Nothing much to see here....Creative Space

I would love to be one of those prolific crafts people that always have something fabulous for show and tell, something new and exciting and different, or 10 projects all happening at one time in organised chaos.

But the truth is- I am having one hell of a lazy winter.  I rarely go in my sewing room because the temperature suddenly drops 100 degrees down that end of the house. (Yes it's Iceland in my sewing room, really!) 

I have become prone to migraines, developed an addiction to watching The Tudors and my aversion to mowing and weeding my garden has resulted in a jungle appearing out my back yard that is so prolific it is just best I stay indoors from now on.

Yesterday I chose to stray from home and wandered into the city to visit Charlie Lily for designer eyebrows.

In the early nineties I plucked my brows with such a heavy compulsion that they have never been the same since and it was time I did something about them.  It was 1993 and around that time I also had my nose pierced and I recall my mother saying to my father "Oh Jimmy look what she has done to her face"..... and my father said "I like her new nose" and then my mother shrieked "not her nose her EYEBROWS! She HAD such beautiful eyebrows". It always struck me that not even a large silver ring in my nose could divert my mother's attention from what I had done there. Hence my need for the artistry of Charlie Lily's designer brows. The only problem was that I encountered a psycho on the train to the city who tried to steal my iphone. My iphone Clarence Hansel 3rd!!! Can you believe it?  My pride and joy. 

Just at the last second as he came at me from behind my intuition spiked and I was fast enough to keep my phone and my bag, thankfully. But he was so angry he attacked the girl behind me, took her phone and left her with bleeding hands. Everyone on the train was very upset after this commotion and as I sat there kissing and cradling Clarence the iphone, I realised that I needed more than just great eyebrows to make up for this level of unprovoked violence.  So I went to the Theosophical society bookshop and bought a Richard Freeman Ashtanga yoga DVD.  You see I cant go to yoga at the moment because Grandpa the babysitter has gone on vacation and as yoga is such a great outlet for stress- a DVD was the solution to all my problems.  I finally made it home to the haven of my loungeroom and proceeded along with Richard Freeman through the 70 odd asanas, mudras and bandhas (and my cat lying gracefully across my mat in all the wrong places at all the wrong times).  Everything was wonderful. Except.....

Today I cant move!

Can't even walk properly.  

Or bend. 

Forget crafting, what about just being able to sit down?

OUCH! Damn it Freeman what have you done to me?

The upside of all this is my thighs are like rocks.  My buttocks like steel.

And my new eyebrows make me look at least 5 years younger.

For some actual creative spaces go to Our Creative Space.

The Busy Little Bee Award...

The Busy Little Bee award does not go to me.

As you see I have been terribly un-busy.  

Although, I do think a LOT about potentially busy things.

These ideas stay firmly in the mind.

 But if there was an award for 'thinking' creative thoughts

Then I would win this kind of award.  

Because I have many ideas and are always thinking them.  

However-

 For actually producing these ideas in a tangible way.......

mmmgghh, that is where I have fallen a little short.

 And so, sadly, the Busy Little Bee award does not go to me!

If there was an award for sitting on the couch, watching Mad Men

and knitting complicated diamond patterned shawls.

I would win, hands down.

Unfortunately no such award is in existence.

Lastly

There is one award I am in the running for-

The Glandula Fever award goes to..........

Me.

I win this one, no contest.

Because I am very good at being sick with Glandula Fever.

The illness that goes on and on.

But never fear, Nurse Fifi is here.

And now if I could just teach her to read

my obscure miniature Latin medical book

then I will surely be cured.

And back to the business of Toy making.

Creative Space XIV...

Ooh I have had such a big break from Creative Space and am excited to be playing along again.  I have quite a few projects going on at the moment, some quilts, a silk scarf design, some knitted things and am trying very hard to finish off all my unfinished projects, the ones I have been putting off  because I have lost steam along the way.  I could never decide for instance how to finish off this Bird Boy until thankfully someone gave me another Lindt Chocolate Bunny with this bow that I can put to good use. These vintage buttons from Cheeky Little Monsters are my favourite and I always want to use them but have a strong dislike of button sewing. (These are pinned on, but I'm getting there, really I am.)

Sometimes I think my dolls look almost scary when they are inside out, stitches EVERYWHERE as I'm so particular about reinforced seams.  And then when they are turned out they look almost cute, but oh so strange until finally they are stuffed and dressed and then they are my little friends and I love each and every one.  Well this Sailor girl above is somewhere in that 'between' world- not yet loved but no longer seeming like she was cobbled together by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  (I'm reading this at the moment and Gothic literature is so exquisite- it makes me want to recline on my 1950's sofa and sigh heavily all day with a hand to my brow).

For more wonderous Creative Spaces tottle on over to Kootoyoo.

Pussycat Doll...

How Amazing is this Pussycat cotton from Kelani Fabric?  I truly love being inspired by beautiful fabrics as I was here with my latest Pussycat Doll and another Madamoiselle Pussycat.  You can see the lovely texture as well and how it goes so wonderfully with thick black wool and vintage red velvet.

Arrggghh fabric obsession, will you ever go away?
Hopefully not!

A Little Jane...

Recently my friends and I spent a weekend away at a cottage in Daylesford and I found myself tucked up in a giant four posted bed once again relishing the opening paragraph of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

Marty had graciously pointed out the giant copy of The Complete Works of the Bronte Sisters to me in the op-shop and I quickly snapped it up as a book to keep in the car for my many and varied trips to country Victoria.

But alas I was barely up to the second chapter when my Daylesford weekend came to an end and I found myself longing for another trip away so that I could take up with Jane again and immerse myself in her humble world.  Some time later I had a weekend away at my mums and there she was at last with her terrible orphan years but I was barely introduced to Mr Rochester before the book was out of my hands and tucked under the seat of the Volvo once again.

Which gave me an idea......

 Since Jane Eyre was decidedly my 'away' reading and I was going to be home for a while, why not bring her to life in cloth instead???

So I did.

A black wool cloak seemed the most fitting. Green eyes and brown hair.

I could not bare to give her a black dress as well, I felt she deserved a little bit of colour in her life.

Though somewhat ill-fitting for a character who speaks thus: 

"My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire."  

I could not resist the dusk red lining.

She is for sale now at Thread Den's new store on Brunswick St.  Sitting in the front window looking exactly like the clever yet reserved lady of her namesake.

The new store is beautiful and full of gorgeous things and the Thread Den girls have done such a great job with the art deco styling.  You truly must drop in if you are ever passing by 422 Brunswick st Fitzroy.

In the meantime it is the Easter holidays and I am again away with my family and Jane Eyre (the novel) is tucked up just where it should be with me nightly:)