My cup runneth over

Ages ago I did a post about my favourite fabric, 'Blossom' by Ume-Komachi, and how gutted I was that I only had a wee scrap and couldn't find any more despite much searching.



I have looked for it since, but had pretty much completely given up hope of ever finding it - until tonight. Just by chance I clicked through to the Cotton & Cloud blog because there was a very cute lunch tote from there featured on Whip Up and I wanted the pattern. It was late and I was a bit bored so I thought I'd check out the Cotton & Cloud shop and oh I can't say how glad I am that I did! Because there, in all its glory, was as much as Blossom as I could afford (not a lot given the NZ dollar), in all the colourways AND ON SALE. I literally almost fell over. Or off my chair as the case may be. So I now I have some of the pink winging its way to me from half a world away and I'm stoked. Of course I have no idea what I'll make with it - but I'm going to force myself to do something because I'm damned if I'll hoard it and never use it for fear of ruining it or getting it wrong. I've guarded my 20cm strip with a fierce devotion but now I can make a couple little things out of it without fear! Whee!

I'd love to hear of anyone else's longed-for but unavailable fabrics :)


The colour's a bit faded in this photo, but it shows the detail nicely.

I'm still alive...

I Ain't Dead Already, originally uploaded by Dr Craig.

...I think. Have been laid low with a cold/low-level 'flu (swine? I don't know to be honest) so over the weekend I was in bed feeling like crap. Not as bad as the two previous times I've had full-on flu but definitely more crap than a regular cold. Still feel pretty awful so it's back to bed for me I think! Thank goodness today is one of Hazel's creche days because otherwise she'd be full of beans and healthy as a horse, stuck inside with me while it pours rain outside. Not a good scenario for either of us! I'll be back when I'm feeling a bit better I suppose :)

Cookie decorating party

I have accumulated a large volume of assorted sprinkles, cachou(s?), and coloured sugar and thought that throwing a small cookie decorating party might get rid of some of it. Which it did, sort of, except that I was left with a lot of sugar cookies and icing! Hazel was quite put out that we didn't have any dinosaur cookie cutters so I guess we'd better see if we can find some good ones for next time!



Of course what happened was the kids decorated a few and then buggered off to run around and the mums sat and did some very nice decorating which we ate. I sure can't eat icing like I was 4 years old anymore!

Hazel took some sweet photos of things before we started, I need to upload them off the camera she used. In the meantime here's mine:





I used the sugar cookie recipe here and it's quite nice, although I found this sugar cookie recipe at Blonde Designs Blog today which has cream cheese in it and it looks good.

Embroidery finish!

Finished the Loobylu embroidery today, it went pretty well



I did most of it in split stitch and a little in stem stitch. I think given the size of it (6cm high), especially the eyes where I used the stem stitch, that I should have stuck with split stitch. The stem stitch has pulled in a little tight on the left-hand eye, which gives it a bit of a Clockwork Orange air. Oh yeah, I like to keep my embroidery edgy man.



I'm really pleased with it though, and I can't wait to do it bigger!

Bunny eyes

I just finished a Felt Bunny commission so no proper photos of it until it's been received, but I had a play with an idea I had for future bunny eyes. I'm not sure if it's really a goer for a general bunny, but if you wanted a bunny to express particular emotions I think it'd be quite effective!

Sleepy bunny


Bored/ambivalent bunny eyes


Angry bunny eyes! Or is it more indignant? He sort of looks like someone just butted into the queue in front of him.

Embroidery WIP

embroidery wip, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Or more properly 'Embroidery I haven't started yet but am wildly excited about doing' Doesn't make as good an URL though :)

I won't say what it's for yet, but I can't resist documenting its progress - assuming it goes well! The scale is on the small side but I think my aging eyes can handle it. It's half of a delightful pattern you can download over at Loobylu. I fully intend on doing the pattern again with both figures and at a much larger size, it seems like the perfect project for over Xmas. I'm doing this one in a medium reddish/orangy pink (I swear, that's the technical term, ask any artist!) because it needs to be, but the next one will be a lovely true red.

Making clothes for Hazel

Thanks everyone for your advice and kind words and commiseration! The internets are really a wonderful place :) I should have known that for every kid who loves their mama's creations there'd be one who doesn't (and a sadder and wiser mother). There are so many ways I could go on this, I haven't quite sorted them out in my mind. One thing that you've helped me realise is that I do need to step back and give it a rest, to take the pressure off both her and me. Not that it's that bad - yet. And to keep it that way I'm going to have to decide how we can do this so we can both be happy. I haven't given up hope yet that I'll be able to make her things she'll wear because I have had successes in the past. I just need to learn not to be so invested in what I produce. But I need some things for me, and Mat wants a shirt, and there's Xmas presents and other things to finish so I can safely leave Hazel for awhile without feeling like I'm being deliberate about it. I definitely think that it's a power struggle with Hazel, not a problem with handmade per se. She's like this with other things as well, like the books we read her at bedtime. I had hoped by involving her with the making of the jacket I might get around this, but either I didn't involve her enough, or...well whatever! She's chosen some fabric to make a hat so I'll try that soon (because she really does need one before the UV indexes start reaching extreme), and if that's a failure then I'll just give it to someone else. It's hard for me to leave this because I have fabrics to make a couple shirts, and a girly party skirt, but I have to tell myelf that they won't go off if they sit for a few months.

I think what all this boils down to is that when I was pregnant with her I had all these ideas on how I was going to bring her up, like no tv, very little sugar, I'd never yell, our lives would be full of crafts and educational play, and that I'd make most of her clothes (no pink though) to show her how much I loved her. I think I can safely say that most of those lofty aims have fallen by the wayside and I've come to terms with them (except the tv, I feel guilty about that still), so I need to adjust to one more biting the dust! Oddly enough, despite my "failings" I think I've done pretty darn well :D

One dress I did have success with (in the end, perhaps when she realised I'd stopped caring if she wore it or not) was from Handmade Girl's Clothes (ISBN978-4-579-11054-4)


The dress is a very simple halter-neck style, in a thin cotton. I think it's cherries but the colour is more apples.



As with most of these patterns, the details are wonderful - in this case the pocket



I've used that pocket on other things because it was so gorgeous!

I made another dress which, after an initial rejection, became her self-declared favourite, but sadly she's grown out of it! I never took a photo of it so I must squeeze her into it one more time and record for posterity.