I am certainly starting to miss the 2 extra days I used to have off when I was still working part-time. They were my catch-up days - not just for crafty stuff but domestic stuff too :-) I really have done nada, zipadeedodah this weekend in terms of the To-Do list. The upside being that it was a very social weekend with kids parties to attend, including a party for my Little One who turned 3. Three! Not a baby anymore :-(

Here we are at her party:

Besides the birthday parties, the two other highlights from the weekend included making a hearty beef + chorizo sausage casserole stew/soup thing from scratch (I am so not a cook so this is nice little win for me! :-)) and discovering that soaking clothes in a mixture of white vinegar and baking soda overnight really does get the stink out of them! Exciting stuff eh?

Before you turn away, bored to tears by what I have written so far, here are some recent good finds to share:

New additions to my blog feed reader:

>> Senorit Pil: She creates such beautiful characters, capturing them in perfectly whimsical photos.

>> Rachel Powers: Author of “The Undivided Heart” has a blog too and I have really been enjoying her thoughts and musings on motherhood.

>> The Sartorialist: Can’t quite pinpoint why I like this website since it is about documenting fashion on the streets and I am really, extremely, unfashionable - except that I love the composition, colour and clarity of the photos, especially the recent ones taken on Governor Island (there are a few posts on this - refer to post titles to see them all). I am thinking there is inspiration in there for some softies :-)

Blown away by the work of Helen Musselwhite . . .

. . . and Brady Mcferrin:

Plush goodness by Abigail Brown (via Dawn):

Adore this bed by Attila Design (via Jaime):

Did you know that it is only 6 days until the Run Melbourne? I am doing my best to fight off a cold that I know is coming thanks to very sore throat. I am really excited about the run - very much looking forward to it! We are inching closer to the goal of raising $1000 for the Mirabel Foundation - the current total is $665! Just a little bit more to go until we hit the goal.

With 6 days left to donate, are you able to help? If so, please click here - thank you!

{image credit: “Coffee Art” by Gilfer}

I have been sewing and making stuff this week although it doesn’t seem like it from this week’s posts :-) . I have realised that going back to full-time work means very little opportunity to take decent photos at home - too much chaos in the morning getting the kids ready for the day and too dark at night when I get home. So I expect there will be much picture taking over the weekend :-)

A couple of One Red Robin-related things from this past week:

>> A Ruby Doll swap has been organised over on Swap Bot by one of their members - details are here if you are interested in being involved.

>> The Mama Matryoshka and Baby sewing pattern was officially launched by Pattern Press at the Quilt & Craft Fair in Sydney this past week. They are now available to purchase online over at the Haby Goddess over here. Hopefully, they will also be available at my current pattern stockists in the coming weeks.

And good stuff from online travels:

>> Pip has started the “Move it Like Mike” challenge to encourage regular exercise - join in here.

>> Having two young, wriggly kids has made eating out as a family a somewhat hit-and-miss experience. Same deal with you? Craftzine posted up a few hints on activities to do when eating out with kids. Chronicle Books blog also posted some good tips on the same topic here.

>> The newest issue of my favourite online magazine at the moment is up - Parasol Issue 3. Packed with an amazing and inspirational set of artists.

>> These photos of Piódão, one of the most famous historical villages of Portugal, by Chocolate a Chuva officially puts Portugal on my “Countries I Will do my Darndest to Visit before I Die” list - right under Japan.

>> Stamps, stamp-making, and hunting down stamping supplies now on the mind thanks to Mel.

>> I will leave you Heidi’s photo of her wonderful crocheted flower cushion.

{image credit: My Paper Crane}

Happy weekend (and long weekend to all Aussies)!

* Refers to Kate Miller Heidke’s song of the same name, which I can’t seem to shake out of my head at the moment. Also refers to this blasted cold I can’t seem to shake off either!

The cold I had last week has bloomed into a full can’t smell/can’t taste/hacking cough/incessant sneezing/feverish kind of cold and the youngest has it too. I stayed home today and caught up on some much needed sleep. I even managed to cut out some softies during the Little One’s nap time, but not much making besides that:

Two mail parcels did cheer me up this afternoon. One is a very generous thank you gift from the lovely and talented Julie of Juicy Roo designs - a craft kit of felt and stranded cotton, and three really cute and colourful greeting cards:

Thanks so much Julie! Love the little details on the cards and the felt kit will definitely be put to good use :-)

The other is a fat quarter of fabric that I snapped up from Heidi featuring one of her many characters. I heart it big time - it will be very hard to cut into!

Enjoy more Creative Spaces over here.

Back to watching some vintage Sesame Street with the girls before getting dinner ready :-)

P.S. I’ve finally set-up a proper Mailing List/Newsletter solution so if you want to recieve the Newsletter you can sign up here. If you were already on the Mailing List, you would have received an email asking you to confirm your subscription - please follow the instructions in order to subscribe (if you don’t click on the link it provides, you won’t be added to the list - thanks!).

In my creative space last night, the beginnings of a patchwork seahorse sample:

More creative spaces over here (and thank you Kirsty for this meme!)

As mentioned previously, just wanted to share a few more wonderful and new-to-me blogs with you that you might enjoy as well:

>> Girl with a Satchel: Erica reviews the magazines on the stands and rates them based on content value - love this! Now I don’t need to spend time jostling for a position at the Newsagent, quickly flicking through every magazine and debating whether I should buy it or not. I love her balanced view and her resolve not to fall into the hole of trashy & nasty gossip, which seems to be the way a lot of the blogs that focus on media (especially celebrities) have taken.

>> Two ladies who certainly know how to take gorgeous photographs: Elise Gow and Rhembein

>> A blog celebrating the awesome in everyday life: 1000 Awesome Things

>> Two new blogs chronicling stories for and crafting adventures with children: Coloured Buttons & Acorn Pies

>> Beci Orpin has a blog! Could it get any better?!

Also, the following blogs have been around for a few years (veterans in the blogging world you could say) and I have been following them since I discovered what a blog actually was, but I keep coming back to them because they continue to inspire me in areas of my life beyond craft and sewing:

>> All Buttoned Up

>> LuckyBeans

>> Loobylu

>> My Paper Crane

Another link to share is Craft Hope. They are currently requesting donations of handmade dolls, which will be given to children at a Nicaraguan Orphanage later in the year. Their mission is to “spread seeds of hope one stitch at a time“. Donations should be received by June 13th. I have signed up and I hope you do too! Find all the details here.

And finally, I have been contacted by a few new bloggers about blogging in general. Here are some great articles for newbie bloggers that provide more helpful information than I ever could:

>> Whip Up: Tips for Better Craft Blogging series
>> Meet Me At Mikes: How to Write a Craft Blog

I can’t believe the Mother’s Day fun-run for Breast Cancer Research is already this Sunday! I have been running twice a week for the last 6 weeks but have developed an annoying cold this week - bleh. I only have two goals for the run on Sunday . . . not to stop and not to fall over! :-) I am hoping the forecasted showers will hold out until mid-morning. I’m already feeling those nervous jitters and butterflies in my tummy, but looking forward to the experience nonetheless.

I will be back here on Sunday a little exhausted but hopefully happy and satisfied that I did achieve one of my goals for this year :-)

(P.S. There’s still time to sponsor me for the run :-) If you would like to, you can do so here - thank you!)

Still on an op-shopping kick, the Youngest and I popped in to the Vinnies shop in Ascot Vale and came home with the following -

Assorted fabrics (some vintage) and a brown/yellow/orange crocheted cot blanket in excellent condition (not for me this time, but for a friend who has just had a baby boy):

Vintage bed-sheet and London souvenir tea towel (to be cut up for some softies):

And this superb vintage (like new) Prince Charles & Princess Diana souvenir tea towel - I don’t think I have it in me to cut this one up!

On the sewing front, I think sample-making will be the plan for the next few months. These two are samples off to “A Little Different” in Geelong:

And more samples are to be made for the Houston Quilt Market later in the year. Unfortunately for me I won’t be going with them, but Helen from Pattern Press will be taking them with my patterns to the market :-)

In the mail, two fat quarter samples arrived from Spoonflower -

“Suburbia“:

And “Little Mushroom Girl” in a new colour combination:

I like them both and the only change I will make will be to decrease the size of the pattern.

So I think it has been a fun few days and I am hoping for more - I will be going back to full-time work next month and suddenly feel like there’s a whole heap of stuff that needs to be done before then. I’m determined to make the most of every single day this month! :-)

I can’t help adding more and more blogs to my blog reader :-) One blog will lead to another, then another, then another . . .

This past month I have stumbled on to a few blogs that are my new favourites:

Matilda Beldroega: I can’t understand a word of her blog but her doll creations make me so, so, so happy! Pure inspiration.

{image credit: Matilda Beldroega}

Amazing Mae: You may have seen this blog mentioned on craftzine and whipup recently when she re-fashioned a men’s shirt into a really cute dress for a little girl. I’m enjoying all the things she’s been making and sharing, especially the dresses and blouses for her little girl - maybe because I am really yearning to make a whole heap of clothes for my girls (but I just can’t find the time to at the moment). And she makes it all seem so do-able, and simple, and fresh.

{image credit: Amazing Mae}

Doe-c-doe: Another new-to-me blog which I have just become very, very smitten with. Love her mix of vintage, colour, and kitsch. Her embroidered felt clock is awesome!!! I adore her photography and her collection of vintage craft books. Plus she regularly shares an embroidery pattern for free!

{image credit: Doe-c-doe}

Hope you enjoy these! There are more so I will compile another list for another blog post :-)

I’m looking forward to sitting down with a cup of tea and a sweet treat and follow the links to all of your new favourite blog(s)!

More Eye-Spyers over here.

P.S. Also wanted to share with you my new favourite online (free) magazine, which is put together by the very talented and lovely Yasmine of a Print a Day: Parasol Mag (Issue 2 is now ready for download!)

P.P.S. Thank you so much for the birthday wishes! Wow, I feel the love :-) ♥

I turned the big 33 today (which just happens to be my favourite number!).

I spent the day at work but was showered with lots of lovely greetings and sweet gifts including:

A birdcage necklace by Love (by Geneine Honey) worn to work this morning . . .

And a deer brooch also by Love worn out to dinner tonight with hubby . . .

Both gifted by my wonderful family.

Last year was simply amazing but exhausting. Our circumstances are/will be very different this year and I have scaled down my crafty commitments to focus on other priorities, but I am excited and remain hopeful about what’s in store over the next 12 months :-)

P.S. The ‘dinner‘ with hubby turned out to be a very well planned surprise party with family and friends. I had no clue!

Inspired by the paper-cuts of Elsita, Loobylu, Angry Chicken & Roby Ryan, and fully aware of my impatience and inability to work on a delicate paper-cut project (my clumsiness plus a sharp knife = not a good idea!), I turned the sketch from the previous post into a new fabric design, “Woodland Cutout“:

In different colour combos (fat quarter size to illustrate the scale of the pattern):

Hope to get a few samples printed soon (just waiting for the Aussie dollar to inch up a little more!).

I’ve been itching to do some op-shopping for weeks and finally had a chance yesterday. I was up at Watsonia to visit a good friend and popped into the Salvos store there just before. I know Pip, Kirsty and Cindy have been busy hooking up crocheted granny squares (something I would love to learn how to do this year), but I think I may have stumbled across the biggest crocheted square I have ever seen! Behold:

It measures 1.5m by 1.5m and is in absolutely perfect condition. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Just imagine how long it must have taken for someone to make this. Of course, I quickly paid the $7 for it and went back to the car to marvel at it :-) So happy! It will definitely come in handy now that the nights are getting very chilly.

Thank you to Cindy for asking me to pick an Eye Spy theme for this week. Here it is: “Eye Spy . . . my new favourite blog!“.

What’s a blog that you have stumbled across in the last month and have instantly become smitten with? It’s always exciting to come across new blogs, so here is an opportunity to let us all know what you love reading at the moment and gush about why you love it so much :-) I’m looking forward to reading about your good find!

Thanks for your well wishes on the planned surgery for my Youngest. As it turned out, after a 2-hour wait at the hospital, they decided that she was too young for the surgery (she’s 2-and-a-half) and instead will monitor her for the next 5 months and re-asses later on in the year to see whether surgery is needed. Phew! And hooray!

So plans changed and I had all intentions to sew up a storm but I will be honest with you - I have been so, very, very lazy! I haven’t been able to muster up the motivation to sit at the sewing machine.

Instead I have been:

>> Gaining inspiration and ideas from reading the latest: Frankie, Shop Til You Drop 4 Kids, and Your Investment Property (completely different inspiration and ideas in the latter magazine than from the first 2!)

>> Swooning over the pages inside the Bob Boutique catalogue,

. . . and Pyglet’s wonderfully teeny tiny and super impressive hand-drawn zine (get yours here):

>> Putting in a little extra time at work.

>> Watching TV whilst devouring the very last (and well hidden until now!) Easter eggs.

>> Still training a few times a week for this.

>> So very smitten with the awesome pose dolls created by SuperJunk (aka Melissa) and doing a little research into how I can make my own :-)

{image credit: “Becky Doll by SuperJunk“}

>> Updating my other blog, Softie Making, sporadically - there are so many wonderful free softie patterns out there! Go see for yourself!

>> Flicking through my collection of Simplicity patterns and Japanese craft books and writing down all the garments I really want to make for the girls and I - and trying very hard to will myself to actually get up and do it!

>> Preparing and planning for a non-craft related change in our personal circumstances, which is a few weeks away. It’ll mean a lot less time to work on craft so I think I am also mentally and psychologically preparing myself for this (not-so-happy) change! :-(

I do have a crafty project I need to complete by the end of this month so I am psyching myself up to get some sewing done over the weekend. Hope to be back on Sunday with a finished softie to share :-)

Finished up this (lazy) resting fawn, which is on its way to Shannon who is organising an auction with all proceeds going to PANDA:

I think she looks right at home sitting on a little girl’s bed :-) Although, I hadn’t realised when I was making her that when all sewn up and stuffed, she is the size of a small dog!

A few good things that have inspired and excited me this past week:

From top-left clockwise: Artwork+Embroidery by Sarajo Friedman and she has a great interview with Poketo over here; quilted artwork by Caroline Hwang; Amy Karol’s new book “Bend the Rules with Fabric: Fun Sewing Projects with Stencils, Stamps, Dye, Photo Transfers, Silk Screening, and More “ is now available for pre-order!; and Kawaii overload thanks to the illustrations of Bukubuku (aka Silvia Portello).

Also worth a read is Pikaland’s series on Inspiring Creativity - the first two installments are already up: 9 Tips to be more creative and Creativity, Competition & Copycats.

I’ll be away from the blog until later in the coming week as the youngest is scheduled for a minor operation on Monday but I might pop into Twitter and Facebook here and there :-)). Wishing you an inspiring and productive week ahead!