Busy as a Bee!

Well, I'm sorry it has been so quiet around here for the last couple of weeks, but I've had a lot on and this blog of mine somehow got pushed aside in all the action.

The week before last was my last week of the semester at university, so I had lots of assignments and exams to do. I haven't heard how I did on any of them yet, we expect to hear back on them this Thursday, so we'll have to wait and see how I went. That whole week was late nights and constant studying, so everything else (like quilling, and cleaning my house and social engagements) just got left for the whole week.

This last week I've been busy again, but not with studies. On the 24th of June my husband's grandparents had their 60th wedding anniversary, and I was asked by the family to paint them a special tablecloth to commemorate this milestone. I'd never painted on fabric before, so last Monday I had a practice on a napkin and tested my fabric paints out, and my brushwork for that matter. I haven't painted in a long time now so I was a bit rusty (I won't show you the test piece...ick) but after a few tries I was ready.

On Wednesday I traced on the main elements of the design, and then painted the little flowers around the edge.

On Thursday I then got out all my paints and got to work on it

And by the end of a very long day, it was finished. I was painting all day, from nine in the morning to almost eight that night. Long day. But I think it came out quite pretty.

On Friday I had my wonderful mother in law over to muck around in the garden and have a cuppa, and then in the afternoon I quilled these cards

Before finally heat-setting the fabric paint on the tablecloth that night. Then yesterday we had the party for the big 60th wedding anniversary, which was lovely, and the family presented the tablecloth to Ma and Pa.

Today, I packed up those cards above along with all the rest and went to the Petrie Markets again. Today went much better than the last two times, despite the fact that it started to rain at lunch time and the crowds quickly dispersed. I made a profit before that happened though, so I'm happy.

Now, as you may know if you are a regular visitor here, Rosey of Itty Bitty & Pretty and I are there at the Petrie markets every second and fourth Sunday of the month normally, and another lady with beautiful items uses the spot in the first and third weeks. This is how it usually is BUT, we are changing things up a bit just for JULY.

Linda will be taking the spot for the first two Sundays of July, and we will be there on the THIRD AND FOURTH Sundays of July. The third Sunday will be a special stall, which I will post about later in the week. I'll have to start up my workshop and get busy making lots of goodies.

To kids from one to ninety-two,

xnata

(today's signoff - Chestnuts roasting on an open fire by Nat King Cole)

Alice & the Mad Hatter

I've heard buzz about a mad hatter's tea party happening somewhere out in blog land, and I'm not going but it reminded me about something I've been meaning to post here for months.

At the start of the year my beautiful sister in law turned 18, and she had an Alice in Wonderland themed party. I helped out by making decorations for the big event, including making these teabags:

I found the illustrations from an old copy (perhaps even the original illustrations) of the story online, and made 100 tea bags, with an illustration on the front and on the back as you can see was 'drink me'. There were about twenty different tea bag tag designs in all (I still have the printout, but failed to take photos of the rest :p silly me) . Then there's the box:

Now this was cool. I made up the ingredients on the back, put an exerpt from the tea party scene in the book on there and named it 'mad hatter's tea', and I used this to wrap a store bought tea box. Those small rectangle bits were on the front and back sides of the box. THEN...I reversed the whole image, and stuck the backwards versions inside, to make it look like you could see right through the box!!!

I'm quite proud of that part. Must find another theme to do it in just for fun. Winnie the Pooh perhaps? Fairies? Disney characters? Hmm. Must do it again. Would sets like that be worth selling do you think?

So to all the ladies off to a mad tea party, I say have fun!

A very merry un-birthday to you,

xnata

("A very merry un-birthday", from Alice in wonderland, of course)

Markets, Quest and I've Madeit!

Well my sales on Sunday the 13th of June didn't go any better than the last one, but I broke even so that is fine. As long as I break even every time I'll be happy. Lots of lovely ladies were admiring but not buying, and lots of them asked if I taught quilling, so perhaps I should be looking to sell 'how to' sheets and starter packs. I'm going to contact a company that sells the quilling tool and see if I can start selling the tools at the markets as well. 

The table looked lovely, I know if I'd been a shopper I definitely would have stopped at our table. Rosey did very well, I'm so happy for my market buddy and I hope our stall becomes more popular with every Sunday that we go.

These vintage bottles for sale in Rosey's half of the store are so so pretty. And this little bag of babushkas are sooooo cute!

One of my gift boxes, which as it turns out, I held up while a photographer from quest newspaper took a photo of Rosey and I! I have my doubts that it will ever actually be in the paper, but if it was that would be super cool and free advertising to boot :) even if it doesn't get in the paper, he took our photo just like he did for lots of other stalls and shops there, which makes me happy to be fitting in and looking like a real market stall, worth photographing.

I think that my low sales may in part be due to my prices, and also in part due to not having a wide enough variety of designs. On our first stall I had lots of flower, dragonfly and butterfly cards sell, so I went home from there and made lots of them, and now thats mainly what I've got, so I think I went too far with it. I'll start work on some new designs as soon as the uni week from hell is over.

 Meanwhile, in my other sales division, I've just sold the framed green butterfly on madeit!!!

It is so beautiful, I'll miss it, but its better to be on display in someone's beautiful home than sitting in a storage box here isn't it. I'll make more and then hopefully find homes for them too :)

You're my satellite,

nata

(today's signoff - Satellite by Guster)

13th of June Markets

Renata Clarke Designs

and

Itty, Bitty & Pretty

At the Petrie Markets Every 2nd & 4th Sunday of the Month

Come see us on the 13th of June!!!

Cartoons and Flowers

So here are the gift tags I told you all about in my last post, what do you think of them?

Still only have the flower ones, I think I'll wait to see how they sell before I use up the other fifty tags I bought.

I made twenty without a background strip and thirty with.

They are so much quicker to make than cards, I can usually get about four cards made in a day, but I did forty of these in the one day! I really think they'd make a simple and sweet addition to any gift, don't you?

Now onto other things, I am currently working on my last assignment for my multimedia course in uni. It is an interactive cd-rom for kiddies about a little cutie called 'Lexi Nigh', and it's a cartoon/animation thing, and I can't decide on which colour scheme I like better for my main girl. The two choices are below and I am asking you: which do you prefer?

She's cute as a button isn't she? I can't draw with a mouse, so I drew this by hand and then scanned it into the computer, and I'm now colouring all the pictures in using photoshop. It is lots of fun (a tad frustrating as well though) and multimedia is definitely one of my favourite subjects.

Please help me decide which colour scheme is better for her!

Anyway, back to it then. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it turns out, and if its good I might even make an extra copy to show off with. :)

With my imagination I can see it,
With my pencil crayons I can draw it,


xnata
 
 
 
(today's sign off is from the song "drawing" by the barenaked ladies - a rude band name I know, but the song is so cute :D)