Back to the Real Job

Today it was back to screen-printing textiles. Only problem was that everybody (except me) was sick so I was flying solo. I was running back and forth from screen-printing placemats, tea-towels and napkins to putting them through the textile dryer. I came home exhausted! Who needs the gym?

We are still small enough that I do customise orders for our lovely stockists. These pretty 'Hydrangea' placemats are printed on white linen with 'Blue Heaven' ink.

As are the coordinating tea-towels which are now on their way to 'Themes' in Sydney.

The 'Dotty about Roses' tea towel printed in black and white will be available at 'Finders Keepers Homewares' in Peregian Beach next week. Do you like them? If so, I will print more of them.

We have ordered white linen fabric so I am planning more pretty prints on white for Spring. I want to have curtains made for our home.

Yay! I am so grateful that my shipment of linen napkins finally arrived today. All 8 boxes of them. We had totally run out but we shouldn't have any more supply problems now.

Tomorrow I will be announcing more goodies for our Morning Tea. What a generous lot you all are. I am getting quite excited and know it will be a great morning for a great cause with 30 expected guests so far. You can still RSVP until Monday so that we can make sure to have a goodie bag for you.

Yes, I am taking offers of home-made cakes, cookies or whatever else is your specialty :)

Stylist in the House

One of my goals for this year is to be more proactive about sending out media releases so yesterday I made time to photograph some of our new products.

With the natural sunlight that filters through our lounge room windows, I can take decent photos with my Panasonic Lumix but thought I could use some help in the styling department.

Send in the troops! I invited my friend Julie Palmer to assist me because frankly, the lady oozes style! You may remember my previous post about Julie and her business Olive and Joy here.

This photo was me having a little fun but I really liked Julie pretending to sew the table runner at her antique Singer machine. The other props are all mine - yep, lucky me. You can view more images over at Julie's blog.

Our linen tea-towels are always popular and I will be listing the new ones on the website as time permits as I only have so many hours in each day. I already collapsed from exhaustion early last night.

I had to get up at 4.30 am this morning to pack everything to be freighted to Sydney and dropped it off at Melanie's at 7.00 am as we are both exhibiting at LIS.

Seeing that I was running out of time, I woke my man up at 5.45 am to help and had to bribe him with breakfast afterwards at The Wicked Sisters. Highly recommended!

I still have a lot to do before next week but am treating myself to a pedicure this afternoon because tomorrow evening I have a date to see this hottie. Is anybody else going?

Earthgirl Fabrics

Earthgirl Fabrics is an on-line fabric and notions store based in Melbourne and is now stocking Thea & Sami linen tea-towels.

Owner Annabel Jones lives with her husband and two children, aged 6 and 8 and has been running Earthgirl Fabrics for about 18 months now. As we love to know the people behind small business, I asked Annabel to tell us a little about herself. In her words:

"My mum taught me to knit when I was at primary school (I used to knit in the playground and later on the train on the way to high school!) and to sew (I used to sew my own mini skirts!), but it wasn't until I found craft blogs on the internet a few years ago that my obsession really took hold. Life is very busy with parenting, helping out at the children's school and running the business (as well as sewing when I get the chance), but I love what I do and feel very lucky to have opportunity to combine work with my crafting passion".

I have listed some of the goodies that you will find at Earthgirl Fabrics. A collection of the cutest ribbons. I think my favourite is the LOVEchirp from Farbenmix Germany.

A selection of lovely sewing patterns. If you do have the time to sew and to read books on picnics, the Reading Pillow is a novel idea from Sew Liberated.

If you like the idea of quilting but not cutting, then you may like the City Weekend Charm Pack. The sweet pre-cut squares are part of the lastest fabric collection by Oliver+s for Moda Fabrics.

You could end up with a quilt like this. I love the white background.

Now for the best part. Earthgirl Fabrics is hosting a blog giveaway and the prize is a Thea & Sami hand-printed linen tea-towel of your choice. What are you waiting for? Visit Earthgirl Fabric blog to enter. The giveaway is drawn on Tuesday, September 28.

My regular Friday Follower column will resume in a couple of weeks. Today, I am taking the rest of the day off to spend with my daughter. Happy Friday!

Images are courtesy of Earthgirl Fabrics except for tea-towels image by me (Thea).