t-da

2009-11-28T02:49:00.001-08:00

it's been hot here..........

2009-09-16T20:11:00.002-07:00

what I learnt today.......

coffee/chai with friends is medicine for the soul. cliche I know but true.

magnesium does calm ones nerves.

new red sandals Do make me happy, ohh they make me happy..

what I remembered today..

I am not trained in mediation and therefore cannot be expected to diffuse the tensions between my 2 daughters, well not as effectively as I would like. I can only do my best.

and I had yet another chance to remember that I live in a beautiful valley.

and so how do I hold on to these and keep remembering?

I havn't learnt that yet.

2009-08-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

martha

2009-02-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

holly, pam and gertrude

2008-08-18T16:24:00.001-07:00

some ladies have left the coop

I know, new post

2008-08-10T21:57:00.001-07:00

I've been busy painting!

the very beginnings.....................

boy pants?

2008-04-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

I make lots of girls clothes.

I happen to have 2 perfect models (although they are becoming increasingly less interested in trying stuff on for size)

However I get lots of requests for boys stuff, and I know from other bloggers that this is a universal thing. Apparently a great lack of, well funky lovely boy clothes.

I do make pants for boys, but more for youngens that pretty much wear what you want them to and actually like big colourfull prints.

so my question to myself and cyber space is would a boy over the age of say 7 wear pants like these

throw away fabirc

2008-04-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

When I do get around to covering some very lovely new chairs,

I will be looking hard at modern fabrics.
Upholstery remnants, I can't beleive this stuff gets thrown out!!

and I love this little zoo series....

wonder and hope

2008-02-17T16:45:00.000-08:00

1. wonder,2.wonder wheel,3.The moon in color, 4. Dammit The Amazing Wonder Dog,

5.colored sugar in my kitchen...
, 6.Hope

knit and tonic

2008-02-14T22:54:00.000-08:00

its pretty exciting to find a new blog

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2008-02-14T14:49:00.000-08:00

New pink lunch boxes are splendid!

............SPLENDID!...........

Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye

Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs

And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls

Saib-e-Tabrizi 17th Century

excerpt from Kabul

if the earth

2008-02-04T19:02:00.000-08:00

If the Earth

were only a few feet in diameter,

floating a few feet above a field somewhere,

people would come from everywhere to marvel

at it. People would walk around it marveling at its

big pools of water, its little pools and the water flowing

between. People would marvel at the bumps on it and the

holes in it. They would marvel at the very thin layer of gas

surrounding it and the water suspended in the gas. The people

would marvel at all the creatures walking around the surface of

the ball and at the creatures in the water. The people would

declare it as sacred because it was the only one, and they would

protect it so that it would not be hurt. The ball would be the

greatest wonder know, and people would come to pray to

it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, to know beauty and

to wonder how it could be. People would love it, and

defend it with their lives because they would

somehow know that their lives could be

nothing without it. If the Earth were

only a few feet in

diameter.

Joe Miller Moab, Utah 1975

Isn't that interesting, the felt mouse is posting green stuff

doll family

2008-01-29T18:30:00.000-08:00

These are 3 of the 12 dolls I made before christmas. They were commisioned and made in the likeness of some friends and family.

this little dress

2008-01-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

this dress, i saw it.

I saw it on a georgeous little girl in Hyde Park Sydney, yes 500km away from purchase place, well i was a little bit excited, it looked so cute she had it on with little orange tights and she was dancing around. If the mum ever reads this i hope it dosnt sound creepy that i was watching your child, but it took me a few minutes to compute that yes i do make stuff and it does sell and it does look really cute and other people do like it too.

have skirt will twirl

2007-10-11T15:01:00.000-07:00

walking tables.........

2007-10-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

2007-10-07T16:17:00.000-07:00

mmmmmmmm, summer on it's way

I believe in fairies

2007-10-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

inspired by this book

dolls

2007-09-27T18:59:00.000-07:00

skirts

2007-08-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

bunny

2007-08-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

abc blaaaah

2007-08-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

i knew i couldnt do this, i just can't, well i guess i could and i kind of wanted to, but making photo mosaics with flickr tools is so much more fun, it's about me, but not really about me, seems to suit me..........

bird on the brain

2007-07-30T23:19:00.000-07:00

2007-07-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

In order

2007-07-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

In order to keep the ball rolling

I worked on these....

In order to feel worthy, and organised (3rd birhday)

I made this................... 4 days ahead of time!!!

In order to satisfy my creative urge.... try out a technique, (tutorial here),beautify my spaces, and give something handmde to a friend, (belated birthday)

i made this... 2 weeks late :!

In order to fulfill my duty as a crafty mum
i made this

school holidays.........week three, bring it on!!

more peg doll fun

2007-07-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

the girls played for days after making these dolls.

houses were built.

and yes that's right, even too busy to get out of their pj's..... all day I tell you, all day.

heart palpatations

2007-06-21T02:30:00.000-07:00

Yes this is giving me heart palpitations I am stunned by this woman's work, any one who creates stuff like this, which is so completely ridiculous, and, and well beautiful, in my mind, I am totally in awe of.

I would love to feel free enough to go there, to think this stuff up and to actually do it.

Hats off Nina Katchadourian

spontaneous peg dolls

2007-06-21T02:11:00.000-07:00

and that glorious winter afternoon sun

Happy Winter Solstice

pants

2007-05-22T02:53:00.000-07:00

some yummy pants although the model is definately the star here

and this autumn inspired mobile from Arkie's kindi, i love that it looks like it is growing out of the wall, kind of antler like.

2007-05-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

ned kelly needs some guns!!!

on a lighter note

crafting with kids

more to come..

collage

2007-05-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

something i have often been intruiged by and wanted to have a go at is collage. and seeing the work of peter clark here is well very inspiring.

Finger Puppets

2007-04-30T17:34:00.000-07:00

a pirate

and his girl

next i'll be attempting a Ned Kelly puppet, stay tuned..........

freaky

2007-04-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

a little bit of making going on, albeit a little freaky.
she started off a bit disco all night dancing kind of wired and well pretty freaky by the end of the night

............................

I think i need freaky to cope with this everyday

i actually had to do all these dishes so i could make dinner, it was intensly difficult to get started and i spent most of the afternoon in pain just thinking about it, yuk, and each time i let it get this bad of course i swear i will keep on top of the washing up.....

but this was nice.

and so was this,

snatching warmish days at the beach, it almost feels like stealing, too good to be true.

WIP

2007-04-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

The current WIP, "embroidery" I use this term loosely as I don't really have any knowledge of embroidery. I have seen this done with kids drawings and love it, and doing it is so rewarding.
I love retracing Arkie's drawing, I am actually feeling it rather than just seeing it, which allows me to "see" it in a different way.

Those mad eyes and crazy mouth, so so cute, and I am really looking forward to retracing those wayward arms...

And something for me! these chicks look so cool in these dresses, although somewhat more petite than moi! My grading skills will be put to the test when I attempt this!

Back

2007-04-05T00:25:00.000-07:00

so he's back

with his mate

and promply wrapped up by his desperately happy family!!!

lost

2007-04-03T23:42:00.000-07:00

this beautiful little boy is lost, and i really miss him. i am willing him home, hoping he's just gone walkabout.......5 days.:(

good bad indifferent

2007-04-03T02:18:00.000-07:00

i finished off those bunnies, made some cute labels and mosied down to the shop in town i had planned to put them in.

This one, who has already gone off to a good home:)

so i was inspired to actually use my etsy shop again and added a doll!
A tattooed wind girl!

i think i would yodel with joy if someone actually bought her.
then to top the day off a very talented friend offered to help get a portfolio of my work together to present to prospective buyers..yaaah

2007-04-01T03:18:00.001-07:00

this is fun found here, via Red Current

And then there were 3

2007-03-29T02:22:00.000-07:00

yes and we have arms, i'm quite excited with my new arms, just a hint of an arm really.

i got to use some of the felt i made ages ago

i think they have very cute little behinds too.........

bunnies

2007-03-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

the begginnigs of the bunnies.

these are for easter, i'm hoping to get them into a shop locally and they'll arrive easter sunday sitting on an egg in some kids basket, and we'll all live happily ever after.

to do list

2007-03-25T02:51:00.000-07:00

i have been inspired to do a to do list, actually hoping to actually to a to do list.

here goes.

make some better tags for my hand made stuff, I do make my own tags but they are generally made the night before a market or sale and would really like to get more creative with this and was totally inspired by these from bugheart.

make some bath bombs, just cos, inspired by these, a great tutorial

make some easter treats for my girls, it would of course be too easy to go and buy some generic thing i know they would love, but aghh,

some bunnies also need to be made,

and that is all

lots of sewing going on

2007-03-06T18:20:00.000-08:00

well so much for blogging more, geez I'm not real good at this.

anyway I have bee sewing quite a bit I have georgous little a-line dresses, mostly vintage fabrics, buttons,from my own pattern.

,these will fit 1 - 2 years as a dress and top.

these will fit 3 - 5 or 6 as a dress and super cute over jeans or shorts.

I have some sweet little skirts, size 3-4 at this stage, from a vintage pattern.

I played around with making a cape for my nephew, ( what do you make 3 year old boys), well the cape looked smashing all shimery and fancy, hope he likes it!

I'm toying with the idea of entering the next big thing competition, maybe with some felted goods, perhaps a scarf, or a purse?

Fading away

2007-02-15T16:52:00.000-08:00

I have been a bit stuck with entering the whiplash comp this month, as just about everything I craft with is inspired and created with recycled materials, usually fabrics .
so I've been pondering over what to enter.
i ve been wanting to make a quilt for Arkie, and
I have so many little scrappy bits of fabric that i hoard, not so much because they are beautiful, although a lot of them are, but we dont have an abundance of lovely old fabrics around here and every little bit is treasured.
I make kids clothes from them for the market and dolls, so the left overs have gone into this quilt.

there are sheets, aprons, tea towels, rags, (bits of lovely fabric unapreciated by the op shop sorters cut up into rags), table cloths, pillowcases and trims .

i love how all these mix matched colours and tones work, the softness and fadedness seems to pull it all together I am now on the look out for some recycled wadding, i am heading to sydney and plan to check out the bower, maybe pick up a rejected doona/blanket. Has anyone ever quilted with something other than new wadding, i would love some tips if you have.

go the recycling, I am loving this whole shift in awareness at the moment, doing our bit for
Mother Earth

more dolls

2007-02-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

I finally got some shots of the 2 new big dolls I'd been working on.

again....so much fun to make.

I didn't have any luck with them at the last market, actually I was really surprised as this time i sat and watched the crowd more, and it was actually pretty conservative.

Alot of tourists come to the market to oohh and aahh at the stuff but would never actually buy it to display in their homes.

When I say I didnt have any luck well I sold one to a sweet young girl and that made me pretty happy, she was so excited to buy her, remember that feeling going shopping as a teenager with mum and dad, money burnig a hole in your pocket, you really want to buy something great to mark the day, to spend the afternoon thinking about the great thing in your bag.
.

the dolls are in the shop too.......

I have a shop

2007-02-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

I finally got something in my etsy shop, it wasnt so hard. Go and have a look.

a sweet little mermaid, again the inspiration came from coco, thank you coco.

i have another 5 on the go at the moment.

I'm also attempting a very quick quilt, I was inspired by kath red yet again over at whipup. my fabric stash is not all that great though and i am mostly using old sheets that i've collected over the past year in the somewhat opshop baren coffs coast, not alot of thrfting goodness around here.

it is still kinda lovely though

I want to blog more

2007-01-12T01:19:00.000-08:00

I really do, I tend to blog in my mind too much, I have all these random great blogging material thoughts.
I am just going to blog.
I thought I would begin with telling some little happenings with the kids, some funny little stories. I thought about this yesterday when coco called out as she does that she needed some toilet paper

me: we've run out there's some newspaper there, just rip some off and use that.

coco: okay

arkie: coco, you can just go on the grass!

coco: I need to do a wee and a poo.

arkie: oh okay.

I love that this is not a big deal for them

well what else.........

coco particularly wants to understand everything at the moment, she is particularly interested in where the wind comes from. At first this started in the car, driving along heads out the window, yep just like dogs, I'm not very consistent with seat belts around town, and they wanted to know where the wind came from, well that wasn't so hard, the car moves along and that creates the wind, when you go faster it gets harder, slower not so hard.

a couple of weeks later on a windy day, well naturally cocos mind is ticking over well where does the wind come from now?

well damn good question girl.

I had no idea how to answer this one, really I made some kind of explanation, I don't think it would have satisfied me though.

now I'm starting to worry do kids ever learn this kind of stuff, is this what they teach them at school, this is the kind of stuff she wants to understand, I sincerely hope she is not disappointed with school this year. What if she is frustrated because she has all these questions and in the end there is nothing.

although she is going to an alternate school, where she will supposedly be treated with respect and seen as a whole person etc. etc. I worry that all this curiosity this desire to know and understand will not be filled.

I'm kind of out of inspiration with the kids most of the time, I try, I am conscious of it, but I am exhausted from it, 5 years of mothering and little else.

and even though I have the desire for other things and the drive some of the time, the ideas and I do believe the talent, there is so little time for it.

I have come across so many great sites and blogs lately and this is great

http://alysonfox.com/

I love this girls stuff her scarfs, kind of similar to the some that I have made in the last couple of weeks,ones I have felted.

I will save more links

I will blog more often

I will do this to make each day seem real somehow, not just pass me by.

I will catalogue my work

I will do this for above reason and also because I need to for work reasons

well this is a start

Felted purses

2006-12-18T22:07:00.000-08:00

I love felting, wet felting that is.

I haven't actually done that much of it, but when I do I enjoy it so much.

I have made most of my Christmas presents this year, fun fun fun, and I have two cousins 22 and 19 that I wanted to give a small gift to.

these little purses are a design a fellow crafter friend makes and I keep admiring, she suggested they would make great little tampon holders. I thought so too, and decided this was the perfect gift for them.

I made one square piece of felt and cut it down the middle, blanket stitched up the sides leaving a flap with a decorative edge.

the first one I added a tie that just wraps around and folds under, so cute,

and the other has a button.

I also got my 3 1/2 year old making apiece of felt, she had a ball with this, soap all over........

and I sewed it up into a slightly bigger purse
which perfectly fits a pair of sunnies, a present for her MarMar/gran.

making kids presents

2006-12-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

I am starting to panic a bit about what to give my girls for chrisi, i want to make them stuff, I have been thinking about making other family members things and now i need to focus on making christmas special for them too.

and for me this means, not loads of commercial stuff, stuff that i cant afford anyway, but i just dont want to support all that commercialism.

i want to at least by local this year, that is from my small town, where there really is an abundance of quality goods.

but when it comes down to it, it really is just all stuff, so what to do?

i whipped up a skirt and top for each yesterday, and i mean whipped up, i would not be satisfied with the quality of workmanship for anyone else, but somehow i can get away with it for them.

i have a feeling she may not be into this top, but it is sweet, very 70's.

i looked at the skirt i made the other girl this morning and really there is no wow there at all so its ditched!

argh

2006-12-10T18:51:00.000-08:00

I am getting so much enjoyment out of making these dolls

here are 2 more

if anyone would like to order a doll they can email me tiffinsing@yahoo.com.au and i can give you details, and i am working on getting some better shots to show.

the markets

2006-12-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

the markets????

some girls and i are doing the local markets and attempting to set up and creative co-0p in town, hopefully to eventually get a premises where we can all come together and work.

woven doll

2006-11-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

I recently did a basket making course, it was really inspiring, a room full of people and lovely smelling fibres strewn over the beautiful earthy space we were doing the workshop .

The majorty of the fibres were collected locally around Bellingen, which set my mind racing with ideas, it was like the idea of endless op shops to scour.

during the course of the next week my girls and I were collecting bits of palm flower frond and casurina and other fibres.

anyway, getting to the whiplash thing, I make dolls and have been working on one particular style, like this one below, inspired by a drawing by my daughter Coco who is 5. So when I began thinking about alternative craft, this was a classic whiplash for me, i just had to weave a doll.I really loved making this doll, the way the fibres do their own thing and seem to shape the doll themselves. I used palm flower frond and philadendron and some casurina in her hair, with a bit of felt.

here she is

a woven wind girl
I hope someone is inspired by this, thanks fellow crafters for the inspiration.

Cheers Tiff

welcome

2006-09-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

what I've been doing,
gifts for lovely friends with new bubs
and some more root babies

Thursday

2006-09-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

its thursday and I need to be sewing, I spent most of yesterday sewing and I am not motivatied to do it today.

instead I am distracted by the compter and taking self portraits and looking on the net at things i like.

Theres no wedding for us now but I still made Arkie a pretty cute skirt that she has worn to kindi 2 days in a row and even slept in it for 2 nights, I havnt even hemmed it yet and it drags on the ground and she loves that.

I have so many ideas running through my head............... yaha it is quite overwhelming, but i keep telling myself its okay to be feeling that, it's just how I feel at the moment. it helps a bit i guess, what i need is an assistant to do the sewing and i can design and adjust, the sewing just takes so much time.

anyway some shoes i am loving ..........

the shoes are from www.earth.us

Apparently when you where them it is like walking on sand and they are great for posture etc.

A cute Arkie shot

and a photo shoot care of Coco

wedding outfits

2006-08-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

we are off to a wedding, it will be the first wedding for Coco and Arkie, so I have 3 weeks to make an outfit for each of us.

Not so easy, limited funds to start with and then, do I go with the flow of the child and make something not entirely what i want to create, i've got a few things in mind, all including bits of vintage goodness and trims and pinks and greens, and I also like red and white, maybe some dots mixed with patterns, a bit of rick rack here and there, big fabric flowers, or pinwheels etc.

Well it seems these girls are a little more conservative and like a little less rick rack and not so much cutesy vintage.

they want Cinderella, puffy sleeves, dress down the toes, prefferably touching the ground, etc.etc.

I will post some pics

soooo cold

2006-07-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

hole in one

2006-07-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

What a champion!
I think this is pretty cool, 15
holes in one in the family.

new bag

2006-06-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

start of something?

new bag from recycled fabrics, nice vintage red, white, blue and white stripey jersey lining.
It was fun to make and I can see some more coming for the market stall...............

One happy customer

2006-06-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Arkie finally got her flouncy, sparkly, pink touching the ground with bimbles ( that is flouncy sleeves in adult speak) yes she quickly realised when she swung on the rope the wind caught the dress and oh how good that felt...
5 minutes later...
10....you can't see but within this time it took on an Arkie smell and look....
Vegemite mmmmmmmm
Yep into the wash already!!!

Pressies

2006-06-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

Arkie exclaimed a little bit too excitedley " now I can do the dishes like you mum!" Thanks paulxxxx
She was literally shaking by the time she got to this present, who was promptly named Cinderella.

We're working on a new name, seeing a disturbing pattern here, washing up...... cinderella????

A snuggly doll
Thanks Aunty Laura and Uncle Josh and Orlando xxxx

Showing off her skirt at kindi today

Oh sweet Arkie

2006-06-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

3 today.................mmmmm

2006-06-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

yummy very sweet pavlova
yummy dark chocalate for me, what not for Miss Arkie too, well maybe just a smell and a look inside that tempting package...... Miss Arkie, think I'll just hold it here on my nose long enough that it melts and noone will know that I'm actually getting some...................
It's just not fair, i want more of that yummy drink and I just want to smell that chocolate one more time and that's it. Pleeaase
No I'm not tired, no I don't need to brush my teeth and go to bed...............

It's all about Coco

2006-06-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

I had another go at wet felting, I went about making a hat for Arkie, it started off great, colours were looking good and the shape was cool, but it kept shrinking and shrinking and I kept trying to jam it on Arkie's head to shape it, suffice to say Arkie got a very soapy head,( she still smells of lux flakes) and the hat ended up on Cindy the doll. yep Arkie has a very large head!

That is until Coco got home and saw it and exclaimed " oh you made a hat, is it for me?" and promptly pulled it onto her head!

Yes it's all about Coco......

yah i got my camera back

2006-05-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

i was so happy to finally get our camera back, i missed it sooo much.
I have taken way too many photos in the last week, lots of the kids and some of the things i've been making.

i think this white wall worked well, coco is always such a good subject.

this position is so inspiring for taking photos of the kids, the light is divine and the kids always seem to laugh here. I wish i knew more about what i was doing with the camera, i usually get about one decent shot from 30.

I finished this doll for Dawn Song, she has cute little bandy legs and bright green eyes, i absolutely dont know how to photograph these dolls, I wanted to achieve a totally different effect, more sort of real life, definately need to get the lighting happening here too.

she is also wearing a hand felted dress that i made, it was pretty simple and fun seeing it change during the process. I am going to make a little vest for her too.

this was my first knitted doll and she keep getting holes in her mohair body, and as you can see she still has no hands, she has blue hair with some wild purple highlights..whoasome horses to finsh off and show tommorrow.

Chocolate

2006-04-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

I am consumed by chocolate today.
I confiscated the kids chocolate, because I was loosing all control of them, coco has had at three melt downs today, Arkie is dosn't seem to be able to stop crying.

I can't imagine what I will be like tommorow for the amount of chocolate I have eaten today..ahhhh

2006-04-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

chips, vomit and black dogs

2006-04-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

Arkie did manage to eat more chocolate than anyone and after chips at the beach on the way home in car, she was on my lap and kept asking to sit on her dads lap, which she did and promply threw up a chip........

thats my girl.

Our easter here in Bello was great, lots of long yummy breakfasts and relaxing cups of tea.
lazing around and hanging out.

Tess and Fifi made friends and we thnk Fifi and Violet will be talking about this curious black thing that chases balls for weeks.

2006-04-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

yum

easter eggs

2006-04-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

arkie is still eating eggs

I'm afraid she will vomit soon.........