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things to do or pretend...

This "list of things to do or pretend" is from an old Progressive Phonic primer I found tucked under a pile of books at the local op shop. The book isn't dated but I'm guessing from the style of illustration that it from the 40's or 50's. Here's the list...

1. Clap softly
2.Sing sweetly
3.Speak clearly
4.Run swiftly
5.Breathe deeply
6.Eat slowly
7.Knit loosely
8.Write neatly
9.March smartly
10.Dance lightly
11.Walk briskly

If I didn't know better I'd swear that this list was written with me in mind...the only thing that I would add is
12. Go to bed early.....
and after a month of successive late nights , that's on my to do list for the week!

I have been working on an embroidery design from this book, "Broderies d'ici et d'ailleurs (ISBN 2-263-03704-7)  that I bought online at alapage.com. I do not speak French nor read it so it was an interesting experience filling out the details form!  I really only bought it because I loved the cover image of Babushka dolls ,which I haven't tried yet as I was distracted by the Koi fish pattern.

I'm going to make it into a bag of some sort once I've finished stitching- I was thinking maybe a semi circle shape perhaps? Probably should finish it first!

By the way, pop over to the Morphe II toyshop and have a look - its really exciting to finally see them all together.

Here are a few other bits and pieces I've been playing with...

3 very small cats( in a very poorly lit photo)

and remember "blue"?
.. ..I had a lot of trouble deciding what I wanted to do with him at this point...

I finally just added a face and  lots of hair - left him nice,simple and squeezable.

shouldn't oughtta have done it...

I have purposely not looked at the blog's of anyone else who is sending stuff for Morphe II. I thought it best to just trundle along happily doing whatever I decided to do without any idea of what everyone else was doing.
And then today I did it. I peeked at another blog.
      And fell into a great big pit of self doubt.
              And it serves me right too!
I always avoided as much as possible looking at anyone else's submissions at uni - all it ever did was make you doubt the standard/quantity/creative genius of your own stuff.
So after looking at one, of course I looked at a few more ...and a few more...aggghhhhhh! Panic set in for a bit as not only am I still trying to decide which of the several half finished toys I will send, but all of my work started to look boring, run of the mill ,plain and uninspired!  Other People have not only decided what to submit but they've finished them. And sent them!
So I did what any self doubting, indecisive girl should do in this situation. I went to the gym, spent an hour in a body combat class kicking, punching and yelling and then came home and reassessed.
No, my toys aren't boring, or uninspired..however they are in various stages of assembly. My plan...finish the toys I have started and then make a decision on which to send ( perhaps with some feedback from a few fellow craftybloggers). And no more looking at what everyone else is doing or has done.......not until after the deadline has come and gone and my toys are safely in Adelaide. Then I can look and admire properly without the angst !

Sorting through fabric is always a good distraction and I came across this lovely piece of barkcloth  that I'd forgotten I had...

And while the nasty bugs of the last two weeks, coupled with the cupcake- making frenzy that has been August, have eaten up most of my creative energy, a little found its way into these two pieces...

A pincushion/ soft toy/desk ornament/ good thing to throw in frustration crocheted apple...

and a felt zip pouch in my favourite shape- of -the -moment for zip pouches.....

with a touch of embroidery for good measure.

Back to toyland for me....

swap on......

Despite my little whinge last post about two swaps missing in action, I am still in swap mode.
After all I've been part of some terrific swaps, made contact with some great people and been inspired to start up a swap myself. ( By the way there is now a second make- a -calendar -swap happening and still plenty of time for anyone else out there who wants to get one going...drop me a line if you want to start one up and I'll pass on all the information...go on, just do it!) I think that I'll stick to one on one swaps with people I meet through blog world for more time expensive swaps and use Swap bot for the quick fix swaps!

This is a post card that I have just finished for the name swap .....my first attempt at a sewn card. A bit of handmade felt, some embroidery and applique and a little apple button as my "signature".

I can't wait to start on my calendar page - that is pages ,as I signed up for Paula's ( just couldn't resist...) and I have one or two other swaps with talented crafty types planned for a little later in the year, which I'm really looking forward to.

I have been doing some work on my tiny small things  and becoming quite obsessed with them. So tiny, so small, so not my submission for Morphe II ! ( I have actually made quite good progress with those - they'll be ready on time, never fear!)
I'm still not quite finished with them - and when I've done embroidering and decorating , they'll need names and life stories.......

And for those aspiring felt makers out there, what happens to a perfectly lovely piece of felt if you throw it in the washing machine for a final bit of "fulling" but forget to put it in  the washing bag/pillow  case.......

Lovely in an artsy creative holey way but definitely of no use for making felt softies......guess what I'll be doing this weekend?

pins and pencils....

my magic yarn ball is on its way to Spokane, Washington ...can't wait for mine to arrive and find out what lovelies my swap partner has chosen for me... I've always wanted to try the Noro "Silk Garden" but never found the right project ( I'm a bit frightened by the idea of variegated wool) and as my swap partner is a muted natural type of girl, I thought this heathery coloured yarn would be perfect. Lets hope so.

After receiving a needlebook from devinemom at musings of an unplanned mother  not only was I inspired to try a version of my own , this apple , but also to try ( quite logically) a pincushion. After all, my mouth is not always the best place for pins and I can no longer safely stick them on the front of whatever I happen to be wearing ( babies do not like pins! sorry Charlie, old habits...). I saw some very cute and fat little ones at zakkaya  in Melbourne and resisted the urge to buy one, thinking I really should give it a go myself. The result- quite fat and plump but sooooo overstuffed that it was too hard to get the pins into. A bit of unpicking and a fair amount of unstuffing and voila! le pincushion ( I've always wanted to have a French accent and if I was enormously rich, I'd hire a French nanny called Yvette so that my girls would sound like the little cutie on the Yoplait ad).

And because I haven't posted about any recently ..a book. Japanese naturally (although I do have a large collection of English text ones which I really should post about sometime. Next time).

Nuku Nuku ( anyone know what this means?) ISBN 4-277-43039-2 is a mix of crochet, knit and sewing projects. I really want to make the house shoes ( above) even though Damian would laugh everytime I put them on. I know they're kind of duck feet like but they look so warm and toe toasty. Just what a reptile like me needs when the sun goes down.

I don't think that the mittens would be very practical but they are fun and I really want to have a go at this apron thing that they call a "blanket" - maybe its meant to be a wrap around blanket?? Anyway I think that is an interesting take on an apron, that I would get some use out of. And their choice of fabric is perfect. And then I too, can sit around in my sun drenched hallway,enjoying a moment of solitude and gazing dreamily out of the doorway.....until someone needs food/drink/nappy change or my person to dress up in a sparkly piece of fabric and a pair of Princess Fiona ears..... which beats having to stand in for the giant Barbie doll head and having my hair styled  into a lovely birdsnest look with butterfly clips, fancy elastics and tinsel.

sugar and spice....

..and bumps, black eyes and split chins! I think that Charlotte must have had an extra pinch of spice in there ! My little climber fell on Monday ( one black eye one bumped and bloody nose) and fell again ! off the same stool on Wednesday and split open her chin. As soon as we got back form the doctors , she headed straight for the stool and dragged it to where she wanted it and started climbing again....I'm thinking that this won't be the last of bumps, cuts and bruises as far as miss Charlie is concerned...

After all the excitement I needed to do something a little more sedate and relaxing so I'm attempting to finish the crewel work blanket I started for Charlie just before she was born ( yes, she Will be two in August...its been a busy two years!)
Of course, I finished Rose's blanket just after she arrived - fun birds in bright colours and  a satin back that she just loves...

However poor old Cha being baby number two has had too wait a little longer! Not too much longer, I promise! It seems that if I post a picture of a work in progress , it seems to progress just that little bit faster!
Here is the sketch I started with, inspired by a Ming Dynasty jade horse statue...

Now its just a matter of filling it in - I have almost finished one ( needs a tail) and half of another. I haven't decided whether it will be just the two or maybe a third.....we'll see....

Gidd'up horsie!

silver and gold...

this describes the type of weekend I had perfectly..... on Saturday I finally went to my workshop , 'An introduction to working  with Precious Metal Clay" ( it had been rescheduled twice due to lack of numbers because nobody knows what it is). And what exactly is Precious Metal Clay? Well besides being my newest obsessive passion, it is a jewelery making technique where you model a clay  ( the PMC) into whatever shape you wish, fire it and end up with a piece of work that is 99% pure silver ! This is the clay below as well as the simple tools ( paint brushes , smooth roller in this case a sunscreen bottle ).

and here are my finished pendants ...

All this in a six hour workshop with plenty of time for tea and food breaks! I can just tell that I am going to become hooked on this especially as you can achieve finished results at home, using a firing pot made for ceramics work ( $70 odd compared to $1300 for a kiln) . I am just amazed at what you can actually do - you can build structures over combustible material like mouldable cork, paper even those cheese ball snacks ( much preferable to eating them - that yellow!) to form hollow beads , shapes, etc.

After such an exciting day it was lovely to just relax and finish off a few things on Saturday evening. I watched the new Harry Potter movie ( great ) after Iron Chef  had finished ( just love the Chairman, especially those outfits) and added the last touches to a little string of birds that are off to Brooklyn, New York. I am doing a little vintage button swap with the talented  Ann Wood - take a look at her beautiful horses and magical ships...its like they've almost sailed out of a fairytale. I have a thing for birds at the moment ( see pendant above) and I am determined to use up some of my collection of handmade felt - I have such a pile left from uni days both as a student and a lecturer. Not to mention wool tops , so I am busy finding new and wonderful ways to use it so that I can start making some more. Who knows maybe I'll even put some up for swaps - if anyone out there wants some hand made felt drop me a line. So back to the birds..I am really happy with how they turned out...

and hanging from my very useful door...

and close ups...

Sunday afternoon we decided to take the girls down to Balmoral beach as it was such a clear crisp afternoon and I just love being on the beach in cold weather. Rose and Charlie made sand "icecreams" - I couldn't stop Charlie from attempting to lick hers much to her disgust. After the third lick we decided to have a paddle. The water was very chilly indeed so of course Rose fell in. As they do. Luckily I had expected such a thing to happen the at least one of them, so after a change of clothes it was off to Grandma Maggie's ( who  lives just up the hill) for fish and chips and mini magnums all round. Charlie much preferred this one to the one made of sand.
Some happy snaps..

and Charlie after her mouthful of 'icecream"...

Not very impressed!
Roll on next weekend...off to tackle the ever growing pile of rocks in the garden...