BrisStyle indie Designer {Christmas} Market

Brisbane’s HOTtest destination for  everything Handmade this Christmas Tie on your tinsel and get ready for a Christmas shopping  experience like no other, as the BrisStyle indie Designer Markets  return to the heart of Hamilton for yet another beautifully  eclectic handmade event. Featuring local emerging and established artists, crafters and  designers from Queensland's South East who specialise in  producing quality handmade goods including handbags, sweet  art, jewellery, children's wear and vintage re-creations. Think quality, gorgeous, soulful and original creations that  give lovers of locally handmade wares the chance to  support their local community. Set in the sweet retro hall and gorgeous leafy grounds of  St Augustine's Church on Racecourse Road, Hamilton on  Saturday December 8, this boutique event promises to  provide the perfect environment for all your handmade  Christmas shopping needs. The Christmas BrisStyle indie Designers Market gives  you the chance to see first-hand why these Markets are  renowned for being Brisbane’s HOTtest destination for handmade. WHEN Saturday December 8, 2012 VENUE St Augustine's Church Hall/grounds,  Racecourse Rd, Hamilton TIME 9am- 4pm. COST FREE MORE INFO  http://www.brisstyle.com.au/indie-designers-market/

Merry Craftmas and a happy new year.

Merry Craftmas to one and all! Thanks so very, very much to all of my lovely facebook-'likers', market-, and online-shoppers. Your ongoing support means so much to me. Thanks also to the BrisStyle-ers who have made this such a fun and rewarding year. Here's to a fantastic 2012! 

(PS I picked these stars up at Finders/Keepers - they're made by the clever Kylie Johnson from Paper Boat Press). Cute, huh?

Back to the real world

Hello all,

I was quite organised before I went back to work and drafted a couple of posts as I knew I'd be busy in the new year. Little did I know what lay around the corner for my home town of Brisbane. I've still posted my original blog, which is a bit of a year in review (in pictures), but my prologue is about 'The Big Wet'.

For those of you who haven't heard, Brisbane is experiencing its worst flooding in 36 years. Actually, it's not only Brisbane, but a third of our rather large state. For example, parts of the flood waters around Emerald have been over 15km wide! Rockhampton, Gympie, Dalby (for the third time!), and not to forget the tragedy of Toowoomba's 'inland tsunami'  and poor, ravaged Ipswich .. well, basically all of Central and Southern Queensland have all been affected.

The comment that strikes fear into the heart of anyone who lived through the 1974 floods, or those who grew up in Brisbane, aware of 'where the water came up to last time' and water depth indicators beside suburban (seemingly distant-from-water) roads, is 'this is going to be worse than the '74 floods'.

(source)

This, amazingly, is the first photo I found when I googled the floods. It's where I was this morning. Westerham St, Taringa. This was 1974 (source)

This was this morning.

Heart-breaking.

And there's more to come. Water has had to be released from the Wivenhoe Dam, built after the 1974 floods to prevent this ever happening again. Some scoff about its effectiveness, but from all reports the flood would have been earlier and more devistating without its presence. We've got a high tide at about 4am tomorrow and waters will continue to rise.

Here's an aerial shot of Brisbane, 1974 from here

I feel for families who have been evacuated, or worse, have lost loved ones. My house is unaffected, but I live relatively close to the river and have had many roads around me cut off. Even if I wanted to help, I'm at a loss to know what to do. One thing I've done and you can do too is donate to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal.

Another thing that I, as well as many of my BrisStyle friends, will be doing is a Handmade Ark Appeal to contribute to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal. I will post more details as soon as they come to hand.

Exhale.

Ok, so this now is my regular post that I'd planned. My inital comments seem a little glib after all that's gone on, but I hope the pictures can serve as a short escape from what might be going on around you at the moment.

shelleyberelli xxx

I've had a lovely, long and relaxing holiday. It started just before Christmas and finished abruptly when my alarm went off on Monday morning, rudely reintroducing me to the rat race. 

I savour the break to take stock of the year that's been and make plans for the coming one. As well as catching up with friends and family, I potter around, gardening, going for walks, cleaning, reading, shopping and eating - in no particular order. One of my jobs (nowhere near a chore) is sorting all of my digital photo files and deciding what's going to be printed. I usually end up with a few hundred for the year - it's a meditative process that allows me to reflect on all we've gotten up to over the past 365 days. Here are some of my favourites from 2010.

Australia Day Bushwalk - Mt Cordeaux

BrisStyle catch up, Bleeding Heart Gallery

Hiking in Arthur's Pass, New Zealand

 shelleyberelli at the BrisStyle indie Twilight Markets - King George Square

My birthday hot air balloon ride

A new purchase!

my garden visitor #1

 my garden visitor #2 - we were both happy to see the back of #1

Dinner and drinks for absent (and soon to be absent) friends

Work ball 

Good friend's high tea birthday at Mt Tamborine

Pirate shelleyberelli!

Thrift shop finds

A serendipitous visit to Tessuti fabrics, Flinders Lane, Melbourne

New shelleyberelli cards from moo

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from O'Reilly's 

Merry Christmas from the UK (my gorgeous niece visiting relatives)

Sewing for others

I think all of my family have at least one shelleyberelli bag. I love giving handmade presents, but I am aware the novelty sometimes wears a bit thin, especially when my brother would prefer an i-tunes gift card! 

The arrival of a new niece just over a year ago has opened up a world of sewing. These are usually one-offs as I don't want to cut anyone's lunch, market wise, but I'm having fun planning outfits and toys to sew for her. Here are the cushions I made for her this Christmas. 

If *you'd* still like to give a handmade shelleyberelli gift this Christmas, you might be interested in some new stock I've just loaded to my shelleyberelli:made-it and shelleyberelli:etsy stores?

Holdall Handbag

Swing Tote

Zippered purse 

Laptop/ipad/Kindle Sleeve

Drawstring bag

Zippered purse