favourites

Hello, whats your fave stuff? I have very wide ranging tastes but generally lean towards things which are old and worn, books that have soft corners and slightly yellowed pages, old printed rusty tins, driftwood...

I love green and blue colours, anodised kitchen ware, also grey-the kind you'd see on plated metals which have worn thin...

I love tiny little details and expanses of blank space...

my latest creations feature lots of my favourites- tiny stitches, green thread, blue felt, space(!)...and I am very pleased with them!

These new favourites are available in one of my fave places, Reverse garbage which is having a grand opening, Saturday Feb 26th at thier new location 20 Burke street,

Woolloongabba, 9 a.m -5.

And no, not telling what my new favourites are, you'll have to head in to see!

xKate

wet weather events

Hello! Sorry I have not been posting much lately-my home computer internet connections is on the blink, and relying heavily on my iphone and wireless cafes is not working out so well...I hope to get it all fixed soon.

Anyhoo-today I am online with my trusty usb stick at my lovely friend Sams! Thanks dear one!! LOTS and LOTS going on...will start with the good news...

The fundraiser at Reverse Garbage went brilliantly-the organisers did an amazing job; the space looked wonderful and the food was delicious and presented so creatively!

The whole feel of the night was so good natured, the live music and the auction was exciting-its a thrill to see the crowd joining in the fun and chipping in towards the fundraising! The event kick starts the fundraising process-for the the purchase of a permanent home, a purpose bought Reverse Garbage building. I would love to see this come into fruition!
I am thrilled to have a selection of my dash robin pieces in the gallery store.

I chose some Christmas style items;, some of my partridges, jacaranda brooches and few other good gift giving ones. Reverse garbage receives a percentage for these
sales, I am really happy to know that commission fee is going to a good cause!




So that was the highlight of the week. The rest though was more like a series of lowlights! Yesterday I spent some time reflecting and regathering my spirits with the help of this little love, curling up on my lap, purring and basically letting me be quiet and down. The disheartened feelings I had when two highly anticipated weekend markets were totally washed out left me very flat. This is the not so cheerful part! My hope and optimism about this business is at a low point.
Saturdays Christmas Brisstyle market was hit by such extreme weather, high winds whipping up and absolute down pouring of rains. Unfortunately quite a few of us had wet stock but the efforts of the organisers are appreciated. Helen was racing around with plastic sheeting and trying to keep every ones spirits up despite how frustrating it must have been for her, it was nothing short of spectacular and inspiring.

On Sunday I did not have high hopes for a clear skied day. I gathered at Northey street with the few brave souls who had travelled to our market site. Bob soothed our souls with some amazing music, the acoustics of playing under food connects huge new tent and heavy rain was so moving it raised goosebumps.

I felt negative and bitter and without the kindness and gentle support of everyone around me I would have felt worse-this was the site where one of the stall holders was meant to be!

Can you believe it?!?!
These feelings pass, Buddhism and counselling have given me some small seeds of patience and in some ways I know I am and even
feel lucky. Knowing this is passing disappointment, not genuine depression. I hope and work towards never facing depression again, I had a terrible time in the past with it and am thankful to have mental stability.

So instead of surrendering to feelings of failure I am cherishing simple little happy tasks, one at at time, and holding fast to moments of joy,

xoKate.

Hello! I am feeling full and lazy because I have been enjoying some yummy pain du campagne bread today. I picked up a loaf from Sol bread which is my fave bakery chain in Brisbane, they have shops in West end and New farm, a stall at Northey streets Sunday market, and maybe even more places, not sure?
Anyway, they make all sorts of breads, but specialise in sourdough. By happy coincidence my taste buds specialise in sourdough :o)

I stopped in quickly after dropping off some brooches and toys to Echoes Giftshop, in West end. Echoes is inside the premises of Reverse garbage and to have your work stocked there you have to use at least 75% recycled or reused materials. They take work on consignment(yay-no upfront fees!) and proceeds go back into their organisation to fund their education programs.


These brooches are a good example of the kind of thing I am interested in; re-purposing high quality materials. These are discs of thick clean white felt, used in the transportation of glassware, afterwards instead of ending up in landfill, these are collected by Reverse garbage. I purchased them from their shop front, decorated them with embroidery, stitched a brooch backing onto them and now they have returned to the premises, in the gift shop for sale. The only thing I have not yet found are recycled brooch pins. If anyone has any leads on this I'd love to hear of them, as my aim is to use only recycled items.

I am happy to have been able to create this 100% recycled baby cloud toy. I filled it with ordinary polyester stuffing offcuts from an upholsterers, which are again, from reverse garbage- clean, fresh and totally usable.
The bird symbol was a fine red woollen jumper, felted, and the white material is again, reverse garbage offcuts, from clothing manufacturing. Even the sewing thread is from reverse garbage!
I love using stuff which was otherwise destined to become rubbish-it really feels great, and seems so useful. Why do we continue to buy new materials, and manufacture and import so much stuff when we have vast stores of things, overflowing, cluttering up homes and businesses?

There are some things we have to buy new of course, but lots of crafting supplies, I suggest we simply buy new, without really considering the impact, source, workers who've made them ,etc, etc...
Anyway, I feel so passionate about this but will stop now to hopefully avoid becoming a 'ranter' !
Before I sign off I thought I'd show you my new glasses, picked up just today-how strangely comfortable they are to wear! I thought they'd be heavy and hurt my nose as I have never worn glasses before, but they feel great...what do you think?
My goofball son is pulling a face to show what he thinks of them, he told me, "you look good in them" after a pause, he amended it to 'not really good, but good."
Hope you're having a really good week,
xkate