Hey Plain Jane

This is by far my favourite little toy at the moment. I call him Space Monkey, but really cannot think why. I made him out of upholstery fabric samples that I salvaged from a certain ill fate at the local dump.

The phrase, I Made This, was of course part of pop culture about a decade or more ago. At the end of The X Files, after all the credits, the production company sound bite was a little girl exclaiming excitedly to the world I MADE THIS!  When I started my own graphics company in late 99, I adopted a company signature line that read “Kash Made Me” (Kash being both my name at the time and a pun on cash, and the need for cash having made me do commercial graphics work). The phrase Kash Made Me would always be hidden somewhere on the graphic, often where only I knew it to be.  But the Kash Made Me idea did not come from The X Files, but rather from centuries ago, from my all time favourite English king, King Alfred, who once had a bunch of special “pens” hand made and sent out to all his Lords. The pens were to be used for the Lords of England to sign a document to pledge their allegiance to him. On each pen was etched the words “Alfred Made Me”. It referred both the actual pen and to the fact that Alfred was making the Lords sign or else. I love all that stuff…..

Anyway, the I Made This post is part of a Meet Me At Mike’s round up of  hand made things. Go see the fun, check out the comments list for all the other I Made It posts.

My list of New Year resolutions is quite monstrously long. It is so long and seemingly so critical to my general life happiness that I decided I should break the whole thing into smaller bite size chunks of possibilities, consider the goals, objectives, strategies, blather, blather, blather. I began this task days ago and much to my disgust, have found it all too much to finish. I just know I want a bunch of things to be different! But I also know that without some real effort and organisation these things will not happen. Perhaps it is an ongoing thing.

So, I’ll list them here, and they may get elaborated upon as the week goes on. 

FAMILY:
I resolve to spend more quality meaningful, fun and soul-loving time with my family.
I resolve to spend time creating and nurturing traditions within my immediate family. 

A film, a picnic, going to a festival, or a Museum or just a walk or a lagoon swim. This year I want to go camping at least once with Jack and John. Why? Because we’ve never been camping together. Because camping can fill up your spirit even when you don’t believe in all that. Because invaribaly something small or large goes awry on camping trips and the fun part is testing your combined mettle to fix the problem. We live in the oldest continuous rain forest in the World, the original Gondwanna-land, on the shores of one of the seven natural wonders of the World. At age 5, Jack has not seen any of it except that forest-laden range of mountains that tower in the distance from our yard. Unbelievable fact. That’s just shameful.

Go crabbing and fishing. Spend a night at Green Island or Fitzroy Island resort. Do a Daintree River Cruise in a fruitless search for crocodiles (who are far too clever than to hang about waiting for tourists to spot them). Do the free Tai Chi and aqua-robics classes at the Lagoon some early mornings. Plus I want to get some time away with John, just the two of us.

I also need to visit my hometown this year once, if not twice. There’s a reunion of some sort, being organised by our beloved school captain who is now the Editor of the hometown newspaper. Besides, I haven’t been home in years.

HOME
I resolve to take the risk of selling and building a new home in the midst of world economic mayhem. 
I resolve to be more economical, more organised and  more diligent when it comes to domestic management. 

House sold, home built, moved by Christmas 2009. End this procrastination.
Be organised: cupboards cleared.
Know what I own and be content.
Make do.
Throw trash responsibly, but throw it.
Plan meals.
Be on time, every time
One “buy nothing day” per fortnight 

Jack baptised.

WORK
I resolve to passionately pursue creative employment to fulfill my needs and to pay the bills. 

Set up a recycled art business?
Four hours with my craft pal, Soo, once a week.
Part time job that brings in at least $200 cash per week
Build my Art confidence.

LIFESTYLE

I resolve to take back control of my errantly menopausal body and claim the right to be fit, slim and energetic.
Lose 10 kilos (one kilo per month)
three gym classes per week
Thirty minutes exercise per day

Write lists.

Told you. The resolutions are a-plenty. Almost all of them are part of an overall picture of me in 2009 as a more organised, sharper, fitter, more responsible, more thinking individual. I’ll let  you know how that works out….

blue roses

Originally uploaded by annwood

The sweetness in the world is almost overwhelming when you see it.

My mind immediately wants to deconstruct it though in a flurry of “okay, how did she make that? let’s see“.

What makes it frustrating and also very special is that this sort of beautiful, delicate and witty work sells out within minutes of being put up. They are precious.

So little time. So little time to even see it, let alone try to purchase or even to make an inspiration of it. Behold and be awed.

PS. Since the last post, indeed the said dossier has been sent to the Philippines. There remains a feeling of thank goodness. It took so long and so much effort! We have about a three month wait on our hands to receive a confirmation of yes or no from the Philippine government on our eligibility to adopt. So a Christmas present for us, perhaps?

My small but perfectly formed life is near to exploding with Junk. I give Junk the favour of capitalisation here, for I believe it is personal. Personal Junk, that is.  

My life is a-clutter.

I’m stretching my brain backwards, trying to determine whether my life has always been junked up with projects, possessions, ideas, unfinished dreams and detrius. Or was there indeed a time when I and mine was a simple affair, with simple projects tackled one at a time and a general sense of relaxation about how things were panning out.

It’s a tangle. A monumental one.

I never get any creative projects truly done. No, that’s not true. When I do actually get things done, more often than not there is a sense of it not being complete the way I wanted because I didn’t/couldn’t give it my full attention. 

Is it a time management issue? Is it all really since I’ve become a parent? Is it a sign of a deeper issue of self development or indeed self-stalling?

I have so much stuff. Too much. All this stuff is about projects I want to tackle. My heart is burning to tackle them, but it seems there is always something else more pressing. Books, craft supplies, notebooks cramped with ideas I didn’t take up.

So frustrating. I would like to dejunk, but just cannot. I love these things I have gathered around me. They please me, they amuse me, they inspire me……..inspire me to sit on my computer and write about how I don’t have enough time. The irony is not missed.

Lookie! On Saturday afternoon I got John to pick up a new trestle table for me from Bunnings on his way home from work. I was all a-flitter and decided to stage a practice run of how the stall would be put together. The above photo was taken on our back deck that leads off our bedroom, late in the afternoon of a very long day, the culmination of a very long haul of stitching, for what seemed like months, but possibly was only six weeks.

Then the day of the inaugural Hey Plain Jane market debut, I was so excited to turn up at silly o’clock at the the market place. John packed up the Ute with me and we hooted off. The market location was the grounds of the Tank Art Centre, a converted WW2 oil tank storage site—some five massive concrete oil tanks— set in amongst the lush rain forest. It is a pretty special place. 

My three friends Soo, Kevin and Sarah were holding two stalls as well, and we all bunked in together. I don’t know what I would have done without them there. All three of them are old hands at flogging crafty, groovey stuff at markets, so they were so supportive of my first foray. 

Jack, bless him, had a Limonade stand (no, limonade, made from limes from our prolific back yard lime tree). Aged four, dressed in his best Norman Rockwell impersonator gear (jeans, stripy shirt and baceball cap turned backwards). He was milking the nostalgia factor without even knowing it. Japanese tourists were taking his photo and coo-ing over him. I must admit he was a champion; he was barking out his wares, accosting people left right and centre, working the cute factor, pouring out the limonade with a host’s aplomb. John was standing by to help.

I had a great day. Seriously. Friends rocked up. I got a few good support purchases from my friends, bless them. But complete strangers were enthusiastic as well. I worked it too.

Soo Kevin, Sarah and I were all buzzing with customers, constantly. Good feedback, good vibes. Hey Plain Jane had a lovely first outing. And wow, a nice financial profit that cannot be sniffed at! All goes to the mortgage.

Best sellers? George the Swimmer sold okay, the collage covered books, and a lot of the ‘hot bunnies’. Not a single cushion was sold. How sad.

Next month’s markets have a children’s toy theme, can you believe it! Right!!!!

Collage Covered Book

Originally uploaded by palefella

This was such a last minute thing for the market stall. Literally two days before the market I re-discovered a bunch of these wood-covered books that Officeworks had been throwing out the door for a pittance.

Late Thursday night I started putting together pieces of collage onto the wooden covers.

I was quite pleased with the reaction people had. I sold three out of four collage-covered books I put together. Sadly this one failed to sell, but strangely, it was my first one and my favourite.

Usually prototypes are a rum job. But this one was so cool.

One of the customers who bought a collage-covered book was a young girl, no more than ten with her mother. She was shy and pretty and the second she laid eyes on these books she clearly needed one. The whole time she was deliberating on which one to buy, she barely said a word, even to her mum. I hope she does all her most beautiful drawing work within its pages.

For I so loved the fabric that I was prepared to stand there and hand-paint out each and every one of those hundreds of tiny rust spots that refused to come out no matter how much lemon juice was used. You know you are addicted to fabric when this sort of Sistine Chapel restorative approach is even contemplated.  

But that was yesterday and that could explain yesterday’s certain profound lack of craft achievement.

But this is today and I cannot explain where the time evaporated to nor how the time was spent. I do know I spent far too long trying to get my sewing machine to sew without missing stitches. Checking and re-checking the bobbin tension, changing the needle, rethreading, oiling and even cursing didn’t seem to make a bit of difference.

I know I paid two trips to the accountant to finalise last year’s tax; signing stuff, getting John to sign stuff, trapsing documents back and forth, you know the bureaucratic drill.  The latest tax returns are essential for the adoption file. We’re getting closer and closer to the final crunch with all that.

I know that each outing for the accountant was also preceded with a thrift store rummage in two different stores. Not much. Sniff. Some nice black wool fabric, some ancient black lace (an unopened packet of about 5 yards!) and some dower wool check. Why for all the black? Ah-ha! a Little project I am cooking up. We shall see about the dower….

So many ribbons, so little time. If you are anything like me, you have squirrelled away great lumps of ribbon in your home. It tangles merrily in stray bags, languishes in old shoe boxes, drapes itself languidly over items yet to be trimmed. Yet when you need a good ribbon, it will not be found.

Enough, I said late, very late, last night. I grabbed the first thing to hand, which happened to be the inner tube of a al-foil roll, and I began to wrap. Wrap and pin, wrap and pin. Totem poles emerged, colourful and long.

I roamed about the house gathering more spare tube rolls ( I usually keep them thinking I will give them to Jack’s Day Care Centre) until I had rolled and pinned all known ribbon in my possession. So pretty. More than pretty, glorious. It’s probably bad for the ribbon to be pinning it, but at least now it will be easy to spot the one I want at a glance.

I went visiting a craft friend this afternoon. We had tea and snicker-doodles, spicy sweet cakes that I think originated with the Amish. She gave me a bunch of old second-hand store children’s books with fabulous illustrations. I don’t know what to do with them. Just glow at them perhaps.

But the big news is that the gallery shop manager has emailed me back in response to some photos of Lula and the Cat Faces that I sent. She is happy to ahve them in the shop. Oh. Bit scary! I shall tidy up the stock this evening and make ready for my first public foray into art sales.

This is my latest; two cats called Diabo (left) and Chuva (right). The two names mean devil and rain respectively in Portuguese, which is a loving nod to all the beaut Portugese craft sites I’ve been visiting of late. Chocolate e Chuva, (chocolate and rain), is the name of a great site that has caught my attention, and is the explanation why I chose such an usual name for a cat toy. Rain and cat don’t normally go together as concepts but his Euro-cool face just matches the sound of the word chuva beautifully.

The cats are a combo of hand-painted suede and polar fleece. The face inspiration comes from one of Jack’s books, a cheeky little story about a boy who farts too much, Smelly Bertie. (Boys love their fart jokes, and Jack is getting in loads of giggles early in life. Perhaps by adolescence he will be non-plused by fart jokes, but John informs otherwise).

And while we are thinking in that region…

Possibly more information there than you need, but I remember back in the 1980’s when I was watching all my Japanese school buddies making these miniature felt creatures, I recall being horrified when they included an embroidered sphinctre on the butt-end of their toys. Now, in my maturity, I see how utterly cute and necessary it is to include.

Still working on Lula#2, but I’m so pleased with the felted/free-motion quilted/vinyl-appliqued fabric that I just had to post the girl. I laboured long on the fabric for the body. It was an freeform experiment that paid off. I’m happy.

Arm and legs yet to be stuffed. Not so thrilled with the face, but that’s all part of the handmade unpredictabliliy of things.
I went and had my eyes checked by another optometrist shop which was able to squeeze me into the schedule. He put drops in my eyes to dilate the pupils, told me to wander off for an hour, then he checked them. Essentially, he doesn’t know what is going on with the flashing light business. There is no tear on my retina or sign of a tear happening (phew) but he’d refering me to an eye specialist. Maybe it’s a tumour….:)

John and I had our appointment with the psychologist today too, the final requirement for our qualification to adopt as far as the State is concerned. The psychologist is very relaxed and very keen to get the job done quickly, bless her. We both have been given a take-home personalty test (350 questions) and we have to go see her again tomorrow afternoon for an empathy test. Once this bit is done, and the psychologist puts in her report, we will be waiting for the state department to say yep, okay, and then our file gets sent to The Philippines, then another month or so, and then hopefully we will officially on the register for a child up to the age of four….oh, yes, being on the register means then the two year wait for child allocation. Oh boy. We are nothing if not patient.

I continue to be flabberghasted at the beauty of some Spanish and Portuguese sites I’ve been cruising. It inspires and humbles and just makes me wish for more time in the day to go exploring and go experimenting.