to market, to market

Some treasures I found at the market this morning; a perfect for Spring yellow flower brooch, sweet little green buttons and 2 pairs of simple everyday earrings. You can't see them well in this pic as they are pretty small but the ones on the right are like little Dino the dinosaurs from the Flintstones - cute!

book: illustration • play

So, I have this slight obsession for books and illustration. One such book I am obsessing about at the moment just happens to be about illustration, it's called, 'Illustration Play: Craving for the Extraordinary'. I can't stop flicking through its pages!

The cover has real stickers stuck all over it and the internal pages are different textures, some coated, some uncoated, with an interview section at the back which is not only an interesting read it's also fluro pink! All featured artist have such unique illustrative styles stepping away from computer generated techniques and experimenting with more traditional skills such as collage, paper cutting, hand-knitting, embroidery, stitching and more!

Some of my favs include; Canadian Genevieve Dionne's pyrography pieces (pyrography = a technique of burning into wood or leather with a heated tool), AJ Fosik (USA) - a fav, Steven Harrington (USA) - silkscreen yumminess, Johanna Lundberg - who knew coloured matches could look so good, Carolina Melis (UK) and Megan Whitmarsh (USA) - yeti + boombox! YAY!

miss melly

I would like to introduce you all to Miss Melly. She no longer lives with me but with a much larger human version of herself, the one who inspired her creation. I have heard too that on occasion she gets to see the world go by in a beautiful basket on the front of a bike! How lovely is that, not unlike the lovely welcome to blogland I've received. I think this is going to be a great adventure!

new adventures

Welcome to Handmade Romance! Its taken a while but after some friendly encouragement from this lovely lady my very first blog has finally begun.

I'm really excited about where this online adventure will take me and at this stage I plan to make this a place where I can post about my own handmade creations, as well as inspiration I find along the way.

The lovely redness above is a super soft scarf I am in the middle of knitting for a dear friend who is also off on a new adventure... of the career path kind.

If you too are feeling like a new adventure feel free to stop by anytime!