#spruiking

12 months ago I decided to stop accepting spruiking work.

Spruiking is about creating a false sense of urgency in shoppers, talking up products, installing a temporary FOMO and encouraging people to make impulse purchases (often of stuff they have no need for).

Spruiking pays well and I’m good at it. My conscience and my heart were not good at it though.

Mindless, impulsive, over consumption is not what I’m about. It can’t be what any of us should be about.

I stopped being ok with validating people purchasing new when I know that perfectly good, cheaper, second hand alternatives are on offer at thrift stores, tip shops and garage sales everywhere.

I got my dehydrator out of storage. And it is too big for my kitchenette. Luckily it isn’t a daily appliance. I have it on the bench, cleaned and the trays in the dish drainer. It is still cold in Melbourne and this thing throws out a fair bit of heat. So I plan to dehydrate some stuff.

These photos have nothing to do with the dehydrator.

I’m making a sampler piece of knitting. I was looking up darning and there was a sampler piece done by a young girl around your Nan’s time.

Those samplers, which are practice stitches, became heirlooms or museum pieces. The youngsters at the time were merely practicing how to mend clothes. They would be shocked if they knew.

Because I haven’t knitted in ages, I need to practice stranded colour work, intarsia, blocking and finishing. I have plans. Many, many plans. Plans that take time. I want my plans looking their best for a long time. Hence the sampler.

Do you like the nibby things at the end of my needles? I do, it’s Saturn!

I bought them from Handmade by Catkin. If you are a local in Canberra, give her some support at the markets. If you are in Australia, here’s her store 👇🏻

https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/HandmadeByCatkin

It’s time to stop spruiking ‘mateship’

Australia’s new tourism campaign

Tourism Australia has released it’s new campaign ‘Come Live our Philausophy’ focusing on our informal approach to life.

It must be that time of year again. Drunk people are watching horses being whipped. Instagram users are boasting about beach days. And there’s a Tourism Australia campaign that everyone hates.

This last one is a tri-annual event, when our…

So I haven’t posted anything here for ages. Oops. I blame university. I do plan on uploading some stuff, when I get around to finishing them.

In the mean time, a friend of mine wrote a book. And another friend of mine is working on a game.