Small World After All

At the Red Hill Fair market on Saturday I had one of those moments that reminds you how small the world is. It was a family market, so we chatted with many Mums with bubs coming past to browse my stall. My twin sister and market helper, Fiona, noticed one young Mum with a pair of gorgeous Each To Own drop earrings. She commented on them. as she has quite a collection of Kirsten's work herself. We three chatted about Kirsten's dangly earrings, the conversation turned to Finders Keepers, from there to Paper Boat Press - Kylie being another amazing Brisbane creative and Finders Keepers frequent flyer. As it turned out, the girl with the amazing earrings helps Kylie with admin work! 

I gushed about how kind Kylie had been when last I visited her gallery, wearing Oscar who was only a month of two old. Kylie had generously invited me in to her own home at the back of the gallery to breastfeed my grisly baby. When I returned to the gallery space she was chatting to two women, one of whom was heavily pregnant. Then Oscar vomited up his milk. It wasn't your average baby posit. A small spit up on the shoulder like my first and second child had done. But rather the kind that ended up as dinner plate size splash on the ground. Accompanied by a comical 'splat' noise. Oscar felt better. I felt embarrassed. Kylie smiled and started helping me clean up. While the heavily pregnant woman looked on in shock. The Mama with the earrings laughed and said 'That pregnant woman was me!' I recognised her the instant she said it! We both laughed about how I had felt so embarrassed, while she had been shocked that a baby could do that. 

What a small, strange world it is indeed, when you can bump in to a stranger a year apart and tell them a story that includes them!

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PS. Thanks for all the support and love at the market! It was so very good to meet so many of you. It was a thrill each time someone came past and showed me that they were wearing something I made, or told me that they followed me on Instagram. I love making those connections in real life that bridge the social media gap.

Fellow Brisbane-ites!

Yes, I am excited to announce that I shall be setting up shop for the first time at the lovely BrisStyle Indie Markets in Town Hall, on the 20th of September! Write it in you diary, circle it on your calender, make a note of it on your fridge.

Come and say hello, try on my jewellery and take advantage of market only specials. 

I look forward to meeting you there!

Finders Keepers Wrap Up

The Old Museum

My table

Yardage Design

Foolhouse mini art, Beneath the Sun cushions, behind the scenes on my table - the necessities (tea and dummies)

Days of August

Sharon Muir

Beneath the Sun, Sharon Muir, Surfing Sloth

Now that I have three napping children (!) and a cup of tea, I can write about the Brisbane Finders Keepers market this past weekend. My intention to write this post yesterday was abandoned as I caught up on chores and took Oscar for his six week immunisations. My boxes from the market still have not unpacked themselves however...

Finders Keepers was just as lovely as it always is. There was so much creative energy packed in to each of the three rooms that you could have powered a small City for a year. The crowds weren't as thick as they are at the November market, which made it easier to see all the goodies on show and chat to the stall holders. I fell in love with several hundred items and started following several new makers on Instagram, ready to purchase in their online shops when birthdays and special occasions come around. I managed to do the stall holder wander in the last hour on Sunday too, and brought myself some goodies.

So many lovely people came and visited my stall too. I could do these markets for the compliments alone! It was a lot of fun and dear little Oscar was content to be a market baby, so long as he was well fed and had a clean nappy. He surprised more than a few people when they saw him stirring in his rocker behind the table as he woke up from yet another nap. It was great to be able to meet the people my jewellery pieces were going home with, something that doesn't happen with online sales. I left the market with lots of inspiration and ideas and look forward to working on them in the coming months.

In the meantime, new designs that debuted at the market will be making their way into the store in the coming week. And as an extra thank you to those who visited me at the market, and those who would like to have come but couldn't, I'm offering free postage in my bigcartel shop for the next two weeks. Just enter 'FINDERSKEEPERS' at checkout.

Thanks again for all your support, kind words and purchases! Because of you I can continue to stay at home with my children and work creatively, and that means so much to me. xx

*Excuse the dodgy iphone photos. I ran around on the second morning and snapped a few pics in the third room before the doors opened. 

I'm in! Brisbane Finders Keepers

I am so incredibly pleased to announce that my application to the Brisbane Finders Keepers Market in July has been successful! I'm so excited. There really is no other market in Brisbane as wonderful as the two days on offer at The Old Museum. The crafty goodness, delicious food, the gorgeous flowers and the talented musicians - I'm wrapped that I get to be a part of it again.

For a small handmade business like mine, this is such a big deal. It's such a great sales opportunity for sure, but it is also so wonderful to be able to get to meet and chat with the lovely people that buy my pieces and really feel a part of a bigger community of crafters and business owners. I learnt so much at the last market, and it really pushed me to aim high and take my business forward.

This time you will find me inside, with a bigger table, new display, new packaging, a new collection I've been working on especially for the market, as well as several new one of a kind pieces. Giving you lots of reasons to come and visit. I will also most likely have a five week old baby asleep in a sling on my chest too! Thankfully Didi, my talented intern, will also be joining me.

I really want to thank you for all your encouragement and support. I promise to keep you up to date with our progress and I hope to see you there!

Finders Keepers Wrap Up

Photo taken by Nic @yardagedesign


My goodies! Test Pattern bib by Curly Pops, La de dah Kids crochet fox rattle (a gift to baby from Kylie), Deadwood creative recycled skateboard bangles (one for myself and one for Fiona for Christmas), Rabbit and the Duck washi tape (mustaches and spots!), doily stamp from The Spring Shop, glass beakers from Kara Rosenlund's darling caravan, and the gorgeous hydrangea was a lovely surprise from Sarah.

If not for the Big Hearted Business morning tea, where Clare Bowditch filled me full of inspiration and challenged me to write down my business plan, I would never have found myself chatting to Nic, Kylie and Jennie afterwards about my dream of 'one day' having a stall at the Finders Keepers market. That 'one day' seemed so far off though. Maybe when the kids were in school and I had more time. Maybe when I had more money. (Maybe when I had more confidence.) Nic asked me why not now? She told me I was ready, and she, Kylie and Jennie all encouraged me to take the plunge. And they continued to encourage and support me each step of the journey from the entrance of Metro Arts to the verandah of The Old Museum three months later.

I hardly slept at all Friday night. I woke up with butterflies in my tummy, which didn't go away until the first customers started chatting and buying. My fears that no one would buy my jewellery were unfounded - we all think things like this in the middle of the night though, don't we? But I felt so welcomed and received such positive feed back about my work. It's so easy too, when you are a stay at home Mum working from home, to feel cut off and loose perspective on your work. It was so rewarding to hear what worked, what people like about my designs and my colourful, vintage-y stall. The bowl of beads to design your own necklace was especially successful and I so enjoyed seeing the amazing combinations that people came up with. And it was really satisfying to see so many pieces find new, loving homes.

I met so many fantastic people too. It sounds like such a cliche, but it's so true. Complete strangers came up to me to tell me that they read my blog and they admire my work (hello!), instagramers introduced themselves and tagged me in their photos, friends and family visited too. I was blessed to have fantastic stall neighbours, Workshop 8_5. Sophie and Johnno were so friendly and supportive. I was especially fortunate to have my dearest twin sister, Fiona, working at the stall with me all weekend. She was the perfect assistant. Not sure how I am going to cope when she moves to Canberra next year...

So thank you once again to everyone that came to visit, brought my jewellery, or sent words of encouragement and support! 

It really does pay to follow your dreams.