A weekend of craft!

Yumi and I are spending the weekend at my Mum's house in the Southern Highlands. We'll be busy being creative, eating yummy food and generally relaxing... I can't wait! I have so many things I want to do down there (bake a cake, take long autumnul walks amongst the crispy leaves, visit Peppergreen Trading in Berrima, and the knitting shop in Bowral). But the one thing I really want to get down is my new quilt project!

I've never made a quilt before and have recently spoken to our friends Sarah who I would describe as a 'professional quilter'. She's inspired me to get stitching. I've also recently joined the a family who have quilting in their blood, so it seems to be a good project to dive into... Here's a sneak peak of the fabrics I'm using...

Sweet Treats...

This is something I've been enjoying... I'm not entirely sure what they are, but the sure taste good. If found these sweet little treats at Norton St Grocer, and they come in very lovely wrapping.

(5 minutes later)

I've just visited the Ines Rosales website... it seems they are healthy (no preservatives), can be eaten at any meal, and really are super great all round!

New friends...

We've just added our finger-puppet friends to our etsy shop - we hope you love them as much as we do! It's quite hard to part with them (their little faces look just a little bit nervous as we pop them in the mail). But we know you'll give them a nice home, with lots of hot chocolate and sleep-ins to keep them happy.
If you buy 4 or more of these little guys you also get a little draw-string bag to keep them cosy. Just mention that you would like a bag in the check-out comments!



x Emma & Yumi

PS Thank you Martha Stewart for showing us how to make these little guys!

I like Calico Melton too...

Find Calico here...

You are what you love...

There is a lovely blog called "You are what you love" by Aprile Elcich which I think everyone should take a trip to. 

She also has a lovely tumblr site where she posts up  a "personal inspiration board" - a beautiful mix of images she hand picks and collates. I find tumblr an interesting concept - one that I might pursue - hmmm...

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon these goodies but I thank them whole heartedly!

(Oh! It was Forest Bound who led me to this treasure, another divinely divine blog!)

xEmma

miss dior and sofia coppola

The cutest ad I have ever seen, directed by the amazing Sofia Coppola.

The miss dior site is like a pop up book...reminded me of my friend Ebony's work(over at hello sandwich!)

It excites my possible ideas of moving to France next year!...mmmm pastels and paris...with a sprinkling of dior?... yum!

p.s. there is also a lovely chanel no5 ad with Audrey Tatou directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet(he directed films like...Amelie?!). Set on a sleeper train and Istanbul.

les brumes

Love this very much...

Cake with Giants

Just wandered across this clever girl via bakers dozen... I've snuck one of her eggs into my shopping basket and can't wait to get it in the post!

Au Revoir Simone

hello hello! I have been away from the blogging world for quite sometime, being very busy applying and writing proposal's for galleries...

I had an idea for a 'post' last month...

and it is time I get it on the blog! It is about a special band called
Au Revoir Simone

They are 3 girls...Annie, Erika and Heather

who like to play keyboards

and sing sweet tunes

Their name was inspired from

They inspired many of my earlier paintings...

see ya!

In the mood for knitting...

This crisp weather is making me think I'd like to start a new knitting project... one that involves a petral-blue-grey colour.

This site from finland has inspired me...

Window shopping...

My perfect day continued with a peruse of my favourite shops in Paddington. It's not often I'm in the area and it's always nice to have a peep...

If I could choose only 2 shops in the world to create my wardrobe it would be hands down Gorman and Lee Matthews - both are Australian and work with the most beautiful fabrics.

Happily Gorman had a little sale on so I was able to snap up another organic long sleeve t-shirt with microstripes. I've been living in my other one and often get spontaneous hugs from the girls at the studio when I wear it.

Lee Matthews has relocated to the top of Paddington into another lovely space. I can't tell you how excited I was to find a bulky-knit coat that actually still smelt like lanolin... took me back to my childhood holidays at my grandparents farm. Sadly I had to leave it on the rack. 

Stomping around in the autumn leaves, looking at lovely inspiring pieces always brings a smile to my face...

xEmma

Felt Love - Nuno Felting

I was lucky enough to be asked to be a guest speaker at The College of Fine Arts this week. Of course my topic was felt. Researching for my presentation gave me a new invigoration for felting and I thought I would share something of my lecture here...

One of my favourite techniques is Nuno Felting... this is when a piece of silk or cotton fabric is embedded into the wool - the effect is something very magical - very fine but strong fabric can be achieved.

You can see a piece I was commissioned to make for a glass door... big pieces like this take a lot of patience!

Also, if you're interested in how Nuno felting is done there is a great YouTube video showing the artist Janice Arnold creating her modern yurt for the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum here.

A Perfect Day

Hello! I wanted to share with you the news that I have just enjoyed my version of a divinely perfect day. The only improvement I could have made was to have had NP with me, but someone has to bring in the bacon!

Actually, my perfect day started yesterday night at my yoga class - I've finally restarted my classes and it was just beautiful. One little thing stuck in my head - our teacher talked about trees offering their fruit to everyone and anyone, absolute generosity with no questions asked. 

I've been lucky enough to have had 2 beautiful weeks with my favourite people in the world. The generosity of my friends reminds me of this tree... their time and compassion and laughter are given so freely... a beautiful thing.

I will tell you more about my day over the next week!

xEmma

Image by Kup Kup Land.

The winner(s) of Yumi's beautiful artwork...

Yumi and I have been offline for the past couple of weeks and finally we are back!

Thank so much to everyone who participated in our Give-A-Way - we so appreciated all your comments...

It was so difficult making a decision that we used a random number generator to do the work...

Our super-imaginative friend Blair came up with the lucky number, and happily his comment was one of our favourites too...

"My favorite is all of them. If I win one of them, I'd like it to choose me. Then I'll hang it above my piano and serenade it, and while it sleeps it can sing in its dreams telepathically to all of Yumi's other prints and they too will then sing with colour and goodness. And soon there will be a choir of singing Yumi colours across the globe and then we will eat them (because they're yummy) and then we will sing."

So we have chosen to send Blair the "Apples" print (because it's VERY yummy!)...

And just because we like to spread the joy, we chose a runner up, who happens to be Emjie. She had this to say about the "Rose 2" print...

"The shape and colour reminds me of strawberries and cake - a winning combination if you ask me. There is something very tender and peaceful about this print... like a lightly warm spring afternoon in a shady park."