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faux

I'm home with a feverish girl today. It's been one of those days when we haven't even walked out the front gate. So far, we've only been outside once - to trial Audrey's new gumboots in the yard. She loved them in the shop because they had flowers on them. I loved them because they reminded me of a Liberty print. When we got them home, I shuffled though my small stack of precious Liberty... They are very 'inspired', don't you think?

While we were outside we picked the first oranges of the season from our tree. They're a bit young still, but they made a nice faux orange & poppy seed cake (faux because all the recipes I had for this called for 6 eggs, almond meal and boiling the oranges. We're determined not to leave the house, so I meddled with a butercake recipe).

Now I'm just hoping this turns out to be a faux fever.

wednesday, work day

There are little piles of fabric all over my workroom today, after spending the morning cutting furiously to fill the last of my custom and wholesale orders for the meantime. This one is a set of toys for ReForm School, a very beautiful looking store in LA. I'm so thrilled that some of my toys are going there, it looks like such a character filled and inspiring shop.

In another corner, not a pile, but a new doll. And, um, that's really the only vaguely pretty thing in here today. In the other corners lie piles of dust bunnies, and piles of paperwork. In two weeks our house will become a building site - we're removing a couple of supporting walls in the back area of the house to make one large living space. With that will come the not inconsiderable inclusion of a new kitchen, too, thanks to (who else but) Ikea. We've talked about this for 6 years and I can hardly believe it's actually happening.

While the builders are here, my workroom will become our temporary 'kitchen'. So, I guess soon there will be piles of dishes in here too. Better hide the fabric!

she wears flowers

Four new toys smiling for the camera in the afternoon light: Ira, Abigail, Clover and Lilium. I'm still happily working through orders. These new toys make use of a couple of the prints I picked up on my bender at Patchwork on Central Park. The girl doll is decked out in Amy Butler grey & mustard large-scale flower (love that colour combination at the moment & can see I'm not alone!) Also, the little kitten, Clover is rather predictably named after the vintage reproduction (?) clover print, which I know nothing about. Anyone got any idea who makes it? So pretty.

Alrighty, I've just crapped on about fabric for an entire paragraph! Thanks for indulging me, fine crafting women of the internet. ;) And thankyou for all your kindness about my future forays into pattern making. As soon as I sew my way through my to-do list, I'll be there with bells on.

Lorenzo & Barley

I'm back in the saddle again. Getting stuck into orders, some of which have been waiting in the wings for quite some time. Lorenzo, the monkey up top here, is off to live with a little boy whose name also begins with L (hence the appliqué, a special request from his aunt). The bunny, Barley, is off to live with his sister, B.

I wish I could, but I'm not really able to take on custom orders anymore. I have so many ideas for my toys/cottage industry, but seem to never be able to make the time to get cracking with them. Because much of my spare time is spent, you know, making the toys. A failing of my own time management no doubt, but still, something had to go. Anyhow, once I've worked though my order book, it's pattern time. (How much can I use the word 'time' in one post? Ha! Can you tell it's an issue?!) I've started drawing up the patterns for my cat and dinosaur toys with the hope to have them up for sale in a couple of months. I resisted doing the pattern thing for so long, because I genuinely enjoy the actual making. But, after a conversation about this with Carly recently (cheers!) I'm now all about the patterns. What do you think? Anyone interested?

OK, enough from me for one day. Be well, all.

eta sorry! didn't mean to be misleading! i'll still be making toys as well as patterns. thanks so much for your feedback. xo

fade to grey

Sorry about the bad early '80s music reference, but I've had that song lurch into my head every time I walk into my newly painted work room. These are just a couple of corners of it - you've already seen the main storage shelf (when that wall was green). Aside from the colour, which changes from bluish to grey depending on the light of the day, my favourite part of this room at the moment is the mantelpiece. I took apart an old framed print over the weekend and replaced the picture with one of my favourite pieces of fabric of all time. It came from a friend of my Mum's, in a bag of fabric she gave me when she cleaned out her sewing room a couple of years ago. The chaotic mustard & navy dotty print is so great, but regrettably the fabric is a horrible flimsy polyester number. Such a shame, but nice to be able to put it to use, if only under glass.

While I'm still rabbitting on about this, can I tell you about the wee lamp? Matt bought it for me (about 10?!) years ago. It's by ISM, and it's made from recycled car tail-lights. I love its little legs and how it looks like that at any moment it might walk away. Oh, and I probably should have cleaned my desk, but this is what it usually looks like anyhow... no point pretending I'm a neat worker! There are a couple more pictures over here if anyone is interested. Back soon with actual craft. Honest.

home again, home again...

We're back from our trip. Thankyou so much for your tips about driving holidays with young children - the books on CD and activity bag ideas went down especially well. Audrey (not a child known for her fondness of sitting still) surprised us and was an absolute champ on the longer hauls - like parts of the Great Ocean Rd, which made the whole thing much more relaxing for everyone. Hurrah!

I probably sound like a record stuck on repeat, but I do love, love Melbourne. We spent lots of time catching up with family. We tooks Auds to the zoo (elephants!) and aquarium, did a little shopping (those are my big hoofs on the incredible mosaic floors in the Block Arcade above).

And then there was Patchwork on Central Park. Heavens above, people - what a shop! Matt said that even he could tell how good it was, and kindly backed out immediately, taking Audrey with him to the playground across the street. I came away with a credit card pushed to it's limit, but a lovely selection of fat quarters and considerable sense of well-being! And of course, we had to go back a second time (for the orange stripes - couldn't stop thinking about them). On the subject of fabric, I also went for a look at Artextil in Richmond (no website), for lovely wools. It was, as expected, kind of pricey, but thankfully the staff were lovely and didn't bat an eyelid at my request for small cuts. Nice.

Anyway, as much as I love home, it was so good to get away from the house/routine/bills etc. It was also (unexpectedly) a really nice break away from the computer. Which then turned into an extended blogging break because once home, we launched into a few projects around here. Including completely dismantling my work room (where the computer lives) and painting it a lovely shade of grey - so more time away from the dsl connection for me. I missed catching up with you all... my bloglines is full to overflowing. It's good to be back.