Can someone please lend me US$1.3m? I'm good for it :)

The older I get the more I am appreciating vintage architecture and mid-century interiors. Sometimes I sit for hours looking at old magazines, fantasining about patios, balconies and snugs. Now it's al fresco, theatre room and walk ins. I prefer the original myself :)

The more I start to plan the renovation of our early 1970s original retro house the more I am thinking I want an older home to renovate - or to keep original. The problem with so many houses is that they are partially renovated (and not very well IMHO - ugh, the 80s pink!) or have been left to age and rot :(

Anyone have a cool $1.3m US dollars in their bank account? This gorgeous original 1965 house - erm, bloody large home! - is currently for sale with all original furnishings etc. Every time I look at just one of the photos in their Des Moines listing a part of me just leaps for joy at the perfect architecture and interior. Look at that sunken lounge :) - I would LOVE a sunken lounge...

I would also love shelving like the one in the photo above. And a hallway to withstand the magnificent shelving. And a sublime orange couch to offset the gorgeous green carpet. Oh - seriously - I could go on forever about this house. Pop over to the real estate listing to have a peek at the glamour of yesterday - and, if ya can, feel free to buy it for Retro Age Vintage Fabrics...the fabrics would look gorgeous in there!

Isn't she gorgeous?

We are stocktaking the fabric offered on the website (again!) - a time consuming job that is NOT my favourite thing to do in the world. It means double checking stock levels, so each bolt has to be measured up against what's on the website and what's being offered elsewhere. Seeing as the website stock is being checked I decided to vamp up the splash page with this sexy lady. Amazing fabric, isn't it? Gorgeous colourway - and it's in my personal stash - for the moment :) I can't help myself with this one :)

178m of vintage, retro and modern fabric....

I am now officially over O.V.A.H photographing these fabrics and listing them on ebay. OVAH. S.O OVAH. But I am determined to complete the assignment.

Thus - another seven auctions went up tonight. That takes the stash up on ebay at the moment to around 180m. Holy fabric, Batman - that's a lot of fabric!

I am not going to put any auctions up tomorrow as Fridays are a bad day for ebay with their maintenance etc - so Saturday and Sunday it is. I'll aim for seven auctions each day. At last count I think I have around 16 bundles still to list.

I am taking the most of tomorrow off to give ourselves a semi-long (ish) weekend - we need more of them to get ourselves healthy and well. For once we have our packaging done in time so everything will be completed tomorrow morning and we'll have some time to photograph and perhaps list some new fabric on the website and that will be it. Woo hoo.

I have been devouring my fave blog recently - have a look at this post if you love 'modernism' and what everyone thought we would be living like now back in 1957. Soooo kitsch - and so cool!

Up to 100m of fabric on ebay...whoot!

I put my head down and botty up today. Lots of fabric packing for customer orders and lots of photographing the fabric I am putting up on ebay in job lots. It feels kind of cathartic to sell lots of fabric (I hope!) in one foul swoop - like we're doing a clean up for the greater good of fabric lovers and our fabric health!

I put another five auctions up today. An eclectic mix - some old, some new, some retro, some country. You can view the auctions here. This far I have nine auctions with more than 100m of fabric combined - amazing! I am hoping to put another seven up tomorrow.

I have no taste or smell at the moment due to finally getting over this virus/cold/infection thingie. I am wondering why I am still eating my beloved dark chocolate as I can't taste it! Occasionally when I blow my nose I can smell it (whoot! - cack!) but can't taste one cocoa bean other than that. Had shepherd's pie and what should have been yummy zucchini slice for dinner - looked good, but have no idea how it smelt or tasted.

Would I be skinnier if my taste and smell went away for another couple of weeks? Would I get sick of eating things when I had no 'satisfaction' when eating them?

I missed my first sip of coffee this morning. Usually there is nothing like it. Sip. Sigh. Relax. Smile. Bliss. But nothing this morning. Just hot water going down my throat and hitting my stomach. No satisfaction. Nada.

Hope it's back tomorrow morning. Don't know what I will do without my first sip of coffee in the morning. Sigh.

This is our mission...should we chose to accept it...150+ fabrics in seven days

Mess is stress. Too much is NOT a good thing. Therefore some has to go - and it has to go no matter what.

What a mission I undertook. Haven't finished yet but have at least made a start - and, sadly, you can't even notice these fabrics have been removed from the shelves. Their removal hasn't even made a dint in the stock levels...and that means we have too much!

So they've been bundled up into stacks that will each fit into a 3kg Express Post satchel. Tossed together to suit each other. And that means most packs are kinda in colourway. Most vintage, some modern. Some used, most unused. You get the drift :)

Only got the time to pop four packs up on ebay tonight. Yes, that's right - only four piddly packs! But by the end of seven days - or 10! - I want around 30 auctions up with more than 150 fabrics in them. Lots of work to do!

These photos show just five pieces of what I put up this evening. To view the auctions click here. And they're only a $4.99 start - cheap!

Do you believe in synchronicity?

In between working as a copywriter on St Kilda Rd in Melbourne (gorgeous boulevard, but pity about all of the workers in grey apart from the advertising creatives!) and co-owing Retro Age Vintage Fabrics I was a struggling playwright. Voluntarily. Struggling. Poor. I left a high-paying career with awards aplenty and plenty of renown to sit for eight hours a day and write. Poetry. Plays. Anything with a soul, you know. I suppose looking back it was very indulgent. But I just had to do it and I don't regret leaving the ad industry one bit. Well - just a teenie bit when I remind myself I have friends earning more than $200k in France and New York. But we won't think about that.

My first play was called The Diamond Cutter. I can't remember why I referenced that title - and what significance it has in the play. I can't bring myself to read it again - I have it stashed away somewhere to be brought out when I can swig on a bottle of scotch by myself :) I wrote the one act play in 36 hours and sent it off to what I think was an early incarnation of the TropFest Festival up in Noosa, Queensland. Well, to cut a long story short - it was shortlisted, produced and was staged for a week. That was my first playwriting success. I remember flyind up there to the opening night and Nancy Cato was in the audience. She was old even then, but graciously came up to me later in the evening with her lovely daughter to congratulate me on a thought-provoking play. I remember cringing at the amount of swear words in the play looking at one of Australia's eminent writers. I loved All of the Rivers Run. I still have her books.

Anyhoo - the play was about, if you could choose between the absolute profound love of your life or eternal life, what would you chose?

I am always on the lookout for messages from the other side and all of that stuff most people don't talk about (spooky, spooky) when I came across this book on Amazon - it's called The Diamond-Cutter: the Buddha on Strategies for Managing Your Business and Your Life. Being a kind-of Buddhist (I know a lot but don't practice a lot) who follows the Tibetan lineage and who owns Retro Age I couldn't help but buy it.

Thus far an interesting read. Beats reading all of those 'how to run a business' books that are so common but never offer anything new. But it was synchronicity that brought my this book and for that I am grateful.

Yes - I ventured into Spotlight :)

After all of the illness, hospital and generally negative things occuring in this household in recent weeks we found ourselves enjoying a lovely weekend. No sun, sand and friovolity as it's just too freezing for that in these parts, but nonetheless we popped on hats and jackets and trekked off shopping and such.

I hate shopping. With a passion. But I needed some supplies from Spotlight so I journeyed into the world of the crafter - a rarity, I can tell you. I found what I was looking for (a miracle) and then proceeded to accidentally jump the really long cue to get fabric cut. No, didn't buy fabric, just supplies...am not going into the modern fabric trade - there are enough new fabric sellers out there to service every single buyer around the world, from what I can see!

Logan had a great time looking at all of the Halloween stuff they've popped in their kiddies section. He gets a new Halloween costume every year to go trick or treating with Nanny up and down one the street. Lots of kids do it here. Makes for such a fun day! I think this year he is leaning wowards the 'ghoul'. Last year he was Harry Potter (yes - so not original!)

We stayed in this morning to watch the women's marathon at the Beijing Olympics. How taut are those gals??? Not a sniff of fat to be seen - absolutely amazing specimens of bodies. I haven't watched a lot of the Olympics this time around as the Channel 7 coverage is lacking for us and we're just not 'fond' of China hosting such a wonderful event. Human rights, that type of thing :)

Lastly, I have got some fabrics together to pop onto the website - started earlier today, but the website is on delay, so they'll pop up slowly. Two amazing retro super graphic pieces and gorgeous old cottons. How's that middle one with the ladies hat, slippers and basket? It's a delight, isn't it? Yes - it has to be a Tootal! Ya gotta love those Tootal cottons!

Vintage fabric delights for you hungry people...

Lots of sublime fabric going up onto the website this week. Justin is busily stocktaking the website to ensure all of the listings are accurate - hard when you sell in multiple places, but he gets there!

We've got some new ideas for the business we have been working on for a while that are slowly coming to fruition - and we have some great ideas for the website, too. It only takes time - most of which we haven't had lately :)

It's so cold down here on the Surf Coast in Vic - the nights get freezing. But the garden looks a treat and the morning sun is a delight. I love morning sun!

There's nothing better in the morning than a sleeping baby, sunshine on your favourite chair, a hot strong coffee, the paper and silence. Nothing. Better :)

Back with more pics later...have a great day!

New arrivals just uploaded to website...

Things have finally settled down a bit around here. Gabriel is on the road to recovery (thank goodness he found that road!) and Logan is healthy and happy...which, all in all...makes us very happy :)

We've played things slowly the past couple of days, mainly to catch up on sleep and rebuild our energy after living in hospital for four days - sleeping restlessly, constantly woken up by Gabriel, nurses and general hospital things - and living with cafeteria food, most of which was kinda fast food trying to be healthy.

But today I found some time (and energy) to upload all of these fabrics onto the website. They are a collection from the same estate so all are of a lovely quality and feel.

My Uncle came over for dinner tonight (thank goodness my Mum cooked us a wonderful Curry Pumpkin soup and Dearie whipped up a yummo chocolate self saucing pudding - I couldn't cook at the moment even if I tried!). Feeling so much better for the company.

Looking forward to feeling even better tomorrow - and guess what? We have more than 500 unpacked fabrics to put onto the website. That's right - not including the ones we put back in storage! So I have some work to do in the coming weeks :)

New arrivals can be viewed here.

Putting things into perspective...from Monday to Thursday

I remember reading interesting posts from fellow bloggers in recent weeks about putting things into perspective. I can't remember all of the posts specifically - bar one, and that is Lara's one here.

You only put your life into perspective when horrid things happen - or when you get those elusive "wow - I get it now" moments. We got our moment watching our youngest son struggling. Struggling. To. Breathe. His chest and stomach heaved to get his air in and we felt helpless watching the emergency staff working on him to give him oxygen and to calm him down.

Four days. Three nights. Bronchiolitis. Severe bronchiolitis. He needed oxygen for three days and is now home, still sick, but able to fight the virus himself.

There is nothing, nothing, nothing, in life like your family, friends and loved ones. As long as we are all healthy, happy and living our lives the way we wish nothing else matters. Nothing.

I am so thankful to have both our boys home tonight, both safe and snuggled in their bed/cot and loved and hugged. I am so glad I don't need to sleep in a hospital anymore, listening to the rattle of my sons chest and the beeping and crying going off in other rooms. Children's wards are very hard to be in. It makes you feel so helpless.

Vintage fabric gift certificates for the website

It is madness around here at the moment. I have been indoors and away from the fabric as our youngest son has had a very bad virus that lasted for two weeks and now has a heavy chest infection...poor little mite!

I got into an interesting dialogue with a customer today regarding gift certificates/gift vouchers/gift coupons - sheesh...depends on where you live as to what you call them! It got me thinking I really should get my little act together to offer a selection of gift certificate denominations for people who know family or friends who love vintage fabric but who couldn't select something to buy them!

So - I got my little act together in fits and starts and have now got a new category on the website with $15.00, $25.00, $50.00 or $100.00 gift certificates. We can also list a private certificate for you for your nominated amount...easy done :)

Phew - I feel like I've done somthing now - I completed something today!

To view, click here.