The Design Files Open House 2013 and the time I got to meet a Super star and NOT embarrass myself

Unless you have been living under a rock or maybe you have decided to shun the interwizzle (and in that case I'm not entirely sure how you would be reading this) you would know (and have marked it in red in your little diary) that The Design Files Open House is on and running at this very moment! Lucy's amazing creation comes to life for 4 days only and then again for the very first time in Sydney early next month. Open House is such an awe inspiring feat of strength. To have the vision and then the muscle to pull off such a successful event is beyond me. But she does it and people go crazy for it!

I was lucky enough to go to the opening on Wednesday night and drag my sister along. It was so much fun. Ridiculous amounts of fun. Imagine having the most beautifully styled house full of all these exquisite made objects, flowing champagne and the most impressive cheese plate you have ever seen in your life. AND the Dulux dog! THE DULUX DOG!! (Her real name is violet and she is gorgeous, but man she had these really human eyes that did creep me out a little...) And then this party is filled with all the makers just hanging out. I finall got to meet Beci Orpin in the flesh, Iwas pretty chuffed about that. She is all types of rad let me tell you.

And the domes were EVERYWHERE!! Just about in every room and a massive spread on the dining room table, I couldn't believe my luck! I even got a cute little write up in their print out newspaper. I am super stoked with the colour scheme, they seem to complement the house so well. Lisa (Lucy's right hand lady) has done such an excellent job of promo for them. I kind of feel like she is my own personal hype lady. I wonder if I could get her for all aspects of my life??

People have been going nuts for them!! I can't believe it! I woke up to a message this morning from Lisa, something along the lines of "Omg, only four left, having to break into the Sydney stash!!" Amazing. Makes me so ridiculously happy that people are enjoying the work so much, makes my heart kind of go all full and stuff. (Also makes me glad that Syders will have Yumemiru to fall back on if the domes are needed in Melbs...)  I just wanted to say a big, heartfelt thank you to anyone who may have purchased one at the open house, it really does mean a whole bunch to me for your support in my work and what I do. You guys are THE best. There was one in the bedroom next to the bed and weenie and I were joking with each other what you would keep in there, I said teeth....and that maybe we should give one to our Nan.. she is also the best.

Selling large quantities like this gives me hope that maybe, just maybe next year I won't have to be in retail next year for christmas? I feel like each year my soul breaks just a little more. Retail is fucking nuts at christmas time. People turn into these crazed shopping machines who are so rude and just want to make you cry. Makes me kind of, not hate christmas but not get to enjoy it as much as I would like. At the end I'm so over it I just want to curl into a ball and rock back and forth while simutaneously cramming gingerbread and cherries into my mouth while crying. Merry Christmas to me. I got just a little taste of it last night at a Vip shopping night. The only thing that makes it bearable is the awesome team of women I get to work with. We just had a new favourite of mine come on board and it just makes everything fit. She is outstanding and her enthusiasm for happiness is catching. I think we are going to be great mates. 

But mine and Andy's studio is coming along nicely and that teamed with awesome sales gives me that glimmer of hope that this could be my last xmas in retail? God, lets all take a minute to drink that in. What a treat! Who knows, crazier things have happened I guess. At the moment Andy and I usually meet up on a Wednesday and spend the day together at the studio. It is by far my favourite day of the week and my little heart just sings getting to be in that studio. I feel like we are really creating a beautiful making space that I am so excited about. This week we made a cute little shelving unit.

Started construction on the peg board of my dreams.

And Andy let my buy this peach.

Which I LOVE. Andy is so great, he indulges all my little nutty whims ("Should I buy this fake aquarium greenery?" "Of course you should Amanda its brilliant.") and I have such a great time hanging out with him in our little space together.

So to finish it has been a productive couple of days. And here is my proudest acievement, getting to meet Clare Bowditch.....SQUEAL!!!

Oh you know, here we are, just us gals. Me, Lucy, Lucy's mum and CLARE BOWDITCH!! God she is gorgeous and about the nicest most awesome chick you are ever going to meet.

Le Sigh.

Oh and I also wanted to mention I have put a couple of super nice new Yumemiru in my etsy shop if anyone is interested. New colourways of violet, gold, pink and grey. So nice! Maybe a xmas gift for your sweetheart so you can avoid the shops and me turning into a snivelling post xmas mess??

Interviews!

Halo! I have so much to tell you I don't even know where to begin!! Lets just begin with the most recent and work our way back, sounds about right.
My biggest and most exciting news is that The Design Files (THE Design Files) did an interview on me!! A whole big Friday spread on little ole me. (Trust me, I can't believe it either...) I am just pleased as punch. Lucy wrote such nice things about me and it received such lovely comments from her readers that it made me turn another shade. Feeling so grateful (and am I allowed to say this?), so PROUD. I work like a little demon most times (as my patient husband will attest) and sometimes I have doubts and wonder if I am on the right track at all. But then an amazing opportunity like this comes along and I just feel like I am totally walking the path, if that makes sense. Anyways, you can make that decision for yourselves and check out the interview here if you like. I'm hoping it leads to BIG things....

Another interview that was recently run on me was one by the fantastic Brad from JamFactory. He took some sweet shots of me and my team in the shop. The link for that one is here. Its really nice to have such a spread to promote all the work I been busy making lately. A couple of weeks ago I trekked to Adelaide to make all my Design Files work for the upcoming open house. If you are in Sydney or Melbs you should really check that out its going to be MASSIVE. 

So in four sessions we roughly made 85 units. I think that is pretty amazing. The majority of what we made was the new display domes for the Open House. Was quite a bold (potentially stupid) move on my behalf to go into full on production mode after only really one prototype session. But, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, and this time I lucked out. Huzzah.

The next part of the trip was the big workshop for the JAm that had been almost a year in the planning. I had managed to get Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen and Jasen Johnsen over to teach a week long class and somehow I managed to weasel in my way to TA for them. So amazing. They are such phenomenal glass sculptors. It was a crazy week. We made like a candy day of the dead type skull with birds and flowers, an antelope, balinese mask, oh, and you know just two dogs on a beach with a palm tree and a parrot, no big deal. 

In between all this me and Andy have been putting together our studio. We are so close to moving in. SO CLOSE. We now have walls, big ups to T-Bird and Darryl, we also have a door, Andy deserves all that credit, and now we have painted walls!! So exciting. I just want to move in already. HAs been such a long process, but thats ok, don't good things come to those who wait?

Probably one of the best things to happen on my last trip to Adelaide was a surprise party for one of my dear friends Deb Jones. Deb had recently just bought herself a shipping container and the girls at Gate 8 studio decided to surprise her and fill it with 800 balloons!! 800!! It was the most beautiful joyous thing I have ever seen! There were kids running around in there losing their minds and because of all the static i think they were popping left right and centre, just imagine the acoustics in there!

Look how happy everyone is!

SO MANY BALLOONS!!

And during this time I was also apart of two exhibitions. Lets just say some lessons were learned...

So it's been a crazy month or so with lots of goings on and lets hope more to come.

(And heres a picture of my cat with colour samples for the studio...)