On the weekend........

On the weekend (between screenprinting for Anorak Designs)

I sewed some cute My Fascist Mother

Cushions & little purses...

I made just two of these Babushka Cushions.



Hoot! Hoot! Made two of these too!

Just one of these!!

I want to keep this one!!!!

This is a one off little purse........

And I made two purses & one pencil case of my favourite fabric!

Want to keep one of these too.

But I won't!!!

If I kept one of everything though I'd not fit in my little house..

I also sewed two dozen LINT felt purses

+ 15 Wayward Girl Printed Bags...

No photos though - you know what they look like by now!!

Tagging for tagging sake

I can certainly think of more pleasant ways to start my day....

These tags are visually displeasing and entirely pointless.

The antisocial morons did the whole street.

Unfortunately some of the retailers on Darby Street have been worn down & no longer paint over this vandalism.

We have always had a policy of painting it out as soon as we see it. Otherwise our building would look abandoned.

Isn't it pathetic that when I first saw this effort I was relieved it was not oil based crayon, paint on our windows or scratched into the glass. We have endured all three of these in the past year.

I know I sound like a fascist but I'd so like to scrawl nonsense all over these vandals' prize possessions to try to teach them EMPATHY.

(A word that I have, ironically, painted over many times.

If you have been to Newcastle you'll know why.)

Here are some of the latest buttons we are putting in stock as part of the "Do something Pretty...." range:

The wooden squirrel buttons are, naturally, our favourites!!

But the Kitty Cats are pretty cute too!
Especially due to cuteness of the kitten Swap Cards that come with them!

And you simply cannot go past the wooden Frogs!!

Ribbit!!

Oh & we also had to get these lovely handmade woollen flowers for our Customers to use for something CRAFTY!!

We hope you like these latest additions!

Happy 30th issue to our favourite Magazine!

Frankie is our very favourite magazine.

We have every issue.

The day we were told we could stock Frankie we did a little

dance around the shop.

We do a similar, but more subtle, dance every two months when our gorgeous courier delivers the big boxes full of the latest issue!!!!

When it was delivered today - Sean danced - but on the inside!!!

Don't forget if you buy your Frankie at Blackbird Corner you get a gift - a FREE plastic ring from the drawers of rings in the

back room!!!

Their website is also delicious - we check it out almost daily.

You should too.

Because I say so.

Giddy Up!!!!

Feeling healthy is so amazing after being unwell for a couple of weeks!!! Isn't it?!!!
Vertigo is so debilitating - so sorry that we were CLOSED on Thursday but my head was topsy turvy & it was the only option.
But the exercises & medication have worked so am feeling great!!!
And HAPPY! Feeling very HAPPY too!!!
We've had a really fantastic (Financial) Year and this is because our Customers rock!!!!
We've changed & grown quite substantially over this last twelve months & hope to continue evolving all the time.
Anyway, sorry I'm raving. I just made some cute cushions & pencil cases so thought I'd share some piccies!
(Doctor says to just take things easy & I'm following her instructions to the letter.)

Giddy Up!! One Off Cushion by My Fascist Mother


Hoot!! One Off Cushion by My Fascist Mother

Giddy Up!! Limited Run Pencil Cases by My Fascist Mother

Somewhere over the rainbow.... Saturday was rainbow day in Newcastle!!! They were everywhere but the other photos we took disappeared from my new Camera! Bum.

Do something pretty................

"Do something Pretty...." packets of buttons are now in our

little store!

The name comes from a Belle & Sebastian song (of course!)

Cute buttons are rare as hens' teeth in Newcastle so we decided to do something about that for our creative & crafty Customers and for ourselves too!

Each package comes with a swap card too just because!

Tomorrow we'll be adding more to the range including swallows & owls & spooky ghosts & bats!

They are already proving popular & they've only been in stock since Saturday!

Hurray!

"We LOVE The LOFT Festival"

Last Saturday we attended the "We LOVE The LOFT Festival

which was held in Civic Park.

It was a celebration of all The Loft Youth Venue stands for & does for the youth of Newcastle. The lovely & very capable Nicole Molyneaux organised it all!

Unfortunately our small minded/short sighted City Council are considering closing the facility down. It is the only non-denominational Youth Venue/Facility in the CBD. They are not exploring options/looking at ways to save it or even perhaps change/improve it - just to shut it down and sell the building.

I was immensely impressed by how smoothly & peacefully the afternoon passed and very proud of the Newcastle Youth that attended.

Here are some photos of the day.

These perfect little girls are Layla & Zelda.

They are my close friend Tori's (TOR DESIGNS) daughters & we all had Cupcakes!!!

Tori had a stall & sold lots of second hand clothes that we both used to wear "back in the day".

Layla is being a pussycat & I took the opportunity to sneak a rare photo of my Sean Prawn! Don't tell him please!!! LOL

The sky over Town Hall looked like it was on fire as we were leaving the park...eerie.

(I took heaps more photos but, thanks to my vertigo,

only a few came out!)

Mixtape Zine has landed!!!

Thanks to the lovely Susy Pow from http://www.zines.bigcartel.com/ we have been introduced to the gorgeous Justine from http://www.mixtapezine.com/ and we are going to stock her lovely Zine starting with the current issue!!!

Susy has also delivered a whole heap of her selfmade zines this weekend so pop in, peruse & purchase!

In fact why not buy one of each zine we sell?!?!?!

That's a lot of spectacular reading!!!

We are really thrilled about this & also ECSTATIC that Susy will be opening a space on King Street very soon that'll be all about

Zines & things papery & typewritery!!

http://www.myspace.com/quietchirps

It's all part of the ReNewcastle Project!

http://www.renewnewcastle.org/

Hurrah!

mmmmmmmmm Noel Fielding

LINT

Because I am, again, suffering from Vertigo, I've not had the most productive of weeks.
I did however manage to make two dozen

LINT purses + a half dozen LINT pencil cases.

These should be in store by Saturday I'm thinking.

Also making some hanging display whatsits for them

as we're running out of room in our little store!

Flat surfaces are at a premium!!!

We need more room as soon we'll be stocking a small range of gorgeous soy candles created exclusively for Blackbird by the lovely LOMO brandishing Shana from Shangita Candles!!!!http://www.shangitacandles.com/

Inside our shop

This is the view from our Counter looking into the front part of our little store..

Here is a blurry shot of our drawers of rings & hairclips with the jars of goodies on the mantlepiece.

I am getting lectures from Sean Prawn about how my photos always turn out blurry!!!

A reason to love living in Newcastle

Ocean views from your car!

Can you smell the salt air?

Not a photographer....obviously.

We got a new camera. It is not impressive or snazzy & is digital.

(I prefer my LOMO 35mm cameras to be honest
but the digital one is handy for blogging/myspace/twitter etc.)
I took some shots of the shop window with it.

Here you are:

A very Blackbird Weekend.......

This is what we did on Saturday.........12 hours of screen printing, heat setting and tagging lovely tees for Sean's label ANORAK DESIGNS. It is immensely satisfying stuff.
(Also sewed string after string of LINT owl flags in between! They turned out very well and some didn't make it past certain Family members into the shop!)

Is this what your bedroom looked like on the weekend too?

And your Loungeroom?

This is our dog. Her name is Sister but she prefers to be called Sissy.