Coming up Roses @ Bulimba/Balmoral

I visited this gorgeous shop around the corner from my son's

house on Saturday. It's owned by Hayley Lewis!

Coming up Roses - Bilyana Street Balmoral (Bulimba)

The goodies I just had to have. Beautiful wrapping paper,

some washi masking tape and a great book of 'Handmade Hellos'

Creative Collective - Random Acts of Kindness

February project - Random Acts of Kindness.

I had the added advantage this time round of having my photographer son with me when I was placing my ROAK cards for the February project with The Creative Collective. I was in Brisbane all last week for work, so over the weekend we went out into their area to place some cards in a few random spots.

The area Brendon lives in was affected by the floods, but not as bad as some areas, however there was still a lot of community spirit where they are. I'd like to thank the lady across the road from where he lives, as she offered everyone cups of tea and lots of support. So one of my cards goes to her, although I have mailed it to her. I don't know her name, but I've put a little note with it to thank her.

Here it is:

I've left the cards in some other fairly obvious and open places, so here they are:

You'll find this one 'where children play at the bend in the river'.

Around the same area - 'designed to a T hopes you have a great game'.

This is around the bend and up the river a bit, enjoy your ride.

To those of you who find these cards, I hope they lift your spirits, because no matter who you are or what you do, 'You stand out in a crowd'!

A thought for you...

'The person born with a talent they are meant to use,

will find their greatest happiness in using it.'

I visited Handmade Market Canberra today and met the lovely Jennie from Posie Patchwork for the first time.It was so nice to meet someone from the blogosphere finally, eventhough she was very busy and we only spoke for a little bit. She's a real salesperson. After every sale, 'You can find more at Shop Handmade', was her tag as she was finishing a sale. You go Jennie!!

In the P!NK

In the P!nk by designed to a T on Polyvore.com

Some pink lovelies - Homage to Pantone's Colour of the Year 'Honeysuckle'

Creative Collective - February Challenge

This is my postcard for the Creative Collective 'ROAK' (Random Acts of Kindness) February craft challenge.

 {Card Front}

{Card Back}

I've been working on the design for a little while, but changed it a bit to fit in with the challenge. But you know what...I really like it. Very happy with the way it's come out.

The postcards are all printed ready to go. I had an early-ish finish at work today, so I headed home in a flash, to spend a couple of hours working on the idea as a series of this design. 

I'll leave the postcards I've printed tonight in some unexpected places and take some photos. The idea is to leave them where someone you don't know can find them, and have them log in to the Creative Collective blog and tell us where they found their card.

The original idea for this series is 'Bird on a Wire', another is, 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. The idea is to think of an animal that I can incorporate a 'curly' bit, and also that connects to a movie name. So I'm still in the process of researching and creating the animals in Illustrator. I haven't decided what they should be, maybe a notepad or some sort of stationery item.

Hugs & Kisses

I'm a bit late for Valentine's Day, not that I made this to celebrate the day of love, it's for a birthday present for someone who has a special place in my heart.

To all of you who were made to feel so special, or made that special person feel loved, a very happy, although belated, Valentine's Day.

It's not that I've never celebrated Valentine's Day, it's just never really been a big thing. Although when it did happen, it was a surprise and all the more meaningful. It's difficult when you have two differing views in the one household.

I was thinking of the connection with Valentine's Day when I made this, and decided it would be a gift for my beautiful niece who is turning 20 this year. I can hardly believe we are one year away from celebrating her 21st.

It seems like yesterday she was a littlie, with my boys looking out for her and pushing her around in a pram. In recent years, I copied an Alex Perry dress for her formal, then I took a trip to Brisbane to surprise her for her 18th birthday.

She's actually not my niece, but she calls me Aunty Terese. Her Mum and I are cousins and very close, so we see a lot of each other whenever we can. She is something to be proud of.

A thought for you...

'A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life

to be thankful for a good one'

Mae West

To those of you who celebrate it...Happy Valentine's Day for Monday.

It's all coming along ...slowly!!

Well here I am, back again after a bit of a spell from regular blogging. I've been slowly working my way through some fabric designs I've been playing with for the last 12 months.

Some are new, some are newish (just tidied up a bit), others are ones I've now transferred into Illustrator from my design course a couple of years ago.

21 of my designs are now up on SPOONFLOWER.

It's a great website and tool to see how your design will look in repeat, but also a way to have samples and lengths printed using the digital printing process. BUT it's in America.

One of my old customers, (way back in the day when I was a Business Banking Manager) has a digital printing set up, here in Sydney and I am going to reconnect with him to see what their terms are.

Spoonflower will allow prints as small as a test swatch - about 20.5cm square or a fat quarter, and then if you are happy with the repeat (or placement) and the colour/s you can order longer lengths. The measurements are in inches and yards, being in America, but it's not hard to convert back to centimeters.

My old customer, at the time he was my customer, was printing a good deal of the fabrics for designers entering Australian Fashion Week. I would much rather use his business or any other Australian business to do my printing, at a reasonable cost of course.

Can anyone refer me to someone in AUS who does this process?

I'm still going to screenprint small batches of one and two colour prints for small print runs, but the multiple colour prints I'm going to give the digital process a go.

Spoonflower uses eco products and printing processes and I've had a look at their 'youtube' clips. Some of the background music is a bit corny, but heck, I'm not buying music from them, am I!!!

In this next 'youtube' clip you'll see a quick glimpse of How about Orange's fabrics at around the 8 second mark, then 1:53 and 2:17. Keep an eye out for them, the one on the left and the centre one in the picture below...Oh and you might want to turn the music down/off. You might not...but I did.

A thought for you...

Logic will get you from A to B. 

Imagination will take you everywhere.

Albert Einstein - theoretical physicist, philosopher - 

14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955

 {Image from here}

French Influence

French Influence by designed to a T on Polyvore.com

I'm currently changing my work area and am in love with everything French. This is my idea of little lovelies for my Bedroom.