The Finders Keepers Market

Hay Ho! It's time for the Finders Keepers Market again.

This year it's being held in a brand new venue at The Royal Exhibiton Buildings in Carlton on Friday night, and all day Saturday.

Head along to the Betty Jo / Gleaners Inc stall to find yourself some lovely handmade CurlyPops goodies.

I'll see you there!

The Technicolour Chook Strikes Back

Well it seems like an eon ago, but today the technicolour chook is finally making a return.

He's been waiting in the wings (very bad pun intended) for the loooooongest time.

You see, after Vic drew him for me waaaaaay back in March, I ordered a fabric version, with the intention of making my mum a cushion for Mothers Day.

I waited and I waited and I waited...... and after about 8 weeks, he arrived. Two whole weeks after Mothers Day.

Never one to be defeated, I hatched (another very bad pun intended) an alternative plan to make him into a cushion for my mums birthday (which is today).

Somewhere between mid-May and last week, he got completely lost in the fabric jungle known as 'my stash'.

But then luckily on Friday, I had a massive clean up and he magically re-appeared.

Talk about perfect timing...

Original Chook Drawing courtesy of Vic
Green Spotty fabric courtesy of Liz
Perfectly sized zip in Tomato Sauce Red courtesy of the Op Shop Gods
Happy Birthday Mum

Featured Hottie Number 42

Today's featured hottie is by............ well, I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to make you guess!

But, I can tell you that the lovely spotty fabric was courtesy of Tania from Myrtle and Eunice when she surprised me with An Ode to Houdini....

.... and those lovely cut-out flowers?

Photo courtesy of Liz's other blog - You Will Always Find Me

Well they were originally part of Liz's kitchen curtains.

What do you think?

The homepage of The Hottie Challenge - lots more in the Hottie Flickr Group and the Hottie Exhibition Group

Featured Hottie Number 13

This lovely Hottie is sort of like a double feature....

If you remember back to when I featured the gorgeous Hottie brooch by Liz from Betty Jo.... well, that was only half the story.

On Thursday night, she bought along her finished Hottie for me to bring home.

It's a Hottie Electric Blanket - and it's ingenious my dear Liz!

The homepage of The Hottie Challenge - lots more in the Flickr Group

Featured Hottie Number 2

I have another lovely Hottie for you today.

This super cute Budgie Hottie brooch is by Liz from Betty Jo.... I wonder if it's part of her finished Hottie Challenge piece?

Oh, and the postie delivered the very first finished hottie to my house yesterday. Thankyou Trudi!

Where's W.... Owlie?

Super Cute Collage by Betty Jo

It seems that some of my little plastic Owls have flown the coop already!

Going Cuckoo

I've been wanting one of these for the looooooooongest time, so when I won the Betty Jo Fan comp, I knew that I was putting my gift voucher towards my very own cuckoo clock.


Every time I walk past it, I want to break out and sing So Long, Farewell...

Is it a bird, is it a plane?

Wearing my Betty Jo SuperPops

No! It's the return of SuperPops!

Unfortunately, SuperPops had been put out to pasture in the good paddock for far too long over the winter.....  meaning that her superhero dress has become a little bit too tight around the midriff section. She can't currently sit down, as a button might literally pop off and take someone's eye out.

You may be wondering what would necessitate the return of SuperPops today.

I could pretend that she'd returned to rescue a kidnapped baby, do a good deed for a pensioner, or give away a prize, but in this case, I'm afraid she's returned to the blog for purely selfish reasons.

You see there's a Betty Jo fan giveaway going on at the moment, where some lucky duck can win a gift voucher (and I really want to win so that I can buy myself a cuckoo clock).

From Betty Jo:

Send me a photo of yourself or your Mum/Sister/ Gran/Buddy/Bloke wearing or posing with a Betty Jo Designs jewellery or clock. Please lets see who you are (no lapel shots or chopped off heads or macro zoom type pics.) Either email them to me (bettyjodesigns@gmail.com) or upload them onto to Betty Jo's Facebook
I hoping to make a customer gallery and need some submissions to kick start it!
I will leave this open for a while so (hopefully) I have a few entrants from which to choose who will win the voucher ( it will be a random choice I might add).

This is my proper entry.... now you should all get photographing pronto!

The one where I finally say thankyou

Lauren Williams Button Necklace and Betty Jo Lino Flower Brooch

Life suddenly got a whole lot busier this year, so I've been a little slack with keeping up to date with the thankyous!

Lovely Lauren gifted me this gorgeous button necklace at the market on Saturday (it features one of my favourite Ume Komachi fabrics) and lovely Liz gifted me a gorgeous (extremely limited edition) floral lino brooch.

In the mail last week, I received these fabulously funky retro tea towels and a gorgeous scrappy brooch from lovely Steph at Moo Bear. She stumbled across them at a garage sale....the floral motifs and the colours are absolutely amazing.

...and last but certainly not least is this absolutely beautiful tea towel from lovely Mandapanda at Krafty Panda.

 I desperately need to make myself a new tote bag (the grubby penguins need a wash), so this will be the perfect size and print!

Thank you so so much to all of you for the super special pressies!

On My Wall - Part 2

While cleaning up on the weekend, I discovered another hidden treasure.

It had fluttered itself all the way home to my house..... only to get covered in a pile of fabric!

But now, this beautiful Betty Jo Lino Butterfly wall hanging has pride of place next to SuperPops, and all is well in the world....

More skirts...

After the success of my first a-line skirt from Sew What Skirts, and then helping Bec to make one too, I jumped at the chance to make one for Liz.

Liz found the front panel fabric at the oppy, and I just happened to have the perfect brown fabric (some sort of linen blend I think - also from the oppy) in the stash for the back two panels.

After the first fitting, it ended up being a little bit short.... so I added a strip of brown velour type fabric (also from the oppy) right around the skirt.

My original mistake with the length has turned out to be a design feature instead!

Razzamatazz

Liz tipped me off the other day, about a little shop that I'd never visited....


Trimmings and Remnants is jam packed with all things bright and sparkly - fabrics, sequins, trims, ribbon etc etc etc. If you needed to make a costume for Mardi Gras, then this would definitely be the place to visit!

I just couldn't resist picking up a couple of sparkly remnants, and some sparkly thread to play with. Now... what to make???

Going Greener

Betty Jo Collage Cards and SuperPops

I had a very interesting morning today. As part of the economic stimulus package, households can have a free environmental assessment of their homes, to learn about how to practically reduce their environmental impact, save money on energy bills, and of course make homes more comfortable and energy efficient to live in.

I've already made a start since I moved into my new place by installing heavy curtains, new exhaust fans, and a skylight. I have plans to install ceiling fans so that I don't have to use the air conditioning, and after today, I'm also going to look at having an external awning blind installed on my bedroom window..... in fact, I've been to the blind shop for a quote already.

I've learned about lots of new products on the market to make it easier to be environmentally friendly too.... it was definitely well worth organising. If you're interested (in Melbourne), let me know and I'll email you the contact details.

The photo above shows the the lovely Betty Jo Collage Cards that I bought for myself on the weekend. I'm planning on framing them to create artwork for my walls.
They fitted in with my environmental theme today as they were all inspired by the flotsam and jetsam that Liz has collected from various beaches. I was also lucky enough to bring home SuperPops.... and she has a brooch finding so I can wear her with pride. Thanks Liz!

Super Cupie Lino Pops

This one is especially for my BIL.... a laminex and lino Betty Jo SuperPops.

From Liz:

She has a Red Laminex headdress, cape and pumps to Give her extra SUPER CUPIE powers!
She has on her Super Cupie Pops apron with the famous motif, and attacks her evil foes with pegs ...pinching them within an inch of their lives!

Here she is with her Super Cupie Posse..... oh so cute!

Thanks so much for playing along Liz.

How on earth are we ever going to be able to pick a winner? I'm thinking I might have to do a blog poll at the end of the month.....

Another market wrap

Well it was another lovely day at the Made'n'Thornbury market yesterday. I only managed to take a couple of happy snaps before my camera started beeping to let me know that my battery was flat...drats!

Looking at the photo, I can now see that I had far too much stock on my table - a good lesson for the next one.

It's always great to meet up with the rest of the stallholders for a chat, and we also had lots of other lovely visitors come to say hello too.

We missed Cathie.... we were dreaming of her red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting all afternoon.

I've spent all day today sitting on the couch eating (tim tams, vegemite toast, and cupcakes) and drinking cups of tea, and generally just veging out which has been wonderful.

Hmmm I think I have just enough time for one more tim tam without spoiling my dinner!

A broochfest

There seems to be a little bit of a broochfest happening around crafty blogland, so here's my show and tell!

I try to co-ordinate a brooch to my outfit every day, even if I'm just schlepping about the house. Brooches just seem to make me happy.

• Top row - Beaded Heart and Flower Brooches by me
• 2nd Row - Aunty Mabels Handbag & Owl by Betty Jo - Wonderland and Chocolate by Sophie Isobel
• 3rd Row - Flower by Greenolive, Owl by Hokey, Vintage Diamante Cluster bought from second hand shop in Clunes, INXS badge from the 80's gifted to me from Steph.
• Bottom Row - Necklace / Badge Combo by Lauren Williams, 3 vintage floral & 1 Pippijoe fabric badge from Starashan.
• Cluster of badges on the right hand side made by me at Brown Owls last year.

Do you have a little bit of a brooch collecting obsession that you'd like to share?

Taking notes

When a seriously talented and successful crafter gives tips, I listen.

I've been using paint cards and playing cards as backing for my brooches, and I was also considering using some 1970's recipe cards.

Liz just happened to mention a little tidbit about the busyness of the packaging taking the spotlight away from the actual product - and it was one of those lightbulb moments.

So, after a little bit of re-thinking, I ordered some very white and very plain postcards.

Now my next task is to tone down the look of my market stall..... could be difficult!

Food in 1974

After reading Liz's post yesterday, I couldn't help but chuckle and take of photo of these.

I first spotted them at the local oppy a few weeks ago. I knew that I wanted them, but I just didn't know what to do with them, so I very slowly walked away.

Of course, as soon as I got home I was kicking myself.

A week later I went back and they were still there..... hallelujah!

They're actually Weight Watchers Recipe Cards from 1974 (what a great year...ahem).

I picked out just a few of my favourites. Is it just me, or do the photos actually put you off eating anything (especially pink soup)?

It's a wrap

My second Made'n'Thornbury market was just as exciting as the first, and even busier!

This is the before shot, as I was setting up.....


The sweet little donkey apron found a new home...

It was lovely to see so many bloggers - Bev, Nikki, Bec, Fiona, Jacinta, Anna, Melanie, (I hope I didn't miss anyone) and to put faces to names....

JasperBoy Jen (blogless) came to visit and bought me a heart biccie....isn't that sweet!

....and Liz came to visit and not only bought me some vintage linens, but this amazing Betty Jo vintage lino brooch for my birthday! Sorry about the blurry photo, I was trying to take a photo of myself wearing it yesterday. Thankyou so much Liz!

If you love Aunty Mabels Handbag as much as me, there's a similar one here on Georgielove, and Liz is also having an amazing Mothers Day giveaway.

As per usual, I had to have my own little shopping spree at the market, but I haven't unpacked my goodies yet, so I'll save them for later on this week.

A huge thankyou to sister, Mrs T, my nephew Mr X, and Tinniegirl for helping me out yesterday. I couldn't of participated without your help, and I'm very grateful!

To market, to market, to buy a.....

Wowee, my first ever craft market was sooooo much fun!

It was much better than I could have ever expected. The weather was beautiful, the location was fantastic, the stallholders were happy and friendly, there was a steady stream of customers all day long, and the five hours were over in a flash.

The kids craft table and the face painting was a huge hit with the little ones.

It was just like a huge crafty blogmeet - it was lovely to see Cindy, Bec, Liesl, Bev, Nikki, Leah, Ann-Marie, Liz, and Lara. I hope I didn't miss anyone (I have a terrible memory these days)!
We ate lovely cupcakes and drank coffee and chatted about crafty things all day long....

I made some lovely purchases and swaps with Buttons by Lou Lou, Finki and Troischats. I haven't taken any photos yet, but I'll post them later in the week.

An extra special thanks goes to Sel, Cathy and Ms L for helping me out with the packing, unpacking, and set up etc, and to Rach for helping me unload everything today..... and to everyone who came along to visit or bought a little crafty something from me!

I'm definitely going to book in for the next one.