Scooter

Scooter – freshly purchased from the gorgeous Meet Me at Mikes and crocheted by Jess! So happy to have little Scooter hanging about the house.

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.

Career Highlight?

Heather was on Oprah today (in the States). That’s pretty exciting; Go Heather!

But ALSO my toys were on Oprah! In the background! Look, see?

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.

A softy for Mirabel

I resurrected the old Marshmallow Bunny pattern and was very pleased to find that I really enjoyed stitching this little girl together. She is off to Pip tonight ready for the Softies for Mirabel charity auction. You can read more about it here.