Etsy shop promotion: Hartelief Yvonne

Happy Monday!  Today we are visiting Hartelief Yvonne, the Etsy shop of Yvonne Pijnacker, from The Netherlands.  Yvonne lives in Wageningen in central Netherlands and my eyes popped out of my head when I noticed this, the world is just too small.  Wageningen, strangely enough, is a place I am very familiar with.  My husband went to Wageningen High School and his mum used to work at the University there for many years.  We visited Wageningen just under twelve months ago, its a lovely place in the world.

But, back to Yvonne!  Yvonne is a mixed media artist using materials such as acrylic paint, paper, glitter, washi tape, spray ink, embossing powder and gloss paint to create her artwork.  Some works available in her shop are original artworks, some are prints of artworks.  Yvonne often incorporates a beautiful quote or saying into the artwork which gives them a lovely meaning and depth.

Here's three of my favourites from her shop:

Just a crazy ride to enjoy print

"There is no road to happiness, just a crazy ride to enjoy..."

Angel of light print

Angel of Light brings in her shining candle to remeber us that even in the darkest hour a beatiful light might be near...

Fly art print

"Take the plunge and fly above your fears"

Isn't Yvonne's work beautiful? Her shop name translates as "Sweetheart Yvonne", which I think is perfect for such lovely artwork. As well as selling on Etsy she also participates in exhibitions and you can find her on Facebook.

Eleven more days in May and two more shops to bring you - stay tuned!

What to do with the cardboard tube from the fabric bolt

Now and then we come home from the fabric store with a few cardboard tubes that have been emptied of their fabric.  The store just has them in a bin by the counter and we just help ourselves, we never ask and nobody objects, so I guess it's OK.

They get used for various things, and sometimes I curse them as they fall loudly on our hard floors, or I step and trip on them (ouch), but they get used by the boys for hours of entertainment (rules: no swinging, hitting and keep them down low).  Eventually the cardboard disintegrates (or I get thoroughly sick of them) and we toss them away and get new ones another time.

The best is rolling matchbox cars down inside them.  The small boy likes the action of the popping the car into the tube, the big boy likes how the cars shoot across the floor as they exit their long and sloping tunnel.

Yesterday afternoon it was cold and it was just the two of us inside with the heater on.  He rolled with intent and concentration, I played chief toy car retriever.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

This is what it's all about

At 6am this morning, while I was hopping about on the cold floor boards waiting for the microwave to warm my son's morning drink of milk, I picked up my mobile and checked my email inbox.  There was an email called "A dress" and when I opened it my eyes snapped open and I was wide awake.  A lovely email from a customer, showing me pictures of her daughter enjoying an autumn trip to the beach, wearing a dress she bought from my Etsy shop last year.  What a lovely lady, she even agreed to me sharing these adorable photos with you.

This, my friends, is what it is all about for me.  My time, creativity and enjoyment of the making process and those customers who like what I do enough to make a purchase and share their enjoyment of my work too, whether by picture or word it gives me so much warmth and pleasure.  No fame nor fortune here, just keeping it small and keeping it real, just the way I like it.

Happy days :)

Etsy shop promotion: A Cat Like Curiosity

Happy Friday and welcome to my second feature on a fellow Etsy seller.  Today I am visiting A Cat Like Curiosity, owned and run by Sarah Evans from the UK.  Sarah is an artist, writer and blogger who makes art prints and cards, and also turns some of her art into necklaces and brooches.  A lot of her art work is based around cats, often with gorgeous little mantras and affirmations to compliment her drawings.  As well as her art she even has a turn with a needle and thread and makes heart decorations and tiny cat softies!  Sarah is multi-talented indeed.  There's lots on offer in Sarah's shop so head on over an check it out.  I have a few cat loving friends and there's certainly some cute cat themed items I'll be keeping in mind for them.

Here's a few of my favourite items from her art work:

Life is full of ups and downs art print

(Sometimes I feel like this!)

Love your home digital art print

How is your language knowledge? How many words can you recognise here?  I think it's fascinating to see the connections for the word for home between languages.

Kitties in love art print

This picture is just so sweet.

Sarah has a wonderfully successful blog, which I just visited and got sidetracked into reading, and of course you can also find her on Facebook and Pinterest if you want to see more of Sarah and A Cat Like Curiosity. 

Have a great weekend everyone.

Washi dress progress

Slowly, slowly my Washi dress is coming together.  Sticking the pattern print out together and tracing pieces in various sizes sure have taken up time, but a lot of pre-sewing has also been going into this project - to get the most out of it in the end, but also to challenge myself along the way.  A proper fitted bodice and elastic shirring are two things totally new to me.

Making a muslin for a dress with a fitted bodice is a must.  I took my upper body measurements about a hundred times, but facts are facts, I'm wide across the shoulders and above average in the bust, and narrow in the waist and hips.  Still I couldn't quite believe that I was looking like an XL in this pattern.  In Australian sizes I am usually an M - eek!  I was stubborn (and vain!) and made a muslin in size L, nope, tight across the shoulders and the bodice didn't even come down below my bust.  I relented and made a size XL which was better but the bust darts were sitting well above my boobs and I still had waistline issues.  After having a late night Google study session on other people's experiences with making the Washi dress and a crash course in full bust adjustments I ended up simply dropping the apex of the bust darts an inch and adding 5.5cm to the length of the front and back bodice pieces - voila, perfect fit!

I had three metres of a light and crisp pale yellow cotton with small blue flowers printed on it ready to go.

I pinned and cut carefully.

Every day I am doing a few more steps in the process, just where time allows me to squeeze in a few minutes with my sewing machine.

I have waist pleats

and elastic shirring at the back (yay!).

I'm nearly there, today I conquered the neckline and the facings but have the sleeves, sides and hemming to go.  Hopefully I'll be able to wear it for a little photo shoot this coming weekend.

Etsy shop promotion: BaleaRaitz art and illustrations

During May I am taking part in a little group Etsy shop promotion.  Hosted by Denise from Denthe the idea is that you sign up and get a bunch of Etsy shops to feature on your social media and in return a bunch of other folks give your shop a promotion.  I thought it would be a fun thing to do, and something I should do more of in general.  I have five shops to review over the month and boy they are a mixed range of offerings from around the world.

Today I am staying close to home and promoting a shop from sunny Brisbane.  Let's take a visit to  BaleaRaitz art and illustration, owned and created by Lorena Balea-Raitz.  Lorena has a background in fashion and loves to illustrate - so her illustrated fashion themed stationary range came into being.  Her work has a lovely sketchy feeling to it and she uses a lot of nice soft colours.  There are mainly greeting cards and fashion prints for sale, but she is also awfully clever and offers logo, banner and blog design and custom wedding illustration and portraiture - amazing!  Here's a few of my favourites from her store:

Fashion illustration - portrait

Mother's Day greeting card Manolo Blahnik shoes

Vogue inspired glitter fashion postcard

If you want to see more from Lorena you can go and check out her blog, or follow her on Facebook (check out the gorgeous fashion photography there!).  Enjoy!

Sewing vs. architecture

Our dining room table is a flurry of activity at the moment - the roll of yellow trace is in hot demand, the pencils are sharp and the ruling and measuring instruments are invariably buried under each other's work.  You have to watch what you are doing.  It would be a crime to accidently cut, rip or throw away a piece from each other's project.  Consequences could be dire.  See how much the same it looks:

Sewing

 Architecture

 Sewing

Architecture

We're drawing little lines and making things from them.  Mine is on a 1:1 scale though and infinitely faster to complete.  His is big, messy and makes lots of noise.

There ends the lesson.

Baby tutu fru-fru

I have a friend, she has a baby girl and they're both mad about tutus.  I feel really honoured to have been asked to make some baby tiny tutu skirts.  Even better the request included a "no pink" clause - in case you hadn't guessed, I'm not much a lover of pink myself.  Even though I welcomed the chance to sew with tulle, a new fabric for me, I could not quite imagine myself actually buying pink tulle, that would be pushing my sewing limits.

So, I discovered a few rules about tulle - best to be cut with a rotary cutter for straight edges, it tends to stick to itself a bit which is slightly frustrating so you have to have a good dose of patience to start with, and it's a little bit like sewing air, but you soon get used to it.

I made up my own pattern for these skirts using the measurements of my friend's baby for sizing.  The lining is poplin and I found three layers of tulle lightly gathered together gave a good volume to the skirt.

I have just finished making a green spot tutu with white layers and mint lining...

...with a touch of a doily under it all.  Subtle and cute I think.

It's gone to join it's friends: a pale blue spot tutu with blue layers and silver trim,

and a yellow star tutu with apricot layers and yellow lining.

I tell you, I'm loving the appreciation photos my friend is sending me of her tutu wearing girl.  So sweet!

And back

Whoa, Easter school holidays - what a blur.

I feel like I had just enough time to post off some tutu skirts to a friend's baby, 

complete a custom order for my shop,

and cut out, stick together and trace a pattern for a Washi dress.

All sewing things were then packed away downstairs, the sewing table tidied and dusted and I got on with the business of eating too much (cheap) chocolate and too many hot cross buns, taking boys to the dinosaurs at the museum and trips into the city on the bus.  Then we all hopped on a plane for a whirlwind trip to Melbourne to celebrate my brother's birthday.  An intense couple of weeks that's for sure.  

I came back to prepare for a total waste of time job interview on Tuesday...and just when you were thinking things couldn't get crazier, well yes, they did.  We signed a contract and blokes started coming over to our house every morning at 7am to start a renovation.  

I tell you, sewing has almost, just almost, been the last thing on my mind of late.

Today in between the audio assault of the sound of angle grinders and steel beams and the olfactory assault of steel primer paint I'm alternating between vegging out on the daybed with coffee and Frankie magazine, attending to toddler needs and intermittently attacking tulle with my rotary cutter to make another tutu skirt.

I'm going to leave it there, I think I'm getting high on primer fumes....

Fruity passions

Our passionfruit vines have gone bananas this year.  They keep flowering over and over again, the honey eater birds are all over the vines pollinating the flowers and huge round fruits just keep growing.

For lunch I've been having passionfruit straight off the vine over cold Greek yoghurt.  Yum!

My fingers and hands smell like passionfruit juice, my mouth feels tangy and those little black seeds go crunch between my teeth.

We also finally harvested the olives from our front yard, enough was enough of the over ripe ones falling from the tree and rolling down the driveway to be inevitably squashed under the car tyres.  I'm up to my elbows in pickling olives in salt water - its not as romantic as it sounds.  More on that later!