Melly & me

Studio Excitement

It has been 2 years now that I have been designing as a business and have been using my sewing machine most days of the week..... It has been 2 years now that my husband has been saying "I wish we could eat on the dining table!!"  Hmmmm, has it been 2 years that my sewing machine, cutting board, current projects, stuffing, sketches, pins, threads and other sewing paraphernalia has been taking up the whole dining table????!!!  Goodness me, I think is has!!! 

I have finally decided that the flossies do not need a whole room to house their toys, they can easily transfer that mess to their bedrooms while I make a much more pretty mess in my new studio!  Yes, there will be no more mad clean up of my current sewing project before hubby gets home from work, no mad rush to clear the dining table and stuff all of my sewing gear into some unseeable corner when we have guests, no need for a dining room vacuum every day due to threads galore.....ahhhhhhh.....I will have my own lockable, messy studio!  I am sooooo excited.

I know that it will be very untidy in no time but at this stage, before it is a reality, I like to imagine my picture book perfect studio which I can show you photos of to the sounds of "WOW, how do you keep it so clean??" and "How beautiful and inspiring!!"  So while in my fantasy land I have been buying up a few goodies to decorate my new haven!  Here are a few cuties I picked up while at the "Stitches and Craft Show" a few weeks ago.

For a minute I tried to pretend that I was buying these toys for my kiddies, but I knew in myself that they were for me in my new studio!  Aren't they all gorgeous?  The doll comes from AK Traditions and is just the most divine thing I have ever seen!  I am sure that these new friends will bring me lots of inspiration as I look at them each day.  I know I have said it already, but I really am just so excited!  It is the first time ever that I will have a room all to myself, to decorate as I like and to fill with whatever I wish - a true Melly hangout where I can do what I love surrounded by things that I love!  Yay!! 

Now, while I go on about my studio excitement I know you are all saying "yeah, that's great, but what about the giveaway?"  So I suppose I should stop my ramblings and get down to business!  Today we decided to draw 4 winners to each select one of the three new patterns as their prize.  So with the help of our random number generator the lucky winners are....... Kate, Jacquie, Paula (April 1 11:07pm) and Jenny (April 01 05:59pm). CONGRATS!!!! Please email us girls and let us know your choice of pattern and snail mail addresses!

Thank you all for your beautiful comments on the new designs as well as for the emails you have been sending about your great swap experiences - it sounds like there have been some really amazing swap packages being received.  I can't wait to receive mine!  Melly.

shhh it's a secret...

Thanks so much for all of the pants love!!  Baby Floss has been asking to wear them each day so they have been a huge success here!  A number of you asked which pattern I used so I thought I better let you all know.  It was "New Look 6689" which was picked due to the nice big "EASY" typed on the front!!  There is also a cute top and hat included with the pattern and although I had grand plans to get stuck into them over the last two days there have been other deadlines looming.

Over the last two days Rosie and I have been working on some "Top Secret" projects that we are not able to show you in this post........but hey, how about a little sneak peek!!

This mystery project I wish, wish, wish I could share with you.  One of those items you finish and just fall in love with!  But it is to be kept very hush hush as it will be one of the projects in the 2008 Christmas Club being run by Honeysuckle Cottage.  It is such a great program where you get sent one original, never seen before Christmas project in kit form each month of the year. Each project is put together by a different designer and we are lucky enough to be doing 2 of the months; one under "Rosalie Quinlan Designs" by Rosie and this Melly & me project by me.

And this project is so top secret I can not even tell you what it is for!!!  The only thing I can say is that it is for a very exciting undertaking that we will be able to reveal later in the year.  We can't wait to announce it when the time comes!! 

As much as it kills us we will keep our lips sealed for now!!! - Melly

Happy New Year!!

We're back and ready to get stuck into a crafty 2008!  We have had a beautiful break, with some much needed time away at the beach and plenty of that "just because" sewing.

Melly has been working on lots of new flossies that are now for sale in our fabulous re-opened etsy store.  Although our full time occupation is designing patterns, we just really enjoy making flossies for fun and you can only keep so many!  Here are 3 new Magoos....

A few more Dilberts, (well, 2 Dilberts and one Daisy)....

..and four more Mrs Perkins' whose skins you might recognise from a previous post....

All of these guys plus a few of their friends can be found for sale by clicking on this link.

Also while we were laying by the waves the postman brought lots of late mail.  One exciting package held the most gorgeous little owl that we won on a giveaway at LucyKate Crafts.  If you haven't checked out her blog make sure you do, it is a real treat and every thing she makes is completely adorable.  This little fella is going to fit right in with all of his new friends!!

Rosie has also been doing tons of new designing and creating, but we can't show you any of this deliciousness as she is still deciding (with much excitement) if it will all be a part of a "Rosalie Quinlan Designs" book (her first)!!

We really enjoyed our break but we are also really looking forward to what the new year will hold.  We spent a couple of days dreaming and scheming as well as getting plenty of crafty energy from visiting Red Hill Market and some fantastic crafty shops.  It has filled us with an excitement and we look forward to sharing our journey with you this year.

May the floss be with you,

Melly & Rosie. 

Hansel and Gretel

Firstly we need to congratulate Tracy from pinkpurl, Maria Wadensten and Ruth from twohiphippos. You can all expect the new Owl and the Pussycat patterns to be with you soon! Thanks everyone for all the sweet comments. I swear we do these give-aways for a major ego boost! lol!

We had a gorgeous night last night when Melly came to have a girlie sleepover at my house. We were together to create our much anticipated gingerbread houses. Miss flossy 14, has asked me for the last three years to make gingerbread houses for Christmas. Every year I say "yes, that would be great". Alas, we have run out of time every year and not made any. When she asked me this year I had a sobering thought that it may be the last year she asks me. She is my youngest and I know how quickly these Mother daughter activities can be replaced by hectic teenage social calenders!

I was determined that this was the year for the fantastic, magical winter wonderland village of gingerbread houses that I have always dreamed of. Last year I drove Melly mad with my hyperactive rantings of my proposed village complete with trains and churches and cottages and mansions and people and and and............. She was not very enthused by the idea and in a calm voice suggested starting with just one cottage. My enthusiasm could not be dampened and I decided to make a quadruple batch of gingerbread dough. After making five houses worth of gingerbread two days ago, I have had enough!!!! Who would have known they could be sooo much work???????

I like to try my hand at every possible creative pursuit- but this is ridiculous! I'm glad that you cant see the inside of my fridge where I have stealthily hidden the remaining half of my gingerbread dough to continue later- unless it spoils and I will have to throw it out. (this would be a dreadful catastrophe of course!) Anyway, I must say that we had a ball decorating the rotters after we managed to stick them all together. There will be five very spoilt and blessed people in our lives who will be the recipients of these cottages that took me ten times as long and five times the cost of buying them a gift from the stores! But as for mother daughter time, it was priceless. Two sister mothers and their two daughters. What could be nicer?

Till next time - Rosie xxx

Santa came early!!

I'm sure it must be Christmas day today because Santa came early in the form of an Australia Post worker!!  I think he must have thought the contents of the package were pure gold with my level of excitement greeting him at the door.  And he would have been right - we received our swap package from Tiel!!!!!

Just look at the two gorgeous pieces of art she has sent us!!  We are just the luckiest girls in the world - we must have been really good this year! 

And as if that wasn't good enough we also got this great collection of Tsk Tsk cards (Tiel knows how much we love her cards!!)

I think it is time to go frame shopping now!! 

Thanks so much Tiel and we hope your swap package is not too far away!!  - Melly & Rosie   

The countdown continues

Time keeps ticking away......It is amazing just how quickly it can go by.  Just over a week to go and we are getting more and more organised every day.  I have to admit that after that mad flurry of sewing I have had a few days break!  Other than whipping up one bag I have been filling up my time running other errands that need to be taken care of before I can leave the country and my family.  As the nerves settle about the organisation of our trip, the nerves grow about leaving the Flossies and Mr Floss at home.  I have never ventured out for this long without them and being over the other side of the world seems just so far away.  I know they will all be fine and will enjoy the time together (Mr Floss is very excited to be able to play house husband for a while) and with their grandparents who will help out for a few days, but what about me??!!  Will I be fine without them??  I am completely sure that I will (as always) have a complete blast with Rosie and will really enjoy playing the independent woman for two weeks but it just seems so unfamiliar, almost like leaving half of yourself behind.   

Maybe I can employ the services of these gorgeous Messenger Birdies Rosie made this week to send my love back to those at home!!  Aren't they adorable?  - Melly

Our 100th post winner.

Thank you so much everyone for all your beautiful congratulations and lovely comments.  We are so thankful for all of your support and we certainly DID enjoy those cupcakes!!!!

The random generator has told us that on this occasion it is Maddy who is the lucky winner of our draw - CONGRATS Maddy!!!!!  Here is a picture of the lovely package we will be posting out to you!!  We hope that you will love each and every item!

On the crafting side of things we are both exceedingly busy at the moment making samples, samples and more samples for Houston.  We started madly sewing last weekend and hopefully by the end of the week we will be able to show you some of our progress.  The nerves and fears are well and truly at their peak but we are trying to stay positive and focused - we will get there!!!  May the floss be with you (and please also with us!!!!!)

-Melly & Rosie

100th Post Celebration!!!!

100 Posts!!!  Time to celebrate, would you like a cup-cake??  We certainly would so we visited our favourite cupcake bakery, Crabapple Cupcake Bakery. 

I'm sorry we can't really share our cupcakes with you, however, we have put together a beautiful gift package to send to one of you.  Please leave a comment to help us celebrate and you will be in the draw to win this surprise package.  We will draw a lucky persons name on Tuesday 2nd October.  Good luck, the kettle has boiled and we are off to enjoy our celebratory morning tea. - Melly & Rosie.

Winners & the Grand Etsy Sale!!

We are so sorry to keep you waiting that extra hour or so for the draw!! We did say morning, but if any of you are like us, Saturday morning goes from about 10:00 to 3:00!!!  So here is a gorgeous photo from Red Plum linen to make up for the delay - eye candy, or what??

This morning (hmm afternoon) we went into the trusty Random Number Generator and the three lucky winners of our pattern giveaway for today are.........Jessi, Robyn Brown and Jill!!!  We also got very excited this morning to see out neo-counter reach 50,000 visitors so we decided to add another winner (any excuse will do!!!) who is...........Thimbleanna!!  So congrats girls! Please email us with your pattern choice and postal details and we will send your winnings out asap!

There are only five and a half weeks to go until our huge Houston and Netherlands trip!!  The tickets are paid for and the nerves are growing....time keeps ticking by, and that is a bit of a worry as we have not been too good so far at organising ourselves!!  To free up our time a little and to help with the trip we have decided to have a "Grand Etsy Sale"  We want to try and empty as much of our shop as we can in time for our trip so we have decided to hold a 2 week sale which has begun today!!  All of our bags, toys etc have been reduced by between 15% and 40% and we are also offering a surprise small gift to anyone who purchases 2 or more items.  So this is a great opportunity to grab some gifts for Christmas or a birthdays or spoil yourself with a new bag.  We will be closing the shop before our trip and have no idea when it will be restocked so grab a bargain!

Have a great weekend!!!  Melly & Rosie.

How Exciting!

You can just imagine our delight over the last week as we received copies of two fabulous Australian magazines in the mail.  We were so excited to see that both of them contain an article on us and a project from us!!!!  It was just so exciting and we are so thrilled with these great articles.

We had such a blast working with both of these amazing magazines and thank them so much for this great opportunity.

Country Threads contains a project from us to make a gorgeous "Melly & me" bag and Homespun has a pattern for our Flossie, "Fab Fishy!"

They should both hit the stands in the next week some time so make sure you grab a copy!

Now I am going to escort "Dilbert" and "Magoo" (the name I have given my new monkey friend) off to their photo shoot and then get stuck into writing their patterns.  They should appear in pattern form very soon and of course this will be followed by a giveaway celebration. 

May the floss be with you!! - Melly