fast, furious, frazzled & fatigued

Whoaaa.

photo by Sass from ASK ALICE

Freaky thing happened to me last week. Think I was sucked into a parallel universe. It looked a lot like the Atrium at Fed Square in Melbourne. Some kind of design, markety, event thingey. Mad, crazy, full of rugged-up people looking, touching, spending, talking, attempting to communicate with this seemingly sedated creature who looked and felt like death on a stick. Apologies to one and all, that wasn't really me, they weren't really my words. Some thing had inhabited my body, possessed my soul.

Yes, I guess you could say I take on a fair amount of stress every time I do a market. Months of manic preparation, fear of not having enough product, fear of having unfinished and inferior products on display to be laughed at, sleepless nights, yada yada. But did I really have to spend the day before sewing up puppies for hours at The Thread Den and tearing around the streets of north melbourne looking for lengths of wood before the sun went down? Then attempting to stuff puppies well into the night? Did I really need to? I think not.  

photo by Sass from ASK ALICE

Brought my camera to take some happy snaps. Do you think I could find it? At the end of the day when I was packing up - yes -  small black camera, slung over my black chair, under my black coat. Then again, not sure I would have had the time or energy to hold up a camera. So big thanks to Sass, who I don't know and have never met, but she kindly lent me her photos and I have bought some of her gorgeous stationery before so there's karma for you.

gift tag by ASK ALICE

And must also throw out a big BIG thankyou to the adorable Kylie from MizuDesigns who showed up as I was busting to go to the loo, looking so fresh and calm and casually stylish in that oh so melbourne way and held the fort while I stomped off, zombie-like, contemplating not returning at all, just falling into the foetal position in one of the cubicles.

photo by State of Green
[ps. this is not Kylie]

What more can I say? Standing there was a hellish eternity but it was over in the blink of an eye. One tres surreal experience that's for sure. And sales-wise, worth it by far. Just a shame I wasn't in my body on the day.

One of these days I will turn up at my own market stall looking and sounding human, alive, engaged and HAPPY.
I will.

out and about

After the enormous effort and subsequent fun/ success of putting it out there in Adelaide at the Bower Bird Bazaar I came back to Sydney exhausted, telling all and sundry I wasn't doing any more markets until the end of the year. Too many new things to design, play with, perfect. Yada yada.

Well.

Let's just say I can be easily persuaded. Sometimes.

New one-off fabric panels will be making their debut at Finders Keepers in Brisbane at the end of the week.

The good news for me is that I don't have to stand on the other side of a table trying to sell these little guys. That job will be in the hands of the gorgeous Kim from Udessi who will be representing many of the artists in her online gallery. So Brisbanites, you get first pickings of new feedthedog.

All leftovers and other new and wondrous stuff will then come with me to the heart of Melbourne where I will have to stand behind a table in the beautiful Atrium at Federation Square. BECAUSE, just when you thought we couldn't possibly cope with any more new designer markets, hey presto, new designer market, called MarkIt.

What can I say? Personally, I think winter is the only time to visit Melbourne and July is full of great design events that are part of the State of Design.

But I'm feeling a little sick at how much work I have to do before the 11th July. Guess I'd better stop whinging and get on with it. Where are those elves when you need them?