A weekend jaunt in Hobart

A couple of weekends ago Chris and I headed to Hobart for a relaxed long weekend. We stayed in South Hobart, in a sleepy picturesque area in a lovely self-contained cottage with a lovely comfy bed, a high pressure shower, well stocked kitchen (for kitchenware) and comfortable light filled lounge room. It was a much need opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of work and spend some time together. It was conveniently located close to a gourmet food store so we stocked up on cheese, artisan bread, a plethora of dips and pickled food and fiery ginger beer and craft apple ciders. South Hobart was just simply beautiful and I spent much time enjoying looking at beautiful homes.

    

On Saturday we visited some of the usual suspects like Lark Distillery and Salamanca Markets

       

 

      

   We also went along to MONA via ferry. It's pretty much everything everyone says it is, at time dark and disturbing, at other times, light and enlightening. To be honest I found a lot of it a bit creepy and sinister, perhaps more to do with the mood I was in than anything else! 

Roger Ballan's work was particularly creepy

(images from here)

Afterwards we enjoyed a session of wine tasting at the winery attached to Mona then caught the ferry back to Hobart to enjoy an evening of telly, patchwork (well me) and gourmet pasta. 

                                       

Sunday included a well deserved sleep in, and breakfast in South Hobart. Chris wouldn't let me take a pic of my meal but whilst the menu was rather egg heavy ( I don't eat eggs) I appreciated that they tried to combine a variety of flavours and make breakfast a bit more interesting. This was followed by a meander into Salamanca where we attended March in March (yes, we're probably the only people to attend a rally on holidays). 

We also went along to The Market, a local artisan craft market which was held at a Freemanson's Hall. I've never been to one so I was rather intrigued:

I was also quite taken by this cushion but had to avoid the sale as it would be one more thing to ship overseas...

Sunday was a bit less interesting after these events as we found that most of the shops and bars were closed. Rather frustrating but we ended up at a pub a bit further out (lots of hill walking) where I enjoyed a couple of glasses of sangria and a read on a comfy couch. I enjoy reading in pubs, some people may find it a bit antisocial but luckily we both enjoy reading. 

We intended to go for a last dinner out but struggled to find anywhere open that we wanted to eat at. So it was a quick stop at the city supermarket for the ingredients for a quick veg curry. Followed by the rest of our cheese and some salted chocolate and a funny movie on the telly. 

As a pet lover I loved this front door of a local Veterinarian...

This song is now going to be in your head all day

i'm very happily child free but I thought this rather hilarous and awesome!



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Craftivism, consumerism and spending money on recycled materials...

As well as labour issues, there's also the big trend towards eco-logical crafting -recuse, remake, recycle, repair the wold- using trends such as felting. Felting is where you can re-use old sweaters as fabric to make gloves, hats, whatever you like really....You can either knit your item and felt it, or felt existing items (such as jumpers) and use the material to make your item. This is where the issues begin for me. Felting shrinks wool. So you may need lots of jumpers. Unless you have a bundle handle ( and enough space to store them), you may have to go buy second hand jumpers. To felt, you need to use lots of hot water and mutiple hot wash cycles. You may even choose to use your clothes dryer. This translates to lots of water and electricity. I live in Australia in the middle of a massive drought. Big carbon footprint.

I can give you another example. I thought I'd make some coasters. So picked up some second hand coasters to cover in paper. This required buying the coasters and some spray glue and spray varnish. The varnish didn't work so I had to buy a thicker one and a paintbrush. So my second hand coasters ended up costing me, oh, $40 plus to make. And it's not like I'd ever spend $40 on coasters, regardless of who made them. Of course, I will reuse the glue and varnishes and I was an active participant in my craft from which I derived some enjoyment
( the varnish dilemma aside) but it was hardly an ecofriendly exercise!


Things I am Thinking About:

Where do my materials come from?What carbon footprint does my crafting leave?How much time do I spend shopping for materials?How much money do I spend on materials?Have I spent money to make money? 
What are my materials worth?What is my labour worth?

In thinking about all this I have decided to take ONE MONTH from the start of next week (that's Monday April 7th) to see how I manage crafting without buying anything. No buying more fabric 'just in case' or another quick underpick because I can't be bothered looking for the three I already own. No more spending money to make money. No more buying things I don't really need and the expense of things I already have. But I don't want this to be an excuse to do nothing. I intend to be as productive as always in the next month. Maybe more so. Maybe this will give me a chance to try some craft techniques I've always been scared of due to the prohibitive initial outlay (mosaque and screen printing anyone?) Who knows? Anyhow watch this blog and see how I go....


PS: you can read another take on What would Jesus Sell here and also Etsy's response.

PPS: Another site you might like:
RadicalCrossStitch