Foxy Brown

I had coffee this morning at a funky new(ish) cafe in downtown Northcote called Foxy Brown.
Made me think of my Foxy Browny Fox brooches.

If you're feeling foxy these Betty Jo brooches are for sale at Georgie Love, Moose and Etsy.
And check out these crafty foxes drawn for us by Evie from Handmade Romance..... because she is feeling foxy too.I'm feeling more cuckoo than foxy right now, so I found me some lovely Crafty Cuckoo Clocks for
Show and Tell over at Find, Make, Do. Go and check them out!

Autumny Plate and Buttons

Joining in with Wordless Wednesday here .
(It's bloomin hard to say not to say anything....I'll just button my lip then shall I ?!?)

"Time Will Tell"

A select range of Betty Jo "Time will Tell" Lino clocks are now available to buy on Big Cartel.
They are made to order and will be totally unique , one of a kind clocks.
They make the perfect gift. Weddings, christenings, housewarmings, or Mother's Day (which is only two weeks away). Your walls will say thankyou!

UPDATE: there is a fantastic Giveaway over at Find,Make Do. Lovely Autumn Chill accessories from BodyParts and Textile Allsorts! Go and enter!

Sunday Goodies

In between operating Mum's Taxi service, this Sunday I'm madly writing a proposal or a "Business Feasibility Study"as it is called .
It feels like I'm writing a thesis. I hope this doesn't work to my detriment and it won't come across as wordy gobbledy gook. As you may be able to tell, I don't often write submissions. Please wish me and my "thesis" luck .

New clocks are on the way. Here is a Cuckoo Clock soon to be available at Craft Victoria.

Little Red Riding Hood now has a brunette sister. And a new grey wolfie friend.

And at last a Flea Market Find for Sophie's regular Sunday show and tell.

It's a vintage Juniour Handicraft Outfit. Pretty much unused except for wee bit of embroidery.

Looking forward to stringing up that loom for a spot of weaving!

Whats your Bag?

A girl can't go past a crafty handbag or six!

credits:

1.Thrifted vintage crafty purse, 2.Aunt Mabel's handbag, 3.Mama got a Brand New (old)Bag!,
4.Bag Love, 5.Embroidered blocks handbag, 6.Aunty Mabel's Handbags

Girls in the Hood

Little Red Riding Hood and some Betty Jo friends have gone to live at the sweetest little shop in Carlton-
"Little Poppy Tree".Full of gorgeous kids wearables, gifts and vintage delights.
And how's this for a coincidence. Grace from Little Black Crow just finished making the most amazing Red Riding Hood doll , complete with her Wolfie friend. She is pictured on the blog, Little Arty Crafty Crow and available on Etsy.
Creative minds (even with a whole sea dividing them) often think alike!

The Big Bad Wolf

Well, not exactly big, and not exactly bad looking either.

This wolf cub has been named Wolfgang, and he will soon have some brothers and sisters.
I couldn't depart from the cute design and make him more growly and fangy. It just didn't happen.
So I guess he won't be eating up my Miss Red Riding Hood brooch any time soon.
I found my old book of Little Red Riding Hood and noted that it had the unforgiving finale.

The summary at the beginning of this copy states " Not only is grandmother eaten up in this Perrault version, but so is little Red Riding Hood".I guess it's to give the reader due warning if they have a sensitive child.
It's gruesome, but way more believable I reckon!

It's the Wooluf

Little Red Riding hood themed goodies have been catching my eye lately.Here are some I've recently acquired.A cute zippered pouch from Posie Patchwork and lovely stickers from The Hive.An amazing red cape that the lovely Nikki from "The Encouragement Award"swapped with me for a Cuckoo Clock .

Here are some other favorites from talented designers whose work I love.
Made With love by Hannah's Fairy Tale Forest skirts and Made by White's Red Riding 2 part brooch.
Ironically both these original designs have been ripped off lately by larger chain stores. I won't go on about how shitty this blatant copying is , as I'm sure you all agree. You can check out both the stories here and here.
There are definitely Big Bad Wolves out there in this world, and we, the Red Riding hoods of the indie Craft scene, must beware!
I'm not going to let these incidents put me off. Look out for some woolfie Betty Jo brooches next post!

A Quarter past Owl.

Just recently a little bird told me (or should I say owl) , that after a period of not being cool and hip, Owl's have returned. Apparently they are back in. But after seeing owls on everything from kids knickers to cheap and cheerful accessories in the two dollars shops, I suspect they reached saturation point a while ago and will never be as popular.

Even so, I would very much like to acquire these Owl and the Pussy cat Biscuits.I love the limited edition lunch tin, but I can only find the box available here. Discovered here.
I am still making a lot of Owl Clocks, and hopefully they will never be passe.
I noticed top centre owlie (who is available at Craft Victoria) has made a cameo appearance here.
A lot of these guys eyes feature some doily adornment. Doilies are one of my weaknesses, and I have suitcases bulging with thrifted doilies to chop up.
I found some beautiful doily creations today, and you can check them out over at Find,Make, Do.
Nana's handiwork never looked so fancy!

Seven Things....

Angela from Three Buttons has passed on an award and asked me to list seven things about Liz aka Betty Jo aka moi!.Sorry I can't match Angela's exciting list of things...... So I'll just go for random!
1.My collecting stuff gene skipped a generation. I inherited this trait from my Nana. I now promise myself I will pull back when a new item tempts me to bring it home to join like items I already own. It didn't work yesterday with this cute Dutch clog on the left.2. I have so many mismatched plates in the cupboard that the family is expecting the shelves to collapse any day in a eruption of smashed crockery. This week I have promised to weed the plate collection down .....a little.3. I wish I had studied archeology.I applied to work as a volunteer on a dig in the Rocks once, but I don't think salvaging old shards of broken china in Hyde Park for mosaics was qualification enough.
4.I think I have mentioned this before, but I love being in water. It is the best calming, destressing environment for me. I had my babies in water and I would lounge around in spas and hot sea baths every day if I had the time. After I'd swum some laps of course!

5. When backpacking around Europe in my 20's one of the highlights was staying in a boatel moored in a canal in Amsterdam. I loved being on this stationary small boat, but big ships give me the willies. Even though I like being in water, it has to be pleasantly calm, not a churning swell. Thus, I will not be takin' a cruise on the Love Boat anytime soon. I blame "The Poseidon Adventure" and one too many rough passages on the Spirit of Tasmania.
6.Another one of my backpacking highlights (and believe me I had at least one highlight a day!) was seeing the Windmills in rural Holland. My first reaction was to giggle. (I had earlier had a delicious slice of cake in a very friendly cafe in Amsterdam!?!)

7.This Windmill was meant to be finished for Finkis March Design Challenge, but I've been in La,la land lately due to unforeseen hiccups, so here it is 2 weeks late!

Now I will pass this award on to everybody that comes by to read Lino Forest.
And especially to those who have found my newish blog Find, Make, Do.If you pop over there now you will find out about a brilliant artist who creates breathtaking collages from my favorite recycled material!

EnCounter

Goodies bound for Counter at Craft Victoria.Oh yeh, it's Mothers Day in less than 4 weeks.........just saying.
While your there looking for the perfect gift, check out the lovely enCounter window exhibition by Mainichi.
Finally, a creative repurposing of the fish soy sauce containers that irk me so much.On display till the 2nd May.

To clarify, I love soy sauce, but now when I have Nori rolls for lunch, I refuse the fish soy sauces. When I was beach combing at Elwood for my Beach Litter Collections, I must have seen over 50 washed up on the sand. As ubiquitous as the red coke bottle lid!

Lucky Save!

Tracey from thrift.nest.sew. has written a sad, but uplifting story on her blog about her lucky encounter with her great Nana's old derelict house and how she was able to save some of the precious items before they will be all lost under a pile of rubble when the bulldozer razes it.
Here are some photos of the pretty lino floors...... I hope some kind soul will see it's potential and salvage it.
I can only imagine how much vintage linoleum ends up at the tip these days.
Thanks to Tracey for sharing this story and these images.

P.S. The Little Golden Book Journal giveaway on Find, Make,Do is ending on Monday night.
Enter now if you want to be in the running!

Yo,Yard Sale!

Today six families in our street had a "collective" Yard Sale. It was such a festive affair we are doing it again in two weeks (and I will be far more organised,but not so much as to actually iron the frocks).There's a cool feature on Coloured Pencil creations at Find, Make ,Do.
I love my box set of set of Derwents, but could easily sacrifice a few in the name of pencil craft!!!

My Comfort Zone

As I was sitting stitching my Re*Sew*Cool donkey at the Northern Craft Bonanza last night, feeling a bit clumsy and amateurish compared to the nifty sewers surrounding me, Tinnie Girl commented "you're out of your comfort zone Liz". Kind of right. But it wasn't always true.
I used to love sewing and textile art, but as my creativity developed, they took a back seat and jewellery making pushed forward.
I feel comfortable working in this medium, and I guess when you're comfortable , you are confident in your ability and are willing to be more inventive and adventurous.
A few days ago I had one of those inventive moments when "BING" the light bulb clicked on.
It always seems to happen in the early hours of the morning and, once that switch is on, nothing can turn it off.
This plan for a Betty Jo event is only in it's childhood stage at the moment ( there's a hint right there), but it will involve time, a Curious Little Oyster, teapots and cake and references to the nonsensical tea parties from "Alice in Wonderland" and the "Folk of the Faraway Tree".With a big nod to the stunning paintings by Charles Blackman in this book my Mum has lent me.Now this will be a fun way to step out of my comfort zone!
Have you stepped out of your comfort zone lately?

Mug Shots!

It's time for our annual hard rubbish collection. I spent yesterday morning with Mr BJ lugging all our unwanted stuff onto the nature strip (mainly my curbside finds that didn't quite live up to expectations!)
The neighbours chuck on a few items as well, and just as it got dark I noticed a box added to the pile, full of unwanted kitchen items.

Amongst other bits of old crockery were four coloured mugs.

These are a particularly good score as I have the original yellow mug from my Mum's set . I drank many milo's as a girl from these mugs.
Along time ago I blogged about it. One lonely yellow mug with out any mates!

Now the set is complete.Well maybe not completely. I think it was a set of six.
But close enough I reckon! And to think if I hadn't checked the box it would have all been munched up in the rubbish truck this morning.The mugs used to live in my neighbour's cool retro kitchen (note the original lino).
Her house is up for auction in a few weeks.My cat Pedro and I will miss Robyn.(Pedro spends alot of time hanging out in Robyn's kitchen with her cat Tiger).
There's obviously more than one vintage lino fancier in our family!
*There's a new feature on Find, Make Do today. Lovely kids goodies from Melbourne label "Twiglet". And don't forget the Little Golden Book Journal GIVEAWAY!