Hello Mister New Year

Wonderful 2012 calender by Misako Mimoko

It's already hanging on my studio wall.

Yep. I'm ready for a New Year. Bring it on :)

Project 3#: Play Tent

Although I do rather fancy the idea of a wintery Christmas,

I love that the New Year finds us in the middle of Summer.

We'll be spending this New Year camping with friends.

But it doesn't have to be Summer for little ones to enjoy 'camping'!

I can picture Ari & I snuggled up inside this ↑ on a cold Winter's night, 

beneath a pile of wooly blankets and beside a roaring open fire...

Check out the free tutorial on how to build this delightful indoor Tent.

We're keen to give this project a whirl these holidays. 

Here come the clowns... Part Two

Ari  'the sad little clown'

The school concert was really wonderful! Everyone did a great job.

Ari was practising his sad clown face and routine for weeks! 

I made ruffles, bow-ties and hats for the boys. They looked super cute 

but it was so very hot that night, that we had a hard time keeping them on. Ari, however, was so pleased with his costume and face-paint that I had a hard time getting them off and he ended up sleeping with the paint still on.

I think we may be looking into theatre classes in the New Year :)

MORE wonderful images from Messy Fish Dot Com
...this time fabulous card collections.

Love this shop.

The Silly Season

Phew! Another Christmas over... time to relax.

I hope everyone enjoyed the festive weekend. 

HAPPY HOLIDAZE

xoxox

Messy Fish Dot Com

I'm getting all inspired to revamp Ari's room and

these would look simply marvellous on his walls.

Super Cute prints from Messy Fish Dot Com...

Yet another brilliant Etsian shop. 

Speaking of brilliant shops and the super cute, 

Deborah of Kickcan and Conkers has just opened

her own fabulous online store over at Big Cartel! 

It's jam packed full of all sorts of wonderful finds

Take a look here

The Online Market

I did a lot of Christmas shopping online this year... mostly at
Etsy (for handmade and vintage) and Amazon (for books)↓

If you still need to find a few gifts, Amazon offers super-fast shipping 

(you can still make it!) and you won't have to combat the crowds.

It seems that Santa is going shopping there too this year.  I believe 

that he may be bringing Ari one of these wonderful pop-up books...

(click on images to view details)

We love, love, love the ones we already have.

And they are so brilliantly constructed
...sure to become Modern Classics.

Last year, I was often in and out of this little shop, so most
of the presents I gifted were local, sustainable and handmade.

And the previous year I handmade almost every gift I gave. 

So in keeping with tradition, this year I'm also giving homemade 

jams, chutneys, pickles, sauces, fruit pastes and biscuits.

We've had an abundance of fruit in the garden, so the pantry is a well 

stocked little store at the moment. And I love making festive baked goods. 

If you fancy making some home baked goodies yourself, 

this gingerbread recipe NEVER FAILS to delight the taste buds.

And here's a wonderfully easy recipe for Apple and Pear Jam. Enjoy xo

L'Affiche Moderne

How wonderful are these prints?  LOVE THEM!

They're from L'Affiche Moderne

Visit Kickan & Conkers and enter the giveaway

and you might just win one.  We're sure hoping to!

Competion closes Wednesday 14 Dec 6pm (CET)

Ari has a print of La Lune by Joan Miro hanging in his bedroom ↓ 

The concept of Automatic Drawing 

fascinated me when I was at Art School

and Miro's work seems so childlike.

We often lie on Ari's bed and talk about this picture

How wonderful would these prints look together?

If we don't win the giveaway, I may have to think

about purchasing one for his bedroom wall.

Ari's room has built in robes from floor to ceiling and 

I've been thinking about painting them in these colours ↑ 

The doors have thin strips of panelling dividing them, 

so I was thinking about leaving it white and painting each 

door a different colour to create a sort of Mondrian effect,

but with our own wonderful gelati coloured palette.

↑ Egal Shelves found here

His room's all white but filled with colourful bits and bobs

...I think it would make the space fun and quirky!

If you like this, check out the great modernist interior I posted on

Welcome to the Dollhaus

Here come the clowns... Part One

I've been much inspired by these wonderful vintage patterns 

in the clown costumes that I'm making for Ari's little classmates. 

When I worked as a costume maker I would find inspiration in

all sorts of places from toy clothes to graffiti art to old children's

book illustrations and porcelain figurines... it was all useful.

It's incredible what comes up when you ask Mr Google sometimes.

We decided that since the kids are bringing their own outfits,

and each one will be a little different, to make the accessories

and faces different too.  So there will be some double ruffles, 

some single ruffles with bows like those pictured above,

and some little clowns with tails and bowties. Plus an array 

of hats, though I am partial to the pointy pom pom variety.

Actually, I do quite fancy making a hat for myself... 

to wear to parties and the like. Maybe a ruff too, though 

I don't fancy you'd catch me dead in a clown suit!

I'll load some pics of my work in progress if I have time. xo

The Littlest Elf

I put this cute little treasury together last week, 

just click on the images to go through to the shops.

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

The Little Elf

Ari outgrew his little elf suit sometime ago, but he managed 

to squeeze into it for a trip to the local plaza the other day. 

This weekend past, as well as the market, we made a trip to the

North Pole to buy a Christmas tree and baked some gingerbread.

I haven't got out the decorations yet... we are hoping Grandad 

might take some time out from his busy work schedule to help 

us trim the tree.  Ari's Nanna's staying up here at the moment. 

Mum kindly offered her assistance for the mammoth sewing 

task that I have at hand... making costumes for the end of year 

school play. I volunteered to stitch up ruffs and make hats for 

25 little 6 year old clowns. Plus costumes for a queen and two 

little princess dresses, and a bevy of crowns and tiaras. Yikes!

And just as I got started, my overlocker threw a tantrum and

had to be sent to our local sewing machine centre to be fixed.

This is turning out to be an equally fun and stress-filled week.

We're hoping to fit in a visit to town to see Santa Claus though. 

And that ought to bring more fun-filled adventure our way! 

On another note...

 The end of year has been so hectic with work, school and home

that I've decided to delay the shop opening for the time being. 

I've been planning my online shop for such a long time now, 

that I don't want to rush it, before I'm ready to operate it.

SO, stay tuned...   Grand Shop Opening in 2012. Hopefully!

    xox

The Old Time 'Christmas' Market

It was a terribly hot and windy sort of day on Saturday.

By Midday I had had quite enough of being blown about

and getting sunburnt, so we packed up 'the show' and 

wandered around the market. There were so many stalls!

Here's some pics of my 'Raised by the Wolves' stall:-

Wandering around we found some wonderful stuffers for 

Ari's stocking and a few nice old hardcover Dr Seuss books 

which we don't have (we have a fairly extensive library of 

Dr Seuss). I found a beautiful blue felted wool trilby and 

some wonderful plants. But the find of the day was a large

and pristine hardcover edition of 'The Magic Faraway Tree'.

We've just finished reading The first of the 'Faraway Tree'

series, The Enchanted Wood, and although I have a few 

beautiful old junior novel editions of this series, the larger

picture book versions, with their many colourful illustrations, 

are a far more captivating read for a six year old I think.