Blinking Flights

A New Chapter

picture from bubbo-tubbo.

I've been doing lots of thinking lately, and the truth is that doing the markets every week is driving me slightly mad. I'm caught in a never ending cycle where all I really do is make blinkies, which I like to do, but frankly, I like to do other things as well. I have numerous half-finished projects, which I begin each Monday, and have to put aside each Wednesday because the Friday night deadline is always looming. My Fridays are dedicated to odds and ends related to the markets, my Saturdays are the markets, my Sundays are simply spent recovering from the markets, and balancing the books, which don't always balance.

The markets and associated costs such as petrol and all that unavoidable snacking-- which I promise myself each week that I won't be doing-- is my biggest cost. It's about 30% of my expenditure, and I'd rather be giving that 30% to shops who can sell for me despite the weather conditions, who have a larger window of opportunity than just 10am-4pm on a Saturday, and where I don't have to be the one doing the selling.

So, things are changing around here! I'm not going to be a regular at Glebe anymore. In fact after tomorrow, I'll be going pre-paid, which means that I'll just book ahead for when I want to show up, and pick a stall number on the day, maybe once a month. And I'll be doing some big markets here and there along the way, but regular markets where I'm competing with loads of imported items are just not so viable, and neither are craft markets where I'm competing with drastically underpriced copies of toys from the Softies books.

On the up side, the markets were GREAT for me. I made friends and contacts, I got to learn lots from those people, and from my customers, I got to see what people responded to, and what they didn't, and I got to practice my skills, and I must say, that I'm a pretty confident doll making lady these days. A year ago, I would have been too modest to say that, and when people complimented me on my skills, I used to think to myself 'wow, she must be a bad sewer if she thinks I'm any good', but I've come to see that growing up around people who sew things with as much ease as the rest of drink water, might have confused my idea of what good sewing was!

Anyway, I feel like an infinite number of good things came from the markets, it's just time for me to move on!

Hope you have a great weekend!

B.

Doll Fabrics:

I've been making some custom dolls over the last few weeks, and decided that it might be a good idea to have a fabrics set on my flickr page so people know what I have. I'm not sure how it will work in terms of when I run out, but it will provide a good place for inspiration and ideas, I will try and update it each week. The little doll here is named Ursula, and she is made from a machine embroidered pillow case I picked up at the op shop recently... I have a bunch of pretty things like this here at the moment too & they work really well with modern fabrics.

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My market highlight from this weekend was when a very serious girl, about eight years old, took one of my cards and asked if I was at the markets often. She told me that she loved my dolls and fabrics and that she was going to save up. Very sweet and made me smile.

I can't believe it's Autumn already... jeepers!

B.

Something nice.

I've been meaning to show this brooch off for a little while now, and I finally found it, my camera, and camera chord all at the same time today! I bought it at Glebe a while back from Elyse, who will be back on the first Saturday of March. I love it, and I loved almost everything she had that day, so I highly recommend you come and check it all out!

You'll also notice the chenille background-- that's right, my persistent op shopping adventures finally paid off last week. One white chenille bedspread, complete with tassels! :)

B. 

 

About Tomorrow...

1. The Declutter Sale is going to happen over 2 weeks-- I simply have too many things clogging up my cupboards and as much as I love them, I'm taking an anti-hoarding stance on this craft habit of mine. This is what I have ready to go for tomorrow:

Penguins, cats, monsters of all possible descriptions, dolls and birds... all waiting for new homes.

2. I won't be in my usual spot-- due to some construction at the school, my area is off limits for 5-6 weeks, and so I will be closer to the front gate area, as you head in off Glebe Pt Rd, turn left, and I'll be in there somewhere... on a corner. Hard to say what I'll be near since there are always so many casuals around that part of the market, but look for my white umbrella and Millicent bunting.

And completely unrelated to tomorrow, but completely related to my decluttering, I'm going to write up and post a pattern/tute for these little critters, they are rattles that I just re-discovered, so stay tuned, they are really easy to make, and good for using up little fabric scraps, hopefully I'll post it next week.

Happy Weekend! Weather man says Sydney will be lovely tomorrow!

B.

Pretty things at Glebe...

 

I mention Riyo on my blog sometimes, and some people may be wondering who she actually is... well, I had my camera at Glebe on the weekend, and I whilst I didn't manage to snap up a picture of the girl herself, I did get lots of shots of her lovely, vibrant work--

So soft and fine!

I spend any spare time I can find loitering around this stall-- it's all so interesting to me, all so different from what I do, and fascinating! But this isn't everything... Riyo shares her stall with Ako, who I watched doing some of her felting on Saturday, and this is what she makes:

I LOVE THE MARSHMELLOW EARRINGS! 

And because wool is such a slow burning product, you can do all kinds of things with it!

I hope you enjoyed my tour of the stall! :)

B.

Mathilda's: my verdict

Well, I have no idea where to begin with how to report on Mathilda's Market in Lane Cove this weekend... so I'll just begin by saying it was a huge disappointment in so many ways. I have no idea whether I'm supposed to remain diplomatic about the whole thing, but I really couldn't care less at this stage.

Firstly, I shouldn't have been allowed to retail there, because I did not 'fit in', and yesterday was all about fitting in... about pink for girls, blue for boys, about piggy tails on dolls and not giving boys anything that resembles a doll.

The one recurring comment I heard all day was 'they're weird'. I heard a lot of 'but what is a blinky?' in a somewhat disgusted tone, and watched as one potential customer was talked out of a sale by her friend, because a blinky would un-categorically scare the baby (it was little Matthew... he's the blue and white checked one in the basket with the big polka dot ears). Oh, and did I mention the word 'freaky', I heard that quite a bit too... Lucky I have thick skin...

There were of course some really cool people there, and I met blog readers who were super enthusiastic and supportive, crafty types definitely understood what I was doing and I had some really nice conversations with other textile addicted peeps, but on the whole, it was a flop... a massive flop! The atmosphere was generally unfriendly and stuffy, figuratively and literally-- made worse by the lack of air conditioning, lack of air flow, the fact that you were not allowed to eat or drink anything inside the market-- customers were held back if they had food, and made to finish it outside-- there were lots of very pregnant stall holders looking utterly exhausted in the heat, and I have no idea how I lasted that long, let alone how they did.

I did meet some really wonderful stall holders with some really wonderful products/creations-- and Sophie (who is lovely!) was very happy to pick out her free blinky-- she picked one of the ones with the hand holder fabric. For now, I am so worn out, and have so so so so so much housework to catch up on.

Hope Monday is good to you all!

B.

A Giveaway: now closed

How this works:

I will be giving away 2 blinkies-- not the ones pictured above, but as follows:

1. a lucky blog reader will win a custom blinky. You will be able to pick a general theme/colour/fabric style, a sub species-- cat, bunny, sheep, dog, the gender and the face features (eyes opened, happy, sleepy), and select the name, age and likes and dislikes. International entries welcome! :)

2. an even luckier reader who is attending Mathilda' Market on Sunday will also have the chance to select a blinky of their choice from my stall... and therefore could potentially win both prizes since they will be separate draws. For 1 extra entry, facebook, twitter etc, but I need you to tell me so I know.

To enter, just make a comment below, make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you. If you are attending Mathilda's, be sure to tell me so that I can pop you into the second draw. I will announce the winners on Friday evening, and will email the Mathilda's winner a special code so as to claim your prize on Sunday.

Good luck-- pass on the message, especially to Sydney siders and I'll love you more!

B.

Busy... me?

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I'm still here. I've been up at 6 most days and still at it until very late. Housework has been neglected, blog has been neglected... but still checking emails and reading everyone else's blogs.

Going to be announcing a giveaway very soon-- in relation to Mathilda's Market, which will be on this Sunday... these are some of the toys I'll be taking along!

B.

The picture says it all...

Need I say, that last night I was the happiest I've ever been to just get home and have a shower, and breathe in some undustry air, eat some undusty food and drink an undusty drink. Everything is in the washing machine right this minute! Hope you all had better luck staying inside yesterday...

B.

My Glebe News

My good news about Glebe is that I've been at it long enough now that I'll be able to book my stall monthy, and I'll be in the same spot every week! This is fantastic because it means a 6am alarm wake up instead of a 5am one... which means a little less stress the night before, and it means that packing the car won't have to be such a stealth mission, we try to be super-quiet, but everything echos in the stairwell, and I think we've probably woken more than a few neighbours... It also means that I don't line up each morning and wait for my name to be called, and hope that there is a good stall number left. This is good!

And speaking of Glebe, I thought I'd show off some of the cool stuff that Denise has been selling her daughter Bella over the last few weeks. Bella is away on a trip but is about to return with lots of fun stuff to add to her collection. My stall has been next to this one for the last 3 weeks and I love watching how people react to this jewellery! Especially the older folks with the scrabble tiles-- they need to have them!

Find Bella's blog here!

And whilst I've already used the segway 'speaking of', speaking of lego, have you seen this??

James May from Top Gear is building a lego house?!

Happy Tuesday! I have to go fabric shopping today... something I'm really dreading... NOT!

B.