Fancy announcement: Shop update

I'm so excited to share this with you, the first shipment of my Imagined Travels tea towels have arrived. No doubt those of you who are on my   facebook   page would have already seen a sneak peak.

I got them from the printer last Saturday night and spent the majority of Sunday morning, ironing, folding and packaging them ready for the store. It took me forever to illustrate and package them, but I am so happy with the result. I have based this first series on Japan, and have illustrated 3 designs using objects that to me represents the essence of the country. I really hope you'll like them. I want to keep them affordable, so I'm selling them for only $20 a piece. I really hope they will sell as I'd like to produce more in the future. I'm thinking on a series on either Paris or New York. What do you think?

It would be great if you can pass it on to anyone who might me interested. I think they will be a lovely addition to anyone's kitchen or even framed as a piece of affordable art.

For those of you who lives in Sydney, you can buy them from the   Oxford St Design Store  , for everyone else, I have uploaded them to my   etsy   shop. Happy shopping! x

Illustration fancy: Off to the printer

There has been hundreds of last minute changes, but finally they are ready. Instead of getting them printed digitally, I'm going to fork out a little more money and get them screen printed instead. I can't wait to see how they will turn out. Fingers crossed.

Illustration fancy: Japanese Maneki Neko tea towel

For the past couple of days I have been working on this tea towel design, I wasn't too happy with the colours and texture in the old design but I persisted thinking that it can be tweaked once finished. Although I was sort of happy with the outcome, it just didn't feel right, the colouring was too controlled, too cartoonish. I went back to the drawing board and came up with this second idea. It is now more muted with less colours and am now very happy with the result.

Just need to work on two more designs and get it printed. I can't wait to show you once it arrives, really excited.

I have posted some pictures of the Oxford St Design Store launch party on my  facebook  page. It was such a fun night and it felt so good to see my tea towels in a shop. There were only two left, so I'm assuming the others were already bought and taken to their brand new home. :)

Fancy announcement: Oxford St Design Store

Everyone please step away from your computer and do a little celebratory dance. A sweet little store named the Oxford St Design Store will be officially open tomorrow and will be carrying tea towels made by ta da da dah... me!

The Design Store is a concept store run by two lovely ladies (Alex and Lou) selling limited edition products from local artists and groups. There are all sorts of wonderful goodies including letterpress goodness from  The Hungry Workshop  and super cool objects from  Page Thirty Three . And if that's not enough, they are all under $20. That's right, everything will be super cheap, it is Alex and Lou's way to make designer products accessible to everyone.

At the moment, there are extremely limited amount of tea towels available so please get in quick. As we speak, I am in the middle of developing more designs with the aim of sending it to the printer by the end of this week. So hopefully there'll be a few more in the shop by the end of this month. Here is a sneak preview of what I am working on.

They are having a launch party tomorrow night from 6pm which I am really excited about. Head down there if you are around and don't forget to say hi.

Oxford St Design Store

58 Oxford St, Darlinghurst

Twelve by 2012 recap

So we are officially well into 2012, did I achieve the 12 goals set for  twelve by 2012 ? 

Well, lets see...

1. Start an imagined travel series 

Not exactly a series, but I have started and the idea is more refine now which I am happy about. See the first of the series  here .

2. Finish my crochet cushion cover  

Yay! I even made a fabric one to accompany my new crochet cushion. See  here .

3. Add more paintings and crafty goodness to my  shop 

A bit of a fail here, but one new item is better than none right?

4. Sell at least one item in my  shop 

Woohoo! Had my first customer on Christmas eve, he bought the tea towel within 30min of me putting it up in the shop!

5. Get back into dressmaking

Sort of, I am in the middle of finishing a dress, will show and tell soon.

6. Make more jam

Nope, no jam making unfortunately. Will need to make some by the end of this month.

7. Bake more

I have made the ugliest but tasty  choc chip cookies , meringue, super moorish poprcorn crunch using this  recipe  and a few ultra delicious veggie quiche. This is quite an achievement for someone who used to bake once a year. 

8. Try making macaroons 

Failed, see  here . Will need to try again very soon.

9. Finish reading all my magazines

No, not really. Only finish reading 2 Frankie magazines, still have a stash to go through.

10. Take a road trip  

We took a trip to  Barrington Tops  for my 31st birthday, visited  Watsons Bay  for the first time and went bush walking around Berry Island Reserve.

11. Do something unexpected for someone

I'm not sure whether I have achieved this goal, hopefully I had put a smile on someone's face this last couple of months.

12. Make at least one new friend

I'm glad to say I have made a couple of really good blog buddies and met a few new friends from Brown Owls. I look forward to developing these friendships this year.

Exquisite fail

What is going on? Another fail by yours truly. Remember the beautiful package exchange I received from Leslie of  Little Letters ? Well this is what I made for Leslie in return, which (you are not going to believe) arrived smashed into little pieces... This is totally my fault, instead of wrapping it with bubble wrap which a normal person will do without question, I just packed the box really tight thinking that it will be ok. Mmmmm... not a smart move.

Well, Leslie if you are reading this, I can't say sorry enough. This is what you present should have looked like...

Limited edition tea towels

It's here! My Limited Edition tea towel is finally up on  etsy . Come check it out, and get one for your friend or yourself. It is lovingly screen printed by me using organic water based ink on 100% cotton. The illustration is of Japanese vending machines I encountered during my travels to Tokyo.

This is the first of my Imagined Travels series, and as this is just a soft launch, only an extremely limited amount will be available. The tea towel will come beautiful packaged, ready to give to your loved ones.