surprise package

I received a lovely package in mail yesterday from a clever girl, SaffronCraig & it was such a lovely surprise. I had forgotten that by just visiting her site she sent me a gorgeous piece of her hand printed fabric. Now I have the lovely joy of thinking of a project for it!

I will be opening the Salon again this Saturday between 10am & 12pm for those who are after last minute Chrissie pressies. You can call me 0407 124 553 for the address or email me megsthreads@gmail.com.

wish upon a star

Ahh, I loooove decorating for Christmas. These are really easy to make. I stole the idea from a show that we watch on Friday nights & adapted it to use materials that we have at home. Kids can make them & you can hang them too.

Cut strips of paper from magazines (the more colourful the better), then loop the ends so that they cross over about 3cm.

Punch a hole though the middle of the crossed over bit & the middle of the other side as shown

Stick this onto your split pin.

When you have enough on there (between 7 & 12), split the pin & then bend over the ends so there are no sharp bits & you will also have something to hang a string or fishing wire from!

Check the shop, come on Saturday or Tuesday for some hand made goodness between 10 & 12(megsthreads@gmail.com) and get into the spirit.

face up

Who saw that last night? Cool huh!

New stuff in shop. New stuff in Bamakko. Open shop went well, opening again next tuesday 9 december 10-12pm and saturday 6 december 10-12pm megsthreads@gmail.com for all those who are going crazy thinking of a nice handmade something for chrissy (or just want something for themselves...)

studio open!

next tuesday 10am - 12pm

come & get something for yourself or something for christmas

email me for details megsthreads@gmail.com

brrrrrr

Wow! Who would have expected such an incredible wintry day for end of Nov? I did start the day outside and the tent was sooo purtty ('cept for the mud)...however, as the tent began to fly away and the sleet/hail fell, they managed to find a tiny space to squeeze me inside. Sorry, no pics of inside stall.

Massive thanks to all who helped out. Lou, Rob, Fiona R, Vish, Pete, Milly, Tansy, Matt (my love), Mum, my boys, Ric, and Caroline - I couldn't have survived the day without you.

Thanks to all loyal customers who hunted me down and found me! It was great to see you again.

I will be opening my doors v. soon for "shop mornings/evenings" during the week and/or the weekend. Just catching my breath & working out which days. Watch this space.

ahhhh

a month of handbags

new & cute purses

fresh new tees

stacks of hats

did someone say pens down yet?

see me tomorrow at market 3031 whatever the weather... :)

why oh why

Why oh why does kinder finish 1/2 hour earlier than I am ready? An extra 1/2 hour would have enabled me to actually finished this wrap tunic in one session rather than drawing it out over the entire day...
And why oh why did I make this tunic in size 10 when I am not even nearly near that? I really like it, and Bessy gets to wear it until I sell it at the market. It's cute and it wraps (I do have a bit of a thing for a wrap).

Thanks Caroline for the pattern & thanks Jo for the fabric.

Now I'll need to make another in my size for me after I resize the pattern (my least favourite job).

five or ten....

yeah, OK, so I am crap sometimes at finding the time to turn the computer on. Fighting my way through the humdrum of inner suburbia mumsy life that just seems to take over so that I can't even see the computer anymore. I even get to the point where I forget that I have a blog and shop...let alone an entire room that is just crying for me to sew in and make stuff and sing really loudly outa tune... Anyway, as it turns out, I have squeezed in a bit a time to make a bit of stuff that started with Matt (the other half) saying "why not a bucket hat?" and ended with having a great time playing with Aunty Cookie's scraps from her sewing room (thanks Aunty Cookie!). The hats are totally reversable, so what you see are only 5 hats but 10 choices. I am excited and having fun with them. I am also playing with new skirts and new brooches & if you want to see them, come on down to market 3031 in Kensington on 22 November between 10 & 4pm. I will fight my way out of the house to be there.

all sewed up & ready to go

Taking my skirts this time, new scarves and all sorts. Come down to Rose St this Saturday 16 Aug or in a fortnight on 30 Aug & say hi.

all ready to go

All sewed out & stock ready to go!

Come down & see me at the Rose St Market, Fitzroy tomorrow (Saturday 2 August), 17 Aug & 31 Aug between 11 & 5pm & introduce yourself!

to market, to market

It's market time this Saturday (2 Aug) for Meg's Threads & I'll be trying to keep warm with Sew Hum at Rose Street Market.
Come down & say hi.

my busy week

I have had such a great time over the last week. First Matt decided to get handy on the sewing machine & have a go at putting bits of material that Aunty Cookie kindly chucked our way together & sew it onto a t-shirt. I'm too tight to let him near my stash!

Then on Saturday 19 there was the pop up as part of the Melbourne International Design Festival. As I have some stuff in bamakko I got to meet with some really talented people like Sixto from do yeah media and Peter from Really Whale who did the illustration on the window, and Laura and Jem from like butter. Worth checking out their talent.

It's on again next Saturday and there is a big hamper to be won if you visit each of the 5 places in projekta_57. The prizes are really good design stuff from the shops, 1 Keec bag, 1 Cubik ottoman from Design loop, 2 lumbi kustomade cushions, 1 street graphics book, plus a bag, badge, brooch, photo frame, doll kit from Kids in Berlin with total value of $1000, PLUS runners up are also awarded yearly subscription to inside mags. All you have to do is visit:
Kids in Berlin
Bamakko
Design Loop
Famous When Dead
Lumbi

oh, and Matt has stuff in the "ebay on freeway" exhibition in Design Loop so you might see him in there so say hello to him (about making stuff out of found stuff).

On Sunday we went over to the Design made trade with the kids & a little tip to any one travelling with kids to these things - make it a game "find the business card", we found it really helpful when we got home & went through to work out which were the ones that we had found really interesting and it certainly kept the kids occupied! Great to see Nick & Ben there looking happy but tired.

Then over to look at the "bubbles" of design, then hot chocolates on the way to the Melbourne Design Market. Great Stuff - Bamakko stall looked great. Everthing was really busy by the time that we got there which was really fantastic. There was such a buzz in the air still at 4.30 in the arvo. Maybe it needs 2 days..

The poster exhibition is good as well - worth a look and a vote - pop through if you have a chance. So many things to do and so little time.....

Just updated the shop with the market bags so pop in if you wanna grab one.

aussie chinese food...

I'm still thinking about those bastardised chinese recipes that our mothers and grandmothers used to cook up for us & we all covered in soy sauce and called it chow mein or just chinese food. I want to put them together with the stories that go with them. What you liked about them (or not), the recipe and whose it was, did it leave a good memory in the family, does anyone still make it? My mum used to use up all the old vegies that were just about to go off in the bottom of the drawer & chuck in heap of cabbage & mince meat. I don't think that it was ever the same, and I am not sure that as kids we ever actually liked it....except for the soy sauce...

So please, please, please - send your aussie chinese recipes, the stories behind them & the memories to megsthreads@gmail.com.

New skirts in my etsy shop with some of the market shopping bags coming later this week.

Finally Finished!!

Yay! I have finished Zach's blanket (see entry from 26 april) to go with his doggy) that I had to stop knitting (see all entries on mean osteo - sorry James - take it with pinch of salt - you are worth your weight in gold - & bad neck....). It is just in time for his baptism this Sunday! Hip Hip Hooray! I love the way the variagated wool has worked in this pattern!

Saw the osteo yesterday & he did notice that I had been sewing a little bit .... maybe a little bit too much at once... must take more breaks.

Anyway - am really excited about the market bags that I am working on - hope to have some in the shop by the end of the week!

Only one day left for the 50% off sale! Get in quick!

Sale Sale Sale!!!

I am having a huge Sale in etsy, so if you like the stuff in there, jump on in. It is all 50% off for the rest of June to clear out the stock & make way for other stuff...

Happy Birthday to me!

A nice little birthday present for me. LittleDickensDesign decided to have a treasury list of Meg Meaghan Megans on Etsy and had one of my buttons on it! Wow I was honoured! There are all these other creative Meg's out there!

clarity

It has been a very busy week and a half that has had a general theme of cleaning up the mess that my room had become and then once I got the bug, I couldn't help it, I got carried away and we had to declutter our back room.

I always find it incredible how "stuff" manages to accummulate until it starts to overtake your life. I mean, we are not actually big consumers, however, "stuff" still manages to find its way into our lives. The boys bring things home (artwork, found objects, nuts, bolts, bits of wood, old things), and this includes the young boys and the older one. All of these things get "popped" around the house and left there because they are interesting...and they are. I am not saying that they are not. They are the things that differentiate our house from anyone else's house and I DO like that. What I don't like is that it always looks like a tip.

So the point of this last weekend was for us to find a way for our back room in particular to look less cluttered, whilst still having all this really interesting stuff around, and enabling more interesting stuff to come into our place with all of its stories to tell. I think that we actually did it. It was hard work. My back was sore by the end of it. I did fall asleep on the floor on Sunday night at 7.30pm...

A new shelving unit (thanks Matt) painted white so that we can see all the colourful things, and the bookcases painted white do seem to show up all of the books and bits inside them.







I do like what Matt did with the plates that he has found on the wall, and also with the drawers on the wall.!!


















I am still slowly getting things onto Etsy - I did get a little distracted with the "decluttering".



Our friend had a baby and the boys decided that they all needed to sew a present for Zac all by themselves, so 2 blankets, 1 cushion and 1 migraine later, all was done - pretty impressive












sewhum helped me out again, this time with the machine sewing (as I am still obeying the osteopaths orders...) and we made baby Zac a gorgeous cuddly dog from vintage fabric. The boys have all put in their orders now.










The week ahead is a cold one - time to cook lasagna, thick soup, vaccuum the heater filters and get the jumpers out.

my shop is open

I am exhausted! I have put my first skirt in the shop. I spent 3 hours becomming a fashion photographer (I am learning to become a very multiskilled person) and finally I have loaded one item in. Go in, have a browse in my shop

time to organise

Today I am going to get my girl dressed (there is only one other girl in this house, she doesn't speak, and she came in a box from Clegs the dressmaking shop) in my skirts and start taking photos for my shop in Etsy. As you can see from the picture, my room is a little over crowded and needs to be emptied out. Maybe a little folding and sorting wouldn't go astray....

I have been rescued by two lovely ladies whose blogs you really should check out. sew hum is the one who really pushed me to get going on this in the first place (THANKS!!!!), and then three buttons gave me a whole bunch of advice on this whole weird & wonderful world of the web and then sent me this great pic of my stall at the end of the day at market3031 in November 2007! That was a great local artist market in Kensington, Victoria - watch this space for the next one. The murmurings have begun already.

Child free time is nearly over, so need to get cracking and get Bessy dressed in these skirts so that I can clear out my room and my brain.

the beginning leg of my journey

I have finally joined the age of technology and my inner ramblings can now become web ramblings for any, or none, who may well be interested...or those who may not.

I am on a sabbatical for now from sewing as my neck and shoulder pain has become too grand and the osteopath is wondering if there is a correlation between sewing and my ridiculously painful neck and shoulders. All this has meant that I have been thrown into deep dispair & have realised that I have to do something else creative.

So, thank goodness for Etsy, I have created my own little shop and will pop my things on bit by bit and now my little blog. In writing this I have managed to almost burn a pot of soup, scream at 3 boys to clean up their room & stomp up & down the house 3 times....ahhh, where is the serenity? ...til next time, Meg