Every time I look over at the Babushka Soft Doll that’s sitting on my shelf, I can’t help but see the significant influence of my Kokeshi doll collection in her design. It’s been bugging me for the past few weeks so last night I dropped everything and got started on making a Matryoshka softie that was hopefully more Matryoshka-ish.

Thankfully she came together very quickly as I knew exactly how I wanted her to look and what fabrics I’d use.

As you can probably tell, I am very much loving Joel Dewberry’s Woodgrain print at the moment so that ended up on the softie (it will be featuring in my upcoming softies for the show too!). I also used Japanese fabric for the apron, some of my favourite owl trim, and the blue floral on her head is from a vintage 1960s dress I’ve used a few times.

I didn’t have any plastic pellets on hand to weigh her down so I put some raw rice grains in a bag and sealed it tight, and popped that in to the bottom. It’s actually doing a good job (as she can firmly stand on her own) plus it’s not as lumpy as the pellets. She stands 30cm (1 foot) tall.

I’m very happy with the way she has turned out – especially because I think she does look a lot more like the traditional Matryoshka dolls. If I had more time, I would have made another two dolls in descending size :-) This one is off to the U.K. for a little while.

A few weeks ago, I posted up a Lamb Lovey softie – he is really easy to make and if you’d like to know how to make him, you will find him in the August issue of Get Creative, which is now available in newsagents and Spotlight stores. Thanks to the Get Creative team for doing a little feature on One Red Robin too :-)

I’m off to enjoy some of these late-night nibblies with a nice, hot cup of tea:

I realised we ran out of chocolate (a rare occurrence in this household I tell you), so I melted some baking (dark) chocolate and used it to cover a few strawberries, marshmallows (which were then rolled in chopped nuts), and even a couple of Kingstons I found in the pantry. I left them in the fridge for a few hours to harden and now they are ready to be enjoyed!

Yum.

P.S. First round of Mike’s Softies for Mirabel Auction is now up and running over here!

Woodland Girls are still in progress:

“This Is” this week is free-form so I thought I’d share my latest fun distraction. Thanks to the inspiration provided by Mel and Kate (and the discussion here also via Kate), I found myself distracted with thoughts of soap-making this past week. I really like the idea of making our own soap for the simple reasons of 1) knowing exactly what goes into them (and therefore knowing what exactly goes onto our skin, 2) having soap with the fragrance I actually like, and 3) saving money.

I followed the very simple tutorial here (link found via Mel) for re-batching soap (thereby bypassing caustic soda – stuff which freaks me out.) I used half the ingredients on my first attempt, mixed it with some shea butter and a combination of Sweet Orange, May Chang and Spearmint essential oils. It produced 4 smallish bars of soap with a very refreshing fruity, tropical smell – sweeeet! This batch was for me :-)

I then made a full batch using the ingredients mixed with a bit of coconut and lavender oils for the girls. This produced 8 bars of soap. The girls love how they smell (light and sweet) and are very happy to see their names on them (simply carved on each one with a toothpick!).

The soaps are now curing and we’re looking forward to using them next weekend – I’ll let you know how they soap up :-) It only took me 1/2 an hour to make up the 12 bars and I’m already planning to make another batch – perhaps with some vanilla bean and ground cinnamon :-)

In regards to cost, I don’t think I saved any money on this batch (set-up costs) but I think the next few batches will certainly be cheaper, working out at between 40c-90c per bar of soap. I bought the oils from the Perfect Potion store in the city (they also have an archive of free recipes on their website) and I am also finding this website useful for supplies and recipes. I’ll be using the essentials oils I’ve accumulated to make other cleaning/personal care products. So it looks like this whole thing is not going to be just a distraction after all . . . :-)

And before I get started on some Woodland Boys, I just wanted to share with you this gorgeous card by Rob Ryan (based on his amazing and whimsical paper-cuts), found in Dymocks. It says “You were in my head but now you are in my heart. Please stay there forever.”

And also this quilt I found in a patchwork magazine that I have added to my “To-Make” list. My version will be smaller (for Aurora’s bed) and will have much larger triangles (as cutting out all those tiny triangles will drive me up the wall), but I’m hoping it will look just as good.

Okay, hopefully back soon some completed Woodland folk :-)

P.S. If you’d like a chance to win Peg Bear Rhyme, join in Funky Finds monthly giveaway here!

I think I mentioned that knitting and I are not the best of friends. One of my crafty/mummy goals this year was to knit the girls at least one thing each to wear for winter. A while ago, I started knitting a beanie for Ava – nothing fancy, just a simple rectangle made up of garter stitches. I think I unravelled it about 4 times in order to get the tension right.

Then I dropped a few stitches there and added a few stitches here – all by accident.

Then I couldn’t quite figure out how to sew the top end bits together to make a very simple four-point beanie – another two hours of muttering under my breath much like Muttley.

But I’m happy to say that the persevering paid off – it’s done! Finito!! And it only took me, ohhh . . . . 5 MONTHS!!!

So here it is (don’t look too close!):

And fitting snuggly on the head of a very happy girl – she was delighted.

So knitting and I are still not the best of friends but I think we are, perhaps, moving beyond mere acquaintances now – in fact, I’ve started a beanie for Aurora. I’ve unravelled it about 5 times already because I’m trying to do something a bit fancier – a knit stitch AND a purl stitch (*gasp*) – and I keep messing up the purl stitch. But I’ll overlook that, and the fact that Aurora may end up sporting this little number in Summer (given my track record). If she loves it just as much as Ava loves her wonky beanie, it will all be worth it!

Some linky love for Friday:
>> Effunia’s softies are unbearably cute
>> Super sweet Babushka Soft Doll by Joanne (please let me know if you’ve made one too!)
>> Free Terranium-themed notepad by Yasmine
>> Very inspired by these Hand Sewing Embroidery Hoops
>> Swooning over everything in this Japanese Craft Book on sewing Girl’s Clothes (found via Three Pink Trees)
>> Wishing I could see Heidi’s amazing new plush art show at Schmancy in person
>> For those of you selling your craft, a helpful article by What the Craft on pricing your creations
>> A new website called Jubella that features lots of great design eye candy and interviews with crafty/artsy people. (They kindly interviewed me and it can be found here – please note that the interview took place over 18 months ago so a couple of things have changed since then including my hairstyle and more recently, my “studio” ;-)).

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

On my desk are Woodland girls (and boys) in the making for the show, faithfully being watched over by a couple of curious Peg Bears :-)

Custom Peg Bear #5 is finally on her way to a lovely (and very patient!) customer overseas:

I’m finding that this new place has very little natural light indoors – it is been built long and narrow rather than wide. I’ve been hunting around, searching for a good place to set up for photo-taking. Looks like I’ll be taking more pics outdoors!

In the latest issue of Handmade magazine (Vol 25 No 11), I have a very non-softie project that’s quick to whip up for fetes or just as gifts – mini crayon belt:

It will hold 10 small crayons/pencils, has three pockets for little bits and pieces (like stickers, little notepad, lollies, etc), and will fit 3-5 year olds.

And here’s a great little meme thanks to Pip – one word answers to 35 Questions. Here’s mine (sort of cheated on some, hehe):

1. Where is your cell phone? bag
2. Your significant other? Arnmeister
3. Your hair? black
4. Your daughter? two
5. Your son? maybe? ;-)
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? flying
8. Your favorite drink? tea
9. Your goal? charity
10. The room you’re in? office
11. Your church? CMA
12. Your fear? mice
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
14. Where were you last night? craftroom
15. What you’re not? defeated
16. Muffins? sweet
17. One of your wish list items? this
18. Where you grew up? N.S.W.
19. The last thing you did? coffee
20. What are you wearing? suit
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? missed
23. Your computer? resilient
24. Your life? blessed
25. Your mood? upbeat
26. Missing someone? Question-4.
27. Your car? tiida
28. Something you’re not wearing? necklace
29. Favorite store? spotlight
30. Your summer? slow
31. Like(love) someone? Question-2.
32. Your favorite color? chartreuse
33. Last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? yesterday
35. Who will repost this? you!

Looks easy but I did have to put some thought into answering some of the questions with just ONE word. Want to play along? Just cut and paste the questions into your blog and answer away. Please let me know if you do as I’d love to read them!

By the way, Pip has been posting lots of delightful stuff on her blog. Oh and I am loving Cintia’s re-use of souvenir tea towels – gorgeous. Oh and how about Ink and Spindle?! Very much loving Melbourne at the moment :-)

My sincere thanks to all the kind words of encouragement and support received on my previous post :-) Thank you for your listening ears and words of advice :-)

I hope I didn’t sound as if I believed that I deserved to have success in every opportunity that came along – because I don’t. I’m actually very surprised and very grateful for any opportunity that arises and I never presume or expect success with any of them. I must be honest though, and admit that a run of failures/rejections can open the door to self-doubt and disillusionment and that is where I was at when I wrote my last post.

So thank you, thank you again for your supportive comments and emails. They, and a few nights of good sleep, helped me climb out of that ugly hole of self-pity. Thanks for helping me through it!

So on to softie-talk. I completed four Peg Bears and these three are pegged (haha!) for my little show in September:

I used fabric by Lara Cameron, a Japanese linen print, and my Dotty Pears print :-) And I actually had a fun time knitting their little scarves while I talked with a friend on the phone for two hours – hooray for large needles and thick yarn! The hardest bit was making those fabric covered buttons! After the 3rd try I got the hang of it and mentally noted that canvas-weight fabric just doesn’t work with fabric-covered-button kits.

I also completed the final Custom-made Peg Bear but I still need to make her little cap so I’ll share pics of her when she’s all done.

Thanks to Jacinta for the wonderful This Is theme this week – “This is what makes me happy“. You can’t help but sit down and count your blessings when you think about this theme. I listed all the things that make me happy and since most of them were simple, everyday things, I ended up with pages!

For this post, I decided to share the most recent thing that was making me happy and that is our ‘family days‘ – regular days when the four of us go out together for a little adventure, whether to the local park or into the city. Life has been so busy that last 6 months that we’ve had very few family days, so now that we’re all moved in and settling in, we re-committed ourselves to regular family days and kicked it off yesterday by taking the girls to the city for a few hours.

We were all exhausted by the end of it but boy, was it fun, refreshing, exciting, and it made us all mucho happy! Here’s a very touristy shot from the day :-)

Hope your weekend is going well, and you’re finding it filled with many happy moments.

Finally found little bits of time here and there to get started on some Peg Bears:

I must admit I’ve been feeling really frustrated lately. With the continuing unpacking, cleaning, chasing up of stuff after the settlement, and other things that need to be planned/organised, in addition to daily life, blah, blah, blah, I can’t seem to find time to work on what I really want to work on – which is my up-coming solo show. And time is ticking away! September is just around the corner.

This show (though not big and fancy) is very important to me – I’ve had some major disappointments in my crafty life in the last few months including a failed book deal, failed custom-made toy, rejection from a toy show I finally found the courage to apply too, and a dream-job opportunity up in smoke. This show is the one thing that hopefully won’t follow the same fate. It frustrates the heck out of me that it keeps getting pushed aside for other ‘more important‘ things (some of which can actually wait for a few more months).

Ahhh, thanks for letting me vent :-) I try to keep this blog positive and upbeat but I can’t deny how disillusioned I’m feeling at the moment. I know many of you can relate to that same feeling of frustration (tinged with feelings of failure) and that build up of creative energy that just can’t seem to find a way out.

Anyway, I’ve almost got my little crafting nook done – just need to put some artwork up on the walls and rearrange a few things, but it’s workable. Here’s my crafting space:

And around the corner is my ‘office‘ space:

And here’s some linky love – hope you enjoy them too!

>> A super quick and easy skirt to make thanks to Amy – must get me some of that FOE!

>> Tutorial for making a delightful little Mushroom by Myra.

>> Jaime’s Luca the Lion for Softies for Mirabel is adorable.

>> Mel’s wall art made for her daughter using an embroidery hoop and scrap-booking supplies is such a fantastic idea!

>> I personally think Elsita (aka Elsa Mora) is a creative genius. I love, love, love everything she creates. Elsita’s charming pins featuring one of her stunning paper-cuts sold out in a flash – here’s hoping she’ll be making more soon.

>> Label-free found via the lovely Leya of Curious Bird – looks like this is going to be a fantastic resource for all things sewing-related with a great line-up of contributors

>> CraftBlog – a great new Aussie blog on all things crafty.

Hopefully, I’ll have some finished Peggies to share on the weekend :-)

Check out more On My Desk-ers here.

Thank you for your comments on the last post! Yes, it has been a surreal 48 hours for hubby. We saw him on the news last night with his beloved iphone, then on the cover of MX Newspaper, and then in the Herald Sun newspaper again today. If you’re interested in how it all serendipitously came to be, you can read about it on his personal blog here :-)

I mentioned previously that I had some mail goodness to share so I thought I should do that now before I start cutting into the fabric.

First up, some deliveries from Spoonflower. I’m really happy with the way the Clothesline pattern has turned out. I only ordered a swatch but will definitely be ordering more.

The Dotty Pears and Square Apples patterns also turned out quite nicely. I’m thinking of slightly reducing the scale of the Dotty Pears pattern (I included a tape measure in the photo to provide an idea of scale), as I’ll be using it on softies and want more of the pattern to appear on the final product.

My only tiny qualm regarding the final fabric print is that the colour is a little more faded/lighter than what I was expecting, but I have since found out that that is to be expected and can be fixed somewhat according to this discussion.

Overall, I’m very happy and looking forward to getting some of my other patterns printed out soon. Don’t forget to check-out the Spoonflower Flickr Group for more patterns designed by lots of creative folk, plus actual creations using their Spoonflower fabric.

I also received the super-dooper gorgeous handmade doll, Miette (and her fox mask), from Christine (won from her blog). It is so stunning in person and I don’t think any photographs I take will do it justice (see Christine’s Flickr for much better pics!).

The craftwomanship is outstanding. Miette is already much loved and is destined to become an heirloom in this family :-) If you love Christine’s work, keep an eye on her blog for the next shop update and for more details on her dolls.

My craft room is almost ready to go so I will be back soon after a bit of sewing practice :-)

Hi All! I missed you!!!

Wow, the last 2 weeks have been absolutely craaaazeeeeeee. Remind me next time we decide to move that we must hire professionals to do it all for us, okay? Thankfully family & friends willingly pitched in to help us move and clean, but I don’t think I want to put us all through that stress again!

So our new home is still a huge mess but I quickly wanted to pop in, between unpacking boxes, to say hello (hello!). I took some pics of lovely things I have received in the mail but my compact flash card has decided to die on me so here are a few new patterns instead.

I re-did the “Bunny Hop” pattern – removed the stripes and tried to arrange the bunnies around so that there was more ‘movement’:

I also re-did the “Three Roses” pattern to make it look a bit more balanced. I’m hoping to get this one printed soon for some clothes for the girls:

And, given my incredible inability to grasp yarn-craft coupled with my current crush on crocheted granny squares/circles, I mocked up what you could call a faux crocheted circle pattern (in the spirit of Denyse Schmidt’s Patchwork Promenade “cheater print” :-)):

I think this pattern would look nice as cushions or as a quilt-top (you could quilt around all the circles to make them stand out).

Also for those of you have been patiently waiting (thank-you!), I’ve now got a few copies of the Handmade Magazine with the Babushka soft doll pattern now in my shop over here.

[EDITED Dec '09 to remove content]

Anyways, I have so much more to share but need to sort out my craft room so that I can get sewing again. I’ll be back here later next week (hopefully) with some new softies. Yikes, is it July already?!