Mays Hill studio on Etsy is open for buisness again

over the past week I have re-opened my etsy store Mays Hill Studio. So here a few items for sale at presant:

I am back

Wow finally the laptops working, the internet is working, my cameras working so now I can finally get back to blogging. I have missed it, not that anyone reads my blog lol but I enjoy sharing whats going on from the sewing table (which is really the kitchen table!!)

Started seriously doing markets again last month, starting with Bellingen market on the 17th Oct. I love Bello market and I did really well selling alot of my handmade baby and kids clothing and bibs, booties but also sold a lot of vintage clothing and wears. Then the next weekend I did on the 25th Oct was Armidale market for the first time, I didnt do as well as Bello $$ wise but it was such a lovely atmosphere, the sun was out, a little jazz band was playing in the middle of the mall and I meet some really nice sellers and buyers. Then the following weekend 1st Nov I got up at 4.30am to travel 2 hours to Moree market, its a sweet market but $$ wise I did even worse than Armidale but one lady said I have the best stall at the market so that was really encouraging.

So now I am in the middle of 2 weeks of no markets to replenish my stock for the up coming bello market on the 21st Nov, which I am really looking forward too.

Heres a peek at some apples for little baby singlet which have been really popular at market.

I am still here

Hey having a few technical difficulties lately but will be back on line really soon you hear!!!
Got pics and heaps of really interesting stuff to post! hehe Curious??

Winter wool adventure

My sister Ari, Cuz Rose and me at Grandmas having a 80th birthday get together while in Melbourne

If anyone out there actually reads this blog and was wondering "Whats happened to Zoe? Looks like she went to Melbourne and never came back!!" Well I did come back and got pretty sick and have been held up in bed for the past week. The thing I dislike most about being sick is I have all that spare time to think up things to make, look at crafty books and get all inspired but have no energy to do anything. So by the 4th day I was feeling totally creatively constipated and started to cut a felted pink cardy I had into a dress for Bb, its still laid out on the kitchen table half done! But inspired by the book 'Warm Fuzzies' by Betz White. Theres a gorgeious pattern for a Aline little girls dress made from felted upcycled jumpers and I just cant resisted a little girl dress even if winter is coming to an end, Tingha is still freezing.

But being in bed meant I could finally finish my very over due library copy of 'Knit two' the sequel to 'The friday night knitting club' by Kate Jacobs. Love those books but again made me very inspired to grab my knitting needles and knit a Georgia's Afghan.

This winter has been full of Wool related crafts, some new and some old. Like I learnt to knit when I was in grade 1, I remember knitting a large red square. But this winter I finally learnt to Crochet and went a bit crochet crazy which is inevitable! Also lots of Felt, I buy this lovely 100% wool felt from the Steiner shop in Bellingin NSW that comes from Germany which I love to cut into little birds, flowers or love hearts and applique. Also felting wool jumpers and vamping into new creations like the baby boy blanket. I even bought some wool dyes from a local shop and have been hand dying baby and kids woolen clothing funky purples, blues, pinks and greens. This pic of Bb wearing a hat I made her using a heap of crafty techniques I have learnt over the winter, felting recycled jumpers, crochet, well I already knew how to applique and sew but I do love the combo of craftyness but shes at that age where she wont were hats!!! Inspired by the book 'Sweater Renewal' by Sharon Franco Rothschild

"Love is the only reality"

I made this 'Love' banner for my mum who is undergoing radio treatment, sort of inspired by those budist prayer flags and this lovely I found on flickr. Made from a recycled green silk scafe, vintage buttons and my take of Drea Fii's brooch. I am planning on a faith, hope and peace one so she can string them up.

Day one in Melbourne. So wanted to take heaps of pic but of course I did take my camera, so day 2 will chocker block of pics. Mum looks fantastic.

I made it to Meet me at Mikes which was a real treat in Brunswick st. theres something about the city especial when its just gotten dark and rainny, love it. Bought one of Aunty Cookies tooth fairies.

RaNDomS.......

Random evesdropping....

"Hey Bill, can you take the sweet potato?"

Heard 23rd July 09 10ish am Sweeny st Inverell

Garage sale navana

Today I went to my dream garage sale. Actually I am a bit worried now that future garage sales will never compare! Vintage, vintage, vintage and all this loot only cost $10.15, yes that's right $10.15. I am still in shock and on this crazy garage sale high. Most of it will end up on Ashasvintage and a little bit just for me. Have a good peep and enjoy :)

Bluebelle May over all winner

Last Monday we took little Bb to the Tingha Nadoc week baby show judging. I entered her a few weeks ago because she so cute but also my new years resolution was to be more generous and get more involved in my community, so I thought entering Bb would be a good way of meeting different people in Tingha and it was. The judging was on Monday and Tuesday night we went down to the sports club for dinner to find out the winners.

Bb won! She got a little bare bummed baby trophy for best dresses in the 1-2 yrs girl category (pictuered above) and best over all girl in 1-2 yrs which was a larger bare bummer baby trophy. Lots of fun.

Gymnastic comp Armidale 12 july 09

It is so hard to get a great shot of someone swinging to and fro at a hundred miles an hour and not to mention that as parents we have to sit ages away, so my dinky little cameras on zoom, no flash (regulations) and boy is running, jumping, swinging, leaping, somersaulting, bending backwards and I just cant capture the moment fast enough. I do have many shots of boy sitting waiting, there was a lot of that! All in all he came 2nd on parrel bars and 3rd on pommel.

Weekend Visit to the coast

The kids and I drove over to the coast for the weekend to visit my dad and family. The weather was so much nicer but still a bit cold at night. We headed over Friday so we could catch the op-shops, I nearly fell off my chair when RaRa txted me the other day that "Op shops r awesome!" Usually its a universal "NOOOOOOO!!!!!" when ever I want to stop at an op-shop, garage sale, ramdon junk on the side of the road. So I think we visited 3 oppies, the Guyra op-shop where I picked up a cool 70s bedspread, and 2 oppies in Coffs where we got RaRa a suit for $5, which is what she was just looking for. Then Sat there was a garage sale up the road that no-one told me about till 1ish pm, and I scored a vintage ceramic black poodle which may be like a desk type accessories to hold your pen which I will list on Mays hill and a lovely cream colored 100% pure wool blanket which I plan to hand dye and make lots of lovely children's capes.

Bb finally made friends with yoshi my brothers dog and we all enjoyed to sun.

This is such a beautiful view of the mountains just past Dorrigo on our way home Sun arvo. So many different shades of blue, there where heaps of oohhs and arrrs as we stoped to take this pic.

Mays Hill Studio

Have been spending this morning listing a heaps of eclectic stuff on my new etsy store 'Mays hill studio'. I love this blanket so much, its so snugly and soft. 100% recycled felted wool that I patchworked into this lovely cot sized baby boys blanket. Yummy!

I also listed a few of these whimsical onesies with the bunting flags. So fresh and sweet. And the perfect prezzie for both baby boy or baby girl. More of these to come.

"WILMA!!!!" I have started to long process of listing my great aunts and great grandmothers vintage, kitch and costume jewelry. There is some really wonderful and unique pieces but just so many!

I just adore these vintage knitting pattern books. this one is so charming with the Technicolour. Just between you and me I have way to many of these pattern books. There heaps still listed at the button tin and many more to come at Mays hill studio.

Brrrrr its winter

Wow its winter here in Tingha. I took this photo the other morning just outside my back door. Don't know what the temp was but it was freezing and all that ice on the ground makes me shiver just looking at it.

I was having a bit of a pity party type day the other day when I got a prezzie in the mail from a good friend of mine on the coast. This crazy owl tea cosie! Its official I have a crochet owl tea cosie collection... :)

Garden Party Dress

Garden Party dress made from gorgeous vintage emerald green and yellow rose fabric. Miss Madeline pattern by The Handmade Dress. I have used this pattern a few different ways, without elastic around waist, waist lenght and cut up the front to make a little jacket and used ribbon to gather neck and fasten , I made a long sleeve version out of an upcycled cream colored cashmir jumper with only elastic round the neck and now the photo above is slightly altered from the original, I have used two fabrics and didn't use the elastic waist band. This pattern is so easy to use, perfect for beginners and takes me less than an hour to whip one up. I really love this dress and my sweet little BB modeling. Heres some more inspiration on Flickr

my two favs APPLES and OWLS

Owls and apple fabric by timeless treasures, couldn't be more in fabric heaven! My good friend Michelle put me on to theses saying " I saw some fabric that is just 'you'" and she is so right. These two came in the mail today from the US at the 'a yarn and fabric outlet' and the best part was they where on sale, so they only cost $25AU for 2 yards. Off the top of my head I don't know how much smaller than a metre that is but I cant imagine paying under $20 a metre for just one of them! So very pleased :) Now what to make.....baby girls dress....handbag.....

Crochet Baby

Yesterday was one of those lazy days by the fire when you just have to pick up your hook and do a bit of that granny square your trying to master. Biggest daugther and littlest daugther and muma just chillin in the kitchin. Littlest daughter was just kind of wondering round the kitchen every now and then sitting on her fisher-price powertouch making the ladies voice stutter and repeat zzzzzzz 20 times in a row but she must have been secretly keeping an eye on my granny square because the minute I had my back turned there she was having a go at it. Maybe she will be a crochet prodigy...

Photoshop love!

I love photoshop! I have been at tafe this semester studying web design but enjoy the photoshop stuff heaps more. I did the two layered thing with the B/W underneith and rub it out so that the yellow bush and red rusted roof show through but keep the B/W look.

I took this pic the other day just a few km from my place, sneeked over the fench and across the paddock. I drive past it everyday and have dreamt this image for ages and today was the day it came together.

This old house belonged to the Hawkins family, three children raised here. I dont know how long it has been empty but it has no front door and seems very lonely!

I plan to use this image as part of a new etsy store banner, 'Mays Hill studio' but need a heap of time to sort it all, so one day...

17 aprons in 17 days WINNER!!!

Here is the Ashavintage 17 aprons in 17 days "why I love vintage" winner! Elissa from Delightful hands over at etsy.com.

Heres her winning entry......

"I love vintage because...there's something about the mystery of who vintage item belonged to, what stories it could tell, etc. Aprons are doubly intriguing to me, wondering what old fashioned girl it belonged to, the tears that were wiped away with it, the lovely dresses it protected from those messy spills..."

Congrates and enjoy :)

trift wednesday

Found this unreal crochet owl tea cosie in the Inverell Red Shield op-shop yesterday. I was extra excited about it because I have just learnt to crochet myself wanting to make this baby cocoon and beanie from here for my sister who is about to have her first buba and am now crochet crazy.

Its funny I tryed to teach myself to crochet just before I got pregnant with my son and his nine now!! It was something I thought I would never do and I am a really crafty person and love to dabble in all crafts but no crochet was not something I was ever going to master and apart from that I am left handed, which seems to make it harder to get the stitches but I say if you where like me give it another go and find someone really talented at teaching to show you, I went to my local craft store and Loraine showed me, it only took and hour and I was off like a rocket but I have lost my hook at the moment..grrr I think the baby took off with it!

Well here we go...

Well this is something I have been wanting to do for ages..a blog. Over the past week there has been quite a few occassions where i have thought, "thats something I could put in my blog if I had one!" So now I do. How cool, I am so excited. :) Now gotta get on and make it all prettyful the way I want. Yay! Ha myu 14 year old daugther just commented, "that what cha want a blog for? isnt it where you write something and people read it?" Der!