Wishing all the Mamas & Mamas-to-be a wonderful Mother’s Day!!! I’ve been spoilt with chocolate, kisses, hugs and artwork from the girls :-) It is only fitting that the “This is” theme this week is “This reminds me of my Mum” by Angela.

My Mum is a very generous and giving soul - she’s the kind of person that if you remarked how nice that bracelet was that she was wearing, she would respond with, “Really? You like it? Here, do you want it?“. She and my dad sacrificed so much to give my brother and I a better future here in Australia. She is wise, strong in character, and loves and protects fearlessly. She is a woman of simple tastes but her one indulgence? Jewelry!

She has tried to share that love of jewelry with me but unfortunately, it hasn’t really stuck (sorry Mum!) When I was 8 years old, she gave me a very cute little container to store my jewelry and some pieces from her collection:

This is only a very tiny sample of what she has given me over the years - I have returned much of it to her given that it would get more use with her than with me! I think I mentioned in a previous post that I really don’t wear much jewelry, but I do keep these few pieces close at hand simply because they remind me of my Mum and her unconditional giving and loving spirit - two qualities I strive to develop in myself and in my girls.

In crafty news, Oliver the Owl was completed this week:

As was Happy Chibi Girl Cadence, her two outfits, and her little pouch-bag with mini-Peg Bear ;-)

She initially had a nose on her face but it just bugged me too much so I got rid of it! I decided to keep the ears (couldn’t resist putting button earrings on them!) and I think all Happy Chibi Girls will have ears from now on too :-). Cadence will be auctioned by Craft for China - I’ll post details up here as soon as she’s listed.

And welcome! to all the new readers who have stumbled upon my little blog for the first time, thanks to 3 lovely blogs:

>> One Red Robin was included in a round-up of Aussie design/craft blogs on Decor8 (blink and you’ll miss it :-))

>> A few photos from my studio and a short interview about my studio space were recently posted up on Poppytalk

>> And I talk a about what inspires me creatively on Hip Slope Mama

Off to enjoy more time with the girls (and of course, more chocolate!)

Thank you to all of you that left a comment on the last post and shared your thoughts. It has been enlightening and helpful to understand your thoughts on the issue. I did want to clarify (which I should have done in the previous post) that I am not accusing the makers of the doll of outright copying or infringing of any law. A reader of this blog had raised a question about its similarity to some of my dolls and as I wasn’t so sure myself, I opened it up to you all to get some perspective and to understand your definition of “copying” and whether it was in terms of being identical or a degree of similarity, in the light of recent events in crafty blogland. (Phew, that was a long sentence!)

It is certainly a clear-cut case where two objects are exactly identical but how similar does an object have to be to another in order for it to be classified as a rip-off and for it to infringe on copyright? How much can one push the degree of similarity before it is deemed copying? A very tricky subject indeed! Definitely not a fun topic to address so your honest and open feedback was much appreciated!

Now, moving onto a much lighter and frivolous subject! I’ve finally completed a few softies - Baby Chibi Dolls and a Peg Bear. The printed details on these dolls have been blurred out as they are gifts and I don’t want to spoil the surprise :-)

I’ve used a very colourful and cute Japanese fabric and scamp sherpa fleece for this Peg Bear:

Aptly named Peg Bear Pop :-) He’s ready to jump on a plane (hence the cap!) and go off to another website for a giveaway they are hosting (more details soon!).

In progress is this little gal to be donated to a great cause:

It’s been a while since I’ve made a Happy Chibi Doll so it has been fun putting her together. I’m still trying to pick out the fabrics for her 2 outfits. She’s a little different from previous Happy Chibi Dolls as I’ve added some ears and a nose. I like the ears but am not so sure about keeping the nose - I’ll wait until she’s all done before I make the decision to keep it.

Next on the list are a few more Peg Bears, and then I need to get started on the April shop-update, which will be the last major shop-update until October :-)

I’m sitting out the “This Is” meme this week - the theme being “This is my jewellery/knick-knack box“. Such a great theme but I have to admit that I don’t actually own a jewellery or knick-knack box! In fact, I have very little jewellery (I tend to borrow from my Mum!) and wear very little daily (earring studs, watch, engagement ring and that’s it!). But I am looking forward to what all the other participants will be showing-and-telling today!

Hope you’re all having a relaxing weekend - I’m off to end the weekend on a high note and catch up with my best friend :-)

Thank you all for your lovely messages on my last post. I’m feeling normal again :-) And it definitely feels great to be feeling normal again!

A few more things have been crossed off the “to-make” Christmas gift list.

A couple of Baby Chibi Dolls:

And 12 kids and toddlers t-shirts. The screen-printing thing didn’t work out so I decided to choose a few of my favourite Little Golden Book Classic illustrations, scanned them, and printed them onto fabric sheets, which I then appliqued onto the t-shirts.

I also bought 12 different Little Golden Book Classics, so each t-shirt will be wrapped up with a book also.

Can you believe it’s just a week until Christmas??? It’s always interesting reading how others are preparing for Christmas on the other side of the world, dealing with much cooler weather and snow. We’ve been having very sunny weather here lately and the girls have been enjoying spending time outside.

We’re going to have Christmas Eve dinner at our house this year, with family and extended family coming over to join us, so major clean-up has begun starting with the front-yard. Hubby had the girls help him plant some flowers down the front path.

“Prepare-for-large-family-Christmas-Dinner” is another list all together and hope to get cracking on that list very soon too :-)

Happy (and relieved!) to let you know that my etsy shop has been updated with the following:

Happy Chibi Girl Coco

Happy Chibi Girl Chloe

Baby Chibi Doll Viveka

Baby Chibi Doll Matilda

Baby Chibi Doll Heidi

Sayeko the Shmerpi (#47)

Omari the Owl

Seahorse #5

Take ‘em Totes

Baby Chibi Doll Ana and Seahorse Softie patterns are also stocked.

More details and pics are here: One Red Robin Shoppe @ Etsy

I’ll probably be away from here for the rest of the week nursing 2 little sick bubs back to health :-) Be well!

Ahhh, it’s a good Saturday :-)

Finally finished an overdue custom order of Baby Chibi Dolls from way back in August! The customer requested that 2 of the dolls be of the same print but in different colour-ways as they were to be gifted to her soon-to-arrive twin girls. Another Baby Chibi Doll was to be gifted from the twins to their big sister, whose initial was to be incorporated on the doll.

So here are Maisie, Michi and Maddie:

I also wanted to share few things that have been helping to make today a good Saturday :-)

First up, some vintage Japanese fabric! There is a shop in Australia on Collins in Melbourne up on the 5th floor called “Made in Japan“. They sell a range of Japanese goods from traditional teapots and kimonos to washi paper and assorted traditional fabric. I visit from time to time and yesterday they were having a little sale on everything in the shop. So I got to pick up these two Japanese fabric packs for about $40.

Inside are vintage fabrics pieces (different sizes) from kimonos and obis made from silks and cottons. On the right in the photo above is what the pack looks like unopened. On the left is what I found in one pack - 30 pieces of fabric! I’m thinking of using at least one pack for a quilt for Aurora - probably one of those blindly-cut-out-pieces-and-see-how-it-goes kind of quilts ;-)

More retail therapy resulted in some new additions to my little greeting-card collection thanks to Dymocks:

I’m also finally able to catch up on some movies! I haven’t been to a movie theater in years and this weekend I am hoping to enjoy these:

I also watched “Becoming Jane” and “Curse of the Golden Flower” last night. I’m definitely a fan of Jane Austen’s work and I had always been curious as to how her experiences in love and relationships shaped her writing and the development of characters in her own novels. I really enjoyed the movie although I must be completely honest and say that I did get lost in some of the dialogue - I had to go back in some scenes and replay them to try and understand what they were saying!

“Curse of the Golden Flower” was visually stunning - like “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers“, both of which I loved - but the supporting actors were, ummm, pretty awful! And the plot was weak. And the ending left me thinking “What??? That’s it??? But that doesn’t mean anything!!“. So I wouldn’t recommend that one.

But I do recommend going to a Stitching Night at Mikes! I’m looking forward to joining in on the one tomorrow night - my sis-in-law and her 2 friends are also coming along. I’m sure it will be a fun night!

Hope your weekend is filled with lots of loveliness too!

You see, this is what happens when you let different kinds of softies socialise with each other freely while you’re away from the craft room.

First, there was Sian and her demand for new Shmerpi clothes after having a few words to some Chibi dolls and Cheery Chimps. And now, it appears that the Chimps have been talking with the Pirate Shmerpi. The result? The Chimps are now convinced that they can be pirates too! It’s mutiny I tell you!

And if there’s one thing I have learnt from watching “Planet of the Apes” it’s this: we should not upset the monkeys or they just might take over the world!

So may I introduce you to Alabaster the Pirate Chimp:

And his brother Pablo - who I think is taking this whole ‘ahoy me hearties‘ thing too far but he insisted. Hence, he is the Chimp with the peg leg:

Sheesh.

Fortunately, Happy Chibi Girls Mary-Yoko and Mary-Yumi are more than happy to don their patterned shirts, linen skirts, stripey tights and curly coifs.

However, just between you and me, only yesterday I overheard rumblings within the Happy Chibi community about Happy Chibi Pirates as well. What next? Pirate Seahorses? I think not. Besides, it would be practically impossible for Seahorses to convincingly wear those puffy pirate pants . . .

But I digress. For now, you can find Alabaster, Pablo the Peg-leg, Mary-Yoko, and Mary-Yumi running amuck at Mikes.

P.S. Thank you to all of you who sent Get-Well wishes! The whole family has recovered from a horrible bout of the flu and hoping that it will be the last we see of that bug for the rest of the year :-)

. . . it feels good to have a few more things crossed off the list after a week of limited crafting time, especially when the completed items are extremely overdue custom orders :-)

Baby Chibi Doll Jardine:

Baby Chibi Doll Greta:

Salvador the Shmerpi Pirate & Owlie:

Sarita the Shmerpi & Cat:

And after a few emails regarding this softie, I finally started on a new pattern - the Seahorse with patchwork body :-) This one is still WIP and I hope to have this one available in my shop in early October.

While the girls were soundly asleep yesterday afternoon, I jumped in the car and drove to Jenny’s gorgeous kids shop, Chalk, in Yarraville. It was lovely to finally meet Jenny after being in contact via emails over the last few months.

You’ll now find the latest batch of sleepy huggable cats and bunnies at Chalk, in addition to the following Baby Chibi Dolls.

Baby Chibi Doll Avis

Baby Chibi Doll Brie

Baby chibi Doll Neve

Thanks so much Jenny!

I also completed this simple owlie cushion (previous versions here and here). This particular one is a craft magazine submission - the brief was for an easy softie that a parent can make for their child. So I stuck with simple shapes for the pattern and went for a friendlier look (as compared to my usual grumpy owls :-)). I’m thinking of adding a pair of black felt ‘glasses’ before I send it off.

Hoot!

Thank you for the lovely comments about Chibi Aimee :-)

I’m excited to announce that some of my toys are now available at a new shop for children in Caulfield South (Victoria) called ‘My Poppet‘. It is owned and managed by Cinti, who is also a very talented designer and makes gorgeous baby wares using vintage fabrics through ‘Cinti Does Vintage‘.

The following will be available from this week at My Poppet.

Left to Right: Baby Chibi Feliz & Bird, Baby Chibi Delilah & Cat, Baby Chibi Gwen &Owl

Happy Chibi Posie (left) and Happy Chibi Pippa (right)

Sakaya the Shmerpi and Owlie

Sawyer the Shmerpi and Owlie

And here’s a view of what’s on their shirts (the yellow one in the middle is not available at My Poppet)

Thanks so much for this opportunity Cinti! More photos over at my Flickr.

I’ve got one more wholesale order to go and then, as mentioned in a previous post, I’ll be taking a break from wholesaling for the rest of the year :-)

Quickly popping in to say hope you’re having a wonderful weekend! We’ve had some gorgeous sunshine here in Melbourne.

This little one is a gift for a friend’s grand-daughter:

I’ve used my favourite fleece - terry fleece - and slightly altered my original chibi pattern. The very first softie-pattern I designed was this, which I simply called a Chibi. It was then slightly altered to make this. Replacing the fabric body with fleece produced this. And finally, some further slight modification and we have Aimee above. I’m happy with the way this particular doll has evolved and hope to have a pattern of the latest iteration available soon!

Now off the catch the rest of Kath and Kim ;-)