we're off...

Well, not right now...tomorrow.

One of Marcel's friends is celebrating her 21st on Saturday and since she lives about 3 hours from Melbourne we are making it a weekend trip. We'll be staying in Beechworth which is a lovely historic town in Victoria's High Country. We have been there before and it's an adorable little place full of great antique shops and op-shops. The region is also known for it's great wines, cheeses and olives...yum!

We're not leaving until we've stopped at the post office though... to send this loot to Tasmania. I've been busy sewing the last couple of days and here's the end result: 8 pretty swirl cushions. If you ever happen to be in Launceston...you will find these together with some bags at Homebody.



Oh, and we might peek into Mikes window on the way too...

Have a lovely weekend!

mail day...

Look what we received in the mail yesterday...



They're from Marcel's Red Bubble shop and we never bought anything from Red Bubble before so we wanted to check out what the prints would be like and... they look great. They're real photographic prints (in greeting card format) with envelopes. I love them!

And this is my latest Etsy purchase...a present for a very special friend...and she doesn't know it yet.



Bought from Lynne's etsy shop (photo from Lynne's shop)

mix packs...

Sorry for the long wait. I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days and I'm still not all that but I've managed to update the shop...with a little help from Marcel (thanks love).



Not much news from Hollabee land due to the sickness, but I would like to mention that I am extremely pleased with the election result. It means that we (for those who don't know it...I work for a union) did a fantastic job :) I was up at 6am on Saturday to hand out 'Your Rights At Work how to vote' cards at one of the marginal seats in Victoria...seems that all the campaigning we did worked. Go Rudd!!!

I'm planning on doing a give-away soon. Not sure when because the coming weekend we'll be going to Beechworth and from the 5th till the 9th of December I'll be in Sydney...but keep an eye out because it's definitely going to happen in December.

Back to bed now...am exhausted.

very late...

some very late Christmas card designs...





I might print myself some and send them to friends & family...

The shop has been updated with placemats and notebooks. I will be doing another update after the weekend. I'm also offering free Christmas wrapping until December 9th for International orders and until December 16th for Australian orders. Please leave a comment in the checkout section!

etsy finds & purchases...

I've got a thing for prints at the moment...and here are some of my favourites...


from Catherine Campbell on etsy


from the black apple on etsy


from Ashley G on etsy

and other great finds:
Paperiaarre, Auntie Cookie, Anne Julie, howlindoggie, tsk tsk, ink+wit, Marcel Lee and many many more...have a look for yourself

tagged...

I have been tagged.....by Sophik and will follow the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

* When I was young I could always be found at the stables...horse riding. I have owned 4 ponies over the course of my primary school years and still love horses and horse riding, even though I barely go horse riding. One day I would love to live in country Australia and own a horse … and some chicken, a goat and a veggie patch (!?)

* I love skiing, snowboarding and ice skating… basically I love winter and Australia doesn’t have much of this. We were lucky this year because the skiing season was fantastic, but there’s no outdoor ice skating here. Back home in Holland we used to do tours on the frozen rivers and we would come home to hot pea-soup and hot chocolate. I do miss those days.

* Marcel calls me Dory, from the Disney Pixar movie ‘Finding Nemo’, because I am forgetful and goofy (sometimes).

* Once I will have my permanent residency here in Australia I will start a part-time course in graphic design & screen printing. Hopefully I’ll have my PR before January.

* I love reading and once I start, I can’t stop. I won’t hear anything that happens around me and you could basically say anything to me because I won’t hear it. I’m off the planet, in my own little world.

Who to tag next; Melissa, Elizabeth, Penny, Anna Laura and Martine.



I'm also about to update the shop, with stuff I planned to take to the Docklands markets but the dates got changed and I will be in Sydney on those dates...so no market for me this year.

choc swirl cushion...

Last week went by so fast, I have no idea where my time goes and I still have so much to do before the festive season. On Thursday night we went to the airport to pick up one of Marcel's friends who arrived from Sydney, so I didn't do any sewing that day. On Friday we had a bbq to go to after work so again..no sewing. Yesterday we did our grocery shopping, went to the Flemington craft markets, then to Altona beach to cool down and in the evening we had a dinner with friends. Today I finally managed to squeeze in some sewing...a cushion cover with my choc swirl fabric. Marcel's friend is flying back to Sydney tonight and that's when I really have to get sewing if I want to have everything done that I want to do before the festive season. It's fun to have people over, but the three weekends in a row might have been a bit too much...especially when you have lots to sew :)

Melburnians - enjoy the hot weather...



Remember our herbs & veggies..well I'm super excited because our tomato plant is producing our first home grown tomatoes. They're still tiny and green so anything can happen...but I'm really excited by the thought of eating our first home grown tomatoes. I have never grown anything successfully and this is a major achievement for me. Our herbs are growing like weeds so that's going well and they taste yum in whatever dish we cook.

Red Bubble...

Red Bubble, the etsy for photographers, has some new banners now...here's one for Marcel (which I've also posted in my sidebar) so you can have a look at his and many others' work.

Rusty red floating bag...

Bag #2 - for the markets
Still have a gazillion bags to finish for the market that I have planned for the 2nd of December...yikes...thankfully it's just the finishing touches. The handles that is...and they take most of my time.

Icy blue swirls...

The bag is finished...and I'm keeping it for myself :)

first bbq of the year...

Today we went to our first bbq of the year. One of Marcel's work friends invited us and they cooked sooo much food, lots of meat, yummie salads, lasagne, potato bake, bread and about 6 different desserts. That's what you call a good barbie (a Greek style one). The weather was lovely too, about 25 degrees which feels much hotter when you're in-between buildings.

Last night I spent lots of time sewing up bags and fighting with my sewing machine. It was playing up all the time, asking me to take all the thread off and putting it back on etc...very annoying and stressful. Here's what I did (they still need handles)



And this is what we found at the Salvation Army yesterday, for $2.50.

swirl bag...

I feel like I've been a good blogger lately...updating this blog everyday. Even though I don't have much to tell you (my days mainly consist of going to work by train, staring at a screen all day, getting frustrated with a slow computer network and going home on the train) I do have things to show you.

Here's one of them:



It's a work in progress Icy Blue Swirl bag with a cute leafy lining. I'll have to get some rings and then attach the handles (that I still have to sew). This is the first bag that I actually really like. I might keep it for myself...might...

I'm also experimenting with Marcel's camera and product photography table, but I'm still no professional photographer and I'd rather want him to do it but he felt like doing some DIY after watching Better Homes & Gardens. The good thing is...our range hood is fixed now...thanks mister handyman.

missed out...

Was anyone else lucky at Spotlight today? I missed out on their $500 gift voucher. We went to the store because they had a VIP night on and you could enter the draw for a $500 gift voucher to spend at Spotlight. We got there at 7pm and the draw wasn't on until 8.45pm so we went out for dinner and then went back to Spotlight...and I didn't even win...

Ah well, maybe next time :)
I bought some cute Japanese fabrics and two patterns to make dresses (not sure when they'll be used but I'd like to give it a try).



I received the two gorgeous hairpins in the mail yesterday. The lovely Jodie sent them to me, which she totally didn't have to as I was very pleased to pass on the information I found on doing a market. Thanks Jodie, you rock!

new swirls...

New yummie swirl colours are now available in the shop.

cup weekend...

It has been a while...I've been very busy over the last few days. I had an extra long weekend off since I took Friday and Monday off and today is a holiday for Melbourne because of the Melbourne Cup horse races. I haven't been sitting still though.

On Wednesday night I picked up Marcel's parents & family friend from the airport, who were staying with us until Monday. On Thursday night Marcel had an awards night at the gallery where their exhibition was held so we went to see that. Then on Friday I picked up my new fabric, which will be online tomorrow and I had tea with Shannon & Lara. At night we had dinner at Claypots in St. Kilda, no offence but I'm not a huge fan of seafood and this was basically all they had so I had some bread and prawns and that was my dinner. In the evening we watched comedian Russell Peters on dvd, which was absolutely hilarious. He's sooooo funny.

On Saturday I did the grocery shopping and then had the afternoon to myself, so I got busy sewing for an upcoming market & the festive season. In the evening we met up with family friends of Marcel's family and Marcel's friends from Sydney. We went to the station hotel in Footscray, which is owned by spanish people and has amazing paella (I know..seafood, but I just 'fish' out the good bits and leave the rest for Marcel).

On Sunday it was raining, raining, storming...it was pretty bad but it hadn't happened for the last two years so the heavy rain was welcome. I did some more sewing and we had pizza at home, watching Idols.

Yesterday we slept in, then went for lunch at a family friends' place (the one from Saturday) and then we dropped off Marcel's parents & family friend at the airport.
The house was very messy after having been there with five people for a long weekend, so I had a lot to wash & clean but it's all done now.

I spent the rest of my time, sewing, designing, making packaging, taking photos, cutting & counting fabric and relaxing (whenever there is time for that). Oh, I almost forgot...today we went to the TAB to place our Melbourne Cup bets. I put some money on Purple Moon, and for a split second she was winning...until 100 metres before the finish this other horse took over...Boo!

How was your weekend?

placemat project...

work in progress placemat

she can see...

She's not very fancy, especially when you compare her to some other softies...but she's definitely cuddly.



Pip, she'll be coming your way soon.