This is my sister's piece de resistance of birthday parties so far. Takes the cake and the kids were jumping for joy. They were a bit scared at first to hook in, but once silver shovel in hand they scooped away with gay abandon. Oh the joy to be seven and come home with your little mates from school to be greeted with a lolly buffet- heaven!!!! Happy Birthday Miss Seven. Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!
My sister has gone all Martha Stewart/Amy Atlas and made these caramel popcorn cones herself. How cute and clever!!! The border on the popcorn stickers she got off the Martha Stewart website and she whipped up the stripes herself in illustrator.
Finally finished the two versions of Christmas dresses that I will be selling at the next Olive Tree Market. I can't wait to model them on Rosie when she's next around. They are made with a lovely summer weight linen/cotton (white) and quilting cottons for the sleeves. And in exciting news I've been accepted into the Newcastle Art Bazaar on Laman St in Newcastle on the 5th of December. I go each year as a customer and it's absolutely packed so hopefully I can keep up the pace as a stallholder.
It's been birthday season around here lately. I knocked out this cake for my caffeined up sister. Her miss six thought it would be a cute idea to make a cup and saucer for her mum, so of course I obliged. Nothing like making a little girl, who is about to lose her first front tooth, smile. She helped ice the pink and her little mate helped with the yellow and I made the most delicious 7 minute icing to go on top. It is a meringue/marshmallow style topping, that is very yum.
Here is the recipe if you want to give it a go:
Ingredients, 2 egg whites, 1 cup of castor sugar, 1/3 cup of water. Stir the water and sugar in a pot over a low heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for 10-12 minutes until mixture starts to gel together. Tip: drop some mixture in a cup with water if it stays together, it's ready. In a bowl whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then gradually, in a thin steady stream, add the sugar/water mixture. Whip until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Slather liberally over anything and enjoy the silky sweet goodness.
Here are our strawberries from our garden. Little miss picks two bowls full of them everyday. They are very delicious and really signal the start of spring around here.
Miss Rosie posing in the angel wing dress. A little angel through and through. I love you Miss Rosie and thank you for co-operating.
Here are some new linocut prints that are destined to be pockets for my little girl 'Angel wing Christmas dresses'.
Progress on Miss Gigi's quilt, featuring Amy Butler (pink/green flowery), Saffron Craig (pink/red/white dandelion) , my prints (red, of course) and another fabric which I'm not sure who designed, but I love it (bluey/white with brown dots). This is my first ever purchase of an Amy Butler print - such a fabric amateur - I know! An old shop around town has been taken over by a young hipster and is getting all the fab prints in, I'm in fabric heaven. 
A more unisex style quilt. Bright, bright and then some more brightness. Tis lovely.
The lovely Julia, yet again, has come through with the goods and has my dolls up in lights in the October/ November edition of Mother & Baby. Who knew how many mother, baby, shopping mags are out there. Noice one Julia, she is my marketing guru! Mr pirate and Miss Dollster get a look in.
Wooden and fabric horse badges that will be attached to frilly dresses, hats and such.
Cute patchy cushion covers with my new 'follow the leader' print scattered through. Finally cut into the beautiful Heather Ross fabric, twas hard, but I did it!!!
I love this print sooo much. It is a Heather Bailey print called 'pineapple brocade'. I think I'll probably keep this hat, tis lovely!
Here is the angel wing frilly dresses I've been whipping up lately. I made up the pattern and have tweaked it quite a few times.
I visit lots of blogs and feel very inspired by all the crafters, illustrators and people generally doing things their own way, which I love. A blog I found early on was the lovely illustrator Amy Cartwright (just quietly I also covet her house). She is a wonderful illustrator and through her blog I've found other great illustrators and inspiring people. That's what so great about this blogging biz, making connections with like-minded people. Amy gave me the The Bella Sinclair Award and through this award, which I was very honoured to receive, thanks Amy, I discovered the wonderful artwork of Bella Sinclair. Her illustrations are just so incredibly sweet. I've only starting drawing in the last year, so it's great to find people like Amy and Bella who are essentially guiding me in the art of illustration. Sadly Bella and her girls suffered a terrible loss this year and I really can't imagine or fathom what she is going through, but she is back to illustrating and getting on with it and that to me is a very determined and inspiring individual.
As with the rules of these awards: Who would I give this award to? All those people on my blog roll who inspire me to keep doing what I'm doing. Thank you bloggy peeps I hereby award you this wonderful Bella Sinclair Award of Art, Inspiration, Friendship, Sisterhood, Sharing, Caring
This is what I woke up to today. This was taken at 8.15am - just bizarre! I can't remember the last time I experienced a dust storm. Living on the coast we don't often get these dust storms, they're usually more inland Australia. It was the weirdest orange and very windy. I hunkered down all day inside trying to stop the dust coming in the house.
Here's an adult's hat I rejigged from a baby hat pattern. (see below) I know yellow is not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm just loving the mustardy 70's yellow at the moment. I particularly love the cloche/bonnet style and think it is super cute. It was a real bugger to sew, but well worth it I think. I stuck an adjustable tie on the back so all heads could be accommodated. It reminds me of some tennis hats my mum used to swan around in way back in the roaring 80's.
Here's some more kiddie hats, this time with more brim. We have the harshest sun here and our peeps down here like lots of coverage so voila more brim for the bubs. I had a big fabric buy up a couple of weekends ago, hence cute hats. I'm loving the Heather Bailey fabric (4th hat down). It is so beautiful and has lots of yellow. I threw in one of my prints and think it turned out beautiful.
