Imogen is born

I have at last finished my darling first "Steiner Form Doll". I am so in love, and have named her Imogen. She is destined to be sent to school with Mabel next January to be loved by many; ie. she is to be donated to the Prep room...I feel very attached to her right now, but must trust I can create more which I can love as much!!

She is 19 inches long, and is filled with sheeps wool. Her head and body are really firm, so when you cuddle her she feels like a real baby a bit. and warms up in your arms beacause of the natural fibres.

I cant wait to get started on Ivy's for her birthday next Thursday! Lots of late nights for me...

Spring Purge

Before we go to China, (departure coming up in three weeks), I have been madly purging the cupboards, my wardrobe, the kids' clothes, pogo shoes, massive silver wings, old artwork, drawings, paper bags I kept just in case, frames, etc etc....it seems the cupboards are all magivcal and keep materializing stuff just to torment me.
We had a big sell-off stall at Camberwell Market on Sunday. This market is MY sickness, and is the reason clearing the clutter is such a nightmare! I just can't resist gettng up with the birds, and before the sun in winter , and joining all the fossickers at the crack of dawn in the hope for a treasure. I must say, selling wasn't nearly as fun, but proved therapeutic and quick healthy for the wallet.
I drew a picture on my old orange top with my sewing machine, just to see what would happen. I ended up with devil girl with strange pet...I will try to revamp another boring top in this way..

I have almost finished my first form doll for Month of Softies Challenge..something I have always wanted to do. It is going into the new Steiner Prep room for Mabels new class for next year!

Mabel and Ivy are little adventurers of Lala land together and it warms the cockles of my heart to hear their imagined adventures all day..we had a spontaneous dollmaking session the other day, when Mabes drew a doll shape on some fabric, and got me to sew the two cut out pieces together..it became "Rainbow Rosie" (see pic). Aint she fine!

mmm , it's Spring..

Just arising out of the concrete delirium of being bedridden with the flu, and have realised it is now Spring! So, I changed the Nature Table in the kids room, removing the snow, and good King Winter, and hanging a Spring fairy over a much cheerier landscape. The girls found a magical Lyrebird feather while walking with Hubby in the Sherbrook Forest. Thank you Mother Nature for this most exquisite gift!!!
Hubby has felted the cutest old gnomes to live in the gorgeous house I managed to find at the fair down at the local Steiner Kinder.
It's good to be alive again, and able to greet the tonne of washing this windy warm day will gladly deal with!
The girls are getting up super early, and I put that down to Spring too!

Illustration Friday: Dreams

This is an oil painting I did a while ago, along with a series of other images of luscious ladies falling or flying through the air. The ambiguity is intentional. Life so often seems to be a fluctuation between the two. Sometimes you seem to be flying in a direction , in control to some degree of the direction your life is taking. But really, one surprise turn of fate, and the sense of falling kicks in. I must say, since having children, I often feel I am falling, not in a bad way neccessarily. One can feel fear, and sometimes one can surrender to gravity's pull and feel a sense of freedom in motion.
My dreams often contain the fluctuation between flyng and plummetting to the ground. So this is my first illo friday entry

Month of Softies: August

Talk about the fastest cactus in the West! Ivy fell asleep on the lounge this afternoon, so I am availing myself of the only spare moments before the end of August to whip up a little 9cm tall cactus-dry felted, of course. I am so in love with the fuzzy effect. I have been meaning to submit a month of softies thingy, so I am glad I have finally done it, however rushed.

Toadstools

It has been an amazing few days of wind and sun, and Robyn (fellow crafter) and I had a great time arranging the new toadstools in the grass with the little gnome I whipped up this afternoon. The doors to the toadstool houses are invisible .
I think I'd like to name him Bertholt.

Inaugural Fluffyland Post

Charter of Fluffyland.
1. To promote and inspire the creation of nice, fluffy things.
2. To celebrate beauty in all it's permutations, particularly the fluffy type.
3. To document the sometimes fluffy-around-the-edges daily life of the inhabitants of fluffy land, which at present include a mother, father, two small girls and seven fish (five of which are gold).
4. To attempt to be cheerful.

Here is my King Winter which I finished this week, in time for the end of Winter! This is my all time favourite technique, dry feltimg, which creates the most splendid fuzzy effect. I find my eyes go all misty and I turn all dreamy when I look at a little dry felted toy. Here King Winter sits on our "Nature table" in the girl's room, which stays like this for a few weeks before the elves come and transform it in the night! I will post photos of the current Nature Table when I find them!
I am completely obsessed with Steiner (Waldorf) craft these days, and I go to a craft group with friends every Tuesday night, where we create fluffy and not so fluffy toys for our future prep classroom. I am working on a doll right now.