Old Noey & New Noey

Noey 2005

2005 Noey and 2010 Noey Redux

New Noey in old (washed and pressed) dress

I have just finished working on a special project.

The top photo is Old Noey, first made and sold in February 2005. She was one of my very first batch of kitten softies. After Noey travelled across the sea, she was given to a little girl and was much loved and cuddled - for almost five fabulous years. But after all that cuddling she started to wear  thin. Stuffing started to come out and her head had become distorted. There was a little breakfast cereal on her stockings and my hand stitching had started to unravel -- so much so there was a fair chance that her head would come off altogether. So Old Noey came back here again for some R & R, special stuffing based chicken soup, and Australian sunshine. She's had a good holiday and now has roses in her cheeks and a fresh spring in her step. She's packed her new spare sundress and her journal and she's heading back to Georgia, USA to little Tess who has been waiting patiently for her return.

Rabbits are multiplying

I am getting there. I found a couple of spare hours today, ransacked Lily's room to turn it into a photo studio of sorts (you should have seen my scary looking lighting set up... towers of bed-side lamps teetering of mountains of stacked furniture), did some very amateurish styling and photographed three of the five rabbits in various set ups and then my camera battery ran out... and then we had to find the recharger... and then I needed a cup of tea... and then I realised that the rabbits aren't actually finished and I was going to sew little buttons on their dresses... how did I forget that?... and so it comes to a grinding halt for the time being.

I don't know if I am going to get a chance to list them for sale until late October when we get back from Japan - perhaps by then the 5 rabbits will have become 10 as I have a whole bunch more cut out ready to be put together.

But I thought this was a cute shot regardless.

Shake it up

I've been getting super jealous of Pip and her photo shoot. It sounds like a dream come true. This afternoon I finally finished my small group of five rabbit/mice things and thought I might do a little photo shoot trial run ready for the next sunny day. I asked Lily if she'd hold on to one of the girls hoping that it would give potential buyers some kind of idea of how big the toys are - but despite being hugely enthusiastic she really didn't quite understand what we were trying to achieve. We had lots of intense movement; head shaking, rabbit shaking, dancing around... A zakka photo shoot this was not.

This one is called "Mummy, rabbit attack camera":

Less blury photos to come in the next few days.

Woodland Park Folk at Hudson

Phil and I dropped in to Hudson today to check out Jhoanna's solo show! Beautiful softies. I was so keen to snap up little Gurion (on the left) but of course he was well and truly gone. Instead the cute little guy on the right is coming home with us in October. He is made from Lara's beautiful fabric so it's a double whammy!

Hudson Clothes 229 Carlisle St Balaclava Vic 3183 Australia (03) 9525 8066

On my desk - soft things

In an unprecedented leap - both children have been sleeping until after 7am every day this week. I am quite delirious as I feel kind of normal again! Phil and I have been able to stay up until almost 11 each night (gasp!) watching The Lord of the Rings, in all its extended glory, and still manage to function perfectly well the next day. I really hope this lasts, but these things rarely do. I am sure now that I have blogged about it, we will be up at 6 again tomorrow.

On my desk today (or "on my table by the window" anyway) are a bunch of rabbits being worked on slowly for a shop release in September, and a box of yarn from my stash which I have been sporadically turning into granny squares.

I continue to love this chilly Winter, apart from the colds and coughs which have taken up permanent residence around here. Tonight I am making Shepherd's Pie, and I may even make an apple crumble. Mmm.

Marshmallow Bunny auction is UP!

The first Marshmallow Bunny I have made in forever is up for auction this week. All proceeds (apart from ebay fees) will go to The Mirabel Foundation to support the work they do:

"The Mirabel Foundation was established in 1998 to assist children who have been orphaned or abandoned due to parental illicit drug use and are now in the care of extended family (kinship care). Mirabel believes that every child deserves a childhood and its mission is to break the destructive cycle of addiction."

And big props to Pip and the goodly Mikes people for organising such a fabulous fund raising idea.

Softies auction part one

Woah ! There's only just under 4 hours until the first round of the Softies for Mirabel auctions end! Hop along to find an incredibly reasonably priced softy and support a great cause.

My rabbit will be up for auction as part of the second round, starting from tonight. I will be posting some details tomorrow.

The Friday Archives - my first softies.

Well! What a few days. We've been in hospital for a couple with dear little Lily who has been sick (again) with a virus which developed into a nasty case of asthma. She is home now and doing much better, but I can not tell you how much this kind of experience makes you take a little step back and make more time for children schmooching. I'm sure you can imagine.

I was fully intending to go over to my Mum and Dad's this week and dig out some really old stuff for my Friday Archives* selection for today but that never happened. Instead I am republishing my first ever little softies from 2002. They are still knocking around the house somewhere, and considering they were made from synthetic felt (I had yet to discover the joys of wool felt) they have lasted well.

And also - there is an interview with me up at Plush You... slightly garbled because I sent it off the morning we went in to hospital with a slightly "that will have to do!" attitude. Thanks for having me Plush You. Kristen used some samples of my work which made me realise how long ago it has been since I have actually made any softies.

And because it's all about softies today - check out the Softies for Mirabel Project -- I am about to start doodling ideas for my contribution.

*Friday Archives -- every Friday I am posting some old work of mine - art, craft, photography, writing... whatever takes my fancy. Others are playing along. If you are interested, join in the fun! Feel free to nab the button above, leave a comment, or just a link. It's wonderful to dig up dusty old stuff from the past and realise how it might still influence you today.

Thanks!

Thank you so much to those who bought a print last week and thank you to those who left supportive comments regarding my first foray into Etsy selling - I really appreciate it. It was lots of fun and really not too terrifying so the plan is to do some more in the not too distant future. I'm thinking prints, goccos, original art and maybe, just maybe, some soft toys.

Speaking of soft toys... I'm tired tonight, the kids have got my virus from last week and I've been up most of the night, so I don't want to write a crappy post about this and I also realise that I am a bit late to the game - but in efforts to raise awareness (especially if you are a designer or Australian), I would like you to click through to Hillary's post from last week. And there's an ongoing discussion which is worth reading at Jennifer's blog. It makes me feel sad.

Pillow talk

facepillos.jpg Lily's asleep, Amelia's at school... I am keeping cool behind drawn curtains. It's going to be 38°c today, can that be fair? It's Autumn! The hot weather is going on and on and on.

After I first discovered the Maki Squarepatch site last month I was inspired to make a crazy patchwork cushion and couldn't resist adding some ears and eyes to give it a little more character. It was pretty easy and haphazard - I cut very random, not terribly even strips and hastily sewed them in a log-cabin-like formation. Nothing was measured and no lines are parallel. The stripe fabric is one of my favourite Kaffe Fassett fabrics... but having discovered a stitch in dye and her batik stripes I feel like it would be incredibly fun to break out some of my Mum's ancient 70s batik equipment and dye some stripes of my own. The likelihood of that actually happening is slim so instead I will just keep my eye on a stitch in dye's etsy store.

Speaking of Maki Squarepatch (again), I was looking through their flickr stream last night and discovered this hotdog bolster -- which coincidentally is a lot like the one I made for the back of our couch the week before last.

dogbolster.jpg

Mine still needs a tail (and a decent photoshoot minus the ugly couch, clearly). To make your own sausage dog bolster, I used the pattern from good old "Splendid Soft Toys" and just cut the body pattern piece in two and extended the stomach section. Stuffing it was a nightmare (hence the lumps) but it looks pretty cute.

I love so much of the Squarepatch stuff. These girls are clearly on my wavelength.

Inspires me: Maki Squarepatch

maki01.jpg Maki Squarepatch makes me want to start making softies in earnest again. A lot of their products are made out of recycled fabrics and all of their stuff is quirky and full of fun.

They have a great online store, blog and flickr stream. I have an episode of Lost and an episode of Dexter to watch tonight but I suddenly feel inspired to stitch. I feel compelled to make a seat cover!

maki02.jpg