Monday, February 11, 2019

Vibrant coloured Buttons

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I had some great thrilling fun late yesterday & then more today with this gorgeous vibrant aqua blue, orange & yellow
No stopping me now LOL
I am drunk on new happy colours & they come without any hangovers 




These have been sold but I will do more just love it all


Friday, February 8, 2019

There is a Giveaway Coming on Newsletter

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IS THIS EXCITING !!!!
To have a chance to win this little package of buttons & Stitcheries ??
Join our NEWSLETTER
to hear when this will be happening ( hopefully the newsletter will go out on weekend 
&
 to be eligible for entering the draw

Newsletter link is on the sidebar of this blog 
or on 

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Buttons & apartments

theodoracleave.com
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This is my creation of a Paris apartment button
3 stories, lovely tall round top trees grow beside the building 
Big flower pots of red geraniums at the entry....
This was a new release last week.

~~~~~~
The strawberries buttons have had a great comeback with my supplies I got in & painted in bright & pastel shades all sold so quickly 
&
another batch of strawberries arrive tomorrow !!!!
~~~~~~~
The Instagram giveaway by Down Strawberry Lane which Sedef graciously organised as soon as we had connected re the buttons in her book.
I have now met many new people, … thanks to the sharing.
~~~~~~ 
Zakka House is Sedef's latest  book
with gorgeous doable projects and wonderful sharing of tools & such that I learnt 
Look out for Sedef's fabric line under Riley Blake 
happy colours.
~~~~~~
I am winding up to a Giveaway soon, I will do this in my newsletter this time.... so come on board

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Renewing still

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I am continuing to paint and rescan the buttons on these happy new cards and upload to the website
The Santa's look jolly amongst the riot of colour.




Monday, February 4, 2019

STRAWBERRY BUTTONS

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 Yesterday Down Grapevine Lane Instagram
 began a GIVEAWAY 
of the 
COLOURED STRAWBERRY BUTTONS
linked to my Theodora Designs Instagram
It closes Tuesday at Noon
so time to enter



The new packaging is continuing 
most buttons  look awesome
&
The website updating will continue for a couple more days yet.

Friday, February 1, 2019

The Light Has been Switched on

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Change is an 
exhilarating, 
exciting 
scarey thing....

💛💓

My new cards arrived yesterday 
I love this look 
as it is alive, 
as if someone has switched the lights on !!!
💛💜💙



Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Pastel Buttons

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 Pastel buttons for the softer projects with just a hint of Easter
or
Sewing accessories, using buttons as the cover on a needle holder, or added to an applique, stitchery 

Exciting waits this week for new cards for some button packaging...
As one of my close friends who crafted with me at markets said yesterday, this is so not you but it is as she referred to florals & brightness. Of course that is exactly it !!
***
New book for me is coming from Amazon Au 
Zakka Home by Sedef Imer 
featuring a gorgeous project with the multi colours of the strawberries on the book cover. 
Which leads in to say the 
STRAWBERRY COLOURED BUTTONS 
will be available from next week....
Plenty of stock is due in Friday
***
This leads me to new design first cuts are also travelling today to reach me by Friday I hope...I saw 2 of the cuttings on line yesterday as couple of adjustments were needed...
Gorgeous...One is the Christmas Shop window
inspired by my collection of shops on my pinterest page ….
Another is a barn that for me is a shop but can be what you believe it to be...
I am eagerly waiting to see the 
Paris Apartment buttons with flowers at the front of the 3 story high apartment.
****

So it is all a bit exciting as is the GIVEAWAY Strawberry Buttons 
that Sedef's & I have teamed up on her
DownGrapevineLane Instagram

so lots to watch for
I am personally watching for rain
It is cloudy & HOT & Hopeful

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Pastel Buttons

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In a new category on my website is Florals 
which has several  buttons of flowers in pots & baskets etc 
The Button set is found in the Animal & Bird category for $10 which post is included

Friday, January 25, 2019

Too Tricky today to get this back to a normal blog


This is me working at my design table in the incredible heat & wind out side 
&
I am dreaming of being at the beach. !!!
~~~~~~~~~~~
My brother in inner Melbourne has text to say he is now without power....
We all have this DREAD today that this could be all our lot.
Time we stopped all the rot & got onto keeping this country at 2019 with power all the time ….

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Maybe one should leave things be !

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These 3 designs I have hand painted on calico
A3 size so nice & big & ready to release them from my grip at
$25 each
See them on website under Other Temptations

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

The air was hot

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I may try a new template format for the blog...had a look yesterday but need to be posting pictures in a different way...
So I shall try this & see !!!

Last night at 8.30 after a 42 degree day the power went OFF
& remained in repair until nearly 10 pm which was earlier than the 11.30 anticipated time...
I do think the repair people are wonderful & I appreciate their work....& being there.
But heck it was so HOT & STUFFY inside. 
Not much better being outside & besides snakes in dark ???
Mozzies ever present.

I did have a interesting conversation with a neighbour & learnt that the jade plant flowered ….
I see we creep up to 47 on Friday that is spooky stuff. 

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Hot Days & Button Card sets

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Last evening I added these Button Cards sets to the website
All fresh off the table from yesterday

I am not sure how I have managed to stash so much 
But now I do paint for the cards as I go about my days, as I love the variety in making the cards look like a story.....
Bursting with great value $20 each card that is one only of each. 
Even more special perhaps





Monday, January 21, 2019

Wearables

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In this clean up I found these cards I had purchased for exactly this reason ….
The wearables

 These are wearables too but have not come on the website yet 

This picture is part of the design table...
& I am loving this board for show & tell
also the wire frame will be equally as useful
It is also nice to look up at when working...
Place my inspiration words & scenes there too...even has a hint of being organised ! 

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Maisons in Redwork

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I shall confess I have been here in Befunky.com which is a photo editing and collage site I use

Just making a nice quilt from the 8 designs in the Maisons Postcards sets I spoke about yesterday
Add some perhaps white on white borders or reds that blend with your threads or coloured threads & well more colours for borders.



Saturday, January 19, 2019

Finding More Things

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 In this cane basket more things !!!
I thought I'd post this again because a lot of Button Box cards have been off to all sorts of places...
Making a sampler can be one way to display the buttons.
This one is several small samplers just how you'd buy the button cards...
It is really fun to stitch and embellish ….






This sampler was my interpretation of Paris
Stencilled the fabric with a large stencil I purchased... spraying it with some sort of scrapbooking ink..that takes about 5 minutes on a summer day outside !

Then I sewed buttons added strips of fabric stitched ...generally it is free time.....wonderful play in being creative.


Finding Things !

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Is it a good thing.... hot summer days 
&
finding things
I always knew I had them it was a matter of where...

One thing, I kept moving a bulk of Postcards as I moved the rooms about 
These are redwork stitcheries that I have now repackaged & resized so that 4 stitcheries go on an A4 sheet.
No instructions, just layout & postcards
$4.95 includes posting …

I do LOVE these & I was always going to make the stitcheries into a quilt....has not happened yet.
If they stay around long enough who knows !!






Thursday, January 17, 2019

Serenity for a Hot Summer's Day

I searched my files to find soft scenes for this so hot summer heat wave...
Something to take me away from the excessive 45 degree heat..

Plant more trees ….these places are lovely in summer too, when the trees are full of leaves.

I have been drawn to a couple of articles lately on busyness..gosh how do I spell the word ?

When life is filled to the brim with scheduled activity...

Been there done that but only ever used the diary when I had to in the office.

When I left that world behind 
I deliberately started to etch out a less time driven day... 
No time piece unless I need to make an appointment...
I walk a lot of my time in an unhurried way...
No, I am not so laid back I do not observe my world.....
I watch how we are governed, I see the influences... 
I watch nature.


Late yesterday I was swapping hoses over on the tap to water pots around the back..
Just below the tap I spot a very brown looking bee. 
It is thirsty ?

Drop a weeniest drop of water just nearby & watch the bee struggle up the ledge to drink or cool, so I added another bit & left it …
I hope it has survived the dry heat.

If I was on a schedule I may not have even noticed the bee....
it is that beautiful ability in us all to ….
Stop & TAKE time...moments... but take them.

My work has at times been very busy & then the home time has blurred & as I do it all, sometimes things have been sacrificed.

I do like some list of to do's and tick off that sense of achievement....
But to be booked in for weeks in advance would scare me & I bet, how I wander would scare others.

I was wired this way or developed that sense of freedom very early … so my natural state is this bliss.
I take opportunities often as they present...
not always do they all work out....
&
I seemed to have developed this love of moving into different environments & resettling....unsettled ….critised for this... envied too.
  
In this I have to adapt ….
The kitchen is different, the bedroom is there, the bathroom is here, only one outdoor tap, traffic, silence, the beach, the country side, a city. Where to shop, how to get from a to b
Nothing is perhaps familiar...
Except my work which is a fundamental part of me now....

The designs don't happen on a schedule....painting often does BUT I am turning that around now over time to make better working practices for me...

I am busy in my world but it is a different style of busyness …

One of my artist friends & I, often discuss this way of life... how we begin to shift the way we are living in the world ...we start to make changes...it is hard to explain.
Maybe farmers get this,& gardeners too, they sense changes in seasons, the subtle differences in weather, the way their animals start to behave, the crops  etc...

SERENITY
So what just came into my mind then was to be set a drift in a boat, down a soft moving creek, amongst trees ...drifting & have an oarsman I see...
It is cool there on this summer's day 
Nothing to do with the crafts I work in but then again everything ...

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Flower Garden in Buttons

The Flower Garden


Hollyhocks
Barrows of Flowers
Flower in baskets
Pots of Flowers
Robins in red Blossoms
Blue Bird in Yellow Blossoms

Saturday, January 12, 2019

WEARABLE PINS

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The Wearable Pins are now on the website...
There are these 3  & each time I paint I might be doing different colours ….
adds to the spice of life ?
These below are $15.00 each 


These are all from 
A DAY IN PARIS COLLECTION
Each is 7cm except the Blue head scarf chic who is 5cm & priced at $8.00


Friday, January 11, 2019

Behind the scenes on a summer's day

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It is Summer and January & it finds me painting a large batch of Christmas Decorations and buttons...
They have dried after sealing & piled ready to package....

Happy to say all were completed into cello bags last night, labelled & today off they go to a store in USA

It always does surprise me how I continuously paint Christmas all year round.
One of my passions is Christmas....
Already I have sketches & thinking of Christmas to come.... what to shelve this season, how many designs are going to be there...etc.
it is a challenge as the way & what people buy changes … it's that funny love of seeing what works …
Time to wrap these guys safely into a posting box
See me on Instagram Theodora Designs  or search as I am bordering on hopeless with that but I practise LOL