moopy & me

May flower Moopy

Month of softies

She is not quite what I had in mind (felt flowers would have been nice) but still cute all the same. She has been out in the garden with Lily picking camillias ...and then eating them. I used a super 'over the top' floral print dress to make up for the lack of actual flowers.

Lily's first couple of days at child care have been odd to say the least... lots of new things for everyone ( esp. Lily) to deal with. Runny noses..ALREADY. And I think it will take Chris and I have a few more sessions for us to get used to what exactly we should do with the time? Work..Study..Cleaning....we have failed dismally at trying to use the time wisely so far. On Tuesday Chris finishes early from uni so we thought a kind of date would be good as we literally never get time alone these days, but we spent the whole three hours thinking about what it was we should do?? CRAZY. We have planned ahead for tomorrow... and are going to go for a energetic swim at the aquatic centre.

Kimono magic

Look what my mum got me!

I can hardly contain my excitement .... just imagine all the cute little pouches I can make ..... These pieces are very small snippets (15cm squared) of secondhand kimono's... a shop in North Adelaide, Red Papaya?, sell little bags of them at a very reasonable price. I am going to do my best to match up some fabric I already have to make these pouches but I have a good feeling that I may need to go and look for some new pieces.

I just looked at the date and have a horrible feeling moopy bunny is going to miss the MOS deadline :(
I might have to use some of my precious 5 hours that I have alone tomorrow, while Moopy is at childcare, to finish her off rather than doing very important work and not so important dusting.

I wanted to share my new favourite blog, Learning Daily, I came across it ages ago but could never find it again until I started looking at illo friday contributions. I love Cindy's illustrations, I love the muted colours and her block print style. Here are a couple of her illustrations that she contributed to illo friday, Crowded & Fragile.

PS. Since I am sharing here today....here is some evil goodness that I have been slowly melting in my mouth. I was first attracted by the packaging (that's the silly graphic designer in me...always buying things just for the packaging regardless of whats inside) but now I have made the decision that if Chris were to ever leave me it would be ok because I would remarry HOT MASALA CHOCOLATE!! and frequently go on dates with pink peppercorn chocolate and occasionly meet with earl grey tea chocolate for romantic dinners.

Fun packaging.... makes you feel as if you are being really naughty stashing your choccy in pouches ...like you are about to roll something to smoke.

Funny yummy biscuits

Creativity night has started again but has made a move over to the 'art room'. Tonight we tried reglazing old plates with funky stencils that we designed....mmm I think Button would agree it was not our best work. So I went home and (finally) started my May flower moopy. She really is looking nothing like the illustration but getting cuter with each bit that I complete, I ran out of stuffing (all for the best considering the time!) so here is a peak at her grey machine felted italian yarn (sweater) face with some Kaffe Fasset ears.

And here are some very cute biccys that the whole family have been munching on ...I found them at the Asian grocer at the Central Markets (love that shop).

Thanks for all the encouraging words regarding my octopus :)

Aquatic

Illustration Friday

I am a little shy about this, as it is my first try at Illo Friday....I may even try another one as I have plenty of time, ha ha... I said there would be no more blogging till my space was organised ....so one would guess that it is infact tidy...well ...almost, I am taking a wee little break from the pile 'o' crap.

This is just the begining

How can this happen? How can I clean and tidy my studio and a week later it looks like THIS again!! It happens over and over and I just can't concentrate in this kind of chaos... It slows the whole family down because I can't find anything....for example our spare keys AND the actual keys are in here somewhere .... can you see them? No more blogging until this is in order...so see you soon (I hope)

Plenty more of where this came from..... this is just the door way!

I will leave you with a pic of some new flower brooches that are in the shop and bits & bobs of very fun stationery (that I will link to later...too much mess in here to think) that came in the mail this week YAH!

May flowers

Today I picked up a trolly load of these pretty cushions (for cheap) for my students to sit on during storytime and I would love to get the youngest ones these apple smocks but they are rather pricey (for buying a whole heap of them).

I found this website just now and LOVE the knitted back packs.

I wish I was clever enough to try and make one. Moopy starts childcare on Monday so we bought her a Playschool backback (click on the bear holding balloons) but I bet she would feel like she had a friend going with her if Mr Frog was sitting on her back.

I am going to stop now... buying thrifted fabric that is.... my new rule: I can't go looking for fabrics until I have used up at least 3 of these...

I am totally inspired by this and this so I am thinking a bag could be a good start...I need a place to keep all my wool anyhow. That brings me to my second rule: (which happens to be very similar to the first) NO more wool until I finish Moopys beeny/hat ....it is knitted, I just need to put it all together, I figure that if I tell the internet... then I will feel the pressure to complete it.

All things good about the 80's

Meet Linda? why did I call her that? She is my favourite thing from the eighties.....but in real need of some tender loving care...check out the 'I've been in the cupboard for 20 years' hair do! HELP! Does any one know how to fix doll hair that has been totally neglected and is now completely unbrushable.

How much did I want a My Child (I don't want to start a debate on My Child V's Cabbage Patch here but how cute!) I think I can recall praying for a My Child ....you know, making little deals with myself, like, 'if I do all my homework and jump on the trampoline 100 times I am sure to get one'...all that tramampolining must have paid off because come birthaday number nine (I think?) my prayers were answered. Moopy now plays with her, dragging her around the house, feeding her promite sandwiches (promite is a more digestable version of vegimite...again ...please no debates) and forcing her to be her dancing partner. All the same I still think a new hair do wouldn't hurt...maybe a new outfit too...

This gets me thinking about other fun things from the eighties ...like the Muppets, lipstick lollypops and making up dance moves to 'Locomotion' (Kylie) & 'Walk like an Egyptian' (Bangles) at lunch time.

Let me know if you still have some favourite things from the eighties (obviously hoarded) and I will post it up....just for fun.

In the Closet

I have been meaning to show off some pics of the funky kids store that is situated infront of my artroom for a while now.

My artclass kids have almost finished their first project so there will be tones of pics going into the gallery soon... The ages range from 2 years (too cute!) to 12 years so it is really interesting to see the difference in the artwork over those years (as most of the kids have been doing the same project but at their own level)

Red & Orange

I am cheating here as I havn't had a chance to do much in the way of craft over the past two weeks...so this is a picture of a few things that stand out in my studio (which is predominantly red with bits of orange and a hint of pink). Top left is an almost three metre length of Marimekko fabric that my fabulous Aunty gave me, top right is Moopy's felt dolly from ak which I steal from her often, bottom left is a little red suitcase which has a very awesome Catimini dinner set in it for Moopy (when she is old enough not to smash it...) a babushka doll, fighting cocks? and some vintage fabric and bottom right is a section of one of my screen printed cards I sell at Closet.

Moopy and I had the most fabulous day yesturday....we went on a massive walk all the way to the beach and on the way we saw horses and met a new friend at the playground. Then we got snacks at the supermarket and headed down to the beach to look for shells and Moopy burried pebbles....and tried her best to run into the freezing water. Then we looked at shops and took the tram home (well it stops a kilometre or three away) and found the best playground on the walk.... it was completely enclosed and had cute tiny toilets, a drink fountain, a sandpit (with fresh sand but I have bad memories of cat poop so that was a no go zone) and old equiptment that had been thoughtfully cared for, restored and made very safe (you know the kind with a metal slide, big long see saws and that spinning thing that about 10 kids can stand on and wizz around). And the best part were all the park benches for parents to sit at and knit....well maybe not every parent. I think I will have to put it on Playground finder if it's not there already. THEN we went to Kmart in search for a ball ...found it and played with it for what seemed like ages till daddy came home as doofus mummy left the keys inside....thats 9:30am-5:00pm and not one grizzle from Moopy!!! Phew.

More fun was had today too... Moopy and I picked Button up from work and we all went out for birthday lunch...HAPPY BIRFDAY CHRISTY!!

Finally (it seems like I have been sitting here forever as the broardband access cut out and I am running on dial up speed YAWN!) I have put up a gallery for all my postcards...it's not quite up to scratch yet but it's up all the same...click on the little pink postcard to your left

Happy Mothers Day

I hope all the mums out there had a relaxing day and were able to put their feet up for a moment maybe?... I'm not one for the big gifts but I sure was excited that Moopy (& Daddy) surprised me with one of those fancy shmancy ceramic hair straightners. You see I have the most unruley hair that can only be tamed with at least an hour of hair frying and a big handful of product... and as you can probably sympathise, I really never have either to spare and fix the problem with a neat ponytail..EVERY DAY!! But now I can be one of those mums who looks that little bit less frumpy simply because their hair looks GREAT ...and it takes a fraction of the time and frustration of the hair dryer hell that leaves me in a sweat. Yah for Teflon!

Lily turned 18 months yesturday and with it came a few new words that almost sound like little sentences. My favourite is the idea she has picked up from opa no doubt, that dogs are there to be yelled at....
Mum: We are going to visit Jemma dog today, what will you say to him?
Moopy: Nyo Nyo Sthit (translation : No! No! Sit.)

Other news ahead, Moopy finally got a place at the childcare centre (after 9 months on the 'list'). This is very exciting news because it gives me a little break from the joys that are, spending ALL DAY, EVERY DAY with Lily. She is booked for one full day and two half days, which may not be all used but there is a minimum she has to be booked for... This will be a new and firstly (I am thinking) difficult thing to adjust to.... but hopefuly the whole family will benifit from it. I can spend some solid hours on freelance work and my art classes thus feeling like I have some time doing 'my' thing and not feeling so resentful of Chris getting to do 'his' thing most of the week. Such tricky little issues that pop up and cause dramas that you never would have expected. I think it is the unexpected part that makes these things seem worse than they are.