Winter in Brissieland!

This lovely shot, not just of wimcee's market stall but also of the idyllic setting St Augustine's provides, especially in winter, comes courtesy of Bristylette Sandrine. Such was the July BrisStyle indie Designers Market - wonderful weather, green lawns, delightful shoppers, exceptional colleagues, seamless organization  from the volunteer BrisStyle committee.

My next market is my first Billycart Market, a hugely successful hand-made only market from southern states that this year is extending to Queensland. This takes place on July 30th, 9am - 2pm, at northside Sandgate - can't wait!

Also looking forward very much to holding some workshops with the newly opened piece together , a sewing studio, meeting place and retailer in the Woolloongabba Antique Precinct, rubbing shoulders with some of the funkiest stores and swankiest cafes in town...lots of fun to be associated with this venture, and with the creative brains behind it all, the lovely Tammy!



Loving having a few weeks off from the markets to play around with some new fabrics and new ideas. I have just delivered new pouches to Hanasho at West End, and I'll be contributing to their special fundraiser exhibition during the first week of August, so do please visit and support this very worthwhile cause - there will be a great many donated items and all funds raised will got to help the Japanese earthquake victims.

And, finally for this post, a peak at some of the new brooches I'll be dropping into my little cube at Bleeding Heart gallery-gift shop-cafe on Ann Street in the city.

Until next time, 

see you later alligators!

Asset-less!

Not really - one only has to reflect for about 2 seconds on the lot of so many locally affected by floods and cyclone, not to mention further away catastrophes this year - but a little robbery at home has left me without my laptop, my camera, and our second set of wheels, which did feel a bit personal at the time and has kept me on my toes for the past 6 weeks chasing up bits and pieces of insurance claims. (Photograph your techno treasures, reader dear, and then keep the photos somewhere other than on your laptop!) Did anyone say: "back up"? One moves on, but it's hard to blog without images, so I'm going to resort to my pinterest boards to liven up this post.

Pinterest is a site for cyber pin boards - collections of images. For someone who makes a full time occupation out of collecting images in hard copy it's one of my favourite down-time past-times to go on a hunt for a new pinboard on pinterest, my own or someone else's. My latest has been 'fibrication' - things crocheted or knitted, for example:

the knitted wedding party from Elizabeth Anne Designs

Check out Pinterest for further collections of images from across the world.

News for wimcee is that I will be joining the wonderful collective of hand-madees again at the BrisStyle indie Designers Market, the first day-time market that they have held for 2011, on July 9th. Get all the details from BrisStyle at BrisStyle on Facebook

One of the beautiful resin necklaces from BrisStyler,  Strat Designs, who will be at the July BiDM.

And immediately following the BiDM, Piece Together will be launched on July 11th, a wonderful initiative from some of Brisbane's super sewers and craftees, which will offer sewing and crafting workshops for all levels as well as a gift shop and gallery space, and embracing the lost arts of handiwork combined with an environmentally friendly ethos. Wimcee will be providing workshops in bag-making and embellishment, but there will be a range of opportunities to learn skills and develop interests at piecetogether 

Insurance front suggests that I may be getting my camera back shortly so hopefully back to more reliable blogging soon. Apologies in the interim!

Deck the halls!

...and every spare inch of space at the moment - what a glorious time pre-Christmas-BiDM is! The sewing machine hums, the creative neurones spark, the scissors slice through cloth, colours bounce around the room like those 'visions of sugar plums',  and mama in her kerchief, or actually her jaja's, is unsettled and planning unfinished projects at 4 a.m. the day before market day! Come rain or shine the BrisStyle indie Designers Market will leap into action at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning and run all day, until 4 in the afternoon, in the grounds and hall at St Augustine's Anglican church, Racecourse Road, Hamilton, cheek by jowl with all the coffee shops, icreameries, and restaurants - the perfect market venue!

wimcee will be in a Grand Marquee in the grounds, and offering all the usual aprons with attitude and bespoke clothing, one-off accessories and lovesome softies, plus lots of smaller gift ideas, like hip jewellery rolls, funky peg aprons, diary and lappie cosies, and groovy embroidered glasses cases.

Jewellery roll

parisian patch cushion

lavender pillows

So don your wellies and join our rain dance tomorrow!

And the winner is....

Congratulations to Jill for being the randomly chosen winner of the 'flowers for frida' skirt, and a big thank-you to all those who entered their comments!

I so seldom have a photo of one of my little dresses actually being worn so I am sharing a totally unrelated image here of the lovely Indira in a wimcee original, sold at the recent BiDM.

A period of R&R ahead for the wimcee's, but lots of marketing to come in October/November/December, and a crafter/marketer itching to get back to work by then I'm sure!

Market season up and springing!

The spring market season is off and running with the BiDM on Saturday - one of those strange September days when the wind whips up hot and gusty, not so pleasant, so thanks to all those old and new wimcee customers who came out to visit. Wonderful company, as always, great music, yummy nourishment, and family reunion time for the BrisStylers, the 'B' in BrisStyle indie Designers Market, those 170 of so 'crafty ladies' now immortalised in song for the occasion!

To celebrate, and because I can't do marketing for various reasons for a month or more ahead, [drum roll] the first ever wimcee blog give-away!

I am trying to develop a more obvious 'point of difference' at least to give myself some direction to pursue in 2011, so please comment here and be in the running for a very special upcycled denim skirt 'flowers for frida'. Entries close midnight Thursday 16th September 2010. The winner will be chosen randomly, and announced on this blog, Friday 17th September, so overwhelm me with suggestions!

Happy springing one and all!

The flowers that bloom at the Spring BiDM, tra-la...

...bring promise of market delights ahead as well as we hit the market season proper in Brisbane - not too cold, not yet too hot to be pleasant at midday. wimcee will be in the grounds at St Augustine's Anglican Church, Racecourse Road gate, from 9 am on Saturday, with lots of new stock that I've literally made with great affection...you have to love the fabrics, and they seem to get more and more exciting all the time.  This is a particular current favourite, a little dress for a 6-8 year old, with a matching happy bag - the main fabric is an exquisite print from Japan in a combination of mauve, aqua, orange, and a little mustard on a mid-tone neutral back-ground.

Some paper folding too - out of sewing commission for a week or two the family accused me of playing paper dolls at the kitchen table, and there certainly was a lot of inner child involved in choosing the 'outfits'...

There are also lots of father's day offerings from many of the stall-holders so drop by and say hi!

Weeks of thematic living!

First there was the Week of the Ancients - is there the remotest chance that said Ancients may read a blog post and see themselves identified as such? Elderly family members who fly in for birthday celebrations, elderly family members who fly out to remote parts of south-east Asia, elderly family member who delights in a ritualistic visits to coasts north and south during his Queensland stay, much more sadly my elderly neighbours dealing with hospitalisation and the mind-numbing difficulties of traveling across town on a daily basis when you are 93 and rely on public transport...a week of being chauffeur and tea-maker, making easy small talk and functioning at a more gentle pace.


Then there was the Week of the Wonky Wings - or Weeks, as it's on-going. I had my (right) marketeer's shoulder under the knife and number three son had his (right) wrist pinned by our friendly Ortheopod, who is just down the corridor from our new best friends the physios, and they all live together is a little wooden house, or rather a big rabbit warren of a hospital, where the nurses are lovely but the night nurses are to be feared and avoided at all costs. Life here is one great comparing of slings and stretches, remembering appointments and paying medical bills.


But finally some sewing!


I had to miss Mathida's Market, a last minute no-show for wimcee, but am all the more keen for the coming BiDM, that BrisStyle market-of-markets, taking place on September 4th, 9-2, St Augustine's church hall and grounds, Racecourse Road at Hamilton.


Apart from a full complement of little girl's skirts, I have some new boy's bermuda-style shorts, lots of new hand-made gift cards, new bunting and some forays into hand-painted, stitched, and embellished accessories like some cute lavender heart sachets. 


More to come...watch this space.

chicka chic

After a long but rewarding day taking part in Brisbane's Saviours of the Lost Arts Fair on Tuesday, fingers and toes are crossed for a beautiful winter's day for the BrisStyle indie Designers' Market this Saturday...and wimcee will be there with more even more fiesta-rama goodies, including more fabric-covered journals for catching the moment in prose or image form, and some new fabric brooches to dress up the most neutral woolly cardie or coat.

Fiesta-rama!

Viva the fiesta! Check out the chicka chic! Limbering up for the lambada round...Baby and Kids Market (30/5), BiDM (5/6), Boutique Markets (13/6) and Mathilda's Market (19/6), plus a possible spot on the co-op tables in King George Square all day on Tuesday 1st June as part of the Saviours of the Lost Arts Fair, wimcee should be in over-drive this week but isn't...

The fiesta mood has mellowed the pace and I've been having too much fun with ruffled skirts and little embellished trews to feel too stressed out about anything at the moment. A few cameo peeks just to set the scene and go-go the co-co cabana!

Skirts with plenty of ruffles, frills and braids will warm up the coolest winter's morning teamed with leggings and boots, and are unique combinations of colourful cottons. Little trousers are embellished with frills and trims, this one in a hooty owl print on cord, and there are plenty of hand-knits in pure wool like this riotous rio shrug! Join the congo line...Mama-mio!!