New Year's Eve

This year...

• Casper started at the most beautiful daycare centre
• I completed my first year of Fine Arts
• Steve studied full-time in his third year of Arts
• We went on some beach holidays
• We had lots of dinner parties
• I stopped breastfeeding 
• We went driving, op shopping, walking, running, swimming, dancing
• We did a lot of sewing, painting, baking, eating, drawing, laughing
• We planted veggies and flowers, turning pink thumbs green
• And half-built a cubby house (but that's a story for next year)
• My dad bought a block of land and started planning his hobbit house.

And last of all, we started to settle and put our roots in the earth for the first time since moving back to Australia. I feel comfortable in this beautiful house and very lucky too. We have lots of wonderful family and friends and even though I don't believe in resolutions, I do believe in saying goodbye to the year that has passed. So goodbye 2012, you were stressful and fun and delicious all at once but I won't be visiting you again xxx

Lil' Gang Jacket

I appliquéd a picture of Casper the Friendly Ghost onto a little denim jacket yesterday for Caspy to wear when he wants to feel tuff. I think it's adorable- it looks like he's in a trikey gang.

I will be putting a tutorial up in the new year sometime so everybody can make their own little gang jackets!

Christmas

1. Homemade cranberry sauce. 
2. Opening presents with Uncle Seb.
3. Food.
4. More food.
5. My 9 year old cousin's handcrafted salamini (us vegetarians got tinned spaghetti)!
6. Casper made it snow. It was a white Christmas after all.

Silk Screen

Hello! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, we certainly did. In fact we had so much fun that we accidentally left our camera at my aunty's house. Which is why I am going to write my Christmas recap in a couple of days, maybe tomorrow if I can get the energy to catch a tram across town and back again with the wriggliest toddler who ever rode on public transport.

So as a distraction here is a post I wrote a while ago for a cameraless situation like this, if it ever arose.

My brother and his friends are in a band called Ships Piano and they have been playing music together for a long time. They are a really talented bunch and write great music.They had an e.p launch in November for which we made a very limited run of screen-printed t-shirts for the show.

We did it last-minute a few hours before the doors opened, it was a pretty fun learning experience. I have done a bit of screen printing stuff before so it was fairly straight-forward, even though I did write the band name reversed as I was thinking about other printmaking rules and had to start over.

The funny thing is, I haven't actually got any photos of the finished shirts, but the closest font I can find is the one on their first e.p cover, which I designed in 2008.

Vinegar and Brown Paper

Our house is a mess, there is washing to be done, nutloaf to be made, presents to be bought, seams to be sewn, Casper found the black food dye and keeps trying to put the lens cap *back* on the camera. It's Christmas Eve and this is our last year before Casper really knows what's up. We are playing it down at home because of course he will be spoiled rotten tomorrow and the week afterwards visiting our families and friends at the coast with the most.

I don't know whether I will be back tomorrow or the next day or the next, but I have been planning some tutorials and giveaways (from my shop) and exciting things for next year, so have a restful holiday and see you on the other side!

Portraits

I drew this two years ago, when Casper was barely two months old. It's funny, he still puts his hand up like that on his face when he sleeps. 

Casper in the bath a few nights ago, one of my favourite times to draw him.

Next year, I will be taking part in the 52 project- a portrait a week. So in 2013 I will be photographing, painting or drawing a portrait of Casper each week and uploading it to both my blog and my Tumblr. I am looking forward to documenting our life this year in pictures, and I hope it will be a nice addition to the ol' blog.

Potatoes

So I got this idea in my head that it would be really fun to make some wrapping paper this year with Casper as a nice Christmas project to do together. I roped my friend Mel in on it too and we started to get really excited about spilling paint all over our clothes and using potatoes for something other than food. We decided to do it this afternoon so I went and bought some metallic blue and fluoro pink paint and some brown paper in a roll. 

The thing is, that when we started printing, Casper was soooo not into it. he could not care less about this exciting project that Mel and I had meticulously planned and wanted to play with the dogs instead. So it ended up being just the two of us potato stamping and having a whale of a time. Casper did participate by finger-painting over some of our stamps which I think turned out to be very beautiful and dramatic.

At least he was an absolute dream for the post-wrap party photo shoot.

Koala

I just finished making this koala as a prototype for more that I will put in my shop. I was thinking about not putting her on the blog, as there are a lot of things that I don't put on here. If you haven't gathered by now I am a perfectionist/overachiever/classic-older-sister type. 

I really like her, but she's a bit wonky so I will be revising the pattern. I think she turned out great for a first attempt. I came up with the idea for a koala with ric-rac ears a few weeks ago and I couldn't wait to see what it would turn out like. I ended up also using ric-rac for the claws in the spur of the moment. She's made with an old bedsheet and the pattern is made up of only 4 pieces which is amazing to sew up. I used an old floral sheet for her body and some really old corduroy for her tummy. Her eyes are wooden buttons. I incorporated her nose into the pattern too, it's just black cotton.

I can't wait to give her to Casper when I pick him up from daycare! When I gave him the kangaroo he said "kanga-woooooo!" and started hopping it around the house. 

Little Peeples

1. Casper and his "peeples", evaporating little footprints on the step.
2. Toddler playdate with our favourite flame headed girl B.B.
3. Pick on someone your own size.
4. Beautiful light on a cherubic cheek.

More Kangaroos

See? I told you there would be more. Now there are four kangaroos in my shop all waiting to find a new home. I spent today sewing up all of these adorable roos after cutting all the fabric a few days ago. Sometimes I think it's nice just to jump straight into the sewing part. I think my favourite is the velveteen one- if she doesn't sell, I'm keeping her on my bedside table.

Now to get to work on a koala pattern. I think he's going to have to be smaller, with velvet and ric-rac ears?

Kangaroo

Today I made this kangaroo toy and I will be making a few more to sell in my last minute Christmas pop up shop in the couple of days. Isn't she lovely and sleepy? I think all she needs now is a pocket.