I have finished that very odd dog that I drew a sketch for a few days ago.
His name is Humphrey Begs – with the tiny little legs. My dad named him after he finished guffawing at him. Unfortunately his legs are not strong enough to hold up his tubby tummy and his HUGE HEAD (pronounced “heed”) but he has a lot of character. I’m not sure where my pattern making went wrong but I am learning all the time! This one is going up on Ebay in a few days time when I can get some better photos of him.
Tired. Sick. Bored. On a brighter note there are always wonderful things to be found on the web. There are good folks getting married (a belated congratulations!) and other good folks getting engaged, and other good folks having babies.
And because there is no end to the amazing amount of creativity to be found on the information superhighway (remember when it was called that?!) – Art for Housewives is guaranteed to keep you busy clicking enticing links for hours. I’m off to bed.
I’m ready to pack it in and move to Queensland where they have giant cockroaches that feast on your toothbrush bristles and crocodiles and big spiders but at least there might be a lot less chance of getting a new kind of cold every three days. Today I have no voice, which is fine if you don’t have to yell “AMELIA! I SAID DON’T PAINT ON THE WALL!” and other such things every five minutes or so. I have developed a ferocious whisper that can stop any toddler dead in their tracks.
Yesterday afternoon Big-P and I went out to have a look at a house for sale in Blackburn. It was quite a nice house in a rabbit warren kind of way, but there were a few problems with it, the rabbit warren nature of its halls being a big one. Big-P and I agreed that it was ok and we could live in it at a pinch and probably be quite happy for a time and that was almost enough to make us go home and start working out a serious offer.
Two years (or so) ago when we were last looking for houses it was mid-housing boom. We would turn up for an open inspection and there would be lines of people milling through the house. There were young couples like us and old crusty looking investor types measuring the land and imagining how many units they could squeeze onto the property. These old crusty investor types were the reason we couldn’t find a house. I blame them entirely. Everyone was in a house buying frenzy and prices continued to climb week after week. So I would stomp around these open houses glaring at anyone who looked like an evil investor and we ended up renting for another year and then moving in with mum and dad.
Which brings us to today. The boom is over, in fact there is still much speculation about prices of houses not just slowing but falling in the next few months. We turn up to an inspection with our same amount of low expectations that we had two years ago to be pleasantly surprised that not only is the house halfway decent but there are only one or two other couples wandering through. Real Estate agents return your calls and almost fall over themselves to help out.
It’s hard for us to realise that we might actually find something we like. It’s hard not to see house number three and think “We must buy this now before a crusty investor gets their hooks into it!”.
On Saturday night Ben was telling us about a friend of his who hired a real estate expert to do the looking and to find a house for him. The expert’s philosophy was that you needed to look at 90 houses before finding the one you like. 90 houses. I think we can safely say that we have a bit of work to do yet.
Thank you for all the comments from the last post and all the awesome suggestions for t-shirt suppliers. I have found a supplier of American Apparel here locally in Richmond and will also investigate ordering online as well as the other suggestions made.
It’s been a busy few days. Everyone is still sick or sick again so sleep has been hard to come by and days are long and filled with Wiggles videos. We have had a great weekend despite all this with yum cha at the Shark Fin House in the city (Amelia was much entertained by the waiters whizzing by with trolleys filled with dumplings, the tables of noisy people, the tanks of fish and her set of chopsticks – a great toddler success story) and then a delicious birthday dinner for Ben at Kenzan in the city last night. This morning I got up early and hopped down to the flea market to meet up with Kylie and Miriam which was delightfully enhanced by a chance meeting with Ms Cassandra. There was coffee swilling and much excited talk of t-shirt printing, good and dodgy printers, yarn tales and market finds. An inspiring morning indeed.
I have also had a chance to sew up two dogs from “Splendid Soft Toys”. (it’s a little hard to see the black dog in this picture. His corduroy coat seems to suck in the light).
I discovered it really wasn’t too hard to do so I have sketched an idea for a dog design of my own ready for turning into a pattern.
And there’s also those cat dolls to be worked on. And my Blythe doll arrived and she really needs some new clothes. I am about to sew her up a new outfit consisting of this and this.
What else…. It’s no secret that I love Martha Stewart Kids Magazine. I could give or take Martha Stewart Living as it’s pretty expensive to buy here and tends to get a little repetitive, but Martha Stewart Kids on the other hand is always full of fresh ideas, great colours, wonderful design (polka dots abound! Ric-rac is the star of the day!) and even stuff that I book mark to try with Amelia in the future.
Over at Fred Flare Kids’ Editorial Director Jodi Levine is interviewed. Other interviews I like from the Fred Flare line up include Bust’s Editor-in-chief and Stitch ‘n Bitch author Debbie Stoller and local lass and designer extraordinaire Beci Orpin. Beci says nice things about Melbourne.
For school this week we are preparing screens for printing on to t-shirts. The theme for the t-shirt design is “An artwork, an artist or an art movement that influences our work”. Hmm. So I am thinking about what and who influences my work and I feel I may have to stretch the boundaries a little and perhaps look at a craft movement maybe or perhaps an illustrator. Yes, that’s an idea. But who and what to choose?! I am leaning towards doing a Mary Blair kind of thing, and as it’s going to be two to three colours that will be quite fun. We also have to research places to buy bulk t-shirts from. My main problem is that I don’t really want to get your standard hanes style tshirt. I would prefer to print on something a bit more girly, and a lot more interesting… this of course is a big ask and would probably require actually getting some made or, even worse, making some myself. I really am a bit lost when it comes to this kind of thing. Regardless. What fun! T-shirts!
Tomorrow I am going out to Box Hill to buy myself a 50cm x 40cm screen to prepare at school and print with at home. I am playing with ideas for small runs of fabric to turn into toy clothes and other small projects. And now, of course, there is the world of Blythe commercial fashion design to delve into! I got an ILYIT for those who may be interested. Woo!
Links I have been enjoying:
Just when I needed it too- How to Apply Double Fold Bias Tape (via Dioramarama).
Usakichi no Chiisanaomise – crocheted toys from Japan (via Christina)
Colobockle (also via Christina) lovely illustration with lots of texture and colour
And some Blythe links, because the sun has just shone through my window, Puchimadam style lab – the queens of customisation and browse through Christina’s files here and here for wonderful outfits, patterns and accessories.
