{image credit: “Moving” by Akacorleone}

Operation ‘Move the Heck Out of Here‘ is in full swing. Piles, boxes, garbage bags at every turn. The house is a mess. And apologies to the strangers who have to come over for inspections - the mess is not very helpful I know, but the house really is lovely to live in. I promise :-)

This means I’ll be taking a little blog break whilst the move happens and we settle in at the new home. I hope to be back in this space at the end of June.

In the mean time, you can catch my random 140-character ramblings over at Twitter. Or maybe you can try some of the freebie patterns I’ve posted up previously. Or visit my other blog and make a softie or two. Of course, my shop will still be open if you’d like to drop in for a quick visit and my fabric designs are available at any time :-)

And as if I don’t have better things to do, you can also find me on my Tumblr! I’ve been bookmarking so many pages over the years - thought I might as well set up a tumblr and use it like a scrapbook of my favourite bits and pieces across the interwebz. It’s over here - one red robin: along the way

I’m excited about all the things that are planned for the second half of 2010! See you on the other side!

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P.S. To find out the winner of the Honda Odyssey Family Day giveaway, please check in on the Nuffnang blog - the winner will be announced over there by the end of today!

This talk by Sir Ken Robinson, a renowned author on nurturing creativity, really struck a chord with me. I have always thought that creativity was just as important in a school curriculum as literacy but this is the first time I’ve actually heard someone say it in public!

I think it is important to note that he is not saying that creativity should be THE most important aspect in education but that it has been undervalued in our culture for a very long time, and it should be nurtured in children in equal measure as we nurture other aspects of their development. More importantly, I believe he is saying that parents should be engaged in helping their children discover and develop their natural talents and passions, no matter in what field of study it may lie (after all, education begins at home!).

If you’re a parent or perhaps teach children, I hope you’ll take 20 minutes to listen his talk:

If you can’t view it above, view it directly from TED here.

There is also another fantastic talk posted up on TED by Robinson that is a continuation of sorts on this same theme. You can find it here: “Bring on the Learning Revolution “. Thanks to Nicole (PlanningQueen) for providing the link!

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Don’t forget to join in on the Honda Odyssey Perfect Family Day Out giveaway by May 30 over here!

Just a quick post to share with you this photo that the lovely Kaye Prince took at the humungous Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis (USA) over the weekend:

{image credit: Kaye Prince}

Some of my softies and sewing patterns are in the Pattern Press booth. It still amazes me that my patterns are even there to begin with - and it makes me feel so grateful for the opportunities that have come about in the last few years because of this blog and all the lovely support you have provided :-) I’ve still got that little goal of visiting the Spring or Fall Quilt Market in the USA one day . . . just have to keep focused and work hard.

Thanks Kaye for taking this pic!!! Head on over to Kaye’s blog for more photos and her report from the first two days of the Quilt Market.

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Don’t forget to join in on the Honda Odyssey Perfect Family Day Out giveaway by May 30 over here!

Continuing on from the previous post on my favourite fabric sellers on etsy, I have a few favourite local shops in Melbourne (bricks-n-mortar) and non-etsy online (Australian sites).

Bricks-n-mortar

{Image credits L-R: Amitie; Tessuti; Meet Me At Mikes}

For an extensive collection of Designer and Japanese fabrics in Melbourne, I find Amitie is a one-stop shop. You can also get a good range of trims and notions from here.

For flannels, linens, and wool that I use in some of my dolls, I like going to Tessuti to source these (of course, they have a wonderful range of all kinds of garment fabric to choose from).

And if we’re talking vintage fabric, I like popping into Meet Me At Mikes to get one of their vintage fabric packs as I don’t usually need metres of the stuff. I make sure I visit my favourite op shops regularly in the hope of finding vintage fabric treasures (which - as you seasoned op-shoppers would know - is pretty much hit and miss!).

I also frequent Spotlight and Lincraft for the staple items like thread, plain trims, buttons, etc., but I’ve found some sweet bolts of fabric at various times there as well (mostly in the discounted corner - double score!). These stores are also where I also source faux fur and various types of fleece.

Aussie Online

In regards to online shops, I highly recommend Retro Age Vintage Fabric for vintage pieces. It’s full of gorgeous fabric from yesteryear and at very good prices.

There is a fantastic range of Aussie online shops from which to source your fabric needs. Instead of listing them down here, I’ll direct you to this page. It’s a list of the stockists of my sewing patterns (and unless otherwise stated, they are mostly Australian stores) but most of them have an online shop and sell an impressive range of fabric. I’ve made purchases from a few of these at one time or another.

For purely Japanese fabric (and other goodies from Japan) you can also pop into the Retromummy shop.

And I cannot fail to mention some of the brilliant Aussie Fabric Designers and their shops: Ink+Spindle, Aunty Cookie, Kristen Doran, Pippijoe.

Phew! Lots of links in this post! I hope you find it useful. Feel free to add a comment with your favourite bricks-n-mortar or online fabric shops.

Happy weekend!

I’ve been getting a lot of enquiries about where to buy fabric on etsy. To be honest, the last time I bought fabric from etsy was months ago but I’m more than happy to point you in the direction of a few etsy stores that I have purchased from numerous times in the past because: 1) they have an excellent selection of fabric, 2) they have competitive prices for the yardage I’ve required (even though they may be located overseas), and 3) they have excellent customer service!

Going from my purchase history, I’ve bought mostly Japanese fabric from etsy (because I am such a sucker for colour+cute!). These are my Top 4 etsy shops for Japanese fabric (and some sell notions and craft books too!)

{image credit: Matatabi}

• Matabi
• This and That From Japan
• Nunoplus
• The HeyDay Shop

I’ve also gone to etsy to source Designer fabric when I haven’t been able to source them locally. These are my Top 3 etsy shops for Designer fabric:

{image credit: Fresh Fabric Australia}

• Fresh Fabric Australia
• Anthem Fabrics
• Fabric Shoppe

As I mentioned, these are only my top picks in regards to fabric shops on etsy - a completely separate post will need to be written about all the wonderful non-etsy shops (online and bricks-n-mortar) that I frequent for fabric supplies.

Do you shop for fabric on etsy? If so, please feel free to leave a comment about your favourite etsy fabric shops too!

I’ve started packing up my sewing room and trying to finish off some projects, like this little Piggy (apologies for late-night poorly-lit photos!):

Just a little progress since the last pic - she’s got legs now (button-jointed to the body) and a cute little skirt. I still can’t make up my mind about the eyes and the collar. Hopefully more inspiration will hit me this week :-)

Thank you to all of those who participated in the Moose Toys Crafty Kids giveaway! I enjoyed reading through all of your favourite childhood crafting memories or your child’s favourite craft activity. It is so wonderful that we hold such a special place in our heart for these moments of crafty goodness and can build these kinds of memories with our children (or nephews or nieces or god-kids).

Unfortunately there can only be one winner of the awesome prize pack and Random Number Generator says that the winner is *drumroll* . . .

Comment #17 - Anna, who wrote:

Do I really have to choose just one?! I love squishing clay! I love making collages with scraps of delicious fabric! I love making peg-dollies! I love using glitter, “special” textas, paint… you name it! The more different colours of paper you can find, the better! I love doing kiddy-crafty stuff! As do my kids! We’ve got quite a collection of materials these days but we are always looking for more to try!

Congratulations Anna!! I will be in touch soon to get your postal address details. Thanks again to Moose Toys for providing a fantastic prize pack!

Have a great week everyone!

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Don’t forget to join in on the Honda Odyssey Perfect Family Day Out giveaway by May 30 over here!

Thanks to the lovely folks at Moose Toys, I received two craft activities in the mail for my girls to try out.

My two little ones are 6 and 14 - oh wait, did I say 14? Granted, somedays she has the attitude of a teenager, but no, she’s actually only almost-4. Anyway . . .

My girls love to keep their hands busy and are at that age where the fact they can stick stuff together and paint and draw and actually create something new out of bits and pieces is very exciting (I admit, I still feel that way too!). So a few gleeful squeals were heard when I asked them to open up this box: “Magic Fabric”

Basically, you choose one of 5 characters to make. You peel off all the required pieces and position them together. Then you put them together like a sandwich with a piece of foam in the middle and run them through the presser.

And hey presto! A cute little animal friend made without any glue or sewing required! You can convert them into tags to hang on bags, or into stickers (or perhaps using your own supplies, even magnets and brooches!)

The girls really enjoyed this and could do all the steps themselves with minimal help from me. It’s also a very no-mess/no-fuss kind of activity and would be a really fun thing to do at a birthday party. It would be good if more characters were made available and could be bought separately as my girls went through all five characters and were hoping to make more! :-)

Next, we opened up this intriguing craft activity: “Bendaroos”

Firstly, mental note for future reference: Explain to the almost-4-year-old that despite appearances, those sticks are made of wax and ARE NOT LOLLIES. This will prevent future occurences of almost-4-year-old biting into said wax and subsequent gagging and spitting.

Lesson learnt.

So yes, all those lovely little packets are wax sticks. It also comes with a tool to cut the sticks or join them together. I was very surprised at how easy it was to shape the sticks - the warmth from your hands allows the sticks to become malleable and makes them sticky so that you don’t need glue to keep hold them together.

The girls really enjoyed this activity too but it did require more supervision from me as their little hands tired quite quickly. I’d say that this would be a really fun activity for older children - they could seriously spend hours making all kinds of cool things from all those sticks.

Thank you to Carrie from Moose Toys for generously providing the opportunity for my girls to try out these activities! It was a lovely afternoon spent crafting together! :-)

Moose Toys has also generously offered the following giveaway to a lucky One Red Robin reader!!!

This kids craft prize pack is worth over $50 and consists of:
1) Party Animals Collector’s Case
2) Beados Mineez Starter Pack
3) Mighty Beanz Flip Track
4) Bendaroos Activity (3D)

To enter, just leave a comment on this post by midnight Sunday 16th May (AEST) with your favourite craft activity as a child or your favourite craft activity to do with your kids. Please note: this giveaway is only open to Australian residents.

A winner will be drawn randomly and announced on Monday, 17th May.

Happy weekend all!

Oh my, what a good weekend that was! It is amazing how things fall into place.

Last Thursday I inspected a potential new home and liked it straight away. As soon as I stepped inside I felt a certain charm and warmth about the place, and I could see us making it ‘our home‘ in no time at all. On Friday afternoon I submitted the application to the agent and as I was coming home from work later that evening, I got the call that my application was successful!!!

I burst into tears. I was expecting the house-hunting to be more stressful and difficult so it was such a huge relief to have received that call and I thank God for it*. The house has a small room in the back with wooden floors (the rest of the floors have either carpet or lino :-)) and I am soooo excited to be setting up all my One Red Robin stuff in there!

On Saturday I spent the morning at the Stitches & Craft show. I came home with an armful of goodies :-)

Brooch from Holly; assorted polka-dot ribbons; stunning fabric (with gold ink!) from Kristen; a Tamarillo collection pack from Ink+Spindle; assorted fat quarters from Kelani Fabrics and delicious hand-dyed wool (using walnuts from her tree!) from Kate.

The Incubator section was buzzing! I enjoyed checking out all the booths/stalls. But I will admit that the most enjoyable part of the show for me was catching up with all the lovely people behind the stalls/booths. I was reminded how blessed I am to be part of this amazing community of crafters/designers/bloggers and to know such lovely, generous, creative, and inspiring people. *Hello wave* to Cathy, Angela, Holly, Cathy P., Lara + Teegs, Kate, Jodie and Kristen :-)

On Sunday, I turned up to the Mother’s Day Classic fun-run. I ran the 8km course . . . and it totally owned me! Hahaha! What a mental battle that was to get to the finish line - but completely my fault since I haven’t been running much lately. Funnily enough, I still enjoyed the experience :-) The atmosphere was fantastic. At least 100,000 people from all over Australia participated in this event this year meaning lots of money raised towards Breast Cancer Research! I came home to find some handmade cards and little gifts from the girls - and a slightly tidier house too :-) I do hope all you fantastic Mamas had a wonderful Mother’s Day too.

*Of course, the whole moving house business is another question altogether and I’ll deal with that in the weeks to come :-)

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Don’t forget to join in on the Honda Odyssey Perfect Family Day Out giveaway by May 30 over here!

Joining in this week to list my Five Fave female musicians:

1) Brooke Fraser: Shadowfeet
Favourite lyric: “When the world has fallen out from under me, I’ll be found in you; still standing.” Full lyrics are here.

2) A Fine Frenzy: Whisper
Such a beautiful song. Full lyrics here.

3) Ingrid Michaelson: Oh What A Day
Ingrid has an amazing voice - I can only describe it as ‘bittersweet’.

4) Sara Bareilles: Fairytale
Favourite lyrics: “Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom, Man made up a story, said that I should believe him; Go and tell your white knight that he’s handsome in hindsight, but I don’t want the next best thing.” And the video is soooooo good! Full lyrics here.

5) India Arie: Video
My best friend recently posted this up. I can’t believe it’s 10 years old! This song was on heavy repeat back then and I was reminded again why I loved it so much. At a time when the media continues to promote an unhealthy focus on outward appearance and a skewed definition of beauty, and where photoshopping of photos is the rule rather than the exception, it is a breath of fresh air to hear a female musician singing: “And I know my Creator didn’t make no mistakes on me; My feet, my thighs, my lips, my eyes; I’m lovin’ what I see . . . My mama said a lady ain’t what she wears but what she knows.”

Full lyrics are here. Definitely worth spending a few minutes reading the lyrics.

I’m really looking forward to this weekend! I’ll be going to the Melbourne Stitches & Craft show tomorrow. Last year, I had a booth at the show - this year, I am excited about being on the other side of the booth and checking out all the awesome and talented people and their wares :-) On Sunday, I’ll be doing the 8km fun-run at the Mother’s Day Classic in the city. I’ll be honest - I’ve had very little time to do any training runs - but run, walk, or crawl, I’m going to get to that finish line! :-)

Have a great weekend and if you’ll be at the S&C show tomorrow, hope to bump into you!

More Five Faves here.

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Don’t forget to join in on the Honda Odyssey Perfect Family Day Out giveaway by May 30 over here!

Sponsored by Nuffnang.

Thanks to Nuffnang, Honda recently offered 8 bloggers the opportunity to test-drive and review one of their new Odyssey vehicles. Funnily enough, this came at the right time for me - I was on leave from work and was on full mum duty: driving the kids to/from school, running errands, attending appointments, doing the grocery run, etc.

The first thing I had to get used to was the length of this car compared to what I normally drive. It does have 3 rows of seats and sits up to 7 people, so it is meant to be longer than your standard car. Surprisingly, despite its length, it was not only quite powerful but really easy to drive and very nimble around corners and roundabouts! This is especially important when you’re trying to parallel park into that serendipitous spot right in front of the school or the grocery shop! So, I adapted to the length of the car very quickly.

I’ve driven a lot of different cars over the years and there are three things I think are important in a car when you have kids:

1. Safety
2. How easy it is to operate the entertainment system and temperature control
3. Storage and compartments

In regards to safety, some quick research confirmed that every Honda Odyssey comes equipped with class-leading safety features such as Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA), front, side and full-length curtain airbags, advanced anti-lock braking and more.

In regards to the second point, I jumped into the car and figured out how to operate everything on the dash without having to pick up the manual. That’s a good sign. Music/radio and temperature controls were within easy reach meaning less fiddling when you’re driving and the kids are asking you to change the music or the temperature. One thing I like about Honda cars in general is that you can change the volume and mode/channel via a few buttons on the steering wheel.

Thumbs up also on all the storage compartments and pockets for knick-knacks, food and drink. This is important when you’re ferrying kids around from one appointment to another or when you’re going on long trips and you have to keep boredom at bay and the munchies satisfied.

The girls were really impressed with all the space. It’s definitely a plus for driving the girls and some of their friends to a play-date or an activity. You can also fold the back 2 rows down flat. Admittedly this can be dangerous because remember that awesome mid-century arm-chair you found at the op-shop at a ridiculously low price? Well, instead of regretfully walking away, now you can actually fit it in the back of the car and take it home! :-)

The Odyssey is also very fuel efficient for its size and I experienced this first hand when I took it for a day-trip to Geelong and back, and noticed only a small reduction in my fuel tank.

So overall, I really enjoyed driving this car and was embarrassingly hesitant when it came time to hand back the keys :-) In my humble opinion it’s definitely worth considering if you find yourself in the market for a versatile, fuel-efficient, family-oriented car.

And now an exciting competition for Australian readers!

“Fit your perfect family day into the Honda Odyssey”

What’s your perfect family day? Let us know by leaving a comment on this post describing your perfect family day. Honda and Nuffnang will choose the most creative and practical response across all 8 blogs and the winner will receive:

1. A Honda Odyssey car for 24 hours, and
2. $500 to help make their perfect family day become a reality!!

Please leave your comments on this post by 30 May 2010. Keep an eye on the Nuffnang blog after this date to find out who the winner will be!