Boy, it’s been pretty quiet over here hasn’t it? Sorry about that. The off-line world has taken over :-) The girls and I are getting over a nasty cold once again. But I have been trying to keep the mojo going - I’ve been writing some patterns that will be in a new collaborative book to be published next year and I’ve been sewing a few things here and there but haven’t had the chance to take decent photos. Every time I do get a chance it’s so dark and the photos turn out yuck - case in point, a sock monkey I’ve been working on :-) (He is much cuter in person!)

Despite the sinuses acting up, I’ve been able to keep up with my running training plan this week with 3 runs down and my long run scheduled for Sunday - not sure if this is helping or making my sinuses worse!

Ava’s School recently celebrated the Prep’s First 100 days at school. The Prep students performed a few songs and there was a lovely presentation on what the students had learnt so far by way of a video and interviews (much like an episode of “Kids Say the Darndest Things” - do you remember this show? :-)). Anyway, I’ll leave you with a photo of Ava and her proud little sister in Ava’s classroom - they are putting on their ‘cheesy’ smiles for the camera :-)

Hope you’ve all had a good week. I really thank God it’s finally Friday!

We’re back from a wonderful weekend away in Gippsland, where we did this:

And visited this:

And took in this:

And met some lovely, lovely people. Lots to write about so I’ll have more details on all the fabulous places we visited next week (and the weather was awesome!) . . . . but first, must attend to the laundry and other boring tasks :-)

P.S. And I’m running again! I am no longer in the Land-of-the-Limping-Due-Self-Inflicted-Injury (and hoping never to return there again).

{image credit: “Stop Porcastinating” by Tom Podolec}

Last week, I was hoping for a more relaxing week this week. Well, I sort of got what I asked for. I messed up my left foot on a run last Friday and have been limping all over the place since then. I saw a Podiatrist who promptly told me I needed at least a week - translated in my mind as F-O-R-E-V-E-R - of no running and no physical activity to help heal what looks like a strain and possibly a stress fracture. Oh, but I can still go to work . . .

Funny thing is since I haven’t been running, I have no energy! I’ve enjoyed the sleep-ins in the morning but I basically napped the weekend away. And I’ve been going to bed at the crazy hour of 9pm!

So not much sewing either although I am resolved to change that tonight and chain myself to the sewing machine for at least two hours after the girls go to bed :-)

The upside is that I have had a chance to spend some time catching up on what’s been happening in the busy, 24/7 world of social media (e.g blogs, Twitter & Facebook :-)) . . . you know, instead of actually getting stuff done.

Some lovely links to share with you:

• Sweet embroidery downloads from Yasmine - Cups and Little Girl Dresses!

• Sketchbook Series over at a Book By It’s Cover - especially smitten by the drawings of Renata Liwska

• The loveliest dolls by Hop Skip Jump

• Handmade Help Cookbook is ready for purchase! Funds from sales goes to help the Victorian Bushfire victims.

• Another stunning paper cut by VegasLammy (see her Flickr for more)

• Speaking of stunning paper cuts, see Rob Ryan’s whimsical book “This Is For You”

• Smitten also by these lovely birds and botany glass pendants by Michelle Prosek

• Adoring Poh Ling Yeow’s (runner up in TV show Masterchef) artwork here

• Awesome Flying Monkeys from the Wizard of Oz by Robyn Fabsits

• Kate has released a range of fantastic quilt and softie patterns

• Laughed my head off at these B**by scarves found via @crazymeezer.

• LightFM and St Vincent De Paul’s (Vinnies) are teaming up to collect blankets for the homeless this July. To be involved and details, click here.

Some of you have asked about the aftermath of this post. As far as I can tell, it has been resolved - a response of some kind from the seller would have been appreciated but she has decided to remain silent and simply remove a listing of the doll (though the other one was sold). She was initially going to close her etsy shop but it looks like she has changed her mind and decided to keep it going. Anyway, I believe this is the end of the matter :-)

Happy rest of the week all!

are some bibs for bubs . . .

. . . still working on not-so-newborn-anymore gifts. My craft desk is a complete mess so I’ve laid them out on the floor instead - just need to hammer in the studs for the closures and they should be ready to go. Isn’t making bibs so soothing? They are probably one of the easiest (meaning least stressful) things to make for a baby and when you make a few at one sitting, it feels therapeutic to be going through the same simple movements one after another.

These are made from some of my favourite fabrics and backed with a nice, thick bath towel that I picked up on sale at Spotlight, hopefully making them quite absorbent. I noticed that Cam recently made a bib with the same print (hers in the black and mine in the grey up there) - it’s a really great print for boys and girls, but I seem to be using it a lot on boy-related gifts. I think I need more boy-friendly prints in my stash (yes, just another excuse to spend time looking in fabric stores and op shops!).

Hoping to get cracking on some softies this weekend. Still running, albeit very slowly since in my eagerness I have slightly injured my achilles tendon and some days, it hurts to walk (much less run). I’ve been spending my days at work with one shoe off, constantly performing foot stretches under the desk. I’m trying to take it very easy because next week is the first week in my 12-week training program for the 10km run in the Melbourne Marathon event in October (and I’m very excited about this!).

I am really overwhelmed (in a good way!) by all the lovely emails, comments and good wishes you have sent regarding the previous post. Thank you so much! Personally, it has been a tough week with a lot of other sucky stuff going on (the kinds of things that make you want to retreat to the mountains and become a hermit), so your words have been a saving grace. Thank you. Not much to report in terms of progress on getting the listing removed at this stage.

On a great note, Cherry (a member of the Adelaide Brown Owls) sent me this pic of Zing the Cat that she made from a project I have in Pip’s book. She is so cute! Love how it looks like she’s reaching out to give you a hug :-)

More creative spaces over here.

Hope you are all enjoying your week so far. So very, very glad it’s Friday tomorrow :-)

Oh my goodness. I feel like there is smoke coming out of my ears!

A few weeks ago, a lovely reader of this blog sent me a link to an etsy listing where I found this Matryoshka for sale:

The ‘maker‘ of the item claimed in the description that it was made from her own “original” design.

Hmmm. Does it look familiar? Kind of like this doll I designed for Handmade Magazine that was published early last year (and was published as a stand-alone pattern a few months ago):

The front of the doll is the same, even the detail on the hair and the shape of the eyes. She has simply omitted the cheeks, a patchwork panel or two on the body, the eye spots, and buttons. Her listing shows the back of the doll and it is the same construction as the back of my doll.

So I wrote to her to tell her that it wasn’t her original design. It was my design and would she please stop selling them and claiming that it is her original design.

After a few weeks of no response, she sends me this today:

“Hi,
As stated on my website, and in my etsy store, “Each item we make is competely hand sewn using our original patterns”.

Thank you for your interest.”

As my 3-year-old would say, “ARE YOU FOR REAL?”

Seriously, this has completely peeeeeved me off. As an independent maker/designer, I believe it is important to protect your designs as best as you can - no matter how big (a company) or small (an individual) the person/people ripping you off are. You put a lot of thought, time, and effort in to a design and you bother to write it up so that other people can make it too. And then you get this back-handed thank you. I am fuming.

Please help me here - is it just me who thinks they are one and the same - a complete rip-off? Or am I just going crazy in the head? Is there any way that this is simply just a co-incidence??

I know this is not new. It has happened to me a few times before and thankfully each incident has been settled very quickly and quietly. Unfortunately, Melly (of Melly & Me designs) has a much bigger problem to deal with - a large soft toy maker seems to have taken one of her patterns, tweaked it just a little bit, and mass produced them. Go over here and see for yourself - and please send her your support as well.

These are the kind of things that make you just want to throw in the towel and say, “Why do I even bother?”

Okay, rant over. Off to get a cup of tea and to clear my head. Thanks for listening :-) Hope to be back soon with a much happier post.

Cheery chimp in a brown-&-blue kind of colour scheme is done! He’s been promised to a very sweet little boy :-)

I really love that elephant fabric - can’t remember where I bought it from. All I know is that it’s from Japan and I wish I had bought heaps more!

Wish I had something to show you in my creative space, but unfortunately my creative space today is all inside my head and my hands haven’t had a chance to catch up :-) Speaking of what’s inside your head, here’s a little conversation I had with my 5-year-old yesterday:

Ava: “Mama, what is my brain for?“.
Me: “You use it to think about stuff.”
Ava falls silent with a look of deep concentration on her face, then says excitedly, “Hey, I’m thinking about stuff and it’s working! My brain is actually working!”

I just love that pure excitement that kids have when they discover something new about themselves. Given that the girls are still young, it happens practically everyday over here and it is infectious :-) I even had my own little experience yesterday morning.

I mentioned previously that my goal was to be able to run 10km by the end of this year. Well, for some reason (could have been due to the freezing cold at 5am or the gorgeous full moon that was lighting up the sky), I decided I was going to just do it - run 10km and see if I actually had it in me. I even brought along a mini Milky Way bar to be eaten half-way for a sugar/energy hit - any excuse to eat chocolate at 5:30 in the morning, right? :-)

And I did it! It’s the farthest I have ever covered on a run. I’ve been struggling with my runs over the past week so it was a relief to finally have a good run again - everything just fell into place. I’m not saying it was a breeze - there were some difficult spots and I kept telling myself to just “suck it up Princess and get on with it” - but I can honestly say that I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It also helped to see that there were a few crazy people out there running at that time of the day too :-)

Like Ava, I was excited and happy to discover something new about myself - that my body and mind could carry me through 10km. A goal that seemed impossible for me at the beginning of the year was now possible.

Challenge and discovery is a great thing - Kootoyoo wrote about the same thing yesterday morning. I’m agreeing with her - I need to get that challenge and discovery back into my crafting time. I feel like it’s been going stale over the last few months and this may be just the thing to kick it back into life again.

P.S. Just noticed this book when I visited the book store this morning: “Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl “. Might be one to add to your reading list if your like owls :-)

Thank you for the lovely comments about the softies in the last post. It’s good to be feeling excited about making stuff again!

Just popping in to let you know that there is an article/interview with me about One Red Robin in the latest issue of Parasol Magazine. I really enjoyed answering the questions and it also made me have a good long think about what is ahead for this little crafty hobby. I have mentioned before that this is my favourite online magazine, so I am thrilled to bits to be featured in this issue.

One of the things I really love about this magazine is how each issue features an eclectic mix of artists/designers/crafters. This issue includes a fantastic feature on Crochet-Queen, Sarah Applebaum:

{all images above are credited to Parasol}

To browse through the magazine, you can click here and it will open up a new screen with navigation buttons. Or you can go over here, go towards the bottom of the post, and download the pdf version of the magazine.

Thanks so much to Yasmine for including me in this issue. Yasmine is, herself, an incredibly talented artist and you can see her work on her blog, A Print a Day. You can also buy her digital designs over at her shop.

I also wanted to say thank you to Sarah for the kind words she has posted up about One Red Robin on her blog over here. Check out her blog for lovely photos and handmade finds.

And thank you to Ann Marie for sending me this pic of a purse she made out of my Folksy Robin fabric :-)

By the way, have you seen the wonderful purses she is making out of ‘map’ fabric? So COOL. Find them in her shop here.

It’s been so lovely to see some comments (and emails) also about your own running adventures - they are encouraging and motivating! Some have asked for more details about my running and I do keep an online running journal. It records the mundane details of my runs (distance, time, feelings/reflections, etc) and some other running related stuff. So it is only about running and nothing else, and most of you would find it very boring . . . but if you are interested in reading about my (very boring) running experiences, let me know and I will send you the link :-)

Finally had a spurt of creative energy over the last few days. I’m so very relieved to have actually finished a few things! Boo-yeh!

I finished up the 2 Bunny Chis - gifts for 2 newborns (who are not really ‘newborn‘ anymore, but better late than never right?). I also need to make a few bibs to go with them:

The blue one is made from Anna Maria Horner’s stunning fabric “Cathederal Dusk”. The pink and orange one is made from one of my favourite op-shop bed-sheet finds.

And a new Woodland Girl, Celia:

She’s already been promised to someone but I hope to make a whole lot more for a solo show later in the year. Sorry about the poor photos - it’s been pretty rainy over here and I have been rushing out the door every time there has been a flash of sun and taking a gazillion photos in the hopes that a few turn out okay. But I’m not going to complain - yay for the rain!

I’ve somehow managed to keep up with the running this past week although I will admit that it is getting harder and harder to get up so early as it gets colder and colder. I was hoping to do a local fun-run this Sunday along the Maribyrnong River but the forecast is for showers and I am too much of wimp to run in the rain :-) In mid-July I start a 12-week training program for the 10K run in October - I am both nervous and excited!

Okay, enough rambling - time to get back to the Cheery Chimp who is patiently waiting to be sewn up on my craft table. Then an early night as it’s back to work tomorrow for me!

Case in point:

Hahaha!! Found this photo of me during the recent Run Melbourne.

As you can tell by the pained look on my face, this was at a point in the race when I was thinking, “What the HECK am I doing here?? What is the whole point of this?!“, which was soon followed by what can only be described as the dead man’s shuffle and the mantra, “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die . . .” :-)

I’ve managed to do a little sewing here and there but everything is still in a state of ‘in progress’. It’s been so lovely just hanging out with my two little girls with no schedule and no need to rush anywhere. I do hope to have something crafty to post up soon (it’s been a while . . .).

Thank you for the comments on previous posts and emails. I am a little behind on responding but hope to catch up on the weekend.

Hope you are all having a fantastic week!