moopy & me

It's on again!

For more info please visit my online shop. You can download the application form and pay the fee online! Morphe II is open to anyone who makes handmade original soft toys and for those who make it through to the final 30...the exhibition will be held for the month of October in my 'bricks&mortar' shop Nest Studio. Here are some of the toys that were in last years Morphe exhibition and to wet your appetite ..... as promised .... mini moopy pattern... for your fun only :D

I would dearly love to see what your Mini Moopy looks like so make sure you post up a pic tagged "minimoopy" on Flickr & pleeeease tell me if my pattern needs tweeking... I have never written one before and as you might know I don't use patterns... I cut out all my toys freehand... so this was a bit of a challenge... but mostly I am curious to see how the bunny looks made by different people using the same pattern.

Welcome home

Remember these guys? they arrived home on Friday.... I wonder what adventures they got up to? The pattern book they are in will be available in November... that's all I know at this stage.

Speaking of patterns ... I was thinking of turning this Mini Moopy bunny into one so that you can have ago... I would love to see what they look like made by other craftsters...

Here are more toys that are in the Shop

Mini Polly

Moopy #7

Sorry about the bad lighting .... I tried the old paper (was that your trick Alicia? Lisa?... who ?) over the flash trick.... works quite well considering the face would be washed out completely if I hadn't used the paper.

I have used up some favourites from my fabric stash on Moopy #7... love those feet!

The tile pictured in my previous post.... is from a divine little shop called Iris&Hazel (Paddington), I must chat with them again to find out where/who it was made by.... I saw it and fell inlove.. a bit of indulgent mothers day shopping.

Although I really didn't need another present... picture this scenario : Moopy & I are in the supermarket walking past all of those ghastly potted flowers on the way in .... Moopy starts to whine about how she needs the flowers... I say "we don't reeeally need those flowers..?" and keep walking.... Moopy then proceeds to flop to the ground, arched back, squeeling.. you know the tanty you always dread. I manage to calm her down and ask why she so desperately neeeeeds the flowers.... and amongst her sobbing she says " For you mummy, for mubbers day, for YOoooouuuu!" WELL! did my heart melt, we hot footed right back to that half dead pot of flowers and popped them in the trolley. THE best present a 2.6 year old could possibly give.

Happy Mothers Day

A SHOP update ... finally

Sydney

Sydney, the latest 'moopy' bunny is off to the shop tomorrow.(SOLD thank you). She is made from a variety of fabrics from the US, Japan and France. I am having a relaxing day sewing up toys after the whirlwind tour of Sydney (the city) ... Bek and I had a lot of fun, I think we ate our way around town.. breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings... but we did get all our work done. We caught up with Luke & Lauren of the very hip KIDO store (I think that website will be ready shortly), Sydney-siders will once again be able to buy Nest Studio toys!

I also met the very sweet and talented Kristen, we had no idea what each other looked like but I spied a woman carrying a cute patchworked bag and made a bet with myself as she approached the coffee shop that is was Kristen.. Yup, I won my little bet, she even came bearing gifts .. I got one of these. YAH!

We also caught up with the ever so lovely Moyra and Tess & Maja ...very nice  stuff  indeed. My fave part of the visit was catching up with my dear friend Tali, thank you for having me stay xoxo

Mix & match

I forgot to show you my fabric storage solution... I found this over at Hype&Seek (Gen & Dexters fab retro shop across from mine) just in time ... other wise I would have bought another cubey bookcase from IKEA... Yes! they are finally here and Moopy has her new extendable bed... not that she is sleeping in it much... we find her in our bed in the early hours.... we have no idea she is there until daylight? How on earth can you get the bed to yourself if you don't even know you are not alone ...

Here are more neat (but not too neat) piles of fabric.. I had to resist the urge to colour code the pile!

I could happily fill my house with these brilliant bookshelves.

My Oma gave me one of her W.German vases and now I am hooked... I pick them up at the op shops when ever I can (top left corner), I love the shape and colours. The book up there is about a local female artist, Annette Bezor, so much to say about her work, not enough time .. love it!

Well I am off to Sydney for a few days to work on printing up our SproutDesign fabrics.. I might even get a chance to visit Kristen .... we are gonna talk serious toy talk! Maybe even a bit of Morphe 2 talk? Yes! Morphe 2 is fast approaching.. invites for the show will be announced when I get back!! so stay tuned if you want to be involved. (I have all your details still if you emailed me last year... but do drop me a line if you are dead keen and don't want to miss a spot ... only 30 available)

Oh and the first SproutDesign card is printed.. I will be selling them here when I get back.. so those of you on the mailing list ... you will hear from me shortly with order forms. There has only been a limited number printed so please email me ("sproutdesign mailing list" as the subject)to be added to that list if you don't want to miss that either... we are planning on releasing one design at a time for you to collect and also get a sneak peak at what fabrics are being printed next... Cool, I am so excited! See you soon :D

Oh I seeee

So thats how you crochet! I can't believe that it has taken me this long to figure it out. My girlfriends and I had a little 'nut it out' session over Camillas infamous back loop slip stitch... phew! it only took us three hours.... now that I know, it seems so simple.. I am almost embarrassed. I have only managed to make a head though... lots of fabric/patterns/printing to work on.

I would like to formally retract a statement I made a few posts ago about how it only takes one night to make one of these critters HA! yeah right... if you are crocheting some unknown bulky stitch maybe... but if you are crocheting all backloopy like then it takes a couple of nights infront of the TV... SORRY to mislead or offend.

And while I am retracting statements ... I would like to appologies in advance for anyone who watches the local TV show Postcards (Chanel 9) ... I had no idea what was coming out of my mouth... a TV crew came to the shop today (all of the Queen Street shops actually), they filmed some children painting in my artroom & my toys ..very sweet... then they turned the camera on me and asked questions!!.... my mouth went dry, my brain went blank ..goodness knows what I said? I have been plagued all day with the kind of thoughts you have after an argument... "I should have said this", "oh if only I had said that"... We were all very nervous but I think all the girls did a great job... you see 95% of the shops are run by women (thats except you Dexter & Ben)... and I find this fact very interesting ... I tried to say something vaguely intelligent about it... but of course something quite the opposite came out my mouth... not to worry, maybe I could post my thoughts about that here some time.