Tea Towels!

We have finally put our tea towels online to purchase, mainly because I wanted to get decent photographs and I put it off for a couple of days, weeks actually more like months! But the months feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days at the moment. With a little event like Christmas coming up we thought we better get organised. We have two designs, the I'd Go To Zone Two For You and the You're All Sorts of Lovely. We will have them at our markets this weekend, Finders Keepers in Sydney on Friday and Saturday, Melbourne Design Market on Sunday and old faithful, Rose Street on both Saturday and Sunday. We are going to refer to it as the monster weekend.

PS The Roller Derby on Saturday was so much fun. Although we didn't get to see much of the action it was pretty special. The Victorian Roller Derby League organisers were so lovely, not only did they help unpack the car, they also gave us a goody bag of water, muesli bars and lolly pops. I saw this photo on Facebook and wanted to share it, so amazing!

I just sit around and draw kitties all day long

As you know we have three calendar designs, but we will very soon be adding a fourth. This one took a little longer because we had to draw a few new designs including the one above. The calendar will be kitty themed and include some of our favourite cat cards as well as a bunch of new designs. So last week when people asked me what I did I got to say "I sat around and drew cats all day, it was pretty taxing". Actually that last bit was true, my brain hurt by the end of the day, it is so used to just watching cat videos that it forgot how to be creative!

Yay!

We made a new range of cards last week called our 'yay' range of cards. We started with the 'yay for your new home' card and thought we would add a few more yay worthy things.

We have a yay for your birthday in purple, yay for your engagement in yellow, yay for your new baby in pink and blue, yay for your new job in green and the yay for your new home in orange. They are printed on a lovely parchment paper that has this really lovely texture to it and each one comes with a coloured envelope to match the colour of the design.

Like the majority of our cards the image started off as a hand drawing, although this time I used ink to create the images. Rather than use a paint brush I used two different sized points (one was a wooden chopstick, the other a dead fine liner - only the best tools for Able and Game!). Although it takes a lot longer to create a design and you're forever dipping into the ink, I love the line it creates.

Power up Emily, Anne and Charlotte!

When flying back from Adelaide last month I decided to get a book for the flight and ended up with Jane Eyre. I became a bit obsessed with it and recently got a massive book with all the Bronte sisters novels and I'm currently on The Tenant from Wildfell Hall. What is not to love about a Byronesque man, I think we may even make a range of cards for Valentine's Day based on them. On Saturday at Rose Street my neighbour Mark sent me the video above and I had a bit of a chuckle, I love the moustache disguise!

Mulder and Scully

Apparently in the late '90s when Gareth was on a trip to Blackpool the hot English sun was too much for him and he decided to protect his delicate Scottish skin with a cap. Obviously the sun affected his decision making skills and he ended up with a hat not unlike the one this guy is wearing. I had a look to see if you could buy any online and found this one on Ebay. Maybe you should buy it as a funny gift for a family member for Christmas, imagine your brother's face when he opens it up!

I think this card could easily slot into our ever growing creepy range of cards, in fact I think this bad boy would win the creepy card competition. Gareth and I are big X Files fans, we started watching it again a few years ago as both loved the show as a teenagers. I think he wishes I was Scully and I wish he was Mulder!

The kids' table

My sister sent me the idea for this card a few weeks back and I finally got around to drawing it. It was lots of fun drawing a bunch of bratty kids and a less than impressed teenager who is trying to look cool with a chip on his shoulder, literally and most definitely metaphorically. We have listed it on Etsy and it will also be available at our upcoming markets:

This Thursday (11th November)
REVOLVER DESIGN MARKET
Time: 6pm-10pm
Where: Revolver Upstairs
229 Chapel Street, Prahran 

This Saturday (13th November)
ROSE STREET ARTIST MARKET
Time: 11am - 5pm
Where: 60 Rose Street, Fitzroy

This Sunday (14th November)
ROSE STREET ARTIST MARKET
Time: 11am - 5pm
Where: 60 Rose Street, Fitzroy

Cards we will never make

I've been having a few discussions with people about how good would it be if they made a Mad Men spin off show based on Sally Draper set in the '80s. She would be in her late 20s, early 30s and most likely make for interesting television.

The other night Gareth and I were watching When Harry Met Sally, most likely adding it to webflicks late one night after drinking too much wine. While we were watching it we noticed Meg Ryan sounded just like Betty Draper in a few scenes, then I realised, this isn't Betty this is Sally starring in the TV show I've dreamed about! A lot of disbelief had to be suspended, and the real Sally would be much more interesting but imagine the scene where Harry is introduced to Betty and Don! With a mother like that you come to understand why one would start shrieking in Katz's Deli.

So we thought we would design another card we will never make about meeting the parents in law. Plus it was kind of fun to imagine what Betty would be wearing in the 1980s.

We Love Zines: Volume 3 - All my friends are dead

Gareth and I were in town today and we stopped by Sticky and got us some zines. Normally we buy them online (zines delivered to your door!) but this time we got to see and touch and look inside. 

I was rather excited because vol. 2 of All My Friends Are Dead Because I Shot Them was in the shop. I'm sure when I was a teenager I would have wanted to make a zine (if I even knew what one was) but it is one of those things you talk about doing but never actually do. So I'm pretty proud the author Scott is one of those people who actually did it. I guess the benefit of making a zine when you're in school is the photocopying is free because there is always an art teacher who will do your photocopying. But these are just not photocopied, there is hand colouring in each of them as well. 

Volume one and two are both at Sticky and although the title might sound a little ominous it is actually just an honest and open account of how one person was feeling which I think is pretty brave. So if you have a teenager tell you they want to make a zine, don't respond with "a what?" but rather "to Officeworks for a long arm stapler, post haste!".

Gift Tags

We have our new gift tags listed up on Etsy, including our 'Pour Vous' tags. The tags come in a pack of six and have a lovely matt laminate finish on the front. They have a little hole in the top left corner and a length of bakers twine to cut to size for each of the tags. Plus they have cute little rounded corners and 'to' and 'from' printed on the back.

Although we are sure the tags will be used a lot for Christmas, we have not made them Christmassy so you can use them for any gift at any time of the year.