Queensland Proud

One of Queensland's favourite home publications is Queensland Homes magazine.

Published quarterly, the magazine features homes that make the most of living stylishly in the Sunshine State.


The current Spring Issue features fresh decorating ideas including these lovely cushions on Page 38.

Oh look closer! It's our Peacock Party linen cushion. The peacocks are proud, the publishers are proud that they are "Made in Queensland!" (as quoted) and I am one proud mamma!

I have loved this magazine for as long as I can remember, often looking through old issues when I lived overseas and dreaming of returning home. A little bird told me that there is even more Thea & Sami goodness coming up in the Summer Issue. I'm just too excited.

As promised, Friday Follower will resume next week. I just need to get a lot of product tagging and order packing done over the next few days. I haven't had a chance to thank you all for your support but will soon. Look out for my great Blog Giveaway next week too.

New Furnishings Page

Hello everybody. Are you enjoying your weekend? I was planning to go into the studio today but have decided to stay at home instead. It's cloudy and gloomy in Brisbane plus I feel tired so it's the kind of day that I just want to lounge around in my pyjamas.

I wanted to tell you that I have now added another page to my blog. The link, Custom-Made Furnishings can be found on the top right-side corner in my right column when you click on the icon and features custom-work using our fabrics. So you can refer to these posts for decorating ideas.

I just mailed some fabrics to our new, local lampshade maker so I look forward to showing you the results.

You are also welcome to submit any of your own Thea & Sami creations to the blog.

It's in the Details

What a week! I have thankfully recovered from 2 unpleasant days fighting a migraine but I won't dwell on the negative. We've been otherwise busy with hitting the phones and the road visiting stores to make up for the fact that we were stuck in The Dungeon recently. It's proving to be a fruitful exercise which shows that when you do escape from the dungeon, you can either start swimming or sink into the moat!

A few new stores will be stocking Thea & Sami products for Christmas but I will be revealing more at a later date. In this post, I thought that I would share a few little styling details that bring a smile to my face.

I have been wanting some Japanese washi tape for ages and recently purchased these cuties from Pretty Tape. If you've made an on-line purchase from us, you may have noticed that I have been using the tape for wrapping your goodies.

The advantage of washi tape is that it is made of acid-free paper, semi-transparent, archival safe and best of all, comes in many pretty colours and patterns.

I have to admit that I've become a little addicted to shopping on Etsy lately and have acquired one of the beautiful calligraphy custom-made stamps from Primele. Creator Patricia Mumau's work is in demand so do expect a little bit of a waiting period but all good things are worth waiting for, right? Patricia also writes a blog here.


These twin metal hat hooks were used for displaying our bags at the trade show. I have six of them that will now have a new home in my walk-in closet. I bought them from this eBay store. They don't come with screws but this could be because different kinds are required for different walls.

Speaking of the trade show, I loved Kimono Reincarnate's booth display - it was one of my favourites. Melanie is such a creative girl and used several red felt flowers to display her jewellery.

The tree and branches were cut vinyl which looked great but unfortunately can't be reused.

Here is Melanie in her very inviting booth. To see more of her Japanese-inspired work, visit Kimono Reincarnate.

All images taken by me (Thea).

Laser Cutting Studio

If you've been following my blog, you will be aware that Thea & Sami have been extremely busy preparing for our first Life InStyle trade show. There is SO much to do. We are freighting furniture and wares to Melbourne for our stand so are working like crazy to get all our props ready by the weekend. Luckily, I have a new studio assistant who is doing a lot of painting. I will be introducing her to you on Friday.

Continuing on from last week's post, I wanted to share with you the laser-cutting work Emma Gascoyne did for me.

Be prepared to be very jealous as this is Emma's studio located in her backyard. It's a child/husband/pet-free zone. Yes, that is an TV antenna on the roof. It's the ultimate cubby house for mums.

I wanted to have a Thea & Sami sign made for my stand that I would be able to use over again. That is our logo with our new colours on Emma's laptop. The design was then scaled to the size we wanted it cut and sent to the laser cutter.

This is the laser cutter that is doing a test trace of the design over the MDF to check that it all fits.

Watching this next step was quite exciting: the actual laser cutting of our logo.

Here are all the pieces laid out ready to be painted and mounted. I will keep you posted and show you the finished results.


Is it narcissitic to want to make this a sign for my office? I think it stems back to my school days when I was obsessed with labelling all my posessions.

Working with Emma was so great that we will be collaborating on a future design project. So many ideas but all be revealed in good time!

Back to School

It was back to school for me yesterday and it was fun! I was the special guest (that's me in the grey top) at the All Hallows' School in Brisbane for Morning Tea as mentioned in my previous post. The other special guest was fellow designer KT Doyle who I blogged about here.

Yum!

You may be asking why I was invited? Well, let me tell you. A few weeks ago, the Year 11/12 Visual Art Studies class along with their lovely teacher Christine Gauci and teacher aide Maun visited the Thea & Sami studio and were given a quick lesson in textile & product design. They were eager to show me the screen-printing projects that transpired and I was excited to see them!

The girls created their own film positives, screens and hand-printed all their own work. I managed to snap only a few photos of the amazing work at yesterday's Show and Tell but you will agree that these girls are super-talented. Watch out designers because there is some serious competition coming soon!

The standard of the finished projects was very professional with special consideration given to the end product and presentation. I love this hand-printed stationery boxed set by Lara Anderson.

What details! Do you like the pink pom-pom trim in Cassy Carlino's Eiffel Towel printed bean bag?

Georgie Walvin and her chic shopping bag.

The bird tails were all hand-beaded. No short-cuts here.

Courtney Moore designed, printed AND made dresses from her deer print.

The girls experimented with a variety of specialty inks including metallics and the fluroscent ink used on this t-shirt. Alex Thompson's little cousin was so happy with the t-shirts that Alex printed for her that she wore all three at once. Cute!

Thank you so much you lovely girls for a fun morning and well done!

About Us

I have updated the About Us page on the Thea & Sami website. It was truly outdated so if you could take a peek and tell me what you think, I would be quite grateful.

Do you think it is too personal? We are only a small family business so I don't want it to sound too corporate.

I can't believe that there are only 4 weeks to go until Life Instyle Melbourne! I still have so much to prepare and I had to book my stand for the Sydney show today. It's not until February 2011 but there were very few spots left so I couldn't afford to procrastinate. If you were hoping to exhibit, apply asap!

Organic Cushions Now Available

We have been so busy! I'm happy that all the invitations and mail out for the Life In Style trade show has now been organized and I managed to upload all the photos and information for the catalogue yesterday with 15 minutes to spare before the deadline. Relief!

We are really getting excited about the show now and especially since I discovered that I will neighbouring quite a few friends. I will let you know who they are very soon.

This week we have new cushions and table runners being made up so will be adding those to the website as they become available.

Available to order now are the VERY limited-edition Cottage Garden cushions hand-printed on a beautiful organic cotton/hemp jacquard that is exclusive to Thea & Sami. Once we exhaust our stock of this fabric - that is it. It will not be available ever again!

Go to our website to order and choose from Rouge, Teal or Sage covers. Cushion inserts are available to order separately from drop-down menu on the page.

More Fish

Zeega is of our favourite stores and sells a lot of Thea & Sami linen table runners and tea-towels which is why we found it hard to say no to a recent request for Fish table runners.

They do look delicious but were extra work to print and make, so won't be added to our regular range any time soon. If you do want to catch one, you will have to duck into Zeega quick smart.

Available in black or white print.

Zeega has also been selling the "Loads of Fishes" tea-towel in a creme (off-white) print. I just reprinted these so they have been add to our regular range.

Our new, natural linen tea-towels are a beautiful darker colour. You may buy fishy tea-towels directly from our on-line store. Free shipping in Australia!

Or if you would like one for free, spend $100 or more in our on-line store and quote "Fish tea-towel" in the check-out instructions. You may also choose your colour preference. Offer is valid until the end of June. Please note, extra shipping costs will still apply and be quoted for orders outside Australia.

Sneak Peek

Don't you just love texture on texture?

What's not to love about stitching on beautiful natural linen?

This is a sneak peek of but one style from our upcoming hand-printed accessories collection, a friendly collaboration between Lyssy May and Thea & Sami.

I wish I could show you more but all be revealed at the Life Instyle trade show. If you are attending, please visit us at Stand 226.

Speaking of linens, we are listing new European fabrics on the website this week. Please note that the Versaille Linen has now been discontinued to make room for even nicer styles.

What's New

We have been busy, busy, busy. Besides getting new product samples organised for our upcoming trade show, we are suddenly getting more orders so will be revealing new stockists soon, including one overseas.

Today, I thought I would show you the future site of the Thea & Sami screen-printing studio. This is in the corner of my backyard. Unfortunately, this old shed will have to go as it's not big enough but we will ensure that all salvageable materials go to a good home.

This is my front yard. I love the old wagon wheel although it's surrounded by weeds at the moment. I hope to replace these with colourful flowers in the Spring.

We have also inherited a cubby house. The space underneath was used as a chicken coop by the previous owners. The cubby isn't exactly child-safe at the moment so we will have to make sure that it is before inviting the clan over for Christmas. I really want to spruce it up so hopefully hubby will be off crutches soon so that he can add sanding and painting to his ever growing to-do list.

If you look closely, you may notice the broken ladder rung. That was thanks to me climbing on it this morning. Yes, I know I am much heavier than your average child but somebody had to test it.

Unfortunately, I won't have time to feature a Friday Follower this week as our (potential) client database and images are due tomorrow for the Life In Style invitations that are being sent out. I am very impressed by the level of support that is available to us as exhibitors.

We are really going to need some help soon. I am looking for a new part-time studio assistant (fabric-printing skills would be an asset) and ladies who would like to do some contract sewing at home. You would probably need to have an overlocker and industrial machine. Please contact me if you are interested and live in the Brisbane area.

New Printed Natural Linen

I am loving the European natural linens that we are now printing on. Newly listed in our on-line store is our Hydrangea print. Hand-printed on natural flax linen, the fabric is also available as a plain coordinate here.

If you are looking for elegant tableware without having to sew, I have also listed beautiful new table runners in this print. Not only is this fabric gorgeous but it has been prewashed and preshrunk by the manufacturer so is definitely safe to wash.

The table runner and fabric is also available in a dark red print.

The navy colourway is printed on the Petersburg European linen, offered as a coordinating plain linen here.

We will be printing our Cottage Garden design on the same linens this week. Do you have a busy week ahead? We are sourcing and trying out new local manufacturers this week; not particularly my idea of fun but necessary for the seamless production of our growing range homewares. Luckily I have delegated this task to new business partner Voyt.

Eco Notebooks

Today is Earth Day so I thought I would showcase these lovely eco-friendly notebook covers from Pepperberry & Co., a boutique textiles store specialising in earthy, natural products.

Creator Sandra Sanders crafts the products by hand in Melbourne, using natural cotton & cotton/linen blends . Unbleached and 100% Vegan & Cruelty Free fabrics are sourced when possible. The covers feature hand-printed fabrics from Thea & Sami other Australian designers.

Our popular floral Marguerite fabric is available as a notebook cover in white on black organic linen or black on natural hemp/organic cotton.


If you have been wanting to buy Australian designer fabrics in American dollars, you can do so from Pepperberry's Etsy store.

In keeping with the black and white theme, I do like this Curly Tree design on hemp/cotton from PippiJoe.

To find out more about Pepperberry, visit Sandra's blog.

Images are courtesy of Pepperberry & Co.

More than a Tea Towel

As a designer, I often try to think outside the box and am impressed by others that do the same. Lately, some clever crafty types have been taking Thea & Sami tea-towels and transforming them into other products. This has inspired me to write this post.

Sandrine Marsh is a very stylish lady and I love what she has done with our Spoon & Whisk tea-towel. This is a cutlery roll for picnics. Visit Histoire De Soie for further details.

Even I have to admit that our Loads of Fishes linen tea-towel looks better as an apron. This is the creation of clever Tania Ennor over at Myrtle and Eunice.

Another clever transformation from the Loads of Fishes tea-towel is this adorable slouch bag by Nikki Cardigan at My Black Cardigan.


Here's an easy no-sew idea from my blog archives. I like to use a tea-towel to gift wrap a a bottle of wine. This way, the recipient can fondly remember you and a (hopefully) pleasant occasion long after the wine is forgotten. This towel is now longer in our range but you can use any towel. See more pictures on how to gift wrap your bottle here.

And speaking of towels, is there no love for Pop-Art Girl? You still have a few days for your chance to win that tea-towel here.

Have you transformed a tea-towel into something else? I would love to see it.