Blinking Flights

Glebe...

Ok, well, I have been meaning to write about Glebe since I got home, and now seems like as good a time as any... so... it was really good! I'm sure that I was under-prepared in many ways, and that I'll look back one day and laugh at my naivety in the whole situation, but I felt so much more prepared than I did at Bondi the week before, so much!

Thanks for the photos Karen, you clever thing!

I have discovered that you should always try and get a corner spot if you can... double exposure is fantastic, and at Bondi I was hidden by two ginormous tents either side of me... not sure if people could actually see that I was there. And you should try and pre-empt things as much as you can, know your product etc., which is like retail 101, but practice saying all the stuff in your head out loud-- the reasons that you do things, things that might seem obvious to you, which aren't always obvious to others, such as the fact that I have wondered through the valley of stuffing choices and settled with simple old polyfil for various reasons, such as washability, general availability, cuddability--polyfil is squishy and soft... but customers associate synthetics with cheapness, whilst they associate things like cotton--which is highly flammable--with natural and good, as they do with wool, which is lovely, but not as easy to wash, and which would push the cost of my toys up a little. I also noticed that some people were making comments such as I wonder where she imports them from, which was a little disheartening, but it means next time, I need some signage making it explicit that I make them all myself, from scratch!

I'm learning as I go along! And I'm getting everything completely sorted so that my table looks really nice next time (which will be from August 1st), I'm going to buy a few metres of calico and stamp it with the wonderful little mushroom stamp I showed you a little while ago (just bought some fabric ink from here... very excited!). And making up a bunch of other things, that no doubt I'll show you as I finish!

I also made some friends, had lots of chats with stall holders and marvelled at the awesomeness of other people's wares... I love all this lego jewelry... thinking if I know someone that would wear lego cufflinks, and love the clothes that were on display by Red Ruby, they don't have a website, but they are divine screen-printed tops and skirts... great designs, great cuts and great fabrics! Resisted the urge to spend all sales $ on these, but it was extremely difficult.

But I didn't completely resist buying all together. I met Riyo, who sells a lot of cool stuff, Japanese fabrics, I bought some fat quarters, and stamps and lots of awesome felt stuff... and these sweet little zines for about $3... hand stamped from hand carved stamps that she makes... I'm starting to seriously love this stamping caper...

She has a blog and an Etsy Shop, and is at Glebe every week!

So, anyway, I'll stop blabbing on, and just say I had a great time, I'm booked again from the August 1, and will be making it a regular thing from then on, and that I'm pretty excited about the whole thing!

Now, I have to finish cleaning... I pulled the whole flat apart on Sunday, trying to create a permanent screen-printing station... I think Henry is enjoying the maze-like conditions, but Joe and I are not...

B.

The Markets!

Ok, well, I've been meaning to post about how the markets went since I got home, but I have been seriously exhausted! I got up at 5:30am on Sunday to be at Bondi at 8:30, and didn't get home until about 7:30pm. Joe came with me, we drank so much coffee, we ate the only food available there, which was all bbq-ed meat on buns, and got pretty darn sun burnt! We also arrived while it was raining, then sprinkling, then raining, and sat nervously looking at all the toys, wondering what would happen if it didn't clear up... but, it did clear up, hence the sun burn!

So, it wasn't the most lucrative adventure I've ever been on, but it was certainly a learning experience... according to the other stall holders, it was a pretty terrible day in terms of the number of people, and we were also way up the back, out of the way, overshadowed by 2 enormous tents on either side, and not in a very good line of traffic! People loved what I had, and as always, asked about stocking them in their shops... something which I'm not quite ready for yet, I can't possibly sell them any cheaper when I take into account the time and cost of materials, but I'm sure I'll get faster as I go along and figure out a better way of setting the whole system up.

I have Glebe coming up this Saturday, and I'm feeling about a hundred times more prepared than I was this time last week! For starters, I've actually been to Glebe markets, I had never been to Bondi markets... when I lived in Sydney, I was an inner-west girl, the Eastern suburbs were always a strange far off place only accessible by a series of buses, and they never had the allure of Newtown or Glebe. And I know what to do in terms of setting up the table and stuff... so much more prepared!

Next week, when I've recovered a little, I'm going to make some posts about what/how to go about this whole market caper... I had soooooooooo many questions that could only be answered by doing it, and lots of people have been asking me stuff along the same lines, so I'm going to put all my notes together, and hopefully be of use to some people out there!

Well, stuff to sew, coffee to drink, and unfortunately some books to keep (last day of financial year... eeek!).

Oh, and a massive thank you to Joe, Jacqui and Eleni, who came and sat and walked and encouraged, and generally made the day more enjoyable! You guys are the raddest! And Sian will be coming and spending the day with me at Glebe, so this is proving to be a good social/catching up move for me!

Happy Tuesday!

B.

New Stuff!

More new stuff in my Etsy Shop, including one of these new fuzzy-fleecy-not-quite-bug-like-things! (top right corner), also, if you are going to come to the markets this week or next week, and would like to reserve something for sale in the shop, just convo me or leave a message, and you won't have to pay postage.

Well, I've got to keep sewing so that my table isn't empty!

B, x.

The website exists!

Remember the website designs I showed you all last week? Well, after some mucking about, some phone calls with the host company, I have it all sorted and uploaded... please don't tell me about any problems with it because it'll make me cry, and you don't want to do that do you?

It's simple, it's functional and if you ever need help using Postcard Viewer or Simple Viewer, just drop me a line, cause I'm your girl!

This is the link:

www.blinkingflights.com

Oh, and you should definitely tell me any probs you see, because I will want to fix them asap, crying or no crying...

Also, a quick question if anyone uses Explorer... I used it last night for the first time in yonks, and noticed that this blog is a little strange in it. There should be a left hand column, the main, middle part, where these posts appear and a right hand column, symmetrical to the left hand one... do you see that? Cause I saw my right hand column way down the bottom of the page whilst everything else was normal...

Just leave a message or email me if you have feedback on this! It seems fine in Safari and Firefox...

Now, I get to do some sewing, finally!

B.

Glebe Markets here I come...

Well I have a stall booked at Glebe Markets for the 4th of July! We drove up to Sydney early yesterday morning to book and prepay a stall, and that was the only date that wasn't sold out, so in almost a month, I'll be selling my wares in Glebe... which is kind of funny, because when I moved to Sydney from the country as an 18 year old, Glebe Markets was like such a big deal... I remember the first time my friend Monica took me there, and it was so, so cool. All the colours, the people, the clothes, the food... I felt like I finally understood where I wanted to be, and I used to go there every Saturday on my own on the way up to Mike's house. I soon ended up with an oversupply of very cheap second hand clothes with funny names and logos, and unique, handmade jewelry... and a taste for the potato salad from the salad stall... that was 10 years ago!

I also managed to get some nice Japanese paper that doesn't involve flowers, pink or other extreme girly-ness... I need some for the boy bug labels, and it's taken quite a great deal of hunting. I'm really happy with it!

Plus, Joe's brother has been staying with us this weekend and I have managed to recruit him for The Toy Society, he really likes it and he's going to involve his kids in the whole process, which I think is so exciting, I would have loved it when I was little!

Check out my raspberry flavoured biscuits... they kind of look funny, but they are delicious, and they're just a standard biscuit mix with a few mashed frozen raspberries... easy!

Whole new batch of cats and bunnies coming along!

And my bug hairstyling techniques are getting better!

Excited about the markets!!!

Plus, I reduced the price of some of the older stock bugs in the Big Cartel Shop, so check it out if you're interested!

Goodnight!

B.

My Shops are open!

Wow. This is all a little bit new and confusing for me still, but I have put stuff in both the Etsy Shop and in the Big Cartel Shop. I have gone with 2 shops because I can do Big Cartel in Aus dollars, and I really appreciate that.

So the links to them are in the right column! --------------------------->

Woo Hoo!

Goodnight,

B, x.

Bug photos uploaded!

Hello there again... well I just photographed the bugs and uploaded them to flickr, so if you won, you can click here, choose your bug, let me know by emailing me at: [email protected], and include your mailing address, and I'll post it Monday! It's a first in, best bugged system! Just leave a comment under the photo, so other winners know not to choose yours.

Thanks everyone for the naming help, I didn't manage to use everyone's suggestions, but I do have a whole new batch on the way, so I'll certainly use everyone's names eventually.

Have a great Saturday!

B.

And the winners are...

Well, I am so tired. So very, very tired, I just got back from Sydney a little while ago, and the first thing I did was write everyone's name down on a piece of a paper... on 2 pieces if you came up with a bug name. I put them all into a bowl, and drew the 3 winners... and they are:

Breezy Babies...

I Love Baby Quilts... &

Michelle!

So I will post all the photos of all the bugs I have tomorrow morning... far too sleepy now, and it is way too dark, but if there is a bug you 3 have your eye from flickr or the blog, let me know, and I'll let you know if it's still in my possession, so that it can be in yours!

Congratulations and thanks to everyone for playing along, I appreciate it!

I'm going to do another one soon, I had so much reading all the names!

If you wanna know when, you can join the Facebook group I mentioned in last post (or click here).

B, xxx!

Facebook Giveaway Group

Wow! I'm really loving reading all these bug names and likes, and some of the dislikes are especially funny! Fake nails, wedge heel shoes, air conditioners! They're great... I would never have come up with them at all! I especially like the dislike 'people who are mean to kittens', being a serious cat lover myself!

So, thank you!

I have made up a facebook group which will alert people as to when I'm doing another giveaway, so if you're into comps and freebies (I am!), feel free to sign up! The link is here.

Today, I'm going up to Sydney to spend the night with with my Mum, my parents have rushed to Sydney because Dad needs some sort of surgery one of his eyes, or he could go blind in it... so that's pretty freaky, but nothing life-threatening!

I'll draw the winners tomorrow and let everyone know on the blog, and via whatever contact details were made available, your blog, email, facebook, whichever!

If you haven't already, please leave a comment under the post below and enter the comp!

Thanks again!

B.

Giveaway! Giveaway! Giveaway!

I'm about to open my Etsy Shop, and so I thought I should do something special, or at least exciting, and that thing is... give away 3 bugs to 3 different readers! And I'll let the winners pick which bug they want! I have about 30 sitting here patiently waiting for me to do something with them, and I have about 10 being even more patient with me because they have no stuffing! If do you win, I'll let you pick which one you want by posting them all on flickr later in the week! How's that for generous?!

What to do...

1 entry: Leave a comment on this post

2 entries: Since I'm having trouble picking names, and likes & dislikes for the new bugs, I want you to make up a name and 3 likes, and 3 dislikes for a bug. They could be anything at all as long they're not rude, they could even just be your own name and tastes.

I'll draw 3 winners randomly on Friday, and I'll let you know who you are so that you can pick your new little bug friend! So they should be in the post by Monday!

Anyone, anywhere can enter!

Please do, I'll feel silly if no one enters!!!

Goodluck and have a great Tuesday!

P.S. If you're having issues leaving a comment because you don't have a google id or something, just email me at [email protected], and I'll post your entry for you! Or on facebook if you know me there!

x, B.

P.S. More bugs @ my photostream!