moopy & me

MiniMoopy love

Sewn by tappity she also made Mama bear and Polly (as well as heaps of others) from my patterns in the Softies book... I must admit it is a real thrill to see my patterns sewn into lovable toys by you guys. Here is the Softies Flickr group...

I don't think I have made one of my MiniMoopys for at least a year! I can definitely feel a bit of MiniMoopy sewing coming on... here are some that you made that have inspired me.. to see all the others make sure you go to this Flickr group too.

Sewn by jasna.janekovic

Sewn by daisieslalaland

Around the home 2

Turning the house upside down is not with out it's casualties..... My absolute favourite opshop find, a west german coffeepot.... fell off the shelf where it happily lived for at least 3 years... enjoying the occassional bouquet of flowers... brightening up the entrance to the home... My only hope now is finding another...ebay maybe.. I must admit to not dealing with this breakage very well, I N E V E R break any dishes EVER! I can remember every glass I have broken and I can count them on my right hand.... My husband on the other hand (it's that ying yang thing... opposites attract..) breaks dishes almost every time he does the washing up... but I am not falling for that trick! I have learned to pop all my faves away so that he can wash up and break dishes till his hearts content.

Around the home

Things might look like they could slow down around here very soon... I feel as if I have organised enough at work to start .... she says squinting her face in hesitation/fear... start to slow down. I have three lovely new teachers to help out at Nest and even a sweet young shop keeper starting next holidays... The shop is almost set up how I had planned and the studio is only days away from being sorted (so that the new teachers can find their way around)....

Now for the home... we have moved the lounge into the dining room, Lily and her baby sister (soon to arrive) have moved into the lounge room, my home studio is now in Lily's old room and the dining room is awaiting patiently I might add, outside .... for the old stuido to be cleared out so it can move in... phew. All this because I am selfish enough to demand a home studio and Lily's old room is far too small to share.... now the girls will have the biggest room in the house... and I am hoping this prevents them from spreading their crap all over the house... what with all mine in the way there is no room! Our home looks like a tip...if we got broken into right now I would have appologise to the thieves for not being able to find any loot... hell my camera cord was found just moments ago in the fruit bowl? I have already taken a garden bin sized garbage bag full of fabric to Goodwill... back where it came from really... I keep reminding myself that it always looks worse before it gets better. And all this so that I can hopefully get a week or two off to sit quietly (in my newly moved studio) for a wee bit of crafting for baby.

The cute little giraffe you see there is a good thirty years old, surely we can use some other word than vintage? I wouldn't exactly call myself or my baby toys vintage? It is pretty old I must admit and probably not that tasty for a little baby to chew on so I would like to make a replica for Moopy #2... in that spare time I am going to get when the house has finished being rearranged. I even wouldn't mind using some wild pink and red fabric..... I wonder where I could find some of that?

more pics from Friday night

As promise .. more photos from this. You can see the striking Publisher Textiles in the window (Cameo) and a new Umbrella Prints design in orange and white (Sunshine & Snow). Amy and I had so much fun testing out this idea, Friday afternoons is our time (sans child) to play with new ideas in the studio, we get out the inks and screens and without any worries over "how will it look" "will anyone like it" we simply play.

This piece comprises of my rays of sunshine layered with Amy's snowy domes (based on her Papercuts series)

More Publisher Textiles (Bugsey) and the birds flying above (Grevilia) are printed in the Blue Mountains by Laughing Bird Textiles (a similar print can be found on their T-towels)

At the top you can see Nicola Cerini's two designs (Folk Art & Fishing Boat...you might recognise them from her bags), Pip Willy's natural and urban landscapes, bottom left and a stunning close up of Helena's batik (Chasm)... my head hurts thinking about the patience and skill needed to create such a rich texture!

More to come (especially yours Anna!).... thanks Amy for the photos.. it's one thing to remember a camera but another entirely to remember to take the photos! 

Opening night

Thank you to all of the people who came along to the Modern Australian Textiles exhibition and helped celebrate the opening night! Wow were we busy, I think I need to sleep for a week to recover. I did manage to remember to take some photos on the night... they are a bit blurry as there wasn't much room to take a photo without someone walking infront of the camera (which is a good thing really.. at least we were busy.. I always get nervous at an opening thinking no one will show up... but of course they always do). I will be in the studio this week taking some nicer shots in better daylight.

Nest Studio will be hosting the Modern Australian Textiles exhibition until the end of the month, so there is plenty of time left to come down to Croydon and check out the fresh and vibrant fabrics....although if you are keen to make a purchase I wouldn't leave it too long ... many have already been snapped up!

And as promised ... I did manage to update both the Umbrella Prints shop and the etsy shop this afternoon... I almost threw my computer out the window in frustration... it was teasing me all morning, playing the "I am not going to upload photos" game.

Yah! a shop update

Finally Amy and I will be updating the Umbrella Prints shops with Flipdolls and Flipdoll kits on Sunday afternoon (July 6, Adelaide Australia). We have worked so hard to finally be able to offer these adorable dolls, so lovingly made by hand.... and the kits are so much fun ... they have all the bits and pieces you need to make both the Grace and Lily Flipdoll.. there are even two cute little Flipdoll sewing tags for you to stitch to their bottoms (all numbered as part of the first limited edition run).

Look who has a new blog! We finally got to her... Amy had never really read blogs until a few months ago but eventually the bug bites us all...

Oh I wasn't going to post up this pic ... because you can very well see it over at the Flipdoll blog but I am just so wrapped with how the packaging has turned out and how neat and fun it looks.... That coloured postcard shows you how your dolly might look when you have sewn her and in which order to sew her many faces.... I will set up a flickr set next week so that we can all share in the Flipdoll fun.... We can't wait to see what mischief your Flipdolls get up to....  

La la la laaa

A while back now, I managed to go out and do a little op shopping ... I had two things in mind, (which is usually a big mistake... if you look for it, it is never there) a sweet little glass cabnet for storing special things in at the shop and a vintage toy for Moopypoo # two. Bingo! I found this totally adorable and working record player from Fisher Price (1981) and that glass cabnet.... You can spy it in the shop window (posted just down there). Made my day.

Other things that made my day.... when I found out we were having a little girl I could finally bring out this.. in total confidence that I had made a very sensible purchase... (when I snapped this up from Claires new etsy shop I had no idea the sex of the baby...sometimes we just have to take risks don't we!)

More shop love... I have been stocking Stockmar and Lyra art supplies at Nest for quite sometime but shoppers here in Adelaide are a little reluctant to fork out the extra cash for such quality... Slowly they will catch on I hope .. otherwise the kids and I will have a life time supply of these beauties.... if you have not tried the Stockmar watercolours then you are totally missing out... a perfect spectrum in just three colours! I have not come across a blue and red that makes such a stunning purple ..ever..

(watercolour box shown is Lyra, not Stockmar... also very good) The blocks are perfect for very little hands and are made from natural beeswax... I love colour... did you use to play with your pencils as much as you drew with them? I still do, nothing is more satisfying than organising a box of pencils in colour order. My Aunty (who happens to be an art teacher too) gave me my first set of 36 FaberCastells when I was 5 years old, on a visit to her classroom one day.... I still remember the pink milk I drank that day and the pomegranets on her desk... and I still have those pencils (although many have been replaced) 

Nest Studio proudly presents

If you are in Adelaide on the 4th of July, make sure you pop in for a glass of bubbles while you peruse all the fabulous artwork by seven Australian textile designers/designer groups.

Helena Gieger   

Nicola Cerini   

Publisher Textiles   

Pip Willy   

Umbrella Prints   

Anna Laura   

Laughing Bird Textiles

The exhibition will be open until Wednesday July 30 (Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, & Sundays 12-2pm, please email for more details and further opening times... as I am at the studio more often but definately at the above times)

Of course for all of you who will miss out due to that big expanse of ocean or even that long road between Australian cities, I will take lots of photos and post them here. promise! I know I keep saying I will post tutorials here and patterns there and pics... but seriously, all growing baby tiredness aside, there will be photos. And I will catch up on that long list of posts I plan to do...

Getting there

I keep forgeting to photograph the shop so you can see all that new space and fresh floors... or I keep taking crappy photos when I do remember my camera... so these are the best I can get for now..

My overwhelming urge to be at home and clean is interfering with my brain, which is nagging me to get more work done at the studio (in order to gain a few spare weeks before the little moopy arrives so that I can clean... that insane cleaning...where you spy dirt on things that are 3 metres too high to reach or so microscopic your husband thinks you've finally gone mad.)

And I have just signed Moopy #1's enrolment form for S C H O O L .... can some one tell me how that happened? You know I have completely flipped out and am spending hours seriously reseaching into homeschooling!! Have I really gone mad.... letting go is so terribly hard.. can't I just steal her away for a few more years... these urges, the cleaning .. the nurturing are all consuming, focusing on work is almost rediculous. I think it is the creative in me, once an idea pops in my head it is useless to try and do anything else until I have worked it through... hours...creating through the night.... days... will pass... Do you get that to?

Lucky for me these Denyse Schmidt scarfs only take a couple of hours to make... All the gals made these with me at Nest last week (Thursday night class)... and a little children's number too... I must get a good shot of it and try to share the pattern I made ... So many things I would like to share.. so little time. This scarf was made with Amy Butler, Op shop houndstooth, velvet & pin stripe plus of course the very funky red number is from Umbrella Prints.

Granny fever

I have just started to really notice that I am pregnant, that awkward slow feeling... and I still have at least 12 weeks to go! (I hope 16 weeks... I am hoping the prem baby stats are on my side and this little moopy decides to stay put a bit longer than my impatient Lily).. I feel (and look!!) 7 months pregnant...people ask "how much longer?" and I am having to set them straight "oh I am only 24 weeks...". I forgive them though because all the hobbling around, clutching the rails as I go down stairs and making that "uumph" sound when I get up (or sit down) could fool anyone really... I could have sworn this didn't happen until much later with Lily... I am five years older I suppose and my body knows what to do this time (thank goodness, because my body was a bit slow to catch on last pregnancy... it took at least 6 weeks to figure out that it had to start growing a baby... I was told so many times by nurses and doctors that nothing much was happening so not to get too excited... but Lily and I figured it out in the end ... and she decided enough was enough at 8 months) ok enough boring pregnancy talk...

I am obsessed with my new found granny square skills... it took me 9 goes (and two friends + a book) I tell you! and finally I figured it out... I am not that fond of instructions.. too many words. I am being a very good girl and using up all my stash before I decide it is absolutely necessary to go out and purchase new balls of wool. So there is no real plan here except to finish a blanket.... I am hoping that my choice in colours on previous shopping expeditions serves me well and I manage to get a blanket that looks half decent... plus aren't they meant to look all mixed up. Here are a couple of granny square blankets that are by no means mixed up and instead absolutely georgous...

Photo and blanket by Moonstitches

Photo and blanket by MollyChicken. I have some serious afghan envy, their blankets are so neat.

And to finish off today... some more children's art, collaging funny faces (with the help of Frankie magazine front covers)