I have been doing stuff...

As ever, I am completely incapable of keeping up with this blog. I am hopeless about it. I really want to do it, but there always seems to be something else I’d rather do.

It doesn’t help that I find posting so time consuming. I thought technology was supposed to make things easier! Clearly I’ve missed something or it just doesn’t!

So, I’ve been on a little bit of a sewing sabbatical. I crafted up a storm for weeks getting ready for the opening of Handmade Cans (which is looking gorgeous, by the way!) and then...stopped.

I’ve been doing other things, writing, working for Cairns Parenting Companion (which I’m loving!) and generally faffing about.

There have been a couple of sewing projects that I’ve finished. I hand-quilted (!) a blanket for the girls. I had been watching a particular panel to come on sale at Spotlight and when it did, I grabbed one. The woman cutting it was clearly going to be crooked, so I tried to politely point it out. She was so rude to be about it, and continued on. Then when she realised I was right, her response was, “Oops!” while I was quietly fuming. I’d been waiting for this panel for ages and there were only two left, so it was not correctable.

But she gave me the last panel for free, so I can’t complain too much. I’m just not happy that the border is not what I had hoped for. But the girls love their ‘Sister blanket!’

We have also had a couple of birthdays, so that has meant making presents. I never remember to take photos of them. One that I should have was a gorgeous seahorse I made from a free pattern. Big informed me at 4pm last Tuesday that it was a friend’s birthday the next day and could she please have a seahorse for her. Fortunately I did actually have the pattern already printed and cut out. So there was a seahorse the next day - fluoro pink with a sparkly blue fin. I really loved it!

Then there was a good friend’s daughter’s birthday. I asked her what she wanted and after asking for a Peppa Pig cake (fortunately someone else was already doing that!) she asked for a doll with orange hair.

Enter the most beautiful doll book ever! I have been following the blog Bybido for ages and loved the dolls I was seeing. Jill released her book, Storybook Toys, quite a while ago and I finally wore down and bought it. While I love making the Waldorf style dolls, the embroidered faces on Jill’s dolls captivated me and I really wanted to learn how to recreate her style. My amazing hubby had no idea what to get me for Mothers’ Day, so he said I could get a couple of books from bookdepository.com – best present ever! 

I made the Little Cub for Big as a special toy for her to snuggle at kindy. I cut off a torn section of her ‘Nigh Nigh’ (cot sheet tied in a knot that she has been carrying around for almost 5 years) and she helped me dye it with tea to create a nice colour. Then we used bamboo fleece to create the body and hat. The cub has been dubbed ‘Sharn’ and Big loves the fact that she can be both asleep and awake!

But back to the doll. I picked the next simplest design (Jill states that it takes 4 hours to stuff one of her more detailed dolls and I just did not have the time!). Her instructions are wonderful and detailed with diagrams and all of the patterns are included in full size at the back.

Embroidering the face and hair (each strand is hand stitched) took me four hours alone, but I loved the end result. Everyone who saw the doll before it was gifted commented on how amazing the face and hair were – so totally worth the time! Hopefully with practice I’ll get quicker and tidier with my stitching.

Little calls her 'Emily' and keeps asking if she can have one. Seeing as I made Big a Little Cub, it only seems fair!

Jill has many other vintage inspired toys in the book, all of which I am going to try at some stage. Both girls regularly flick through the pages, putting their orders in for what they want!

And finally, here is one of Big's creations. We were playing with playdough and she asked for some tiny snails. I made those, the rest is all her! They are kissing on a rock, if anyone is wondering!

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!

Travelling Stresses and Easter Fun

We are currently getting ready to go to Brisbane (in fact, I'll probably get into trouble for blogging instead of packing...). We have decided to drive and stop off to see some of our amazing family who we never get to see on the way. The purpose of this trip is to attend the wedding of my best and dearest friend to her amazing fiance (well, obviously she's marrying her fiance...). But before we go, I thought I should post about what we did on our Easter break.

It wasn't much of a break for us. We are not the tidiest people with two kids and we are doing a house swap with another family while we are away. They too have two children, but still, we didn't want them to walk into our awfully messy house! So we cleaned and worked on our renovation projects to get them to a safe standard for other people's little ones. In between all of that, we did an egg hunt:

 And exchanged presents. The girls' grandma is a diabetic, so we don't exchange chocolates. Grandma and Grandad bought the girls clothes for our trip to Brisbane (it's a bit colder down there!) and the game 'Hungry, Hungry Hippos'.

We continued the homemade gift trend and made Bel's Dora doll that her Gran gave her for Christmas a couple of years ago a new ballet outfit (that matches Bel's own ballet outfit) and I made Willow a Waldorf Doll.

I bought the pattern for Willow's doll at Adirondack Patterns (I am in love with their etsy shop!!). The pattern was easy to use and their tutorial had a truckload of pictures and was incredibly easy to follow. I just loved the idea that the face can be left expressionless to facilitate imagination.

After church and the gift giving, we went to the shops to buy some warmer clothes (no luck for me, but we did buy loads for the girls). Along the way, David and the girls had fun with fedora hats,

and pillow displays.

So now we are madly packing and dealing with Bel crying because she wants to play with the toys she packed for the trip. I have voted in our local election and David is out running errands. I will post pictures of our trip and the wedding almost as soon as we get back! Which hopefully won't take as long as this post did. 3 hours just to get pictures in grrrrr!