Stuff this

My heart is stuffed full of love for these amazing taxidermied creations by the utterly amazing Enrique Gomez de Molina.

Thank you, Leeyong, for stuffing around at work and sending me the link.

Note to self: will my corpse to Enrique with a request that I be combined with a giraffe.

FINALLY I will be able to buy jeans that don't need to be shortened.

Wanna see my zombie artworks? Of corpse you do!

Reasons I have not updated this blog lately:

1. I had to walk my pet cauliflower.

2. I have discovered the joy of vanilla vodka martinis. They Absolut-ly awesome. (Ahem, Absolut, I'd like payment for that name-drop, please.)

3. I've been preparing frantically for the Zombie Apocalyse, aka the Esprit de Corpse art show I am holding with my dear undead artist pals Charlotte and Kitty. So far, this has involved battling for space on the craft table with a giant black-and-white striped zombie octopus who may or may not be a ninja in his time off, decapitating a Barbie doll and working out exactly which type of wool makes the best sort of brains for a ghoulish zombie critter made from an airline sock. (I can tell you now in all honesty, wool does not work, you're better off with felt and a lot of hand stitching. Take that, Martha Stewart, I bet even you did not know that.)

Come and see the results of all this unscientific experimentation - opening night is Friday, November 4 from 6pm at Egg Gallery, 66a Johnston St, Collingwood (opposite the Tote). Prizes will be awarded for those who turn up dressed as zombies. (Although by 'prizes' I mean 'you shall be spared from the brain-sucking activities of any other zombies present', which is a pretty good prize really. You might also get a gourmet dinner cooked by me if you're lucky, but seeing as my cooking skills only go as far as opening a box of Barbecue Shapes, don't get too excited about this. Hello, Arnott's, cough up.)

ANHOO, as Mr T would have said if he was into the walking undead, I pity the ghoul who does not turn up to this show! Be there or be dead, in fact if you ARE dead, you should definitely turn up, we will put you on display as a piece of modernist realist artwork...

This little crafster went to market

This week I made...a craft stall at Made n Thornbury craft market! Here it is:

You might recognise some of the critters from previous posts. Or you might recognise them because they came home with you today - if so, thanks for buying a critter from me!

Hurrah for you!

Having a stall was an optional part of the Make Craft Your Business course held at Thornbury Women's Neighbourhood House earlier this year. Most of the girls who attended the course had a stall, or turned up to browse, and it was ace to see them all again. The market was held today - if you missed it, there's another one coming up in December. Details here.

My stall was next to the always lovely Rosie Ruse - see more of her beautiful jewellery here. Her equally lovely partner James braved the elements (namely, a hall full of women and craft stalls! Now that's a force stronger than a cyclone!) and came to visit later in the day. Awwwww.

I'd like to say Janet from Slow Spun spun out, because that is the obvious pun to make in this kind of yarn. But she's a real purler, not a knitwit, and I doubt she'd ever have a woolly thought. As you might have guessed, Janet hand-knits beautiful garments including scarves and gloves. She even spins her own wool. How cool is that? She knitted all through the course and has been known to walk, shop and knit an intricate, tri-coloured design AT THE SAME TIME which is COMPLETELY FREAKIN AMAZING to someone like me - I am so uncoordinated I sometimes marvel at my ability just to walk up stairs without tripping over. (I say 'sometimes because it's fairly often that I DO trip over.) And I can't cannot co-ordinate my thoughts, either. I wanted to compliment Janet on her incredible multitasking skills, and what did I wind up saying? 'Oh my god you can knit and walk and talk all at once, and you don't even need to look at what you're knitting?! You should be in a circus, that's like juggling while you're on fire!'

Yep, sure, whatever... anyway, there's more about Janet here.

Donna's handmade greeting card stall is on the left here - it was just next to mine. We spent a vast part of the day exchanging cat stories - Donna named her business, Millie n Daisy, after her beloved furry friends.

On the right is Two Birds by Lisa Kerr.

Lisa makes super cool accessories - she hand-paints beads and then makes them into chunky, modern and very wearable necklaces and brooches. I was lucky enough to do a craft swap with her - I made her an owl door stopper (which I stupidly forgot to photograph, oops) and she's going to custom-make me a necklace in exchange. Yay!

Lisa has been super supportive of me and my crafty ways throughout and beyond the craft course. I can't wait to wear the necklace and, at the risk of sounding cheesier than the Vic Market deli, keep feeling that support. And for me, that's really what the craft course did best - introduce a bunch of crafty people to each other who really 'got' what we were all on about. Never before have I been able to discuss buttons for 30 minutes without a single eye-roll in the room! If you're in any way crafty I recommend you do the course - read more here.

This little critter went to market

We'll all be having a hoot on Saturday! Join us!

I'll be taking these cute critters and badges (and plenty more!) out to play this Saturday, October 15. Come and see us all at my stall at the Made n Thornbury craft market. It's at Leinster Grove Community Centre, 99 Leinster Grove, Thornbury (MEL 30 D5) from 10am-2.30pm. There will also be delicious sweet treats available from Melbourne Epicure (yes, I am open to bribes of their amazing cookies!) and gorgeous handpainted necklaces by 2birds - and that's just the start of the fun.

See you there!