mango frooty party

Another mango frooty craft fair was held yesterday. More cupcakes and gingerbread cookies, cups of tea, glasses of wine...

There were two of us selling our crafts. Not the stress of a public market but probably not the profitability either. But I had a nice day and I hope the others did too.

Him indoors is most happy about the mountain of leftover cakes and goodies....

Christmas bush

Yesterday I had a craft fair at my house. More cupcakes and ginger cookies amongst other things were made, the place cleaned and materials put away for the day.

Some of my lovely friends brought flowers.

The tiny pinky flowery bush is called 'Christmas bush' because it flowers right on Christmas time and is apparently everywhere in the Australian bush (Aussies don't mince words). It really is fantastic to look at en masse - and compliments those bright yellow gerberas very well.

silk brocade handbag

The leather handles are from Bali, the Chinese dragon brocade is from a market in a temple near Patan, Nepal.

I bought the turquoise and gold brocade silk sari from a wedding merchant in Bangalore. Who knew the IT hub of India would yield such a wealth of rainbow silks?

Of course not all of these were bought at once - but they have been languishing in a cupboard until now.

Dimensions:
Height: 25 cm
Width: 33 cm
Base depth: 10 cm

tiny silk bags

And more bags. These are silk brocade, lined with sari fabric and are decorated with gemstone beads and mother of pearl ornaments. Maybe these shouldn't go through the wash....

They'll fit a phone, keys and maybe a small wallet. You fasten them with the ribbon ties.

They have long stiff ribbon straps to wear over the shoulder.

dimensions - roughly:
height: 10cm - 12cm
width: 12 cm
base depth: 6 cm across

Summer bag - please rate my bag

OK. Here is a work in progress bag - please rate it.
Would you be seen with this bag at the beach?

This is a cotton and cotton mix floppy beach bag
It's made to go through the wash - in fact I'm hoping a few washes will fade the denim and make it look softer.

It will hold a couple of books, a snack, water bottle, beach towel, cossies, thongs and other stuff. The brownish panel inside is a pocket for your keys, wallet and sunnies.

Dimensions:
length: approx 49 cm
height: approx 33 cm
Depth: approx 22 cm (the bottom is squared off for more room)
Handles: 33cm - definitely a tote bag rather than a shoulder bag.

colours of Indonesian batiks

I haven't made these up yet and I've just got back. Trying to shop from the back of a scooter is not very productive so I went off for a couple of hours to explore the local market for fabric.

The top image shows silk batik fabric - I can feel a whole new batch of scarves coming on.....

The heavier cotton fabric in the bottom photo is for bags. I'll mix these with other asian fabrics that have been languishing on the cupboard for the last 5 years.

Be sure to check back and see the results.

simple dimple

I'm off on hols tomorrow so won't post for a while.

I'll leave you with a silver wire bracelet with two dangles.

dingle dangle

today's offering is a charm bracelet with red coral, black onyx and snowflake obsidian beads. A little bit flirty for a Saturday night.

marigolds

watercolour on paper with splashes of silver. It's the first time I'd painted marigolds - the foliage took over the picture a little bit...

red veg: beet, chilli, radish

Red veg in dark shades of pink.

I think it's funny the way sometimes red things are labelled 'pink' - ie: hunting pink.

Odd

in the night garden: strelitzia

it's the moon again

this time in a bunch of strelitzias

turquoise - hippy luxe

I went away for the weekend. It rained a lot so I wasn't able to see much or go bush riding like I'd planned but there'll be other times.


How about these?
Some turquoise statement necklaces. The chunky pieces of turquoise came from a bead dealer in a street I stumbled on in Kathmandu.