the women who never sit

Three days.
24 hours total of STANDING.
Not me, but my superhuman neighbours at Mag Square.



See.. no room for a chair in there.
Sure, there's a little bit of support from the clothes rack but come on now who could stand non-stop for 11 hours and feel okay about it? The truly amazing Georgina and Harriet from Dick and Dora, that's who.



Something in the Tassie water, perhaps? Me, I'm gobsmacked by this discovery - that anyone would even consider doing a market without one of those small pieces of furniture on which to rest your backside. Me, I want to sit down before I even stand up.

On the first day of the market I plonked myself straight onto my trusty little folding campers chair the minute I'd set up as I was so exhausted from having not slept at ALL the night before (late evening arrival, stayed with a friend I haven't seen for ages, chat chat chat, then lay awake all the remaining hours of the night in a state of anxiety). Must have had a premonition that my chair would collapse the minute I sat on it, broken, unrepairable without a staple gun.

Okay, the beginnings of distress. Wild-eyed, frantic, I wander from stall to stall. Does anyone have a staple gun? What? Nobody? Back at my stall, standing, forcing myself to think happy thoughts. Not happy. How am I going to get through 11 hours of standing? Not going to happen. Practise squatting. Hmmm. Maybe someone could lend me a box to sit on.

Then, less than 2 hours into the market, my stall collapses .. cushions fly everywhere. Did I remember to bring the two clamps that held my vertical structure in place? NO. I thought I could just wing it by propping the structure against the back wall. NO. It slipped between the gaps. Tired and internally hysterical all I want to do is run screaming from the beautiful Malvern Town Hall. Very tempting. Somehow I pull myself together.

The Scene a Few Hours Later -
I am sitting on a borrowed chair (Melanie you are a star!), eating a cupcake. My stall structure is securely gaffer tapped to the back wall (Georgina you are a star!). My lovely signage flutters to the floor for the second time.



I leave it there. Beyond caring. Cupcake is goooooood.
The divine comfort of being able to SIT is even better.
Will fix everything tomorrow when I've had a good night's sleep.

And I did.

loving ...

amy earles from woolandwater


pheasant


kristina from inaluxe

Melbourne in November

I love Melbourne.
Have done for years.
Tried to relocate there many years ago when I was oh so young.
Ended up being offered a job in Sydney.
And here I am still.

BUT
I'll be back in Melbourne.
November 26 - 28th.
To be precise.

At my stall in Malvern Hall.
To be even more precise.

Contrary to popular belief you do not need to own a child or a designer pram to enjoy the MAGNOLIA SQUARE MARKETS. So do swing by if you're in the mood for shopping. This is my last outing for the year with feedthedog and I have gone a bit girly. Amongst other things. Not sure where, why, how exactly the girly urge took hold. A while back I found myself sketching some roses from a luscious spread in some magazine.


Isolated a few stems and played around with colours and backgrounds in Photoshop.


Cut a few stencils.


Printed and hung up to dry.


Plumped up with goose feathers.


I've had these out at a couple of markets now but sadly no one's been buying.
Duds or ahead of my time?
Let's see if Melbourne likes the blooms.
Something tells me these will be appearing on sale in my etsy shop in December.

And some more work-in-progress. I've got a bit of tree obsession going on as well.




Okay, enough.

PYD Market

The less said about this market the better.
Apologies for very crappy phone photos (forgot my camera).
Not sure why I'm even posting these.



Closure, perhaps?

BOWER BIRD BAZAAR

The thing about me and the limelight is that I only really enjoy basking in it for a minute or two. Any longer and I'm longing to crawl back under my rock and hide.

Three days is a long long time to be switched on and exposed to the public.
I am terrible at small talk, I am appalling at selling my own product (and just selling generally).
My real skill is convincing someone to go for my cheapest product, not my most expensive. or not to buy anything at all.
Do you really need another cushion in your life? I don't think so. quick, get out of here before you spend money.

The Queen's Theatre in Adelaide didn't disappoint. It is a magnificent, unrenovated stone building - the oldest theatre on mainland australia. This was a truly awe-inspiring space, very hard to capture its essence in photos. There were two long skinny rooms that led on to a large central space.


















Crumbling walls, exposed beams, concrete floor .. very cold the first couple of days.
But nobody minded too much, not with the superb catering for the venue.. sensational local vego food, coffee and organic wine. I am determined to return to Adelaide on a road trip for an eating/ drinking holiday.



Here are just some of the other talent at Bowerbird:
Melanie Hill from Melbourne is seriously prolific and makes an eclectic range of products from found and recycled woollen materials and beads and buttons and all kinds of stuff. i've got one of her cardies and scarves - always get comments when i'm wearing them. And look at those puppets! Mental. Love them.


Here's my hotel room buddy, Ursula, from flat bird. She and her partner have a ridiculous number of my cushions and are currently the world record holders for owning the most number of feedthedog products (my sister has more but i don't count her because she doesn't pay for them).


Love my neighbours? Did i ever. On one side i had the wonderful and 'real' susanna from local multi-disciplinary design company, enoki, who had the wildest rugs i've ever seen. Graphics like this pink dog are hand-stitiched (takes about 3 days) onto high quality carpet underlay. They also make other sustainable products like cardboard children's furniture and provide a broad range of design services.


On the other side was the so very sweet and very talented young Adelaide jewellery designer, Sarah Rothe. This was her first market ever and i tried not to scare her too much with my tired old carnie stories.


I wish I had a better photo of these killer purple striped shoes worn by my jewellery designer mate from syd, Kristina who has a glorious wardrobe that more than rivals her stunning jewellery collection.


My corner of the Bowerbird Bazaar. Before the crowds.
Before my very special presentation booklet, which i had made up in the US, was taken from my stand while i was off getting a coffee. I was a little upset to say the least. But then my neighbours bought me a drink and we started the party a little early and I was over it in no time.

Now I need to take a very deep breath, clean up this pigsty I live in and get ready for the next one. PYD DESIGN MARKET is on from Saturday 24th to Sunday 25th October and will be my only Sydney outing before Christmas. This year the event is sponsored by Vogue Living magazine and I hope I get the time to make my extra-large space everything I want it to be. It's less than two weeks away. Feeling very much like Sisyphus rolling that giant rock to the top of the mountain only to have the damn thing roll back down again .. and on it goes.

Bowerbird was a great success for me personally, for many stall holders, for the organisers, and for the people of adelaide who supported the event. It wasn't fab for everyone though. These kind of big big events can be tough. Until you've done one of these gigs there's just no way of conveying the complexity of the experience.
The stress, frustration, joy, irritation, physical and mental exhaustion, bitching and moaning, joy, envy, excitement, self-doubt, boredom, joy and an awful lot of laughing.



I'm not sure why or how I do it.

*Denis from MessageMark has sent through a link to all the great photos he took on the Sunday. Really worth a peek here:
BowerBird photos

adelaide*sydney*melbourne

in that order.
loading up the truck and stepping out into the limelight again.
i don't have a truck, starting to need one though with all these extra stall props i've been buying.

three big market events looming before xmas, so get out those pens and diaries.
yes, i'm an old-fashioned thing.

bowerbird bazaar is first off the blocks.
less than two weeks away.
some of my fave ever designers will be here.
third drawer down and cloth.
in-sync design.
and pal kristina brenke.

then, a couple of weeks later, it's the PYD market alongside the Danks St Festival in sydney. vogue living are on board this year and it should be fun, fun, fun.
even if it is in a car park.

finally, last chance to get up close and personal with feedthedog will be at magnolia square in melbourne.
have been wanting to do this one for a while now.
so i am.
end of november.

new stuff, old stuff reworked.



please come and say hi if you're in the area.

coming over all versace like

a big fan of pom poms and ruffles i couldn't go past this great mustard retro trim giveaway from Loz and Dinny.
so mustard, so swishy, so versace .. at least, that's how it looks to me when i drape it around more mustard and a flock of show offy sheep.



then i tried it around a simple rose. red, yellow, blue .. nothing like the primaries. but still sooo versace. and i think i'm lovin' it. never in my wildest dreams did i think i'd be channelling gianni v. and feeling a little bit thrilled, a little bit OMG what am i doing.
too much is never enough. let's see how far i can go with you .. my lovely long piece of retro trim.