Just popping in to introduce two more Pirate Shmerpi creatures.
Samson (#32) is a custom order. The snail buddy was a special request :-)

Shamus (#31) is also a custom order with a monkey buddy as a special request. The customer also requested lots of orange and aqua.

I also promised I’d make Ava a little cuddly friend. Thanks to generous family and friends, she practically has a softie of every creature known to man, so I wanted to make her something that was different. Her favourite colours are blue and green, and I used vintage fabrics recovered from my Grandmother’s stash. While the girls slept this afternoon, I was able to whip up this little one:

She greeted Ava upon her awakening and Ava has been toting her around the house ever since :-) After much ummming and ahhhing, Ava settled on the name “Tamalee“.

Now, must go and watch a person I seem to relate to very well - Ugly Betty :-)

Hope you’ve had a great week. It’s Friday night as I type this. After the usual chaotic afternoon and evening, the girls are happily asleep and the house is nice and quiet, except for this rockin’ CD playing on my laptop.

I’ve come across a great variety of print and pattern on both fabric and paper this week that I wanted to share with you.

I don’t usually post my thrifting/second-hand goodies as they haven’t been particularly inspired of late, but this week was a great one in terms of unearthing vintage fabric. Here are the results of some op-shopping and 2 vintage fabric eBay wins:

I particularly love the apple/pear print (top right corner) and the children’s print. I’m looking forward to transforming them to some softies :-)

Next up, some wonderful greeting cards. On the days that I am in the city for work, around mid-afternoon I head next-door to Dymocks on Collins St for a coffee. I love the feeling of being surrounded by books, whether in bookstores or libraries. As I wait for my coffee, I always end up drifting towards the greeting card/stationary section of the store. Apart from a good cup of coffee, I came away with these little gems:

Top row (left to right):
1. Peacock card illustrated by Kelly Hyatt
2. “Porcelina” card designed by Stephen Mackey
3. Chiyogami card (handmade in Australia) by Apogee Paper Kraft

Bottom row (left to right):
4. “Turtle Doves” designed by Rachel Bishop (PNDesign)
5. Bird and cage card by Christopher Vine

I also came across a wonderful set of correspondence cards by none other than Jill Bliss. I’ve been wanting to include a “thank you” card with my orders but have found that getting my own design printed professionally a little too pricey at the moment (and would take away from my fabric budget!), so these are a perfect alternative!

And finally, Marianne’s “Small People” postcard set has arrived. I adore each one! I’m definitely keeping these for myself :-) and will frame a few and hang them up in my daughter’s rooms.

Hope you are/will be having a relaxing Friday night too. And now, to enjoy a cupcake :-)

This little one was a custom order for a newborn and is finally on her way to her new home.

I used some velour fleece on her and I have to admit that I love this stuff! The look and feel is very, well . . . plush! It’s a little pricier than polar fleece but I think it’s certainly worth it. If only it came in more colours . . .

There’s been so much awesome stuff happening on the craft blogs lately - there’s just not enough time to digest it all! I did want to mention Abby’s latest soft scuplture and her decision to move into true one-of-a-kind sculptures (rather than replicable soft toys). Her work and her willingness to share her creative process have been an inspiration to me since I started this blog. I am sure she will find much success with this new direction. It is a brave move and requires lots of discipline, vision, and of course, hard work - things that Abby has certainly displayed time and again. Check out her amazing work for yourself here.

Time to move on to a few more custom orders but before I do, I just wanted to say thank you to Andrew Stephens for including One Red Robin in an article in The Age on “living like our Nanna’s“ :-) I did want to clarify that although the article says that my toys are “painstakingly” sewn - it really isn’t as painful as it sounds - it’s really enjoyable and lots of fun! :-)

And finally, a shameless plug: for those of you in Melbourne who are wanting to hear some great new bands, head down to the Ding Dong Lounge at 9pm tonight and catch a set by my younger brother’s band, Carnation.

This one’s for a wonderful girl who will be celebrating her 4th birthday tomorrow and whom Ava affectionately refers to as her “Best Friend.” :-) I could not ask for a kinder, sweeter, and funnier best friend for Ava. I had to include a copy of “Benjamin Bunny” authored and illustrated by the person whose work inspired me as a young child to create characters, stories, and worlds of my own - Beatrix Potter.

Like the previous Bunny & Bag set, the bunny pattern is from this classic Japanese craft book (with minor modifications).

And thank you to Louisa Deasey for featuring One Red Robin in today’s The Age newspaper A2 column, “I Made It Myself“. You can click on the pic to read the column.

The Modamuse blog is a great entry point to discovering many talented designers and artists from Australia and New Zealand. So I have to say that I was very surprised when they asked if I would be interested in selling some of my toys through their online store. I jumped at the chance!

So my remaining five completed toys were bundled up and travelled overnight to Modamuse HQ. These little ones are now available at Modamuse:

Sager has already been sold!

Along with these puppies I posted about a few weeks ago:

For pricing, please follow this link to One Red Robin @ Modamuse. Items can be shipped interstate within Australia and overseas. You’ll also want to spend some time checking out the creations of fellow Aussies and Kiwis :-)

Hope you’ll all have a wonderful weekend - mine will be filled with entertaining friends at a long overdue get-together, attending Church with our extended families, and celebrating Ava’s best friend’s birthday. Oh, and a little bit of sewing thrown in there as well :-)

As you know I took a few weeks blog-break to catch up on some sewing projects. When I went back to work at the beginning of the year, I really didn’t know how much it would affect the time I had to work on craft projects. Granted, it has drastically cut the time I have to actually sit down and make things but it has also made me plan more, prioritise more, think more, and sometimes, sleep less :-)

I think, however, that I have finally found a routine that works so that I am present, involved and interactive with my family during the times when we are all awake, and this leaves me a good few hours when the girls are asleep at night to really focus and be productive.

As a result, my plan to have 10 completed soft toys by yesterday was achieved. Here are the first five that are now available at Meet Me At Mikes:

If you are interested in any of the above, please contact Meet Me At Mikes directly (via email or phone – details are on their website). They are willing to ship interstate within Australia and overseas.

In other news, I finally have my own copy of Sew U by Wendy Mullin & Eviana Hartman. It was the last copy on the shelf at Dymocks when I popped in today. As you may know, one of my goals this year is to sew clothes for myself and my family. Sewing clothes has always been a complete mystery to me, so I was delighted when I flicked through this book – great stuff for beginners like me with lots of handy hints, clear instructions and diagrams, and a bunch of basic patterns (shirt, skirt & pants) on which to build upon. It is easily one of the most valuable books I now have in my collection. You can read a review by Whip Up here.

And finally, I previously mentioned Made for China – a cause calling crafters to donate a range of handmade goods for orphans in China. The items have now been distributed and Carol has posted up some photos of the children receiving the donated items. I wept when I saw the photos – how I hope and pray that each precious child is adopted into a loving and nurturing home. It was so touching to see photos of 2 children holding some of the softies I had made - I really wish that I could have made more.

Speaking of great causes, you may also want to be involved in this wonderful cause for children in Mozambique, organised by Kelli.

Thank you to all who have left comments! I truly appreciate and am continually motivated by your words of encouragement and your thoughts :-)

I just wanted to share some sweet finds today but before I do, here are some collages that are now available over at The Great Green Room.

I have posted about the first 2 previously. The third one is called “A Place to Dream” and is a mixed media collage incorporating: found & vintage ephemera, found & vintage buttons, acrylic paints, brass charm, black ink and sequins. The collage comes in a black square frame.

Also I wanted to say that after some serious consideration as to how to make One Red Robin fit around my family (rather than the other way around), I’ve made a few changes as to where my toys & dolls will be available for sale. Basically, my etsy shop will now only sell artwork and will be the place to order custom-made Shmerpi and Baby Chibi dolls. This means that the 10 softies I’ve completed and all future ready-made toys and dolls will only be available via The Great Green Room, Meet Me At Mikes, and in the very near future, Modamuse.

Ah, now onto some sweet finds!

My first find is sweet indeed. I popped into an Asian Grocery store located in Melbourne Central just for a quick browse and was delighted to find that they stocked many of the Japanese candies I’ve been searching for but couldn’t find elsewhere.

My family (particularly Ava) are BIG fans of Pocky. So I grabbed the standard Chocolate-flavoured Pocky, but also got the Mixed Fruit-flavoured Pocky, and a box of Cinnamon Pretz. Then I found some Strawberry Mouse Chocolate candy, which went straight into my basket. And finally, I couldn’t walk out of the store without a packet of Melon and Cream Dai-Fuku (rice cakes). I must admit that as I type this, half of the loot has already gone :-)

The highlight of my day was a quick trip to Meet Me At Mikes to drop off some new soft toys/dolls (which I’ll blog about tomorrow). It’s such a sweet treat to walk through those doors! My plan was to pick up one dress for Ava that I had seen during a previous visit. Instead, this is what came home with me:

I adore, adore, adore the 2 dresses - I love the fabric used on both (how could I resist apple-green polkadot?) and love their style/shape. Ava is going to look so adorable in them!

I was also influenced (quite easily I must add) to purchase a wonderful book by Valerie Janitch simply called “Collages: A Step-by-Step Guide“. It is truly a treasure-trove of ideas, techniques and templates - so happy to have it in my little book collection! And finally, I (again, quite easily) convinced myself to pick-up a Vintage Paper & Things package that included a vintage dress pattern, buttons and sweet odds-and-ends that will find their way into future collages.

Hope you’re having a sweet Wednesday/night too!

I’ve been sewing like crazy . . . well, at least sewing like crazy whenever the girls have been asleep. Life has pretty much been about the girls and making stuff this last week, so I was very surprised to find that One Red Robin had been mentioned in The Age newspaper today! If you’ve wandered over here because of The Age, Sancho the Pirate Shmerpi (above) and I just wanted to say hello! and hope you’ll enjoy your time while you’re here :-)

I have to be completely honest and say that my first reaction to seeing One Red Robin in print was to cringe - and not because they mis-spelt my first name (hee hee!). It was because I saw all the other wonderful websites that were also mentioned and I was completely overcome with feelings of inadequacy, self-consciousness, and even embarrassment.

I have such high regard for the work of all the artists/designers that were included - One Red Robin seems out of place. It is surreal for me to see it right under Loobylu, whose craft blog (and Month of Softies meme) inspired me to start this crafting journey in the first place. I want to make it clear that I am not fishing for compliments when I write this, but just wanted to acknowledge that feelings of “not-good-enough” can surface at the strangest of times! My many thanks to Frances Atkinson for including One Red Robin in the article.

You can click on the pic below to see a larger version.

Sancho and a handful of other toys/dolls are currently in different states of progress, and all should be available very soon. I’ll post again at the end of the week once they’re all ready to say hi :-)

P.S. Thank you to Aurore for the heads up on the mention!

April is my favourite month. My parents and my parents-in-law are both celebrating their wedding anniversaries this month; we’ll be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary in a few days; lots of birthdays happening; and I’ll be celebrating another year of life at the end of this month. I’ve got a few orders to complete and I’m working towards a reasonable shop update at the end of this month (my goal is at least 10 new items). So with all this going on, I’ve decided to go off-line for the next 2 weeks (because it’s so hard to stay focussed with all the lovely stuff I find on your blogs!).

Here’s a sneak peek at what will be available in my shop at the end of the month:

There will be a few owls, a few happy girl and baby chibi dolls and a few Shmerpi creatures. Those on the mailing list will be provided with a date in advance regarding the shop update.

I’ve also started a small knitting club with some of the young ladies and girls from my church. We’ll be learning to knit together, working towards the goal of knitting as many items as possible by the end of June. The items will be donated to a charity as a part of their regular winter appeal. Our first meeting is this week and I’ve started practicing :-)

It’s been wonderful to see a few more Ruby dolls appearing - check out these delightful dolls made by Vicki (left) and Dot (right). Aren’t they gorgeous?! Be sure to check our their blogs for more handmade loveliness.

I’ve set-up a Ruby Soft Doll group on Flickr so if you’ve made one (or more!) please feel free to add your dolls to the pool.

It’s going to be a busy but exciting month. Before the craziness really starts, I’ve managed to block out some “me-time” and will be heading off to watch this with my sis-in-law and few friends tomorrow night. Hubby will be staying home with the girls. Woohoo :-)

Hope you are all well and have had a refreshing Easter break. I love Easter because it always refocuses my heart and spirit back to the message of hope and new beginnings. See you all in 2 weeks time!

P.S. The pattern for Yelena Ruby (Matroyshka style) should also be ready at the end of the month.

Ava loves the Alphabet. You’ll often find her leafing through her Alphabet books, singing the Alphabet song or asking her Mama to write some letters. I’ve been looking for some shirts with simple/colourful Alphabet designs and haven’t found any - so I decided to design my own (why not, right?)

Here’s 3 that I’ve finished. I’ve put them up in my cafepress shop on infant onesies and toddler t-shirts if you’re interested. I’m hoping to receive my order soon and can’t wait to see them on my little girls! heehee.

Speaking of shirt designs, on Pip (from Meet Me At Mike’s) recommendation, I popped into Genki. I was delighted to find that it was only a 2 minute walk from where I work in the city! I was excited as soon as I stepped into the shop and proceeded to look (and touch) all the cool stuff (which really was everywhere). There were gorgeous clothes and jewelry, one-of-kind softies, and a selection of very cool Japanese stuff like softies, mugs, and books from Aranzi Aronzo! But my favourite part was looking through all their incredibly cute shirts! I picked up these 2 for the girls:

You can see all their other shirt designs on the Genki website. I’m thinking of picking up some shirts for me too :-)

And last but not least, I received this bunch of goodies from the awesome Dawn of Dawbis:

On the bottom left is an original that I was able to secure through her Trade Catalog. And look at all the extra stuff she sent - gorgeous prints and additional handrawn lovelies. There’s so much I love about her work - colour, texture, skill, themes, etc. These will certainly be up in my studio very soon. Thanks so much Dawn! In return, I sent her Seahorse #4 and a few Aussie goodies :-)

Hoping you all have a safe and happy Easter.