Table Runner For You

We have been working hard here at Thea & Sami to expand our range of hand-printed loveliness. To help us spread the natural hand-made goodness, I am giving one lucky person the chance to win a beautiful table runner printed in navy on natural, unbleached linen, featuring our popular "Marguerite" design.



For your chance to win; choose from one, two or three possibilities. Firstly, you may blog about this giveaway (and let me know). Secondly, become a follower and get another entry or tell me if you already are a follower.

Thirdly, leave a comment telling me if you enjoy shopping on-line and if there is a reason you wouldn't shop from a particular website. I truly value any feedback, in particular to the Thea & Sami on-line store. The blog giveaway is open to Australian and International friends. Please ensure there is a away of me contacting you if you don't have a blog link.



In addition to the table runner, I will still be sending out my regular monthly mystery gift to one of my regular followers to say thank you! I will be closing the giveaway on Wednesday, September 9th at 9.00 p.m. (Australian EST). Good luck!

Blog giveaway has now closed (9.9.09). I will draw and the winners in the morning. Thank you to all who commented, linked to this post and followed!

A Rose Per Day

A rose per day keeps romance alive!



I had to share this heart-warming story with you. Tom and Joan Shovelton of the UK celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last week. For every one of those years, he has placed a rose on Joan's bedside every SINGLE day!



This is the happy octogenarian couple. Aren't they adorable? You can really see their true affection for each other. To read more of their story, click here.

Does your partner have a daily romantic ritual? I would love to know if there are more Toms out there!

Casual to Formal

I get by with a little help from my friends!

It's always thrilling when people like your work but I was especially touched when one of my oldest and dearest friends, Gloria Cassimatis, ordered a custom-made tablecloth and 8 placemats for her new kitchen. She and her table were models for the photo-shoot.

 
  
Unfortunately, not all photos turned out but considering it was evening and we were working with artificial lighting, I am quite pleased with this photo of my lovely hostess. Notice that her outfit just happened to be colour coordinated with the black & off-white placemats. Coincidence?

The fabric used was a eco-friendly blend of 55% hemp and 45% organic cotton and was hand-printed with our Fretwork design with water-based, toxic-free inks.



The printed tablecloth is perfect for a more formal dinner. Other tablecloths can be custom-made to your measurements. Contact me for a quote. If you would like to order for Christmas, please allow up to 6 weeks for production and delivery.

I liked how great these look so have listed the same placemats and tablecloth for sale in the Thea & Sami on-line store.

String Art

I love string art! My home seems to be filled with found vintage treasures and I am especially partial to crafts from the 70's.



I found this wonderful framed string art a few years ago in "The Elegant Garage Sale", a lovely consignment store in Toronto, Canada. The wooden boat with its golden thread sails is backed onto black velvet; very much in vogue at the time.



I was delighted to find these lovely earrings; miniature works of string-art from NOOK a couple of weeks ago. I love purple and silver so of course I had to buy them. They are from American designer Three5Eighty5 and are available in other colour combinations too.

Do you like string art? If you want to try your hand at creating your own, visit String Art Fun for free patterns.

Mushrooms in the Nook

Michelle Gillies loves mushrooms! Michelle is the proud owner of Brisbane's lovely new haven for hand-made and eco-friendly gifts, NOOK.



Yesterday, I visited Nook to deliver hand-printed Mushrooms linen tea-towels plus some Mushrooms tote bag kits for you domestic goddesses who love to sew.



I know where I will be going for my Christmas shopping. Look at all these delicious hand-made brooches from Australian designers Made by White, States of Nature and That Vintage.



I was really excited to spot this lovely tote bag in the shop window by Where's Becky Bean featuring Thea & Sami's Fretwork design printed on hemp/organic cotton canvas.



Nook is having their official opening this Saturday. If you're in Brisbane, do come along and support local small business. Entertainment will follow in the evening after you have bought all your lovely hand-made gifts.

Screen Print Christmas Gifts

Are you coming to my Learn to Screen-Print Class next month? What, you missed out? Don't fret as I have scheduled another class for Saturday, October 17.



This is the lovely tea-pot that Alarna Zinn of Little Jane St. printed earlier this year in our workshop.



The cute felines are creations of Kat Tran Phuc.

If you are dreaming of hand-printing Christmas gifts for your friends, be quick and reserve your place at Thea & Sami's screen-printing workshops.

The Old Flour Mill

I visited Handmade Heaven on Saturday, Liesa Gifford's lovely new space located in the Old Flour Mill in Ipswich. This is a sweet little arcade of hidden treasures and I will have to revisit soon to properly see everything including the antique store that was closed by the time I arrived.



Liesa was a very happy customer when she opened her parcel of Thea & Sami hand-printed linen tea-towels. Hers is the first store to stock our new Butterflies design!



Liesa's sweet pink store is full of lovely hand-made goodies. I really liked these baby bouquets made with infant clothing and wash-cloths; the ideal gift for new arrivals.



Ipswich is a short drive from Brisbane and a great day trip. As one of Queensland's oldest towns, there are beautiful heritage buildings to see and Queen's Park is ideal for a picnic, complete with a cafe, children's playground and native animals to see (for free) including kangaroos, dingoes and wombats.



A perfect example of Georgian architecture is Booval House. The image is courtesy of the website. For further information and for wedding bookings, visit Booval House.

Hand Made Cards

Hand-printed organic linens and recycled card stock were the basis for these lovely cards that I made yesterday. They are the invitations for Thea & Sami's upcoming new Eco-Interior Design Fabrics launch.



It was a wonderful and eco-friendly way to use some of our organic fabric off-cuts.The recycled paper cards were sourced from Regal Craft in Tasmania. I was quite impressed with their service. I paid for express post and had the cards in Brisbane the next day.



Firstly, I cut the fabric pieces a little smaller than the folded card with my fabric-cutting ruler; so quick and precise! The invitation cards were previously printed on a home-office printer.



Being the retro-loving girl that I am, I then cut the edges with my pinking shears .



I stitched the fabric onto the cards along the two longer sides of the swatch, using only the tiniest piece of double-sided tape on the two shorter edges to hold in place. Yes, I did the sewing myself !



I do hope that the invitees will appreciate the little bit of hand-made love that is coming their way. Each card is one-of-a-kind too.

I like these cards so much that I am thinking of making more to sell. Would you buy them?

Spring Butterflies

I have been updating my website because I now can. It's a lovely feeling of achievement to have conquered technology in some small way.

Freshly listed in time for Spring are my new hand-printed Butterflies tea-towels. I have printed them in blue but welcome other suggestions.

 

You may now purchase the Butterflies in your choice of eco-friendly, hemp/organic cotton (as above) or natural, unbleach linen (as below) from the Thea & Sami on-line store.

Breathe

I ended up working all weekend and am still working through the night. On my big day off (see previous post) we enjoyed a lunchtime picnic in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. Spring has certainly arrived early here; not that we really had a winter.



I love this photo! It reminds me to breathe. Relaxing on the lawn under the trees, this was my beautiful view looking up. I need to make more time to enjoy simple pleasures like this, do you?

Have a great week!

Up, Up and Away

I finally had a day off yesterday and it was an exciting one. Voyt and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a hot air balloon ride over Brisbane. This is something I had wanted to do for a long time and I wasn't disappointed.



I had no idea how much was involved with preparing for flight. We were quite fortunate weather-wise as the wind conditions were perfect. Another couple who were on our flight had to wait 6 times before they could finally fly!



We all met in Toowong park in Brisbane's western suburbs and ended up having to embark from Salisbury in Brisbane's south for the ideal take-off conditions.The balloon was first inflated using an industrial fan and then with gas for it to start lifting off the ground. The other balloon in the picture and sky (1st photo) belonged to a rival flight operator.



Look at the size of our balloon!



This was our view of Brisbane city at 6.30 in the morning. Not a cloud in the sky meant that we could see the high-rises of the Gold Coast and the Glass House Mountains at the Sunshine Coast.

Floating over the city was such a lovely and serene experience. The balloon cannot be steered but controlled to some degree by catching air currents at different heights. The landing spot varies daily depending on the wind and we ended up landing in Carina, not far from my home.



Everybody helped in pushing the air out of the balloon after landing and packing it up. We were then driven to Brisbane's Sofitel Hotel for the most delicious hot buffet breakfast.

Thank you to Steve and Rudy from Fly Me to the Moon for a great experience!

And thank you to my wonderful Voyt who helps make my dreams come true and for his never-ending love and support. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and relaxing, something I personally find hard to do.



Today it's back to work to screen-print my new shipment of natural linen tea-towels.

Summer Birds

You may remember my recent design collaboration with handbag queen Alyssa Milton of indie label Lyssy May. I had designed and printed the fabric exclusively for her Peacock range of bags.

Now, after a successful winter season, Alyssa has released her Summer range of Peacocks. These are hand-printed by Thea & Sami on hemp/organic cottons and linen/cottons.

 

How cute are these zip-purses?  I am thinking Christmas gifts.



And can a girl EVER have enough tote bags? Especially one as original as this; inspired by retro cafe curtains.



I am so proud of my friend Alyssa who only moved to Melbourne late last year. A few months ago, I encouraged her to apply for inclusion in the latest edition of Handmade in Melbourne and of course she was accepted!

  

Thea and Sami is in there too, at least by association. Here is a picture of Alyssa's Strut Your Stuff denim satchel featuring my peacock print. Look closer people!

I can't wait to get my copy of this book and you can order your copy from the Lyssy May website as well as any of Alyssa's beautiful hand-made bags.  Other blogging friends included in the book are Betty Jo and Ink & Spindle.

Good Enough To Eat

 

Yummy! I love licorice candy and I love hand-felted jewellery so you can only imagine how much I am loving this stunning necklace from American artist, Danielle Gori-Montanelli.




Danielle was a metalsmith in a previous life but after havinging two children, she decided to get away from the dangerous materials involved in metal work. Luckily for us, she discovered and began working exclusively in felt.



To see more of or to purchase any of her amazing pieces, please visit her website. Other work includes hand-felted brooches and stitched paintings.