In our garden you will see...

...if you will take a walk with me

 parsley

potatoes 

carrots 

nasturtiums 

lettuces 

 silverbeet

leeks sprouting

brocolli, capsicum and eggplant

radishes

 sweetcorn and sunflowers

 green peas and sweet peas

 ripening cherries

 blushing quinces

 blood plums

 other plums

rununculi and pansies

strawberries

 red currants

 raspberry bushes

 white roses

 red roses 

 palest of pink roses

wild roses

wild flowers

...there are also green beans, purple beans, tomatoes and apples, 

red and brown onions, garlic, thyme, rosemary, lavender, daisies,

peaches and pears, a lemon tree, a young olive grove, bee hives, 

jasmine, borage, basil, mint, agapanthus, fir trees, fig trees, magpie 

fledglings, loquats, blue tongue lizards and perhaps the odd snake,

wild cherry plums, kookaburras, baby starlings and baby blackbirds, 

wolf spiders, a resident fox and kestrel, an owl or two, a rookery 

of crows, flowering succulents, a frangipani tree, mushrooms, wild 

fennel, fruit bats and a fairy garden planted beneath a 'faraway tree'....

After living through a long drought with tiny inner city courtyards 

and huge water restrictions, this garden and the return of rain is.... 

✶⠚  heaven on earth  ⠚✶

Teddy

The most precious toy I own is a bear named Teddy.

I have owned him for most of my life...

and over the last 33 odd years his velvet has worn thin, 

he has lost an eye and suffered a partial decapitation.

Still, he has pride of place on the love seat in our living room 

and can often be found snuggling there with Ari.

I can only hope that the toys I make and send out into the world 

will be as well loved as Teddy.

s-mitten

It's warming up here! My mittens are tucked away, but as half the world is frosting over I thought that someone might fancy 

a pair of these...

Almost too delicious to wear! 

They reminded me very much of this book↓ 

I was pleased to see Deborah mention it on Kickcan and Conkers 

a little while back.  I love the cover too. It's one of my favourites!

And yes, they do hats too!

tinytoadstool.com

Go there NOW! You really must.

Thursday 12:43 am

 I've been burning the midnight oil tonight, feeling all inspired.

Here's a glimpse of my worktable and what I'm working on.

I've had that gloriously messy set of water colours since I 

was twelve. They're Pelikan brand and they're just brilliant!

My Grandfather, who was a very talented Artist,

 sent them to me from Germany for my birthday

along with a wonderful set of sabel brushes,

that I proceeded to trash in my twelve year old way

(...how it breaks my heart to think of them now).

But you can still buy this same set of watercolours.

Twenty-two years later. You gotta love that!

This weekend I'm going to give the local market a whirl.

I've sewn up a few of my little hand-stitched felt pins, they 

always sell like hotcakes and I have a pile of hand-dyed and

appliqued singlets to sell and toys, cushions, prints, scarves...

I'll be at the Wallan Old Time Market if you fancy visiting.

Trawling through my sketchbooks as I photograph my art

portfolio, reminded me of so many lovely designs that 

I haven't seen in a while... like my dear little Apple Dolly.

So I made one up to sell at the market. 

Do you like her?

How cute would she look in the little cigar box bed below↓

Project 1# Dolly Bed

This wonderful tutorial has step by step instructions

and free downloadable images... everything you need

to make your own cigar box dolly bed and postage

bedding. It's so easy. Dolly will be simply delighted!

Just Something I Made

(click here)


I think would make a fantastic Christmas gift too

Make Art Not War

You can read more about my art & illustration work 

on my other blog: Welcome to the Dollhaus and

I plan to be selling prints of my originals in that shop
when I am ready to throw myself in to business and open.

from the 'Playtime Series' circa 2008-9

copyright Anna Maria Drutzel

It's a strange thing, but I hadn't seen much of Sir Peter Blake's artwork
when I put this series together (bar the Sergeant Pepper cover that is). 

We must have very similar aesthetic interests, Sir Peter and I, I think.

Lanapelana

Q. How super cute are these new brooches from Lanapelana?!

A. Super super super cute! There's only two left... hurry, hurry

Super cute blog too... lanapelana.blogspot.com

C is for Collage

I am in love with these wonderful prints by Sir Peter Blake...

...if you're feeling wealthy, 

the complete set is available here

...for £25,000,

alternatively, you can purchase
a copy of the book from Amazon

...for around £10. 

I think it would make a wonderful Christmas gift,
it's definitely been on my wish list for a while. x

halloween, horses, tabby cats and budgies

We found a new little friend for Coo Coo this weekend. We're not sure if we have a girl or boy yet, but Ari named our new baby budgie Winky... 

...because he/she makes very good eye contact ;) Winky is being quarantined (so living in a different room to Coo Coo) but when Coo Coo called for Loco, Winky answered back and Coo Coo seems to be much happier to know there's another little feathered creature in the house. Even if they can't meet just yet. And even though it's not Loco. It makes my heart glad to see Coo Coo happy but I do miss my sweet little fella.

Winky is a beautiful yellow and green Australian Budgerigar.

Well, this weekend was long and busy. Festive with Halloween and long due to the Melbourne Cup Holiday. Personally, I feel a bit sorry for the horses and having spent some years working in the land of Millinery, I always feel rather edgy come Spring Racing (as though I ought to be madly stitching hat brims, trimming fascinators and folding boxes).

Friday night, Ari's school had a Halloween disco, which was great fun, but then we came home to more pet troubles! The cat had to be taken to the vet for a bite abscess, so much of Saturday and Sunday were spent comforting poor Sneaky. That's 7 vet visits for two animals this week. We are SO poor now! Ah, but what can one do? Pets are like children.

Monday we went to see Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone at ACMI. They're playing the whole series there at the moment click here. Unfortunately, we had to leave half-way through because it seems that even when you've seen a movie 20 times at home, Trolls are scary on 'the big screen'. So we spent a lovely afternoon at the Museum and then Ari went trick-or-treating with some friends... which was hilarious fun.

Dolls by Robins Egg Blue (website)

Halloween's not traditionally celebrated as a holiday here so it's always pot luck whether the kids get given any treats or not... last year we took them to Fitzroy and ended up targeting the chocolate shops (yes, it was that bad!) This year we plyed the neighbours with a good supply and had the good-luck to venture upon some festive houses where they'd really gotten into the spirit of the night.  So the kid's had a blast.

Houses by Robins Egg Blue (shop)

Images of bird-dolls and bird-houses found via this blog

I've really had birds on the brain lately and have spent a lot of time talking to Dr Google about budgies, so I thought I'd share a couple of my favourite birdy things with you.

When I visited Alice Springs thirteen odd years ago I happened to find a copy of The Bird Children in a lovely little book shop there. I think they're awfully sweet and would look so wonderful framed in a child's room, with the little bird dolls as companions. Aren't they enchanting?

New editions and other books illustrated by Elizabeth Gordon 
are available from Amazon or you can purchase one of the 
original illustrated book pages to frame from this Etsy store

My own little flock of lovebirds will be flying into the shop when it opens....