back at the counter

Hello all!

Don't know whether you noticed but there was no blog post last Saturday, as is usual.

I had surgery to my wrist to fix two things last Friday and they wouldn't let me out until lunchtime Saturday (which was good as I wasn't in a very good state from the anaesthetic). I'm stuck wearing a back-slab cast and bandages again but at least the swelling and bruising is disappearing. And I can for the first time in 6 months actually carry a mug of tea with my right hand so it must be on the mend!

I've spent most of this week pottering about, annoying shopgirls, moaning and complaining and eating all the fabulous care packages and garden produce that have been dropped off for me. I feel pretty lucky I have such lovely friends.... and thank you to the people who called and sent messages. The first few days were spent recharging with my purr therapist and thankfully now I have finished the high dose antibiotics I am feeling far less queasy. 

Even though I was out of action for most of the week we still had stock arriving and also had a chance to unpack stock from the week before. This weeks bounty was vintage French wooden toys from the Clair Bois factory that closed in the 70s, a new shipment of the brass handled scissors, gorgeous horn hair combs, vintage British scrubbing brushes and, yet to be unpacked, Slade woollen Autumn/Winter knits. We've got a shipment of vintage enamel and another four boxes of our newspaper carry bags arriving early in the week and I think things are only going to get worse..... zero storage here and I am not quite up to my usual box juggling.

We need to find homes for the Slade cotton knits and today I am knocking 40% off all of this Spring/Summer stock. Sales in the shop never seem to work at the Cottage but I don't have the energy to pack it all away and lug the boxes to the studio so please take advantage of this and come and buy some cotton cardis!! You will be doing me a favour!! We will also mail these anywhere in Australia flat rate $10. You can call the shop if you want to check colours, styles and sizes. I'm also thinking if I can get my act together tomorrow I might be able to get some photographed and into the online shop... what do you think? Would you like that?

OK, I'd better get off the computer and downstairs to sort stuff out. 

I am in the shop today, come and visit!

I am the hump

Morning all!
What a strange morning it is (weatherwise) it wants to rain but just can't quite do it. I'm hoping it will as it is a strange mix of humid and cool. Bring on some autumnal rain I say!
I'm in the shop today if you are looking for me. I'd like to say I was in the studio making stuff but apart from a couple of hours I might be able to squeeze in tomorrow my studio time is over for a week or two. Surgery on the hand and wrist happens on Friday and that is going to keep me out of action for a little while. I'm hoping even with a plaster cast for a couple of weeks (and then a splint) that I will still be able to sew. We've had a run on the wax print dresses this week and are crazily low now. I did manage to make some 'Alice' tops but I would love the chance to get some chemises and party dresses done in our new fabrics. I scored new designs on Monday too so the fabric mountain is getting even higher....
There are also new vintage floral linen cushions made and the cushion bunk is looking pretty lovely. There is some new (vintage) designs and some new pattern combinations.I've made two of each combo but they are available singularly of course.
Better bust a move. Got to get things together to do in the shop today. I'll be shopgirl until 6pm.

pie dishes of autumn

What a topsy week it has been. Bad news for dear friends, deliveries and unpackings, juggling and struggling, confirmation of surgery for me (next Friday) and trying to work out how to get as much making as I can do done in a few days.
I am definitely glad that Summer has ticked over and the light is lengthening. Autumn and Winter how I love thee. We still have hot weather coming but with the drop in the angle of the sun the bite just isn't quite so bad. There has been a week of auroras and I wish I could have just run away and followed them.
We had two deliveries of enamel this week. A small drop of Romanian Tara enamel of red kettles (they boil faster) and some big enamel basins which would look amazing filled with an autumnal harvest of apples and quinces. A big part of our Falcon order came through too and we've restocked the pie dishes and now have the new black 'granite' baking range as well.... and kettles in black enamel too, they are pretty special! I've spent a couple of evenings photographing and hopeful the images will be ok and I can get the online shop revamped. I haven't checked the images on the big screen yet and it's making me nervous. I'll let you know when it is up.
So today is the first day of Autumn..... time to come purchase your pie dishes!
I'm in the shop until 5 pm.
I might be reading this. I've been mourning the death of print newspapers and am exciting that in our time of appalling political crap and financial insecurity this paper has been started. If I didn't have to work today you would have found me sitting at my big kitchen table with a pot of tea and surrounded by newspapers. Of course I would have had to clean the kitchen table off first, sadly it's 6 years since I got to spend my Saturdays with tea, toast, 3RRR and the newspapers.

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....)