This is what I'm bringing to the table boss!

Ok I lied. I didn't immediately leave my desk to start packing.. I just had to post again with some of the latest items to be added to my Patches box of goodies. I have half an idea to fit in another hat by tonight but I might not make it.. let's not stress.. let's have tea and go through our 'to take' list.

To be honest I'm a bit worried about creasing stuff on the way there, about squashing the elaborate hats in.. but I guess these are common pre-gig gitters or a sign that I should participate more often so as to eliminate this feeling entirely!

Can we say this enough? NO

And just cos I simply cannot say this enough.. here's all of my Patches 9th edition propaganda in one blog post.

Setting up and preparing sufficiently for such a market is not a piece of cake so it'd be nice (triple plus good!) to see your lovely faces there on the day.
'the day' meaning tomorrow from 10 till 7! .. and now i'm definitely off to pack!

I made it - dubious means and all!

I really wanted to make an event of this first post. My inexperience in everything marginally related to technology makes me want to celebrate my finally making it here. However now that I am here I feel quite overwhelmed by the ordinariness of the whole thing so I shall refrain from celebrating and start to write.

A small introduction is due: I am Maria, a Malteser (yes very crunchy on the inside unless left in the fridge too long); and I had been meaning to set up this small Babettopolis enterprise for quite some time. So I took part in the first edition of Patches Market http://www.patchesmarket.com/ and the response gave me the impetus to pursue the ‘handmade thing’ less sporadically. I am now sewing made to order/commissioned works and also designing one off shoes for fellow enthusiasts of all things 'one off'. Oh and I am doing this in between moving out (or is it fairer to say 'moving to and fro!'?), looking for a (part-time?, full-time?, am i really?) job, curtaining the new place, replenishing the Patches basket and dreaming time-consuming dreams of going to Russia, Japan, Rome, Istanbul, Cuba ... in a hot air balloon.

I have grander plans for the next Babettopolis sign

Maybe I ought not to give you the link to the Babettopolis facebook page since I'll be uploading same photos here (that is until I actually get a decent photographer to help me out!); but anyways, here goes: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/babettopolis?ref=ts

And here is something I finished yesterday before I was reluctantly (perhaps even unnecessarily obstinately) dragged away from my sewing machine to watch Howl's Moving Castle.. little did I know I would find it saturated in Babettopolean (yes it has come to this!) imagery; so yes, the hatters, Howl the crow and that blasphemously beautiful, intricately detailed imperial city kept me drooling and relatively sedated.

Haven't been sewing anything for myself lately, but sewing for others gives me, surprisingly enough, the same high.

And this is my cat Gustav Monocle (- agent of chaos!). He is very excited about my starting this blog (told me so in a dream) and zealously looking forward to the change in location of the Babettopolis 'empire' so he'll have all of my neatly organized ribbons at his disposal.

PS: ‘First Post Ever’ was Alexandra Aquilina’s doing. She helped set up and polish this blog. (this is her band which we will be sailing the seas for this afternoon: http://www.myspace.com/skimmedtheband)

... in conclusion, I would like to promise you regular photo-laden posts related to every project I happen to take up (and I must outline that these are generally multiple and varied).