Toytown Tales

I finally made it into the city yesterday to see the Toytown Tales Exhibition at Outre with Jess and Cathie.

There are lots of gorgeous close-up photos over at Teddy Bears Wednesday, but it's not until you see them in real life, that you have the chance to check out the amazing attention to detail in each creation.

Crappy iPhone photo - sorry!

I have the attention span and patience of a gnat when it comes to most types of crafting, so I really appreciate the hours Jess has taken to achieve this level of detail. Especially with the hair of each of the jointed bears.

Unfortunately the parking restrictions in the city made it impossible for me to hang around for too long. When I arrived back at my car, the car in front and the car behind me both had parking tickets.... but I didn't - hallelujah... and thankyou good karma fairies!

A Weekend of Exhibitions

So many exciting things are planned for this weekend!

Tonight is the grand opening of the first ever solo gallery exhibition by Cathy Kirwan (Tinniegirl) at Red Brick Gallery in Ballarat.

Unfortunately, I'm totally bummed that I can't make it to opening night, but I'm heading down on Saturday to meet up with my sister, and Cathy, to see it.

I haven't even had the chance to take a sneak peek in Cathy's studio (like I would normally do), so I really really can't wait to see it!

There's an excellent little cafe just around the corner from Red Brick, so it's the perfect spot to meet up with friends for a visit!

If you're in the city, then make sure to get along to Outre Gallery and check out the very talented Jess McCaughey (Teddy Bears Wednesday).

Opening night is also tonight, but luckily both exhibitions run for two weeks until March 1st.

If you've never been along to check out an exhibition, then I can highly recommend it!

Mr Mustard and the case of the missing apron

Photo Courtesy - Teddy Bears Wednesday

Have you met Mr Mustard?

I was reading all about him last week, and found that his 'Kiss The Cook' apron was in the wash. Every sweet little bear deserves something new for Christmas, so I decided to make him one.

Step 1 - Create the Fabric Design.

With a chocolate brown bear and a name like Mr Mustard, I couldn't resist sticking with the chocolate and mustard colour theme.

A bit of Photoshop and Picnik magic and some inkjet printable fabric and we have a starting point.

Step 2 - Make the Apron

I made myself a little cardboard template and cut out the front panel, and some plain yellow cotton drill for the back panel.

Sew right sides together  with a teeny tiny seam and leave a gap. Trim and nick the curves.

Turn out and topstitch.

Step 3 - Add some straps

This bit was a little tricky, as the apron was soooo tiny, but I managed to find some nice strong ribbon in the stash which works perfectly.

Step 4 - Find A Model and Show it Off

This is Moby.

Moby is a little bit smaller / shorter than Mr Mustard but he was the only willing participant in my house (and he's a bit of a show off).

Mr Mustard's apron is now in the mail and on it's way to Jess's house. I hope it makes it in time for Santa!

A Thankyou

I know I've said it before.... but crafty bloggers are so amazing and generous when times get a little tough.

Jess surprised me with this gorgeous Moby Potholder.

It matches with my little Moby (and his family portrait)...

Crafty Rie sent me a huge package of goodies in the mail.

Beautiful fabrics and buttons....

Chocolate and cappucino and soapie mags (these are some of the things that I obsess about over on twitter), and even a lovely teatowel!

Thankyou so much lovely ladies!

Crazy like a Golf Ball

I promise that I did actually iron it... even though it doesn't look like it.

This secret little project has been in the pipeline for a little while now...

Jess's Dad is approaching a milestone birthday this year. She wanted to organise a totally custom and totally unique pressie for him, and so she hatched a little plan.

We were both on the lookout for the perfect vintage teatowel. If either of us could find one with a golf theme, then we knew that we'd hit Op Shop GOLD!

Unfortunately, I'd had zero time available for decent op shopping, but luckily Jess found this absolute gem. Vintage 100% Irish Linen.

The next part of the mission belonged to me..... just what sort of fabric would you team with a Golf themed tea towel?

Huh? What was your answer? Why, it's crazy golf balls of course!

Surprisingly, there wasn't much time spent trawling the internet before I chanced upon this one.
Those cheeky quilters - they have a fabric for every single theme you could ever dream of!

But seriously folks. What would you make with golf ball fabric? I still have some offcuts left so I'd love to know!

Featured Hottie Number 9 - Meet Marcus

Hi! My name is Marcus.

I like croquet chilli fries and break dancing.

My lovely (and beary talented) maker Jess has sent me off into the wild blue yonder to take part in the Hottie Challenge.

In the meantime, I'm having a lovely little holiday at Chez CurlyPops. Mr Limpy Houdini dog has been making me feel right at home with Pina Coladas and Twisties ... hiccup.  He's sooo naughty!

My Creative Space

Moby received a new family portrait from his long lost relatives in the mail last week...

He has a new crafty photo frame, and plans on getting creative with it to add his own particular artistic flair

But first he need a little biccie treat for sustenance

The home of my creative space

A Teatowel Tale

A long looooong time ago, a pretty little teatowel began it's maiden voyage...

It was designed and printed somewhere in Australia, but then managed to find itself sad and unloved in a charity shop (that's Op Shop to us Aussies) somewhere around Lancashire in England.

In an amazing twist of fate, a lovely lady named Lynsey spied the poor unloved teatowel, and took it home, before packing it up and sending it all the way back to it's birth country, to a lover of tea towels (ie. my place).

There the tea towel sat, in the stash for a whole twenty-one months.... until it was time.

Jess had spied the Quince teatowel bag on my blog, and enquired about it at Pip's book launch, but alas, that bag had already been snapped up.

I was quite sure that I had something else suitable in the stash, and Jess said that she'd like something Vintage Australiana with Echidnas or Wombats.

The next day I started searching..... and as I was getting closer to the bottom of the teatowel stack, I was starting to panic that I hadn't found anything with an echidna or a wombat!

But serendipitously, right near the bottom of the stack came a shining light (ok, well that might have just been my imagination, or lack of oxygen to the brain).... but it was the PERFECT teatowel - Echidnas, Wombats, Koalas, Kangaroos, Cockatoos, Possums, Kookaburras, and Platypusses (forgive me but I don't know the correct plural for platypus).

So now Jess has her very own unique OOAK bag with nice dark handles to carry about all her bits and bobs and widgets and squidgies.... and the teatowel is going to live happily ever after.

THE END

iMoby V2.0

Do you remember little Moby?

I adopted him in January, and he's been happily living with his friends in the bookcase ever since (he really likes reading craft books I hear).

Lately he's been receiving a bit of attention from a little visitor who seems to have fallen in love with him.....

I couldn't bear (pardon the pun) to give him away, so instead, I asked Jess if I could possibly order Moby a twin brother.

So this is iMoby V2.0....

He arrived in a gorgeous little box (notice the postie even stuck the postage stickers right over to the side so that they didn't interfere with the lovely packaging), and with a batch of super cute bear stickers and my favourite type of chocolate (peppermint).

Now that he's had a bit of a stopover at my place, I'd better deliver him to his new home fairly soon.... or he might just have to stay!

Banishing Boring Beige

The BEFORE photo - as in before dyeing, and before I could find the matching belt

I've been following along and watching all of Jess's bear dyeing adventures lately, and it suddenly reminded me that I had my own little dyeing project hanging around in my wardrobe, just waiting for some inspiration to hit.

It's been yonks and years since I've tried it. In fact the last thing that I dyed, was a rather unfortunate pair of high waisted jeans while I was as Uni.  Does anyone else remember when coloured denim was cool...ahem? Those jeans met an unfortunate end after my foot was run over by a taxi outside a nightclub (but that's a story for another day)...where was I?

Oh yes the beige dress!

I picked this lovely dress up at a factory outlet on Smith St many moons ago. At the time, I didn't bother to try it on, I just took it home.
It wasn't until I saw this photo of me wearing it a BBQ in 2007, that I realised that beige is a very very very very bad colour against my pasty white skin tone.

The poor dress was banished to the back of the wardrobe, never to see the light of day again.... until 2010.

Jess emailed me through all of her pot dyeing on the stove top secrets (I really didn't want to ruin my nice white and shiny front loader), but I still chickened out and asked Bec if she would help me out for the first go.

My original intention was to go to with a nice dark browny grey colour, but when I got to Becs house, she had a huge selection of dyes to choose from, and I just couldn't go past the ruby red!

The slip that is worn under the dress took the dye really well and is a nice bright red....

The dress is a blend of cotton and synthetics, and I love how the dye has actually given the stripes a much greater effect in the way that the dye has taken to the fabric.

I had to include an action shot of Bec doing all the hard work while I sat at the kitchen bench drinking coffee and snapping photos...hee hee

I think I'm going to have to wear my newly dyed dress today (over a pair of pants - its only going to be 23 degrees).

Thanks Jess and Bec for all your help!

Moby and Friends

Every now and again, I buy myself a little handmade treat as a reward to myself for all my hard work. There are lots and lots of lovely bits and pieces that are on my 'to buy' list..... especially those things that I have no hope of ever trying to make myself.

After trying crochet on numerous occasions, I've realised that no matter how hard I try, my brain just does not get it, and so I found myself a new use for my crochet hooks - they make great little paint and glue stirrers.

Ever since I gave up on those unrealistic crochet dreams, I've been coveting one of Jess's gorgeous amigurumi bears to add to my collection of handmade goodies. I was going to wait until the next Northside Makers Market on February 6th (Jess is having a stall), but I'll be at the Daylesford Makers Market on the same day, so I asked her to pop Moby in the post instead.

Moby's not the quick bear off the rank or the brightest bulb in the box. He's often seen wandering along metres behind the other bears in his own little dream. He loves sniffing and smelling everything with his big nose, and to play the xylophone. When he feels moved to, he will also partake in a bit of experimental dance. He will eat anything with Potato in it, his favourite and staple food.

How could I resist a little bear with the same food issues as me?

Moby has made his way to his new home in the bookshelf. He's had a chance to meet all of his new friends, and so far, they all seem to be getting along swimmingly. I think he may be missing his xylophone though..... maybe I could make one out of paddle pop sticks and matches?

Just a minute..... in March

I nearly forgot again until I saw Jess's Post.

March 2009 will have to go down as one of the craziest months of my entire life!

• I moved out of my old house
• I moved in with my younger sister and brother in law
• My brother got married
• I moved out from my sisters house and into my new house
• I went to the Stitches and Craft show
• I had my very first stall at a craft market

All of that, on top of my normal everyday life was completely exhausting but also enjoyable (except for the moving house bit because that just sucked big time).

Watching

• Sadly, I no longer have Foxtel. I really miss all of my favourite shows, and not being able to just tape them and watch them whenever I feel like it. At the moment, the only must see tv is Brothers and Sisters, and I try to catch The Bold and the Beautiful at least twice a week (that's always enough to know what's happening). Channel 10 have now moved Dexter to some ridiculous ever changing time on a Sunday night. I'll have to just buy the DVD.

Reading

• I finally finished Knit Two. I don't want to give anything away but it seems to me that there may just be a third book in the wings

Eating

• I had a lovely piece of cake for afternoon tea today. I have some old bananas, so Flo's banana cake may be on the menu tomorrow.... or I could make fried bananas in toffee sauce and have it with ice-cream - yum!

Making

• A handbag for my Auntie. She's going overseas in May and she's requested a new handbag for the trip. I really want to make her a handbag with a zip closure as it's more secure for a trip like that.

Head on over to see Jen at August Street for much more of Just a Minute....

PS - I think she may still be on holidays!