My Creative Space is preparing for winter…

…with these little slippers. I crocheted them for Maya but after lightly felting them, her feet barely fit into them. So I have given them to my friend’s little 3 month old daughter whose feet are waaay too small yet.

Speaking of the gorgeous little girl, I forgot to show you what I made for her when she was born. This is my first crocheted blanket, made before I worked out that you can actually join the motifs as you crochet them.

So many hours were spent (unnecessarily) stitching all these hexagons together.

Hopefully it is keeping her nice and cosy with the cooler weather we have been having this season.

And hopefully she is having fun playing “where is the white sheep” with this softie I made from an opped cotton and silk knitted jumper.

More creativity over here at Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space

Busy, busy, busy preparing for the Sugar & Spice Children’s Market. Only finding time to take photos in the fading light - again. At least my parliament of owls is growing and these guys are ready to fly off soon!

This little brown owl is my favourite.
More Creative Spaces over here.

Front Page News!

Look what arrived in my letterbox this morning.


Local newspapers delivered! Yes, yes I know, not that interesting, but with the very unreliable delivery service around here it is exciting for me. But what's even more exciting than that is the article about the Sugar and Spice Children's Market on the front page!


Ali spends a lot of time and hard work organising this wonderful market full of gorgeous handmade things for children. And she donates all the profits from the market to local charities. The first market back in June was fantastic with a great atmosphere. You can read the article here.


And if you look closely at the photo, you can see my spunkee owl softie tucked into one of the cute dresses hanging in the background and the colourful softie Ali is holding is another spunkee special!


The next market is on September 12th at St Ambrose Hall in Woodend. I won't be a stallholder at the September Market (I am hoping to have a stall at the December market), but I am looking forward to visiting and browsing and no doubt buying!

My Creative Space

My creative space has been very busy this week catching up after the flu last week rendered me useless for a whole three days. Luckily Khye was in care for two of those days and my wonderful mum came to stay and help out with Maya. She got up at 4:30am to catch the 5:30am train just to get here by about 8:45am! Thanks for your fantastic help mum.

Since recovering from those horrid fevers, chills, joint pain and head aches, I’ve been flat out preparing stacks of softies for the Sugar & Spice Children’s Market. There’s the usual herds of elephants, bales of turtles, towers of giraffes, flights of birds, and now a new parliament of owls,and a new colony of bunnies.
If you're near Woodend this Sunday, come and visit me and my menagerie of spunkee softies - we'd love to see you!

Sugar & Spice Children’s Market
St Ambrose Hall, Woodend
Sunday June 20
10am – 2pm
Free Entry

Opping the blues away

Friday was a freezing, foggy day and I didn’t want to face the thought of spending the afternoon saying “Khye get off Maya” and “Khye don’t pull Maya’s fingers” and “Khye take the blanket off Maya” and then finally cracking it with frustration “Khye just leave Maya alone”!!!!!! I’m sure I sound like a broken record and that he doesn’t even hear me anymore. But that’s another story for another time … sigh ... So anyway I packed up my winter blues, my hopes for a peaceful afternoon (and my cash) and took a little trip to a couple of neighbouring little towns to visit their fantastic country oppies. And rather than enjoy the afternoon on our own I invited a friend and her two kids to join us for some op shop fun.

There’s nothing quite like a bit of opping with a friend to cure those gloomy winter blues. Not only did the fog clear, the skies open up and the glorious sunshine warm us, but I found some op shop gold.

First were the brand new, still in packets, never used, all cotton vintage sheets.

Then there was the dear deer that the kids spotted, looked at briefly then returned to the shelf. I couldn’t let her go, particularly seeing as though she was only 50 cents. There were these little golden books. My favourite is the growly bear book, published in the early 60’s, and it’s beautiful illustrations. There were lots of other bits and pieces – fabric, wool, doilies, more books, kids shoes, embroidery hoops, stranded cotton, a kids coat, wire bowl for my market stall and lastly there was this. Oh my how gorgeous! And then to discover it was only 50 cents too!

Thanks AM for coming opping with us. The kids managed to entertain each other and they were even pretty well behaved, except when they ran around the shop shouting and laughing with that huge purple teddy that was bigger than them. The “Pru and Tru” ladies behind the counter weren’t very impressed though, glaring at them disapprovingly over the tops of their glasses!

Anyway hope you all found some op shop gold this week too! Check it out over at Sophie’s.

Ecotoys

Have you ever visited the Ecotoys online store?
Now you can visit them in person! Ecotoys are about to open their new shop in Hawthorn.

Eco Toys & Baby Grand Opening
Sat 8th May 2010
9am - 5pm
651 Burwood rd, Hawthorn East 3123
(next to Auburn Village & train station)

If you haven’t heard about Ecotoys before, they sell a beautiful range of eco friendly, ethically made and locally handmade toys and they are now expanding their range to include natural baby products.

So pop along this Saturday for the grand opening. You might even see some spunkee softies flying about!

Baby Show Ticket Giveaway

Thanks to Ecotoys I have some Baby Show tickets to giveaway. The tickets are worth $20 and the Baby Show is in Melbourne next week from Friday 5th - Sunday 7th March.

Ecotoys will be exhibiting at the Baby Show with their beautiful range of toys made from natural, sustainable and recycled materials. They will also have some fantastic offers and giveaways at the show including this gorgeous organic baby hamper valued at $240.

You may even see some of my spunkee soft toys at the Ecotoys exhibit!

To receive your free ticket to the Baby Show please email me with your name and email address. You will then be subscribed to the Ecotoys e-newsletter and we will send you a ticket via email which you can print and present at the Baby Show.

My Creative Space

This is where I spent most of my day today – in my favourite part of our garden.

I find it very peaceful here and it’s so nice sitting on the cool grass on a warm day. I blew bubbles for Maya who has never seen bubbles before and she was fascinated by them!
Then while Maya slept I finally completed this tiny babushka brooch that I had started at christmas time.
The pattern is from this book that Sean and the kiddies gave me for Christmas.
And I also photographed some of my spunkee softies in the garden. These softies are bound for my new etsy store and for the Ecotoys stall at the Baby Show in Melbourne next weekend.



Head over to Kootooyoo to visit heaps of other great creative spaces.

Mr. Owly

I started making him more than 12 months ago, but when he started turning out a bit wonky, he got banished to the bottom of the sewing box. Khye went into hospital to have his tonsils out recently, so I thought I would rescue Mr. Owly and sew on his big night eyes, beak and soft heart shaped belly to give to Khye when he returned home. He loves Mr. Owly (almost as much as white teddy!) and he doesn’t care that he’s a little wonky. I even like his wonkiness now!

New things I’ve been having fun making lately…

…a penguin softie – an order for a work collegue. I designed him from scratch and I am actually amazed at how well he turned out!
…a beautifully soft angora wool cot blanket – an order for a friend for her soon to be grandson.

…another soft wool cot blanket – available for sale.

…a fabric rocking horse for Khye. This is a sneak peek as I haven’t finished him yet. I am making him from a pattern from a 1970’s magazine that Mum collected when we were kids.

…a soft fabric portable house/garage/barn/building for Khye. Again a sneak peek as I haven’t finished it yet. Here is the tutorial from UK Lass in US.

More on the horse and the house later when they are finished.

What new things have you been making lately?

Holiday fun

Here’s a collection of images and sound from our holidays.

This was a last minute burst of sewing before christmas for Khye’s toys – it’s a bag that opens flat on the floor.

Some christmas pressies - how lucky am I?

Daddy’s little helper

The leather owl I made as a gift for mum

Khye ready to go “nunnel” (aka tunnel) hunting

nunnel hunting with Grandma

“more more nunnel”

Grandma’s garden is looking beautiful at the moment.

a fantastic op shop fabric find – a zebra just had to be made!

Sean has been very busy doing a wonderful job to transform our pink kitchen into a white kitchen.

This is the last thing I saw before leaving for work this morning.

And lastly I was going to post the most beautiful rendition of twinkle little star, but I had issues (we don’t have a USB2 port to download stuff from my mp3 player – stay tuned though, I will post it as soon as I can!)

Happy new year!