Hi There! Just popping in to say that I am going on a little blog break for the next week. I’ve been bed-ridden for the last 4 days and haven’t been able to keep much food down. Today is the first day since I got sick that I have awoken without a headache and without a fever. Hooray! :-) So I’m going to spend the next week slowly getting back into the swing of things and hopefully have some crafty stuff to post up then.

Wishing you nothing but good health!

. . . it feels good to have a few more things crossed off the list after a week of limited crafting time, especially when the completed items are extremely overdue custom orders :-)

Baby Chibi Doll Jardine:

Baby Chibi Doll Greta:

Salvador the Shmerpi Pirate & Owlie:

Sarita the Shmerpi & Cat:

And after a few emails regarding this softie, I finally started on a new pattern - the Seahorse with patchwork body :-) This one is still WIP and I hope to have this one available in my shop in early October.

Thank you to everyone who commented and emailed regarding my last post. Your sentiments, encouragement and support is much, much appreciated. The update is that one of the expo administrators wrote back to me to say that they had spoken to the lady in question. They were told that the intention of the class was for everyone to design and make their own ‘monsters’ and not make the Shmerpi that was pictured.

My issue with this explanation is that a) the description of the class on the website is markedly different from the intention provided by the administrator, and b) if that is the case, why use a photo of my Shmerpi??? So anyway, I asked that they remove my photo immediately and change the description as the current description + Shmerpi photo is a completely false representation of the class. The administrator has advised me that the webmaster does not work weekends so the changes to the website will be made next week. So that’s where it’s at.

I still haven’t heard anything from the lady who is supposed to be teaching the class, despite emailing her.

For now, I’ll move onto some recent mail goodies and good finds :-)

I was super happy to be able to snap up some of Shannon’s “Cookies” in cherry and “Knitters” in black late last month. Not sure what I’ll use it for just yet - but sometimes, who needs a reason, right? :-)

A few weeks ago, I was surfing some of my favourite shops on etsy with Ava sitting on my lap. She saw the print below by the multi-talented Jade, and immediately requested that we buy one for her room. Jade also sent the cutest penguin fabric. Thanks Jade!

Some of you may have picked up on Superbuzzy’s sale a few weeks ago. I’ve had my eye on a Shinzi Katoh bag for months - I was stoked when I realised it was on sale! Of course, I couldn’t just order the bag from Superbuzzy, so a few pieces of sale fabric also came my way including a really sweet vintage owl trim.

And speaking of Japanese fabric, this is what I found in the latest Spotlight catalogue:

Looks like Spotlight have caught onto the Japanese fabric craze! I did notice that they started stocking a limited range of Michael Miller and Kaffe Fassett fabrics a few months ago. The pricing is very reasonable too. However I checked whether my local store had some of the fabric and they said that stock was running a little behind schedule in terms of delivery - not sure if that’s the same case for other stores too.

Okay, off to enjoy a gorgeous sunny afternoon!

Hi all, a little bit of crafting has been happening this week but not as much as I’d like. After a fairly good run of good health, I was struck down with the dreaded migraine again mid-week, which meant a lot of things in progress were put to the side for a few days. Life at work has also been ridiculous, which is why a particular sign has found its way onto my desk:

That sign has given me and some of my work colleagues a bit of a giggle too :-)

I must be honest and say that I lost a little bit of the crafting mojo this week due to a somewhat unhappy incident. A kind reader has alerted me to the fact that a lady in Canada is going to be teaching a class at a large craft expo in November on how to make . . . a Shmerpi!! Except she has called it a ‘monster‘ and appears to be passing it off as one of her designs. If that is not enough, she has used this picture of Sebastian the Shmerpi in the brochure about the class. Seriously folks, what the ????

It’s totally bummed me out. I know that a Shmerpi is not a difficult design to copy but how disrespectful is it to just pass it off as your own AND teach it to others as if it was your own design AND steal use my picture to promote it!!! And as tempting as it is to provide a link to the lady in question, I won’t. But oh how the blood boils. I have contacted the lady but I am just not looking forward to the whole awkwardness of sorting it out.

I was working on a new pattern to release but this whole incident is making me rethink about whether I should go ahead with it.

But thank you, thank you, thank you to the kind reader who did contact me. On the upside, I am very grateful for the global craft community that does “look out” for each other :-)

Moving on to non-crafty but happier happenings, I accompanied Ava on her first school excursion yesterday as a “Parent Helper”. Her class went to watch a production of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Oxford Children’s Theatre in Box Hill. It was definitely an entertaining show with lots of laughs and interaction with the kids - Ava, however, was distracted with her new Dora lunch-box and kept asking me every few minutes if she could open it up and eat her lunch!

It’s been a while since Ava and I have had the chance to spend the day together - just the two of us - so I certainly treasured every moment of it. At 3 years old, she is becoming quite the conversationalist and it was a joy to talk about anything and everything that was on her mind, and to see her trying to find ways to explain and express what she was thinking. I think I need to start carrying a tape recorder so that I can capture all of the wonderful thoughts she’s trying to express at the moment (she has a hilarious imagination!).

(Yes, that wonky fringe/bangs is my doing!)

Okay, back to more crafty (and happier) posts on the weekend (I hope!) and pics of a few goodies I’ve received in the mail. And hooray it’s Friday! Hope your end of the week is a good one and your weekend is even better!

While the girls were soundly asleep yesterday afternoon, I jumped in the car and drove to Jenny’s gorgeous kids shop, Chalk, in Yarraville. It was lovely to finally meet Jenny after being in contact via emails over the last few months.

You’ll now find the latest batch of sleepy huggable cats and bunnies at Chalk, in addition to the following Baby Chibi Dolls.

Baby Chibi Doll Avis

Baby Chibi Doll Brie

Baby chibi Doll Neve

Thanks so much Jenny!

I also completed this simple owlie cushion (previous versions here and here). This particular one is a craft magazine submission - the brief was for an easy softie that a parent can make for their child. So I stuck with simple shapes for the pattern and went for a friendlier look (as compared to my usual grumpy owls :-)). I’m thinking of adding a pair of black felt ‘glasses’ before I send it off.

Hoot!

Hi all - I’m still here :-) but these last few days have been crazeeee busy, so I’ve been squeezing some crafting time in whenever I can.

We’ve been having a wonderful time with friends from Sydney who are in Melbourne for a short holiday. Deadlines are quickly approaching at work for a stack of documentation I’m writing. Ava had her first take-home assignment due this week (which was actually a lot of fun to do together!). And another friend and her hubby welcomed their first child (a son) earlier in the week. I whipped up these bibs for the little fella:

My friend is in the Air force and her hubby is in the Army - so I couldn’t resist making at least one bib with a camouflage print :-) The bibs close with snap buttons and have a thick towel backing.

These sleepy huggable cats and rabbits were also completed for my final wholesale order - I just need to finish up the last details for some Baby Chibi dolls and the order will be complete.

And here are some of my more recent favourites from around Flickr:

1. Teapot, 2. Move piggy…moooove !!!, 3. Adrian, front, 4. Para a Ariana, 5. almost done…, 6. Untitled, 7. 3 cute girls, 8. WIP Art Quilt, 9. tortoise and hare, 10. Pincushion challenge - Summertime, 11. Woman’s Work, 12. Geisha Forest close up

I’m so behind on emails at the moment - and even more behind on Bloglines! (Last time I checked there were over 400 new items to read - yikes!) So hope to get cracking on those at the end of the week.

For those of you waiting on the next shop update, I have moved the update to early October (no longer mid-September) so that I can complete my final round of custom orders by the end of this month and do justice to the shop update :-)

Hope to post more on the weekend! Hope your week is going well!

Wow - just four months until Christmas! Yikes! September is one of my favourite months - it must be the onset of Spring :-)

I’m still working away on my final wholesale order. Earlier in the week I whipped up a little quilt block. Every year, the school that Ava attends asks all the families to submit a quilt block, which is then sewn up into one huge quilt. I only received the notice a week ago and drew a blank as to what to make (given the limited time). I decided to keep it simple and print one of Ava’s drawings onto fabric, adding colourful scraps from my stash to reflect her absolute love of drawing and colour at the moment:

I was also contacted by a craft magazine to write up a project how-to on a variation of the Ruby Doll. I came up with a few sketches during my lunch times at work :-)

And translated the sketches into this:

I’m not sure what to call her just yet but I like her mushroom-shaped head :-) I decided to forgo the usual bright pink felt cheeks I use on most of my dolls and use some blush for her and the bunny’s cheeks - it certainly provides a softer look. At this stage the pattern and instructions for this doll are penciled in for the April 2008 edition of the magazine.

I can’t tell you how happy I am that it’s Friday tomorrow! It’s been a looooong week . . .

Thank you for the lovely comments about Chibi Aimee :-)

I’m excited to announce that some of my toys are now available at a new shop for children in Caulfield South (Victoria) called ‘My Poppet‘. It is owned and managed by Cinti, who is also a very talented designer and makes gorgeous baby wares using vintage fabrics through ‘Cinti Does Vintage‘.

The following will be available from this week at My Poppet.

Left to Right: Baby Chibi Feliz & Bird, Baby Chibi Delilah & Cat, Baby Chibi Gwen &Owl

Happy Chibi Posie (left) and Happy Chibi Pippa (right)

Sakaya the Shmerpi and Owlie

Sawyer the Shmerpi and Owlie

And here’s a view of what’s on their shirts (the yellow one in the middle is not available at My Poppet)

Thanks so much for this opportunity Cinti! More photos over at my Flickr.

I’ve got one more wholesale order to go and then, as mentioned in a previous post, I’ll be taking a break from wholesaling for the rest of the year :-)

Quickly popping in to say hope you’re having a wonderful weekend! We’ve had some gorgeous sunshine here in Melbourne.

This little one is a gift for a friend’s grand-daughter:

I’ve used my favourite fleece - terry fleece - and slightly altered my original chibi pattern. The very first softie-pattern I designed was this, which I simply called a Chibi. It was then slightly altered to make this. Replacing the fabric body with fleece produced this. And finally, some further slight modification and we have Aimee above. I’m happy with the way this particular doll has evolved and hope to have a pattern of the latest iteration available soon!

Now off the catch the rest of Kath and Kim ;-)