Wondering if anyone is interested in Bookbinding classes? It's looking like Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. From 6pm till 7 or 8 (depending) At KD's scrapbooking shop on Williams street, Bowen. It will be $70 for the three lessons and all materials and use of presses etc is included. Not sure when the first class will be yet, depends on interest :)

Oh wow! How slack have I been? Have no fear, The Pin-Striped Fox is still here and has been very busy. Lots of new stuff available and I'll be posting photos soon, promise!

Turns out that going to the show when your only feeling a little bit sick, is a sure way to end up really sick the next day, and the better part of the week, and means that you could end up missing out on going to see Eclipse at the movies with the girls! But it was a great day, hey had Alpacas there and a group of lovely ladies using spinning wheels to turn Alpaca fleece into yarn. I think I may have found my next hobby :) I've already talked to Dad about helping me to built one and have been trying to find somewhere to but fleece straight from the sheep, goat, alpaca, anything that has wool.

And the really good news? I won both First and Second place for my books! The small dragon book won first, and my green cow took second place! I was very excited! It was a good day for my sister Mary-Anne too, she won 1st and 2nd for her beaded bookmarks, another 1st and 2nd for her cake and cupcakes and even her chickens won prizes!

Bowen Show!

The Show is coming to town! I love the show, the food, the pavillion, the rides (from the ground!), the food, the smells, the people; did I mention the food? Fairy Floss, Waffles, even the Hot Chips with tomato sauce taste better at the show. And it's usually the coldest night of the year, so a great excuse to pull out the winter woolies!


This year, I've entered two of my books, an A5, covered in green cow print fabric, and an A6, covered in black and grey Dragon fabric. Fingers crossed! My sister Mary-Anne has also entered a few of her beautiful beaded bookmarks, keep an eye out, they'll be the one's with the ribbons!

Banner number 1.

I spent most of Thursday night dying calico for a set of two banners for my Market stall. Of course they had to be my favorite colour..... Magenta! I even love the name :) The Dylon dye was so easy to use too. I got it in Mackay on Thursday from Spotlight, who was having a 20% off sale! No boiling water on the stove, just warm water from the tap and a lot of stirring!

Then Friday was spent tracing 'The Pin-Striped Fox onto iron-on adhesive, cutting, then ironing to the fabric, then cutting out again.

Finally, ironing onto the banner, hems ironed and fixed with iron-on adhesive again (I LOVE this stuff).

There's still a lot of work to do, including using some kind of glitter glue to go around the letters and attaching straps of some description to the corners. I have another larger banner already cut-out and dyed which will go at the back wall of our stall and will have the name as well as a large fox logo. Lot of plans in the works at the moment including a large sign to hang from our Gazebo, making our table cloth wind-proof, and learning Wet/Dry and Needle Felting, (very excited about that one!) Stay tuned!

New Display Case for the Markets

After a few weeks of designing, building, painting, tweaking, and a little more painting, my display case is pretty much done! For the first month or so, Mum and I would have to wrestle my old, dinosaur of a case downstairs, into the car and then to our stall every Sunday and get it back home again. I love my old case, but the size and shape just made it a lot awkward.



Taking a chainsaw to the old case seemed a little dramatic, (fun, but a little dramatic) so, Dad and I sat down, sketched a few designs out, and using an old photo frame as a base, we set about building a new one.

I love working in Dad's shed with him, the smell of sawdust, and the feel of smooth timber, and being able to create something from bare timber, nails and paint. So, it's finally done, everything's the colour it should be, the shelves are lined and I have strawberry rhubarb Partylite candles tucked behind the books to make everything smell nice.

A big thanks to Dad for helping me build the case, and another big thanks to Mum for helping me carry it every week :)

At last, my very own blog! It's very exciting to think of my thoughts and going-ons being out there for people to share.

My business is finally about to become reality, instead of just a lovely dream that I’ve had for so long. It seems a lifetime ago that I first spoke to a random stranger on the street about my plans. To that young man from Greenpeace that caught me as I was going to an appointment to find out the details of starting a new business, thank-you for listening. And it seems a hundred lifetimes ago since I first saw a photograph of the restoration of an antique book in National Geographic which first started my passion for book-binding. I will find that article again one day! And if anyone knows the copy that I’m talking about, please let me know. I’ve come a long way from there and my books have evolved along with me. Late nights which often turned into early mornings spent on the edge of my seat, bent over a press, awaiting a book to emerge from between the boards after a new experiment, are now looked back on with fondness. The long process to what my books have become. Every aspect, from the paper to the fabric and everything in between has developed and intertwined to become a refined creation.

Learning from mistakes (do you have any idea how hard it is to put the ribbon in after you’ve finished the book?) and the joy of discovering a better way to do something by trial and error makes being a self-taught book-binder an incredible and amazing journey.

I’m going through the process of getting my web-shop up and running. The plan is that you will be able to go to the site, pick your fabric, and choose from a range of sizes and number of pages. I can choose the colour of the thread, ribbon and title page to match, or if you have a preference, you can choose those too.

The local markets at Hansen Park in Bowen are becoming a familiar upheaval to my household on cold Sunday mornings. My pup Lottie is happy for the early morning company as I run around on the cold tiles, trying to remember where I left my Ugg boots the night before. But my kitten Byron is usually a little put out at losing his human-sized hot water bottle so early in the morning. Watching him do his yoga stretches while making his way down the hall for breakfast is always entertaining.

At the markets every week, it’s lovely to see the familiar faces as well as all the new ones and I’m still amazed by the number of people that are astounded when told “No, I don’t just cover them, I make them.” The incredulous question of “Do people still do that?” always makes me smile.

Another thing I love is to hear the stories. About the daughter loving her new sketch book; or the journal that with be going on the upcoming overseas trip; or the young guy that picks out a book for his girlfriend because the fabric reminds him of the dress she was wearing the first time he saw her. The look on their faces as they recall these memories gives me a fleeting glimpse into a thousand different lives. Then I say “Thank-you, I hope you enjoy it,” and my books go with them further down their path to be a silent observer to their lives.