Say no to ugly green and blue plastic branded "canvas" bags and hello to cute screenprinted cotton totes!
:)Kim
:)Kim
Design by Heidi Kenney
I've been having fun of late using iphone apps to take photographs and I wanted to share these with you. The flowers are from Fitzroy Therapeutics where I stock my wheatbags. They always have such a beautiful collection of flowers throughout the clinic I can't help but take photos of them everytime I'm there! I'm a sucker for a good floral arrangement. 
I love mushrooms. No really I do. And fungus in general really. I love the colours, the shapes, their texture, the way they pop up in a random piece of grass or hang off a good tree stump. There are lots of mushrooms popping up in the park at the moment. I love poking at them and there's some at the moment that pop like a balloon when you stand on them. 
Look at that amazing orange colour!
So here's a little sneak peek of some cute handrawn and coloured cards I have coming out in the next week or so.
They're gift card size and they come with an envelope but I'll put up a post with proper photos soon - just wanted to let you in on my current mushroom obsession!
Yes Palm Cove really is this beautiful. I've had a fabulous week of lounging by the pool, eating waaay too much food at amazing restaurants on the beach front and refining the art of doing nothing. I didn't even mind being in such a touristy place because it just meant that everyone you saw had the same contented smile and slow ambling way of walking.
I've been following the guest blog by Craft Hatch this week on The Design Files and one of the artists featured is Puiyi Tiffany Pang who's gorgeous business is called Muntedkowhai. Isn't this stuff beautiful? I love it. I recently learnt to crochet (unfortunately I still only know one stitch. But it's still fun!) so I think these are great.
I actually first read about Muntedkowhai in the New Zealand craft zine Extra Curricular and since then Puiyi has moved to Melbourne. Probably because Melbs has to be the unofficial craft capital right? Or maybe I'm biased. I wish I could get along to the Craft hatch market on the 23rd October but alas I will be on holiday in Cairns. Well, actually...Woohoo!! I'm very excited and counting down the hours tell then. But if you're free on the day check it out as I reckon there will be more beautiful pieces like these necklaces.
The lovely ladies at ThreadDen sewing lounge asked me to do a guest blog about their winter coat class that I took back in August. The class was awesome fun and that's the coat I made in the photo above (and my cute doggy). Check it out here.
I'm so excited. I'm going to the Tesselaar Tulip Festival on Sunday. I've never been even though Tulips are my favourite flower - every year something has come up on the day I had planned to go. So this year I'm determined! I will get there. There's something so magical about walking amongst rows of beautiful flowers. I think I must have quite a few English past lives because apart from loving tea and castles I love the idea of being in a field of spring bulbs (maybe some willow trees and a bubbling brook?)
Ah my shoulders relax even just looking at this picture.
Yep. That's right. A Dutch windmill. Cute!
I started a sculpture class at the beginning of the year and here it is in September and my very first sculpture is finally finished. Phew! I thought I would share with you some of the steps of how I made it.
The teacher in the first class handed me a lump of clay and said here sculpt something (No really she did - that was the 'lesson'). I decided to do a fig tree stump. I don't know why really - it just popped into my head. This is after 3 hours of 'playing'.
The next class I decided to add a tree nymph coming out of the tree as if the tree has been cut down and she's still stuck there.
After 3 classes of sculpting the clay the next step is to cover the clay in silicon.
Then you build a clay wall down the middle to support the plaster in the next step.
This is her covered in plaster that will form the mold for the next step.
Once the plaster is set you break open the mold and pull the clay out. My clay had lots of wire in it to keep it up so the clay was rusting and no good. It was sad throwing her in the bin.
Next you fill up the space where the clay was with plaster. This is a view from the bottom.
Uh oh. This is her now in her plaster form but she broke as she came out of the mold. It took quite a bit surgery to get her back together again. Then I gave her a good sanding, a coat of glue, a hell of a lot of paint (I think there's 6 coats) and then a crackle medium to crack the paint. Following that was hours of twirling and glueing copper wire to her head. Then..
Voila! She's done and ready to be dropped off for the exhibition.
A close up of the crackle effect.
This is her on her pedestal at the opening night to the exhibition at the sculpture gallery. This photo was actually really hard to get as the place was absolutely packed. So packed I even saw two people bump her as they walked past so I'm glad she survived the night!
This is a new market that starts this Sunday at 1000 pound Bend - an awesome new venue in a converted city warehouse. I was there last night for a play and its got a great feel to it. It's run by the St Jeromes people and has a funky cafe in the front. I even love the music played in the toilet from a little stereo hidden in fake shrubbery. Funny.
I picked this little one up on the weekend and I really enjoyed it. Its like the universe has delivered a zine perfectly tailored to me. It's about craft and people who craft. Need I say more. It looks great, has beautiful photographs reminiscent of Frankie and really interesting interviews with crafty people. I'm pretty sure it's made in New Zealand because most of the people mentioned are from NZ which is great for exploring what our neighbours are up to. Here's their blog if you want to get your hands on a copy. Or pop in to one of my favourite stores Onabee, here in Melbourne, for a copy.
With my tendencies for clutter this kind of office is probably more realistic for me. I love the flowers and the wooden shutters.
Look at all that light. Ah sigh... I love the idea of having floating shelves above the desk.
I want purple doors! How cool is that bay window seat with all the cushions. I don't think I'd get much work done.
I also have a fantasy of living in a beach cottage and with this beautiful wooden desk and light blue colours I could imagine I do.
Have a look at these little newbies. I had them at the North Melbourne Market just gone and I was really happy with the response they got.
They're made 100% from fabric from my fabric stash because I'm trying to reuse and recycle where possible.
As I've mentioned before I'm switching to organic fabrics so they'll soon be made from the new fabric.
They have a unique button closure so each cover is a one off.
They easily fit A5 notebooks and diaries.
I still love this fabric heaps but I don't think I can get hold of it again. Fingers crossed that I do! 
There are two pockets on the inside cover so you can keep your pen, pencil or eraser safe.
