So much to report!!

Well, I did finish Isobel’s raincoat. While I was very excited about how it was going initially, I am actually a bit disappointed with the outcome. Oilcloth is so much stiffer than I thought it was going to be and that’s exactly what I was hoping to avoid. Oh well! Bel loves it!

When it came time to take photos of it the sun had come out, so we had to improvise! Daddy came to our rescue with the hose.

After Bel’s coat was done, I moved on to what I had been referring to as “the big project”. Bel begged us for ages to get a “high bed” so we finally took the bunk we had in the garage down and did it up for her. By we, I mean David. She loved it! But there was so much space underneath it that she kept filling up with stuff. So I decided to make her a little alcove in which to chill out. Once again, the idea in my head looked vastly different to the finished product, but Bel was stoked. She didn’t come out of her room for days. She kept telling me she was too busy reading to come and play!

David and I designed the beanbag pattern and I made over 100 leaves, 20 odd flowers and 8 butterflies from fabric. In the evening, David strung up some dragonfly lights that we had been saving for our deck. It was loads of work, but her reaction was worth it!

Then, something really big happened. We go out for coffee each Saturday morning and across from our regular haunt, a new toy shop was opening. I fell in love with it simply because of the image on their logo. It definitely looked like my kind of shop! When it finally opened and we went to check it out, David said I should ask if they would sell some of my Waldorf inspired dolls. It turns out, they will!! I now have 3 of them in the shop and more on the way. So if you happen to be in Cairns, check out Earth Toys and maybe buy one of my dolls! I must say, I think they are very reasonably priced. They are between $40-$60 dollars and similar items sell on etsy.com for $70-$200! They also have many other amazing handcrafted wonders at very reasonable prices.

I must apologise for the blurry photos. I took them on an iPhone and I just have no idea how the use the fandangle contraption!

On a parting note, David cannot believe that I cannot seem to part with my off cuts of fabric and notions. I have crates of them in the garage. But he was not complaining at the fun Willow had playing with a piece of interfacing while eating dinner last night!

A place for princesses and a pretty light!

I seem to find so many ideas from all of the blogs that I read and facebook links. There never seems to be enough time, or space, to try each idea that I find. But two I just had to try are both pretty and functional.

The first one I saw at a birthday party for one of Bel’s friends. This particular girl has an exceptionally talented grandmother! The things she makes gives me craft envy. Not only do I wish I could sew like her, but I also wish I had someone who would just make the beautiful items and give them to me. It would save me a lot of time! But I digress…What I saw at the party was one of those cubbies that fits over the dining table. The one that I saw was fully lined with embroidered flowers, a letter box, a removable door that could be replaced with a puppet theatre (complete with matching wooden spoon puppets). In short, it was completely amazing and every girl’s dream cubby!

I also saw a similar thing on Better Homes and Gardens and then again at the amazing Ikatbag. They were popping up everywhere! I did make Bel a princess tent a couple of years ago, but it got to the point where it had seen better days and she never used it because the slightest gust of wind would send it flapping and she hated that! So I toddled off to the discount fabric store in the city while Grandma was on school holidays and bought the brightest pink fabric I could find with bright green ribbon and purple lace. Then what I had bought sat in my ‘To Do’ stash pile for quite a few months. One day I was actually motivated to begin. I loved what Ikat said, that she woke her girls up from their nap to view theirs for the first time, so I wanted to do the same thing. There were squeals of delight from Bel, and Willow was thrilled that the box cubby had been vacated by her big sister and she could now have dominion over it!

The second thing that I just had to make was a chandelier that I saw on Craftzine’s facebook feed. I did not want to faff about with glass test tubes, so I bought some plastic ones from E-bay. Once again, the magnificent Jay from Birdie & Bug came to my rescue, finding me the perfect flowers for my light. Needless to say, I love it and it makes such a pretty shadow on the ceiling. It also only cost me $50, which I think is an incredible bargain!

So now we are almost half way through the year and 10 weeks away from Willow’s first birthday. Before I even start thinking about that, we have even more birthdays this month and I still have my ever growing ‘To Do’ pile. Stay tuned for Bel’s amazing new raincoat (if I do say so myself!)…