Cool yet hot yet dorky yet hip

Today I went to the Stitches and Craft Show. I was expecting it to be staid and boring. I was expecting to see endless quilts and embroideries of puppies and teddy bears. I was expecting to feel way too young and frustrated. In some ways, it was just like that. In other ways, it was GREAT! You just need to be discriminating and walk straight past the stalls you're not interested in without lingering. For me, that was the quilting and the beading, to some extent.

I did spend an indecent amount of money, and picked up some pretty cool stuff. Viz -

One of the first stalls we came across was a stamp craft one. I haven't been into stamping so much before, but recently I've seen some stamps with amazing images in magazines and online. I throught they'd be really hard to get hold of in Australia, as so much is. I was proven wrong though! I got some from that stall and also a couple further on:

Rubber stamps - fashion ladies, trees, Venus face, etc ; grab bag of ribbons, etc.
I also bought some ribbons and a $5 bag of random goodies (I love the grab bag!) from a pretty plain-looking stall a bit further on. It had some good bargains though! I needed some ribbons for a scarf I've had in the back of my cupboard for a few years now that I really should finish. Hopefully this will provide the impetus.

I then nearly had a multiple orgasm at the oriental bead stall, where I purchased these:

beads and pendants
I love all kinds of Chinese and Japanese styled items, and I really had to hold myself back from buying half the stall! In the end I just got a pair of lantern-shaped beads to make into earrings, and some larger ones to make into pendants. I'm just thinking something very simple with a black silk or velvet ribbon. The silver ones are very similar to a pair of earrings I lost last year, so I was very excited to see those! I'm sure I have some findings somewhere....

Then I ran out of money. Well, technically I had more in the bank, but I'd already been to the ATM once, and it was just getting ridiculous. So I spent the rest of the time collecting flyers and business cards. Some of them are pictured below.

Various paper thingys
Also pictured is the one and only book that I bought. It was a bit expensive, but I had to have it! If you've read Knitorama or Crochetorama by Rachel Mathews (I have Crochetorama out from the library at the moment!), it's by the completely insane Japanese chick that models some of her designs. Hey, I like completely insane Japaneseness! Her name is Annie Obaachan. The amigurumi in this are so adorable, and made in many different styles to give you a thorough grounding of the craft. It also has a section on designing your own, which is fantastic! Not all designers are generous enough to do that.
I got some free mags too, about papercraft, working with wooden items and a wedding one (*gag*, but it might have some good ideas).

There was one section of the show which I need to mention. It was like all the hip, young, cool crafters were all collected together in one place. There was a huge, amazing, garden-themed display on one side with retro clothes, knitted vegetables, bird stuffies, etc. It even had real, live bunnies! It was so cute! And on the other side, like a line-up was a counter with about 6 crafters showing their stuff. Some of them had Etsy shops, and I felt like I was in company at last! I spent some time chatting with two women from Audrey & Maude who do retro sewing patterns incorporating embroidery and other embellishments. The fabric they were using was wonderfully kitschy, and they told me it was from a shop in Melbourne called Amitie. The woman who runs it was there, but she was being hogged the whole time I was there, so I just grabbed her business card. I HAVE to go to this shop. Soon.

The best part of that section though, was that I ran into Hollabee there! It was great to see a familiar face from the Etsy seller's meetup. She had even been asked to do some demonstrations by Creative Living (or is it Living Creatively?). It's really wonderful to see people on Etsy doing so well.

I certainly have a lot to go on with now! When I got home, I was torn between doing crochet and doing papercraft, so I went to the gym instead. Heh. While I was working off my excitement there, I was still having ideas! I had one which involved buying cheap-arse frames from Ikea or similar, and decorating them with paint and 3-D embellishments using a hot glue gun, etc. I could use them for framing cross stitch, etc.

Phew! I need a rest!