I did manage to get odd bits done, emails answered, a meeting with a wholesale customer, new vintage lampbases polished up, flower brooches priced, a new shipment of glass domes unpacked.
Stay tuned for the satchels tomorrow! Fingers crossed!

*Just a nerdy Doctor Who reference there......

waspish

I've been wanting to re-work the scarf dresses for sometime now. It's such a classic but it's also such a bugger to make, slippy and slidey and silky and I really have to be in the right frame of mind to do them. I also wanting to re-draft the pattern and last Friday I stood at the cutting table and was totally bamboozled by the base block I use for this garment, it made my head swim, so I waked out of the studio and left it all over the cutting table.
Yesterday I walked in and it was all so obvious.
So the first trial garment is done and I am more than happy with it. I still need to do the hem and grade all the sizes but the changes I've made make please me and now I just need to be good and get my arse in gear and start making.
After last evening's amusement with Jethro sitting in the Haby Box box Anna found a wasp in the window and we decided to grab it before Jethro found it. I grabbed it in a calico shoe bag and screamed 'farrrk' as it stung me through two layers of cloth, right on the tip of my finger. I've been stung by wasps before and it is absolutely excruciating. I can't compare it too a bee sting as it is so long since I've been zapped by one but at least with wasps I don't swell like I do with a bee. I had a foot the size of a football once and a forearm like a ham with skin cracking and peeling and itching to drive one insane. My wasped finger did manage to feel like it had an electric current running through it for 5 hours and it's feeling a little over-zapped today but all worth Jethro not having a rude shock if he had decided to make a new friend.
The wasp survived, we threw him out on the street and even though Anna wanted to stomp him I said let him go, then I slammed the door and hoped he didn't call all his friends down because when there is one wasp there will be 100,000 hiding around the corner! (I learned this from last time I was stung.)

boxed

Anna and I were chatting this evening just after we closed the shop and we turned around to discover someone sitting in the Haberdashery Box box.
We're sure he was just waiting to be noticed.
Ridiculous.

a good lie in

I seem to be unable to get out of bed at the moment, I am enjoying that morning sleep in far too much. Yesterday I finally crawled from bed at 9.15 and really it totally threw my morning into disarray (mainly because there was a whole pile of things I had left undone the day before and I had an hour to put them to rights) so I decided no studio but to venture out on a quest. I had been trying to hunt down some components via the internet but, as I always find, it is so much better to go out and talk to people.Especially lovely 'old skool' types who give you addresses and contacts for obscure people in strange places and even call them to smooth the way. A lesson for Big Business, you may not get a sale this time but by helping someone in their search they will come back in the future and buy, and whilst the interweb thingy may be OK when you know precisely what you are after, it really doesn't compete in sales service and experience.
I really love hanging out in old style trade-y supply shops, I end up learning so much.
I love traditional hardware stores (not many of those left since Chalmers closed), shops that specialise in nuts and bolts and washers and screws, places that trade in obscure bits of kit, factories where they have made the machinery that makes the thing you are after, it's all so ingenious and simple and brilliant.
Anyway I'm running late again and better get my arse in gear and down to the studio. I've got things to make.

my car pet

Last week I went out to the back and found a cocoon on the ground next to the car. Being a wunderkammer type of person I picked it up and popped it on the dashboard with the intent to take it inside but being a lazy soul I left it there with a piece of wave polished glass I found in Tasmania. Next day when I got in the car I noticed it wasn't on the dash and found it rolling around the floor, I thought it must have blown off when I opened the door and thought nothing of it when I popped it to the dash again. The same thing happened again and I kind of forgot about the cocoon (out of sight etc) until I went to put something in the boot of the car and there was the cocoon attached to the side of the hatch- it was alive! So far it has migrated from the passenger side front to passenger side back and it is now swinging above the speaker on the driver's side back. When I look in the revision mirror I can see it swing with the movement of the car.
Just as it has become attached to my car I have grown quite attached to it.
I need to find somewhere safe to move it to, probably somewhere with some straw mulch by the look of it's lovely camouflage.

In shop news (and I am only doing this because I got messages saying people didn't mind) I spent last night pricing all our lovely new stock from Zara, she has excelled herself this time! I think we could kit out a whole army of Fridas, we have cream, black, red and navy dresses in all sizes (some colours are very limited 'so first in blah blah...'), blouses in black and cream and also the mini-me dresses for the little Fridas in your life. The Sophie range is in too with lovely white cotton voile long top/dress and a shorter shirt version (does that make sense?) and we have some of the Agua dresses with embroidery in new colours. I still have the very last of it to tag this morning.
Oh! And we have some new vintage-y viscose short sleeve striped knit tops in too! They are classic Slade knits and are totally 'resort wear' (never thought you'd hear that coming from my lips did you?!) in that you just wash them and never iron them, pack them in a bag, pull them out, let them hang for half an hour and ta-da! ready to wear. I'm thinking capri pants or cuffed jeans  and flat shoes for a totally so Frenchy so chic look, a little kerchief tied at the neck and strangers will call you 'Audrey'.
Well I better be off, vacuuming and floor mopping to do. Need to decide on a shop-day bit of craft to do today, I always end up running about in a panic at 3 minutes to 11 trying to get everything together.
I'll be the one in the shop today wearing a crazy bright embroidered floral number from Tehuacán, you won't be able to miss me.

denim redux

You might remember back when Dell organised the 'Denim' show that some very important work didn't arrive from Antwerp. Sadly the package of Renilde's work seemed to have been stashed under some postal worker's desk , suddenly a tracking email popped up and it was on the move and so it finally arrived 2 and 1/2 months late. Dell grabbed a window of opportunity and is having a two week exhibition at Mr Kitly so we can all go and see it. She's even organised a little afternoon tea on Saturday in honour of it's arrival.
I've made a batch of shaggy frayed marshmallows as I won't be able to attend (shopgirl duties) so please pop in to the lovely Mr Kitly and say hello to the gorgeous Dell who will be manning the tea trolley.

and the coloured girls go.....

Sorry for the lack of posts, flat camera batteries and a lack of motivation primarily to blame, and lots of other activities going on like getting to rummage through the first three boxes of treasures collected in Mexico by the lovely Zara. She's brought us the cream of the crop, the Best in Show, the bee's knees and there is more to come!
First on the racks are the new coloured Frida dresses. Red and navy*! It's always a marvel to unpack these garments, they are just so beautiful and each one unique, different colour combos, different flowers, birds, baskets and bows. There is also more of the 'Sophie' style garments but they are not out yet (we've run out of hangers and cord for our swing tags). We have a batch of long sleeve white-on-white voile dresses/long tops which will look fabulous over jeans or with skirts- or over your bathers if you are that way inclined.
I hate it when I just post about shop stock, I hate it in other people's blogs and feel embarrassed when I do it here too. I suppose I better suck it up, I have a shop full of stock to sell..... and what stock it is! The coloured Fridas are in limited supply, we have red in small, medium and large and navy only in medium but more sizes in the navy arriving very soon, so please if you would like one hurry in, we really hate it when people are disappointed. And you are welcome to phone if you are interstate and we'll talk you through them or send photos if we have the time or the camera batteries are recharged.

 *Thinking of you Emma, Queen of Navy!