It's getting closer

Doncha just love it when Christmas gives you an opportunity to make things you love but are 'too old' for? I just made some great christmas decorations for my friend Deb's kids, and my husband's niece & nephew, and I thought I'd make a Christmas Garland a la Allsorts blog - mine isn't quite as glamorous has hers, but it's going to be cute in the office, and in keeping with my 'handmade' pledge... can anybody tell me how to get the photos to wrap round the text? It's driving me nuts!

And now I'm off to make a doorstop; I just found a great pattern here & I'll post a picture when they're done - I'm making three - one for Nellie, one for me & one for my mother, who currently has a great big lump of 'coffee rock' keeping her sewing room door open. I'm sure we can make something more glamorous...

Working, working

So I've been slightly busy at work dealing with a crazy woman, and I've come home every night this week & made one of these in various fabrics and coloiurs; the guys in the office have started to notice how the girls are all walking round with these things stuck up their noses (nearly) and how nice they smell, so I've started making some more masculine ones...

The blue one is for my friend Shaddie, and the purple for my BA Buddie... you know who you are.

Also I got a bit embarrassed about having lots of beautiful fabric at home & walking around with my headphones in a nasty poly-something bag, so I made a very beautiful bag to keep them in from some Amy Butler Blue Wallflower with co-ordinating cord channels in that great blue dot... but these are the ones I made for my friend Gill in the UK, complete with her initial, appliqued on by hand. Yummy.

For Suzanne, at Notable Notions...

And then there's the Etsy community! I think the people who make up the Etsy family are like family you actually like (and I know for sure there's the other kind...) - anyway, I ordered some boxes to send out my froggies in (when I ever sell one, hint hint) & they took ages and ages to arrives from the US. By the time they came, the seller and I were on first name terms and she was popping in for coffee. Well, nearly. Anyway, I decided that she should be the first recipient of a frog-in-a-box (hey! Marketing idea!) so I made one just for her as a 'pay-it-forward' thingy. I hope she likes it...

Hunter Valley birds

So last weekend we were lucky enough to spend time in the beautiful Hunter Valley, which is about 2 hours north of Sydney, with our friends Kaz & Az and their gorgeous dogs, Zeb & Zoe. Anybody see a theme here?

I found a reference in my friend Lulu Carter's lovely blog to a pattern for a bird, from Spool Sewing, so I downloaded it & made a couple for Kaz. I think she liked them!

Progress

So I've been working on the froggie pattern for a while now & I think I've got it - these guys are just getting cuter and cuter (it's a bit of a worry when you don't want to sell something you've made because it's really cute)... the house is in danger of becoming even more overrun with frogs...

Unhealthy obsession

So I have mentioned yet my obsession? It's only a small one, I do not (as yet) collect newspapers or cats, although I do worry about MWH (my wonderful husband) who has put rather a lot of flooring down in our roof so he can keep his collection of school and uni notes, clothing worn when he was a lot younger & fitter, records (that's "LPs"), spare chairs, old suitcases... need I go on?

My obsession is frogs, I have no idea where it came from but the shape, colour and general cheeriness of frogs is what I like. My all time favourite came from my wonderful Aunt, and is made of Welsh slate. I have them in everything from wood to stone, to plastic, glass from Venice and brass from India... and now I've started making them in some of the scrap fabrics I've bought on Etsy.

Do you know about Etsy? I feel I should apologise for introducing people to Etsy, because it's become a bit of an obsession for me, at first I just wanted to buy things (lots and lots of things) but then I became very keen on the idea of selling something I really love to like-minded people!

Well, then I started casting (sorry!) about for yarn, and at the same time I was talking to my good friend, who happily is lulu carter's mother, about her lovely blog ... and Etsy came up in conversation. Anyhoo, long story short... now I'm sewing things to sell. Actually, I'm giving away a bunch more than I sell, but lavender bags make great gifts, especially if they're in groovy funky channel 27 type fabrics... (sorry, that's a Red Dwarf reference, go look it up) and then it dawned on me - I could make frogs! I could sell the frogs! I could combine the groovy fabrics on the frogs with the lavender!

Man, I was off! Safety eyes, fabric scraps, a kilo of lavender from Young, NSW (which is gorgeous), yarn, assorted christmas bits & pieces, stuff for kids, stuff for grownups... anyway, the frogs had to go through a few iterations before I got them to the point where I was happy with them. They were listed, delisted, and now are listed again. I've even made a bride frog in figured satin, with nice smelly stuff in a pouch inside, so the lavender didn't show through the satin. She has a nice tulle veil, held on with pearl buttons (completely obsessed? Yes, possibly).

Anyway, judge for yourselves... and if you have the name of a sympathetic shrink, don't tell me!