moopy & me

Studio Friday #3

 

New colours :: Lily white Hearts, Lilac wine Elephants and Fanflowers, Silky oak Hearts and a reprint of Momo and Olive Fanflower (and Elephants) because you loved them so. The photo shows (from top of pile) Momo, Persimmon, Silky Oak and Lilac Wine

Umbrella Prints has a new Tandem project to reveal... Sunshine has been hand throwing these beautiful vases, translating our fabric designs into yet another art form...

Nest Studio is also delighted to announce that Sunshine will be offering her breathtaking portrait beakers in store over the coming weeks, a family treasure.  A vessel to hold onto and hold sweet memories. You can bring in or email through high contrast photos of your child and Sunshine will lovingly illustrate them onto the beaker (ready in time for.. yes that's right I am going to say the word... christmas.... aaaahh .. promise I won't say it again until a much more appropriate time ..like December 20).

Rain rain go away

Some felt for a new project....

Every now and again I buy something from the store thinking, Lily will like that, but no special occasion is in mind for them... I try to hide them for Christmas... but they are outed with in a week... "whats that pink thing in the cupboard mum?" "Oh that... (poo!) That is for a rainy day" I say. Well a funny thing happened yesterday.... it rained, it poured infact and in some parts of the state it hailed golf balls. While we were driving home from school in the thunder and lightening, Lily piped up and said "Can we please get out that stuff for a rainy day?" I explained that 'a rainy day' was only a figure of speech ... for the things we might like to do on day when we have nothing to do... and today was no such day. She accepted that with a tone in her voice that said 'aaah that's interesting'... but still it was raining and I wasn't going to get away with my poor hiding skills and explanations that easily. So after all our chores were done we got the pink thing out... a hideous bottle of bubbles with a tiny barbie doll attached to it...

Love is in the air again

I have lived in this home with my family for the longest I have ever lived in one home. As a child I moved around quite a bit and then as a uni student I don't think I ever lived anywhere longer than two years. So something I have only just started to notice is how the seasons come and go in my own garden. The Judas tree is in leaf again,reminding me of last year when Olive was just born... sitting in the back yard with my girlfriend Fiona .. eating freshly baked date loaf (with loads of butter) under the fresh spring sunshine, watching as Olive slept under the bare walnut tree in her bassinet.... ... such fond memories that are now brought back I hope with every year my Judas tree is in season.

It's like the smell of the body wash I used whilst in hospital after having Lily... every time I use it I am returned to that blissful moment ... remembering the exciting and intimate hours spent with Chris (our last moments as the two of us) thinking... wow my baby is coming and I get to finally meet her. I now have that same phenomena happen when I spend early spring time afternoons in the girls bedroom. Last year it was our bedroom and it was where I spent lots of time snuggling my new baby, feeding her in that warm yellow glow... I try and steal a few moments every now and again on Lily's bed, just enjoying the colour of the light flooding into the room.... knowing that in a couple of weeks it will be gone and I will have to wait until next year.

Here is Olive stealing my hearts this afternoon while I was trying to take a photo

Saturday's looking UP

 

I almost pee'd myself watching UP today in 3D with Lily ... the scenes with Alpha (the dog) who's voice box thingy had gone all chipmunk... whooh what a laugh, something about when a bully loses their voice (and therefore power) in such a humiliating way... had me in stitches.

On Saturday's, Lily sometimes has to hang out at work with me after her art class ... so when I shut shop we have a couple of spare hours before dinner... and this time I thought well heck, I havn't been to the cinema in ages.. and when I do, I drag poor Chris out to see G rated films... and the mummy daughter sesh was sooooo much fun last week, we might try and make it a weekly thing. So we had breakfast (poached eggs and bacon) at 4pm, went to the lolly shop to chose something a tenth of the price it would be at the cinema ... and had a blast albeit almost peeing myself watching UP.

Now I want to go and see Ponyo (On The Cliff By The Sea) which featured on the cover of Moe this time last year... i'm not so sure about watching it in English though... I thought part of the fun was listening to the language, but maybe I'm just odd?

In the spirit of sharing my fave project from a mook/book that is already plentiful in my bookcase... I will share a favourite illustrator/designer featured in said Moe magazine. The amazing Iela & Enzo Mari.

Studio Friday

Just a few shots of the studio today... shop window, artroom and entrance... My favourite painting ever, it's so cheerful and happy. There are lots of new projects bubbling away at the moment... collaborations, new ideas, plain old fun playing with fabric and the students have been working on finishing their animations, which we will post up on Youtube very shortly.

The holiday program is almost all booked out... literally a few placements left... last holidays Amy and I had a ball doing the Roald Dahl day (& Quentin Blake of course) ....stories, illustrations painting and performances.. all rolled into 3 hours of fun. This coming holiday we will be celebrating spring and the fact we have such a glorious park across the road... we will paint huge collaborative canvases (as well as some individual ones)... I wouldn't mind seeing what ideas the kids come up with for our external wall ...infact lets directly paint on it..why not? That sounds awesome.

Happy birthday Olive darling

frog cakes, fruit tarts, slippery dips, wrapping paper, lots of laughter... and now pure exhaustion.

These guys are by no means as pretty as the real deal... but much tastier and really fun to make.... I especially loved how the beans made them come to life ... each one aquiring his own personality... now that we've named them I'm not sure if we can eat them....

Touch wood

This time round things have been a little bit different... for example my pegs are not colour coordinated... and when I happened upon this scene, all I noticed was how pretty the colours were and how sweet it is that Olive found something this simple, so engaging. And of course I had to run inside and grab the blasted camera (a bad habit I think from this techno blogging age).

This time round I came up with a cunning plan, an experiment... which so far is working a treat. I have a total of five strategically placed baskets each holding a different combo of toys or books or bits... and instead of emptying the contents of the DVD basket... or my basket of bits... Olive happily picks out a few faves as she cruises around the house. Yes I still have to pick stuff up off the floor but at least it's not a tangled web of electrical cords and scratched disks. Such a basic idea but one that my new mum brain didn't work out until the next time.

I'm touching wood because I am well aware there is plenty of time for her to figure out what's in the basket next to her books!

The Sauce

That was exactly what my dinner looked like tonight... Duck breast on a parsnip puree with a cherry jus and yummy yummy duck leg confeit on the side ... and some almond butter green beans...all washed down with some Langhorne Creek wine... Is it terribly sad to be so overjoyed by a meal out? Chris and I managed to scrape up 2 hours, sans children to enjoy a 7 year anniversary dinner... alone! It's amazing how much quality conversation you can squeeze into two hours.... "so what have you been up to?" If I could find an awesome sitter then we might be able to finish that convo one day.

I highly recommend The Sauce in Dulwich.... we even squeezed in an apple creme brulee (two spoons).

And I think for the first time since Olive was born, Lily and I spent some alone girl pal time wondering the shops today (evenly split between the toy shop and the book shop) eating frozen yoghurt... HAVE to do that again real soon. Lily picked out a fun peekaboo book to give to 'sister'. We actually started with a pile as tall as Olive... added up the cost ... and then pain stakingly narrowed it to three very fun books that Olive would enjoy ... not mummy or sister. Tomorrow Moopy and I are going to bake Olive her own little cake for Monday afternoon tea... Olive is very fond of frogs.... we'll see how we go?

The best part

One of the best parts about being involved in an online community would have to be the coming together of like minds. I feel so blessed to have met (online & sometimes in person) so many creative people... and really chuffed to have people make things from my patterns... Katherine from The Savannah Room, has been making these yummmy cards and I am really excited to have them in store at Nest ... they are also available here online

 

Favourite project

I know y'all know Amanda's book is out but I just wanted to share my favourite project from the book ....so many favourites to chose but this one stands out for me ... I havn't seen one of these in decades and I have plenty of old clothes just begging to be turned into such a funky rug. I had Amanda's book on pre-order for months so it was a nice surprise when it showed up about two weeks ago...

When the posty popped her head around the corner with that tell tale Amazon box... I racked my brain wondering if I had had a few too many reds and accidentally pressed the ORDER button when doing some window web shopping. My wish lists on Amazon.com and Amazon.jp are freakishly long, it would take a small homeloan to buy them all.

Amy's sister once suggested to her on a day when she felt like a bit of shopping for jewelery, that she should go shopping in her own jewelery box.... What a brilliant idea to take the time to rediscover why you love something you have plenty of. I have been doing this too, but with all my crafty books and mooks from japan... some of them feel as if I had never even seen them before... because as time passes your interests change and you notice new things...  I think I might try to share a favourite project from my bookcase of plenty at least once a week.

Bok bok bok bok

 

That my friend is the sound of fresh eggs for breakfast. I have just learned that the grandparents wish to get Lily two chickens for her birthday. And they will be living at my place! Those who know me will wonder if I have had therapy to overcome my phobia of animal germs (the number one reason we don't have pets... I hate dog drool... dog poo... cat hair.. stinky tank water... any poo ... but that's another story) But I am thinking I can cope with two chickens who live at the bottom of the garden in their very own coop. Or at least it will be a good start... because, who wouldn't like a dog? maybe we can get to that point some day in the future. And chickens have a lot to offer .. custard, omelet, poached egg, pancake, meringue! yum. I love eggs.

This of course is all in celebration of Lily turning six and being the perfect age to look after her own pets...? My mum always warned me that grandparents tend to give the grandkids animals as gifts and then the mum ends up looking after them...do you have any tips for keeping chickens not just alive but happy. I kill all my plants and this worries me... mind you I do have two very alive children ...

Here are some more of Reich Károly's gorgeous illustrations

 

 

naughty mummy

 

We had to go for a drive down the coast today... do a little business, and to prevent racing back to the city for school pick up ... umm.. I took Lily with me... I know, and I am a teacher?!... I tried to justify it to myself by suggesting the visit to the artists studio we went to was very educational and so too is the beach, especially when you get to draw sand mermaids. This one is shorter in statue than any of the others... a new faze in sand mermaids.

I would also like to announce the Umbrella Prints Trimmings challenge winner... Amy and I had soooo much trouble choosing just one winner (I have put in a vote for runner up prizes!)We were blown away by all the effort you guys went to ... Amy will be posting up a sample of everyones entry over on her blog Rain & Shine for the next couple of weeks, so that we can enjoy all the crafty goodness.

 

Congratulations Lisa! you rock.

Monday week

 

This time next week my little Olive will be one year old and as much as I could feel cheated that my time with my baby was far too quick, I can happily say that I spent every moment with her, consciously making the effort not to let this time slip by.... even though I was rediculously busy with work... little miss Olive was by my side stealing my attention at every moment and I was glad for it.

 

Chris and I laugh at how we have one of both... a little mini Carly (Lily) and a little mini Chris ... almost from the moment she was born most of the family thought we should change her name to Christine ... not just because they felt sorry for her being called Olive, but because of how similar they both are. Always smiling. Gentle. Sharing. Shy yet charming.

We have a school day off today... I wish we had these everyday! no lunches to pack, finding parks in front of the school... waking babies for pick up time... just relaxing and playing ... using our imaginations .... lately Moopy has been right into her photography and because I share her camera (still havn't organised my own!!) I delight in finding inquisitive Moopy photos in amongst mine...

 

A red berry in a puddle, of course. And why not? "it was so red and juicy I wished it were a cherry for me to eat" says Lily

 

"because I like wrapping paper! and they are really pretty" (these are actually vintage wallpapers but I use them to wrap gifts)

Maybe we should move to the countryside and I should quit work and the kids can stay home everyday? or maybe I just need a holiday... not posting every week has reminded me of what I love most about my blog and that is keeping a visual (with a few notes) record of what the family gets up to... Heres to more posts!