Could I trouble you for the time Mr. Wolf?

Look what I was able to do!! I still think I'm not very good at computers and internet, it was only last week that Anna explained to me how the internet works, but I found this!

oh, maybe it hasn't worked, maybe I'm not so good after all. But I have managed to put one at the side of my blog page, not entirely sure why I needed it, but I liked the look of it. It may be gone in a few weeks.

ah no! It is there after all. hooray! Actually it looks quite similar to our kitchen clock that I made in rather a hurry after our bought one fell off the wall.

Thank you to Gigibird on who's blog I saw this lovely quirky clock!

This is The Reason

About a year and a half ago my little mac laptop died, so I started using Jeremy's old laptop. I struggled through the learning how to use a PC instead of a mac and I became quite good at it!

Now, the PC laptop has died, oh no! I'm typing this from Jeremy's new laptop (a mac) but it doesn't have photoshop, it doesn't have dreamweaver, I can't scan things onto it, or print things from it or put my photos on it...So, blog posts have somewhat come to a halt! I'm contemplating getting a new laptop (a mac!) but it seems such a lot of money!! I'm just hoping the PC resurrects, it did before. Fingers crossed! 

While I'm here I should also mention my new website. My friend Anna of AnnaLaura helped me understand the world of Dreamweaver and I got quite far until the above mentioned struck. I've still got a few things to add, but most of it is there! I think it's far better than the attempt I made by myself with the horrible 'page mason' program!

More New Felt Brooches

Here are a few new felt brooches listed on my Featherstitch Fantail Blog. I've also listed a number on my etsy shop.

Mission Accomplished

I've been wanting to do this for ages...

...and now finally I've managed...

...thanks to Curious Llama who I met at the Melbourne Etsy meet up a few weeks ago I found an outlet that supplies wool felt balls. I had started trying to make the balls myself, but they were just taking far too long to make it possible...

...but now I can spend my time on embroidering the felt balls and piecing them together...

...to make a fantail felt necklace!

I'll bring it with me to Rose Street Artists' Market this Saturday. There is a fashion show happening this week which should be fun and hopefully bring lots of people. I've heard the market is going to be chock-a-block full of stalls, so it would be a good week to check it out if you haven't been before.

At Queenscliff

It was a long weekend this week and Jeremy very nicely decided to take me to Queenscliff which is a very old town (by Australian standards) situated at the mouth of Port Philip Bay. He told me there would be lots of birds so I should bring my drawing things. He brought his ipod for that eventuality.


We walked along the marina and as big fighter planes from the Avalon airshow zoomed overhead I looked into the water and saw so many funny little fish. Pufferfish, cuttlefish, a stingray, tiny little fish with very shiny heads, and lovely stripey fish with ink dipped tails.

But for me, really it was all about the pelicans...


...and crepes, pelicans and crepes!

I'm going to be at the stitches and craft fair happening at the Melbourne show grounds in Flemmington this week. I'm teaching a couple of classes of crochet and helping Thread Den man their stall. I'll have some of my felt brooches on sale and there will be lots of other Melbourne made designer clothing on show and for sale. It should be good fun, maybe see you there!

On a Roll

I'm doing well with the old blog this week eh!? I think today it's because I'm aiming to go for a walk/run and I'm procrastinating.

Anyway I thought I'd post up a few of the Fantail gocco prints in the other colour combinations. As soon as I manage to get to the art shop to buy mount board and somehow get A1 sheets of it back on my bike I will be selling these new goccos at Rose Street Artists' Market. Until then, I've added them to my etsy shop.

I also want to make cards out of them, but that's another logistical issue with the large sheets of card and only a bike!

Remember to check out the Oz Bush Fire Appeal etsy shop, it is still open until 31st March and there are lots of goodies to be had. It's all for a good cause!

Right I'm off to see if my Frogmouth is home.

Waiting for Autumn

I'm foolishly hoping that as soon as 1st March comes around this summer sun madness will all be over! It's getting a bit too hot for me sitting at the computer here, so this will have to be short and then I can retreat to my studio which hopefully will be a bit cooler.

I've just taken photos of my most recent etchings and listed some on my etsy site. I thought I'd show them on here too.







Right, too much for me, I'm off to cooler climes.

Fantails For Sale!

Here are a few more new fantail brooches I've added to my Featherstitch Fantail blog. I'm very pleased with myself for working out how to use the paypal thingy! Also I have donated one of my brooches to the Australian Bushfire Appeal shop on etsy which is still full of lots of delightful goodies and all proceeds go to the red cross to help victims of the Victorian bushfires.

Fantails and Frogmouths

I've been goccoing again after a long time of it sitting on the shelf. I've been meaning to try this idea for a while now, and now that I have done it I really like it and need to buy more gocco supplies because I've very quickly run out AGAIN!

If you're new to my blog and don't know what gocco is have a look at my post on the technique.

My idea was to make prints inspired by the colours and patterns in my featherstitch fantail brooches. I've made the print in a number of colour combinations and listed one on etsy. More will be listed soon.
I've also been making lots of new fantail brooches, I try and make at least 6 a week. They are so slow to make and I have so many other things that I should be doing, that when I just sit down to sew I feel I should be doing something else. So they always get pushed to the back of the 'to do' list, which is a shame because I do quite like making them. Here are a few of my favourites at the moment, including an experimental square one. I'm really into the soft yellow these days.

I've changed my Fantail website a bit to make it easier to purchase, there is now a 'buy now' button on each brooch. I've also mentioned that buying my brooches on a friday, saturday or sunday from the website may create difficulties because I take all my available brooches to market with me and I can't update the website until I return home after market (often with a few gin and tonics in me!)




I thought I'd also keep my readers up to date with my Tawny Frogmouth. I was worried last week because he wasn't in his usual tree along the Yarra River, but I walked (even ran some way!) along the river this morning and there he was sitting in his tree accompanied by another Tawny Frogmouth! They were snuggled up together on the branch. I wish I had brought my camera with me, but I only had my ipod and a hanky! I only stopped one person this time to point them out and she was very appreciative and we had a little discussion about other birds we'd seen along the river. I have to keep an eye out for kingfishers apparently.

Bird Spotting

We went for a trip down the Great Ocean Road this weekend and we saw some super birds! This may not be that exciting for a number of people, I am aware that things that cause me much interest cause others minimal. But don't care! The photos here aren't even my own photos, I got them off the Internet because I never had the camera with me when I saw these birds, and I've now realised how small the images are. But anyway...

Well, as usual we stayed at Wye River camping ground and the resident Gang Gangs were making their lovely crunchy screeching sounds. I love these black cockatoos.

Then one of these lovelies landed in a tree beside our tent. A white faced heron. I don't think I've ever seen a heron in a tree before. My friend said it looked as weird as seeing a duck in a tree.

On our way home we could see a cloud of white on the road, as we got closer we saw that it was a huge flock of Long Billed Corellas all eating grain that had fallen from trucks leaving the animal grain warehouse. Poor silly things were eating alongside their fallen comrades who'd been squashed by passing vehicles. 

But the ultimate  spot this weekend was this bird. We were driving along the inland road back from the Twelve Apostles and suddenly this great white bird caught the corner of our eyes. We all saw it and knew, even in that flash, that it was something special. Jeremy did a three point turn and we drove back to the spot we saw it. There it was, a huge white bird of prey sitting on a dead bunny. When we got back to Melbourne I looked him up in my bird book and found out he was a white morph of a Grey Goshawk and that they were uncommon to rare, so we were very lucky to have seen it.

Now I have to go and tidy up my studio because it is a shocking mess and I've started working in the living room to avoid the mess, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a studio.