Stalked on Etsy!

My bathroom bag has been featured on EtsyStalker!

Whoo hoo! Check out the link here if you'd like to see the original post. It's all about moving out of home for uni, and some of the things you can use to ease the transition... it's called "From the nest to the dorm".

I have never heard of EtsyStalker before, (has anyone out there ever heard of it?) but that has absolutely no bearing on the fact that I'm completely rapt to find this out.

I get such a blast when someone likes one of my things. It's part of the whole reason I started doing markets - because yes, on the face of it, markets take up heaps of time (especially on the precious weekends) and you often get rained on, and sometimes blown over, and every now and again you have a really rubbish day where you hardly sell anything .... but I tell you, the rush I get when I sell *anything* is completely worth it.

I love the look on a little person's face when they pick up a Hoot or a Catticus. I love it when people rush over to look at some of the amazing fabrics I use. I love it when a little girl tugs her mother over by the hand to see one of my Perfect Pencilrolls.

I love it because I made it, and in some way it's like that little bit of particular happiness would never have existed without me. And that makes me feel worthwhile (and on special days, super powerful and almighty. But only for a moment.).

Recently Thornberry did a post on the whole market vibe thing and asked people why they chose to sell at craft markets. I really enjoyed reading the range of responses - I highly recommend you check out the post - which varied from my little bit of happiness thing, through to it being a way to connect with the community, and also the very common "I sell craft so I can buy more craft supplies" - which is certainly true for me too.

I for one am really glad to see the resurgence in craft markets and the desire to buy local and support your artistic, crafty community. I'm glad for the chance to meet up with others like me. I'm glad I get to send a little bit of happiness out into the world, happiness that is unique and special and might never have existed if I hadn't slaved over a hot sewing machine to create it.

Nothing beats that buzz - crafters, together we are raising the happiness quotient in the world!!

Long may it last.

(and if blogger could please just sort out this weird spacing thing I'm experiencing, my day would be complete.)

A beauty of a bathroom bag

Oh, who was I trying to kid. Of COURSE I ended up sewing yesterday. It was inevitable, wasn't it? Of COURSE it was.

After the fence festival of ugliness was only very slightly improved by a very slightly less ugly wire trellis with a poor limp passionfruit trailing weakly off it in an effort to disguise the Ugly - and that took the better part of too many hours to count - I could hardly stay away from the sewing machine, could I?

It's how I decompress, after all.

And so I made this. It's a cute little bathroom bag made from vinyl-covered Kokka babushka fabric in an apple-y lime green. I especially like the little mushrooms (look closely, she instructed, look closely).

I've got the same fabric in sugar-pink, so Im going to make a few in the same material.

This one here is a prototype; I was going to put it on the stall for the Thornbury market, but it's a little bit wonky around the base seam, so I gave it to the Amateur Actress instead. She doesn't mind my dodgy offcästs, in fact she said quite happily "It's good living here!"

I'll know the tricks of the pattern better for the next one (I hadn't tried this one before).

But my goodness, the market is coming up in five days time and I've hardly any stock left after two markets already in two weekends. What on earth am I doing here on the computer, blogging?

Must sew!