A weekend of ink...

I must admit to loving Spring weekends, the weather is just divine and it is just the loveliest time of year to get out and about. It was also the perfect weekend pop out to the new studio 'The Ink Table' and set up my new delightful little studio space. The Ink Table is a fabulous new studio just out of town set up by the lovely Clare and Moana. Featuring a wonderful studio space, retail area and a giant Ink Table perfect for all things creative, I am delighted to have a little corner all of my own, to play and create in. So after a quick shop for a cute little desk and set of drawers, I was very excited to bring my space together.

The Ink Table counter, filled with all sorts of delights

Sophie Isobel Designs studio space... I found these super cute drawers on sale and couldn't resist, they are just perfect for fabric. Can't wait to start creating.

Some of the gorgeous products for sale including Miss Kwong's beautiful hand bound notebooks and journals.

Whilst at 'The Ink Table' I had the pleasure of co-hosting a delightful Poetic Justice Publishing workshop with Clare. After a wander around the streets and a few interesting warm up activities we spent the afternoon creating poetry and prose using the words from an old fiction novel.

With scissors, glue and some imagination and a little cursing when the right word was not on your page, we created some rather interesting vignettes. This was my page half an hour into the activity.

The rest of my weekend was filled with marking assignments and of course playing with Olive my gorgeous new kitten and at times it became Olive playing with my marking.

These are some of the fabulous diaries my year 7 class created for their Indiana Jones assignment. They looked fabulous and were full of wonderful adventurous tales.

And when Olive got tired of playing she found a great spot to curl up...

On my hubby's back, as he lay on the couch reading.. it was so cute I just had to share.

Wishing you a delightful start to the week, I'm very excited as it's my one year Etsy Anniversary on Saturday and I'm feeling a giveaway coming on as well as a big shop update. Be sure to check back in during the week.

Much love and poetry
xxx

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Poetic Moments..

What an amazing start to the week! Our Poetic Licence event was held last night as part of the Mildura Writers' Festival and it was just an amazing night. With the beautiful Art Vault as our venue we performed to a packed crowd and enjoyed the wonderful company of friends, family and other local writers, musicians and artists.

image courtesy of The Art Vault
Our fabulous venue The Art Vault

Of all the ways I express myself creatively I find writing to be the most intimate and challenging but on nights when you are able to share your work with lovely people it is indeed very rewarding. The piece I read was titled 'The Tale of a Tumbleweed' a story about a the world of Shakespeare and Company, my favourite little bookshop in Paris.

Here is a little exert from my piece...

Perhaps she was a soul collecting dust,
A book only to be read once,
For all her secrets were given away in the first chapter.
She would wear a green coat lined with old brass buttons and her grey eyes would consume anyone who stole her glance.
A fragile creature placed on the highest shelf,
Never a prizewinner but somehow never bundled for a garage sale either.
She was a rare beauty who by night would wake to find herself longing for metaphors and ampersands.
Those who knew her called her Dinah, for down the rabbit hole with Alice was where she longed to be.
And she would tell stories of the places she had been and the people who had captured a moment between her covers.

Also I was so overwhelmed and excited by the press we received for the event I forgot to actually post the article from the newspaper in my blog on Sunday. So here it is... (with another photo of my cheesy grin!)

So now that our event is over for another few months, I finally landed back down to earth today after what has been an amazing few weeks. I has been lovely to just relax for a moment and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the Writers' Festival over the weekend, including the very exciting festival dinner on Saturday night.

In other news, it seems I just can't keep myself or my brooches out of the paper at the moment. The beautiful Liesa from Handmade Heaven had a fabulous editorial today in a local Queensland paper about her gorgeous shop and she was so sweet in featuring on of my brooches in photo.

Liesa is doing so many wonderful things at the moment with her shop and the Handmade Expo, so if you are in or near Ipswich you must pop in and see her.

Well I'm off to defrost my the fire and contemplate what to cook for dinner before embarking on exam marking with a little sewing in between. Hope you have had a wonderful Wednesday and I will see you tomorrow with my little 'birthday' creative space.

PS. Just a little note to let you know that my Etsy shop is currently set on vacation mode. With so many wonderful things happening at the moment, I have just been a little overwhelmed and will spend the next few weeks reorganising, making wholesale orders and creating some exciting new pieces for my own shop. I will be reopening at the beginning of August and will be having a big giveaway to celebrate so stay tuned!

Much love and poetic moments
xxx

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Surrounded by inspiration...

After a few hectic weeks it was lovely to spend the day at home today, catching up on blogs, drinking tea and writing the day away. I also had a bit of fun this morning posing in a photo for the local newspaper about the up and coming event Poetic Justice Publishing is holding as part of the Mildura Writers' Festival. More about that a little later...

Today was all about surrounding myself with all my favourite things and just taking a moment to be inspired, watch the world go by, listen the the beautiful sounds of hot tea being poured into china and ink seeping into crisp clean paper. My desk holds all my treasures and today the smell of lavender and dreams of Paris were my inspiration.

With my journal, a pot of tea, fresh lavender from my garden and a beautiful stash of magazines I spend the afternoon, writing and dreaming.

I am currently writing a piece to perform for our Poetic Licence event as a part of the Mildura Writers' Festival. As I weave between memories and dreams, I am writing about the world of Shakespeare and Co. the beautiful little bookstore on the banks of the Siene.

Inspriration - The beautiful Peppermint Magazine and a lovely new notebook I found at GoMA.

Tea and Lavender...

As the sun sets early on this lovely overcast day I'm off to settle in for the evening to begin a few new artworks to display at the Writers' festival and work on an exciting little idea that has been brewing within my journal. Wishing you a delightful Friday!

Much love and inspiration
xxx

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A weekend in pictures..

How the weekends just fly by, all my good intentions of posting last night flew out the window for a lovely romantic evening with my hubby. I have so many little things to share I thought it be best just to show my weekend in pictures...

Friday Afternoon

Collages and inspiration an inspiration board

A beautiful owl brooch from Betty Jo Designs (we had a little brooch swap)

Saturday

Channeling Coco Chanel

Fabulous books from our morning rummage of Salvo's Op Shop

Tiny treasures for the Writing Workshop, 'Treasure Box' activity

Lights off for Earth Hour - reading by candlelight

Sunday

Custom brooches for Georgie Love's 3rd Birthday

A beautiful 'just because' pressie from my hubby
The Sun's Babies by Edith Howes 1911

A beautiful weekend and a fabulous new week beginning, four days until holidays, I can't wait! Many wonderful things to do, including a zine to create, stock to make for some up coming projects, an interview with the local paper, two novels to read, a makeover of the lounge room and backyard and a visit from my beautiful in-laws all the way from Queensland. I think I will be a busy girl!

Much love and vintage book pages
xxx

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One Arty Weekend!

What a wonderful long weekend it has been here is Mildura. The Arts festival is in full swing and the town is a hive of activity. We had a fabulous night at the Big Screen Film Festival with hundreds of people turning out to see the film and to check out Poetic Justice Publishing. Our little shop was beautiful indeed and Clare, Moana and I had a lovely time pottering making our little spot under the old homestead look very inviting.

Our little shop under the veranda in the afternoon sunshine

Some of Moana's beautiful prints for sale

My little brooches on display..

Overall it was a very successful night although I was quite happy to get home to bed after a couple of long teaching and sewing days.

Tonight my hubby and I have treated ourselves to one of Mildura's most predominate art events of the year, the concert at the very famous Perry Sandhills. This year we are lucky enough to have Paul Kelly playing, so we have packed up our picnic, some wine and our camping chairs for a beautiful night of music under the stars.

Our very yummy picnic for this evening.

I can't wait to be amongst the crowd in the middle of the desert on such a beautiful night, hope to get some lovely photos to share. I've got plenty more to show you tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to a fabulous day of creating on a lovely and very rare Monday off work.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.
Happy Sunday
xxx

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The corners of my desk..

Inspired my the ever beautiful Sparrow Salvage and her lovely studio table shots I thought might share a few of my own studio shots and the interesting little corners of my desk.

Scraps ready to be transformed..

Brooches about to be sewn..

A little safe place for lost pins..

I just love fabric and paper together.

Vintage saucer perfect for sorting buttons.

I must leave you with a fabulous treasury I was so delighted to be a part of, curated by the very sweet Anastasia at Percival Road Designs.

What a beautiful collection..

It's Wednesday and the week is definitely picking up pace. I'm very much looking forward to our first Poetic Licence event of the year at the Big Screen Film Festival on Friday night. We will be doing poetry readings and selling our wares including my brooches and artwork before a screening of Australia. Plenty of preparation and planning still to do but it is very exciting indeed.

Much love and warm thoughts for Wednesday
xxx

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Writing, sewing and loving Sunday..

At last a cool change has come to Mildura after ten days straight of over 40 degree temperatures. I've spent the day enjoying the cool change, sewing some new brooches and pendants for my little shop and enjoying the afternoon at our monthly Poetic Justice Publishing writing workshop. We had to cancel it yesterday after it got up to 47 degrees so it was lovely to be able to catch up today and prepare for the local Big Screen Film Festival that we are a part of next month. Words and images always seem to flow freely on a Sunday and we are embracing the themes of Baz Lurmann's Australia and creating poetry and prose that resonates old world Australia.

A writer's stash

Notes and inspiration..

An afternoon with the Remington..

I briefly braved the heat yesterday to take a quick trip find some new fabrics and ribbon. I came home with a lovely little collection and have been busy making a new collection of brooches and working on a few special pendants too. I had anticipated getting a little more achieved over the weekend but the heat slowed me down quite a bit, so I'm looking forward to more creating in my spare moments during the week. Here a just a few of my creations which you can find in my Etsy shop now.

Lovely new fabric and ribbon..

'For the Soul' Terrarium Pendant

I heart Glue and Scissors (the perfect pair)

I heart Sketchbooks
I heart Philosophy..

I've also got a special little offer on in my shop at the moment, if your purchase is my 50th (I'm at 48 at the moment) you will receive a little extra gift with your order. Keep an eye out for more cute and crazy brooches during the week.

Well I'm off to cook dinner with my lovely hubby and get ready for another evening of the ever fun and frivolous 'So you think you can dance'. Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend.

PS. My heart goes out to all the families affected by the horrific bush fires in Victoria. We are so blessed to have not been affected up here in the north west corner, I just hope that the cool change will help to ease the fires and brings some relief to the people of Victoria.

Much love and Sunday dreams
xxx

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A book making, bird watching, doll creating weekend!

Second post of the day! Plenty more in store. First of all I'm so excited that its the last week of term which means this time next week my hubby and I will be in Queensland with our families. Can't wait for a holiday, I'm surprised just how fast the term has gone, although I still have plenty of marking to do! I'm also very excited about my second wedding anniversary which is coming up on Tuesday, we are having a little romantic dinner at the new (and only) Thai restaurant in town. It's been booked out for weeks so we are lucky to finally get a table. So on with my busy weekend..

Yesterday we had our monthly Poetic Justice Publishing (PJP) meeting at Sunshine House just outside of Mildura in Redcliffs. Sunshine house is a pickers cottage on a beautiful property where we have our meetings and book making sessions. We are currently finishing making booklets from a Poetic Licence event held earlier in the year. I got the chance to take some photos of Sunshine House and the beautiful old tractors and windmill that are still on the property from its grape growing days.

Windmill and water tanks in the spring sunshine

I just love this old tractor

Welcome to Sunshine House

Our work for the day, I'm getting good at hand binding!

Finally we are having some warm weather here, its just so nice to feel the warmth on my skin and what better way then to go for a Sunday morning walk around Duck's Foot lagoon at our favourite spot, King's Billabong. The bird nerd part of me came out today as I had a ball taking photos of the fantasic array of wildlife around the lagoon.

A pair of black swans in the lagoon..

A very pretty gallah in flight on the Murray..

Somewhere between book making and bird watching I had an inspirational moment and decided to make my beautiful best friend Courtney and her little girl Lily a joint present. After creating my little character Olive I have always wanted to make her into a doll. I'm so happy with her, she is just how I imagined. So here she is, after eight hours over two days, with miss matched stockings, skirt and buttons. My very first Olive.

Olive

Close up of her cute bow and buttons...

Well I best go get ready for my busy Monday, you just have to put on a big smile and embrace a busy Monday. I will leave you with my favourite things for this week...

This delightful little box of treasures created by Lobster and Swan, I just adore it!

This amazing book I just ordered called Urgent 2nd Class by Nick Bantock. It is an inspirational handbook for making art by reusing old maps, postcards, scraps, letters and envelopes. All of my favourite things!


Wishing everyone a fab week! Embrace spring, by fresh flowers, eat strawberries and dance in the afternoon sunshine.

Much love xxx

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