silky oak

My sister S used to climb the silky oak tree at the back of our garden- I was in awe. Looking up through the branches and leaves you could hardly see her up above I was sure she was reaching clouds.
I could climb the first few branches but then it got scratchy and I couldn't quite reach and I was scared of falling. But S didn't seem scared at all and just kept going up higher until the branches got too thin and started swaying. She tied a sock to the furthest point, the sock was there for years, it was a statement of achievement, it could still be there, I hope it is.

The rows of looped flowers on the silky oak tree were a beautiful golden orange colour, sticky and buzzing with bees. The silky oak tree came to symbolise magic, sister, achievement and aspiration.

Carly and I have chosen silky oak as one of our new colours for Umbrella Prints it is probably my favourite of our colours. It looks great against dark tones of wood, with creams and blues.
Also we discovered a beautiful silky oak tree in the park across from Nest Studio which is nice to sit under.

Sunshine gb March X Umbrella Prints

These beautiful vases and beakers are made by Sunshine gb March in collaboration with Umbrella Prints. The lines and images of our patterns (Crosshatch and Bird in Paradise) are beautifully re-interpreted by Sunshine and hand thrown by her in a solid white ceramic.

As well as looking amazing, each vessel has a good 'weight' and sounds right when you ding it (no hollow powdery sounds ). The textures of the lines are slightly gritty which contrasts with the smooth areas which makes them lovely to touch. I love them!

Sunshine's work has just arrived at Nest Studio (147 Magill Rd, Stepney, South Australia) and is now available.

Photographed here by Ryan Pike

by Anna

mini cushion

pincushion

pot holder

Devine homewares made by artist and illustrator Anna Lloyd using Umbrella Print's trimmings. Carly and I really like Anna's choice and mix of colours and the quality of her craftmanship. x

tim'rous beastie

Owls, elks, birds, foxes and more recently rabbits are cute an all- but well I just can't bond to an owl; their heads swivel all the way round and they don't blink enough (no offense to any owl lovers).

I like mouses I mean mice. They are small, quivery and mousey brown. I like mousey brown; mousey brown is an under-rated colour and rarer than red-heads for adults. You can't find mouse inspired items without searching really hard; going Mickey or going crystal at Bvlgari.

This mouse, in the picture above, is going to fly from Chicago to my wee-bitty housie for G. I don't need this mouse at all but I like it and I think G will like it too. I had one a lot like this when i was 4, except it was a brooch and had green emerald eyes.

These are my random late night insomniatic thoughts and Etsy purchases!

more trimmings comp participants :-)

giraffe by Louana of nzgreenbuttons

little book by Tammy of girlswearbluetoo

rattle by Cath from chunkychooky

Cute and creative! x

Oh Joy!

Umbrella Prints on Oh Joy! yesterday :-)
unsolicited love thankyou!

butterfly at work

Sometimes I just have to laugh at the madness that is juggling children and building a business. There are some days that evaporate into thin air and I think, why did I even bother? we should have just packed up the kids and gone sit under a tree at the Botanic Gardens in the sun.

For all the challenges it is worth it. I just don't suit being at home all the time I find it too isolating and for G too there could be worse places to hang out in than a beautiful busy art studio. Plus I don't think a bit of occasional boredom hurts children- just makes them get resourceful! This is what G made whilst I was distracted printing.

beautiful birdsinchandeliers

These beautiful pin cushions and cushions are made by Anastasia of birdsinchandeliers
with a number of different beautiful fabrics and Umbrella Print's trimmings. Anastasia's heart-melty eye for colour and texture just brightens my day and I like her blog too.

baggage

AVH who are you

I keep going back to the entries we (Umbrella Prints) received for our Trimmings challenge. Though we had a very deserved winner in the amazing Lisa Stubbs it was somewhat excruciating choosing just one winner. Carly and I received lots of beautiful entries via email and also posted on Flickr thankyou thankyou we loved pouring over everyone of them. I'd like to share some of the entries over the next little while...




all above work by AVH who combined our colours so beautifully

two chairs and a Lady

Here are the photos I discovered in the paper on the weekend- two of our chairs; one covered in storm boy blue Grand Hearts and the other in seaglass FanFlowers AND one of my large screenprinted ladies (this one is a two colour double print Lady in red and light brown)!
You never know when these things pop up and I don't usually get the Sunday Mail so lucky I saw it at all really. One for the scrap book for sure :-)

similar interests

He likes investigating green lacewing eggs.

I like investigating green ancient beads.

sloth!

Not one of these amazing creatures, but behaviourly. I've given the 7 cardinal sins a good go today. After S bought a jack-hammer and G cried because her ears were hurting so much (wrath) I decided to go to my sister's house for the day.

We had breakfast at The Deli in Thebarton in the sun on the lounges out the back; eggs on toast, coffee and more coffee that combined with the croissants I had for lunch =gluttony. Had a read of their paper....hey there's me!!! (sorry it is a genuine buzz for me to see Umbrella Print's in the papers)- pride.


The rest of the day was literally spent on my sister S's enormous couch watching episode upon episode of Fox fashion reality Tv, reading Time Out magazines, having a foot spa, eating croissants and thinking not much with my other beautiful sister H over from Melbourne....sloth

I had such a good time.

Which leaves lust and envy and a few hours still left in the day!

Umbrella Prints Trimmings Winner!

Humming by Lisa Stubbs

After an afternoon at the beach Carly and I sat for a long look at all the beautiful entries (on Flickr and via our email) for our Trimmings challenge. We just love everyone's ideas and the effort put in was amazing- Thankyou so much to everyone! I will be posting up some of the other gorgeous entries over the next week for everyone to enjoy x

But there can only be one winner....Which is Lisa Stubbs
Lisa's amazing embroidered works are really beautiful. We liked that she used every tiny scrap of our fabric but stamped it with her own style which is unique.

Lisa wins a bundle of items from Umbrella Prints worth over $200 including fabric, a pendant, some kits and some extra treats. Well done! and thankyou to everyone who entered we really enjoyed seeing your work xxxxxxxxx

Happy GrandPa Day

G's Caterpillar drawing

Sue O'Loughlin 1939-2009

Dear Sue thankyou for being my oldest friend's very special Mum. Thankyou for opening the front door for me; thankyou for always being excited to see me; thankyou for teaching me about being an artist (starving of course); thankyou for showing me your children's book illustrations, drawings, books and studio; thankyou for being a friend to my Mum; thankyou for sharing your wonderful vocabulary, descriptive stories, colours, laughter and humour with me over the years as a friend of your daughter and as a friend. Thankyou for being real and really fun and funny. All our love to the O'Loughlin family.

16 shelves

When I was about 12 I had a shelf in my bedroom which I 'had' to keep immaculately clean and the ornaments on it perfectly displayed. This shelf became an obsession for me and an addiction to Mr Sheen became the result! One of my sisters would laugh at me and shift things ever so slightly to delight in my reaction (a massive pre-teen tanty!). Anyway I got over my obsession with that shelf but I never got over my love for moving things around in other people's shops!

These are the beautiful things I moved around yesterday I guess you could call it 'styling' and me a 'stylist' but its just moving things around really aint it? I love how once you get started it looks like crap with items all over the shop literally and the colour drains from Carly's face and I'm feeling like what have I done? And then it all starts forming and looking better and you are finding lovely new relationships between shapes and colours and then finally the last few pieces seem to click into place and ping everything sweet.

That was yesterday at Nest Studio..... Today was organizing the office; a not so fun job but we couldn't leave it any longer and now there are proper spots for our trimmings and remnants and kits and paper and pencils etc. Next.....Flip Boy as promised- thankyou to everyone holding out patiently on our waiting list. Phew zzz have a good weekend