explainin loooosy

WELCOME to the Forest Flaw.
If you are here to check out my portrait work, please click HERE!
If you would like to see my Pet portraits, please click HERE!
If you would like to see my Forest Flaw babies, see HERE!
If you would like to follow me on facebook, click HERE

You can see by my blog that I have many interests, including sewing, drawing and writing about various crafty art related things.
Custom orders are available, just message me.


Sunday 27 November 2011

*first GIVE AWAY*

Yay,

So excited to see my Little Red Riding Hood in the local paper as number 2 on Bendigo's Local xmas wish list - that I wanted to celebrate
So I am having my first GIVE AWAY!

Help me reach 120 to 'like' my  facebook page and WIN a little Red Riding Hood.

I will post it to you where ever you live too.
Winner will be randomly selected by computer program from ALL my likers when I reach 120!!


Red Riding hood has lost her way!
The wolf has eaten granny and now she is wandering the forest in search of the woodsman - stunned and shocked!
Red riding hood has a beautiful velvet cloak with removable hood. She wears black leather boots and carries a picnic basket .
Made from quality socks, faux velvet, faux leather and cotton and lace, stuffed with Pure New Zealand wool.
She measures 28cm x 17cm wide.
[Remember, these items are all handstitched collectables. Although they are sewn very tightly they are not made for active play. ]


Sunday 20 November 2011

Free to good home

Not many things in life are free. And certainly not the things that are on my xmas list.

But recently I have found that getting the free things can come at a cost - if you can swing them at all. In fact, they can be the HARDEST thing to get at sometimes.

Let me take you on a tour *cue squiggly lines and theruman music*
It all started a couple of weeks ago...

Starting a business requires a few things.
First: a product.
Second: all the other horrible admin crap that takes up every waking moment of your life until you can no longer look at your computer screen without wanting to rip your (or someone else's) eyeballs out.
Third: patience.

Example 1; 
Product: I filled an order for a beautiful shop Milt and Joe in my home town.
Admin: I began the process of registering my business name so I could get an ABN and invoice for goods. This is the admin part that makes you deal with the tax department and state government and requires you learn some ridiculous jargon and acronyms that have no bearing on what you need to do at all. It also jammed up for an entire day and almost made husband never want to talk to me again. Perhaps that was my fault - but I am blaming the government.
Patience: I had to wait two days before someone could get back to me and sort the whole thing out.

So you see the things that should be easy are not. Other free things I would like but find increasingly hard to swing are:
*   An entire day at home without having to sew
*   To eat a packet of salt and vinegar chips, or fish and chips, or any potato cooked in oil product without feeling the need to walk the circumference of the earth afterwards to burn it off
*   Good hair day on a day where it counts
*   Patience
*   Ability to see into the future
*   A magic elf to do all the work for me as I sleep
See, not too much to ask, but incredibly hard to get.

This entire process was compounded by another free conundrum:
Example 2:
Product: Free Golden retriever to good home
Admin: Rang husband. Tried nonchalant behaviour, begging, pleading, pouting, appealing to his squishy side and listing attributes of a dog I had never met, including it's penchant for wanting endless cuddles and it's ability to obey his every command. Answer no. Outcome - never allowed to read livestock section of paper again.
Patience: Bide my time...yes...bide my time...*maniacal hand rubbing*

So free does not necessarily mean easy. Free to me now just means a lot of effort. Free makes my hair stand on end and question what the catch is. Free means "not costing money - but perhaps a crap load of time, patience, begging, crying in frustration and eventually throwing a tantrum".

This is what I have learned. So take heed reader next time you see "free to good home", check what it will cost you first!





Friday 11 November 2011

Clotted cream or Angel's wing?

Love crisp, clean lines? How about sharp fonts and squared off edges? Dettol handwash in your purse?
Then I bet you painted your house in 'eggshell' and agonised over the difference between 'Dove white' and 'Abominable Snowman'?

I am boycotting whites.
More importantly (or to the point), I am boycotting the trend of photographing and displaying all handmade items on a crisp white background with professional lighting. It's everywhere you look, and if you don't conform then you miss out on precious advertising and online space.
I understand the need to have products speak for themselves, and to display them in neutral tones to give the buyer a better understanding of the product. But surely that gives us more of a playing field than white on white with white lighting?!

The whole point of buying, making and enjoying handmade items is the fact that they are NOT massed produced, NOT all the same and do generally do NOT get purchased by people who enjoy homes painted throughout entirely in tones of a snowfield in a blizzard.
The whole handmade movement to me represents quality, quirky, squishy, delicious products that come straight from someone with creative talent's mind. 
This also extends to seeing the product in the way the creator best sees fit to sell it. Sometimes that may be on a rustic log with a big blue sky in the background (extending the idea that it is natural, organic and fresh). Other times it might be sitting on a lush green lawn, interacting with a mushroom (telling me it is fun and warm and hardy). If it is clothing - I want to see it ON!

As long as the images are high quality, because in this day and age it is easy to get hold of a 10 megapixel camera, then why not allow the creativity to extend to the merchandising? I want to buy a feeling, the whole package, allow the maker to show me the world the product belongs in.

But then, I have always loved the darker things in life. Forest moss, toadstool red, studded leather, golden light streaming through a sash window, dappled shadows, autumn leaves...

Perhaps that wouldn't appeal to everyone, but let's just say I prefer rich, dark chocolate to plain milk.

What is your preferred way to see handmade goods advertised?


Friday 4 November 2011

Just the meaning of life...no biggie

I've been reading about quantum physics again.

Couple this with the ABC news post that the planet has reached 7 billion people and it really makes you wonder - what is the point of it all?

Also, what drives people to create? Why the driving need to make more? We are constantly making more people, so in turn we need more clothes, more food, more housing more ... stuff.
When you start to read and watch and think about the big picture (as we do now in the 'global community' we live in) it makes you start to spread out, think about the big problems and it can really weigh you down.

I've been giving this a lot of thought lately and I think I have found a solution.
Yes, I have solved the world's problems.
Well, actually, it's a boring old adage that has just become like so much background noise "think globally, act locally". This always conveyed to me that if I thought really hard about the rain forests when I took my little green bag to the supermarket that it somehow saved a green tree frog somewhere in Brazil.
But no. I think I get it. I think we are TOO global. We have forgotten about our own little nucleus. Our own little havens. It's easy to lose sight of the big picture when you don't see any change. It's a little like losing weight - if you don't see the pounds sloughing off after resisting one chocolate bar then what's the point?

The point is making small changes in your own life can have a wide spreading effect. I'm talking less environmental, more focus on the mental.
Taking stock of what's important to you can lead to some pretty big changes. If you are a creative person, try putting that high on your priorities, you never know where it will lead you. 
If family time is what floats your boat, then more of that. If sitting on green grass sipping iced tea for 3 hours a day makes you feel fulfilled, make it a must do. It's when we feel like our needs are being met that we can have the mental energy to do everything else. In fact, everything else feels like a breeze.

We can't affect everything, but we can change our own little cluster of life. And change begets change, and if you believe in string theory - everything's connected, so nothing happens without consequence (*note- do not reference my string theory quote - loosely transcribed by my brain from a book I do not understand in the least).

So I'm taking my own advice, I'm taking a leap and going to make being creative a priority. I will only be going out to work for a couple days a week and spending more time and energy making the Forest Flaw a really happening concern.
This should make a big impact on my little nucleus - I will be happier, more fulfilled and hopefully more relaxed. That is until Husband comes home tonight and I inform him of my new and improved 'act locally' plan. That's when it could have the potential to become global...