My mind went blank when I read the “This is” theme this week, contributed by the lovely Katie - “This is what I want to show off“. I honestly didn’t think there was anything I wanted to show off, per se. So it’s funny how things work out sometimes.

I had a child-free morning today, thanks to my super sister-in-law who is on school holidays (she’s a teacher :-)) and offered to take the girls for a few hours. After dropping them off, I decided to hit the op/thrift shops in the area on the hunt for some fabric.

I popped into the Bargain Hunter (run by the Brotherhood of St Laurence) in Deer Park (114 Westwood Drive). I was very happy to leave the shop with 11 pillowcases at $1 each - some vintage. Some will be used (I am partial to mis-matched pillows on our beds :-)) and some will be turned into cloth pouches.

I then ventured to the Salvos store next door (Lot 2 Westwood Drive) and was stoked to find a pair of Big by Fiona Scanlan jeans for Ava for $3 (perfect condition, just missing a button), a Bananas in Pajamas bed sheet for Aurora for $3, and a beautiful vintage bedsheet in oranges and pinks (for my fabric stash) also for $3.

And then - there IT was. I suddenly had butterflies in my stomach. Sitting lonely on the rack, being overlooked by the other ladies nearby, was something I was secretly searching for but never really thought I would ever find. A crocheted granny square blanket. In perfect condition. And Queen-sized.

I approached it slowly so as to not draw any more attention to it. I examined it and couldn’t believe that something someone so obviously made with love was still hanging there. My reaction? “Heck yeah!”

Not even bothering to check the price, I quickly yanked it off the rack and brought my loot to the register. Oh joy, the blanket cost $7 - seven dollars!!! It still needs a wash but I couldn’t wait to take it home and see what it would look like on our bed:

I LOVE IT. So there it is - this is what I want to show off :-)

Wow - this weekend just flew by! All the things that I was hoping to finish this weekend are still in progress. Instead my weekend was consumed by:

1) Lots of family time including a trip to the Royal Melbourne Show. It was the first time for the girls and I (hubby went many years ago). The weather was superb. We all enjoyed it - walking, eating, looking, playing - and the girls got the showbags that they were hoping for :-) Hubby came home with a couple of lolly showbags and I came home with these - organic handmade fudge: chocolate, macadamia chocolate, strawberry, sticky date and banana. Yum!

2) Chores. Enough said.

3) Rearranging plans and priorities after the opportunities I hinted at in the last post were given the final go ahead. More on these later on in the week. For now, all I can say is that one opportunity involves my softie patterns, and the other opportunity involves creating 4-feet (120cm) high woodland girls for a Christmas exhibition :-) I need to submit sketches of the woodland girls soon so I spent some time doing some of these:

And playing with the sketches on my laptop to try and get an idea of colours:

Thank you again for all of your suggestions regarding the mini-cushies-set-&-cloth-pouch. I enjoyed reading through each one! So without much further ado, the winner of the giveaway, according to Random.org is:

Comment #49! This comment belongs to Antonella. Antonella’s suggestion was:

“…well, what can I say, these mini-cushies are a true delight, exactly like all your creations, always made with a special taste, and I’m simply in love with them…so, I thought that, if the Fortune will smile on me (fingers crossed! ;o)..), I’d use that little pocket to leave in, each day, small sheets of paper with my good intentions…it should be nice to see them all at the end of the week and check how many have been realized or not..;o)”

Congratulations Antonella! I’ll be contacting you shortly.

Hope to be back with my late “This Is” and more soon.

I’ve been happily working away on a few things this week but haven’t had a chance to take some photos. I spent the better half of the week thinking about what I’m going to be making for the Plush It show, which is slowly creeping up (in Sydney in November). The idea I’m running with finally came to me in that state of half-asleep/half-awake early this morning so hope to share some progress over the weekend.

I’m also finalising the list of things I’ll be making for the next shop update - thanks to those who emailed me with requests :-) There will be woodland boys and girls, fawns, peg bears, a bunny chi or two, an owl or two and maybe a Babushka and Matryoshka thrown into the mix. And some mini-cushies sets.

At this stage it is looking like the October update will be my last one for the year. Some exciting things are happening for One Red Robin in the next few months, which will be consuming the majority of my crafting time, and I am looking forward to sharing them with you once paperwork has been finalised :-)

Thank you for all the comments on the last post - so many FANTASTIC ideas!! And so good to see that you would actually find them useful. Comments for the giveaway will close midnight tomorrow (Saturday) and the winner announced on Sunday.

I must admit that I’ve also been sucked into the wonderful world of Flickr of late - perhaps a little too much :-)

Here are my most recent Flickr faves that I’ll hope you will enjoy too (though kind of annoyed that some of them didn’t appear for some reason, but you can still click on the link below to view it):

Credits:
1. merman, 2. show, 3. Lars + Inca, 4. deer girl, 5. on a brighter note, 6. Yardsale photo, 7. Happy Town, 8. Jelly Legs Jim the Mushroom & Petey the Parrot {sitting}, 9. fish, 10. new fabric, 11. flights of fancy, 12. hello, 13. Untitled, 14. I love you, too., 15. quilt retreat day 4, 16. WAWAYA mermaid, 17. Tinkerbell’s Bear, 18. yawn, 19. Tree House (papercut), 20. Lovable Huggable toys, 21. Etsy Take Five Tuesday, 22. flower name cuff, 23. My favorite crochet rug, 24. Untitled, 25. Miss Penfold

My three silly owls have finally reached Ghettogloss. The gallery has posted up all the softies that are currently on display as part of the Super Plush exhibition. Have a squiz at all the softie goodness on display here (and they are available for purchase too!).

Wishing you a fun and lovely weekend! We’re hoping to take advantage of the crowd-pulling Footy Grand Final tomorrow and visit the Royal Melbourne Show (no excuses since it’s only a 10 minute walk away from our home!).

A little something to say thank you for all your support, especially with the show :-)

First, a re-usable, lined, cloth pouch:

And inside, a set of 4 mini-cushies:

Printed by Spoonflower and backed with my favourite cotton prints. Each measures roughly 7cm wide by 17cm tall, with a little loop at the top, and a felt pocket at the back. Use the little pockets to hold fresh sachets of lavender seeds, maybe a love note or two, or perhaps a tooth for the tooth fairy.

My intention was to have a couple of these sets available at the show but silly me sent the designs to Spoonflower a little too late and the printed fabric didn’t arrive until well after the show started. My plan now is to have a few sets available in the next shop update, which should be end of October-ish. They will come with the re-usable pouches too (good for carrying your lunch in :-)).

So if you would like to be in the running to win one of these mini-cushies-&-cloth-pouch-sets, simply leave a comment on this post about what you would use that little pocket on the back of the mini-cushy for, before midnight on Saturday, 27th September. I’ll use the random number generator and announce the winner on Sunday.

More On My Desk players here.

Thanks to Bug and Pop* for this week’s “This Is” theme - “This is what I want to be when I grow up“.

I mentioned a few posts ago that I want to be Beci Orpin when I grow up :-)

{Beci Orpin. Image credit: Outre Gallery}

Well, of course, not actually be her or be exactly like her but I think more to be engaged creatively and make stuff on a full-time basis, in a number of different mediums; and to fully develop my own style and have that translate across the different mediums; and to do it well. Like she does. I think that’s what I meant :-) And then there’s my little secret wish - no so secret anymore - which is to quit my job and study Textile Design. But that is still many years away I think.

It’s kind of funny that this is the theme this week because I just started reading “The Divided Heart” by Rachel Power (as recommended by Claire and a few other creative Mums) and so far I am nodding in agreement at the end of every page. Sometimes I cringe because it has spoken so clearly and so honestly about feelings I would have never admitted to anyone - those feelings that arise during moments of excruciating frustration, juggling motherhood and the desire to be freely engaged in a creative process (and feeling like a complete failure at both). And it’s got me thinking about what I really want to work towards - “what I want to be when I grow up” - which is something like what I’ve written up there. But I’m still figuring it out and still thinking about what little thing I can do everyday during those spare minutes to bring it into fruition.

So before I start heading off on a tangent, I highly recommend the book for all creative Mums and Mums-to-be. Lots - LOTS - of food for thought and so many amazing insights- and I’m only up to the 3rd chapter!

Okey dokey, so back to making stuff :-) Babushka Soft Doll #2 was completed a few days ago - made from vintage Japanese kimono scraps and wool felt:

I spent last Friday out and about with the girls, including a trip to Hudson so that they could see the show (they loved it :-)). A few things we collected from the day: cutie-pie brooches from Lark (from Dymocks in the city), a key chain from Heidi’s Yummy Breakfast collaboration with kidrobot, and Yoshimoto Nara postcard (both from Hudson), and the cutest little owl in my favourite kind of green that Nikki brought back from Japan (thanks Nikki!).

* By the way, check out Bug and Pop’s new shop of super cute kids clothes!

I was stoked to be invited to participate in Super Plush - a plush show to be held in Los Angeles later this month at Ghettogloss and organised by Narumi Ogawa (of Misterr Funky fame). It’s a real treat to be exhibiting in the company of such talented and amazing plush-makers:

It’s been a week of the flu and nasty sinus problems in our home, so I’m very happy to have finally sent these three owls to Super Plush: left to right - Ozzy, Osmond and Ohio

I challenged myself to use only what I had on hand, so out came some vintage cotton and barkcloth; faux fur; scraps of wool felt; and even some jewelry odds and ends from my long-forgotten jewelry-making stint ;-)

Ohio’s a Captain who likes to remind everyone of his glory days in the Owl Army:

Osmond is an official campaigner for Kewpie for President in 2008. Vote for change. Kewte change.

And Ozzy’s - well, he’s just Ozzy. Faux-hawk and all.

How cool that DJ Lance Rock will be at the opening night! My girls absolutely love Yo Gabba Gabba - in fact thanks to that show they are trying new foods because apparently the show taught them that if “you try it, you’ll like it!“. Thanks Yo Gabba Gabba for making meal-times a little easier :-)

And on my desk tonight, a pile of vintage Japanese kimono scraps to sort through for my next project. Also, three gorgeous handmade tags from the lovely Steffen - seriously, too gorgeous to use as tags so I will keep them as bookmarks :-)

Check out Steffen’s beautiful creations here.

Not much crafting here due to 2 little girls with the flu, so I thought I’d give a quick update on what’s still available from the show, and to let those who live outside Victoria (interstate or overseas) know that you can now purchase an item if you’d like too!

Nikki and I had a quick chat about how we could make this option work so I think we’ve now got a system to handle any purchases from interstate or overseas :-)

Most of the artwork is still available and Felix the Fawn(SOLD - thank you!), Odessa the Owl(SOLD - thank you!) and Peg Bunny #11(SOLD - thank you!) are also available.

I’ve set up a separate page with all the information on the items in the show, what has been sold and what is available, and how to purchase an item (with separate instructions depending one whether you live in or outside of Victoria). This page will be updated as items are sold.

You can click on the banner above to access the show update page at any time or alternatively just click here.

Hopefully back soon with some softies to share with you!

Back from the little blog break :-) We went to the Gold Coast. Wow - such lovely weather when we were there! Accommodation and passes to Dreamworld were for free so we couldn’t resist escaping, even if it was just for a couple of days.

We spent Father’s Day at Dreamworld, which was SO MUCH FUN. Hubby and I hadn’t been there for at least 20 years (boy, that makes us sound real old!) when we visited with our families (separately, not at the same time), so it was a real treat to share a day there with the girls. The girls enjoyed every minute, especially when they got to meet one of their favourite dinosaurs :-)

We also spent a wonderful day at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and loved seeing lots of animals up close. Here’s hubby and the girls looking very relaxed at one of the rain forest look-outs at the sanctuary:

And two beautiful creatures we were able to encounter up close:

We’re all refreshed and ready to get stuck back into things. On the crafting front, I was able to make this little Baby Chibi for my cousin, who requested one for his girlfriend for their upcoming anniversary.

I also came home to find my copy of the recent Handmade magazine, where the pattern and instructions for Springbean the Bear are available:

Thanks again to all the lovely emails I’ve been receiving about the show. I’ve been told that all of the softies except for one owl will be going to new homes - yay!!! Many of the framed prints are still available and there are copies of these prints unframed at Hudson too (printed on archival cotton paper and limited edition of 50 each): Peaches Likes the Alphabet, The Owls Don’t Mind, Doddi Wonders . . ., and Anouk’s Distraction.

Thank you also to Jessica and Nancy for the sweet show plug - if you happen to be be looking for Peg Bears, there are three still available at Modamuse over here.

Now working on some owls and hope to have pics of them to share soon, but for now it’s goodnight!

Last week, during my lunch break, I was able to pop into Outre Gallery (on Elizabeth St in the city) and see Beci Orpin’s “outside, over There” exhibit in person. I have always admired Beci - she’s multi-talented and does it all: textile design, fashion, illustration, softies, collage, paper-cuts, sculpture. In fact it’s accurate to say that I want to be her when I grow up (’though I’m pretty sure we’re about the same age!).

(Image credit: Gemma Jones)

As expected, her work was stunning and I particularly loved the paper-cuts, gocco prints, giclee prints and kokeshi dolls. You can see all of Beci’s work from this exhibition on Outre’s website here.

I also had a chance to wander around the remainder of Outre (I could have spent at least another hour there I think!) and came across the work of Mark Ryden. I instantly fell in love with his “The Tree Show” collection - whimsical settings, strangely cute characters, colourful but dark, with a touch of humour. A sample of his work (image credit: Mark Ryden website):

Outre also has a great range of art books you most likely will not find in your average book-shop.

I couldn’t leave without one piece of artwork and so a small reproduction of Yoshitomo Nara’s “Missing in Action” painting came home with me. Here it sits on my desk with a postcard from Beci’s exhibition, giving me a boost of inspiration as I begin on the next batch of softies.

The reason I chose this particular painting by Nara is that the girl looks exactly like Aurora (the haircut, the big eyes, and even the red dress!) when she’s in one of her defiant and stubborn moods - which has been happening a lot lately, given that she has entered the “Terrible Twos” stage :-) But I just searched this particular painting on the internet to find out more about it and discovered that the original by Nara was sold for US$1.08 million at Christie’s back in 2006! Ummmmmm . . . wow!

A heartfelt thank you to all who have commented and sent lovely words of encouragement on my little show - your response has been truly overwhelming and I am so grateful and humbled by it. Thank you especially to Pip, Cintia, Claire, Jaime, Emma and Katie (hope I didn’t miss anyone!) for posting up such kind words about the show.

I’m going on a little internet/blog break to catch up on some non-crafty stuff - hope to be back online late next week.

After a few months of blood, sweat and tears - okay, maybe just a little blood from careless pin pricks, and a little sweat from outdoor trekking trying to find good spots for softie photo-shoots, and actually, no tears - I’m really excited to post up details of my first little solo show! :-)

These are last pieces I completed before setting up the show today:

And some pics of the display:

You can see more pics of the display and all the items I created over in my Woodland Park Folk flickr set.

If you are interested in having a look-see, Hudson Clothes is open 7 days a week from 11am to 5:30pm. Please contact Hudson directly if you would like to purchase something from the show and they will organise it with you (please note they accept exact cash only payable when you pick up the item at the end of the show). The show has been extended and will end on the 12th of October.

If you had told me just over 2 years ago when I started making softies that I would be exhibiting some of my work at Hudson - the same place where one of my softie heroes, Loobylu, exhibited a few years ago - I would have fallen to the floor laughing in complete disbelief. This is feeling all a little surreal and weird and “what the?” at the moment.

Thanks so much to the wonderful Nikki (who owns and operates Hudson) for asking me to be involved. I think this past month has been the most disciplined I’ve ever been in terms of planning and getting things done. It’s been a challenging experience trying to work on the different pieces while fulfilling family commitments, and with things ramping up at work, and getting little sleep, and knowing there is much more on the list that I wanted to complete - but it will be an experience I will always remember and value, and has confirmed to me just how much I love making and creating and bringing little sketches to life :-)

To celebrate, I’ll send the first 15 people to leave a comment on this post a postcard (shown above). I hope to have a more substantial giveaway mid-way through the month :-)

Thanks to all of you who have left such encouraging comments! And thank you to Angela & LC for the generous plug :-)