Suzie and Otto

Rose Tea experiment

2010-07-18T03:03:00.001-07:00

On Friday my friend Kim and I went up to Northbridge to visit a few art exhibitions and have a snoop around. While looking for a small shop up on Brisbane street we found a magical cake shop called Rochelle Adonis and instantly fell in love.

We decided to sample a few goodies and we had some Fiori Rose tea with our cakes. Delish!! So I went for a visit to the Freo markets yesterday where I picked up some dried roses to attempt to make my own.

Unfortunately the roses, while extremely beautiful to look at, have almost no flavour. So I sprinkled some black tea with rose water and dried it slowly in the oven and added some dried rose geramium leaves as well. Not quite as luxurious but a pretty good cuppa until Rochelle Adonis can sell me the real thing.... mmmmm...

After procrastinating for a good few days, I finally got into the studio this weekend and made 7 bowls and 26 herb garden markers shaped like birds. Photos to follow when first lot emerge from the kiln. Less than 6 weeks until the market.......

I Love Melbourne!

2010-07-12T01:19:00.000-07:00

I have had the loveliest holiday with my favourite ladies in Melbourne.

I have gallivanted all over the place - all over the city including the Tim Burton Exhibition and Craft Vic and Outre gallery, down Gertrude and up Brunswick streets, then over the weekend I visited 4 craft markets!! I am such a lucky girl. I have pasted some pics below with a few comments.

Some lovely graffiti... I actually took loads of photos for my journal but won't bore you with them here... I am nearly finished my 14th visual journal. I think I might takes some photos for the blog to get my crafty friends inspired to start one. Keep an eye out.

Gorgeous seat with the early morning sun rising behind it.

Me at Meet Me at Mikes!! I have an envelope in the window - Hoorah! And I did a bit of spending in there too. Happy days.

And these lovely snaps are of Cottage Industry, the most dreamy shop on Gertrude Street. Loved their crocheted cushion covers, I am feeling very inspired... watch this space.

Tonight is my last night before I fly home with a head full of crafty ideas. Less than 6 weeks until the York Mill markets so I will be making a craft plan on the plane home and sticking to it!

I have had the best time ever and am very sad to leave... I love Melbourne.

Farmer's Market

2010-07-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

School holidays, Hoorah! Yesterday after packing Betsy off with lovely Lena from school, I raced down to the beach house for some R + R with the parents. We got up at the crack of dawn this morning to visit the Vasse Farmer's Market and here are some of the treats that we picked up:

Off to Melbourne in 4 days and shouldn't be stuffing myself with scones and bread slathered in jam and cream but it feels so good to sit here in the sun with a freshly brewed coffee and munch pumpkin bread baked by a real French man! (I am a sucker for an accent...)

Off to collect a new visual journal to taken notes of all the goodies I discover in Melbourne.

Camping in York

2010-06-30T20:43:00.001-07:00

Last weekend my lovely friend Kim and I went camping in the sweet little town of York. According to some fellow campers it reached minus 2 degrees over night which might explain the ice on the inside of the van in the morning when we were both too afraid to move from under three doonas. On the Sunday we checked out the Food and Wine Festival and the York Mill where I will be having a stall on September 4 at their first ever Art and Craft Market.

Check out how cold we were:

Me holding a frozen tea towel (it is still only about 1 degree in this photo!)

Kim and I eating breakfast that was so cold fellow campers

kept coming by and laughing at us...

A fantastic little treasure trove we found in the centre of York

Envelope Project

2010-06-30T20:07:00.001-07:00

The cover of my little book of riso and lino prints

A detail from the inside of the book

My little book, bookmark and brooch and the decorated envelope.

All ready for the Meet Me at Mikes Envelope Project!

I will be over in Melbourne next week - can't wait to check them all out.

New Style Felty Love

2010-06-21T20:23:00.001-07:00

Here is the new felty shape I made this weekend for my step brother Chris' little baby girl. Had a lovely weekend seeing the step family and meeting the new generation. Quite excited to make another one of these little beauties.... any friends having babies that they have not told me about??

Some new creative stuff...

2010-05-02T22:07:00.001-07:00

The Perth Studio Potters held its annual Mother's Day craft market on Saturday and here are some of the little beauties that I made for the occassion. Quite loving the pale blue and they looked lovely filled with Kym's Persian Love Cakes mmmmm...

And here is a little mixed media print that I made for the Year 9s who are creating prints to illustrate Aesop's Fables this term. I think it looks cute enough to frame for my house so I am going to get a few neat copies printed this week. Anyone want one while I am being productive??

Oh dear... a third of the new year gone already...

2010-04-29T00:08:00.001-07:00

Not quite sure how it has suddenly become the end of April without my realising.
Oh well...Visited my good friend Lynda last week and took her this lovely bunch of herbs fresh from the garden, snail munch holes and all! She baked some rather lovely rasberry goodies and I got to peek at her lovely flat.

More crafty stuff on the way soon, I am just about to take a look at my first real kiln load of bowls for about 12 months... Fingers crossed!

Crimbo at the beach house

2009-12-19T05:45:00.000-08:00

Christmas at the beach house! Where has this year gone? It has certainly been a busy one indeed.

In the recent weeks I have sold my wares again at the Perth Studio Potter's Christmas Bazaar. Plenty of felties went to good homes and I created two new products under the Suzie and Otto label; hand printed baby suits and lovely hand printed wrapping paper.

Some of the loveliness that was on the stall

Two weeks ago some students from school found a little kitten on the way into school in the morning. Since Mum offered to provide 24/7 support and friendship to Otto Hannah due to my extreme work hours in the second part of this year I have been a bit lonely at 48 Andromeda.... so look at my new house mate:

Meet Betsy!

Butternut pumpkin gone mad

About 5 weeks ago my lovely friend Kim of http://www.freckledgarden.com/ gave me two butternut pumpkin (squash to my UK friends) seedlings. This is the resulting monster! I have had to wrap it around the lemon tree three times to get it to fit in the garden. This weekend I brought the first pumpkin down to Dunsborough and made pumpkin scones with creamed honey and double cream. Delish! Not a brilliant recipe though... they didn't have amazing height so I think I had better repeat the activity with the next offspring from the beast.

Finally... I made a collection of Christmas tree decorations for friends. Here are a few decorating a little succulent and getting me happily in the Christmas mood.

Merry Christmas friends near and far. I will try to squeeze in one more post for 2009 and I will try my very hardest to be better at this in 2010 (I feel a new year's resolution coming on....)

Love Sarah, Otto and Betsy
xx

My Nest in the burbs

2009-08-03T04:43:00.000-07:00

My little house is coming together at last. It had a lick of white paint over the holidays and is being filled up with my recent pottery works. The image on the bottom right shows three of my latest pots from the Raku firing. The yellow table in the top right is a bit of a DIY job on a garage sale table. Bottom left is a bit of a view of my little kitchen and top left is a couple of my pottery projects on display by the pond out the front.

I will try to get some more photos during the day while the light is better over the weekend so keep posted.

Raku Firing in Toodyay

2009-08-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

I am lucky enough to teach a wonderful pottery class at the Perth Studio Potters in Cottesloe. This weekend we visited the breath taking property of Caroline and Lachlan in Gidge where we took part in a Raku Firing.

We enjoyed a shared lunch of homemade roast pumpkin soup, mulled wine, crusty bread and salad followed by home baked apple crumble, cheese cake and cupcakes.

Everyone had success with their pots and enjoyed the sensational late winter day. Thanks to Caroline and Lachlan for having us.

2009-08-03T03:49:00.000-07:00

A few of the Art Ed'ers met down at the lovely Gen Baker's property at Toodyay and took part in the pit firing. We used iron and copper oxide, banana peels, copper wire, salt and string to create the markings. Although it poured with rain all night the firing was a great success!

There will be an article in the next Art Ed Journal with loads of photos of the lovely pots created.

Pit Firing in Toodyay

2009-08-03T03:35:00.000-07:00

Hottie Covers

2009-04-30T21:22:00.001-07:00

My new product: hot water bottle covers.

Perfect for Mothers Day and scrummy on cold days. I have already claimed one to get me through this winter since the cost of electricity is about to go up.

I have made 7 and will be felting into the small hours of tomorrow in preparation for the market. I would like to have 10 ready.

Happy Friday!

S

Beautiful New Plant Pots

2009-04-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

Here are my lovely new pots for herbs. They are going to be sold at the craft market at the Studio Potters tomorrow. 10am - 4pm, 1 Burt Street Cottesloe.

Hope to see you there!

Latest bits and pieces for markets

2009-04-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the Mother's Day market in Cottesloe on May 2nd I have been experimenting with slightly more Mother's Day friendly items. The Little succulent pots generated lots of interest at Made On The Left but I am thinking little herb pots might be nice for next one.

I am also on the hunt for hot water bottles. I think felted covers will be the perfect Mother's Day gifts as the evenings start to get a little chillier. Difficult to find at the moment which leads me to believe they are either deeply out of fashion or in high demand (although I hope the latter to be the reason, I suspect the former is closer to the truth!). Since electicity bills are about to get a bit expensive a hottie might be just the thing for this winter.

Will have a few samples ready to post by the end of the weekend. Off to Bunnings to try to find some black Japanese lacquer to re-do an old table and chair set.

Happy autumnal stormy day!

4 whole months!

2009-04-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

I have just been very inspired by a few gorgeous blogs and some very crafty ladies at the Bunbury Made on the Left market last weekend. I am suitably ashamed at the state of my neglected blog so I am on a mission to get it up and running.

Watch this space...

My latest lovelies

2008-12-09T16:25:00.000-08:00

A felted lovely that has been order by a friend of mine for her new nephew.

My latest felted lovelies. This little guy is an order from the Burt Street Bazaar. He is waiting to be packaged and sent.

Summer Skirts

2008-12-07T22:15:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend I visited the Fremantle Bazaar and SODA which was having a bit of an open studio and a Crimbo sale. It was wonderfully inspiring to see so many creative people and being in the sensational Fleur Schell's studio just took my breath away! She is so brilliant.

I felt so inspired I ran up these two rather rough skirts and today I did a little bit of screen printing at the end of the day. So here are my two new summer skirts. These photos don't quite do them proud, however, I think I will enjoy wearing them.

Busy Bazaar

2008-12-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

Apologies for not writing sooner. What a week! This week is the last week of term and I have been struggling with reports. I have even been dreaming of them.

But the end is in sight which is a huge relief.

Thanks to all of you who visited the Burt Street Bazaar. It was great fun and a big success. Suzie and Otto sold out! Plus a couple of orders, so I have been busy felting in my spare minutes to keep on top of it.

I am trying to make a few spares so I can put them in the Burt Street Gallery. As I make them I will post pics.

Thanks for keeping up with my fledgling blog.

Love Sarah

2008-11-26T19:01:00.000-08:00

My labels!

I designed a little riso print and screened it onto the grey cover paper before

printing my little label over the top.

They look lovely on the felted creatures.

Only 2 days to go....

Burt Street Bazaar

2008-11-23T16:45:00.001-08:00

Hopefully I am able to attach this???

First attempt

2008-11-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

Good Morning...

After enjoying some brilliant craft blogs for the past year I thought it might be time to start my own in an attempt to connect crafters in Western Australia. Please excuse my first humble attempt.

In preparation for my first ever art and craft market I have been felting animals like a crazy woman. I attempted to use the tumble drier due to that rather soggy nature of the day and they have shrunk to about half their usual size.... oops.

If anyone happens to come by this new blog, it would be great to see you at the market. It is this Saturday the 29th at 1 Burt Street, Cottesloe which is the home of the Perth Studio Potters.