Dusty colours in half width...

Just a quick post to let you know that I posted the dusty colours in half width in my etsy shop. Now back to our big spring clean...


cushion in lavender swirl

shop update...

I just updated the shop with some mini packs and mix packs. Enjoy!


white and chocolate floating


rusty red and icy blue floating


olive autumn leaves

bunny love...

Peg bunny has come to live with us...



New stockists for Hollabee fabric...

Duckcloth

Retromummy

both these stockists have some of my Olive & Chocolate swirl fabric that is now completely sold out. I have absolutely nothing left of it and I'm not planning on re-printing it any time soon and if I do, it won't be on the same base cloth...so super limited editions still available at Retromummy and Duckcloth.

...and remember that we're off to Holland soon so any orders placed in my shop from now until the 18th of May will be shipped on the 19th/20th of May.

Adios!

I just had to...

... put some of my new fabric in the shop. just a little bit. before I go.

mini fabric packs...

I put some mini fabric packs up in the shop...for smaller craft projects...



... and then I figured that I forgot to take a picture of the choc autumn leaves...so sorry for the evening pic... I'll fix it tomorrow

more bricks...

I just put some more olive and orange bricks up in my etsy shop. There's only 50cm left of the orange in my etsy shop and 1m in my bigcartel shop...and there's still a fair bit left of the olive & chocolate...



and have a look at Lara's gocco printed wrapping paper...what a great idea for handmade wrapping paper. I love the sia's village print and I have to say I'm one of the lucky people who has this print hanging on their inspiration wall.

30 of 30

The best photo of the whole series...my new fabric...yay!

I had fun doing this 30 day thing, although I did find it quite difficult at times. I don't really have an exciting life...I figured out :( I go to work, come home, craft, go to bed, etc etc. I enjoyed looking at other people's photos, it's fun to share bits and pieces of your life.

Marcel picked up the new fabrics for me today, while I was at home with a tummy bug :( and I couldn't really stay in bed all day so we (Marcel's the best helper) listed the fabric in the shop...go have a look...It's printed on the same base cloth Lara uses. The natural one. Thanks Lara!

I also got nominated, again, for a 'you make my day award' by Kotkarankki and Mizu Designs. Thank you both so much, it made my day for sure! Since I nominated five bloggers a few days ago, I won't do it again...

Bridget from Brid Bird tagged me...and I'm not forgetting about this...I just need some time to think about it so more about that later. In the meantime, have a look at Bridget's 7 facts...it's amazing in how many countries she's lived.

colour picking...

The beach wasn't such a success yesterday. We left Melbourne when the temperature was about 39 degrees and the further we drove, the colder it got. By the time we were in Torquay it was 22 degrees, overcast and very windy. Way too cold for me to get into water that comes straight from the Antarctic. We had a great lunch in Torquay's town centre and then decided to go to the surfing museum. After all we didn't drive 1.5 hours just to have lunch. It was quite interesting (thankfully the fee was 1/2 price) and then we drove all the way back again. Next time we might opt for a bay beach.

Design wise I'm sort of sure of which patterns to print for my first run of the year, but I haven't decided on a colour yet. I will print two colours and I'm stuck between 3 at the moment. Any suggestions on both the designs and colours?





I will probably save the 'broken blocks' pattern for another time, maybe later in the year.

The new year is also a time for a new type of fabric. It will still be linen, but a different type. More to come soon ...

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.

look look look...

hehe...that's what Marcel says when he gets excited (imagine going on a road trip with him, remember he's a photographer)...so I'm using his words now.

Look what Leah made from my fabric...isn't it fantastic!!!


Photo from Hyena in Petticoats

Has anyone else used my fabric already? I'd looooove to see it!

the waifs...

Yay, we went to see the waifs tonight...they're my favourite band on the planet...they were absolutely fantastic! And guess what I scored...didn't they say yellow is in fashion?

We also bought Abby Dobson's cd, called Rise up. She opened tonight's show and she's absolutely great.

And guess what came in the mail this morning...new fabric & a bag pattern

featured 2...

Bloesem Blog


Meet me at Mike's

Thoughts, thoughts & more thinking...

Wow, that was a fast ride... Thanks everyone for all the lovely comments on my fabric and of course thanks for all the orders I have received. It was a bit scary at first as I posted my fabric on Etsy on Friday and only had one sale the next day. Made me worry...'what if nobody will buy it?' 'What will I do with all of it?' Then in the afternoon I suddenly got bombed with orders. That wasn't what I expected at all, but it definitely gave me confidence. Thanks so much!

After all the cutting, packing, posting I am back to designing again and will hopefully have something new to print soon. I am also getting ready for a market stall. I haven't put the application in yet, but I reckon I should do it since our house is a warehouse at the moment. After my sewing explosion the lounge is filled with cushions, bags, pot holders, wheat bags, hot water bottle covers etc.

I have been thinking about owning a house a lot and I really wish I 1. Could convince Marcel to move to the country with me, 2. Had enough money to buy a house, 3. Work on Hollabee full-time instead of having a full-time job somewhere else, 4. Could settle down at one spot, because it looks like we'll be travelling a lot in the future.
Still, I love surfing the real estate websites and look at the houses that are for sale. Daylesford & Maldon are my favourites. Dream, dream, dream.

Not much else going on in our lives. Marcel is super busy with his final year exhibition, which will be very exciting.

I do have one exciting thing to tell you...well I'll tell you half of it now and half of it later. My fabric will be available in shops...yay...I got wholesale orders.
Here's a pic of what I am sending off this weekend.

featured...

Thank you Sia, for the lovely post on my fabric, I really appreciate it.



I was really scared actually printing my ideas on fabric (well...I am still scared to be honest) but I decided to give it a go. After all, if you don't try it, you'll never know. Besides, I have big plans (who doesn't ) for the future and this is a tiny step in the right direction.

Thank you for all the lovely comments, it is great to hear from the craft & homewares community, I really appreciate all the feedback I get.

couldn't wait...

My fabric is up in the shop now!

surprise...

Yay, am so excited...I picked up my fabric today...which is designed by me & handprinted by Print Ink.

Here's a sneak peak. It will be up on etsy soon.


choc swirl on 200 gsm hessian 55% linen, 45% cotton


olive swirl on 200 gsm hessian 55% linen, 45% cotton

those cold winter days...

Today I started on another bag... I simply couldn't sit still, so I decided to use my 'mustard' coloured floral fabric and the cutest little elephant fabric for another experiment. I had this idea to make a bag with 'rough' edges. The bag needed to be big and it needed an inside pocket and the rough edges...here's a pic of my work in progress...

I'm not quite sure what the end result is going to be like, but I have the feeling that this might be my kind of bag...
time to cuddle up with the hot water bottle...night night

some days...

Some days are just totally frustrating...like my last 3 days where I went to work bright and early to find out that our computer system didn't work..well the two days after it was to find out that it hadn't been fixed yet...So my last 3 days were absolutely wasted. I spent my time drawing and reading magazines as I could do nothing else. The only good thing about it is that you can actually leave early and nobody would really blame you. So that's what I did.

Today I bought a new sewing machine, because I really needed an upgrade.

And I wanted to show you some new fabrics we bought. Yes...it's we as I dragged Marcel along to the patchwork shop and guess what... he loved it. He chose his own fabric which I will have to turn into a bag for him. He also got this idea of making a special pouch in which he can put his camera and then put it in his backpack, so it wouldn't get scratched. I know they sell camera pouches, but Marcel has one of those big ones that you don't just take in your pocket, so he's thinking of ways to protect his camera and lenses.

Well, here they are...some are for friends as they requested some bags.




I also got inspired by the grey and yellow floral pattern and decided to use these colours for my own design. (I still find it weird to call it 'my design' as I don't see myself as a designer...probably my insecurity)


I just found out that Marcel's fabric won't load...so I will post an update soon.

Coffee table & things...

Gotta love the weekend...Today we went to Smith street in Fitzroy/Collingwood just to have a look at different shops and I wanted to buy some buttons at the Lost & Found Market. This shop is awesome, they have a lot of vintage things and we found our new coffee table. Fell in love with it straight away. We had been looking for a new coffee table since we moved in to our new place in March...but it's either too expensive, too difficult to get home because it doesn't fit in the car, it doesn't match our other furniture etc etc..but this one is just perfect. It's one of those old danish ones. The beautiful plate was a present from Marcel when we moved in to our old place, and the table and plate match perfectly.

our new coffee table

Marcel also brought me another present this week. An awesome book called 'hip hotels atlas' and it's amazing. It has hotel decors from all over the world and it has beautiful pictures and colours, truly inspirational. Guess that's the good thing about being with a photographer.



hip hotels atlas by Herbert Ypma

I also worked on another bag, but I feel it's not finished yet...maybe someone can give me an idea on what to do with it. I feel that the little pocket needs something...a button or ...

work in progress

The next pattern is something I did a while ago when I was thinking about designing something that really goes with 'hollabee' and they sort of look like speech bubbles. The thing I really like about it is that it could basically be printed in any colour. This next one is red, but I am using an ice blue one in my picture/tag.

red bubble ... I think it's sort of obvious now that I love dots...

Bag #2

My second bag...