My creative space...

This picture was taken far too early this morning - we arise well before light in this house, thanks to an overactive toddler. I was surreptitiously doing some mental crafting with these fabrics whilst building walls with Wilski-bear. He's a little precocious for a 2-year-old, but sadly can't read, or he may have taken the not-so-subtle hint I left him and put the kettle on!!

The check-themed fabrics - thrifted blanket, thrifted, felted jumper and scrap-bin find - are destined to become a 'woodland cap' for a newborn baby, and a new softie of some description, for a friend.

Speaking of softies, I'm delighted to finally show you the results of my creative space endeavours of a few weeks ago:

A happy combination of felted jumper, eco-fi, old pillowcases and stash fabrics resulted in these creations (all based on items from the book More Softies). My first ever softies, they were destined for my Pay-It-Forward recipients, and I'm happy to report that each has now found its new home.

1. Vernon the Robot Bear left his brother Bertrand behind (with my Beloved, who wouldn't part with him!!) and was dropped in to the lovely Mim at Olive Grove Studios yesterday;

2. Polly travelled over the waters to Lauren and her little owlets who promptly made her feel at home;

3. Elsie the lumpy, lopsided, loveable pup has settled in nicely with Tricia and Little Eco in her new digs up north.

Anyway, I'm off to check out some more creative spaces via kootoyoo... wanna come?

Winter WINNERS

As promised, today I'm drawing my Wintry Giveaway winners.

Not from the cup above, obviously. Otherwise the winners would all be... um... ME. Rather, I employed trusty Random.org to pick the winners from the 25 entries. Thanks each of you for your entries - I loved reading your evocative descriptions of what you enjoy about winter. They made me feel so cosy on the inside!

So, without further ado:

The scarf goes to no2, dillpickle. I happen to know ms. dillpickle in 'real life' and only recently she was complaining to me that she never wins anything. Well, there you go, ms. dillpickle. Quit yer belly-achin'. And get a move on with starting your own blog, I say!

The first Swiney goes to no8, Tania (of Myrtle & Eunice fame). Tania, I wonder what might befall a certain store if you pin a Swiney to your newest creation. The mind boggles!

The second Swiney winner is no1, Curlypops. How lucky is this woman? She had a spate of winnings back about a month ago and I thought, there's no way she'll win anything here, she's posted no1 (which statistically is no less likely to win than any other number, of course, but it just feels less likely.) But there you go... randomness prevailed.

Winners, I'll be in touch via email in order to get your postal details and send out your wintry prizes!

Craft Crush!!!!!!

So I went to the Brunswick Sisters' Market on Saturday, and came home starry-eyed. There were so many beautiful creations to ogle and lovely people to talk to. I wish I could have brought home one of EVERYTHING, but I practised restraint and only bought a few, ahem, essentials.*.

There were two major highlights for me.

The first was meeting dear, dear Fi, of (you guessed it) Dear Fii! She wasn't holding a stall, just loitering about, but she was instantly recognisable due to her funky glasses, gorgeous entourage of kidlets, and the dead giveaway Burrito in her hand!! We had a nice chat about her recent ascent to crafty stardom, and I tried not to sound too stalker-ish as I gushed over her colourful creations.

And then it happened. She just turned to me... and GAVE ME A BURRITO PATTERN. For NOTHING. Just because! How nice is THAT? Here's a person, trying to make a bit of a living out of her creativity, but she just couldn't help but be generous and share the love. I was quite thrilled and embarrassed and humbled all at once.

Thank you so much Fi. You're a delight and I'll so enjoy making lots of Burritos to add to my growing softie collection. I'll put photos up when I do, I promise!

The second major highlight was meeting Mel from Pieces of You.

Have you seen this gal's work? You really must. I really love and admire her handiwork, but also the approach behind it. I'm very new to sewing in general, and the concept of dressmaking and refashioning in particular, but one day I aspire to be able to take the bold, intuitive and artistic approach that Mel does to her garment-making. Here's what she says about her approach:

I like to work in an intuitive and exploratory way and to be surprised by the outcome... I like to create wearable pieces which can be worn differently by different body types. I take great pleasure in the simple acts of combining different shapes, colours and textures; of cutting and joining.

I own several of Mel's 'artworks' as I like to think of them, and I find them to be lovely, flattering, quality pieces of clothing. I also love the fact that she works with reclaimed fabrics, and respects the diversity of the female form. Please, go and check out her blog, and visit her at one of the markets she frequents. It will be worth it!

*That's right my beloved, essentials. What's not essential about a doughnut softie?

My creative space...

Sitting outside next to Hudson our Christiania bike, waiting for the little Pudding to wake from his nap, looking at this pattern and wondering where on earth to start. In line with my Wardrobe Refashion pledge, and inspired by the efforts of Jenaveve of August Street and Bek of Red Chocolate, I'm going to make me a skirt from scratch. Using a pattern, even. Well, we'll see how far I get with that...

Other creative spaces via kootoyoo.

PS if you're interested in winning yourself a little something, pop down here and enter my no-strings-attached, just-for-the-heck-of-it Wintry Giveaway. There's a scarf and two Swineys up for grabs...

Wintry Giveaway!

I love winter. And I'm thrilled that it's raining. That car park out the back of our flat really needs watering!! Wilski the toddler is eyeing off the car park puddles with ever-increasing glee. I'm sensing a water-logged outing some time this afternoon... if I can be bothered getting us all out of our pyjamas, that is.

Anyway... I'd like to have a giveaway, for no reason really so let's just say it's to celebrate the lovely and very-much-needed rain falling in Melbourne today.

First 'prize' is a scarf. It's made from wool fabric with some appliqued red Aunty Cookie Knit One fabric detail. It's not yet finished but it will look much like the scarf above with red detail - the bottom two pictures show you the kind of length and width.

Second and third prize are Swineys. Because you might as well get the Swine 'Flu Virus along with the rest of Victoria! Check out my previous posts if you wish to see what these little pieces of winter whimsy are...

So, if you're up for a toasty scarf or a Swiney, please comment below and tell me what you love (or not) about winter. I'll pick winners at random on June 17 in one week's time. You don't have to be a follower or anything but make sure I can contact you via a blog or email.

NB despite the wintry theme, this is open to international readers. If indeed they exist!! :-P

My creative space...

Each week I'm enjoying participating in kootoyoo's Creative Spaces. There are some truly beautiful spaces and creations happening around the place, and I enjoy checking out Kirsty's favourite space each week too.

As for mine... well, it's all a bit ugly really. As per my last post, I'm currently occupied with making more Swineys for my beloved's work colleagues. So the above bits and bobs are waiting to become this little swine 'flu softie:

Thank you for the kind comments about Swiney and the suggestion that I sell him (?!!) - but I think the Swiney craze would be very short-lived, and let's face it, he's on the ugly side! And he's a little fiddly to make, even if it's all good therapeutic crafting. So I'm just doing a small run and giving them to medical and micro nerds...

If you desperately want one for the medical nerd in your life, I'll make a little tutorial and stick it up. It would be a good project for anyone who is quarantined!!

PS no hearts in my space so don't go mad for looking :-)

Swine 'Flu Softie Anyone?

This is possibly the height of geekery...

Made me a nice little swine 'flu virus mini-softie last night. I wanted something to hand-sew whilst watching the TV with my Beloved. As a doctor working in the field of infectious diseases, he's up to his eyeballs in all things swine 'flu, so he pulled up this cross-section virus diagram and asked me to replicate it:

What with the swine 'flu cases in Melbourne ramping up, things are busier at work and hubby figured a bit of humour wouldn't go astray. He loves it because it's virologically accurate, from the cute green neuraminidases and swanky red haemagglutinin right down to the 8 strands of RNA in the middle.

The Beloved wore 'Swiney' pinned to his shirt today, and apparently now the orders are flooding in from his nerdy colleagues. Who knows, this could be my portal to fame and fortune. Or not...