I know I said I was taking a break but I wanted to share a few things before I pack them away (and then inevitably forget which box I put them in and spend weeks looking for them!).

I received my advance copy of the next issue of Handmade magazine - it was a lovely surprise to see my Babushka doll on the cover :-)

And inside, I really love the way they have photographed her with the matroyshka dolls as props and vintage-y wallpaper:

This issue has got some super-cute projects and a great article on Matroyshka dolls. As promised, there will be a few copies in my shop in the first week of July.

I also received my first swatches of fabric from Spoonflower. The first one came out nicely - I will order a much larger piece to make some blouses for the girls. The cotton is lightweight and has a nice gentle stretch.

The second one, however, is a bit of a disappointment - I have yet to find the cause, but the colours did not print out as expected. Here is the original pattern:

And here’s how it turned out on fabric:

I might try a more simple colour combo the next time around as I am keen to use the pattern on a few softies. More swatches of some of my other patterns are on the way - it will be interesting to see how they have turned out.

And finally, the first email I received this morning was from the wonderfully talented Christine, who notified me that I had won her latest giveaway! I am so excited to receive one of her gorgeous dolls - each one is a true work of art. Thank you Christine!

Okay, better get back to the packing. Thank you for all your best wishes on the move - it has provided me with much needed motivation to just keep going, one box at a time, and not get stressed out about it :-)

Be back in a few weeks.

Yes, the insanity has officially begun over at our place with the big move just around the corner. I will be on leave from Blogland for the next 3-4 weeks to focus on packing, throwing stuff out, moving, and settling in. I’ll still be able to access my email until the end of this month.

I’ll leave you with my recent Flickr favourites. I heart Flickr - it’s just bursting with inspiration!

Credits:
1. kokiri carousel, 2. cut paper illustration of a cute gal, 3. Kiki paper doll, 4. small crochet blanket, 5. Untitled, 6. macaroons Land…, 7. Cuckoo Clock, 8. Happy, 9. evie’s pirate dolly, 10. Sleeping Owl Pouch, 11. color and dot to dot books, 12. Little Bear

A few plugs:
> Check out the wonderful project that is the Toy Society
> My cousin-in-law is an awesome portait-taker
> My little (okay, not so little) brother and his band have got some gigs lined up around Melbourne and will be touring nationally later in the year - go check ‘em out live! More details and previews of their music here.
> The pattern/instructions for my Babushka Soft doll will be in the next issue of Handmade Magazine, available from 27th of June. I’ll have a few magazines over in my shop in early July for those who live overseas and have asked for a copy.

Wishing you a lovely and happy weekend - see you sometime in July!

P.S. Hope you like the little changes I’ve made to my website :-)

Softies for Mirabel 2008 is in full swing! Peaches the Piggy is on her way to this wonderful cause to support the Mirabel foundation and currently being hosted by Mikes:

Peaches is a slight modification of this previous piggy softie. There’s more shape to her head, and her hands and feet are more trotter-like. I really enjoy making softies but I really, really loved making Peaches - Ava and Aurora love her too (they are both into Peppa Pig at the moment). Looks like a couple more piggies need to be added to the To-Make list for the girls :-)

I’m hoping to stitch up a few more softies for Mirabel after we move house. If you haven’t heard of the cause I encourage you to check out the FAQs over here and get involved. It is for the benefit of children who are living under very difficult, confusing and painful circumstances, and who need to know that there are people who think and care about them enough to reach out, and to show them that there is hope beyond the life they know now. Couldn’t ask for a better reason to be involved than that!

Check out all the delightful softies that have been donated so far over here.

A few weeks ago, I think I mentioned that I had stopped making Shmerpi Creatures - well, I completely forgot that there was one more of these guys in my pile of things to do! He has been a work in progress for the last 6 months, not because he was difficult to make, but I kept putting it off because I knew he wasn’t needed until this month.

My sis-in-law’s friend asked for a special Shmerpi for a friend of hers who was going to have a baby - the main points being that the friend was expecting a baby boy with a name starting with “J“; that his room had a nautical theme (but no pirates please) with lots of blue; and that her husband (and daddy-to-be) was from New Zealand.

Please meet Sparke the Shmerpi. I used Lara’s Riverstone fabric for the top and added a red-felt anchor. On his back is the letter “J” in red felt too. And he has his very own little Kiwi bird softie.

Sparke is Shmerpi #50 and the very last Shmerpi I will make. Feels like I should retire the pattern and hang it up somewhere on the wall :-) If you would like to make your own Shmerpi and little softie, the pattern will be available in a few months time :-)

P.S. On a totally different note, if you are interested in making your own patterns but don’t know where to start, check out this detailed and well-explained post by Rachel, and this one by How About Orange.

Thanks to Michelle for the great theme this week! It’s been fun looking in to all the different creative spaces. Here is my creative nook:

It may look a little strange as I had to join 3 different pics together. I am very grateful to have had this space to play in over the last few years - it’s big enough to hold my stuff and because it’s open (no doors to close it off from the rest of the house) there is lots of space for the girls to play in there while I’m working on projects.

I think it will be the room I will miss the most (along with the girls’ rooms) when we move. Thankfully I have my own craft room in the new place, though it will be a lot smaller.

Speaking of rooms, I’ve been gathering ideas for setting up the girls’ room in the new house over the last few weeks. When I saw that Decor8 had their new Mood Board Contest up and running for this year I knew I had to give it a shot, and to mock-up one for the girl’s rooms as my submission.

Ava loves the colour blue so I used this as the starting point along with Amy Butler’s Martini and Honeycomb prints in green. Oh, and I also pretended that money was no object :-)

I tried to mish-mash modern, vintage and handmade bits together. If you click on the image, it will take you to the Flickr image where you can view a larger version of the image and all the details of the items. I must admit that putting this together was A LOT OF FUN - I’m sure you’d have fun with it too, but be warned, you could easily loose a couple of hours working on this!

I created a few more patterns this past week (couldn’t stay away!). The first one is called “Michi” and is inspired by simple Japanese patterns:

And the next one is based on my Woodland Girl dolls:

You may notice in the room above, I mocked up a cushion using the Michi pattern in red and the Woodland Girl print ;-) I’m hoping to create a few more patterns using some of my softie characters. I’m still waiting on the Spoonflower samples to arrive, but I can’t help getting even more excited after seeing the fabric that Emily designed and received recently.

I really should be working on other things at the moment.

Instead I am sketching, doodling and playing around with patterns during spare moments, sparked by the invitation to join Spoonflower that I received last week. I’m finding pattern-making so much fun (and quite therapeutic) and it provides a nice little break from softie-making for a short while :-) I am still such a newbie at this so I am making heaps of silly mistakes trying to make them repeatable but if you want to see how the experienced fabric-makers go about it, check out Lara, Shannon, Bianca, Danielle, and Anna Laura just to name a few.

So there hasn’t been much on my desk, except for sketches and doodles, as I’ve been working mainly on the laptop. I uploaded some new patterns and old patterns in new colour-ways to my Flickr Pattern set over the last few days.

I’ve selected a few and ordered some swatches and fat-quarters from Spoonflower. Now I am excitedly waiting for them to arrive. I hope to use them for upcoming softies and also for various things in the girls’ room at the new house.

My 2 new patterns are inspired by True Up’s thoroughly enjoyable week of “folksy geometric” prints. I really love “folksy geometric“. My first new pattern is pretty simple and features robins :-) I like the way it looks in simple black against apple-y green, but I also like it with a bit of colour so I haven’t yet decided on which one to order.

The second is a pattern I have tentatively called “Folksy Tea Party“. I’m still experimenting with colours but I would eventually like to get this pattern printed on to fabric to be sewn up as tea towels for the new place.

What is actually on my desk at the moment is my notebook open to a page with my list of things to do . . . to remind me that I really should stop having so much fun with patterns and start work on more important (and more urgent) things!

Back to softie-making this weekend. Hope you all have a very happy Friday!

There once was a boy named Bunnito,
Who dreamed of being a Pirate-ito,

Stitched a skull to his shirt and hoped it would work,

With polkadot jammies - finito!

Bunnito is my next magazine contribution, hopefully available in an Aussie craft mag later on in the year. The brief was for something pirate-y and given that I seem to like making pirate-themed softies, this one was fun to work on.

Inspiration for Bunnito came from this illustration:

(Anybody know who created this? I saved it ages ago but forgot to note down the credit - my bad).

And Aranzi Aronzo’s brown bunny (the one in the middle):

And my love of Terada’s soft toys.

The weekend disappeared in a flash. We went to a lovely wedding and started packing up stuff around the house, but then both girls fell very ill and life quickly changed gears. Thankfully they are now both recovering and getting back to their cheeky selves. Here’s my favourite pic from the wedding (just before they fell ill):

On my desk today are pieces for a new softie design waiting to be sewn up. I have to admit that cutting out pieces for softies is my LEAST favourite part of the process. Sometimes when I know I have a lot of pieces to cut out, I find myself procrastinating until the very last minute :-) I’ll even go find a room in the house to clean rather than sit and cut out pieces! That’s probably why I don’t see myself ever attempting a quilt made of small patchwork pieces - the preparation alone would drive me insane!

Also, playing with two new prints . . . . . . which I worked on to distract me from cutting out all the pieces for the softie. Heehee :-)

More “On My Desk” fun over here.

Anyway, on a completely different note, here are some links I am enjoying:

> A Print A Day: This talented gal is so disciplined and productive and so generous too! I’ve downloaded these mushroom labels (for free!) and will print on them on off-white cardstock for use on some upcoming gifts.
> Yummygoods: Can’t wait for her new fabric line with Free Spirit available later in the year, but in the mean time just enjoying her blog and most recently, her fantastic fabric finds from a yard sale!
> Cicada Studio: Going to seriously save my pocket money for some of her brilliant fabric.
> Christine’s recent batch of dolls: Dear Santa, I would like ALL OF THEM.
> Elsita’s papercut art: Jaw-droppingly good.
> Sandra Healy’s carved wood creations as featured on etsy - I just love all the different kinds of birds she’s made.

Hope you’re having a relaxing Thursday night!

Yay, the Peg Bear softies are finally finished!!!

Off to My Poppet (made from vintage fabrics from here):

Off to Mikes:

Off to Modamuse:

And me, off to bed!
Goodnight!

Still working on the Peggies (on the home stretch now) but I thought I’d participate in Pip’s Sunday Supper tonight.

Thanks to my Mum, Sunday supper was one of my favourite Filipino dishes - Pancit Malabon:

Pancit Malabon Recipe:

• 8 oz. pack rice noodles (you can also use thicker spaghetti noodles)
• 1 tbsp. Annato seeds
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 lbs. cooked seafood marinara mix
• 3/4 cup finely crushed pork crackling
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped and fried
• 2 tbsp green onion, finely chopped
• 2 slices of hard boiled egg
• Pinch of salt and pepper to taste

1. Soak noodles in boiling water for 20 minutes or until softened.
2. Drain well and set aside.
3. Soak the annato seeds in a pan with oil and garlic while heat is set to simmer. Strain the oil free of seeds and burnt garlic.
4. Add the oil in a sauce pan, and season with soy sauce, salt and black pepper.
5. Stir in the cornstarch, simmer until thick, stirring constantly until thickened.
6. In a plate, put the noodles, pour sauce over it, then sprinkle crushed pork crackling, marinara mix, fried garlic and green onions.
7. Toss the nooodle mixture and sprinkle with kalamnci lime juice to taste.
8. Arrange sliced eggs on top.
9. Serve hot.

This was followed by freshly baked rocky-road brownies - yummmmmy!

I used this recipe and just before the brownie base was fully cooked, I sprinkled the top with some cut-up marshmellows, chopped nuts, and semi-sweet choc chips and left it in the oven to bake for another 5 minutes. Lovely with a nice hot cup of tea :-)

Kyla has picked “This is my pet” as the “This is” theme today - thanks Kyla!

When I was still single and living at home, I adopted a sweet little white labrador puppy and called her Indi. This is Indi a few years ago:

She still lives my parents (as they fell in love with her and wanted to keep her when I moved out). She is loyal, gentle, friendly, super-sweet and has a voracious appetite! The girls love her too.

When Ava was almost 2 years old, my husband brought home an adorable German Shepard pup and called him Cisco:

Cisco grew very quickly and after a year was a huge dog! We couldn’t let Ava near him as he would jump all over her and basically knock her to the ground. But Ava loved him and would often try to talk to him through the window. Unfortunately he passed on a year ago but Ava still asks about him from time to time.

Also, just wanted to let you that Happy Chibi Girl Cadence is now up for auction for Craft for China. Check out all the amazing donations on offer:

I hope you will consider supporting this wonderful auction which is for the benefit of two very special little girls in China. You can find the auction site here.

Hope you’re having a great Sunday night. Pics of the Peggies in the next few days!