Studio one ... tweets a giveaway.

You can find me in studio one at the Finders Keepers market this weekend, 6-7 November. It's be a great weekend, there is food, music and best of all lots of handmade goodness. Tweet this post for a card pack ... a selection of my handmade cards! You've got until Friday 5 November to comment or retweet to be in the running.

I have almost made 200 of these little 'library card' babies. Each one is an old card, some of which have been written in, covered with a page from a vintage children's book and given a 'line'. Inside each card is a little pocket and library or library catalogue card for your message. Come and say hi and grab a card next weekend!

"Come here ... I have an idea"

"Yes, but then I am arrogant, aren't I"

"Striving for normality"

"No rest for the wicked."

Remember to tweet this to win!

Hallmark, get a dog up ya

If you're a reader of my blog you'll know I make cards, lots of them. I buy cards from the op-shop (most never written in!) and make them new again using vintage books. Some 'message' cards are just so naff, 'Like a mother to me' was a stand out. The gag inducing message inside made me wonder 'who buys these cards and why?' I'm hoping people start to rebel against the gift card moguls and say what they really think or something really random like ...

A better way to say 'Missing you' ...

'The empty sensation intensified' with a spaced out kitty on the front.

How to say 'I'm thinking about killing you with a carrot' ...

'There was only one way to find out'

How to say 'Happy anniversary I got you this card' ...
'Everyone knows I'm such a boring bastard'

A better way to say 'Get well soon' ...
'No problem, we'll go shopping'

You too can take action against inane card messaging and say it with humour, originally and a lot of randomness. Find these cards and more at my next market ... The Finders Keepers on November 6-7.

testing, testing, one, two, three ... four, five, six

We went for an after work drink on Friday in the Valley, as I even the thought of a beverage in the city made me cranky. The valley is so much nicer than the skanky city. We took a Pizza at Cosmos and then an G&T at Rics. My old (and most favourite) watering hole.

A band were setting up as we arrived. A gaggle of young hipsters with their Mums in the background looking supportive. One girl in a tiny white dress, no shoes and a look on her face that said 'if I was any cooler I'd implode' began to annoy me. Never in my life have I seen such a long, drawn out set-up process of set-up.

She even did some tuning or sound check of some sort on her melodica and then her xylophone. I shit you not, a xylophone. By the time they got around to 'testing, ta ... ta... one, one' we'd had three drinks and were sick of the sight of them. We left as they started their first song.

All images from www.weheartit.com

Potty mouth crafter

I have a big market coming up in a month, so I'm becoming a craft machine, well oiled and productive like a North Korean military parade. I am on a card roll. It's pretty good fun making these 'library cards', finding the words to match the images is a bit of an art. My mum started the trend. She started making little gift tags with all the left over paper we had from the brooch making. She collects romance novel covers to turn into rad art like this wall quilt called 'desperate housewives'. So with all the scrap paper and book pages we started making cards ...

Below is the quilt it has saucy men and women of Mills and Boon origin and cook book images such as 'meat puffs' and 'sweet corned tongue'.

She entered the quilt into the Mossman country show and the judges didn't really get the joke ... it was awarded first place! ha ha ha. This segment on the ABC recently reminded me of her winning quilt.

Here are some of the potty mouth numbers I've done up in the last few days ... the words are from high quality literature such as The Rouseabout, Lure of Eagles and Untamed Lover. Oh so saucy.

'You're in deep shit, Kate Webster.'

'Shit happens. It's life.'

'Dickhead, Will muttered.'

Old glass

It's still raining ... the dams here are predicted to overflow by Monday. I will be taking some time this weekend to get some vintage in my kitchen. If you read my blog you'll know I'm a vintage glassware admirer. Pyrex, Fire King all the old glassware from a time when women did their hair to do the dishes. I relish the ornaments from that era, not so much the societal values.

I am working on getting a wall like this in our kitchen ... just slowly chipping away.

From here

From here

These are some of my vintage glass favourites.

Pink glass cake stand my Mum gave me ... with a kick-arse 'fluffy frosted' syrup cake.

Fruit bow that sits in my Mum's kitchen window (complete with ceramic green frog).

A stacker of beautiful ramekins from my Mum ... good for ice cream.