Playing with Dolls....

Ms Badskirt has made me completely obsessed with finding all my old dolls furniture! I visited my folks the other day and found a portion of my treasure trove of vintage furniture. These were my mums pieces from when she was young. I love the bright pinks and greens. The wallpaper background is actually Vintage wallpaper from my granparents house. I would totally cover a wall in house with it if MrHoni would let me!

I also found these old dolls which belonged to my Aunty. This girl I believe is called a Tressy doll – and was made after the popular Crissy doll. She has a button on her belly that you press and her hair grows! She’s in a vintage Barbie dress (which I need to do a OT of repair work to) and a matching Barbie headscarf.

This gorgeous girl has 1963 stamped on her, and a lovely set of real eyelashes. She needs a lot of work done though as her face has discoloured during storage and she has an awful case of “sticky legs” (you know when old dolls turn sticky?? Eeewwww…..) Anyone have any tips on restoring Barbie?

Anyway I am rather delighted with my finds – I think finding old things packed away after years is like going thrifting but without spending any money!!!

Chrissie Lights

Mr Honi loves putting up Christmas lights - which is great because I love looking at them!


This is from the outside


and this is from the inside - i said it feels like living in Avatar!

Introducing Violet!

After reading all about Amy’s beautiful Smith, I decided it was time to resurrect my Blythe and finally name her. I adore her, but she simply sits on a shelf in her factory clothes and make up.

So I decided to brave it and do a bit of custom work on her, as her original make-up as seen below left her a little too bronzed with a frosted pink lipstick reminiscent of Collette (of ‘ring my bell’ fame)

(this is going to be my Christmas card this year...)

I started with a de-shine I was so nervous about it though. After the first few scrubs I regretted it, but the more I did the better she started to look. I used a spongy nail buffer (you know those square 4 step ones?) which worked a treat and didn’t leave sny scratch marks.
Then I decided to spunk her up a little bit with some cutesy freckles and a lick of pink lipstick. I still need to do a bit of work on the lips though. And for the finishing touch I added some false eye lashes and viola!

She looks fresh faced and cute as a button! And, she has a name……Violet.

Here she is with her viewmaster


and here she is with my viewmaster reels.

Brown Owls catch up

What a perfect way to spend a Sunday morning. 1 Cup of coffee, 3 cups of tea, a bit of crocheting and some lovely friends!

This is the wonderful "Coffee and a Yarn" cafe in Newtown

Plus I finally got to meet our newest little owl - and she is a complete doll!


Want to join the Sydney Brown Owls? send me an email at honidesign @ gmail . com (without the spaces) and include your name, preferred email address and a little bit about you and what crafts you like to do (and if you have any skills you could teach the rest of the group.)

London Toy Museum

As I’m keeping a few crafty pics to show you a bit later I thought I would post some more pictures from our trip overseas. These are from the Toy Museum in London….seriously the most magical place on earth (along with Disneyland…) The museum was a rickety old 4 story house that was completely filled with toys!

Mr Honi was too tall for some of the rooms!

It had the ORIGIANL Sooty, Sweep and Sue puppets, dollhouses galore, stereo viewers and a million more beautiful dolls.

This hand decorated babies pillow was beautiful – except for the spelling of “stranger”....

Tell you what, I am LOVING dollhouses at the moment (well, I've ALWAYS loved them actually)

Does anyone else lust after this little house and the outdoor furniture?? (incluiogn the outdoor piano?)

You can click through my flickr account to see the pictures in large size..

…..This issue of Frankie has a great article about a girl who furnishes doll houses. I had a ripper when I was a kid – I’m thinking about resurrecting mine….

Hooty

A few of you may have already seen this pic on Facebook, but i thought I’d post it here too. This is Hooty the baby Tawny Frog Mouth that fell out of a tree and into my heart……(wow how corny did that sound!)

Anyway, little Hooty’s mama left him there so Mr Honi and I took him to the vets. He’s now being looked after by a WIRES carer and will be released back at our place when he’s old enough to fly.

He was the cutest little bugger ever. Masses of fluffy feathers and a beak. Apprently it's common for them to fall out of trees - this little guy was just lucky he landed on our balcony and not onto the crazy cat lady's balcony a few doors up!

It will be mine...

A couple of you wonderful girls emailed me with a link to Melody Miller’s website. Seems this uber creative girl has made some fabulous fabric that sends my heart a flutter….check this out!

The 'Ruby Star' Range also includes vintage transistors, retro crockery and some lovely vintage ladies too. You can see all the range on her website.

I am hoping to purchase some if I can – and if I’m feeling clever, I might make a pattern from my new very favourite dress below and re-make the dress in the viewmaster fabric!

ps - seems i under estimated myself - and THREE of you are still reading along ;) thanks for the comments girls it really lifted my spirits xxx

EDIT: The dress is this season from Target

Drowning not waving....

Hello dear readers (well, all 2 of you who are still here, checking it to see if I’ve posted!) Despite promising in my last entry that I’d be back posting regularly, it seems that I have again been subject to a blog/craft hiatus.

A very dear girl sent me an email asking if I was ok and if I needed to be recused from any potential piles of fabric that may have fallen on me – causing my blogging /emailing absence. This made me laugh – but in a metaphorical sense I guess a big pile of fabric did land on me - stifling me completely.

You know you need to take a step back from the rotary cutter when you become physically anxious over the amount of fabric you have lying around the room. When you hide a fabric purchase from your husband like an acholic hides their gin. You also know it’s time to take a breather from reading 80 different blogs when the sight of ‘1278 unread posts’ gives you cold sweats.

Its funny how a ‘crafting passion’ can cause you be exhilarated, gleaming with elated pride over what you’ve created and then all it takes is one or two ‘craft fails’ to render you crushed and completely de-motivated. Or when the excitement of finding new inspiration turns to a dreading fear that you’re ‘behind the times’ in the fast pasted craft blog world.

After a good clean out over the last few weeks, I can feel my creative juices flowing again. I am looking ahead with a positive outlook and I will not let failed sewing attempts beat me. I will not fear my fabric hoard, but embrace it for the beauty it beholds and the projects it will deliver.

Also, I will not worry that I am a “jack of all crafts, master of none” instead I will rejoice in the fact that I am kinda cool at lots of things.

So thankyou for your patience and for returning here. Obviously I’m doing something right for you to come back! I’m in a good headspace now - let the crafting begin!

Image of a my half finished summer frock that I will start sewing again :)

Viewmaster Collection

Remember a while ago I showed you a little bit of my viewmaster collection?? Well, it got a bit bigger...

and so has my mini viewer collection....

yikes! Does anyone else have an 'obsessive' collection??

Back!!!!

Well Hello....is there anyone still out there? I'm sorry to abandon you for so long.

We've returned from Europe and have finally got back into the swing of daily life again. I haven't seen my beloved Brown Owls in a long time and crafting has been very minimal.

I have however, been working on something new. A new direction, a new blog, a new design, new things (and plenty of old vintage things)...and it's all a bit exciting. I'll hopefully be able to show you more soon.........i promise I'll tell you more when I can!

But for now, here are a few "self shots" of Mr Honi and me galavanting through Europe!

ps - I'll be blogging regularly again now. If you've stuck around....thankyou! xxx

Rome

Fricken hot and very old. Am loving Rome- its so pretty! Will be size of house if I ate all the gorgeous food though!

Vienna

Worlds largest macaron in Vienna. Seriously this thing was almost the size of a cheesburger!! Vienna is beautiful and up there with Berlin in regards to 'trip highlights'. It's clean and well maintained and the people are quite friendly.

We went to a 'wine garden' last night and had traditional Vienese food and wine (which was LETHAL!) Off to Slovenia tomorrow which I'm really looking forward to! Xx

More of Prague

Prague has definitely been all I expected it to be. Amazing old buildings that are hundreds or years old. Kind of hard to conprehend that a building is 3 times as old as Australia! Xx

Prague

Water and Lights show in Prague. Was a little creepy cause it was in an old 1800's 'exhibition centre' that felt like an old deserted carnival. Am VERY tired today. Loads of sight seeing!

Dresden

Wow- what a place! Had heard that Dresden was the 'most miserable place in the world' but I beg to differ. It was absolutely gorgeous (and quite hot) Most of Dresden was demolished during the war but they have painstakingly restored a lot of the historic buildings to their former glory. Next stop tonight is Prague and I am uber excited about that! Love to you all x

Berlin

Roof of the 'broken church'. A million tiny amazing tiles - simply breathtaking. The church was bombed during the war but was one of the few still standing. They haven't restored it but allowed it to remain as a relic.

Berlin

Massive bridge in berlin

View from hotel in berlin

Hi all! Sorry for lack of updates! Am in berlin now after spending 2 days in london then a ferry from dover to calais and then a bus through belgium to amsterdam. Amsterdam was ok- wasn't a massive fan of the main town but the canals were very nice. Voldendam in holland was Gorgeous-just like what you expect 'holland' to be like with windmills and quaint little houses. Love to you all- will try for more updates (jen- I might need a raise to pay for my roaming charges!!)
Xx

My Creative Space

This week for My Creative Space I've been painting/drawing again for the 'Cos We Can' group. Having fortnightly deadlines and a theme is really inspiring for me. It challenges me to get going and create something that I normally wouldn't set aside time to do. I'm having great fun doing it too! This week's theme was play......and here's my drawing

Check out all the spaces at Kirstys Blog Kootoyoo..

Have I told you….

That in 13 days Mr Honi and I will be travelling through here

...and here....

...and here...

for a whole month!

We start in London and go through Belgium to Amsterdam then to Berlin onto Prague then Vienna then Slovenia, followed by Venice then down to Rome, up to Florence, through the French Riviera and up through France via Arles, Avignon, Lyon and Paris then back to London for a week.

To say "I'm excited" is a dramatic understatement!! I've never been to the UK or Europe before, but I already have the feeling it's going to be VERY hard to come home!!

A bit of inspiration to warm the cockles*

I’m not one who normally posts “oo look at this cool thing” posts (although I do rather like them on other people’s blogs – as I like being shown many different inspiring things)

So to hopefully inspire you my dear readers, I just had to share with you the work of Emily Martin. Most of you are probably already familiar with her work as “The Black Apple” – she even appeared on Martha a while ago.

Her works are gorgeous eerie oil paintings of times gone by and peculiar whimsical characters. Her recent collection pays homage to the Carnival with the inspiration coming from a line of a song “lost on the mid way”. It reminds me greatly of the TV show “Carnivàle” which I simply adored (and was sadly cut waaay to short)

Do yourself a favour and check our The Black Apple and the collection “Lost on the Midway”

*my Mum always used the expression "to warm the cockles" and it has always tickled my fancy!

My Creative Space

Hands up who likes 'travelling crafts'?

I do- I love them! Something you can just whack into your handbag and take it with you anywhere. And when you have a spare minute you can just whip it out and stitch away! (this post was also done on the run via my mobile)

This week MyCreative Space is my travelling case where I am working on another hexy baby quilt-from gorgeous Beatrix Potter fabric.
I bought this great carry-all at the Craft Fair and its perfect for travelling as it keeps everything neat and tidy and very safe.

Checkout more Creative spaces over at Kootoyoo!

EDIT: A few of you have asked about my "traveller" case. I bought it at the Sydney Craft Fair at Darling Harbour this year. It's made by a company called Yazzii and details can be found here.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

This week’s sewing attempt was definitely a “back to the drawing board” effort. So I thought I’d give you a little bit of a rundown of The Good, The Bad and the just Plain Ugly.

The Good: The Business Shirt for Mr Honi that I’ve been working on. From a distance – it looks REAL good (unless you’re a tailor and you’ll probably be able to pick up the MASSIVE mistake pretty quickly) This is the first pattern I MADE MYSELF – so am super proud of that. This is a Good.

The collar is also Good as I managed to make those little holes where the bits of plastic slide in to make the collar sit nicely.

The sleeves are also Good as I managed to line up the stripes of the yoke, so they run nicely in a continual line.

The Bad: My Sewing machine decided to have a little ‘spack attack’ and I was left with nasty loopy thread all of the cuff.

The Ugly: The interfacing on the cuff bubbled and warped dreadfully. Like when you’d put contact on your school books and if you rushed it – you’d have nasty bubbles everywhere. Luckily this was on the inside, but it still looks just awful.

And MOST Ugly – 2 MAJOR flaws with my pattern making.

1. I made an adjustment to the front panel and committed a cardinal pattern making sin and forgot to adjust the collar. So I had to fiddle with the front panels again – but this just made it sit very awkward.
2. MAKE YOUR NOTHCES people!! I didn’t and hence the lovely French Cuff Sleeve now sits toward the front of the shirt, rather than the side.

Overall - i'm happy with this shirt and know what I need to do for the next one I make!! But this is a lesson for all of us. Make a mock up garment in calico or scrap material first if you're trialling a new pattern!!