Trip to Ballarat

We (man, dog and me) took a trip to Ballarat for an overnight stay on Monday to get away from it all for a short time. It was my first visit to Ballart and the highlight (for me at least) was exploring the many antique stores on offer. You can see in the photos some of the goodies I came home with.

1st photo from Joyce’s Junkatique (next door to Antiques, Goods and Chattels) It's not an antique store but pretty much what the name suggests, a shop packed full of junk including the many rooms out the back. The bonus is if you are lucky enough to find something worth buying you won’t be pay much for it.


2nd photo from Antiques, Goods and Chattels - 30 Main Road Ballarat East. They had such an amazing collection of vintage treasures including a selection of peoples old sewing tins and boxes with various collections of threads, needles buttons and other bits and pieces inside.


3rd photo from Alexa’s Treasures - 46 Sturt St Ballarat. Amazing is how I would describe the shop, they have a wonderful collection of china as well as a huge shelf packed tightly with doily’s, linens and buttons. I am kicking myself for not buying one of their beautiful vintage tea cups.

The trip was fun despite a few things not going entirely to plan including a bed and breakfast that didn’t want us to let our dog inside, despite advertising themselves as “pet friendly” (we snuck him in when we went to bed anyway because the temperature dropped to about 1 degree overnight) and a brewery where we had planned to spend our evening with drinks and tapas not opening on a Monday night in winter. We turned up to the brewery ready for dinner at 7pm only to find out they were closed.

I can’t wait to go back and do some more exploring.

Sunday Stash #19

This is an interesting piece of fabric I picked up from the op shop yesterday for 20c! It's only about 58cm wide and 33cm high which is not a lot to work with. I think it may have originally been curtain material.

Stocktake and Breakfast Crumble

Yesterday we did a stocktake of the shop. I have to say I really don't look forward to doing it. If you have ever done a stocktake before you will know what I mean. We had over 1,000 items to count which takes quite a few hours and is surprisingly tiring too. The silver lining is that we always go out to breakfast before we do stocktake. It's kind of like an unwritten stocktake rule and is supposed to make the day a little easier to bear.

We went to Mitte for our breakfast and that's where the breakfast crumble comes in to play. Mitte won Best Breakfast of the Year in the The Age Cheap Eats 2009 and it's well deserved. I had their breakfast crumble which involves cinnamon and vanilla poached pears and apples topped with a macadamia crumble and mascarpone. Absolutely awesome and a perfect way to start a day that involves doing something you really don't want to be doing. If you are in Melbourne I recommend checking them out, they have lots of other yummy breakfasts on offer and are located at 76 Michael St, Fitzroy North

Sunday Stash #18

This is my favourite piece of fabric from my stash. It's a beautiful polished cotton from the 1950's. The fabric has a lovely sheen to it and I don't think the photos quite do it justice. I bought the fabric from the Lost and Found Market in Collingwood. I have about 2.5m of it and the big plan is to make it into a 1950's style dress with a fitted bodice and flared skirt.


If you want to play Sunday Stash you can do so here.

Trip to Tessuti

Tessuti has recently opened in Melbourne and I took a trip to the city to have a look. I have always felt a little jealous that Sydney had Tessuti and the rest of Australia didn't. I visited one of their shops in Sydney while on holidays a few years ago and was really impressed with their range of fabrics. No need to feel jealous anymore.

The Melbourne shop is exactly what I expected it to be, full of gorgeous, quality dress fabrics. Note: this is definitely not your local spotlight. Tessuti buy fabric from local and overseas designers so it is packed with drool worthy fabric.

I took home from the trip some beautiful denim that came from Zimmerman and a box of Crown Fox Pearl Pins. If you have never heard of Crown Fox Pearl Pins then listen up. They are THE ultimate box of pins. You get 1000 of them in a box and they have a pearl head so they are easy to work with and you won't lose them in your fabric. They will last you for ages and you can use the box as a storage container. Just don't iron over them or they will melt.

Sunday Stash #19

My stash this week is some fabric I have screen printed myself (just now actually and it is still wet!) I took some lovely brown check fabric that I was going to make some pants out of and then screen printed it in white with my doily print. I am going to make some clutches out of it so I guess that means I am going to miss out on the pants.

Op Shop Finds - Hawthorn.

I thought I would show you some goodies I bought at the Epic Treasure Trove op shop in Hawthorn. It's not in my neck of the woods but Monday is our day out and we usually go exploring other suburbs. I got this lovely little matching tea cup, saucer and plate. I love the combination of yellow and pink flowers. It's in really good condition too. There is a tiny bit of wear on the saucer but it's not really noticeable unless you look very closely.

I also managed to pick up an embroidered doily and a whole heap of vintage hook and eye cards. Some of the hook and eye cards are a little damaged but I did manage to snag one that was in pretty good condition and had all it's hooks and eyes in tact.

I went to 2 other op shops in the area but didn't find anything worthwhile in either of them. It's always a bit hit and miss with op shops. Most of the time I end up leaving with nothing.

New Brooches

I have some new brooches ready to go in my etsy store. For the first time ever I have made some mini ones. They aren't exactly tiny but they are small compared to my standard size brooches. They measure 5 cm in diameter at the widest point. I have made them from from vintage napkins and they feature some fabulous cross stitch embroidery.

The purple and red brooches are my small size ones and measure 7cm. I will be adding the brooches to my etsy store in the coming week.

Lost - can you help me?

Anyone here a Lost fan? I (or should I say we) forgot to record last weeks final episode for the season so I am desperate to find someone who has and who is willing to send me a copy on video. I will of course reimburse all costs and be eternally grateful to whoever can help. Just quietly I am actually a little desperate so you could probably name your price. If you are a fan you will understand. I can't not know what happened and while I could read about it, it's not quite the same.

The episode in question is Season 5, episode 17 - The Incident part 2. For those of you in Australia it aired last week on Wednesday 3rd June at 11pm. The rugby was on that night which threw our normal Wednesday night viewing out of wack and I went to be and forgot all about recording it, which I wouldn't have to do if channel 7 didn't put it on so late.

Sunday Stash # 18

I just couldn't resist this polka dot fabric to use as bag lining. Bought on my last visit to Patchwork on Central Park. I have a thing for red and white bag lining and this fits the bill perfectly.

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Ruby-Jo at Leeloo

I am very excited to say that Ruby-Jo brooches are now being sold at Leeloo!

For those of you who don't know, Leeloo is an online community and store that promotes up and coming Australian designers and artists. The lovely Angela behind the website has put together a range of fantastic handmade items many of which are one offs or exclusive to Leeloo.



The brooches you see in the photos are one off's that you will only find on Leeloo. Because I only have one of each of the vintage buttons used in both brooches you won't find that same combination of button and fabric again.

See the rest of my brooches at Leeloo here.

You can check what else is for sale at Leeloo here.

Sunday Stash #17

This fabric makes me think of wallpaper or curtains in a 70's kitchen. I am using it for brooches and I bought it at Patchwork on Central Park.

If you want to play Sunday Stash you can do so here.

Sunday Stash #16

Lovely green vintage fabric I bought from the Camberwell Markets. It is destined to become brooches and clutches.

If you want to see who else is playing along with Sunday Stash you can do so here and the flickr group is here with lots of fabric eye candy.

Blog Feature

My latest brooch has been featured on Autonomous Artisans. Thank you to Lynne from Pirate Pixie Crew for the article.

Look what arrived in the mail

I finally got round to ordering some Ruby-Jo sew in labels.

I will be using them on some new clutches that have been in the works for a while.

Hopefully I will be able to show you soon. I have people staying for 10 days so I am not sure how much sewing I can get done while they are here.

A Brooch Sale - But Not Exactly

Well, technically it isn't a sale, but allow me to explain.

Ruby Jo brooches are going to be sold by an exciting new retailer. I won't say who just yet. Without going into the number crunching, to bring my brooch prices in line with the retailer I am increasing their price to $33. Currently the brooches are selling for $22AUD in my etsy and made it stores (although no brooches in made it at the moment)

About the sale part. The price rise will be happening on Monday 11th May so this gives you about a week to buy them at the current price which is quite a bit cheaper. Hence the sale analogy. So if you have been thinking of buying any of my brooches now is the time.

Oh and there are a few of the first brooches I ever listed on etsy marked down in the SALE section so there is some sort of real sale going on too.

Meet Someone Clever

The lovely Rachel from Pink Lizzy Sews has interviewed me on her blog as part of her Meet Someone Clever Series. I am the first person she has interviewed for this and I feel extremely flattered. If you want to find out a little more about me then you can read the article here. If you don't then maybe you could have a look at her etsy store instead, she makes adorable children's clothing.

Sunday Stash #15

A little late, but better late than never I guess.

I got this fabric from Patchwork on Central Park. The gold printed parts have a finish like gold leaf. I am going to make it into brooches but I think it would be great made into a shirt.

Vote for Me! Please!

I found my Cross Stitch Rose brooch on etsy's latest Voter page for where you can vote for your favourite Eco Friendly item. The brooch is one of 60 items you can vote for. If you look in the photo above it is bottom row, second from the right. The top choices from the vote will be featured in etsy's Gift Guides so if you want to help my brooch get into the Gift Guides please send a vote my way.

You do have to be a registered etsy user to vote and you can only vote once per user name. The voting ends in 7 days so you have plenty of time to vote if you wish to.

P.S. In case you were wondering etsy have classed the brooch as eco friendly because I made it from a vintage napkin.

Sunday Stash #15

This fabric is from a mint condition vintage pillow slip that I found opp shopping. I have already made some of it into a brooch which I will be listing in my etsy store.