. . . & hoping for the best!

This is what I’ve been up to the last few nights and will most likely be doing over the weekend. I am loving making collages again after a looooong break from them. Still a little bit of sewing to be done for the show but it looks like that will have to wait for just a little bit longer :-)

Some of my favourite blog posts from this past week:
>> Angry Chicken’s Homemade Banh Mi (love these sandwiches - thankfully we can pick these up fresh nearby but making them ourselves is a good idea too!)
>> True-Up’s week of Ogee Fabric
>> Flora’s week of doodles, acrylic & ink
>> Pillow Round-Up by Orange You Lucky (adore the ones from Urban Outfitters!)
>> Open House with Le Train Fantome
>> Heidi’s latest (amazing) softies

Also, love, love, love the work (softies, illustrations) of Yuriko Sera. Here’s a sample (credit: Yuriko Sera website):

Wishing you a fun and happy weekend!

Not quite on my desk - printed on my desk but now drying on the floor :-)

Printed on coated canvas sheets, giving the prints a lovely, lovely depth and texture.

This batch will be the only batch on canvas (that canvas is expensive stuff!) and will be signed, dated and framed for the show. The remaining prints (limited edition of 25 each) will be printed on archival cotton paper.

More on my desk players here.

Beautiful sunshine greeted us today, so Aurora and I went for a walk down the road and around the corner to the banks of the Maribyrnong River for a softie photo-shoot. Some pics from our little walk -

The River:

Cheery Cherry Blossoms:

Abandoned house:

Pretending to be a rabbit:

Softie photo-shoot out-take:

Thank you for the lovely comments on the owls :-)

Two owls on tree-stumps are ready for the show:

Made from assorted fabric prints, wool flannel, super-soft fake fur, and wool felt.

And the girls wanted to get into the photo shoot too :-)

Also, an owl print for the show:

I’ve got one week to go before I do the whole install/set-up thing for the little exhibition. I am excited, nervous, tired, giddy and everything in between :-) I still have a bunch of things to finish so I’m feeling the (self-imposed) pressure but it is good pressure/good stress - I’m not complaining!

Thanks to Potty Mouth Mama for the “This Is” theme this week - “This is my favourite children’s book“. This was a tough one as books were certainly one of my loves as a child, but I think I would have to say that all of the Peter Rabbit books by Beatrix Potter were my most favourite and had a huge impact on developing my imagination. I also loved Snugglepot & Cuddlepie by May Gibbs and I read the Ramona books (by Beverly Cleary) over and over again :-)

Given that my brain is just about the consistency of Jello at the moment, for the rest of this week I’ll just be posting up pictures of stuff as I finish them and the let the pictures do the talking. I hope to be back next Sunday with all the details on the show and some postcards to give away.

Just wanted to spread the word about Blog Action Day this year and hope you’ll consider getting involved. The conversation will be about Poverty - an issue that is near and dear to my heart and to the heart of my family.

Watch the video below:

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

And then go over to the Blog Action Day website for more info on how you can get involved, resources on the issue, and ideas on what you can post about on Blog Action Day (October 15th).

Here’s a good starting point on understanding the issue: Causes of Poverty

Late night on my desk (and out of focus): owls in (slow) progress.

Also:
- Some reading material: MixTape zine (another super-good issue), Shop 4 Kids (cool stuff including a feature on this crafty gal’s wares), Property Investor (starting to think about the future).
- My softie-making schedule for the month (such a nerd, I know), which has been adjusted many, many times because I keep missing the (self-imposed) deadlines :-)
- Mug of tea, green-tea bun from here, and homemade Filipino Buchi filled with ube jam (my favourite, I love this stuff).
- Postcards (just arrived from the printers’) for the show.

August is crazy birthday month. There is a birthday to celebrate almost every week (not complaining though!). Just got home from sis-in-law’s birthday party and tomorrow is hubby’s big day. And we’re trying to plan Mum and Mum-in-law’s birthdays next week.

I’ve got this (ridiculously annoying) eye-ache that’s been bugging me all day.

Need sleep. I’m going to polish off the rest of my late night snack and hit the sack.

Goodnight!

Thank you again for all the fawn-love! Also so funny to see many of you singing along :-)

Peg Bunnies were completed over the weekend. I used a vintage-inspired circus print, an Echino print, a bird print from Erin McMorris’ Park Slope collection, and very cute woodsy print by Lara (can you tell how much I love her fabric!).

A few days late, but thank you to Bird Bath for the This Is theme for last Sunday - “This is how I like to spend my weekend.” It’s been fun peeking into what you all get up to on the weekend :-) For us, weekends are all about reconnecting and catching up with family and friends. So here’s a snippet of the dessert spread this past Sunday night when we had some friends over for dinner:

Homemade cheesecake, homemade chocolate and apple cinnamon muffins, and a gorgeous selection of mini-cakes. Needless to say, I will need to do mucho walking (just like this gal is doing) this week!

And finally, look who’s come to live with us - Miles!

I won him in Round 2 of the Softies for Mirabel appeal and I A.D.O.R.E him!!! He is indeed the cutest and best-dressed goat I have ever seen :-) He is made by the lovely Holly - a very talented maker-of-many-things. Check out her blog here. And she shares a fantastic tutorial on how to carve rubber stamps here.

And speaking of excellent tutorials, see Kirsty’s tutorial on making a really cute toadstool pin cushion here.

Okay, back to sewing up owls before Aurora wakes from her nap . . .

Sorry for the silly post title up there - got some songs from Grease stuck in my head at the moment :-) (10 points if you know what particular song it is!)

I finished up the fawns over the weekend. It’s been raining on and off the last few days and I’ve been racing to the door every time there’s a bit of sun. Finally got 30 minutes of straight sun while the bub was having her siesta.

Here’s Felix - he’s a little bit shy, a little bit goofy, and knock-knock jokes make him fall to his belly in laughter:

And this is Frangine - she’s all into being matchy-matchy, prefers cupcakes to muffins, and for a fawn, has very good manners:

Filippa, Felix and Frangine having a chat out in the sun - Filippa, of course, being the very chatty one :-)

I’m stoked to have won a softie from round 2 of the Softies for Mirabel auction and I can’t wait to show it to you once it arrives in the mail :-)

EDITED: Just got word that Peaches the Piggy is now available for bidding in Round 3 of the Softies for Mirabel Auction! Go here to bid on her and lots of gorgeous softies!

Image by Pip

So much for taking a bit of a break! Thanks all for the lovely comments on my latest batch of Spoonflower-printed designs - I really appreciate your feedback! Finding treasures at the Op Shop (Thrift shop) has been few and far between so I wanted to share with you some loveliness I found today (also joining in on Thrifted Tuesday by Leah :-)).

I have visited the Brotherhood of St Laurence shop at Deer Park a few times and have always come away empty handed - nothing really ever took my fancy. The drought ended this morning though when my youngest and I popped in as we were in the area.

I always head straight for the back of the shop where they have a good range of Manchester and instantly found a delightful vintage green floral single flat sheet ($2). I dug through the pillow case bin and came away with a very sweet vintage-y lavender floral case ($1) - actually, I remember having this exact same pillow case as a 5 year old, more than 2 decades ago (!).

Then I wandered to the curtain area, already very happy with what I had picked up. But then I spotted IT and under my breath squealed with delight. Behold:

Love, love, love it! And there was pair of them for $2 each. I’m going to unpick all that stitching and use that lovely print for softies, cushions, bags, etc. Ahhh . . . doesn’t it feel good when you find hidden treasures so unexpectedly!

More loveliness has arrived in the mail recently. I managed to buy one of Elsita’s awesome brooches before they were all snapped up. Now to find just the right blouse/s to wear it with :-)

And stunning prints by the very sweet and talented local gal, Catherine Campbell. I was drawn especially to the one on the right (entitled “The Wind That Blows“) due to the words of the poem but also due to the fact that the muse looks like she has two birthmarks on her face, and I am quite partial to birthmarks :-)

I’m behind on emails so I hope to rectify that this week :-)

As mentioned previously, a nice little package from Spoonflower arrived recently.

I had a few more designs printed out and most (if not all) of these will be made into cushions to decorate a few rooms in our new home, while I am on my softie-making break some time next month :-)

I’m not very good at photographing fabric so I just put them up on the wall to give an idea of the scale of the print (apologies for all the crease marks - just got too lazy to iron them out!).

Fat Quarter of the “Folksy Tea Party”:

Fat Quarter of the “Folksy Robin“:

Fat Quarter of the “Woodland Girl“:

Fat Quarter of the “Faux Crocheted Circles“:

And finally, one yard of the “Bunny Hop“:

Again, I’m very happy with the final result and my only little whinge is colour-shift (as before), particularly in regards to how red turns out. What I did with this batch was experiment with different types of red in four of the five prints: “Folksy Tea Party” (turned out too dark), ” Woodland Girls” (a bright orangey colour), “Faux Crocheted Circles” (a more subdued orange - but I like it!) and “Bunny Hop” (just right - the red I was hoping for). At least now I know what kind of ‘red’ to aim for if I want to use it in future prints.

I’ve got a few more patterns buzzing around in my head and I can’t wait to work on them next month.

Thanks for the Fawn-love!! It’s always a little nerve-wracking sharing a new softie-design so thank you for the lovely response!

I’m going on a little blog break for the next week and a bit - things are starting to get hectic, especially at work as I’ve started on a new project and have been required to take some work home over the weekends. Hope to be back after a week with some new softies to share. Enjoy your weekend!