Tea Towels

We have a bit of a sneak peek of our two new tea towel designs. We just got them back from the printer this morning and I've spent the afternoon getting them all packed up for Finders Keepers Brisbane and my suitcase is full to the brim. The designs we chose (and boy was it hard to decide) were "I love you just the way I am" (affectionately known as fat cat to Gareth and I) and "I don't have a lazy eye I was trying to wink at you". I did a resign for the lazy eye card because I couldn't decide if the boy or the girl would make it onto the tea towel and I ended up drawing about 24 different winking faces. It was a taxing afternoon coming up with all these different people but I'm super happy with the result. I've given Gareth some for Rose Street Market and they will be up on Etsy next week. Now I have designed these two, I cannot wait to design some more. I think I will aim to get new designs out every few months.

Brisbane!

If you're in Brisbane this weekend be sure to come by the Finders Keepers Market on either Saturday and Sunday. I've been checking the weather each day and it has gone from raining to sunny so I hope that forecast doesn't change because some t-shirt weather could be nice.*

We have some new card designs and I'm looking forward to testing them out at the market. This time last year we had just made our fat cat card and he had his first outing at Finders Keepers in Brisbane. We were not sure if people would like it, but by the end of the day we had one left.  We also cannot wait to get some feedback on our Brisbane Train Station cards we made last year (yes, we went out to Goodna, took some photos, then waited 35 minutes for the train back into town!).

All the details for the event are on the Finders Keepers website and there is also a Facebook invitation if you want to tell friends about it.





*that being said it is almost t-shirt weather here in Melbourne at the moment. Almost.

Sorry Dude

It might be a bit of a catch-22 that the reason we don't sell many sorry cards is because until a week ago we only had one sorry card. I drew this guy and had him stuck up on my studio wall for a week or so thinking he was destined for romantic card stardom with looks like that. A bit of a heartbreaker who would most likely be apologising to someone for hurting them he ended up becoming a sorry card. We have him listed up on Etsy and he will be at our markets this weekend. Oh and check out his Lady Clairol hair, maybe whoever did that home dye job might need this card to say sorry to him.

I would like hot chips to be perfectly honest

No time to write as Gareth wants to leave because he has rumbles in his tumbles.

Game On Game: Which?

A few weeks ago I rocked up to meet Gareth at Rose Street late on a Sunday afternoon and he was next to a stall selling a game called Which? Stuart, the man who designed and made the game, had the idea in his head for the last 20 years and spent the last few months designing and making it. I know I'm one of the many people who have had lofty ideas of making my own board game, but how often do you meet someone who has actually gone out and done it?

The game works by you choosing between two options from a question card and everyone else guessing what you have chosen. You can play in teams or individually with the first team/person to reach 30 correct answers the winner. We played it the other night with 5 people (odd number - so we played as individuals) and despite having people who were total strangers before the night we were all able to compete and had some interesting conversations. Some of the questions are rather interesting, for example: would you rather die before or after your partner? (Gareth guessed this one wrong by the way) and by the end of the game we had learnt some interesting things about one another.

Next month we will have two games of Which? to give away in our newsletter, so if you're not on the mailing list you can join by entering your email on the form on the left hand side, or you can buy directly off the website here.


Cost: $25
How long till you get the hang of it: Right away
Play it when: You have a bunch of people over for dinner
(from 4-8 people would be ideal)
Platform: Old School (dining table, lounge room)
IQ Improvement: 0
Addictiveness: Medium
Honeymoon is over: When the wine runs out

That guy in the yellow jacket

I was going through my folders of old drawings and found this guy and wondered why he didn't end up on a card. I redrew him with a smashing yellow jacket and sexy eyes. When it came to the copy the guy kinda of spoke to me, a gentle whisper that said what's up birthday babe? Yeah, sometimes the people I draw tell me things, it's a special power.

We have him listed on Etsy, and I'm trying to think of what his name would be. Marty maybe? A guy who had his heyday in 1990 and likes to get his groove on to a bit of Deee-Lite.

It's been on the cards

We made some Ha Ha Ha 30 cards over a year ago for a friend's birthday (yes, when he turned 31 we gave him the same card with a one scribbled after the three) and we made a Ha Ha Ha 40 after a few requests. We then started getting requests for a Ha Ha Ha 50 card but I was unsure if people would buy it. After being assured by many women it would be perfect to give to a girlfriend turning 50 I realised it was a card that we needed to make. I said to one lady at the market that it was on the cards when she asked for it. Wow, what a bad pun, and I didn't even realise when I said it, because even though it was on the cards it wasn't on our cards. We have this listed on Etsy and we will also have some at Rose Street this weekend.

Bad Hair Day

In late 1995 I came to school and decided a haircut was in order. I told my friend to cut it off at the ponytail during homeroom and I think about 6 inches came off leaving me with shoulder length hair.

A few things I remember about this event:

Later in the day a boy in my maths class told me how crazy and spontaneous the whole thing was. I asked if he had ever done anything as spontaneous before and he said he had, he put tomato sauce on his 2 minute noodles once to try it out.

My Mum squealing when picked me up from the bus stop. My Deb Ball was 6 months away and she was worried my hair wouldn't grow long enough to wear up to the event. I was a total rebel.

Cards we will never make

If you're in Australia* enjoying you're Queen's Birthday holiday I hope you're having a lovely day. Public holidays and long weekends are fun because when it gets to Sunday night you think, wait I get a whole extra day to bum round and have total fun times. I can even have a glass of wine on Sunday night and not feel bad. 2 bottles later and the bad feeling is waking up on Monday morning feeling like rotten grapes, but just blame Liz for that as it's pretty much her fault.






* Not Western Australia, they got last Monday off I think.

Hey What You Doing This Weekend?

Notecards

We have been selling note cards at our market stalls for well over a year and have finally got them up on Etsy. We have three different styles including these thank you birds. The note cards are perfect for a little message to someone special and these bird ones come with bright yellow envelopes which should cheer up even the most miserable being.  We plan on doing some more designs and if you want to let us know what you would like to see on note cards it will help us when designing the next batch.

How to cope with winter

Get some yummy food into your tummy

Some exciting things are happening at Rose Street this weekend. Firstly the kitchen will have a resident chef, Dan Vaughan who was in the Masterchef top 50 and has a regular stall at Rose Street. He will be cooking up some Mexican and Latin American fare which is super exciting. Also on Sunday they will have some fresh fruit and veg stalls, so you can fill your bag with pretty things and carrots and celery for a winter soup.

Why yes I have been working out

A few years ago I decided to take up running. Working from home meant I could go during the day and it was free so you got none of that gym-guilt you feel when not only are you not working out, but you're paying for it as well. Having just shifted to a new location I missed my old perfectly mapped out route but I've found myself a running buddy and got back into it tonight. I'm super slow and end up with the reddest face in the world but I can run for about 5km and I don't have to have any money direct debited from my bank account to do so. Totally win win!

One running memory that has always stuck in my mind was from back in the late '80s when I wasn't too bad at running. Primary school with its kiss chasy, regular chasy and dacking season was a non stop training session for both the short and middle distance runner. I used to do Little Aths and I was running a race against a boy I thought was kinda hot stuff. I remember coming around the bend just ahead of him and his brother yelling out from the sidelines something about a woman beating him. At that point I was trying to beat him to impress him, but after that I just wanted to annoy his older brother. I was also confused as to why he was calling me woman when I was only ten. Turns out a woman didn't beat him, but I certainly did try!