IMG_5080

IMG_5080, originally uploaded by paulamills.

Oh gosh what a day! So many things exploding in my head. Our lovely little craft business is taking off - which is a good thing - but some times, some where, some how one does wonder about all the time poured into some thing and the passion needed to keep it going...where to get more time to do all the things that the heart desires? As anyone who runs their own business knows, there is plenty of admin and mundane stuff involved - and who wants to do all that, when there is exciting creative work to be done?? Ahhh Ce la vie I supose!

***Melbournians - Sweet William will be at the Shirt and Skirt market on Sunday in Abottsford from 10am till 4pm, pop in and say hello.****

brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things.

We had a flurry of orders in our etsy shop recently and we did a give away to our 100th customer - YIPEE! (Well done to Megan Kay in South Australia). The fun part was putting the packages together to send all over the world, we take great pride in our parcels - who doesn't love, in this modern tech-no world, receiving a great parcel in the post - hooray for snail mail! So here are some images from our studio in full packaging and post mode.

Twenty minute Thrift

On Wednesday I had twenty minutes to spare, a little window of thrift shop time. So I hit Trash Palace with a purpose. Books, tins, glassware, games, fabrics, knick knacks - I knew exactly the route to take. My hands were numb (Trash Palace is unbelievably cold) and there was a strange rancid stench (not the usual old book smell), but the clock was ticking and I am proud of my power thrift. Found a lovely old tin with the cereal label on, a beat up old tray with snow white and her little men, a nice silver bon-bon platter which I will use for my stall and a bunny hutch. All for the bank breaking sum of 20 bucks.

(image is from www.handmadefont.com)

Print giveaway

We are thrilled with our little online shop over at etsy  - be our 100th customer and we will throw in a print of your choice for free! Yippeee! We love celebrating!

inspiration & creation

Paula and I went to the opening night of the ACMI Animators festival in Melbourne. We enjoyed some great pieces, some funny, some bizarre, some down right amazing. This link will show you a sample of one that's incredible to see on the big screen. It's a bit creepy - but one can't help but be inspired by the sheer vision and scale of it.

We were immediately inspired to make these brooches later that night after the show. We're crazy crafty that way.

Holly at Decor8 featured my two birdies in a nest illustration, in her favorites from flicker, which you can see here. It looked so good so I thought I would do a collection of some my recent flicker favorites too. You can view all the links to the above flicker images here.

more lovely blog love - wow wee

Gosh, once again we feel very flattered to get a mention in a fantastic blog realsimple.com this time by the lovely Holy Becker (of decor8blog) who is a fantastic freelance writer and interior design consultant, thanks Holy. As a young start up creative company we love getting all the amazing feedback and support, all this so that we can carry on with our craft - hopefully making the world a prettier place one stitch or drawing at a time : )

sweet william pack giveaway in Frankie mag

As you may have seen, in an earlier post, we are over the moon to be in the latest issue of Frankie. To celebrate their thirtieth issue they are offering a whole lot of amazing giveaways and our Sweet William Pack above is one of them! So for a chance to win, go and get your Frankie and check out the details. For those of you who can't get your paws on the lovely mag, we are thinking of selling SW gift packs in our Etsy shop soon, so keep checking. 

Can't get enough!

cushion.lo, originally uploaded by paulamills.

Just loving vintage tapestry at the moment. I have been collecting for a while and am now thinking about what to do with them all...lots of ideas! This detail is a lovely cushion from my local charity shop, I have to stop myself from popping in every day to see if they have any more.

Camille

cam, originally uploaded by paulamills.

The little red head girl who features in our illustrations, Camille, has come to life in the form of a very sweet softie. We made a few for the market to go along with our illustration range. Camille comes in all sizes and our miniature ones sold out pretty quickly, making a few little girls at the market sad, so we are getting on with making more!

how excited are we!!

We are over the moon and dizzy with happiness as one of our brooches (Queenie) has been featured in the latest issue of Frankie Magazine! Wowweee. Frankie is also offering a giveaway pack from us here at SW, (blogged here)  so if you would like a shot at getting that buy the latest issue of Frankie - it is a fab mag.

market days

We had plenty of fun on the weekend and our markets went very well. Thanks to everyone who popped round and supported us. I think we will be doing more.

big weekend for us at sweet william

We are very chuffed with ourselves.  Around one year ago, two sisters, who live thousands of kilometers apart, decided that we needed to see each other more often. Both being full time moms meant that our time and resources were a little limited. We put our creative minds together and decided that we would sell some of our hand made goods and art to fund our travels. So here we are; a year later (with much help from a sister in law Jeanine and our lovely buyers) all together in Melbourne, extreme crafting, preparing for a full weekend of markets (and recovering from seeing Washington live a t the Northcote Social club). Yay for us!

lovely blog love

We are so very very excited and flattered by this wonderful feature of my work, sweet william and my home at http://creaturecomforts.typepad.com. Thanks creature comforts for that and all the lovely comments and support.

a new painting

I have recently been a little obsessed with geometric shapes and flat colour so I painted this onto a wood panel and was quite pleased with the way it has turned out. This is a break from all the floral and flowing lines I normally draw - as they say a change is as good as a holiday!

new illustration - craving for stars

When Camille looks up into the milky-way she has an absolute craving to dive straight in. I did this as a late entry for Illustration Friday 'craving'.

Miniature doll house

Our little girl Camille, that can be seen in lots of Sweet William illustrations, was needing a little house to live in. So here she is in her matchbox house. Don't you just love dinky,wee things?

new things in our shops and some great sales on Etsy

We are busy, busy, busy, making new things all the time, leading up to a few markets coming up soon. Some of the items we can load up onto our etsy shop, or if your are in Australia our made it shop. So have a look and enjoy and let us know what you think.
Esty is running some fantastic sales this weekend and we are participating too. If you run a search using the word YART (yard sale + art = YART) you will find all the lovely products on sale. We are offering free shipping on a number of items. The sale ends on the 14th.

new illustration - adapt

My new illo. and entry for IF - blogged at: www.paulamills.blogspot.com

my studio

I am doing a bit of sorting out of things in my house that I am tired of - you know how sometimes you can have stuff around you for years and not really 'see' it and then one day you do  - and think, I am really tired of looking at that. I think it is good to filter this way and only keep the things that fill you with joy. My studio corner still fills me with joy - it is not often as neat as it is in this photo but actually I love it even more then! 

folder

folder, originally uploaded by paulamills.

Made this the other day - a hand made Sweet William folder, part of a reader give away - filled with goodies from us at SW, we will post more details at a later date.

makin makin makin

Have been busy making cards and tags and things for market. - 3 weeks to go!

blog love

Just love this artwork by farouche, a lovely shop on Etsy - full of wonderful things. Christy also featured Sweet William on her inspirational blog - dandybreadandcandy, take a look.

artwork used on website

This is some art work I did for rock the stitch craft fair. The work was commisioned by Amanda. I thought it came out pretty well, the artwork will be used in posters and flyers too. Looks like it will be good, if you are a crafter in the area (florida) have a look.

work in progress now finished!

At last I have finished this mammoth job - I have been working on it for days, incorporating some of my drawings, hand drawn type and images from my old children's book collection, quite pleased with the final design. We are gearing up for Mathilda's Market in June , Shelley is coming out from New Zealand to help, should be good!

new illustration - laughter

A new Illustration done by myself. I think we could all do with catching a little laughter : ) I f you would like to buy a copy of this illustration you can do so here Australian buyers can shop here

random wonderful things

The other day I went to the market and bought a pair of harem pants (as you do) and this lovely old magnolia print -  from a funny little old man, who was surrounded by a beautiful clutter of dusty old things, who hardly seemed to noticed the world go by around him. Anyhow these purchases  made me feel very happy. 

work in progress

In the mood for a little printing

I felt like printing today, so I though I would show you what I got up to.

First I took papers from an old book.

Then sewed them together to make a little bag

On some old frame glass I spread the ink - tacky is the consistency you want - it makes a lovely velcro sound as you roll back and forth.

Rolled onto the lino (a good tip is to roll in one direction only, so as to get an even spread)

The best part is the print and reveal - a good even pressure will give nice results. I don't have a fancy press - just use my hand or an iron.

Make the most of the wet paint and print onto lots of lovely things.

collections

I collect vintage tins - here are some from my collection, I love them, can't get enough -  and I am of to the charity shop to see if I can find some more!

hand drawn type

I love hand drawn type - I feel it may be a reaction to all the years I had to spend perfecting typography as a graphic designer, all those fonts and type setting and so little time!  I now much prefer the looser feel of hand drawn, so much more character (oh dear there is a bad pun in there somewhere).

new paper packs

Our love for vintage paper runs long and deep. Here at Sweet William we are endlessly rummaging through second hand book shops, markets, thrift shops, charity shops, garage sales - always on the search for beautiful old treasures that no one loves. Then we transform our finds into these exciting packages - filled to the brim with paper goodness, ready for you to make what ever you want with them - cards, scrapbooks, artwork. We are passionate about these packs and love the idea of sharing our sometimes obsessive passion with other paper lovers. Each Sweet William mixed paper pack is an intriguing collection of vintage ephemera and papers, which may include roughly 30 pieces of : lovely old children's book images, postage stamps, illustrations, old playing cards, postcards, fine papers, labels, vintage wall paper, paper tags, maps and tons more. The A4 packs come secured with paper clips, backed with card, covered in cellophane, and sent with mad, paper collecting, love These new packs will be for sale here. And for Australian buyers here. Just look at them! YUM!

When we love we grow

A lovely new illustration piece from Paula for Sweet William fans. In dreams and love there are no impossibilities.


Find it here.

Shrink plastic earrings

I used to love playing with shrink plastic when I was a kid. I remember a glow -in-the-dark pack that had monsters and ghosts printed on it - and the buzz we got as we watched it curl and shrink in the oven. Playing with it again has been a lot of fun and my girls got a kick out of it too.

brooches

new handmade ceramic brooches now available in our online store.

The red shoes

A lovely Amazon pressie arrived in my mail box today, a gift from my darling sister , Paula. She felt so inspired by her copy she wanted me to have one too. The red shoes - illustrated by Sun Young Yoo.
It is delightful and deeply personal to us as its about finding one's creative passion and pursuing dreams even under great adversity. It is a fairytale - but so poetic its for all ages really.
The story is based on Anderson's tale - but with a contemporary twist. Published by Ammo books - you can see more images there. I just wanted to share a few exquisite pen and ink drawings from it.

In the mail box today

My postie brought a lovely little ACEO parcel from the talented Nicole Ray who is sloeginfizz on Etsy.

I love the quirkiness - and its name "a fish out of water'. I'v got my eye on her Bird houses print too -

happy easter

Happy Easter bunnies!! Hope you all have a good break with your friends and families. x x

Maria Taylor

I recently completed some illustration work for a wonderful indie musician called Maria Taylor. I had great fun working on her album art for LadyLuck, a wonderful album, you can hear some of it here.

yelowtable

yelowtable, originally uploaded by paulamills.

Here we go, here is the little table I recently painted, it was a pretty easy job and I am pretty chuffed with the outcome!

sunny yellow

yellow cabinet, originally uploaded by ATLITW.

I loved this image of this little yellow cabinet so much that it inspired me to paint a pice of my own furniture yellow. I have taken a 'before and after ' shots and i will blog them soon, just need to load the shots when i have some time...

**Camberwell Market on Sunday**

Jeanine and Paula are doing Camberwell Market for the first time on Sunday the 4th! If you are in Melbourne, come early, as it always gets jam packed and you don't want to miss the wonderful bargains! We are looking forward to it, a very early start, (and the clocks go forward!!) should be a great day. Sweet William loves markets!

added some shots to my flicker photostream

I have added some shots from around my house onto my flicker stream, we live in a rented house at the moment which makes interior decorating a bit of a challenge. I find I need to put my mark on the place to  make it feel like ours and sometimes I just need to cover the place with pattern and colour (it is a little drab). Anyway - happiness is when you are happy with what you've got.

our creative space this week

A bit of a mess...I have always believed a messy studio must mean a very creative studio....getting ready for Camberwell market on Sunday! YAY! Busy making and collecting, too things Sweet William just love.
My creative space hoted by: http://kootoyoo.blogspot.com cool thanks!

vintage cross stitch pattern - bird

Found this little gem hiding in my paper drawer on the weekend - completly forgot I had it. Must have been a thrift shop find. decided there is no point letting it be a wallflower - it deserves to be shown to the world. I've uploaded the pattern onto flickr so you can find it there - so if you want to make the little bird - have a go - I have a special plan for it myself .... will reveal when all is done.

what to do in the economic downturn

Here is a new illustration done by myself - blogged at: www.paulamills.blogspot.com for Illustration Friday. I have been thinking about this saying since seeing an article in Selvedge magazine(see image above - a wonderful source for all things crafty/beautiful) Anyway they have an article on the art of mending - isn't it sad that in our generation, if a sock gets a hole we just chuck it out and buy new socks? Maybe we should revisit the art of darning and mending - try and make things last a little longer before adding them to ever expanding landfills. Apparently it was the the needlework involved in mending that brought on the art of embroidery.

307: 12.4.07

307: 12.4.07, originally uploaded by girlhula.

I love this shot. Posted by: girlhula on flicker. There is so much to love - the colour, the texture, the fact that these were found on the side of the road. I love random, unexpected treasure.

The evolution of the humble tag

http://www.lovelysweetwilliam.etsy.com/


http://www.blog.so-sage.fr/

http://www.farouche.etsy.com/

http://www.sycamorestreetpress.etsy.com/

We love all things paper - and always get a little thrill every time we walk into a stationers supply. We have made some lovely gift tags for our shop - and it got me thinking that the humble brown tag used for parcels has taken on a whole new life out there. (I can't remember when last I saw one on an ACTUAL parcel though). We love wrapping our gifts (and orders) beautifully and with care - it's an extension of our creativity.

For some inspiration I found some special gift tags to make any parcel look fab.

http://www.sushipotparts.etsy.com/

craft tree

Just finished this illustration for a client in Florida - I am amazed by the internet, I live in Australia and I have just done some work for a craft fair in Florida! WOW. Our world is shrinking. Anyway it is always great to work with a fellow crafter anywhere in the world!

Illustrators we love

There are so many talented illustrators out there and its nice to know Paula's work inspires others - just as we are inspired. Kim Naumann of curiouser & curiouser - blogs about some amazing artists and we were so touched she mentioned Paula on her blog recently. Thank you Kim.

An artist that we have loved for a long time is Daley Muller - based in Cape Town, South Africa. Her work can be found at http://www.meu.co.za/

We just love her charachters - who have cute stories and are so simple yet full of great detail.

the things we do

I love receiving and giving greeting cards. It is one of those lovely old traditions that may not have much of a practical purpose but we still love do - a bit like wearing a hat to a wedding, eating cake at a birthday party, a man wearing a tie, clapping, putting flowers on a table, collecting shell's on the beach, brightly colored balloons and drinking endless cups of tea. There are many, many things that we just do because we like to. We thought it would be nice for Sweet William to offer our prints a greeting cards. We have great fun making them up by hand and they are available in our on-line shops: www.lovelysweetwilliam.etsy.com and madeit in australia.

Its in the bag

I recently felt like a real traveling salesman when I took some pieces to a shop we supply. I had placed the wood blocks in an old suitcase I had found on a recent thrifty scrounge. I loved the colour and the stitching detail and it looked like it could have previously belonged to a glamorous, updo lady.

However, it was a bit lacking in personality so I decided to give it a little face lift. Around my guillotine there is always a little growing pile of paper off cuts, but instead of sweeping them up I used them to cover the front of the case.

new illo - fawn

here is a new illustration done by me - Paula Mills. It is available as a print in our etsy shop.

Good things should be shared - Etsy sale

To celebrate Pauls being "pick of the week" on Ilustration Friday - " Lovely Sweet William" (our Etsy shop) is running a special this weekend only - Buy a print and receive a print of your choice free! Just drop a message in the checkout.

Juniper

Yes, the Juniper berry is the one used to make gin, but it is also the name of a lovely shop found in Newtown, Wellington.

I immediately recognised some great pieces from local crafters and designers and Mindy has been great at supporting the handmade community.

The shop is one of my Wellington favourites because it is so carefully and lovingly put together. Each space is a montage of texture and colour. Sweet William is proud to have some of our items in it.

envelope serendipity

We love using old papers for handmade envelopes. We have a major paper fetish and there is something quite satisfying about making your own envelopes. The fun part is that you never know how it will turn out in the folds - its random and that has its own appeal. We were really pleased with this one - the fold was totally unplanned (its true) - but look at the result - how cool is that text! I love the fact that the fold on the top of the envelope says "miss Sophia Smart" - and the "ws Rockstro" is classic!

Anyway, its such fun I thought I would share the scanned paper with you and you can fold your own envelope from it. If you want to you can find the template here.

stickability

When it comes to making (and cleaning the house for that matter), I have to confess that I tend to be quite A.D.D (can you relate?). I get super excited about the project, I pull everything out, I start the prototype (which takes far longer than it should to make), it all gets a bit frustrating, distraction comes and that can be the death knell of whatever I'm working on. Stickability is the issue.

I read in Dr Mel Levin's "A Mind at a Time" that this hyper brain / brain fatigue is quite common amongst creatives. (so feel a tad less guilty about abandoned pieces)

When I start on a creative process - its hard to speculate about where it will end and if it will have any longevity. So somethings are complete one offs, and some things will get a chance to be re-interpreted several times. I don't know what gives the project its hold, perhaps its the challenge, the result or the new things learnt. What does give me focus, (and refocus) is the work of others - from blog hopping and flickering and etsy browsing - its a smorgasbord of inspiration.

And that's why this co-operative with my sister and sister-in-law is great for the synapses - together I think we are producing some great stuff.


some new bits from this week:

new illustration - insticnt

The theme at Illustration Friday this week is 'instinct'. My thought with the peacock is that we all have our own natural instinct when it comes to attracting the opposite sex. But as I was drawing it I realised that my natural instinct is to draw pretty things...so that may have been the real reason for the peacock :)

Clickity-click

Last night I was kept company at Craftstock market by the lovely Millie of Pink Paper Pinafore (hi Millie :-) ). She was very serene as she knitted away on a great piece for the Cuba Street Carnival. Its going to used for some outdoor tagging - organised by the outdoorknit crew.

So I got inspired to dig out my needles again - allthough Im not talking about extreme knitting here - nothing like this amazing piece:

Work by Carol Hummel

but just a little old scarf will do - and I like the sound of this one called the "Easy Mistake Stitch Scarf" which I found over at purlbee - Im hoping that a steady rhythm will get me into that clickity-clack mode and I can do it without looking- (well - one can always hope)

new illustration - a matter of time

The theme for IF this week was 'time'. Besides getting mine in, in the nick of time, (late on a friday.) The theme had me thinking... about how powerful time is - it heals, it is precious, everyone wants more. My little girl illo is about just that - how wonderful and powerful time is for each of us all on our own journeys.

Money for JAM

We all had some lovely market moments - even in the midst of excruciating heat in Melbourne. An extra special thing for me was to be able to have my brother, Myles and his wife, Jane selling along side me here in New Zealand.

They were visiting on an extended overseas trip. One of those round the world tickets doing all sorts of amazing things like hiking to Everest base camp, or eating too much curry in India. They had been touring the islands and had stopped off to say goodbye and to celebrate Myles birthday. I persuaded them to sell at the market with me and make a bit of cash to add to the ever dwindling funds. The garlands below are made from vintage books and sewn together very lovingly by Jane - we called them Money for Jam cos I call Jane and Myles JAM for short.

Markets!

We are having a dual marketing weekend on both sides of the tasman.

I will be at Pataka gallery on Friday 6th from 10-3 - so if your in the area come and find us and say hello please!

and Paula will be at The Elwood Primary School Community Market, run by parent volunteers to raise funds for the school.

Lets hope for good weather, good crowds, and that nobody talks about our work right in front of us like we are a lamppost! (not that it happens often cos everyone is usually so lovely - but when it does happen, its a bit of a crafters grind )

block prints and felty goodness

For ages and ages we have been imagining our prints block mounted. However, the quotes and the prices we got interfered with our respiration for a few seconds ! We looked at other mounted art and schemed and planned. Now we have it - our own handmade block mounted prints - and we are very proud!

Felt is one of my absolutely favorite mediums - the matted, compressed nature of it is so friendly. A nice delivery from the post lady revealed this rainbow specially ordered from lupin a fantastic felt artist I really admire.

new illustration - pale

Here is a new illustration, done myself, entitled 'pale' for our etsy shop. Amazingly I have found the time to do quite a bit of new work over the school holidays, with all the kids around and in 40 degree heat! Lets just say that other things, like house work have taken a bit of a back seat, oh well.

The illustration is of a very special girl who has the courage to do many things - glide with swans in the pale moonlight, fly with angels, make friends, dance like no one is watching, laugh hysterically, breath peacefully, walk gently, I wonder what else she can do? I am sure she doesn't have to hoover the lounge!

collage

I do love collage, in any way or form and was totally inspired by finding an old crate full of images from our travels from the days when we used to print our photo's! Here is one of a series of three which i have put up on my illustration blog.

similar

Sometimes we just have to look at every day things for inspiration.We all have many objects around our homes that are same, same but different. This is an illustration I did entitled 'similar' of the various chairs from around my home. This print is available to buy in our etsy shop. Do everyday things inspire you in any way? What are they?

Holiday productions

The kids are still off school (summer holidays stretch on forever - good when your a kid, not so good when your the parent entertaining the kid), and they have helped me a bit with some of the upcoming market items. I give them little jobs to do, like sanding or gluing and they seem to really enjoy it. My eldest then gets all amped up to make her own stuff to sell and i have to field questions like " do you think my egg brooch will sell well at the market mom?" - (the egg brooch in question being a piece of clay shaped like an egg - literally). Its times like these when i feel like its a real home-cottage industry which also reminds me why I do it - as it can give me that precious time with my girls. Other crafty stuff I enjoy doing with them can be found at a great site : http://kidscraftweekly.com/, I would love to hear about any of your kids craft finds for holiday inspiration.

some of the brooches/pins we worked on together:

new mixed paper packs

We are mad paper collectors, we love making these very special paper packs and we love receiving feed back from happy customers who have enjoyed them too. We have just loaded a few new paper packs in our "made it" and "felt" shops. Have a look.

illustration friday - 'contained'

I (paula) often post illustrations on Illustration Friday, an amazing site to get the illustrative juices flowing. The theme this week was 'contained' and here is my entry, the thought being how our lives can often be contained in our hand bags...

Gathering

So we all had the most wonderful summer holiday together, but its only a matter of time that we all had to go our separate ways. Paula back to Melbourne, my brother off to the South Island and us.... well we stayed put.

Our time together definitely had a "gathering" theme to it - from collecting mussels on the beach, eggs from the chook house, or the big family evening meals with seven children and six adults trying to outdo each other with the noise level. A highlight for Paula and I was some gathering excursions to the local thrift shops. Here is a shot of the collection -

My fav. is the metal and glass rack which I will use for the craft market stall for display.
It was discovered in a vintage collectors dream of a shop called "ma-mite" - run by two old lady's with a fantastic eye for all things collectible and cool - with some old vinyl playing and the walls strung with vintage bathers, I don't know what was more fun, the lovely finds or the shop itself.

What I do know about our time together is that we sure did gather a whole lot of love!

Pretend print listed in an Etsy treasury

Finding our prints on an Etsy treasury is such a special moment. We feel really touched that somebody has taken the time and energy to compose these amazing mood boards and to have felt we deserved a spot! Its a great feeling i tell you! Thank you to botodesigns
for taking the time and compiling a stunning treasury called Muted Journey. The other bonus is you get to see new artists - our heart list is growing!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=38397

Joyfull, festive moments

Some of the little moments that have brought us joy over this holiday time together. Some found treasures alongside fun family outings. We love to op shop together and we have fossicked some really nice pieces - (look out for some special vintage bits in our shop soon!) This little deer is one of a set we found - one each yay!

Joy to the world!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We are taking time out to spend some lovely, quality, family time together. Paula and family have joined us here in Kiwi land and so has the lovely Jane and my brother Myles. We have had a magical time so far - gorged ourselves, played badminton on the beach, had sprint races and charades and indulged in too much chocolate - we are also planning to squeeze in some op shopping, crafting and a girls night - ahhh - gotta love the summer holidays!

motherhood

We have a winner, we have a winner, oooh goody, we have a winner

Here she is:

congratulations, to Eerika who lives in Helsinki, Finland and makes Rag Pets. Thank you to everybody for playing !

Sew mama Sew giveaway

***** Win one of our prints - just in time for Christmas ********


We are linking up with the Sew mama Sew giveaway. It 's a great idea to have a list of blogs offerring a giveway - you get to see some great blogs and a chance to win a prize - what could be better in blogland i ask you! So, we are offering the winner (randomly chosen from our comments) any choice of the prints found in our Etsy shop (just have a look - decide what you like and put it in your comment - could not be simpler!) Its open to anyone, local and International and we will keep it open untill Sat. 6th december.

Thanks for playing!

Christmas a time of giving back

Sweet William is busy busy busy - we are making all our own Christmas gifts this year and it feels so liberating! We are determined NOT to go out and spend money on plastic junk for kids, friends and family that inevitably end up in the bin. We have thought about being more responsible in our gift giving this year. Why fill the pockets of the large conglomerate companies and land fill sites, when we can give hand made gifts, made with love and care? All the products we make are 100% handmade, using materials from thrift shops, second hand, pre loved, except for maybe the occasional new zip and paper for the printer. Let's also think about gifts that last a while - enough disposable living. The liberating part of it is knowing we wont be fighting for parking at the mall, fighting our way around the shops and fighting for the last object of desire on the shelf. No more fighting just home made peace! Make Lovely Not Waste! Gosh I think a need to go and find a flower after that speech!! We are inspired by the handmade craft movement are you?

to market to market

We had our first melbourne market, a small school market. We had awful weather - but it didn't rain...amazingly! Great fun was had by all and there are plans for many more markets in Melbourne, just a matter of finding the right one.

Etsy front page

Well we had a little dance around the living room for a couple of minutes when we discovered a "sweet william" item on the etsy front page. it was a sweeeeet moment - for sure - sadly it was an all to brief moment as the front page changes every hour and we must have caught the last five minutes! Anyway, still a proud moment - it was Paula's gorgeous spring blossom print that was featured.

Ornaments a making..

This little gem have been added to the etsy shop... she's based on the lovely illustration Paula did.

I'v also joined a New Zealand ornament swap being hosted by Twenty cent mixture which im pretty excited about - a little parcel in the post is the best thing!

I wish I could bottle up and sell...

I wish I could bottle up and sell the great feeling I get when I have a good week - its so great you want to keep it for those times when the week is not so hot. However, I've had a sizzling week, starting with a lazy "labour day" BBQ - ones of those sit around, mellow out, sun on your back, listen to the bees kind of BBQ's. That was just the beginning.

Tuesday, I went to a prayer meeting with the lovely King's Church woman (trust me, there ain't nothing boring about that!)

Wednesday was super dooper cos Helen came back from Melbourne telling tales to make me green, and bearing a lovely, special, decorated cigar box bursting with all the things i love - buttons, trim, ribbon, paper bits, iron on transfers, an old shell road map - it was like Christmas - thank you Helen xxooxxoo

In between all this - I want to show off our Mommy's sitting pretty in the window of Juniper gallery in Newtown- (a really gorgeous little design and floral shop) - cos I can now that i have a shot - I think they look fab even if i say so myself!

If we op shopped together....

Well I remember there were times in our early years when sharing was quite hard to do (eg: bedrooms and barbies). I think if I went thrift/garage/op shopping with you we would have to revert back to our age old system of working out who got what: put everything in a pile, then take turns choosing the first three things we wanted, then the rest numbered and drawn out of a hat!

Here are a few of my latest bits of a recent scrounge:

Lovely granny blanket (can't have too many of those), some fabric, apron and vintage habby. The really bad eighties patterns you seen in the corner are not there because i have a yen for a drop waist jacket or a lumberjack shirt- no, they have an eco use. I felt these patterns were in dire need of being put to rest once and for all, they are so bad one should put them out of their misery and so I do - by using the pattern paper to clean with!!!

Love,

Shells

sharing

There are so many things i would love to share with my sister, this blog and our little shop is what brings us together even though we are a few 1000 km's apart. We are both busy mum's with a thing for op shops and market - here are a few things i need to share: Op shop finds - old russian doll, vintage fabric, old leather case, orchid print calendar, lovely old silver tea spoons, granny baskets, nice hoard, hey? My new coffee mugs - I avoid buying things new but was quite pleased with my latest red inspired mug collection. My girl's wonderful creation - Lia and Rosie got hold of my jar of whimsies and had a go at doing some decorating of a wire tree, i thought it was quite good. These pictures are set against a back drop shot of my desk top - busy with drawings and over flowing with new thoughts and ideas...

Craft 2.0

Wellington has a fantastic craft market: Craft 2.0 and i love gearing up for it. The house could fall down around me while im in the zone but its all good because I get a real buzz out the whole thing. I'm going with Carmen from Ring around the moon - she makes great hand bound books. if any of you are considering doing a market - no 1. tip - go with a friend - it makes it a lot of fun, less intimidating and you can have a coffee break! This time round my eight year old is coming with as she wants to see what mommy is up too at these things and she is going to be a great little help!


If you are in Wellington on Sat. come down to the New Dowse and check it all out.



Some bits for the stall:

Lovely purse collection and a good chai

Here is the first of a series of purses and pouches based on Paula's illustration design. For all those tea lovers / cup collectors out there. What's your leaf of choice? Mine is a lovely cup of Rooibos - redbush is the translation - a South African herbal tea full of all the good things but without the caffein.

I also love a good chai and I have a great recipe for homemade chai:

In a saucepan, cover four tea bags with 800 ml boiling water.

Allow to draw for five minutes, then remove the tea bags and discard. Add two 1cm pieces of peeled fresh ginger, two cinamon sticks broken in half, four bruised cardamon pods, four black peppercorns, four whole cloves, 1ml fennel seeds and 1ml allspice to the tea.

Simmer over gentle heat on the stove for 10min. Strain and serve balck or with milk, or - the best condensed milk. For a stronger flavour, remove from heat and allow to stand for 30 min. before straining.

yum!

Why turning 38 is so lovely compared to turning 18!

I've taken all week to reflect on turning 38 (as one does)....
It occurred to me that it felt so different from when I was turning 18 and I think the fundamental difference is that i have a much better sense of who i am these days and what my purpose is.
back then it was so hard to know, i really could not see it at all - but now its easy and i have a very clear sense of my purpose.

What i know now that i did not know then is that- I possess some of God's inherent glory. That I was made to recognize his glory, honour his glory, declare his glory, praise his glory, reflect his glory and live for his glory.
And knowing this, embracing it, is why i am so much happier turning 38 than 18!

Trash Palace and lovely finds

If you are ever in Wellington, NZ - Trash Palace is the place to go for a good thrifty scrounge. Helen and I decided to go on a recce on Thursday and i found some nice little bits. The orange and floral containers were in the free bin outside. The tea cups are for my craft stall, the hoop is for some more screen printing (after the love bunny turned out so great), some ribbon, fabric and always some old patterns - cos the graphics always make me laugh. Oh, and some nice old books to add to the paper stash - grand total: $8. aaah the satisfaction........

Hoola hoop print on a (lovely) pencil case

I have been so keen to try a bit of screen-printing - but its one of those processes that seem quite intimidating and not that easy to master. Plus, you just happen to need a screen or two lying around and an image lasered on it! However, I picked up somewhere on the net (as one does) that a simple little embroidery hoop will do for small, unsophisticated prints. So being the stitchy girl that I am, of course I had a hoop or two.

With a touch of "Modge Podge" to block out the image and some textile paint - the process was almost a cinch! I used the back of a ruler as a squeegee. The print is a bit rough and I actually kind of like it that way (old school).

collage cards

I have been having some fun with collage and have enjoyed making cards with the endless collection of paper scraps that i have, collected over years - old and new bits from all over. I would be interested to know what people think of them.

Anatomically correct

I am totally in love with any old books that are about the human body. The graphics are always amazing. I think its from a childhood nostalgia. I remember there was a World Book Encyclopedia that showed the human body on clear pages so you could peel back the layers.

I found this great book at the local charity shop and my 8 year old daughter loves it!

Dominion post seedlings - a lovely find

Doing the (yawn, yawn) shopping recently, my day was boosted with a lovely little find. These seedling's all wrapped up in the local paper - the Dominion Post.

Apparently, Sweet Williams represent friendship in the floral world, which I think is a lovely sentiment to have sprouting in my garden. It will go along side some Lavender which is said to represent "grace". I have decided to plant them in here; ( the Lavender is still baby size and can't be seen yet)

our lovely lady

I had a bit of time to take some shots of one of our cushions before she went to live with someone in Sydney - I was quite pleased with the way they turned out. We are are so proud of our lovely ladies and hope they are blessing the new homes they settle in.

Africa time

Those from Africa (like ourselves) or those who have visited Africa, will know these two things - a) Africans have their own time that is very different to the rest of the worlds.
b) Africans have a great craft style - quirky and often done on the street corner to sell to the passing tourist.
This clock is made from a tuna can and some recycled metal - genius! I feel like I've been on Africa time at the moment as far as crafting goes - but I'm sure I'll get to it Now-Now!

etsy seller's meeting in melbourne

I went along to an etsy seller's meeting in Melbourne this past Sunday. It was great fun. I met loads of lovely ladies and we had great fun showing off all our lovely wears. I took along some prints and cards to 'show and tell'. Shelley has our softies in New Zealand, so I couldn't take any along but i did manage to put together a 'mood board' of what we sell at Sweet William and I was quite pleased with the way it came out.

op shopping

Shelley inspired me to go out and have a little scratch around my local op/thrift shops, one is never disappointed! My finds were: 2 meters of beautiful, vintage, flocked fabric, a little gold tray, two pretty glasses, another stunning tea cup to add to my collection, a pile of old Australian stamps, a 1952 encyclopedia and some pretty writing paper with birds on - all of this was under $25, ahhh the satisfaction.

Find of the Week

My sister and I will tell you that nothing beats a good rummage through an op shop or at the flea market. I have to admit Paula is the queen - but i can hold my own sometimes and Im still proud of the plaster Virgin and child icon I recently found for her on a trip to Melbourne. Since this is a blog about the things we enjoy, i thought it would be fun to post our "finds'' on a regular basis.

My find of the week was a beut. A set of drawers made of Remu wood. Lovley honey colour and lots and lots of little compartments and flat map drawers. Salvaged from an old science lab. Bargain at $5 a piece. I got two and the old scale in the photo and the old chalk board. This will soon turn into my drawer full of wonders. If you have an old vintage cabinet full of things - I'd love to know - What's in YOUR drawers?

A little spotlight

Ooh - its always fun to do interviews. It makes one feel special I tell you. Thank you Jo from thedesignalphabet - she has a gorgeous blog that i will add to our blog roll “tout suit” as not only are we featured in it - but she is from just down the drag - and I love to support local. She is a guest writer for Decor8 soon - and i think there might be a giveaway of note! Well done Jo.

customized birth announcement

This is an illustration i have recently done for friends and family who have had babies. I thought we could offer it up as a customized print on Etsy. So if you know of a friend or family memember who has had a little one recently and would like to send them something personal, then have a look at our shop:www.lovelysweetwilliam.etsy.com

embroidery pattern

here we go a lovely sweet line drawing to embroider, have a go!

embroidery patterns

I love to embroider and I'm always looking for little patterns. The challenge is coming up with a contemporary way to use the embroidery.
I used my sisters tree design to make this embroidered canvas.


Have a look at my flickr site if your into embroidery too. I thought it would be fun to include some of Paula's line drawings that could be used as an embroidery pattern. If you find one you like please let us know how you used it (and be respectful of the fact that it's an origional design) - we would love to see the result.

***** softie below sold *******

Motherhood - blue swallow

I have had such a busy time at the moment (doing some full time teaching) that there has been no time to restock some Madonna's. However, the fabric stash was calling me, the fingers started to itch and before I knew it - i'm like the crafting Mummble from Happy Feet, i just couldn't help it.
So here is another lovely mama - she bears a blue swallow - a lino print I created for a swatch swap and have now also used on this sweet lady. She is in the shop and about to be joined by a second.

give away winner

Well done to Nancy Mccarroll who has won the peach spring print for herself. Thanks to all who left a comment on our blog and thanks for all the lovely words of support.

All our softies cleared out at craft market

We had huge succes over the weekend at the craft2.0 market in Wellington. Our lovely madonna and child cushions flew out the doors and the table was empty by lunchtime! If only there was time to make more lovely things. Selling our items is always a good feeling but now we need to get on with making lots more! Our etsy shop is looking a little bare but hopefully will be full of lovely, sweet things again soon.

Etsy Sale Giveaway!

It's our first Etsy sale and to celebrate we are doing a GIVEAWAY! Post a comment and your fav. print from our Etsy shop on our blog by the 31 July and we will draw a name to win the print!

our first etsy sale- how exciting!

Well, i am glad to report we have made our first sale on etsy, funnily enough it is from a buyer in Australia! Here is our lovely doll, who is now off to a new home, where i am sure she will be loved, bye bye Orange Blossom, all the best.

we are on etsy - aren't they lovely!

We are so proud of our little pieces of art, here are three of them together

things we have already sold:

It just feels nice to have a record of items sold, so that we have a record and if anyone sees something they like we can remake!1) mini paperpack - all sorts of new and vintage paper goodies. 2) print of tea cup illustration - high quality inkjet on bright white matt card.

our first baby

Here she is, our very first madonna and child softie which we sold on www.madeit.com.au. it is good that we have the photo's of our items, it feels quite hard to let them go sometimes! We,(Shelley Gardner NZ and Paula Mills Aus) are really excited about how everything is progressing with our little endevour. It has been great working together even though we are far apart, PTL for Skype! Paula is responsible for illustration and design, Shelley does all the making/sewing and doing, we both come up with all sorts of ideas by being constantly inspired by people and things around us. So here's to our first little madonna baby doll, we are sure she has found a lovely home!