shirty with shirring

I'm not sure why i can't do it but i can't!!!! Every time i have tried to shirr something it just doesn't work. Tikki has told me how to do it and i have done it once whilst staying with tik but even with help over the phone I still can't get it. Anyway, this is the dress i wanted to be a babydoll dress but it's simply a dress with some stitching across the top which was supposed to be shirring *rolls eyes*. Oh well, tully doesn't mind and it still looks ok.

Lately Tully has taken to wearing her fairy dress all the time. If music is on, well she simply must have her fairy dress to twirl in. Asher actualy doesn't mind wearing it either. Today she decided that Asher simply had to have some wings as well, especially since dollie had wings on too. So here's Asher in some shots that he is sure to hate/or love me for when he is older. Look how pleased he is with himself and his style.


Today tully also had her first attempt at sewing and LOVED it. I gave her a large wool needle and thread and some scraps of material and she was busy for at least the next hour. Just look at the concentration. ohhhh I'm a proud mumma :0)

I'm a proud mumma :0)

Gee my little girl's talented! Doesn't every mum think this about their children lol. Well I certainly do. I've worked for years teaching art to children with the last 5 years of my working life being in an art gallery where i mostly worked with 4-5 year olds. In an art gallery you wouldn't think there would be a lot of hands-on activities but Canberra Museum and Gallery has the most wonderful studio. Nearly every day i would trundle around the gallery reeling of the same speil to a group of 30 small children and then we would venture into the studio where the fun would well and truly begin. I love the total abandon which children approach creating art with. There is no "i can't draw/paint, etc..". They simply enjoy the process of creation. i really hope Tully can hold onto this attitude and that schooling and the attitudes which can be developed there don't destroy her enjoyment of creating cause man she sure does love it. Just checkout those painting! The first one is "hey diddle diddle the cow jumped over the moon. When i asked her what it was she just recited the poem. Ah a peformance artist:D And the other painting is tully and asher's first collaboration and it is of course a rainbow :D Just beautiful.




and this gorgeous fabric is what i'm hoping to make today. Mind you every time i go to make something i find that either i don't have enought fabric or i need something i don't have. So here's hoping that i actualy get to do this one today :D

some previews

I was all geared up tonight to pop these two little tee's up on ozebaby but it's down :( So i thought i sneak a little preview up here and then pop them up as instock when oze finally comes up again. They are both size 0.

I snuck these two little guys up last night. The duck is on the sweetest little newborn singlet ever. It's purebaby 100% organic cotton and just the teeniest little thing. leon the lion is a new fav too:D

Time for a bit of a break whilst i finish off some outstanding tee's and a special little canvas and do some stuff for my kids.

christmas!!!!!!!

oh my goodness!!!!! Christmas is fast approaching! I can't believe that it is nearly christmas time again! Check out all the exclamation marks... it's because i'm getting a bit spun out that it's nearly that time again and i have so many children to buy/make things for. I come from a rather large family and although we don't buy for everyone i do buy for all the kids and that makes about 11 kids on my side and 3 on lach's. Plus mum and mil, sibling for kriskringle and nan and pa. And then there's my little family! So i started shopping today and have done pretty well but oh my goodness i've hardly made a dint. I would have loved to have made something for all the kids, and although i still may I can see myself getting really stressed at trying to get at least 9 little special tee's painted by then (my teenage and sub-teen nephews really wouldn't get into the tee's).
I have been deliberating about what to get tully for ages and really couldn't decide. She doesn't really need anything and spends a lot of her play time in imaginative play where she uses boxes, material and other odds and ends to playroll or make into things. So i've finally decided to get her this . It's the most devine little wooden sewing machine. I love it and i sure do hope she does too. I have visions of her sitting up beside me sewing whilst i do and asher quietly play with his unreal little fisher price garage i bought him today. i hope i'm not dreaming and she will love it.

Anyway since it's nearly christmas i thought i better pop up some christmas pixies. And since i haven't got heaps of time up my sleeve, it's a bit of a special piece. If your interested in more details check out here
I have always given these little pixies as cards at Christmas time. Nearly all my family members keep them and pop them up on their trees each year. I love seeing the old ones i've created in the past. Especially the little Mrs santa mum has on her tree:D These will be the only christmas pixies i will be doing although i really want to paint the angel i've made as cards in the past too so she'll definitley be making an appearance sometime soon.
At the moment i'm working on some little pint animals and am planning on randomly stocking the store as i get them finished. Hopefully there'll be some making an appearance early next week:D

tired

the life of a three year old can be so demanding :D I love this photo of my beautiful little girl. All tuckered out from swimming in her brand new bathers. Eyes firmly fixed on Dot andthe kangaroo

so finally, some sewing

It's been ages since i've done any sewing. I keep buying fabric and talking about what i'm going to make but my machine would just sit and collect dust, literally. So after purchasing more fabric today (opps) I decided i better get my butt into gear and make something. First i had to clean the machine though...groan. My machine usually only gets cleaned when tikki visits. I know I'm very naughty and yes it's well and truly due for a service. That's next week's project. I had this very simple pattern in mind which i had downloaded from this tutorial http://www.themayfly.com/weblog/2007/02/happy_smocket.html
thanks to tracy for posting the link to it :D

It's such a simple pattern although i'm thinking I might put buttons on it rather than the ties as i think they would sit well and i have quite a thing for buttons.
Tully loves the material. It's a Mchael Miller print which i picked up at the discount fabric shop down the road. A very dangerous shop indeed. Tuly loves Ariel (the little mermaid) at the moment so this is just perfect. She is very tired inthese shots though. It's so hot here today and she'd just come in from splashing in the wading pool. She;s wearing her first pair of "real" bathers underneath.
This is the second thing I made for tully. Although it isn't finished and it's very basic. I found some cute little boys organic tops at target and decided to applique some cute fabric on rather than paint. Just have that tiny little bit to finish....

Last is a great pattern that used to belong to my aunty. I'm thinking of making the little puffy sleeve dress and wuold like to have ago at the hats although Lachie thinks they are terrible. I'm going to surprise him i hope.

maximilian monkey and more pixies

Maximilian monkey is my new favourite! He is so darn cute :D it's lucky i've made him in a size that won't fit my kids for ages or they would be having him for sure. I'm definitely going to make another for asher though :D He's from the circus picture below. I also quite like the lion so will be having a go at him some time soon.

Maximilain and a party of pixies are up previewing in tikki's store now. They will be going live on Saturday night but i'm not sure what time. Tikki???? I'm going to say 8.30pm SA time and hopefully that will suit. Tikki has a market on Friday night. Go and check it out if you are from around her way. Details are here

sketches for a special project

ohhhhh which to choose! which one would you go for?

a pigeon pair

I had to post a picture of these two little pixies together as they look like such a perfect pair. They are finished and just need to be heat set and then will be ready to go up in the shop. After discussions with tikki, we have decided to have the next stocking on Saturday week, so we have plenty of time to make it quite a decent sized stocking. Best get to work and make some more little mates to keep these two company.

pixies in progress

it's been a while since i've done a decent stocking of pixies so i've decided i best pop some up. Here are a couple of works in progress. Above is daisy, the perfect little springtime lass. In our house daisy is a cow and often any other type of farmyard animal. Asher can be heard calling out "DAISY" at the top of his little voice throughout the day. So this little daisy really makes me smile and chuckle at my funny little man.
Below is gareth the gardener. Another ode to spring and the love of green thumbs. I love his purple tee!
Both tee's have been sketched in black and then given one coat of colour. I will go over the colours another couple of times and then go over with final black outline. I also have another two images sketched out but am hoping to have a really decent sized stocking (maybe 6?) of pixies in a couple of weeks.:D

zip, zip, zipping

today the sun was out and asher was happy so the zippity do dah daks went on :D I just love them.
They are really stylish and the black hemp is just so lovely. They are a bit long but stay folded up and thus will last him a long time. They have a great flare to the leg which i am a big fan of for little boys pants. All the ones i find in the shops are terribly shapeless.
I love the second pose here. It's a bit John Travolata ..staying alivvvvvve




and would you check out that cheeky grin. Gee he's a spunky little dude

zippity do dah

Now with all those special presents for Tully, tikki couldn't go and leave the little asher man without something special, now could she. No way! Not with me harping for a new pair of pants all the time (hehe) And not only do i hassle her but i hassle for a pair of these in particular!

When i first saw this zipper fabric i totally loved it and desperately wanted a pair of pants for asher in it. Then cheeky little tikki made a pair but popped them up in her shop to sell. I wasn't allowed to buy them so hinted and harped a bit and lo and behold it all paid off and Asher got this devine pair of little duds. Not only do they have the zips but they are also made out of very special black denim hemp. Unfortunatley Asher wasn't up for a photo shot today so you'll all have to wait to see action shots. Now how lucky are my children!

a special present

Well tully has been truly spoilt once again! This time by her very talented auntie Georgina (aka tikki

Tikki made up this stunning little set for tully for her 3rd birthday. All right tully might have turned 3 in July but something like this is truly worth waiting for. I knew tikki had purchased this very special fabric from Kristen Doran a while ago and was puzzling about what to do with it.

Well this is what she made :)

She has made it in a larger size so Tully will get lots of wear out of it but it is still perfect now with the cuffs of the pants folded up. The dress has a beautiful little trim with owls on it as well.

Thepants are just so gorgoues too. I love the owl down the side of the leg.What a perfect spot for this little guy. The pants also have the same trim across the bottom but at the moment it's covered as tully is still a bit of a shortie for them.

The set also goes beautifully with the owl tee I made tully for her birthday. How cute is that. How special for a little owl loving babe, which i must admit i do foster as tikki did suggest cheeky girl

pretty bunny

i did a sketch of this little bunny ages ago and have been meaning to paint it and finally got around to doing it yesterday. I've popped her up live in tikki's store now :) She was really quick to do so i've put her up at a lower price than normal.

At the moment tikki and i also have a bit of an auction going for a pikki tint set. I've been blown away a bit by how popular our stuff is and this auction has REALLy capped it. I am so pleased and thankfull that people appreciate and love our stuff so much. It is so rewarding to know that every item goes to a loving home and that there are people who really respect the amount of work, care and individaul attention each of our pieces receives. So a big thankyou to those who purchase, bid or just appreciate both mine and tikki's stuff. It fills my little heart with joy and makes me whistle with pride :)

lovely lottielulu

I was so lucky to do a swap with the lovely Ingrid from Lottielulu. Ingrid is a wonderful seamstress and has a great eye for fabric combinations. Can you imagine my delight when these lovely little numbers arrived on my doorstep.

We had just been out bushwalking all day and i was soooo exhausted when i found the parcel waiting for me in the letterbox. Tully had opened it all up before i had a chance to get out the camera so i missed taking shots of the beautiful fabric it was wrapped in. But she was an angel and modelled everything for me the next day. We already have one anna smock which we get compliments on all the time. I had requested another one but was sooooo happy when it turned out to be Holly Hobbie. I have always loved Holly hobbie. We had curtains and dresses as little girls and i was truly excited when i first saw Ingird wa making things out of this devine vintage fabric. To make the smock even more special it has the prettiest floral on the reverse and gorgeous matching clips BUT the cutest things were the matching swap cards the clips came on. I think i even had this swap card as a little girl.

NOW that wasn't all!!! Ingrid also included this stunning little skirt! How perfect is that for an owl loving girl who likes to twirl all day. Just devine.

And the last little top is this gorgeous little Nina top i bought from Ingird's shop. It's the most gorgeous seersucker.

How lucky is tully! My goodness, totallly spoilt by exquisite little goodies. Thank you Ingird we love love love them.