2007 March | Scraps Of Mind

Archive for March, 2007

Posted by Karen on

March 20, 2007

Words to Live by

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All journeys have secret destinations

of which the traveller is unaware.

Martin Buber

Posted by Karen on

March 18, 2007

The Stitches and Craft Show

I do look forward to the Melbourne Stitches and Craft Show, held at the Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne every March. I don’t know if it’s coincidental that it’s run at the same time as the Australian Grand Prix; maybe it’s a refuge for women escaping petrol-head mania. And I will be up front here and state categorically that I am not into stitching in any way shape or form. I only go for the paper crafting. Or to be more specific the papercrafting workshops.

This year Fiskars brought Heidi Grace out to co-run some workshops featuring their products. Heidi seemed like a lovely fun person. I caught her first workshop of the day and she conducted half of it with her new baby Reagan strapped in a harness to her front. Reagan, incidentally was beautifully behaved and looks like being indoctrinated into the scrapbooking and cardmaking world before teething. The workshop was designed to give us an opportunity to use lots of Fiskars products and we made three cards in 45 minutes. However, I have to say that whilst it was good to try the equipment, the pace of the workshop was very stressful and I would rather have walked away with one really speccy card than three fairly ordinary ones. But we also got a free Fiskars craft apron so I certainly am not complaining.

I then took myself off to the Hot off the Press workshops which are conducted by Sheila Cafferkey from Birch, who import the products. I always like to go to these workshops and for me they are the highlight of the Show. Sheila is an excellent trainer and her workshops don’t feel stressful as you strive to keep up with the pace. Also the items that you make are ones that use interesting techniques and are items that you are happy to use. I stayed for two cardmaking workshops, a scrapbook page workshop and one where we made a cute little notepad (but I’m hanging on to the technique to make quick and easy mini albums. The collage on the right isn’t exactly colour coordinated, but it features all of the four items I made in the workshops as well a little pic of Sheila.

By the time the workshops were over I only had enough time for a half an hour to whip around the stands and pick up some bits for the stash before the day was over.

Words to Live by

Wherever you go,

no matter what the weather,

always bring your own sunshine.

Anthony J d’Angelo

Posted by Karen on

March 14, 2007

Ballarat Antiques Fair 2007

Labour Day weekend in Victoria heralds the Moomba Festival, the Ballarat Begonia Festival and the Annual Ballarat Antiques Fair. Those alert readers who have been following my Collectables series, browsing through my many and varied collections, will know that I’m a bit addicted to ‘old stuff’ (see Confessions of a Collectaholic). So an Antiques Fair makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.

Situated just over an hour’s drive out of Melbourne, the old gold mining town of Ballarat is now a lovely regional city just reeking with history (in Aussie speak that means anything between 200 and 50 years old). And the Ballarat Antiques Fair is one of my favourite fairs as it’s quite a large event and pulls dealers from all over the country. So you get to see a really good selection of stuff. And, of course, that means you can be pretty much guaranteed of finding something you want to buy. In my case there were many somethings. But since I’d just bought a new camera the day before I felt I should restrain myself from going completely wild with the credit card.

One of the things I love about these fairs is the interesting curiosities on display. The first thing to catch my eye when I walked in was a huge Teddy Bear sitting in an old pedal car. I’m a little bit partial to teddies (”what aren’t you partial to?” I can almost hear Seona sigh) And I was very drawn to him, but I resisted temptation and moved on. Then I came across this giant ceramic cockerel. He was just gorgeous (for looking at, not for buying) so I had to take a photo.

The basketball stadium where the event was held was packed with every imaginable vintage and antique collectable and knick-knack. As well as beautiful pieces of furniture, both Australian and European.

And it was a very successful shopping day for me. I picked up a couple of hatpins for my collection: one from the 1930s and one from the 1940s. I also netted a lovely green glass Victorian scent bottle with brass fittings. It hangs by a chain from a finger ring and was worn by ladies when they went to a dance to annoint themselves with perfume when things started to get a little warm. And my final purchase was a set of blue English wheel-cut port glasses from around 1910. I am testing them out as I write this post and I’m happy to tell you they work very well.