Grandma Wolf...

The following is based on a true story...

Once upon a time there was a toy maker who was Obsessed with Little Red Riding Hood. 

And she had a son who was so scared of Wolves that he could not sleep alone in his own bed 

for fear that they were hiding there.

One day he went to visit his Grandma with a basket of Easter eggs.

But could not go alone into any of the rooms in her big house 

because he thought the Wolf was hiding there.

Hiding out, under the bed, in every room, even the toilet.

Luckily the toy maker had made her son a Wolf Toy. 

A toy so cute that all his fears would fade away.

She crafted a Wolf dressed up as Grandma with Little Red Riding Hood hiding in the belly. 

With the addition of a floral nightgown, with lace trim.

This little boy could not be scared of a cross dressing Wolf in a Nightgown carrying a tiny doll.
Could he?  Surely not!

Alas he could....

"Oh Grandma, what big lips I have"

"And what a sly grin You have"

"And Grandma what big Hips you have"

"All the better to Hold you with."

And so the toy maker put Grandma Wolf away on a big high shelf,

and went back to the drawing board.

The moral of this story is, don't introduce your children to Wolf stories before they are old enough
or no one will ever get any sleep.

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!

To Market to Market...

  The Thornbury Market was on again yesterday and I did quite well, despite the rain.

I famously forgot to photograph my stall until after I had made sales (will I ever learn?) but I really enjoyed the day and loved the social atmosphere of the new location.  Due to the hall being renovated the stalls were set up in the Thornbury Womens Neighborhood House.  Which has a little play area, so the children were vastly happy.  Happy children make for relaxed parents and many of the visitors to my stall were chatty and shared great ideas with me about my Thornbury community.  Met some lovely new people too.

And we like that. 

My 'Valentine inspired but not necessarily Valentine' cards sold like hot cakes.
These little Kokka prints are so adorable.  I'm going to make more one day.

I was left with one however to give to a certain special someone???

The Bee rattles sold well again. I know this is a terrible photo, but hey- lucky there is a one at all! Some things were sold without me ever having a picture of them.

I truly love the Birds and the Bees.

The birds had little squeakers inside them.

  

This little madam didn't sell.  I cannot understand why? I'm in love with her.  

Her name is Iris, she is intelligent and well educated and important in the science community. 

But she has a wild side, oh my she certainly does.

She is most famous for saying "E=MC Hammer".

And she just whispered to me (as many people do) that I should start an Etsy store.  

Well Iris we will have to see about that....

This little Red Riding Hood was sold to a doll collector.  Always an honour when someone that already has many dolls can make room for one more.  I know she will be well cared for and it makes me feel shiney.

 

My summer frocks never sell well on rainy cold Melbourne days.  There is just something about that phenomena, if I was selling woolly scarves they would have been a hit. 

I totally understand though, when I was a young girl I could never dress my dolls in woolens during the summer or my Barbies in their bathers on a cold Gippsland autumnal day.

But I sold a pretty green dress and will not need to sew any more of these for the North Melbourne Market in 2 weeks and I'm quietly relieved about that. 

I really love Thornbury, I wish it had a bigger market where all of us Thornbury crafters could have a stall at the same time.  There are so many of us.  It is craft central here. :)

Mad Hatters Third...

We celebrated the Third Birthday of my son Mihali Jim recently with a Mad Hatters Tea Party.

It started with an invitation.

 

And then a costume...

 

  I found the invite image many moons ago whilst traversing cyber space looking for a sneak preview of Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland opening soon.

The White Rabbit costume was fun to make.  I used a vintage suit that Little Jim wore to my neice's wedding and removed the sleeves to make a vest.  I embroidered the clock face and then made the ears knowing he would wear them only momentarily.

 

He wore them only momentarily....

 I am very particular about cakes.  Some would say I'm too particular.  I grew up with a Mother who constantly baked an amazing assortment of cakes, pavlovas and slices.  Every day in my school lunch there would be Golden Wattle cake or Lemon slice...and endless list of culinary delights.  

As a consequence of this- cakes need to be exceptional for me to take an interest in them.

Which is why I asked BB to make the Birthday Cake.  

This is BB...

She made her famous Chocolate Pavlova.

Its neither too sweet or too chocolatey.

Not too much cream, just the right amount of raspberries.

It is perfect. 

It is freaking delicious.

But I didn't have enough cake to go around. (Sigh!)

 

So it was lucky that my amazing Rachel helped me make other cakes.

Giant chocolate cupcakes with ganache and tiny hearts.

We had an Alice.

The beautiful Lucia in her wisdom was able to masterfully aid the 3 year olds at game time.

We also had a Mad Hatter and the Red Queen of course.

(BB made Aunty Rosie's top hat, it is an extraordinary work of millinery achievement.)

I also made a top hat, but out of cardboard and not so much of an achievement. Although it is still structurally maintained it is covered in tiny cake hand prints.

The Birthday boy somewhat suffered from Character confusion.  He was the white rabbit one minute then he was Buzz Lightyear and then suddenly Mad Buzz.

He loves dressing up at the moment.  Sometimes he has 5 superhero changes a day.

  

There was also Pin the Smile on the Cheshire.  This was really fun.  I had pass the parcel as well but unfortunately had to cancel Mad Dancing and Musical Chairs as it was 35 degrees and we were Meeeeeeeeelting.

Mihali Jim received an amazing array of lovely toys. Manni and I gave him the Plan Toys railway from Eco Toys and friends gave him matching wooden toys to go with it.

But it was simply this Woody doll from Aunty Rosie that won his heart that day and every other since the moment he opened it.

I am often woken at 3am to the sound of Woody crawling into bed beside me.

He says cowboy stuff when you pull the string.

It was a wonderful day, full of yummy food and family and friends, spritely little ones and crazy hats and way too much Sparkling wine.

A most memorable day indeed.

Merry Christmas...

Well it has been a travesty but my little laptop has been struggling along far too slowly for me to upload anything, so I have been quietly wrapping my gifts and biding my time.  Then suddenly a friend of mine appeared and 'defragged' my computer???? Amazing, absolutely amazing.  And now ever so fast again.  Thankyou.

Where I left off was the Made In Thornbury Market, which went really well considering I was in a terrible position.  (Facing the back wall- practically invisible).   It is a very friendly and gracious market and the people that did notice my little stall were very warm and encouraging.

I chatted a little with the other crafters but was able to have long chats with Felicity from Flicketty Splits, who fantastically let me ramble on and on about absolutely nothing in particular.

Now time has gone on and Christmas is nearing way too fast. I'm exploring lots of crafty options this Christmas. A teepee cubby house, dresses, shorts and also I finally perfected my

Little Red Riding Hood doll.

 

On Sunday I had the pleasure of lovely company for my Annual Christmas Drinks which I combined with my Annual Croquet Match.  And I did run with the Kitsch Kringle idea.  It was pretty funny, but not quite as funny as last years Krap Kringle which has made its way into my Top 10 Funniest Moments ever list.

 Thats Little Jim and me with our Kitsch Kringles.  Priceless I know!

I'm very proud to announce that I only needed to buy one Shopping Centre gift this Christmas. Which was an electric grill for my nephew to make his delicious tosdadas on.  All the rest are handmade gifts or gifts that support small business.  Our Christmas tree was purchased from the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Little Jim's toys are again made from sustainable materials such as this Plan Toy which is an ethical company. 

Some time ago I alighted to the fact that giving friends and family beautiful gourmet food and fine wines is always a winner and this year I have boxed up a pile of gifts from Outback Pride, which is a fabulous business providing jobs and training for Indigenous Australians.

They make beautiful jars of  pickles, relishes and spreads amongst other things all made from native bush food grown in outback communities. You can purchase them from Oxfam.   I also discovered my local Naturapath sells beautifully packaged and delicious Organic toasted Muesli. All in recycled materials. The idea of giving natural, healthy and beautiful foods as gifts makes me feel extra good and I'm happy to say that there is no pre Christmas stress in my life.

I'm reading Peter Singers 'The Life You Can Save' at the moment.

Peter Singer is a beautiful writer, speaker and philosopher.  His lectures on Ethics are esteemed the world over and in this book he reminds us as individuals about how we can modestly save a life from poverty. If we all take up his challenge individually then collectively as a Nation we can achieve much. And we can do more than we think.  Read more about his vision here. Or here if you wish to take up the challenge.
Peter Singer will be giving a talk at Melbourne University about 'What responsibilites do Australians owe the global poor' on February 16 2010.

Christmas is a good time for us all to think about how much we have, how fortunate we are and about how we can help others too. There is no greater evidence of this than the effigies and Nativity scenes all around us at this time- as Mary and Joseph are the most famous refugees in all of history.

I would like to leave you all with a little Christmas wish list that a crafter like myself would be extremely excited by.

•  Oxfam Christmas Decorations (now half price). Stunning and proceeds go to a great cause.
  

• Subscription to Frankie Magazine  A magazine to your door = Yeah! Plus one that features other crafters, double yeah!
  

• Honeyweather and Speight Dolls House. Made from recycled cardboard. For the child within, you can never be too old for something so beautiful and handmade.
  

• La Creuset cookware I'm told it's the best and makes cooking pure unadulterated joy. Now this one is an expensive gift but you can spread the love by cooking for friends, family, neighbors and cooking for them Forever as this cookware lasts a lifetime.  No more throwing away crappy pots!

• Barkcloth.  The most challenging gift of all to find, but this is like the Holy Grail of fabric for a crafter or lover of vintage, the most beloved and coveted fabric imaginable.  Buy it on Ebay or buy it here. Buy it anywhere you can.  Don't ever feel weird about buying second hand.

Merry Christmas to everyone and hopefully will catch you sometime before the New Year. x

Creative Space XI...

Today I am pretty much like Kirsty who hosts Creative Space over at Kootoyoo, finishing off all my projects and getting ready for Christmas.

I have a terrible tendency to start something and then become distracted by some other venture- so today is all about Completion.  Especially as the Made In Thornbury Market is only 2 days away.

Here is my Kitchen table...

This particular table was once my Nanna Molly's and then it was my Mum's and now it is mine and that may have something to do with why I love sitting at it.  I have a seperate sewing space but it just does not invite me in like this table does. I also like to do all my embroidery on my couch and only at night.

Here is a close up of some faces that will become my Mama and Baby dolls in the next few hours. Well.... Hopefully!

A face for Little Red Riding Hood for my Thread Den order.

 

This little flock of birds need some stuffin. (Can see how they will remain this way until the last possible minute...)

And the Beeeees, the Beeeeeeeees.

Hey wouldn't it be great if I remember to photograph the finished toys before they sell this time!!!!!!

Here are some realisations-

• You can lure an obstinate Birman Pussycat away from precious fabrics by placing a woollen blanket on the workspace as well.  Then you need to take her off the blanket 2 or 3 times to prove that it is also precious and then finally she will settle there thus saving your fabrics from catness.
• You can place a lamp underneath an ironing board as a very easy light box for tracing faces.
• Sewing Velvet to Cotton is freaking hideous and therefore I don't recommend it. 
• Sometimes the faces of dolls resemble your friends but never, never ever tell that particular friend about the likeness you alighted upon.
  

As this is the last Creative Space for 2009, make sure you head over to Kirsty's to check them all out.

Creative Space IX...

"The Bees....The Beeeeeeeees......." *

Today I'm playing along again with Kirsty, I have not had a chance to do this in a while, but it is not because I've not been creative- it is because, quite frankly, I am a very lazy photographer. There, I said it.  

I am totally confounded as to why I find it so utterly difficult to pull out a Digital camera, set it to Auto,then point and shoot! Especially after spending long years in the dark room doing all of this myself- developing, pushing, cross processing, enlarging, burning, dodging.... now I do it by plugging the camera in and clicking on one or two buttons with Canon Software.... oh goodness lazy old me!

Today's Creative Space takes place on my couch.  

I am making more of the Bee Boy Rattles in the beautiful Kokka fabric from Kelani.

I bought this linen Bee print fabric so long ago and have been waiting to find matching corderoy.  Where do people buy good quality corderoy I wonder? Usually I just stumble upon it by accident in my frequent thrift shop pilgrimages.  This corderoy is Colonel Mustard yellow and black.

 

Bee boy is getting new wings sketched today as his sample wings were too big and made turning out difficult.

See how beautiful the print is.

Bees drinking tea is really too cute.

I drew his face on as a way of reducing time, it takes about 13 seconds to draw as opposed to 10 minutes to embroider.  But I do love embroidered faces so. Perhaps I will do some of each.

My kitchen has a creative space of its own at the moment as I have started making my Christmas cards for my lovely brothers and sisters. And I cannot tell you what is materialising in my sewing space as it is a project for next week, however I promise to be more adept at photographing my little creative ventures from this moment forth.

For more creative spaces visit Kootoyoo here.

*Quote from Job, Arrested Development Season 2, if you have not seen this series you must endeavor to do it very soon as it is clever and witty and ever so endearing.