The state of my cutting table/desk yesterday:

Why yesterday? I’m at work today and I know that I’m not going to have a chance to take a proper photo of my desk when I get home later as it’s usually chaos once our family steps through the front door - plus there is a very, very high chance that it will still look like that by the end of today!

In progress are a few softies in vintage fabrics for Easter.  Also on my desk is my handy 2nd notebook (my handy 1st notebook is always in my handbag). Back in 2006, I blogged about wanting make a re-useable notebook cover. My first few attempts were pretty horrible but I did eventually end up making a book cover that fit properly (and completely forgot to blog about it). So this is the one that worked:

I cut the pear and the leaf from a patchwork of fabrics then appliqued them onto some wool flannel. I used some wool-felt, a vintage button, and some velcro for a simple closure. After almost 2 years, it’s (thankfully) holding up pretty well :-)

Oh, and yes - I probably should announce the winner of Peg Bear Waltz! Thank you to all who left a comment - I only wish I had more Peg Bears to give away :-) Perhaps another giveaway soon but today, Waltz goes to commenter number . . . . 35!!

That’s Stacey! Stacey, I’ll be emailing you shortly for details.  Apologies for the poor quality photo - had to do draw out a number early this morning before I left the house for work, and the sun hadn’t made its appearance yet :-)

And before I pry my fingers off the laptop, just wanted to spread the word about “Craft For China“, which is a fundraiser to support 2 beautiful Chinese (orphan) girls. Please visit their website for more details and get involved either by donating money or donating your art/craft for an upcoming auction.

Happy rest-of-the-week all!

Thanks to Brooke for another fun theme for this week! Unfortunately, there’s not much inspiration looking out our front door:

A pretty stock-standard front-yard. However, the girls do love to play on the lawn when the days are cooler. We live in a cul-de-sac/court and have wonderful neighbours who we all know by name and talk to regularly. That’s just one more thing about living here that will make it hard to leave once we finally sell the house.

Up in my craft room, I’ve been putting a few of these together for another magazine submission:

An Editor of one of the Aussie craft magazines has asked me to be a regular contributor for the next few months - a prospect I am finding both exciting and a real challenge, as it will mean coming up with something new and different according to a particular theme every month. But still a good challenge to have!

Here are some amazing artists I’ve stumbled across this week via Issue 3 of King Brown magazine:

>> Saelee Oh: “Watergarden”

>> Amy Sol: “Going Forth With Apples”

>> Koralie: “Plume”

Check out their websites for more inspiration and stunning artwork.

And finally, thank you to everyone who has been sharing a random fact for the giveaway - it’s been enlightening, entertaining and at times hilarious, reading what you’ve been willing to share! Thanks for playing along :-)

If you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to leave your random fact on the previous post by midnight, this Tuesday 11th March (AEST). I’ll be back here on Wednesday with the new owner of Peg Bear Waltz!

A day late on the “This is . . . “ this week due to trying to get the shop update all done and dusted :-) Thanks to Pip for the great theme. I posted up a pic of my inspiration board a few posts ago but here it is again. If you click on the image, it will take you to the flickr pic where I have added some notes on where bits and pieces have come from.

Also, the shop has been updated for March with:

I tried something new this time around thanks to a suggestion from a lovely blog reader and put Anouk the Woodland Girl Bunny up on eBay. You can find her here. Her listing will finish on the 7th of March.

A few more pics from the shop update -

Anouk and her satchel with little bunny friend:

Ayumi the Woodland Girl (now SOLD):

And the Tango Peg Bear Art Print framed:

Heaps more pics in my shop and in flickr.

Off to catch up on my Bloglines! Happy Monday!

I must admit that the theme I picked for “This Is . . .” this week was a challenge for me too. I’m not into posting up pictures of myself on this blog much, but since I told myself that this year was about stepping more and more out of my comfort zone, I decided to go with it - and even managed not to hide behind the camera :-)

So that’s me and my favourite accessory at the moment - a Shinzi Katoh bag with mushrooms and a deer. I tend to wear a lot of dark colours so this bag provides some nice splashes of happy colours.

I don’t get to wear the bag often (e.g. not to work, or times when I need a bigger bag when I’m out with the girls), but I think that’s why it always feels more of a special treat when I do get a chance to bring it with me. I’m looking forward to seeing what all the other participants post up - I hope they had fun with the theme!

In crafty news, this Babushka-style softie was completed this week, and the pattern and instructions will be available in an Aussie craft magazine in a few months time:

She was heaps of fun to work on and the trickiest bit was getting the base right so she could stand on her own.

And I’m sure you will pick up on a little bit of “Kokeshi” in her look since that’s where my inspiration seems to be coming from at the moment :-) Speaking of which, this one is not exactly a Kokeshi but she is a vintage doll from Japan and I just couldn’t help adding her to my collection (from eBay).

I’m currently working on what should be in the next shop update. I seem to receive a lot of requests to make some of the pictures I take of my softies into artsy prints. I’ve been playing with a few images and these three will most likely make it into the update (printed on 285 g/m2 fine art paper):

Larger images of the prints will be in my Flickr soon.

But the little ones have just woken from their naps so must rush off for now! Have a lovely week!

It’s been one of those weeks where a lot of unexpected commitments pop up, so there has been little movement on my crafty to-make list.

At least I completed the cot quilt that I mentioned in the previous post just in time for the baby shower that was held this afternoon. I framed the quilt with a charcoal grey border. For the backing I used a vintage bed sheet in perfect condition from my Grandma’s stash.

I also managed to start and finish this floor/travel quilt for my newest niece, Audrey, who was born only a few days ago. I tried to go with a pink and orange theme but a few other colours snuck in there as well :-) I also framed it with some grey binding. My Grandma is Audrey’s Great-Grandma so I thought it would be a nice touch to use a wonderfully soft vintage pink flannel from her stash for the backing.

One highlight of my week was an afternoon spent with my god-daughter, Jess and her sister, Lani. Jess is a very crafty 10 year old and wanted to know how to make a simple doll. We worked on the pattern together and she chose all the fabric, the facial features and the hairstyle. I sewed it up and Jess and Lani helped with the stuffing. Here is Jess with her new doll:

Then she and Lani happily raided my little stash of fabric scraps and discarded projects :-)

As a a thank you gift, Jess’ mum made us one of my favourite Filipino snacks, Lumpia Sariwa. It’s basically an egg crepe that is filled with raw carrots, bambo shoots, lettuce and sometimes cooked beans, shrimp and pork mince. The sauce is what always gets me though - a mixture of corn starch, brown sugar, soy sauce and garlic. A simple recipe here.

And to finish off all my yabbering, here is a pic of what I collect for “This Is . . . My Collection” - pretty obvious don’t you think??? :-)

That’s the theme for “This Is . . .” this week. So here’s mine:

It’s not the product but the animal the product is meant to catch. Yup, mice FREAK ME OUT. Perhaps it’s those memories of fat mice running rampant over my food and under my legs at the dinner table back in the Philippines when I was a kid, or the huge rats the size of puppies that would be looking for food in the alley next to my Grandma’s house (also in Manila). We had a few mice in our house a couple of months ago (have no idea how they got inside) and I just could not sleep. The only reason we found out that we had some unwanted visitors was waking up in the morning and finding lots of mouse poop all over the kitchen bench. Yechhh. So . . . it’s very unlikely I will be embarking on mouse softies any time soon :-)

Haven’t had a chance to do much crafting this past week. I did get to cut up some pieces for a baby quilt I would like to make for a good friend. She doesn’t know whether they are having a boy or girl so I went with a red/blue/green theme. Her baby shower is next Sunday. I’ve kept the design bright and simple so I am hoping it will all be done by Sunday.

I also finished another bear design - this time merging various bits of the Peg Bears and Doddi Bears together. This is the prototype:

I will be tweaking the pattern a fair bit for the next version, and hope to make a boy-version as well. Aurora has happily claimed the one above as hers :-)

And we had Ava’s 4th Birthday party yesterday. It was a hot day but all the kids had a great (and exhausting!) time, including the birthday girl. I can’t believe my “baby” is now 4!

Thank you for all the lovely comments on the Peg Bears! I’ll be taking a blog break this week just so that I can catch up some gifts that still need to be made. I’ll be back here on Sunday. I hope you have a delightful and delicious week ahead!

How was your Christmas? Ours was certainly a time of merriment (and lots of eating) :-)

One of the goals that I set for myself at the beginning of 2007, was to make clothes for the girls. To date I have only managed to make this dress! So I took some time out between Christmas parties to make a few more bits and pieces for the girls’ summer wardrobe.

“Home-pants” because, well, they’re only to be worn while hanging out at home :-) I drew up a pattern from scratch and hoped it would work. I made them wide-legged and these were more for practice. Although they fit the girls okay they are still a little bit short and a little loose around the waist so for the next round of pants-making, I’ll lengthen the pant leg and shorten the elastic a little bit.

Skirts using Kate’s easy-to-follow-and-quick-to-whip-up tutorial:

A summer dress for Aurora using Shannon’s highly entertaining tutorial:

And this top for Ava using a pattern from this excellent Japanese sewing book:

These clothes were so much fun to work on and I must admit that it can easily get addictive! Here’s Ava modelling her outfit:

What a year it has been! I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and encouragement this year. Your feedback and comments have been an incredible source of motivation and creative energy, and in turn have given me the confidence to try new things, to seek to improve upon what I’ve made, and better my sewing/designing/making skills. I have also learnt so much from advice you’ve given and links you’ve provided - thank you for your generosity and taking the time to visit my little website and leave comments and send emails.

Thank you very much to those who had confidence in what I made that they were willing to exchange money for it :-) I truly hope you are enjoying your softie/artwork/accessory. This was also the first year of wholesale/consignment for One Red Robin, so huge thanks to the all the retailers that were willing to take a chance on a crafting newbie and sell my creations. I’m excited about 2008 and the various things in train, which will hopefully materialise in the next few weeks and I can share them here.

I wish you all a safe and memorable celebration as you welcome in the New Year with loved ones, and I look forward to sharing more of this fun and unpredictable crafty journey we are all on with you in 2008.

So glad you like the t-shirts with Golden Book illustrations! I’m sure others have been doing similar things with Golden Book illustrations - not just on shirts but bags, pillows, etc. As I’ve been telling some commenters, most of the kids who will be receiving the t-shirt-and-book gift do not own a Little Golden Book so I am hoping the gift will be a fun introduction to them and will spark an interest in collecting more of those little gems :-)

Some have asked what fabric sheets I use for printing. I use an Australian product called “Premium Fabric Sheets”, which I purchase from Australian Country Quilts. This product requires an intermediate step of rinsing the fabric in cold water after printing the image. It adds a little more time to the process but the quality of the fabric and the resulting print is so much better than other fabrics sheet products I’ve used - so I highly recommend it!

I’m happy to say that I have finally finished my Christmas gift crafting for this year. These were completed this week:

Two more tote bags made from canvas using a modified Amy Butler Frenchy bag pattern:

A pair of Sleepy Huggable Bunnies for 2 sisters:

And a mini-tote bag made of canvas and linen (with little owl pockets on one side and recipient initials on the other side), which will hold this wonderful book for a delightfully daring girl who is probably reading this :-)

The girls and I also managed to pop into Cintia’s gorgeous shop, My Poppet, to pick up some handmade goodness for the girls for Christmas. It’s always a treat to catch up with the lovely Miss Cinti and thanks to her sales skills (hee-hee!), I came away with this sweet, sweet, can’t-help-but-giggle-when-I-look-at-this dress handmade by Miss Haidee (using vintage fabric) for Ava:

And for Aurora I picked up these equally sweet, sweet shoes by Victoria-based Chook Leaf who work with families in Bali in a fair-trade style arrangement to handcraft a range of irresistible infant/toddler footwear:

The only package I am eagerly awaiting now is a few cool t-shirts from 220Volt. They are meant for male relatives - I am so hopeless when it comes to making stuff for guys :-) Hopefully they will arrive by the end of this week.

I’m really happy to have made the Handmade Pledge this year - it certainly motivated me to invest time in making gifts as well as invest time in seeking out handmade goodness. I didn’t get to give handmade to everyone on our list (those who didn’t got boxed chockies instead - after all, chocolate is a universal language, right? :-)) but I hope to be more organised for next year (and also less sick!).

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!