Thursday, February 24, 2011

new stockist ... jellywares

Jodie from Jellywares in Cobar, NSW, is the latest stockist of Yardage Design fabric and bunting panels.


We actually lived in Cobar for a few years (about 10 years ago). I loved my time there, and still stay in touch with friends we made. I am so thrilled that the town now has a gorgeous shop like Jellywares selling wonderful handmade and home-grown products and produce. You can check out Jodie's excellent blog here.

Monday, February 21, 2011

new stockist ... funky fabrix

You can now buy my {exclaim} hand printed fabric and bunting panels at the totally lovely Funky Fabrix shop (and online) in Brisbane.


When my Little Mister was born (4 years ago), I was constantly buying fabric on ebay from Funky Fabrix - they had/have the best range of boys fabric around. Since then, they have grown and now have a real life as well as a virtual shopfront. I would never have dreamed that a few years down the track that I would be designing fabric that would be available there too. I'm chuffed!

Thanks to Shona for liking my wares, and hooray for my first stockist in Queensland! The Funky Fabrix blog is here.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

my creative space ... knitting sampler

I cannot knit well. At the moment. BUT, I am learning new things and new stitches and I hope to change that this year. This is the little bit of knitting I've been doing this week, learning how to "knit fancy" ...


I'm loving the purl stitching, but I got a bit carried away and skipped a few lessons, thinking I could go straight to the ribbed knitting - knit 3, purl 2 etc etc, except it ended up a mess as you can see by the top few rows. I don't really understand how to switch from knit to purl stitches very well yet - time to consult my buddies on YouTube, but any wise words from blogland would be much appreciated!

So why the sudden knitting bug? Well, I was totally inspired this week by this gorgeous cardi knitted by Jodie at Jellywares ...

Jodie's Green Cardi - pic from here
My goal is to knit this for myself this year. Hmmmm ... lots more practice to be done, but looking forward to the challenge. More creativity to get you inspired at Kootoyoo.


P.S. New stockists in NSW and QLD to be announced soon.

Monday, February 14, 2011

heart

I bought this beautiful, hand-cut wooden stamp a while ago with great plans to do something with it for this day ...


Alas, time has passed by too quickly, so I'm adding it to the list for next year! Is it just me, or is 2011 just whizzing by? Enjoy your day ...

Thursday, February 10, 2011

printing + misprinting

I am very happy to be back in the studio and printing again after a lovely break over January. I find screen printing very relaxing. In fact, I think you have to be relaxed to do it well. The few times I've been distracted, cranky, or anxious and then tried to print ... disaster! You need to flow, so that the ink can flow too - even pressure, even speed.


However, mistakes still happen even when you are as relaxed as can be. Like this one from the other day - I was a bit heavy-handed with the flooding between prints, so the next print had a little ink bleeding in places ...


I don't make too many mistakes these days, but I'm a perfectionist, so if a print doesn't meet the high standards of the Quality Assurance Department (me), it goes in the "misprint" pile. Some of you may have been recipients of a misprint when you've ordered from my shop. This happens occasionally when I have misprints fit for giving away, especially to those who have placed a large order, or to people I know might just like them. I much prefer to give them away than do nothing with them at all.

More creativity over at Kootoyoo!

Friday, February 4, 2011

a little bit of styling ...

It's nice to create some new photo's of my products now and then, and I enjoy seeing what I can use in the house to style the scene.



White ARTichoke Flower Tea Towel with a french basket and vintage souvenir spoons (from my collection - yes, I collect spoons!!).


Tasty Vintage Tram Roll Tea Towel with french blue dutch oven.

Have a great Friday!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

regional press

I'm originally from western NSW, so I was really chuffed when the people of Style Magazine contacted me late last year asking to include me in their Autumn edition. Style Magazine is a beautiful lifestyle magazine for women in country and central NSW. The Autumn edition came out last week, coinciding beautifully with my trip home to visit family. It was nice to be able to show people what I do, and then say "see, this is me" and point to my little blurb in the mag! Thanks to Cherie from Style Magazine for finding me and including me.


I hope you're having a lovely week so far. It's quite warm here in Melbourne, but compared to the 43 degrees C when I stepped off the plane in Dubbo last week, it seems OK!